Loch pulled the jacket tighter to ward off the chill, wishing he had found a pair of gloves that worked. They were either too thick or not thick enough. No middle ground that would keep his fingers warm and still let him grip things easily.

  That had always been a problem in late Fall, when it got cold at night but barely not cold enough to start snowing. It was coming, he could feel it in the air. He rubbed his hands together, breathing into them, seeing his breath fogging.

  Shifting, Loch watched the powerlines in front of him, hidden just inside the treeline. He couldn’t see the others. They all waited. He could hear the crushing of leaves and some small grunts as the Hunters all shifted. They’d been waiting for a while, the cold starting to seep into their bones.

  A screech to the east caught his attention. Loch leaned forward, watching the powerlines. They’d seen evidence of some monsters running down the relatively open stretch. More screeching joined, followed by the thudding of something running, clawed feet hitting the mostly frozen ground. The monsters appeared a couple seconds later, an entire pack.

  FIRECLAW SQUIRRELS

  The creatures ran on all fours, large puffy tails extended out behind them. The size of wolves with rust colored fur and light gray underbellies, they looked just like enlarged squirrels. Most existing animals had been mutated, which made them enlarged and far more aggressive, these Squirrels had been Adapted and changed. Loch could see little crackling bits of fire across their fur.

  Loch let the entire pack, about twenty of the creatures, pass him. He turned his attention back to the east, waiting. He ignored the sounds of bows twanging, arrows slamming into monster flesh, and the Squirrels crying out in pain. Those sounds were followed by blasts of fire and growling. He was curious what kind of attacks the Fireclaw Squirrels had, but he had a job to do.

  The ground started to shake, telling Loch that his time was coming. Loud thuds hit the ground, getting louder as they came closer, picking up speed. Whatever had been chasing the Squirrels had heard the fighting, knew their prey was being attacked by something else. With a roar, it let everyone know it was coming.

  Loch stepped out of the treeline, Bulwark Activated and Onyx at what he was now calling the default state, the normal size. Being able to change the size of the weapon was going to change his fighting style, but he didn’t think the upcoming fight was a good time to play around. The monster appeared around the corner, seeing Loch and letting out another roar. It didn’t stop, lowering its head and charging faster.

  LIGHTNING TYRANNOSAURUS REX

  It looked just like the movies and all the pictures he’d seen. Large head, long tail, short upper arms. The difference was in the blue streaks across its mottled green body. The lightning effect in the eyes set on the side of its head. The large mouth opened, big enough to bite Loch in half.

  Shifting his feet, Loch threw Onyx.

  It spun, slamming into the nose of the T-Rex. The monster stopped charging, shaking its head to dislodge the weapon. The head tilted, confused, when Onyx disappeared. Turning back to Loch, it roared, a bright light appearing in the depths of its mouth.

  A jagged bolt of lightning shot out, Loch catching it on Bulwark. The force of the bolt slid Loch back on the hard ground. He shifted, setting his feet as the bolt dissipated. Loch looked through the green tint of the shield, feeling the static electricity in the air. The T-Rex had just breathed lightning.

  Loch smiled, amazed. The T-Rex studied him as he studied it. The large dinosaur was probably confused how Loch was still standing. He doubted most things in the woods could stand up to the T-Rex’s lightning breath. Loch was still surprised that it had breathed lightning. Activating Precision Strike, he studied the monster’s weak points. He knew he could easily beat the monster by overwhelming force. Evaluate had measured it as a couple Levels lower than Loch, probably around Level Twenty. A tough fight for most of the Clan, but a winnable one. The problem was that Loch wanted to keep as much of the monster intact as possible. They could use the hide it would drop, as well as the meat. Even the claws would be useful.

  They were going to get a lot of fur and meat from the Squirrels, but the big T-Rex would also be a good harvest. If Loch could kill it without mangling the hide or the meat. Slow and steady.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The T-Rex charged, Loch Activated Offensive Stance.

  ***

  “You killed it, you should harvest it,” Heath Jenkins joked, looking at the body of the T-Rex. Lightning still crackled across the corpse. “That’s a big one.”

  “I would if I had the right Skills,” Loch said with a shrug.

  “Is it too late to change Classes,” Heath muttered, taking out his large skinning knife and approaching the body.

  Loch laughed, stepping away. He moved back to where the Hunters were gathered. They’d done a good job with the Squirrels. Only a couple had been damaged so bad that nothing could be harvested from them. It was a good haul. Lots of fur to be turned into winter cloaks and clothing, and a lot more meat to add to the stores. They were still lacking in fruits, vegetables and breads. But they were looking good on meat.

  “A couple of us are thinking of heading up the power lines and seeing if there was a nest of these things or something,” Jerry Tomlins, the Hunter in charge of this group, said.

  “Sounds good,” Loch told him. “Just keep an eye out to see if that guy had any friends,” he finished, pointing at the dead T-Rex.

  “Yeah, we wouldn’t want to run into one of him,” another Hunter said.

  The group broke apart, three going with Jerry and jogging past the body of the T-Rex, the rest joining the small group of Scavengers that had been with them.

  “You guys will head back with the Harvesters,” Loch asked the remaining Hunters.

  “Yeah, we’ll head back to the School once they’re done with the big guy,” one of them said.

  “You still coming with us up Shelburne?,” David Fitz asked.

  “That’s the plan,” Loch replied. “How far had you guys gotten down the road?”

  “Only until Knowles. We stopped and went down Knowles and Pender. Got a good haul off those streets.”

  “Did you empty them completely?” Loch asked, waving to the Hunters and Harvesters, leading the Scavengers into the woods on the other side of the powerlines.

  Instead of returning to the road, the plan was to cut through the woods until they hit Shelburne Hill Road, turning east down it and hitting the houses on either side as they made their way toward Ridge Road and Range Road.

  “Yeah,” David replied. “We’ve made a couple of trips. Cleaned them right out.”

  Loch nodded, leading the group into the woods. He kept his eyes open but didn’t expect to run into anything for a while. Most animals in the area would have been spooked by the fighting and ran off to hide.

  There was a ton of stuff he needed to deal with back at the Clanhold, but had quickly taken the opportunity to join the Hunting and Scavenging teams. Ed and Kristin had everything about running the Clanhold under control. Loch knew his strength would have been a huge help in finishing the construction on the new bunkhouses and shelters, but he really just wanted to be out in the woods. He wasn’t really needed, almost anyone else could have filled in for his role as protection, but it had been a while since he’d been on a hunting and gathering run.

  The Foragers let him worry about any potential monsters. They kept their eyes, and Abilities, focused on finding any herbs, plants or other Resources scattered around the woods. Among the five Scavengers were two Spatial Bags. The Clan was starting to get a good amount of those, as even the Scavengers and Foragers were getting strong enough to tackle the Challenge Dungeon.

  Scavengers and Foragers were Leveling slower than the Clan members focused on combat, but they were still Leveling. They were learning to fight as the further out they ranged, the more monsters they ran across. There weren’t always fighters around to deal with the monsters.

  It took them a couple hours but they finally walked out onto Sherburne Hill Road. Like all paved roads, it was a mix of cracks, pushed up sections and missing sections. Rough and unpassable. Loch looked at the nearest house, then walked down the road to look at another. He was glad both houses were there and not taken by the Worldcore. It gave him some way to get his bearings.

  “You said you stopped at Knowles?” He asked David.

  “Yeah, we had meant to hit that place that had built the fenced in horse pasture the year before all this,” David replied, waving his hands at the world around them. “But never got a chance to come back yet.”

  Loch knew the house. He doubted any feed or hay would still be good, but they could at least hopefully get some tack and saddles. People had talked about the Clanhold giving off an aura for miles, guiding people to find it. The stallion, Larry, seemed to have a similar aura. More horses had been wandering in, increasing the size of the herd. Even though Jarl was the larger and more powerful horse, it was Larry that was the one in charge of the herd.

  With the herd growing quickly, along with the random cows and other animals that had wandered their way, Liam Doherty had his hands full. Luckily a couple people had started helping him out and had earned Rancher Classes. The herd had quickly outgrown the barn, which was getting a major expansion.

  “We’re about a mile from there right?” Loch asked.

  “A Pre-Connection mile, yeah,” David agreed. “Maybe a dozen houses between us and there.”

  “Let’s get scavenging,” Loch said with a smile, heading across the street to the first house.