Kapitel 14: One Step Can Cover Seven Steps

Before I knew it, another pair of Sandstalkers emerged in my close proximity.

My obsidian dagger would shatter if I used it against their armor, and I had no other means of fighting other than relying on the artillery and ohrtender support from the backline.

While the battlefield was busy, I tore some part of my white chiton and dressed the laceration on my right arm.

It wasn't enough to completely stop the bleeding, but it was enough to prevent the worst.

It took quite a while of running around and hoping that Verina and Lupina killed the Sandstalkers quickly enough before the next wave of the ordeal.

And so far, it wasn't far off from my expectation, as all of the Sandstalkers were immobilized in under five minutes.

Those two were probably panicking after they saw giant creatures of horror emerging from the ground without any warning.

"Huwaaaa! Miss fairrryyyy!!!!"

Yup, it was mostly true for Lupina.

"Thank you for the good support." I let out a small chuckle as I caressed the orange hair of the wolf that was clinging on me with tears in her eyes. "If you didn't hit the last one on the head, I would have probably been dismembered and eaten alive."

"Huweeee!!"

Donning my usual smile, I shifted my gaze to Verina. "Can you cauterize my wound, Verina?"

"We still have a potion of healing, it can greatly treat moderate exhaustion too," Verina answered calmly.

"Use it when one of us receives a much more severe wound."

"The quality of the potion is normal, it won't heal a severe wound."

"But it will increase the survivability despite having one." A breath of relief escaped my lungs. "I know that you're worried, but survival is our priority."

"You look paler than a porcelain, miss fairy, you should be the one who uses the potion, and by that I mean now."

"About that, I'm thinking of utilizing the strange-looking tree on the east side of our bastion." I snickered. "Can the two of you hold the line for five minutes until I return?"

"Lupina should go with you."

"Yeah, I should go with you!"

"Can you even hold the line alone, Verina?"

"I can," Verina firmly replied.

I doubted.

"Regardless, what I'm doing with the tree won't work if I'm not alone," I lied. "Just think of it as me taking a refreshing walk, okay?"

Lupina and Verina looked at each other before casting their worried gaze at me.

"If you don't return in ten minutes, the two of us will abandon the outer wall and reach for you."

"Alright." I extended my hand. "Cauterize my wound first."

"... At this point, I'm more scared of you than the Calamity Objects, miss fairy."

After I got my lacerated arm 'tended', I went to a west section of the middle wall and grabbed the leftover of the resilient and stretchy vines that we harvested from the relevant trees in this biome.

In the middle of the ordeal, around two or three hours ago, I crafted a wooden cage in the hope of capturing a fine specimen to experiment with on the downtime of the chaos—which didn't happen since there was no significant amount of resting time that allowed me to conduct a proper research.

However, the cage did find its use.

"Ah, it's nice to see you again. It gets a little bit lonely here~"

—

[Skinwalker]

[Description: A grotesque entity that mimics the appearance of another individual, but with subtle, horrifying differences—skin too tight, eyes too large, and a smile that never fades. The Skinwalker's flesh seems to ripple and shift, as if barely holding its form together. It moves with jerky, unnatural motions, as if puppeteered by an unseen force. When it speaks, its voice is a distorted, eerie echo of the colonist it imitates]

[Hint: The Skinwalker's uncanny imitation of an individual deeply unsettles others, causing paranoia and fear. Its very presence erodes trust within the colony, but it doesn't possess the same strength and skill as the person it imitated]

—

We managed to capture a Skinwalker that faked itself to be Lupina.

Back then, there was an attack from three different sides of the walls which resulted in the three of us splitting up to deal with the threat individually.

With me waiting the other two on the west side of our fortress, I told Verina and Lupina beforehand to send some sort of signal to communicate on whether you're in need of help or finished with eradicating the available threat, either by shouting, or flare a spell-projectile in the air.

Verina dealt with her share of the deal and reached me, Lupina arrived a couple of seconds later.

At first, the Skinwalker acted as if it was Lupina, using the same mannerism and nearly identical appearance.

But that was the thing, its appearance was nearly identical, not the exact same. It was also downright eerie, it was obvious.

We fight off the Skinwalker, anticipating that it might be a great threat to our lives.

Only to find out that it happened to be a pushover.

"I'm surprised that you're still in that form, like the skinsuit that much?"

And now, that Skinwalker was imitating me.

"You adore this face. In fact, you're in love with it! Why wouldn't I change my appearance to yours? It's going to be hard dealing with me now, isn't it?"

I weaved my trembling, fatigued hands to remove the bar that locked the gate of the cage.

Eyes locked, I stepped inside the cage.

"See? Your hands are trembling-"

And proceeded to punch the living hell out of this imposter.

"Your attempt at imitation disgusted me." I could feel the impact of the flesh with every punch. And each of them urged me to make my next strike even harder. "It's not symmetrical, the size of the nose is wrong, the cheekbones are off, the number of eyelashes are lesser, the arc of the eyebrows missed by two degree, the lips color are too red, your fangs are too sharp—"

The beating went for a whole minute, until I saw that there was no semblance of sapiency on that face that was related to mine.

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