“Dead?” The noise around Ezra mixed as he processed everything that had been said. “So what are we going to do?”

Audrus sighed as Hugo kept shouting. “There’s no choice. We can’t wait for the Stoletime seekers. Our food will only last for another eight days at best.” Audrus bit his lip, holding back his next words, and then let his frustration dispel. “I hate to admit it, but Hugo’s right. We have to kill that thing.”

“But what about your Forage skill?” Ezra’s voice was unsteady, desperately searching for any solution. “If you need food, your skill should show you where it is.”

“It will, but collecting food for over fifty people takes hours, if not the whole day. We’d be exposing ourselves for too long, and for what? Just to gain us a few more days while we’re picked off one by one.” Hugo stepped off the platform and was heading their way. “I’m not asking you for help. Just stay safe until everything is resolved.”

Ezra wanted to protest and try to figure out another solution, but Audrus was already making plans with Hugo. Several other hunters gathered around, and before he knew it, Ezra could no longer see either of them. He faded back into the crowd and wondered how many people would even be left tomorrow. It’s not my place to help. They know what they’re doing. Audrus has a plan. Despite those reassurances, he couldn’t help but feel useless. Surely, there was something he could do. Anything. He paused before entering the medical tent. Where did thoughts like that get you last time? Stuck in a hole and half dead.

Milo sat up as Ezra entered. “So, what’s going on?”

Still, in his thoughts, Ezra didn’t respond until sitting on the bed across from Milo. “We’re stuck here?”

“What do you mean we’re stuck here? Is someone keeping us here? Did we do something illegal, or was there a disaster? Is the entrance to the third layer caved in?”

“No,” Ezra shook his head and focused his attention on Milo. “Officials from the third layer just quarantined us. Everyone on the second layer isn’t allowed to leave until the monster that attacked us yesterday is dead.”

Milo gazed up at the ceiling, considering the new information. “Then kill it.”

“Me?” The suggestion was more idiotic and less thought out than even Ezra expected from Milo. “You're just telling…”

“Of course, not just you. This whole camp is full of Sky-seekers. Go with the rest of them. Your skill could be a big help.”

“But I’ve never used it before. They said unalloyed shouldn’t face something like this.”

“Don’t lie to me.” Milo’s stare bored straight to the heart of Ezra’s guilt.

“How did you?”

“You don’t think I found it suspicious when you held a stick with your cloak wrapped around it. What idiot creates a weapon like that and thinks it’ll do him any good? Thinking about it kept me up for most of the night until it hit me. You were making a torch, or you did make a torch. The scent of burning leaves but no fire. The terrified look on your face, but no creatures in the night. You must have used Time-scale to scare something off.”

“I only used it once, and I didn’t know what I was doing.” Milo was right. He was terrified of whatever was out there. The thought of facing it again twisted his stomach.

“But whatever was out in the forest, you did scare it.”

It had run away that night. The beast was staring right at him, but it had left. It left because of me.

“That means it's not invincible. There’s an instinct in every living being to survive. If something runs away, it’s because deep down it knows you’re a threat. Maybe you didn’t hurt it that night, but you inflicted a wound that it’ll never forget. Fear.”

The creature had left its own mark too. On both him and Milo. Ezra looked at Milo’s leg. The bandages were beginning to discolor from the dissolved cysts. Noise still came from outside, but it began to become more organized. Will I let the beast leave another mark? No. I’m not bound by the rules of man or the abyss. Fear will not bind me.

“I’ll go. By tomorrow, we leave for the third layer.” He pushed off the bed and strode towards the exit. Before leaving, he pressed the Thorin-sphere against a bottle of disinfecting alcohol.

A smile crossed Milo’s face, and he collapsed on his pillows, waiting for news of a victory.

When Ezra left the tent, he saw Audrus on top of a wooden box surrounded by dozens of hunters. He passed a crate with a vibro-crystal gun lying on top and tapped the Thorin sphere onto the weapon. In seconds, it evaporated into thin air. A few more swords leaned against a wall, and he did the same. He would need everything he could get to kill this beast. Audrus saw him approaching with a fire in his eyes.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Stepping off the storage crate, Audrus parted the crowd to approach Ezra. “What are you doing here? I told you we’d handle it.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Concern spread across Audrus’s face. “This isn’t something an unalloyed seeker should participate in. Your level isn’t high enough for seeker officials to approve you for anything other than basic hunts. I can give leeway to rookies now and again, and I don’t take the official's word as law, but I’m sure as hell not letting you near a hunt that’s warranted the attention of Stoletime seekers.”

“I’ve scared off the beast before. I saw it the night before it wrecked my camp.” The orange eyes were still imprinted in Ezra’s memory. “I have an idea how to kill it, but you need to let me come with you.”

“How?” Audrus’s eyes narrowed, doubtful of Ezra’s claims.

“It fears fire.”

The other hunter’s around him began to laugh and Ezra wondered what he had said wrong. Audrus raised a hand and everyone went silent.

“We know that. We’ve been hunting it for nearly three weeks. The liquid that lights up these trees is more flammable than dry straw. You light up the wrong tree, and it’ll be us who die before the beast.”

Ezra grinned. This time, they wouldn’t laugh at him. “I know. That’s why you need me. My skill can stop the whole forest from going up in flames.”

“So, what’s your skill?”

“Time-scale. It lets me reverse time for an object of my choosing. We could light the whole forest on fire, but as long as we only use one match, I can make it so the fire never existed.”

Audrus stroked his chin, intrigued at the possibilities this new factor offered his plans. No one made a sound while he thought, and Ezra anxiously waited for his response. After a few moments, he finally spoke. “Alright. You can come with us.” His tone turned to stone. “But you stay with my squad and follow my lead. No surprises from you.”

Audrus turned to face the crowd and raised his fist. “We leave in one hour.” He lept back onto the crate and with a voice that commanded the respect of every man and woman began to rally them. “Sky-seekers exist to challenge the hollowed spire itself. Today, the spire seeks to challenge us. It will attempt to crush us, drain our spirits, and even tear us from greater heights. But we will not let it. That beast hopes to trap us within these walls and scare us into starving ourselves. Such a fate is not befitting for Sky-seekers. The unfortunate reality we are faced with is grim. Our supposed saviors, the Stoletime seekers, are weeks out. The second layer has been quarantined, and no other help is on the way. So we must take fate into our own hands.” The audience erupted into cheers as Audrus paused for dramatic effect. “By tonight, we will be feasting upon the beast’s flesh.” Weapons flashed in the morning light, and Audrus’s face held tight with determination. It had to. For who would believe him if he did not believe in himself?

The hunters began to group into predetermined squads as Audrus hopped off his makeshift stage. He put a hand on Ezra’s shoulder as he passed by. “Come with me, kid.”

Audrus brought him to a group of people huddled in a tent Ezra previously ignored. Four men and a woman. Even if their faces seemed pristine, the look in their eyes told of many battles. The woman wrapped in bands of twilight orange had a large spear on her back. One of the men scowled, emphasized by a scar running down the side of his forehead.

“Ezra, these are the void piercers, my squad, and the people you’ll be working with on today’s operation.”

The woman rolled her eyes as she lept from her squatting position on the ground. “I thought we promised to stop using that stupid name. It makes us sound like amateurs.” She extended her hand to Ezra. “I’m Zoe, the lurer of this team.”

Ezra shook her hand as a man with a wide-brimmed hat piped up. “In case you’re confused, kid. She’s the bait. Unless your scrawny rear is here to replace her.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Leo. Anyone else, and it would just be ritualist slaughter. You couldn’t make it out of a Margwen hive even if you were covered in their piss.”

The insult made no sense to Ezra, but the rest of the void piercers burst out laughing. Audrus spoke up, and the whole group listened. “I know introducing a new element this late into the operation is risky, but I believe Ezra could be the key we’ve been missing in killing this beast.”

“The boy’s unalloyed,” the man with the scar said. “Your unconventional plans have gotten us this far, but even this is a bit too much.”

“Ezra, this is our pyro-tech, Malack.” Audrus motioned to the scarred man. “Tell him your skill.”

All eyes fixed on him, and Ezra glanced from side to side. Even though fewer people surrounded him, the pressure was much greater. “My skill is time-scale.” The words came out barely above a whisper. He cleared his throat and started again. As he explained the skill, Malack’s stiff demeanor relaxed, and Ezra could see ideas forming in his mind.

“Caleb, Ryan, what do you think.” Malack swiveled to face the other two men.

Caleb, the man wearing square glasses, responded first. “I think it’ll work. You said your skill only lasts thirty seconds.”

Ezra quickly nodded.

“Kind of a tight window. Zoe, if we set up a perimeter, do you think you could lure the beast in?” Caleb took out a worn notebook and began to frantically jot down notes.

“This one’s strange. My usual tricks only work, say, sixty to seventy percent of the time. Do you want to take those odds?”

“We’ll have to.” The ammunition belt hanging over Ryan’s shoulder swayed as he spoke. “This is the best chance we got.”

Malack opened his mouth to speak but Audrus leaned in. “So how about putting this plan to paper.”

“Haven’t you learned to trust us,” Malack said.

“I have,” Audrus acknowledged and pointed back at Ezra. “But he hasn’t learned to read the minds of psychos.”

“Fine,” Malack grumbled. “Caleb, you got this.”

“Yes,” Caleb said, still scribbling in his notebook. “Yes, one second.” A few more strokes of his pen, “And done.” He slammed the open notebook on the table between them. The pages yellowed at the edges, and it took Ezra a moment to decipher the handwriting.

The whole group leaned in and surveyed Caleb’s notes.

After a few moments of silence, Malack leaned back with a satisfied grin. “Well, seems like it's about time we lit a forest fire.”