Private Quint was walking through a nightmare. When the first dog had showed up with its guts spilling out he had thought it was some odd trauma from Monty’s past, maybe a predator had killed the dog when Monty had been younger and it was related to his powers somehow. That was until it had laid on its back and he had seen the intentional cut shaped like a diamond on its chest.

Monty had said no to the dog and it had turned into a monster, which his squad mates had quickly dispatched, and Quint had hoped that more happy things would appear instead. He had been wrong. Two more of the same dogs appeared, their guts similarly hanging out. This time Monty had sifted through the dog’s guts.

If he had done it reluctantly, or with a look of disgust on his face, then Quint would have felt sympathy for the kid. The look on the boys face however, was one of excitement and bliss as he ran his hands over the dogs slimy intestines.

Quint had seen faces like that on drug addicts once they were able to get a hold of their high.

From then it had only gotten worse. First the trees had begun to drip blood, then the ground had started to give slightly with each step, like it was flesh instead of dirt. Now the ground was made of flesh, the grass and bushes becoming hairs. The trees were now abominations, some with normal human flesh others with the fur of a mammal, and even some with scales or feathers. The branches could be limbs, or fingers, the leaves wings, nails and ears.

Then there were books made of stitched human flesh, the pages thin skin. A human stood off to the side their body split apart to show the different layers that made up their bodies. Gears made out of flesh moved a grotesque bird around.

Monty had turned from a quiet awkward fourteen year old to the reincarnation of Aisha Zereth. Not a noble Dreamer, but a budding psychopath. A part of Quint wanted to put down this child before he became a menace to society. But as far as he knew this child had not actually done anything despicable, so he would not either.

It was needless to say that the concentration that the three Champions were suppose to keep had been lost. Their minds wandered and spiraled and it drew the attention of the Nightmares.

Icy held down the body of a three headed snake of which’s body was longer than Quint could comprehend and was as thick as his armored leg. If not for their Forged Champion’s armor then they would never have been able to deal with such a monster.

As Icy held down the Nightmare, taking a beating from its squirming heads and tail, Downs did her best to distract the heads while Quint sliced open its underbelly with his spear. Their armor along with their training made taking care of something even this big not necessarily a cakewalk, but not particularly difficult. It was easier than a Nightmare that had a real ability rather than just a big body and two extra heads.

—

I was walking through a wonderland. I understood that the other three Champions probably didn’t see it that way, but to me this was amazing.

At first glance the trees seemed to just be a mishmash of different body parts put onto it, but if I studied them closely I could see that there were differences for each “leaf.” Bulges of muscles for the wings so they could still flap, lumps for the nail’s roots and hard tumor looking things for the ears that had to be the organs and bones that made up the inner ear.

The two Burst’s were still walking beside me, yelping with encouragement whenever I would go close to one of the tree or inspect the hairs on the ground. I knew that this couldn’t be real, it had to be a part of the illusion, but it was still amazing to see.

I spent time investigating all the other things the forest had conjured for me as well. The book of skin, the seemingly living diagram of a person, the bio-mechanical bird that couldn’t properly fly.

When the three Champions killed the giant three headed snake I had almost danced a little, almost. When I stepped upto the corpse of the snake the ground around it became a flat white square. Almost exactly like the sheet I had set down when I had dissected Burst.

“May I borrow a knife?” I asked the tree Champions around me.

They hesitated briefly, then Downs handed me a knife that was more akin to a short sword, and I could even see the place where the encased Sun Stone was, so it must’ve had additional uses. I would want to explore those later, but this snake was more important at the moment.

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The large blade was a bit difficult to wield and the scales were tough, but I drew on the power of my river stone and let that help ease the way. I had never dissected a reptile, but I started to slice down its back, I could have started with the underbelly but I wanted to know if I could figure out which head controlled the tail or if it was a collaborative effort.

The blood of the Nightmare stained my skin, and the Champion Quint stopped me from opening up the mouth to look for where the poison of the fangs were kept. In the end I hypothesized that the center head controlled the body, but with further research and a live subject I would have no real way to determine that. Could I develop a Wit that would allow me to do so? What would that look like and how would I accomplish that?

Perhaps if I created an operating table? I didn’t know if that would be enough, I needed further training.

I continued my dissection to find out that the giant snake had one stomach that was utilized with three esophagus’ but each snake had a separate pair of lungs and the two snakes on the side each had separate smaller hearts while the one in the middle had a bigger one that I was sure took care of the back end of the snake.

I wondered if it was because the different heads sent different chemicals into their bloodstream for things like fight or flight and they wanted them to be separate or if it was contingencies in case the two die heads were killed and it wouldn’t effect the main body as much.

A roar shook me out of my trance and I saw the three Champions engage in another fight this time against a giant floating head that shot out putrid green beams from its mouth. Immediately I dropped the heart I had been cutting open and moved to the edge of the fight.

The head was bleeding all over, and I didn’t know if that was because of the cuts from the spears or if it just naturally bled all over. Where was it’s heart located? Why did it look so human? It seemed to breath but I couldn’t see any part of its body expand with the breaths, did that mean it didn’t have lungs? It obviously had blood so how was it getting oxygen into its bloodstream?

Private Icy took the beam of green power on his bracer and at the same time the end of his hammer blew out a cloud of prismatic steam and the hammer head, which was pointed at the Nightmare, was blasted forward, crunching the floating heads nose and teeth in.

I saw that the hammer head was connected by a chain that went back to the haft of the hammer which Icy was still holding. Another gust of steam and the head of the hammer zipped back and settled onto the haft. Amazing. Downs headed in and she stabbed the giant head in the eye, her own spear jetting out steam then doing what seemed to propel the spearhead further, not like Icy’s where it had separated from the main body, but instead was like a boost had been given to the thrust..

The Nightmare must have died because as soon as her spear had penetrated further the head slid off the spear point and fell to the ground.

As I stared at the armored figures something else was formed in the purple mist created by the forest.

An armored figure made of pulsing organs and chitinous bone appeared, put on display like the armor I had seen at the museum.

All three Champions took a step back, their weapons held up once again, ready to engage. I on the other hand approached the armored figure, knowing it was a creation of the forest.

“Beautiful,” I mumbled, running my hand over the warm wet veins running along the chest. The bone was slightly warm and roughly textured. Several parts were blury as I had no idea how they would function or what would go there, but that only made me love it more. It was similar to when I had seen that boys watch on the train.

When something worked as it was supposed to it was great, but if everything always worked as it was supposed to then the world would be boring.

I was tugging on the strips of tendon that made the gaps for the eye-holes when the entire figure blurred. I stepped back in shock and looked around, I hadn’t been paying attention to the surroundings or the Champions.

Looking behind me I saw that the three Champions were putting down the two Burst’s, they had transformed into the same monstrous form that the first one had. The book of flesh was now walking on four thin spider legs and had grown teeth, it was now biting at Private Quints ankles. The living diagram of a person now had boxing gloves on and was punching Downs with surprising force given her Champions armor.

The bio-mechanical bird on the other hand had indeed gotten more monstrous, but still unfortunately could not fly. It was pecking at Icy’s plated groin, but didn’t seem to be doing much.

Why was that happening? I hadn’t rejected my Dream or anything so why was the entire place going out of wack?

Just then I felt a strong grip on my shoulder, and remembered the flesh knight that had formed.

I drew on the power of the river stone and pulled away. Just in time too because a hammer made of bone slammed down right where I had been standing. The end of the hammer exploded in boney spikes and I felt a few of them go into my torso and arms. I shielded my face so luckily none went into my eye.

I rolled backwards looking down at myself for the extent of my injuries. The bone spikes didn’t seem to have penetrated far thanks to the slight increase in durability the river stone gave. Still the pain was annoying, pulling my attention away from the danger in front of me.

The flesh knight had raised its hammer once again, more spikes growing off the ends.

Looking at the more than six foot tall armor plated knight I leveled my gaze, then turned and ran.

I didn’t know how to fight, and I wasn’t going to make my first time doing so against something that wasn’t even really alive. Imagine if I died to it, that would just be pitiful.