Hector almost glanced about like an idiot to spot their observer. It penetrated his brain in time that Cleo whispered so that they could keep their awareness secret from the unknown watcher. He nodded to her and glanced at the water bladder. Only a tenth full so far.

"A monster would have attacked already," he muttered, trusting her enhanced senses to hear.

"I'm not eager to face a life energy enhanced bear either."

He gave the issue a bit of thought. It seemed unlikely an opponent lurked out there he couldn't handle one on one. Further, if there was a threat, he would rather face it now rather than let it stalk him until an opportune moment arrived. "Point me in its direction."

Cleo squinted at him. "What are you going to do?"

"Ensure our safety."

"Don't do anything crazy." She turned and extended her hand at an angle to point slightly upstream from their position.

Hector jumped into the air and fired cosmic energy into his heels to fly rapidly in the indicated direction. He formed two cables as he went, ready to tear any mundane creature apart. His reckless flight ended when he crashed on top of a startled form before it could escape.

His adrenaline fueled brain finally caught up with his actions and he slid off of the startled teenage boy staring up at him in sheer terror. Hector offered a hand. "Sorry about the scare."

The boy ignored the hand up and shrank away.

"Are you hurt? It doesn't look like you are. What's wrong, kid? Do you not understand the language?" Hector put his hands on his hips.

"You're not Alfar."

Hector smiled at the kid and spoke softly like he was calming a frightened animal. "It's nothing to worry about. A bunch of us came from other worlds to help after we heard about the monster invasion." He intentionally didn't reveal himself as a Xian out of concern that the Alfar boy might go into a full blown panic.

The boy's eyes were wide. "You feel deader than dead but you are moving around."

That actually made sense if Hector thought about it. Alfar were attuned to life energy, of which a Xian with body enhancement at level five effectively had none. "I'm still human. My energy is just different than what you are used to." When that didn't seem to be easing the tension, he added, "We're here to fight the monsters."

"What monsters?"

Those words deflated him. The locals weren't even aware of the invasion? Hector stood back to give the kid space, no longer seeing the point in the conversation. The two of them could just go their own way. He had a water bladder to move.

An impact rocked Hector on his feet. He turned to see a shocked man holding a splintered spear, the broken tip dangling. The man had huge irises and vertically slit pupils like a cat and more body hair than could ever be considered normal.

Hector glanced down at his shirt and saw a tear in it. "That is annoying. I don't have many changes of clothes with me."

The man swung the other end of the spear at Hector's head like a staff. Hector let it land, flaring his aura to take the blow. Wood snapped and half the spear went flying off into the woods. By this point, the man was backing away, his nose twitching as he tested the air. "Undead creature."

"What?" This was getting ridiculous. Hector noticed the kid scramble to his feet and run away. Meanwhile, more adults were appearing from the foliage to surround him with primitive weapons held at the ready. He did a quick scan of them with his mental sense. They ranged from level four to level six, full of buzzing life energy. Hector did not feel even remotely threatened by these people. He was like a grown man being surrounded by toddlers.

The first person to lunge at him he gave a stiff jab to the gut. The spear strike to the chest didn't do any damage to him, but his opponent held his midsection on the ground and lay still like he'd never rise again. Hector used a cable to trip the next man, then stared down the rest as he turned in a slow circle.

"Listen to me, you primitive Alfar, I am not an undead creature. I'm a Xian."

That did not appease their concerns. "Off-world demon!"

They made signs with their hands gesturing to the sun with both hands and pulling back to touch their foreheads, then squatting to touch the ground and bringing hands back to their lips. "Father above, mother below, shelter us from the wicked strangers!"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A representative of the men stepped forward holding one hand to his heart and the other palm out in a stop gesture. "Be gone, evil one! We banish you from Eden!"

Hector had intended to leave because they were wasting his time, but the fact that they thought that some superstitious hand waving had the power to banish him made that a non starter. Instead of walking away, he stepped forward and shoved the man over. "Quit being stupid. What good do you think your gestures are doing? I've seen real rituals from Arahants, and trust me, your version isn't working."

A woman stepped forward then and hissed at him. "The cougar people banish you!"

"Oh," Hector said, "you are beast kin. You're the outcasts of Alfar society."

The woman flinched as if he'd hit a sore spot, then worked up some moisture in her mouth which she obviously intended to spit at him. Hector swept her foot with a cable so that she felt before she could achieve her goal.

"I won't waste any more time on you," he said. "I'm here to fight monsters."

The woman who had attempted to spit glared up at him, but one of the older warriors latched onto what was said. "Monster? You fight the Ogre?"

One of the younger men hissed a warning. "Do not speak with demons!"

The old warrior chopped his hand in a request for silence. "Let the demon fight the Ogre! His kind never stay long anyway."

On the forest floor, the woman hissed up at him. "May you slay one another."

"Quiet, woman. You, demon, may find the Ogre in that direction." The old warrior pointed in a direction roughly towards where Rover Fred waited for him. "You may find it by its trail of death."

Hector stared in the indicated direction, ears straining for the sounds of combat. Nothing. He didn't think Fred and the Titans brothers would struggle to defend themselves anyway. In the end, an Ogre was just another kind of Alfar. They were considered dangerous because they devoured life energy, but no one in Misfit Squad had any to steal. Even if an Ogre could threaten his squad, why would it bother?

"Don't follow me," Hector said in parting.

He flew part of the way back to Cleo, then dropped to the ground to save energy. His expenditures so far zeroed out his gains entirely from cultivating the previous day. At least he now had intelligence on local threats. Cleo was waiting for him exactly where he left her. She'd replaced the plug on the water bladder already.

"What was it?"

"Beast kin. They told me I'm banished from Eden, so don't be surprised if I fade away."

Cleo chuckled. "Tell them to work their magic on the leaping idiot instead."

The two of them began their hike back. Hector used his domain to haul the heavy bag of water. Feeling his reserves drop further, he was forced to be less generous helping Cleo past obstacles. As a result, they were slower on their return trip. Cleo was a trooper, however, and never complained. She unfailingly guided him back to where Fred had parked.

Their fearless leader, taking advantage of the downtime, was telling dirty jokes. "So I dropped my pants. I'm rock hard but this chick is not at all impressed. She says 'who the hell is that little thing supposed to please?' and I come back with 'me!', ha!"

"I have never had such a conversation," Ajax shot back.

Fred laughed. "The way I hear it, you guys have the opposite problem. 'Oh my, mister sexy Titan, you are too big for me to accommodate!', is that about right?"

"Above level four, it's Titan women only," Nestor said. "Our bodies are too dense to do anything more intimate than shaking hands with fragile kinds."

The conversation died off as the water bladder levitated up to sit on top of Kevin's bed. Cleo hopped up and began attaching connecting tubes like a professional. A pump engaged and began sucking the water down through the filtering mechanism.

"Well, I guess we should camp here for the night. You biological varieties are going to need time to hydrate before we move on. Though I worry tomorrow will be no better."

"I should probably report something," Hector said. "I met some beast kin. They're definitely not a threat to us even if they are hostile to foreigners, but they did mention an Ogre was in the area. They said it was somewhere in this direction and tried getting me to fight the thing."

Ajax sat up straighter and looked around the group. "How serious is an Ogre? I know the Alfar talk them up."

"They're just an Alfar deviation," Nestor muttered. "How much of a headache can one be?"

Hector shrugged. "I mean, none of us have life energy. We shouldn't interest it, right?"

Fred interrupted their speculation. "The possible presence of local opposition does not change anything about our mission. We will continue to practice operational security. If an Ogre attacks us, it dies. Simple stuff."

The sound of water exiting the purification system drew their attention. Everyone lined up and began refilling canteens. They hydrated, ate a meal of rations, and settled in for the night.

Hector cultivated to restore the energy he'd used, discovering that the cosmic energy on the mental band had dropped to extremely low levels. It seemed that the high energy levels were due to the battle and not a feature of Eden itself.

In the morning, Hector climbed the largest tree he could find to get a view of the surroundings. Up top, he noticed a path winding through the woods a few miles from their position. It didn't go exactly in their direction of travel, but it was close enough that following its route should be faster than cutting straight through the undergrowth.

Fred agreed to attempt the detour and Hector led Misfit Squad to the path.

As they stumbled out of the thick undergrowth and into a wide trail of death and desiccation, everyone suddenly realized their situation. Cleo was the first to voice it. "We're following the damn Ogre. It walked right through here and casually sucked the life out of every plant."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.