Reid felt the wind whipping past his legs as the seconds ticked down.

The glow in his hand intensified, then abated as Brock appeared.

This was it.

The one dumb idea that might keep Reid from having the traincar-sized asshole pancake him into the ground.

He re-read the trait description as he poured energy into the first vortex.

Shrapnel When the first vortex is imbued with energy, the internal structure of the weapon is weakened. Upon impact, Shrapnel will cause the projectile to more violently shatter and release a number of sharded bones with force similar to that of the impact.

If he couldn't reach up far enough into the creature, maybe the shards would.

It just had the minor downside that Reid would be stuck inside the thing's mouth when it detonated.

Reid shook off the concern. He trusted in his durability. He trusted he'd be able to heal himself and recover whatever damage the confined shrapnel caused him. He trusted his capability to triage his most grievous wounds, and he trusted his creation to deal enough damage that he'd at least kill the beast.

As his trust in himself settled somewhere deep in his gut, Reid flooded his arm, then his entire body with energy. It surged until he could feel the potent mana threatening to arc its way out of his skin - then he focused it all into a single, compressed motion.

Brock rocketed out of his hand, and into one of the deeper cuts he'd managed to make. His projectile shattered in the next moment.

A near deafening set of clacking assaulted Reid's ears as sharp chunks of bone tore into - and through - his armor. The only sensation he could feel past his elbow was pain. He saw white where a shard had buried itself into his cheekbone, just below his eye. His head felt dizzy and wrong. More shards had managed to find gaps in Marrow - but the majority of the damage had still been done to the beast.

Lysander let out a groan that ended in a hiss. Purple magic pulsed once, and faded completely. Bits of brain matter flowed down with the blood and other liquids that had added themselves to the inside of the beast's mouth.

You have defeated Beast Lord, Lysander Rumblestrut - lvl 41. Experience Awarded (+250,000 xp) (+60,000 xp)

Reid slumped, reeling and dizzy and exhausted, but Nyx's voice spurred him back into action.

"Reid! Crawl forward!"

He kicked his legs and his one usable arm, and slid himself down into Lysander's throat. He didn't know why he was doing it. He wasn't really aware of himself in the moment, but he moved until Nyx told him to stop.

The last thing he heard before the impact was a muffled, sad screech.

#

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Reid was tired of groaning himself awake.

He wasn't in good shape.

In addition to the injuries he'd caused himself with brock, Reid could feel multiple broken ribs - including two that had punctured his skin and were poking up and out of him. His left shoulder was cracked, and he had trouble moving the arm. His right hand was completely gone, and it looked like he'd shoved his arm into a woodchipper up to his elbow. One foot was twisted and facing the wrong way. A knee felt wrong. His spine hurt.

His breathing was muffled, and shallow. He was pretty sure a punctured lung was stopping him from catching his breath - or that might've been because of the weight and suffocating closeness of the remains of the beast he was still inside. He reached the stump of his right arm up, and used the jagged ends of his bones to slice through the flesh above him. He kept at it until a bit of light was visible. Fresh air mixed with the gore and viscera, and he breathed a bit easier.

Reid's head was still swimming, and he didn't have fingers to probe himself on his right arm - so he started in on himself by healing his left shoulder. It had completely fractured, and Reid drained a significant portion of energy to fix it up. When he finished, he brought his left hand to his head, and found three shards protruding from his face. He dislodged the piece from his cheekbone, then the one that had buried itself in his jaw. The last was stuck into his forehead near the temple. Reid was a bit scared about that one - but he needed to recover, and that meant fixing the wound. The piece came free, and the world spun.

Reid healed the wounds, and regrew some fractured bone. It still felt like someone had used his brain as a speedbag - but the dizzy, wrong sensation had started to ablate.

That made the next steps easier. Ribs were shoved back inside of himself. Internal injuries were patched. External ones were closed. He even started regrowing some skin and muscle on his right arm before he passed out from exhaustion.

#

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#

When Reid woke up again, his nostrils twisted at the smell. Lysander's carcass had started to decompose around him. His hole for fresh air was larger, but a rotten stench easily overpowered it.

Still better than gourd guts.

He pushed his arms out above him, desperate for fresh air. He still needed to regrow his right hand, and part of that arm. His leg, and a whole host of other injuries complained with every motion. But Reid needed to breathe.

He climbed up and out of the beast, scattering a few flies from the wound. Cleaner air filled his lungs, and Reid summoned water and food. He consumed both as soon as they appeared in his left hand.

Gusts of wind swept through Lysander's calico-colored fur, exchanging foul air with each clean breeze. A grey-blue sky promised impending rain. Reid wanted to be conscious for that. His plan developed. Heal himself, then shower off using a combination of the stream and whatever water fell from the clouds.

Reid scanned the valley. His crashed glider still adorned a far hill. The landing gourd was split in half and the insides had turned black - somehow even more disgusting than it had been before it started to rot. Down on the ground, there was a surprising lack of damage to the grass and dirt. He'd half-expected some crater, brought about by the impact. Instead, there were only a few small cracks, and flattened, dead grass.

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He was in the middle of pulling another water from his storage ring when he noticed the dead grass had a pattern that didn't line up. It was curved and jutted out perpendicular from where Lysander's body lay. Bits of dirt seemed to have been scraped towards the beast lord. Or behind it.

Reid scrambled up Lysander's side, doing his best to avoid sticking a stump, hand, or foot into one of the wounds he'd created during the fight. It was an awkward climb, but he made it to the very top of the guinea pig's body.

A wide path of discolored grass led from Lysander's corpse - to Pippin's furry-toasted-marshmallow-traincar form.

There were a pair of beast lords. He knew that. Logically, he knew. But with the intensity of the fight, and the single-minded nature of his recovery, the facts had slipped out of focus.

Pippin saw Reid atop the body of its dead twin, and let out grunting screeches full of emotion. Reid's head swiveled until he saw his mace, still buried in Lysander's flank where he'd thrown it.

He scrambled over bloodstained fur, and wasted a precious second by reaching for the mace with the stump of his right arm. His left hand curled around the handle as he rolled to intercept the charge he expected - but Pippin wasn't running.

The beast was barely moving at all.

The back half of the creature's body glowed with purple light, and its hind legs rag dolled in the air as it moved itself forward using its front limbs.

Pieces of information pulled themselves together.

He'd heard a screech before the impact - and now he knew why. He could practically picture Pippin, in its concern, trying to catch its falling twin with magic, and then using its own body to soften the landing.

But it had acted too late, and only managed to somewhat slow the descent of Lysander's corpse. The impact of the dead twin broke Pippin's back, and paralyzed its hind legs.

Reid almost felt sorry for the thing.

His head swiveled to the crashed glider.

Almost.

Reid carefully slid himself down Lysander's fur, wincing and swearing when he dropped the last few feet to the ground and collapsed. His foot was still facing the wrong way. He looked up to ensure Pippin was far enough away, and grit his teeth. Braced on Requiem, Reid forced his foot back to face the right way. It sent new jolts of pain into him, but he focused on healing things just enough to be able to walk. He managed enough for a decent hobbling gait.

Moving was painful. Breathing was painful. He hadn't fixed his ribs as well as he'd thought, and they grated against each other with the impact of each step. But the fight wasn't over. No matter how bad he felt - or how badly the beast appeared to be injured - the Vicipods had taught him that a fight wasn't over until the other side was dead.

He moved himself in a lazy arc, outmaneuvering the half-paralyzed creature so he could strike at its side. His one good arm brought Requiem down and carved a chunk out of the beast, then three more. The wave of viscera that flowed out of the wounds threatened to unbalance his already-unsteady footing. Pippin had almost moved itself around enough to bite at him, so he hobbled sideways, and swung.

It took him grueling minutes to deal enough damage that the beast finally slumped to the ground. Pippin let out shallow and pained grunts between bloody, bubbling breaths. It looked at Reid with defeated eyes that shifted to its twin before closing.

Reid scanned the valley, with its massive gourds - and remains of defeated troop members that once devoured them. He could see the rocky edge where he'd made his camp, and had it blown away from him. He touched the empty socket on his pauldron where Brock would go when he resummoned it. He glanced Lysander's corpse, and thought about the knife that was still somewhere inside of the beast. He thought of the gains he'd made here - in stats, and his mana compressor.

Snug Valley was the only place in the tutorial where Reid had actually settled down for more than a few days. There was something important about that - that it was the site of so much growth for him. For more of Nyx's lessons, and a learning experience where he encountered magics that were tricky for his fighting style. It gave him new perspective on his own combat.

The level of improvement he'd experienced here was only second to the Warrens.

Maybe most important of all was that, despite his self-caused issues, the fighting, the growth, the crafting, and his latest, ongoing recovery - Reid was still going to finish Snug Valley before the timer ran out.

Secret Challenge: Complete Stage 4 in less than 30 days. (0d 0h 42m Remaining)

Reid smiled, then lifted Requiem above his head and slammed it down into the beast lord's skull.

You have defeated Beast Lord, Pippin Rumblestrut - lvl 41. Experience Awarded (+250,000 xp) (+60,000 xp)

Level: 42 -> 43 Control: 490 -> 510

Questline Stage Completed: The Beast Lords - (Stage 4 of 10) Secret Challenge Completed: Took No Losses in Stage 4 Secret Challenge Completed: Finished Stage 3 in less than 30 days

Bonus Experience awarded for completing secret challenges!

Achievements Upgraded! Venator III -> Venator IV (Earned for engaging and defeating beast lords in solo combat)

Invulnerable -> Invulnerable II (Earned for defeating two beast lords without taking any losses)

Mercy Kill -> Mercy Kill II (Earned for killing creatures that wanted you to end their lives)

New Achievements Earned! Raptor (Earned for defeating beast lords while airborne)

Arsenal (Earned for using a combination of ranged, heavy, and light weaponry to defeat beast lords)

Sacrificial Strike (Earned for enduring or causing yourself severe damage to land a decisive blow on a beast lord)

Raptor Slightly increases mobility when in flight. Slightly increases the efficacy of midair attacks.

Arsenal Damaging the same foe with varying means will cause slightly more damage than normal. Gain a minor improvement to the efficacy of swapping weapons.

Sacrificial Strike Damage you choose to take in order to strike enemies is slightly reduced.

Final Experience Awarded: 8,000,000 xp (F) Accelerated Growth Experience (.30) Awarded: 2,400,000 xp

Experience: 6,842,001 / 13,107,200 -> 17,263,001 / 26,214,200 Level: 43 -> 44 Control: 510 -> 530

Questline Stage Unlocked: The Beast Lords - (Stage 5 of 10) NOTICE: You are the only faction that can currently access this questline.

You obliterated the scourge of Snug Valley and bested the Rumblestrut Twins. Continue your conquest, but be mindful. Your next foe is the Branching Terror. Stage 5: Defeat the Branching Terror. (Level 43). Secret Challenge: Complete Stage 5 in less than 50 days. (49d 23h 57m Remaining) Secret Challenge: Complete Stage 5 without taking any losses Secret Challenge: Complete Stage 5 without any forces falling to the Terror's madness.

Reid slumped, and focused energy into himself. He knit his ribs back together, properly this time, then set to work resolving other wounds the final kill had aggravated. He wasn't at a hundred percent, but he was closer than when he started. Regrowing his hand itched and stung like hell, and it was still only half complete.

He needed to rest, and to wash himself clean, and to eat something proper to restore himself. He needed to get his knife back from wherever it had ended up in Lysander's corpse, and he needed to recall himself a new Brock.

But he had to start with the most important thing of all.

Reid rose, and used some of his meager remaining energy to create a massive carving knife. He chopped Pippin's body into rough and poorly cut slabs, and stored it all in his ring. He only stopped when he'd gotten off most of what seemed edible, and he was truly ready to pass out. There was just no way he was going to let another perfectly good mound of meat rot while he rested. Lysander's body was inedible, which meant the rest of the troop probably was, too.

He rested himself against an unbloodied patch of Pippin's hide, and watched storm clouds drift closer to the valley.

"I'm gonna take a little nap. When I wake up, I'm getting my knife back, and I'm going to wash myself clean of this damn valley, and then I'm cooking you, you gravity magic bastard."

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