Chapter One

Stirrings in the Forest

We thought the world safe after killing the Goblin King. We were wrong. ~ Devrim Bain, class: Slayer

A drum beat in Devrim’s chest with thunderous force as he raced over soft earth, coated in an endless bed of velvety moss. He gave silent thanks that the carpet-like surface muffled the worst of the noise as he increased his pace in the pursuit.

The figure ahead, a perfect manifestation of the dense, otherworldly forest around him, darted toward a grouping of trees. The barrier of weaving bark and ivy wouldn’t allow anything larger than small vermin to pass between it.

Dev managed a fierce grin as he realized he’d trapped his quarry. Nowhere to go.

The creature had androgynous features shaped out of bark and wild branches to resemble a person. Gnarled wood coursed over limbs formed of thicker pieces that could have come from young tree trunks. It possessed a lithe and lanky build. A variety of unidentifiable leaves of all shapes and sizes sprouted erratically from its body. It whirled about to face him. Its eyes, throbbing masses of coalesced green dust, flared in response to his approach. They swirled within hollow sockets like a hive of radiant insects, all glowing a single shade of peridot.

Dev closed in, but remained several dozen yards from his target. He tumbled through his skillshots mentally. It had been months since he’d used them in earnest. Activate skillshot, Fleet-footed. A current of wind, laced with invisible flecks of frost, surged to life around his feet before bleeding into him. Coolness flooded him and bolstered his perception. Trees and fauna blurred as he took off at ballistic speed toward his prey. You’re mine now.

The creature shuddered once before pressing itself against the wall of trees at its back. Its form clung to the wood as its bark liquefied. The tree-like being sank into the forest, vanishing from sight as it was absorbed.

Dev reached the space and lashed out with a hand in an attempt to grab the trace of wood that hadn’t sunk away yet. His fingers closed around thin air as the rest of the creature passed through without a trace. He blinked before spitting a curse.

Something rustled behind him.

Dev turned, drawing his katana, Thirst, to meet the threat.

The figure burst through a wall of dense vegetation, rubbernecking until their attention fell on Devrim. The man stood a hair shy of six feet with a reedy build slimmer than the wood-creature Dev had been chasing seconds earlier. He wore a leather vest that left his arms bare, and a pair of padded pants made from canvas, both in a smear of colors that blended in well within the forest. A shock of wiry black hair covered the man’s head, each strand standing on end like he’d received an electrical shock. “One: what the hell was that thing? Two: I’m guessing you lost it, right? Three: why are we chasing it again?”

Devrim sighed, sheathing his weapon and wiping the back of a sleeve against his forehead to mop away beads of sweat. “A spriggan. I didn’t lose it. It melted into the trees. And because it can commune with the forest to lend us wood so we don’t have to cut it down ourselves. I’d rather not piss off this place since it’s literally a sentient forest.”

At the end of his words, the trees and earth groaned in unison. The ground quaked for a second under the terrible and monstrous cry.

Dev winced, eyeing the woodwork around him. “That’s why.”

The man rubbed the back of his head, pulling his hand away a moment later. The move resulted in more of his hair standing awry. “Maybe we should leave. I mean, this seems like one of those scenarios where ‘getting wood’ isn’t going to be fun.” One corner of his mouth pulled to the side in a lopsided grin. It faded an instant later as his eyes lost focus, the grays seeming to grow duller. “What’s a spriggan?”

Dev shut his eyes, swallowing a curse. He opened his bestiary, flinging the codex entry on the creature toward the new player and citizen of Lorian. “Read up, and fast, William.”

Spriggan: The legendary tree-folk of Lorian, residing in forests touched by magic and more in tune with the eldritch natures of the world, are living embodiments of wood and leaf. These mythical beings have the innate ability to speak to all plant life and live in harmony with them, coaxing the world around them to grow tall and strong. Woe to any who cause harm to what and where they call home. While spriggans may be docile and appear harmless on first contact, they possess a terrible wrath only equal to Mother Nature herself, and they will fiercely protect the world and plants around them. Able to call on beast and earth alike, they can unleash the horrors of the natural world upon foes.

Stories tell of the first men to come across them. They happened to be the first to be killed by spriggans, slaughtered and eaten after having cut down a sacred tree in the forest.

Note: All trees within eyeshot are sacred to spriggans.

“That wood in this forest is stronger than anything we can cut down on our own by New Haven and—”

The trees moaned and leaves shook as if the mere mention of harming nature had roused their ire.

“Don’t think the magical veggies like you talking about turning them into cutlets, boss.” William’s grin widened.

Dev scowled and bit back a retort. “We need to expand our home so newcomers like you have a safe haven to come back to after going on hunts. It cost us a lot to make Lorian inhabitable…” he trailed off, voice going hollow and distant as his mind drifted to the battle with the Goblin King months ago.

“What’s wrong?”

Dev ignored him. “Nothing.” He banished the bestiary, looking back to the place where the spriggan had vanished. “We need to find a way around this so we can catch that thing. We’ve come too far for this to fail.” He hoped the new tracker would pick up on the underlying cue.

William did so, moving past Dev to kneel by a path of crushed moss. “Good thing I focused my few skills on all those passives, huh?”

Dev didn’t oblige the uppity hunter with a reply, knowing it’d only bolster his already gargantuan ego.

The tracker pursed his lips, frowning deeply as he studied the trail ahead. “I’ve got some faint sparkling lines showing up that lead ahead and sort of at a bend. But there’s a prompt telling me it’s in relation to the spriggan. Something about continuing the hunt.”

Dev nodded more to himself than William. “Yeah, sounds about right from what I know of your class. Come on.” The last vestiges of Fleet-footed still thrummed within him, and he intended to use it. Dev sped off like he was possessed by the wind itself. The forest morphed into a warped swath of greens marred by earthen browns.

“Really? You’re just going to take off? Wait for me!” William’s call warbled far behind him.

Dev didn’t stop for the tracker, slipping through a row of trees that were growing too closely together. He failed to adjust his profile properly as he shimmied by the last of trunks and bumped his torso against the hard wood.

“Brrp—ow. What was that?” The source of the voice rustled within his robes, pawing against his chest. Seconds a later, a toad’s head peered through a fold in his clothing, blinking as it stared at him.

“I hit a tree, Gama.” Dev cleared the blockage and glanced at the way ahead. He still had some of his bolstered speed to draw on.

“On purpose? That was a terribly stupid thing to do. You are aware that trees do not move, hm? How did you possibly hit one?”

Dev shut his eyes and exhaled, doing his best to ignore the toad and resituate his mind on the task at hand. “Hold on, Gama.”

“Why—”

Devrim didn’t let him finish his question as he tore off, calling on every bit of strength and stamina he could muster under Fleet-footed. He sped off and picked up his previous pace. Small fortune came his way in the form of the simple path. It didn’t deviate in any direction, remaining a straight-shot, ensuring he wouldn’t need William to guide him. A thin frown manifested on his face as he considered that thought.

The fledgling hunter wasn’t a burden, but Dev didn’t see the need to drag William through anything more than necessary.

Warbling groans came from the trees with an intensity that washed through him down to his bones. If the angry forest’s cries continued, they’d shake him apart from the inside.

He gritted his teeth against the living thicket’s protests and trudged forward.

The trees seemed to dislike that idea. Roots shot up from the ground, hurtling toward him like crude spears.

“Holy shit.” He stopped short, pulling Thirst free.

“Devrim, don’t! If you fight back, the forest will turn on you in full.” The toad broke off into a fit of croaking that could have been coughing.

Great. Of course. Who knew I’d have to be wary of trees in this world? Dev bobbed as a pair of hardened roots passed over his left shoulder. They would have skewered the meat between his collarbone and chest had he not ducked out of the way. He found no lull to catch his breath as countless, thinner, earthy tendons snapped out of the ground. Each tried to lash themselves around his ankles. He hopped between them, fighting for balance while trying to fend off the incoming bits trying to puncture his body. “Are you sure I can’t fight back?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

A deep burble sounded off inside his clothing. “Most sure. Mostly sure. Maybe I’m most sure that I’m mostly sure? I’m not sure…”

Dev swallowed a string of obscenities and resisted the urge to pound a fist at his body to thump the toad. He certainly deserved it, but now wasn’t the time. Dev pulled his antiquated scabbard free from his clothing and swatted a root aside. He wielded the sheath like a club, batting aside every bit of nature that seemed keen on taking him down. Dev recognized a failing effort when he saw one.

The number of roots increased, and he spotted lengths of vines racing down every visible tree, snaking along the ground to join the fray. The longer the battle dragged on, the more it’d turn against him.

Dev batted aside another group of errant vegetation working to subdue him. “Fuck off, veggies.” I didn’t like them back on the station. I sure as hell ain’t going to give into them now. He kicked a clump of vines back. “It doesn’t count as attacking if I’m fending them off without cutting them, right?”

“Brrp—semantics aren’t my specialty, Devrim. Would it be seplantics now, given what you’re dealing with—brrp?”

Devrim blew out a breath in agitation. He sucked in a fistful of air to compensate as a log, thicker than this leg, burst free from the soil. It arced toward him like a piston intending to pulp his skull. He had no time to duck out of the way, choosing to react in kind to stop the attack. Dev activated Reverberating Strike, lunging toward the incoming tree trunk. He bashed the base of his katana against the wood to halt its advance.

He failed and learned a valuable lesson. Wood was immune to stunning effects. He should’ve known.

The log pushed through and hammered his shoulder, taking a moderate chunk of his health down considering the source of the blow.

Dev spun off-balance, hitting the ground hard. He blinked through the haze forming over his vision. A fourth of the red bar above him had vanished. It wasn’t fatal, or even worrying, but the fact it’d come as a result of a log disturbed him. How powerful is this place? Dev got his answer in the following seconds.

Vines slithered over him with sinuous grace, pinning his body in place. They constricted around his limbs until his muscles felt like balloons on the path to bursting.

Screw this not attacking crap. He raised his head what little he could to bring his mouth over another vine trying to lash around his upper chest. Dev sank his teeth into it, shaking his head hard. He bit clean through the vine and witnessed a blip of red light hovering above the mass of thrashing plant matter. The forest has health?

He didn’t get to ponder the thought any longer as the vines flared with renewed vigor, weaving themselves together into a mat over his body.

“Devrim, it may be too late to say this—brrp, but I don’t think this was a good idea.”

That makes two of us, pal.

A length of vines snapped over his throat and then his eyes to blot out the world.

Crap.

His body sank like the ground below had softened under his weight.

“Devrim—brrp. Help!”

His throat screamed in agony as the vines tightened and the earth swallowed him whole.

* * *

His body sank through an endless pool of soft earth as it shifted around him like it was avoiding his form. Gama’s protests had silenced during their descent, and Dev felt no movement from the toad against his chest. His heart quickened its pace at the thought that the uppity amphibian had been hurt, or worse. The increased beating caused his muscles a new bout of agony as they pumped in futility against the plant-bindings holding him.

His chest ached as he held his breath. He didn’t know how long he’d be able to hold out. Unable to open his eyes, he wondered if the lack of air would tax his health bar—the only metric for life in the world of Lorian he knew of. As the pressure grew to the point he felt his lungs would burst, the earth solidified and slowed his fall. What the hell?

His body pushed against a viscous layer of soil like the vines were trying to pull him through it. The world made a sound like someone gulping down water, and he fell through the earth. Dev opened his eyes to see a ceiling of dirt and grass growing farther away from him. He spun and tumbled in the air, eyeing where he’d land.

The vines loosened their hold, causing him to twirl within them like they were unraveling threads. Their mesh-like formation shifted and slowed his fall.

Devrim tumbled through the mats of plant matter until he came to a full stop, hanging several feet above another endless bed of moss by a series of vines still clinging to his legs. He flexed one of his free arms, bending at the waist so he could bring Thirst up. The vines let go of their hold before he could sever them with his katana.

Dev crashed onto the sea of spongy plants. He gasped for air, laying there until his body recuperated from the ordeal. A flicker of red, slowly inching across his vision, showed him that he wouldn’t have to wait long. Whatever had occurred above had been the entirety of the battle. His new surroundings constituted a safe place, at least for the moment. Dev’s health restored itself and he found his body more responsive. He pushed himself up to survey the area.

“Gama, you alright?”

“Brrp—of course! Do you think a living tangle of vegetation empowered by the will of an angry, all-powerful forest would frighten me? Ha!” The toad croaked and puffed himself against Dev’s body, creating a massive lump within the robes that deflated a second later. “It’s over now…yes?”

“Yes.”

“Oh good. I was terribly concerned for a moment, Devrim.”

Dev shook his head and refused to reply.

They sat in a cavern, lined with translucent flower buds of pale white that harbored an inner golden glow that filled the space.

He got to his feet, dusting himself off with one hand, then sheathing Thirst. Dev took a few steps forward, cutting his progress short when he saw what lay ahead.

The pool of water was an ethereal green-blue reserved for stories. The color hovered somewhere around liquid emeralds washed with opals. A lone tree grew from the center of the body of water, twisting its way toward the ceiling. Leaves of soft rose rustled under the brush of an invisible hand. They layered the tree so thickly he could barely see the branches. Its bark was a chalky white streaked with bands of black like it’d been strategically burned. Tendrils of red ran through its body, veins, pulsing with life.

“The heart of the forest.” Gama’s voice shook with something that fell between reverence and fear.

Dev ignored the toad’s comment, fixing his gaze on what sat around the pool. His heart tightened within his chest.

It was as if the bodies of a science experiment gone wrong littered the edges of the water. Each prone form was a bizarre cross of man and alligator. They had muscular arms and shoulders that ended in elongated fingers tipped with claws, blunted snouts with jagged teeth sticking out from under lips, and the yellow eyes with vertically slitted pupils of reptiles. Murky green scales covered their bodies like a coat of mail.

If only it had been just as effective.

Every one of the fallen creatures sported countless deep gashes in their bodies. Whatever had caused them had torn through their natural armor as if it were paper. Puncture wounds lined parts of their backs, weeping a mixture of blood and other bodily ichor. Some of the thick, trunk-like tails had been severed or ripped free from the monsters. The moss bed underneath them had been stained a dark crimson.

“Oh, god.”

Dev looked over his shoulder to the source of the voice.

William stood there, roots and vines still clinging to his body. He brushed them off as he oriented himself. “What is this place?”

Dev quickly repeated what Gama had said earlier, turning his attention back to the scene of carnage. He brought up his bestiary, focusing on one of the creatures that was more intact than the others.

Sauriamen: A race of forgotten reptilian men hybrids, given their forms through ritualistic magic and feasting on the flesh of gators. Over time, their magical practices shaped their normal forms to be a reflection of their transformed selves until the changes became permanent. Cold-blooded in both health and in temperament, these creatures are savage warriors with all the strength, cunning, and ferocity of apex predators. Often working in hunter teams, they’re able to track and bring nearly anything in Lorian to its knees, or to the fire to be cooked.

Given their connection to nature and ritualism, they are species that holds great reverence for nature and the world around them. Sauriamen have been known to work in tandem with forest creatures to protect their environment if a greater threat is present. Exercise extreme caution when dealing with one. Because where there’s one, there’s many.

Note: Sauriamen are vulnerable to extreme temperature shifts and piercing weapons/techniques. Use that to your advantage. You’ll need it!

“What the hell could kill those?” William moved to Devrim’s side, his mouth hanging slack as he took in the scene.

Leaves stirred and branches shook on the tree like something was nestled within them.

Devrim drew Thirst. “I think we’re about to find out.” He looked down at his chest. “Gama, you might want to get out and put some distance between us. It’s for your own safety.”

The toad leapt out from beneath Dev’s robes, landing on the bed of moss. He whipped out a shiv that Devrim had found when he’d first entered Lorian. “Let them come. I don’t fear—”

A primal cry, something akin to a large cat’s roar, echoed out from the tree. The tree shook harder and the pulsating veins running through it swelled in response.

Gama burbled, cutting the noise short. “Erm, well. As every brave warrior knows, there is a moment when one should seek safety—a sound tactical position, from the back—and live to fight another day. Preferably, many days. Yes.” Gama leapt away from Devrim at startling speed.

Good move. Dev solidified his grip on his katana, waiting.

The scream intensified as something burst free from the blanket of flamingo-colored leaves. The mass hurtled through the air, spinning out of control. It looked like it was formed out of whatever refuse one could find in the forest above: bark, twigs, bits of logs, scattered clumps of foliage. The figure crashed into the ground with a muffled impact, the moss absorbing most of the creature’s weight without issue.

Dev rushed over to the being and scanned it.

“Is that the…” William trailed off as he came to Devrim’s side.

Dev nodded as he looked the spriggan over. Its body had been twisted into horrible angles he wagered weren’t complementary with the creature’s physique. Bits of the monster’s bark had been torn away, sporting gouge marks that could have come from teeth or claws. A long gash ran over one of the spriggan’s legs. Something had formed a fist-sized hole through the tree-being’s abdomen. The twin clouds of motes making up its eyes throbbed once.

“It’s still alive?” William inched closer.

Dev said nothing, kneeling by the creature and extending his hand. “I… What happened? Can you understand me—talk?”

The spriggan lowered its head a fraction in what could have been a gesture of understanding or affirmation.

“I don’t know what this’ll be worth to you now, but we weren’t chasing you to slay you. We…” He swallowed, unable to properly articulate the words given the circumstances. “We just wanted to ask for your help in getting some magical wood.”

William snickered, stopping himself an instant later as Dev glared at him.

The spriggan shuddered and opened its mouth to release a dry exhale that could have been a cough. Its chest tremored, individual bits of bark shivering much like the leaves on the pulsing tree. The monster raised an arm, pointing toward the pool.

Dev followed the gesture to the tree. “What about it?”

“Run.” The spriggan let out a long, suffering wheeze.

A rolling howl filled the cavern and another figure exploded from the tree, showering the air in a cascade of pinkish leaves. The beast landed at the edge of the pool.

Dev pushed away from the spriggan, getting back to his feet and brandishing Thirst in a double-handed grip.

The creature followed the theme of the sauriamen, only blending with equal parts wolf instead of alligator. It was layered in thick slabs of muscle that were visible under its arctic white fur. The creature’s build would have put any of old Earth’s professional strongmen to shame. The blunted snout carried rows of faded scars. Its eyes were like molten citrine, staring with an intensity that struck Dev like an iron slap across the face.

The beast snarled, flexing a hand.

Dev stared at what it had in its grip.

A knotted core of roots, forming a cage of sorts, hung from the wolf-man’s hand. Something beat within it. The object looked like a bird’s nest made of red ichor and gelatin.

The spriggan brayed in protest, reaching out for the mass.

The wolf creature sprang into the air in a shocking display of physical prowess as it nearly touched the ceiling. It raised a hand, thrusting the core toward the earth. The world before it shifted like it was made out of water and granted the monster passage. Vines ensnared the wolf and hauled it up out of sight.

Dev blinked, looking back down the spriggan.

The dancing bits of green light faded, losing their brightness until they stilled completely. A soft sigh passed between the monster’s wooden lips as it died.

“Dev…what was that?”

“Trouble. Lots of it.”

The cavern around them lost its color, and the tree’s throbbing veins turned black.

Dev sheathed Thirst and broke into a sprint. “And I don’t think we’re in the clear yet. Run!”