Handle It

No way am I going to just go back to sleep. If it's a threat, I should deal with it, and if it's not, it couldn't hurt to explore. It's been quiet these last few days anyway. I get out of my tent, and immediately run into Alice and Amber sitting at the campfire. Alice is topless.

"..." I looked respectfully.

"..." She looked back...respectfully?

"Don't get any weird ideas. It's just hot here and she had...you know..." Amber jumped in defensively for Alice's sake, but slowly started to lose steam. Whatever she was going to say, seems like she thought better of it.

"Boob sweat." Alice finished nonchalantly.

"Makes sense."

"Why are you up? Another weird dream?" Alice asked, not bothering to move from her seat. Amber looked away from our perfectly normal and mature conversation.

I finally look away from Alice's chest and turn to look outside. "Gotta go take a leak." I said, gesturing to the only exit. Alice gave a quick nod before going back to watch the fire, while Amber looked at me in disbelief.

Annoyed, she asked "What? I thought you didn't have to do that anymore? Is it really worth risking getting attacked?"

"I'm a man. I'll never turn down a chance to use my dick." I responded with a straight face. Alice gave a smirk, but didn't laugh. Amber gave a huff, which I'll bet was her covering up her own shocked chuckle. Chicks love funny guys. With a wave, I left out into the 'night,' not that the word means anything here.

I walk in the direction I felt the pull, and the scenery gradually shifts to resemble a bizarre version of an earth jungle. The plants are all a violet shade, rather than green, and the trees...if they are trees...seem to have black bark. When I touch them, they feel more like thick rubber than wood. I shapeshift a few eyes around my head to make sure I don't get ambushed. and press further in. For a jungle, it's eerily quiet. Either nothing lives here, or everything is better at hiding than I am...I get the idea to shift my vision around a bit with each eye. Checking as far up and down the spectrum of visual light as I can go, I spot a few creatures in hiding. Expertly camouflaged among the black trees, their bodies actually reflect infrared light quite brightly. Most of them pay me no mind, or run away. The ones that don't seem to realize when I turn to look at them and get the picture. Nothing here seems stronger than a D class, so I shrug and walk deeper and deeper, seeking that spike of power I felt earlier. I don't drop my guard, but it looks like I might be worried over nothing.

It's nearly 20 minutes before I find what I'm looking for. Matching the leaves, a violet monster waits in the center of the clearing. It has a mostly human appearance, save a few details that give it away. The thing I notice first is that its hips are wide and its thighs are thick. Even compared to Alice, this monster has what i can only describe as birthing hips, which is odd, considering the dick that hangs between its legs. Big for its size, but considering it's barely taller than I was before I got my powers, it can't be more than 6 inches. Moving past its sex appeal, I notice the danger; Its legs are thick, and make up a bit more of its height than normal, and suggest an abundance of speed and power. Claws from all four limbs, and two rows of Fangs, which it is currently using to tear away at a large lump of flesh laid before it... some other monster it hunted earlier. That explains the power spike earlier, and why it hasn't noticed me yet. It has a pair of what I can only describe as cat ears off the top of its head, and a long tail coming out just above its big, powerful backside. I sharpen my vision a bit more and can pick up on more details. Its violet body seems to actually be fur, the flesh underneath it is a near pitch black. Even checking as far as I can off the spectrum of visual light, this thing's body gives off no light at all.

I watch it for a moment, before I see its ears twitch. It whips its head around and scans the tree line for whatever it heard... It lets out something between a roar and yowl as it adopts a fighting stance. If it's me that it heard, it's looking the wrong way. Heh. While it might be a skilled hunter, it seems like its senses aren't sharp enough to find me.

*SHLRK!*

Or so I thought...In what seemed like an instant, at least faster than the blink of an eye, it closed the distance and ran its claw through my stomach. My body reacts, pumping adrenaline through me, and overclocking my brain, unwilling to get caught too slow again. It pulls away ready to fight, and seems surprised that my body heals before it lands. It rushes again, but this time I'm ready. My heavy armor coats my torso, before expanding over the rest of me, and as my senses accelerate, i can see it moving...kind of. Whatever this thing is, it somehow seems to move... in frames? Rather than see its direct path to me as it charges, it seems to almost...micro teleport. Even between these jumps it's fast, but with them, it might be faster than light...which Deryl has told me is impossible, but he's not here right now. Regardless, flash steps or not, I get my armor up just as its claws stab into me, deflecting them to the side. I go to swing back at it, but once again it seems to teleport. My heavy armor slows me down, but even so, it creates way more distance than should be possible, given its strength. Maybe it's related to the Hexenring?

It looks me up and down and I do the same. It brandishes its claws, and I turn my arms into blades the size of its body. I can see in its eyes that it's intimidated, but it doesn't back down...