Jacob was the first one of their group to reach the beasts. These were the smallest beasts they had all fought so far. The bird-like creatures they had to kill before were almost four times the size. Jacob was a bit curious how much damage his punch would do. However, after colliding with the first lunging rat, its head exploded into a bloody pulp upon collision, painting Jacob and the surrounding area dark with blood. Jacob looked down at his fist with amazement.

"How much stronger have I become since I left the kingdom?!"

While he was lost in a daze, another rat lunged at his side. However, Maria kicked it away with her insane power. She looked at him with concern in her jade eyes.

"Don’t get distracted. We’re going to be fighting these things for a while."

Jacob slapped himself in the face. Maria was right. It didn’t matter how strong he had become; this was a battle of attrition. The moment they ran out of energy, they would lose. Right as Jacob slaughtered his way through a few more beasts, he heard something screeching through the sky behind him.

"I would hold on to something I were you guys!"

Jacob turned around to see Lidia streaking through the air, her entire body glowing a light red. Jacob grabbed Maria and jumped to the floor. The moment Lidia’s fist collided with the rat at the front of the horde...

BOOM!!!

A massive shockwave was sent into the entire hoard. The entire area in front of her was devastated, leaving nothing but a massive crater of carved stone and guts from the creature’s unfortunate enough to be caught in its blast. Hundreds of rats were instantly killed like it was nothing. Lidia’s punch reminded him of how powerful Slimo’s punch was back when they first met him. Lidia grinned heavily and started laughing maniacally.

"HAHAHA! More!! I’m not nearly done with these things! I’ve never felt so much power course through me! Slimo is one insane puncher!"

Even though she released such a devastating shockwave, her arm that she punched with was still completely intact. Her skin still burned hot with energy. He hair seemed to be standing up off her skin, afraid to touch it. The sight reminded him of how Maria looked when fighting the birds.

’Geez, so much for saving our energy. Like mother like daughter, I guess.’

Even though hundreds of their comrades were evaporated instantly, the army of rats never slowed down. Hundreds more took their place and charged forward. However, as another wave was about to crash upon them, something strange started happening with their legs. From far above them, Jacob heard the words of his grandfather, Doc, echo across the battlefield.

"RELEASE!"

Suddenly, every single rat in front of them had their limbs cripple underneath them. They were all sitting ducks, awaiting their turn for the three of them to end their life. None of them hesitated. Maria, Jacob, and Lidia tore through the crowd like a hurricane of blades using nothing but their bare hands. The sky was almost raining blood from the devastation of it all. The more blood that spilled, the greater Jacob’s hunger became. He looked at the corpses of his fallen foes with vicious gluttony.

’Consume. Consume them. Consume the- wait... why am I thinking of that?’

However, the feeling only got stronger the more opponent’s he killed. His hunger felt boundless staring at all the things he could feed himself on. Maria noticed there was something wrong with him and started fighting close to him.

"Is everything okay? You seem out of it."

Jacob refused to meet her gaze as he focused on the carnage in front of him.

"I’m fine... I just got distracted. Sorry."

Maria studied him strangely. She knew that he was lying so she decided to stay close to him.

"Whatever you say. I’ll be here if you need anything."

What was more impressive than them killing hundreds of infant beasts was how quickly they were able to do it. Jacob could have never imagined killing this many in such a short time, even if they were much weaker than the birds they fought. However, the battle was starting to take his toll on him. His energy was draining at an alarming rate, and the rates seemed to keeping crawling over the large stone hills. He looked over at Maria.

"I think I need to catch my breath for a moment. Cover me while I retreat."

Maria nodded her head and continued slaughtering any foe that dared get close to either of them. Lidia flew past them at insane speeds, eliminating an entire front row of them, allowing both of them some respite. As she bathed in the enemies’ blood, Lidia kept screaming and laughing.

"MORE! MORE! This is so fun haha!"

Maria and Jacob started panting extremely hard. Neither of them had realized it, but the heat from below them was draining their energy faster than they realized. All of their bodies were probably working overtime to keep them cool. Jacob kept staring at the corpses in front of him, lost in thought.

’Consume. Consume. Consume.’

Maria shook him slightly.

"There is something wrong with you. You keep staring at these dead rats with a creepy look on your face. It... reminds me of the look you had when you attacked us. Please, just be careful doing whatever it is you think you want to do. I don’t want to lose you again to such madness."

Maria’s words seemed to finally slap some sense into him. He panted a few more times and pushed his hair out of his face.

’What the hell was I thinking? Why do I keep thinking about that stuff?’

"Thank you. I really needed that. Let’s get back in the fight and help out mom."

Maria smiled and nodded her head. All three of them continued their mass slaughter of the infant beasts. Doc continued breaking any of their legs that he could use his powers on and Squabee seemed to be cheering them on from high above. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"You guys got this! Defeat those freaks!"

Suddenly, Squabee felt something tingling through her rope. When she looked over at what was happening on her other end, it looked like a rat had snuck past everyone and was trying to break the rope to male her fall. Squabee started screaming and flailing in her binds.

"YOU GUYS MISSED ONE! HE’S GOING TO KILL ME!!!"

Doc seemed to notice her screaming first and made the rats skull break through its head, causing it to go limp. Squabee fell limp in her binds once more.

"I’m never agreeing to be used as bait ever again."