I didn’t try and just run as far away as possible, the Champions were still the best chance of me living, but if I let the flesh knight engage them now then it might be able to over power them. Instead I ran in circles around the fight that the three Champions were having with the rest of my creations.

The two months of physical training as well as my Intent let me not have my body crushed by the lumbering knight.

I knew for a fact that I had not done something like reject my Dream, so why were the forests creations going haywire now? The only things that effected the forest’s abilities was either Dreamers or the forest itself. There was also a possibility of there being a Nightmare that could also effect the illusions of the forest.

I cut out the possibility of it being me, so that left either The Forest of Living Dreams or another Nightmare. What were the solutions to such a problem? I had increased strength and slightly increased durability, but other than that I was quite useless. No combat training and I was still lacking a lot of basic knowledge on Dreamer and Nightmare abilities.

In such a situation in which I am incapable of providing combative support I should instead find a way to either increase the effectiveness of those that can fight or find a way for us to escape. I was already doing one of those by keeping the flesh knight out of the Champions way as they finished off the monstrous forms the forest had created.

Ah there is another complication that may arise.

Just as the thought went through my mind I saw what I had just thought of. Three Nightmares lumbered through the forest, from the way that they moved it wasn’t like they had been enraged per say, more as though they were fleeing. They were all the same, large furry creatures with dozens of teeth that jutted out like tusks.

The Champions, who had only just now turned to help take down the flesh knight saw the approaching Nightmares as well. Then I felt a wave of, not power, but energy, like a gust of warm wind, and all of the creations of the forest vanished.

That didn’t do anything for the Nightmares however, they were still charging forward trying to flee the forest.

The three Champions moved to me, ready to defend against the Nightmares, but the Nightmares just went around the Champions and continued on their way. Quint lowered his weapon and stood back up.

“Well that was odd.”

“Mhm,” Downs agreed.

Something had to of interfered with the forests function. A. Natural causes, from what we were told the tree in the center was the source of the forests abilities so perhaps the tree died.

1. Nightmare, a strong Nightmare may have uprooted or disrupted the tree’s abilities.

2. Human intervention, as far as we knew the only people in the forest were the Dreamers of RDA and the members of the Forged Order. There was also a chance that it was someone from outside. The people we brought along shouldn’t disrupt the forests power, but the forest also shouldn’t do what it just did.

“Let’s leave,” I said.

“Huh?” Private Quint asked.

“Let’s leave,” I said again.

“Why?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

“For an unknown reason the forest has started to act oddly. The tree in the center is what controls the visions and monstrous conjurations. The closer we get the stronger the illusions. The best course of action is to leave and to have someone who actually has knowledge on the subject matter take a look at it.”

That made the Champion think for a moment, and he nodded his head.

“Makes sense.”

“A bit late to run,” said a familiar soft feminine voice.

Cystella walked towards us, her umbrella being used like a cane.

The three Champions immediately put up their weapons, but I just tilted my head at her. Why was she here?

“What do you mean by that,” Quint asked with steel in his voice.

She stopped and looked at the older boy, then she pointed off to the side.

Only a few seconds after she appeared another group of individuals appeared. There were seven of them. The five who’s skin was visible each had deeply bronzed skin. Four of those five were carrying a Nightmare on a improvised stretcher.

The Nightmare was a big purple worm. It twitched and writhed even though it was tied down. I saw it turn its head towards me, it didn’t seem to have eyes, but the mouth was just a gaping hole with hundreds of shark like teeth.

Two of the seven wore pitch black armor that covered them head to toe in a way similar to the Champions. They had large white zeros on their chest plates and on the face of their helmets and had similarly large black swords strapped to their backs.

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The four people carrying the Nightmare also had numbers on their chests, though they had simpler steel armor that only covered their chests. They were numbers 36, 42, 51, and 52, the same numbers were also tattooed on their foreheads in black ink.

The last person in the seven man entourage was a boy that looked to be even younger than I was, maybe eleven or twelve years old. The first thing I noticed was that he was handsome, like the rumored pretty boy in every school. His eyes were a deep green and he had long purple hair, unlike the rest of his group he wore more ornate clothing, but still something acceptable for their forested environment, with boots, pants and a long sleeved shirt.

After that it was the bright silvery 9 on the upper left part of his forehead that stood out. Unlike the other six that was the only indication of his number.

I immediately knew where the boy and his group were from. The Bronze Isles was a country to the south east of the Sun State, just above the Glass Kingdom. The entire country was ruled by a legislation called The Rule of Ability. From birth children are rated from one to one hundred, of course no child starts out as a one.

Children will start out as the mean between their parents Numbers at the time of birth. From there everything that the child says or does contributes to their rating, intelligence, disease probability, genetic disorders, mental disorders, physical disabilities, eating with their mouth open. Even if they were to skin their knee it is taken into account and docked from their total rating.

The country itself is led by The One, someone who is considered the epitome of ability, flawless. They are the only person in the entire country given the rating of one, and no authority is greater than theirs.

For a boy as young as this one to be a Nine then he must either be a genius or a Dreamer, maybe both.

As for the Zero’s, they were slaves, nobody could be born a Zero, but there were many ways to become one. Debt or criminal activity were the main ones. Zero’s lived and died on the orders of the Low Numbers, and their armor gave them superhuman abilities similar to the Champions armor.

The Bronze Isles were somewhat friendly with the Sun State, they traded a lot and were close to one another on the map, but often time they saw one another as rivals due to different cultures and ideologies.

The boy looked over the five of them, dismissing me and the Champions and focusing on Cystella.

“A Skulker?” he asked, his words precise and curt with a thick accent.

Cystella didn’t reply to the question. Instead moving in front of my group as though to shield us.

He tilted his head, eyeing first her, then giving us a look.

“A Dreamer of the Rising Dreamer Academy then? Odd.”

“Was it you that caused the forest to act like that?” Quint demanded more than asked.

The three Champions of my team moved ahead of Cystella, reminding me that I hadn’t seen her own Champions come with her.

The Nine looked to the Champions without a hint of fear.

“Yes.”

“So you were trying to kill the members of the Forged Order and the Rising Dreamer Academy?!” He said, leveling his spear at the boy and his group.

He took a moment to reply, a frown marring his face as he looked at the weapon.

“No, and do not point your weapon at me.”

“You have trespassed on.”

“Quiet.”

“You-“

“Zero’s,” the boy commanded.

Two black blurs came at my group, but the Champions had prepared themselves. A huge black sword came crashing down at Private Icy, but he slammed the blade to the side with the haft of his hammer. At the same time Private Downs sent a propelled stab at the same Zero’s shoulder joint. The Zero shouldered the blow away and took a step back.

Meanwhile Private Quint had used his propelled spear to swing wide, causing the Zero to have to come to a sudden halt so as not to get his armor caved in. Then the Zero did a similar downward swing to the first one, but Quint stepped to the side then did a full body kick to the Zero’s forearm, causing him to drop the sword.

The first Zero quickly grabbed the sword that was embedded into the ground and pulled it back, tossing it to his ally. He took a hammer blow to the thigh because of it, but he didn’t seem particularly effected outside his armor denting in slightly.

Cystella hadn’t done anything and was still staring at the other boy, meanwhile the four other members of the Bronze Isles entourage had placed down the stretcher and instead of surrounding the boy to protect him had instead surrounded the stretcher as if to protect it.

The boy had to of been a Dreamer then.

The two Zero’s rolled their shoulders, then shot forward again. This time instead of trying to divide between multiple opponents they moved to where Downs and Quint were behind Icy, then went on the attack.

Icy had to block the first strike like he had the first, but the second slammed into the side of his head, still the metal was made out of strong stuff so it didn’t crumple in all the way. Downs and Quint quickly moved to intervene, but the first Zero kicked Icy in the chest and sent him tumbling into Downs. Then as one while she was trying to both not throw Icy out of the way and to re-engage in the fight, they focused on Quint.

Private Quint was good, compared to the other two Champions he moved in his armor like he spent every day of his life in it. But these Zeros were like monsters in comparison. They moved with familiarity, but with a sort of self sacrificing aggression that was disturbing to watch.

As spear haft met sword blade I felt the ground tremble, my river stone didn’t offer me anywhere near that amount of power. Downs joined the fight, Icy moving awkwardly as he tried to get his bearings, but the two versus one had already taken its toll.

A Zero had used his foot to wrap behind Quints ankle and yank, causing the Champion to stumble back, and the other Zero was getting ready to crush the older boys head in with a devastating downward strike.

Cystella tapped her foot on the ground and a web of Stygoscript bloomed around the five fighters.

I watched as the black patterns wrapped around the three Champions and yanked them away from the Zero’s. At the same time I couldn’t see much of the Stygoscript on the Zero’s but I saw it coating the white Zeros on the head and chest of the armor. It had frozen them in place.

“Interesting,” the Nine said. “My name is Ravik Reverest, I am going to test myself on you real quick Skulker.”

He still spoke with the deliberateness of a politician, which was odd but also reminded me of myself a bit.

Suddenly a large wave of bronze Intent flowed out of the boy and floating in front of him materialized a quilled pen and a large sheet of paper.