Another two weeks passed before James and his party reached the city that Mother had described. They had kept a steady pace, covering hundreds of miles a day until they reached the wastelands. The dead land stretched all around them, but from where they entered, they knew they had passed the nest. A bit of backtracking would be needed to finish it off, but first they needed to meet with Mother.

Grace and Zenaria had reached level four during their hurried pace through the wasteland. Once they reached the city, they were looking forward to a bit of time killing everything off in order to reach new heights. Even Luna was looking forward to clearing part of the city.

To call it a city might have been generous. The land was craggy and the few trees they passed were dead and black. No grass grew anywhere they walked, and the buildings were not the sprawling skyscrapers he was used to. A few of them stood over ten stories tall, but nearly all of them had collapsed from time. Only a few four and five story buildings remained whole until everything transitioned to squat one and two story houses.

The architecture was not something he had seen in a while. Although they were in Asia, the western design of their buildings was evident. There was also a mixture of stone abodes in a different design that he didn't know. Nearly everything had been overgrown with black vines, that somehow had grown in the wasteland. Everywhere the vines touched, a sickly mist was given off, making them steer clear for the time being.

As for Mother and her family, James could sense them in the city center, having claimed several structures as homes. The only problem was, that there were more souls than there should have been. Many of them were strong, just like Mother, making him wonder what exactly Mother had been up to.

"Do we need to fight our way in?" Grace asked.

Luna answered for him. "Spread out and take separate streets. We are working our way to the center where Mother is."

"I'll go ahead," James stated. "I'll keep my eye on each of you, but you should be fine." He had already checked the nearby souls and found them lacking compared to what they were used to. They would need to kill hundreds, or thousands to level up. Luna especially would need thousands.

Grace waved once before jogging away. They were still on the edges of the city, which made it easier to split up. Amber took the street on the far side of Grace, while Linda and Zenaria went to his left, taking those two streets. Left with Luna, James cracked his neck.

"Ready?" he asked.

Shrugging, Luna grabbed his hand. "Do you think we have time to sneak into one of these buildings." Smirking, she hinted at exactly what she had planned.

"No," he said reluctantly. "We need to get this done with. The sooner we meet with Mother, the sooner we can clear the city and plan for the nest."

"Fine," she whined. Letting him go, she wandered over to one of the vines. Reaching out, she touched the mist and hissed in pain. "Corruption and poison."

"We can all use those resistances." Joining her, he grabbed one of the vines and felt the poison leaching into his body.

Poison Resistance: Level 7/10 (+1)

"Huh…" he muttered. "I guess I was right on the edge of leveling up."

Rubbing her temples, she sighed at him. "Of course you were…"

Summoning his sword, he cut off a length of the vine and wrapped it around his arm. "This should work."

Copying him, she used her claws to cut off a section. "This better be worth it," she hissed.

He couldn't feel exactly what the poison was doing, but he felt like he might be getting weaker. It was hard to tell exactly. But the corruption was burning and turning his skin black, which was healing just as quickly. That reminded him that he need to keep an eye on his animal companions.

Peeking into one of the squat houses, James frowned as he found broken pottery and trampled mats and cushions. He didn't see any couches or chairs that he was accustomed to, and only a few low tables were in the living area. Entering further, he found the kitchen to be rudimentary at best. It was at least powered by something other than wood.

Luna joined him and whistled. "This reminds me of home."

"The lack of anything?" he questioned.

"Nomads, remember. We didn't pack much apart from our tents, cushions, and bedding. Meals were communal."

"And you were a hunter?" he asked to clarify.

"Yup. Hunted every week for the tribe. That's why I can hunt better than you."

Frowning, he glanced at the group of animals that were following them. "They can all hunt better than you."

Following his gaze, she scoffed. "That's because they are growing stronger and smarter while they are with you."

His group of animals was nearly fifty strong after Shadow Paw gathered all of his followers and then some along the way. His mate was already pregnant, which wasn't a surprise, but it was still welcome. The horned rabbits had become the mascots as all of the predators protected them fiercely.

Luna had taken to spending time in her wolf form with the other wolves, hunting and leading them through the forests and wastelands. Her pack was the majority of the animals. Other than the wolves and rabbits, they had several other predators like the badger and a few variety of large cats. The raccoons were very good at digging up food for the journey and had proven to be useful at finding things of what they assumed was value in the destroyed towns and villages they passed through.

The vultures almost always stayed overhead and separate from the numbers. Strong Beak flew ahead with his flock and scouted for them, leading them through the wasteland and on the shortest path.

Returning to the task at hand, James turned his attention toward the center of the city and spread out his soul. Checking on Mother one more time, he found her excited and eager to meet with him once again. But it wasn't until he reached Everest that he was nearly knocked back. The sheer excitement and joy that he felt from her was staggering.

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Pulling back, he found Luna giggling at him.

"I think your child missed you," she teased.

"Felt that too?"

"Oh, yes. I linked into your soul and felt you spreading your senses."

"You can do that?" Frowning, he touched her with his soul and couldn't feel anything, even though he knew she was spreading her soul out, looking for monsters.

Winking, she didn't answer as she transformed into her wolf form. Padding off, she started sniffing the ground and air as she went on the hunt. Not wanting to ruin her hunt, he slowed his pace and followed. They still didn't know what kind of monsters they would face, but he was a little sad he wouldn't be killing them.

With Luna busy, he checked on Grace next. His eyes widened when he found her.

***

Grace happily skipped across the street to lay down another bomb. The soul energy weapon blended into the ground seamlessly before she looked around with a smile.

"That should do it!"

She could feel James checking in on her when she pushed out with her own soul. One of her abilities drew monsters in, convincing them to blindly attack her. It was just what she needed as she found the thirty odd souls around her.

Whistling a small tune, she lifted her fingers like a baton and watched as the buildings exploded with activity. Monsters swarmed out of the structures and into the streets before she pointed at the first group.

"Boom!"

Her shout was followed by the explosion of one of her bombs. A cloud of poisonous soul energy flooded the area, spilling over the monsters where they started coughing and thrashing before falling down. One by one, the rest of the bombs went off, bringing the charge to a dead stop.

Swaying her fingers around, she pointed at a few monsters that were able to crawl through the poison. With a flick of her tail, she threw her most powerful attack toward those lone creatures. The ball of poison exploded on contact causing the spread of green veins through the monsters. A moment later, they were dead and she stopped humming.

"Gotta love fresh poison in the morning!"

Rolling out her shoulders and neck, she wafted the poison out of her way before stepping up to the first monster. It was something she had never seen before. It appeared to be some sort of fish-human hybrid. With a giant fish head and scales covering the entire black body. Arms longer than they should be were tipped in webbed claws. The legs and feet were no better.

Humming another melody, she used the inverse of her skill and dispersed her presence from the monsters. It was a two faced skill that was perfect for helping her set up her traps and then pulling monsters in.

James was still checking on her when she started pushing against him. "Go away!"

Despite pushing as hard as she could, he didn't relent and she gave up. She knew he was just making sure she was safe, but the piddly monsters weren't going to be able to kill her.

Walking down another few blocks, she felt the monsters all around her again. Some of them were running off toward Amber, but there were still plenty for herself and her poison.

Reaching another intersection, Grace started setting up more bombs for her impending fight. This time, she had to make two layers of bombs as there were over one hundred monsters around her. She could already taste the sweet, sweet experience toward her next level.

***

James nearly bulked as he watched Grace mass murder a group of monsters with poison. Looking down at his arm, he questioned the use of the vine nibbling at him. Would raising my poison resistance help against someone like Grace? Would she beat me to death after I collapsed?

He was just thankful she was on his side. The way she laid out bombs and brought foes rushing in to blow up in clouds of toxin was amazing, yet terrifying.

Turning his attention to Amber, he found her walking down the street with her Soul Cats. The four minions were doing all the work while the nekorian felt bored. She wasn't even trying to have fun while leveling.

I wonder if she knows her cats are taking a large chunk of the Soul Strength?

Deciding it would be better to correct that behavior now, he jogged over. First he had to cross over Grace's death field of poisonous fog that had been left behind. It took longer than he cared to admit to find a safe passage.

Amber heard him coming and stopped, frowning, yet her tail swaying happily. "What can I do for you, Master?"

Pointing out her cats, he tutted, "you're ruining your own growth is what you are doing."

"Huh?"

Sighing, he explained the tax for using minions and watched her eyes widen. Dismissing her cats, she summoned her claws and transformed her legs into her feline form. "I'm off!"

Before he could get another word in edgewise, the nekorian was racing toward the next building and breaking down the front door. Screams could be heard from the monster inhabitants as he felt souls wink out, their energy flowing into Amber.

I really need to get to the center now.

Jogging back over to his street, he held his breath while running through a particularly fresh batch of poison. He could hear Grace manically laughing a block away as souls burst all around the area.

She's really starting to scare me…

Returning to his street, he picked up his pace and caught up to where Luna was Siphoning fresh souls. Her massive Soul Form was being used to rip monsters apart. Hundreds of corpses were littered over the area, making him shake his head.

"You could have at least left them intact!" he yelled at her while passing.

Growling, she vibrated the air before hurling a corpse at him.

Jumping over the body, he laughed before pushing forward. Once he was a few blocks past his wife, he checked on Zenaria. The kitsune was flitting between shadows from what he could tell. Yet, all of the souls she was passing snuffed out instantly, their energy flowing into her faster than what the others could absorb.

What the hell is she doing?

He wanted to check in on her, but knew he would break her concentration. Whatever was happening proved that she had the strongest soul out of the group apart from him.

***

Zenaria shifted through the shadows; misty soul energy surrounding her like a phantom. Her form was incorporeal as she stepped through monsters and flicked her Soul Weapon. The wires of Soul Energy wrapped around her victims, shredding limbs from body and extinguishing souls as it was all drawn into her.

She wanted to laugh at how easy it had become to move like a specter through the army of monsters. Flitting from one shadow to another, she tore through monsters faster than they could find her. Dozens were dying as the minutes passed and she was already nearly level five. Just a few more monsters and she'd be there.

Coming to a stop to catch her breath, she looked back down the street. Limbs lay sprawled across the broken asphalt and corpses had fallen out of the buildings. A few of the demonic fish monsters were hanging from windows, or at least halves of them were.

Shaking out her arms, she dismissed her Shadow Form and did a few squats to loosen up her body. James was clearly checking on her, worry barely concealed in his soul. Pushing happiness toward him, she started walking toward the next section of the city.

She had already cleared over a mile of territory and things were starting to get weird. The buildings were increasingly worn and covered in vines as the plant life took hold of the world. Towering kelp like growths drifted in the breeze; some standing taller than the buildings around them.

Up above, Zenaria watched as slim monsters seemed to swim over the denser kelp areas. If she had to guess, she would say they were at least ten feet long, but that didn't matter if they couldn't use their size.

Shifting back into her Shadow Form, she drew closer to the patch closest to her. A myriad of hybrid fish monsters were meandering through the kelp and biting at the leaves. At first, she thought it was a mere dozen, but upon closer inspection, she found hundreds of foes waiting for her.

Above her, the large creatures that she at first thought were ten feet long, appeared to be closer to twenty, and were giant fish…

Hehe.

Laughing to herself at the black abominations, she summoned her Soul Wires and approached the group. If she could take down the entire pack, she might reach beyond level five, if not level six.

I wonder how the others handle large groups like this?

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