SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Moon placed the collar around the Underground Bat’s neck.

The collar’s runes activated at the contact point, glowing softly for a moment before settling into a dormant state. The visual effect was consistent with what a piece of experimental technology might look like in operation.

Rowan watched with interest but no suspicion.

Moon then placed a healing rune beside the bat and cast Minor Mend under the rune’s cover.

The bat’s injuries began to heal at a visible rate as Moon cast several Minor Mends on it.

Moon knelt beside it and reached out with his mind through the Curse connection.

’Have you seen any Cragbrutes in the area?’ Moon provided the bat with a general description of the physical features that the race shared. Of course, since the underground bat couldn’t see, Moon had to give it things like weight, specific fighting habits, and noises it made.

The bat’s response came through in fragments. It wasn’t articulate as the beast struggled to communicate, but it produced impressions, and Moon had gotten better at reading impressions over the time of using Curse on beasts.

Moon’s interpretation of the impression provided him with information that made his face frown.

’The bat had spotted many Cragbrutes in the region... There is indeed something wrong about this area.’

The bat tried to give a direction and it was not clear at first. Eventually, Moon managed to make out the direction between north and west.

’So it’s Northwest.’

The bat gave a general distance of around five kilometers from this area, as it barely went out venturing.

Moon absorbed the information carefully.

"Rowan. It looks like there’s a nest of Cragbrutes northwest of here. Same race as the ones you encountered before. Most of them are likely at Three Star power or higher. Possibly stronger, if the pack has a dominant alpha at the center of it."

Although Rowan was surprised about Moon’s ability to extract such information from the bat, he was more worried about its implications, "An entire colony?"

"Yes."

An entire colony of Cragbrutes would be extremely dangerous for Rowan. Their strong physical builds, their unyielding spirits, and their tendency to charge in waves could overwhelm even skilled fighters if they pushed all at once. But a colony also meant significant experience, lives, and loot.

Potentially other natural treasures the colony had been guarding at the center of their territory.

Moon weighed the risks.

At his current strength, with a fully recovered body and the subdued Underground Bat working as his personal pet, he could handle the nest without significant issues if he approached carefully.

The Cragbrutes were physical fighters. But he had the skill set and strength needed to destroy their powerful bodies.

The question was whether Rowan could survive it.

Moon turned to face him directly.

"What do you want to do? Do you want to come with me to the nest? I can’t guarantee your survival. I’ll do everything I can to protect you, but if the pack work together properly, or if I have to focus on multiple targets at once, there will be moments where you’ll be exposed. This isn’t safe and you can return to the base now, there is no shame in either choice. This is many times beyond what your team has previously engaged with."

His voice stayed serious.

Internally, Moon was exaggerating the danger.

The fight would be difficult, but not to the degree he was implying. He was confident he could keep Rowan alive through the engagement even at his most conservative estimate.

Moon wanted to give Rowan a real choice that would let him grow from choosing it.

By making him face real fear of death and choose to move forward anyway, Moon was building Rowan’s resolve at a foundational level. Fighters who never faced that fear stayed brittle. Fighters who confronted it and chose to continue built the unshakable core that separated leaders from soldiers.

Rowan needed that core to be refined and strengthened further.

Rowan remained silent.

His eyes stayed on the horizon for a few seconds, his hands by his side as his breathing slowed. Somewhere behind his eyes, a different voice spoke.

’How long are you going to keep running. O’Rowan?’

’You ran from meeting her on Earth...Are you going to run here too?

Are you going to turn back at the first serious danger because your survival matters more? Because your fear is loud and your resolve is quiet?’

Rowan clenched his jaw, his teeth grinding against each other in protest.

If he couldn’t stand beside Moon here, in a fight where his boss had already promised to do everything possible to keep him alive, then he would never be able to face Olivia when the time came. The two decisions weren’t separate. They were the same decision, in different clothing.

If he ran now, he would run then too.

He made up his mind.

The willpower flashed clean in his eyes.

"I’m staying with you, boss. To the end."

Moon’s expression changed into a small smile.

"Then prepare to be stronger than you’ve ever been, if you survive."

Rowan nodded once.

His hand moved to his bow.

The two of them turned toward the northwest and began walking.

Moon ordered the Underground Bat into the air.

The creature launched itself upward silently, its dark wings blending into the shade of the overcast sky.

Through the Curse connection, Moon fed it a single directive.

’Locate any Cragbrutes in the region and report to me without engaging.’ Moon kept his directive simple and precise to avoid overwhelming the bat’s mind. Beasts were very prone to failing more complex commands.

The bat carried the instruction without protest. Its enhanced hearing began sweeping the environment as it flew ahead of Moon and Rowan, its oversized ears catching every sound within its extended range.

Moon and Rowan followed behind it with some distance between them, staying quiet and moving carefully across the terrain.

Within five minutes, the bat sent Moon the first signal.

’Hold. Keep listening. Don’t approach.’

The bat circled quietly in the air above the sighting, keeping its distance.

Moon turned to Rowan and signaled with a small gesture. Rowan nodded once, drew his bow, and matched Moon’s pace as the two of them moved forward without a sound.

Within a minute, they arrived at the edge of a shallow ravine.

A single Cragbrute stood at the edge of a narrow stream that cut through the ravine floor. Its head was lowered. Its horns almost touched the water’s surface. It was drinking.

Its neck muscles rippled slightly with each swallow.

Moon leaned close to Rowan and whispered.

"We’ll follow it. When it finishes here, it’ll head back to the nest. We track it until it leads us where we need to go. Stay silent. Stay behind me. Match my pace."

Rowan nodded.

For the next three hours, the two of them tracked the Cragbrute.

The beast finished drinking and began moving through the territory like a hunter working through a familiar range. It stopped twice to feed on small ground creatures it flushed out from the brush.

It rested for twenty minutes beneath a large outcrop during the hottest part of the afternoon. It resumed its patrol as the sun began its downward arc across the sky.

Moon and Rowan followed at a careful distance the entire time. The Underground Bat kept pace overhead, its ears tracking the Cragbrute’s position and relaying subtle mental updates whenever the beast changed direction or any other beasts came in range.

Eventually, the Cragbrute began moving differently.

Its pace picked up and it stopped feeding and stopped patrolling. It moved in a straight line, northwest, toward a destination it clearly considered familiar.

Moon signaled Rowan to continue following at a wider distance.

Along the way, they began to see more Cragbrutes.

The first appeared from the east, cutting across the terrain at a diagonal that would intersect with the beast they were tracking a few hundred meters ahead. Then another emerged from the south. A fourth appeared just ahead, seemingly coming from the direction they had just come from, moving in the same path at a comfortable distance.

All of them were heading the same direction.

Moon and Rowan stopped in the shadow of a large rock outcropping.

Moon glanced across the terrain in every direction.

Cragbrutes were converging from every angle. Some walked in pairs. Others walked alone.

’It’s here.’ Moon’s eyes narrowed as he tracked the convergence.

They were close...very close to what they had been looking for.

Rowan waited for Moon’s instructions, gulping a mouthful of saliva at the astonishing scene of so many predators walking side by side.

Him and his team had nearly died fighting one just recently, and here he was, with Moon trying to fight an entire colony of them.

’I have a deathwish...’ Rowan thought with a wry smile on his face.

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