Wraithwood Botanist

It wasn’t always peaceful. I watched a beast with antlers pike an eighteen-legged hippo creature. The attack had been going on for so long that both were injured and as soon as the fight ended, scavengers finished the victor off.

Grim.

These were the creatures we were up against, and it only got worse.

As the trees faded away, replaced with the mana-adapted eranthia trees that looked like dead trees blanketed in snow, the beasts became even less frequent, but all of them were third-evolution beasts. They stalked us from beyond the fog, which turned into a hazy mist that had moved off the water and was now covering us like mist. It was getting far harder to see.

"Can these ones enter the water?" I whispered.

"Not most of ’em, no," Kyro said. "The Diktyo’s mana attracts the souls, and since the mana’s denser here, the soul concentration’s thicker. If we didn’t have cores, we would’ve scrapped this plan like sensible folk."

I smiled wryly. "What about us?"

"Kline would have a few seconds at least. Cores are pretty rare and he’s maxing. You’d be fine. Until you evolved, obviously. So when you finish—don’t fall in."

I looked at Kline nervously. He was gorging himself on third evolution meat so he could use Silvern’s Triumph. It was a powerful attack—but there was only one attack.

As for me, the plan was to evolve on the tiny island I developed my soul core on three months ago before Emael arrived. If I fell in, I would die.

"You said ’most.’ You mean the alpha?"

Kyro snapped his fingers and pointed at me. "You got it."

According to Kyro, every time a diverse group of beasts gathered in Areswood, there was usually one that was far, far stronger than the rest. It wasn’t that there weren’t contenders. Beasts of that strength fought to be alpha-like lions and never let the competitors into the area. Once they were the only ones, they became the law, and troublemakers met their end.

In essence, this beast had the role of the River Guardian. And like Emael, it could enter the water.

"That’s why we’re taking out the ones that can enter the water. Do that, and no one can touch you." He took another drink.

"Yeah," I said. "Easy. Let’s just take out the strongest third ev of the lot. It’ll be fine. Everything will be just fine." My voice turned high-pitched, fast, and sarcastic.

"Just follow the plan."

"Are you really that confident? My arrows can’t even puncture that last thing’s leg."

"Just… do it. Kay? Have a little more faith. And…" He started screwing on the lid to his flask but stopped, reflecting on whether to reopen it immediately. "Don’t miss. Kay?"

It took another ten minutes in the blinding fog and matching white landscape for us to see Arithiel Pond in the distance. And when we got there, any hope that I had faded into the mist and the atmosphere in the boat was grim. Kline trembled in my lap, ears twitching with his hairs bristled, and Kyro looked sober and alert.

The fog was thin yet sprawling far into the sky, and we could see hundreds of beasts around the small lake in the distance, circling like they were performing a seance to summon Cthulhu or another mythic creature of lore.

Behind them was a small hill that I didn’t remember seeing. I squinted at it in the fog.

I don’t remember… I tried to recall if I saw a hill there and I concluded that I didn’t. That made me nervous as we approached—and it got grim very quickly when the hill suddenly shifted and stood.

I can still remember it vividly. A colossus—a hundred-foot humanoid with a long snout and ears like the Egyptian god Anubis, but chose to keep its clawish hands on the ground as if to run faster in the bleak and misty terrain. It was a creature of nightmares, objects of fear and destruction and killing, a contender to fight the Toroks, those sad mimes that told me I was "pure" and a future opponent.

I was officially in the realm of the gods.

"Of course it’d be a colossi," Kyro whispered.

"Should we run?" I whispered as it fixated its attention on us. "’Cause I think we need to run." Just being under its gaze gave me the chills, and I suddenly remembered the time when I was six and dropped a hot cake pan for seemingly no reason at all. My mind was a scrambled mess.

"You can’t even outrun my crippled ass," Kyro said. "You think you can outrun that thing?"

"I…"

"Just calm down and do your part. I didn’t live this long just to die on some pointless suicide quest."

Kyro’s confidence was surprisingly absolute, and when he picked up Kline and rocketed toward the creature, I felt a ray of hope.

Then it was dashed when third evolution beasts bounded into the air from all directions, trying to bite, claw, stab, or screech at the pair as they flew away.

But my fear reversed when Kyro dodged all their attacks with ease and disappeared through the fog as the beasts he duped turned their attention to me. I was anchored in the water, frozen in place, defenseless should a real attack happen.

Yet Kyro was blindly trusting me, so I did my part.

I slowly pulled Nymbral from my chest, reveling in its white and gold appearance as I pointed it at the colossus. It noticed and turned to me and released a piercing roar—

—but I didn’t panic.

I aimed and created a hurricane arrow, creating the largest, fastest ball I could, and then used the spell that Kyro taught me on the first day we left.

Akina bura? That’s it? I had asked when Kyro recited the spell to repel souls from the river. It was a simple chant, and the fog repelled away from us in a way that neither a barrier nor domain could do. If it’s that easy, why can’t everything do it?

Try it out and see for yourself.

I closed my eyes and created the mantra and to my horror, the souls swarmed me from all sides, releasing piercing cries around Kline and me. Kyro flicked his hands, and they disappeared.

What the hell was that? I cried.

The reason most beasts can’t do it. The spell grabs onto souls—what you do with it depends on your soul control. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. He sat on the bow of the ship and yawned. I’ll steer.

I frowned and started four hours of hell after that, unintentionally torturing Kline by pulling souls into the boat instead of pushing them out. Then, once I got it, Kline returned the favor as he practiced. It was a rough go.

But right then, staring down the colossus at the pond, it all became worth it.

"Akina bura," I whispered. The souls from the river rose around me, connecting to the water on my spinning sphere as if I were whipping up cotton candy. It left me feeling excited and cold, like the time before my high school play when it was finally time, but the thrill and horror of success and failure were on the table.

Then the colossus charged.

It wasn’t as planned. Even with my world slowed, it crossed the quarter-mile distance in five seconds or less, splashing and howling and crashing through the water, raising its claws and preparing to strike.

My eyes widened in terror, and I wanted to scream and run.

Where was Kyro?

Kline?

I was going to die. I was certain of it.

Then it happened.

A massive array, even larger than before, activated over the beast’s head, and chains of aura shot out of it, gripping the beast’s head and body and arms. The chains were weak but all-encompassing. Thousands connected to the creature’s body, momentarily stopping it.

The colossus released a deafening cry that shocked my senses. I activated Mental Shielding and spun the arrow of souls and water faster.

I aimed at its chest with pinpoint precision, where its soul force glowed brightest. I had the shot—

—but I didn’t take it.

Not yet.

Suddenly, Kline teleported into the shadow of a beast on shore and then jumped twice on an Ethereal Bridge. Even under Moxle Dilation, I barely captured a snapshot of Kline raising his paw and creating claws ten feet long before releasing all the power of a third evolution beast as he hit the creature’s chest.

A shock wave hit the water, and I almost fell in the boat. I increased the stabilization technique and then looked up.

Even with Kline’s trump card, even after gorging himself on third evolution meat, Kline barely scratched the creature’s chest, leading to trickles of blood.

It roared and flexed, and the soul chains snapped in a chain reaction. It would be fully capable of killing us in three seconds. Two seconds… One.

But it wouldn’t—because that scratch was all I needed.

I released the massive soul arrow at the beast, curving it right into one of Kline’s scratch marks. Blood bloomed from the area in a geyser as it drilled inside, breaking through Kyro’s chains and sending it flying forty feet back and hitting the water.

As the waves in the water stilled and the crying beasts on shore finished their cries, the world fell silent except for the sound of my ever-pounding heart.

It was loud.

Louder than ever before.

Because that shot wasn’t enough to kill that creature—and there was no way to run.

Suddenly, Kyro flew over the beast and started chanting something. A massive array formed in the sky above the fallen beast, and the mana in the atmosphere warped. It kept building up steam, and right as the creature shot out its massive claw to grab the tiny fairy, a crushing force of gravity smashed it into the ground.

"Run!" Kyro screamed.

My mind kicked into overdrive as the pinned beast howled and slapped the ground as it tried to escape, and I turned and navigated the ship to shore, grabbing the boat on my back.

Kline materialized out of nowhere, jumping between my legs in small form and growing until he was a mount, then sticking me to his back with raw mana alone.

Suddenly, the colossus released a bone-rattling scream reminiscent of Halten’s when he was suffering from soul corruption. That was our goal—sending raw souls right into the beast’s core to corrupt its soul, then sending it off to kill all the other beasts in the area.

"Run, you idiot!" Kyro yelled as the mana shackles holding it down snapped.

The beast thrust its hands on the ground in two booms, pushing itself up into a runner’s stance—then flew forward at frightening speed, grabbing a random beast the size of a rhino in its hand, putting the unfortunate beast’s head into its jaws, and biting down with a sick crunch.

I barely saw the blood before Kline broke off into a full sprint, weaving between third-evolution beasts.

It charged at us, and I turned in time to see it swat off a bear as it charged toward us.

We blinked in and out of existence as Kline rushed through shadows as we looked for a place to cut into the forest. We were moving too fast to slow down, or we would hit a tree and die, and I was holding the canoe with both hands and unable to use an arrow.

Suddenly, it jumped in front of us from a distance and charged. I tried to throw the canoe, but it wasn’t necessary. Kyro flew out of nowhere, creating hundreds of spears that he thrust into the creature’s face. It blinded one of its eyes and sent it into a fury, chasing after Kyro, who blew past us in the opposite direction at a speed we couldn’t fathom.

In that brief respite, Kline slowed and then cut into the woods, weaving between trees as we sought the high ground to protect us from beasts.

My guide’s interface read 7:27.

2.

Through grace and miracles, Kline and I managed to escape to a mountain bluff without being eaten. We passed by dozens of third evs, but whether they were uninterested in eating such "weak" prey or if they were just terrified of the rampaging alpha below, they all scattered to the wind.

I’d guess it was the latter.

From a mountaintop, I could see it rampaging around the pond, picking up beasts the size of elephants and throwing them like baseballs into the forest. A few of the larger beasts ganged up on it, snapping at its Achilles heel and thighs and clamping onto its back—but it wasn’t enough. The creature was just too powerful, and it had no restraint. It slaughtered dozens before the pack fled, leaving only the warriors to die gruesome deaths. The battle raged on.

I checked my clock again. 7:53 am.

I’m so fucked, I thought. My hour-long meeting with Elana was in seven minutes, and I wasn’t anywhere near the pond, where I needed to be to develop my core. I was running out of time.