Four more cycles, and now I can reliably evade our target’s notice, stealthily orbiting without garnering any attention. Entirely hidden amongst the chaos of the hunt.

  However, it’s not enough. Cycle by cycle, I keep challenging myself further. Ha’koff is a smaller and smaller innocent rock, hidden away on a distant hill. I’m an inoffensive, little, floating black ball. Artistically warping both space and light to my limit, controlling the handoff to the cloak becomes simpler. The area of lost, reflected light shrinks, making it easier and easier to miss me. Even the brothers in line start losing awareness of my presence, as I joyfully bob in and out amongst them.

  After ten cycles, I’m a scentless, noiseless, tiny, black dot. A fly, buzzing about your head. Ha’koff’s an even smaller rock! Or sometimes a sizable pile of uncanny excrement. Of course, I can only render his appearance as excrement and not the smell. Still working on that part. However, his natural odor may already be close enough?

  Progress made, I risk getting closer and closer to the targets of the hunt. Sometimes I even race ahead of the brothers to the front so that it’s only the beasts and me. Mostly the idle creatures take no notice, but it’s far more of an interesting challenge without the others distracting it.

  Regardless, more is necessary. I need more!

  After twenty cycles, I had an epiphany. The little tendrils extending from the cheese graters have their reach restricted, but that’s not their true limit. Really, I should be dominating the area around them and taking it all under my direct control. A lesson long ago learned from the slime and then forgotten. How could I have been so careless? I must try harder to be better than this.

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  After thirty cycles, it’s become so much more natural. A full orchestra at play together. So much more than the sum of its individual parts. Even with only the two of us together, the beasts take absolutely no heed of me. I can walk right up behind them, dancing and waving. They only hold their ground, casually grazing, grooming, or stalking prey.

  On the thirty first cycle, my confidence hits its maximum. It’s time to ambush a creature here from my special, mobile hiding place. What can they do? I’m perfectly invisible, as far as it can tell. Ha’koff’s safely secured away as an empty wasp’s nest, so the time is now.

  Creeping up behind one of the giant turtle creatures inhabiting this expedition, I carefully climb up on its back, cautiously absorbing all the tiny vibrations from my movements. Good, good. It has no idea that I’m here! Now all that’s left is to cautiously crawl forward behind its head, and then strike hard at the back of its neck. It’s simply another spar with a slightly larger opponent and no circle. Nothing to be worried about.

  Finally in place, I raise my dagger high above my head, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Patience. Need the right angle. Wait for it to be off balance. Patience. NOW!

  *CLANG*

  My arms ache and my legs can barely retain their tightly clenched perch. However, what a blow. I’ve done it. Who would have believed that I could deliver such power? Certainly not me.

  The beast’s neck resting between my knees hardens as its head slowly twists in place to rest its fist sized eyeballs exactly on me. Looking down at my dagger, it dawns on me how truly shallow the wound actually is. I’ve barely punctured through the tough top layer of skin. What rotten luck.

  *SNAP*

  The only things that save me from the creature’s sudden aggression are the awkward angle of attack and my immense cowardice, which triggered flight the second its eyes turned towards me.

  The creature bellows a gigantic, earth shaking roar in the direction of my tiny, fleeing body. However, I’ve already flooded my cloak with my energy again, hiding nearly all traces of my existence. What happened? As soon as I landed that hit, my loss of concentration must have released all of my stable energy, exposing me to the beast. That much is clear. Good to know before ending up in an even more precarious position.

  Beyond that, why wasn’t the blow delivered as I expected? I empowered my arms to their fullest. My form was perfect. Its neck was relaxed, so it’s not as if muscles under tension impeded the strike. Then why?

  After making my way back to Ha’koff’s location at my fallback site, I stop myself and release control of the cloak. Looking down at my scrawny little arms and legs, I’m finally forced to accept reality. I’m physically weak. Really, really weak. As are all my brothers.

  Why? The body books clearly state that after you push yourself past your limits, then the training song should appear. This allows more and more access to attributes that can grow your physical and mental ability. And more! However, the training song has remained stubbornly beyond my reach, and my attributes are all broken somehow.

  What’s wrong with me? Can I fix it?