Jason flipped his body horizontal and spun avoiding two branches, one above and one below him. He used the top one as a handhold to forcefully pull and spin himself into a handstand on top of it. Then as a final piece he pushed off with his hands and hooked his legs around a branch above him. Jason slammed his left hand into the side of the tree and then unhooked his legs letting his body hang to the side of the tree like a lizard.

The elf was still just sitting there staring at him. They had been doing this song and dance for half an hour. At first Jason just kept doing his normal thing by avoiding the branches and waiting for his opponents bad luck to stop or endanger them. Yet that never happened. It seemed that chance just wasn’t a factor in this fight or if it was it wasn’t a big one. The worst thing that happened was that one time a bird fell out of the sky dead from something. Jason didn’t know what. But the bird had landed next to the elf and she had seemed genuinely sad for the bird.

Other than that Jason’s luck was completely worthless in this fight. The only thing keeping him going was his stamina regeneration that he had decided to invest into. The reason he invested into it was exactly because sparring with Baghric was stamina draining and he needed the regen boost. Jason had already decided that after reaching fifty points in Vigor he would push Luck to 150, then the Vitality stat to fifty and the Endurance and Fortitude stats to 35. Then back to Luck until he thought he needed a different stat.

I need to fight her. Not her roots. Her. Then I can maybe end this fight. Jason’s arms and legs tensed as he clung to the tree and then he shot out towards the elf like a rocket. Jason might have been imagining it but it looked like the elf grinned at that. She slightly moved the hand that wasn’t holding her head up and the forest exploded into action.

Various branches and vines shot out of the ground and the surrounding vegetation to create a web of chaos between Jason and the elf. Jason wove through the web of nature like a snake. As if his bones weren’t there. A combination of his Unnatural Awareness, Unnatural Flexibility, and Unnatural Grip allowed Jason to avoid all but the most complicated parts of the blockade. The parts he couldn’t slip past he simply destroyed.

As Jason was fighting in the woods something was occurring within himself. It wasn’t anything he could see nor could he even feel it happening. It was a slow and gradual change happening at the molecular level. At the atomic level. Changing the very fabric of his DNA and the atoms that made that DNA. He didn’t even notice when he started to wear a feral grin. Didn’t notice when his eye got tinted yellow, nor when he started growling softly in his throat. He didn’t notice when he stopped viewing the elf as an enemy, but instead as prey. It wasn’t a very big difference in the battle. Either way they had to fight. But it was a key difference. It was a distinct difference that showed the line between civilization and the unadulterated wilderness.

The elf noticed though. Her eyes gleamed as she saw the change in Jason. He started moving quicker and more sure of himself. There wasn’t any of the humane hesitation when he threw punches at her if he got too close. She always rebuffed his efforts with more plant life that she was actively growing and manipulating, but he was getting to her faster and faster.

The elf also noticed that sometimes when she saw a branch was about to hit Jason it just… didn’t. He would either trip or stumble and the branch would shoot right by him by inches. Or the branch itself would be stopped by some equally ridiculous means. As the fight went on it became more and more clear that Jason in this state actively threw caution to the wind and completely entrusted himself to his luck.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He only noticed half of the attacks that should’ve hit him, but he never even bothered to look in their direction. He had complete and utter faith that it would go his way. He was simply gambling his life with almost every strike he made against her.

Jason had lost himself. He was conscious and hadn’t gone dumb. Yet he had lost himself in the feeling of the forest. He was moving in accordance to the forest’s will. As new trees and plants grew the song the forest sang to him changed. The melody differed slightly from before. In places where the symphony was quiet it would immediately head straight to fortississimo. Jason would fill in the quieter parts with his own melody. His heart was the beat of the drums, his blood the pianist playing scales, and his muscles were the violinists. His symphony was an incomplete one. He was missing so many parts.

Jason mourned. He mourned for himself. For his incomplete symphony. As Jason was listening to his songs melding with nature’s he noticed that the trees were coming slower than before. Not much slower but it was by a noticeable amount. Then all of the sudden the trees had stopped. The additional music was nowhere to be found. The elf wasn’t sitting anymore

She had gotten up and gotten herself into a fighting stance. She had a small dagger in one hand and in the other was some rope connected to the hilt of said dagger. Jason surged toward her. She took her left hand, the one holding the dagger, and threw the dagger towards Jason. Jason just moved his head and the dagger whizzed by his ear, then the elf flicked her right hand back and the dagger reversed its momentum. It flew right back towards the elf with Jason’s head in its path. Jason didn’t care and kept charging.

All the sudden one of the trees that the elf had created in the fight made a creaking sound and one of its branches fell off and hit the tip of the dagger right before it reached Jason’s head. Getting nonsensically deflected the elf simply yanked and jumped backwards earning herself some precious moments that she needed to get the dagger back.

The fight continued. The elf twisting and turning to dodge Jason’s blows and sending out wide arcing attacks or short and sharp direct attacks. At some point the elf started laughing causing Jason to growl louder and more deeply. In Jason’s eyes this was a fight between predator and prey. A fight to determine who was dominant. In his eyes the elf was winning this battle succinctly.

A dagger was sent arcing towards Jason’s head. All he did was slightly out of the way and let it fly by as he advanced towards the nimble elf. She had never taken one of his blows head up. She had always stood in the back and danced around avoiding him. Throwing attacks he couldn't readily counter from a distance and dodge him whenever he got closer.

Jason for the first time in a fight was feeling suppressed. The olm had definitely suppressed him, but that was more because Jason was extremely low leveled compared to it and not because the olm was just so much better than him at fighting. This was a fight that he really had no way of winning. Once more the elf started slowing down. Leaving Jason going full speed in the fight.

After a few minutes the elf was completely done fighting. She had slowed to a stop and was simply there catching her breathe and watching her stamina regeneration bring it back up to full. As she was standing there she felt something hit her chest. Then she was knocked back a step or two and her head whipped up to stare at Jason.

Jason was standing there eyes wide and wild, mouth twisted into a feral grin, and breath coming out as short rasps and growls. The elf understood what happened. Battle Lust. That was the term that people used. The elf sighed as Jason dropped low into a stance then sped toward her. Jason saw her take her right palm and face it up, then she immediately flipped it downard. The next thing Jason knew he felt something above him crushing down. Deciding to trust in Luck Jason kept charging.

Jason heard more than felt something crushing his back and then he was falling. He couldn’t move… could barely think. It was just just like when he was out of stamina… Oh look at that I actually am out of stamina. The first completely human thought since the beginning of the fight ran through his head. Jason had been crushed by the woods.

His bones broken and body unresponsive he laid there as he felt the elf apply some first aid to him. How nice. With that as a final thought Jason let himself fade into sleep.