Cute Little Fella

The campfire crackled softly in the silence of the forest. Leaning against the trunk of a huge tree, the group chatted. They had been there for a few hours now, but Costa wasn't worried, he was confident in the strength of his squadron. Even more so now that he was with Jamila and her crew.

Costa really wanted to keep talking to Jamila, he wasn't sure if he would be able to do so after they left the forest, so he wanted to make a good impression. He could only imagine the impact the woman and her squad would have on the armies outside. She was a strong warrior who had relevant information about the situation inside the Reënbog Forest; it was important to keep close ties with her.

Those were his main goals in this conversation, of course it had nothing to do with her beauty... cough cough.

Lieutenant Costa scratched his head, trying to dispel this self-deception thought.

"Wait… did you say that every single person inside the city was given a Cultivation book?" Seeing that his commander was acting weird, one soldier asked.

"Hm, yes?" Jamila shrugged, not understanding the look of hope and wonder on the faces of all the soldiers around her. "Not all books were different, in fact most people received the same type of book. I was lucky, my book seems to be one of a kind."

"Oh! You have been pretty lucky indeed." Costa smiled but had no idea how to explain the situation outside. In fact, he never got a book of his own. "Well, outside people…"

"Only a few selected people won books out there, most had to use those available on the internet." Another one of his soldiers explained.

"Oh, it looks a lot more fun that way. Even with God's warning, many people treated them like garbage and threw theirs away or decided not to cultivate." Jamila gave a small wry smile, somewhat sad. Then, she opened her backpack and showed it to the soldiers. "I have some with me now, it's a hobby. I like to collect the most peculiar ones..."

"..."

The soldiers stood there, gaping, looking at the open backpack and Jamila. Inside the battered dark green backpack, a row of seven or eight books were tucked away among other supplies! That number was equivalent to millions of dollars! It could even start a war between countries!

Even they had to use the books available on the internet!

"See, I told you that this is a weird hobby, you should just throw them away!" said Kian after seeing the lack of response from the soldiers and Costa.

"N-no!" We were just surprised, it's a good hobby!" Costa said hastily. "But, Jamila, it would be best if you kept it a secret out there, okay?"

Jamila shrugged and put away the books. She was starting to comprehend how the situation was outside. It seemed things were worse than she had first thought.

"There is still something that has been bothering me for a while, do you really believe that the voice of God warned you about this?" Costa said slowly, trying to understand how devoted Jamila and his group were. He didn't want to cause a misunderstanding. "That would imply he's behind everything that's been happening to Earth..."

"Nah! I don't believe it!" Said Kian.

Jamila stayed in silence, deep in thought.

"We are not like The Truth Seekers, who blindly believed it was god… But if you have another good explanation for all this, I would accept it without batting an eye…" Added Sakeem who had been silent for a while.

"Hmm" Jamila nodded.

"So what do you plan to do now? Why don't you join us in the Brazilian army?" Costa invited everyone, but he was looking directly at Jamila.

" I'm good!" He was blatantly refused by Kian.

"Not sure, I'd rather see how things are outside first …" She said slowly. Jamila had her own goals and wasn't sure if joining an army would be helpful. "Could you assure me that the Brazilian army will help me find my family?"

"I- I can't!" Costa sighed, unfortunately he had no authority over that. "But with your strength it shouldn't be a problem to get that, remember that we have a lot of experience with the jungle. It can be much easier to find your parents with us."

"Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Costa. But I -"

*Hustle~*

At that moment, a subtle sound came from a bush nearby, interrupting Jamila midway. The soldiers and Jamila's group slowly got up, grabbing their weapons, ready for a fight.

Suddenly, a small white rabbit jumped out of the bushes, just in front of a soldier. It was small, no more than a meter tall. It had smooth white fur, long ears like a common bunny. However, from his forehead, between the red eyes, a black horn grew.

The animal stayed there, standing quietly with its red eyes looking at the group of humans meters ahead.

"A unicorn rabbit?" One of the soldiers pondered. "These mutations are really weird…"

"Why is it standing there, is it harmless?"

"Isn't it cute?" Said Jamila.

"Maybe not every mutated animal is dangerous, aren't rabbits domestic animals? Maybe this one is similar." Said Sakeem, yet that thought had already crossed everyone's mind.

"It is indeed a cute little fella! Come here, come.." The nearest soldier extended his right hand slowly, trying not to scare the animal and aiming to pet its head.

*Gwiiir!*

However, before the soldier could touch it, the animal exclaimed in a high pitched tone similar to a chirp, and in a flash, jumped toward the man. Its back legs were strong and left clear marks on the ground. Only now did the man and everyone around noticed that the beast had the strength of a First Stage Body cultivator!

But it was already too late to react; in mere seconds, the mutated animals' horn directly pierced the unfortunate soldier's stomach.

"SHIT! Kill it!" Exclaimed Costa as he saw the tip of the black horn stick out from the soldier's back.

It was at that time however…

*Hustle~*

*Hustle~*

Dozens of small rabbits jumped out of the bushes around. Now their red eyes appeared deadlier than ever as they faced the group.

"It 's an ambush! Form a circle, now!" Shouted Jamila.

Even the soldiers weren't there to disobey. They ignored their fallen comrade and quickly formed a circle. The mutated animals, however, did not wait for them to complete it.

*FLASH!*

The dozen of small horned rabbits jumped forward, aiming their deadly horns towards the humans.

Jamila was the first to react and with a slash of her spear, she directly pierced one rabbit through the head, killing it. As the beasts were only at the First Stage of Body Tempering, it was quite easy for her to do so. But the same could not be said about the soldiers.

Their small size and fast speed made the rabbits a really hard target to hit. Considering the similar strength, the soldiers were barely able to keep themselves alive.

*PLUCK!*

Sakeem just moved his shield at the nick of time to defend a soldier from death. He then flowed with a slash of his sword, decapitating the rabbit in the air.

"HA!" Shouted the blond man from Jamila's group as he quickly slashed his two big daggers and dealt with another rabbit.

"Keep this pace and we can win, help Jamila and her group!" Ordered Lieutenant Costa just after deflecting a horned rabbit with his machete. His right arm trembled with the force behind that hit.

Before he could say another word, a second rabbit jumped from his left and he had to dodge to not get caught. Rolling forward and using the momentum, Costa slashed his machete upwards and cut the belly of the rabbit. Blood and pieces of intestine fell onto his face.

"Nice timing!" Said Jamila at his side. It seemed the women had come to his rescue after witnessing the second attack.

That thought made Costa dismayed and happy at the same time. But he ignored it as soon as he saw yet another one of his soldiers die to a rabbit.

"DIE!" The shouts were endless.

The fight didn't last more than fifteen minutes, and after that, only four rabbits were left. A few meters away, the small beasts stared at the group without moving. Costa took the opportunity to look around and realized that three of his men had died, in addition to the first one taken by surprise. Jamila's group, on the other hand, was intact!

"Let's deal with them and get out, I've had enough of this stupid jungle." Stated Costa angrily.

As if the rabbits heard him, they immediately turned around and left as fast as they could. The group had no time to react.

"What?"

"They fled?"

The soldiers were perplexed, but soon sighed and relaxed. But it didn't last long.

*GRRIIIIIWWW!*

At that moment, further inside the forest, the soldiers heard what seemed to be a high pitched grow. Quite similar to the ones made by the rabbit, but way stronger.

"Shit, we must run out of here now!" Jamila shouted alarmed. Her legs trembled and she felt chills just from that grow. Her instincts were urging her to escape, a strong mutated animal was coming and she did not want to be here to witness it.

"Let's get out of here right now!" Costa trusted her and won't bet his life to see what that thing was.

"Sir, but what about the bodies of our comrades?!" complained one soldier.

"Stay if you want to become another corpse!" Shouted Costa. "Squad, we are moving now!"

The group didn't waste another second and immediately ran out of that place.