Ryan wished he had a fishing pole. Not that he knew how to fish, it just seemed like the situation called for it. The mid-morning sun reflected off the calm waters of the wide river as their small boat drifted along.

Kara sat across from him against the opposite side of the hull, her arm propped up on the railing and her chin resting on her hand. The boat’s owner, acting as an oarsman, worked silently in the rear.

Hiring the boat, as an outside observer, had been a nightmare of haggling and arguing, using slang he didn’t understand, but Kara appeared satisfied and had squeezed the coins out of Ryan’s dwindling wallet. He hadn’t been impressed with the boat considering how much he’d paid for service, but he hadn’t complained and had taken a seat on the sun bleached and splintered planks.

As they drifted along, the landscape transitioned from the ramshackle docking district to wetlands bounded by a thick temperate rainforest, where the light of the sun had trouble reaching, except for the occasional sunbeam poking through the forest canopy.

He dipped his hand in the water to find that it was warm, almost tropical. The water was clear and deep, various colorful fish visible in brief flashes of light as they darted past. His gaze traveled along the river where he saw the water bulge and bow upward as if some gigantic creature traveled just below the surface.

He yanked his hand out of the water and said, “What the hell is that?” The swell approached quickly, and he pointed at it, as if everyone couldn’t already see it. The glare of the sun on the river’s surface prevented him from seeing what plowed its way through the water.

“Calm down, boyo,” said the weathered boatman. “It’s an ole’ river serpent. Ain’t nobody ‘fraid of ‘em.”

“Serpent? Is that different from a snake? Nobody is afraid? It must be enormous. What does it eat if it’s that big?”

“They’re draconic. Basically snaky dragons, although true dragons are so rare that they may as well be a myth. The only one I know about is a Tyrant far to the north on the other continent.” Kara’s face never left its perch on her hand. Clearly she was unconcerned.

A sharp serpentine face broke the surface of the swell and Ryan caught a glimpse of deep blue and green scales, shaped like glittering knives, arrayed around deep black eyes that sucked in the light of the sun. It dove back beneath the surface and its snakelike body, thick as a full-grown bull, undulated behind it in sinuous movements until it was fully beneath the surface once again.

“They be eatin’ the river plants an’ fish. Got big ole’ mouths that suck in all th’ food, ya know? That’s what he be doin’ there right now, scourin’ the river.” The man’s rowing rhythm never faltered, and we soon passed the swell as it made its way further down river.

A few minutes passed before Ryan’s heartbeat returned to normal. People weren’t afraid of those things? It was at least as long as a bus, and that was only the part he could see. It was enormous. To calm his nerves, he tried to do a little meditation to explore some of his abilities through his core. He focused on [Warp Step], trying to sus out some more secrets from the hints hidden within.

The river returned to its former tranquility and after an hour, Kara directed the boatman to bring the boat to an empty stretch of shore to let them off. Ryan grabbed his gear and was about to jump off when he realized it was all thick mud topped with grass. It looked solid, but the tracks of small animals betrayed the trap he’d almost stepped right into.

He waited for Kara to step off so he could follow her footsteps, but instead of slogging through the mud she used her Bronze ranked strength to vault four meters to the edge of the forest, bypassing the mud pit and setting the whole boat rocking back and forth.

The boatman cursed her and turned to glare at Ryan, a warning in his gaze. Scrambling up onto the railing, he leapt off, trying to get as much distance as possible before the mud took him. Reflexively, before he hit the mud, he used [Warp Step]. Pain tore through him, pouring out of his Core and racing through his body before fading away.

A great shift traveled down the connection from his Core to his ability and he felt an unfamiliar weight in his aura settle into place. Time stretched out as the ability’s portal opened and he fell through onto the hard ground of the forest edge next to Kara, clean grass cushioning his fall.

Ryan got to his hands and knees and took a deep, shaking breath, before his body settled back to normal.

“What the hell was that?” Ryan said.

“What happened, you still learning how to walk or something?”

“I used my power in a way it wouldn’t let me before, then something happened in my Core and pain shot everywhere. My aura feels different too.”

Kara gave him an odd look and said, “How many Keys do you have? Four? It’s too early, way too early, but you’ve managed to get an ability to Bronze already, from the sounds of it. Did you study your Affinity, like did you get formal teaching or something?”

Ryan thought back to his time spent at university, taking basic physics classes as part of his core curriculum. It didn’t seem good enough to affect his affinity, it wasn’t advanced physics or anything, just stuff everyone took as part of the program.

“I don’t think so specifically, but where I’m from we generally have knowledge of space as a concept, I guess. Like there are a lot of common knowledge things that everyone knows. Does that count?”

“Maybe.” She grabbed his arm and dragged him to his feet and gave him a once over. “The way you progress is through applying knowledge and experience. One thing is for sure though, we need to get you more Keys to prevent you from getting soul strain. Let’s think about it later, though. We need to get going.”

He turned to the boat to discover the boatman already pulling away from the shore without so much as a ‘good luck.’ Despite that, Ryan threw him a quick wave and received a nod in return.

He focused his attention back to the matter at hand. He wasn’t sure what soul strain was, but it didn’t sound good. It would have to be a priority once they returned from this trip as he didn’t want a repeat of that feeling if he could help it. Ryan nodded to himself and followed Kara along the gap between the forest and the swampy shore. The crude map on the mission flyer marked an area about a kilometer further down the shore.

“It’s better if we can catch the frogs by surprise. If we’d shown up on the boat, they might have swarmed us. Better to fight your way in if you can since you’re doing all the fighting.”

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“Here, take my pack then, since I’m doing the fighting.” Ryan grinned as she took the pack before realizing what he’d said.

“Oh so I’m the pack animal now too, am I?” She slung the pack over her shoulder anyway and followed him down the shoreline.

The details of the mission said to exterminate the Arrow Frogs. He’d have to figure out a way to prove he’d killed them, maybe taking frog feet back, but he’d think about it later.

They settled into a comfortable silence as they approached their destination. Ryan fell into a slow walk with his weapons out, trying to be quiet but prepared just in case he stumbled into the nesting area. [Spatial Cognition] was turned all the way up with the sensitivity set to detect small animals. He’d learned his lesson about being prepared with that ability; no surprise attacks this time.

There were still ways to go to get to the nesting area before he sensed his first frog. There was nothing to see, its camouflage perfect on the swampy river edge, but [Spatial Cognition] detected its slight movements as it navigated through the grass and mud toward him.

Ryan stopped and waited, stance set and weapons ready. It stopped moving and he couldn’t sense it anymore, nor could he see it even though he knew exactly where it was.

Right as he made a move to approach, the frog leapt out of the grass like a bolt fired from a crossbow, directly at his chest.

Not taken by surprise because of his powers, Ryan’s sword already moved to intercept the trajectory fed to him by [Spatial Cognition]. He struck the frog on the head, but his sword bounced off a protruding chunk of sharp bone, deflecting the weapon off course. He cursed and fought for control as the weapon twisted awkwardly in his hand.

Even if he’d failed to kill the frog in one swing, he killed its momentum and it plopped to the ground, turning it into an easy target even for him.

Regaining control of his sword, he aimed for the beasts back instead of its head and wrenched his weapon down in a vicious arc before the beast regained its bearings enough for another leap.

Ryan stared down at the cat sized frog corpse, its splotchy green body settling down as it realized it was dead.

The strike nearly cut it in half, only sinew and bone holding the two pieces together.

The speed of the creature’s leap shocked Ryan. Paired with the sharp bone spike in its head, it would do some damage if it hit. It wouldn’t seriously injure him as it didn’t look sharp enough to penetrate his outer layers, but if they swarmed him, they’d do enough damage to kill him, assuming he couldn’t defend himself.

Given the swiftness and ferocity of the beast and its head armor, he needed to switch up his strategy. He couldn’t swing at them head on like that, especially if there was more than one at a time. [Interception] seemed like a good ability to stop the jump dead in its tracks.

Ryan stood up straight and stretched his back and turned with a big smile to look at Kara. She stood with her arms crossed, expression neutral, thoroughly unimpressed.

“Nice job. Don’t let your guard down. Right now, it’s time for killing. We’re not on a picnic.”

She was right, he realized. He let his guard down too easily, and while that might not be a big issue at the moment, it was a dangerous habit he couldn’t let himself fall into.

Ryan continued forward, alert and eyes scanning ahead, even knowing he wouldn’t be able to see the frogs with his eyes. He soon found another frog by relying on [Spatial Cognition] to track its movements.

Before Ryan could move in to attack, the frog let out a piercing call that rattled his eyeballs. A rancid smell, like rotten vegetation and feces, enveloped the area before wafting away on the wind.

Not wasting any more time, Ryan rushed forward. Leading with his buckler, he prepared his sword for a decisive swing. The frog launched itself at him, its trajectory predictable thanks to his ability, and he stopped it dead in the air with his buckler and [Interception].

His precise slash cleaved the creature from its shoulder to opposite hip before it hit the ground.

After checking the area for further threats, Ryan wrinkled his nose as he turned to Kara and said, “Was that a warning cry? And what is that stench?”

“Yup, pheromones. They’re going to be coming this way fast. Better prepare yourself.”

Soon enough, Ryan sensed a few frogs moving toward him through the foliage. Unwilling to let them take the initiative, he rushed forward and positioned himself so they had to come at him one at a time, or get in each other’s way.

Employing the same strategy as before, he intercepted the first and slashed it, then immediately moved to the second. He found himself out of position as it approached and couldn’t swing his sword effectively, so used [Interception] and moved on to the third without swinging.

The third fell out of the air in two pieces as Ryan twisted around to deal with the second, which had already prepared itself to launch itself into the air again.

The edge of his sword halted its attempt, and it fell, life already fading from its eyes. He looked back to the first to see that his strike hadn’t finished the job, so he ended its suffering with one precise stab down into the back of its head.

Blood and mud had coated his arm and chest, but he couldn’t see anywhere not covered in wetland goop to clean himself off.

There wasn’t time to relax as he could already hear the frogs shooting through the grass, their numbers enough that he could see the tips of the undergrowth rustling as well. He moved forward to press the attack.

Things only escalated from there.

The number of frogs leaping through the grass grew beyond something he could easily count, and he found himself getting into a rhythm as the frogs threw themselves at him over and over. The knowledge gained from the skill stone gradually settled over him.

His movements were more confident and his sword technique more effective, but the sheer number of beats slowly pushed him back despite his increased confidence. But, despite his best efforts to stop all the bludgeoning attacks, the severe bruising on his chest and legs attested to the fact that he didn’t always succeed.

Desperately, he resorted to [Warp Wall] to shunt aside groups of rocketing frogs. The forces from the multitude of impacts bled through the wall into his body, while their momentum was redirected elsewhere.

He darted to empty ground with [Warp Step] and coordinated his abilities with [Spatial Cognition] using predicted knowledge to be in unexpected places. Trajectories traced themselves across his mind’s eye as he chopped frogs out of the air and bashed them into immobility.

The more frogs that emerged, the more they seemed to be on the same wavelength, and it almost appeared that they collectively conducted attack maneuvers. Despite this, Ryan set his teeth and pushed on. He retreated when he needed to and barged through clumps to break them up with kicks and sword swipes.

The bruises piled up, though, and over the course of the fight it felt like a heavyweight boxer had gone to work on his legs, arms, and chest. They throbbed and moving around felt like he dragged lead weights around with him. But he held onto the momentum he’d fought for.

Abruptly, the wave of Arrow Frogs ceased. He stood awkwardly in what looked to be a nesting area, confused about the lack of incoming attacks. Empty mud burrows were scattered through the trampled grass. The smell of amphibious animals mixed with mud and blood almost made him gag.

Behind him he heard odd squelching and looked back to see Kara casually swatting frogs out of the air into airborne meat paste, tiny shockwaves from her hands reducing the beasts to their constituent parts. All he could do was shake his head.

She was far beyond him in power.

The pain caught up to him. He didn’t feel like he’d gotten any serious injuries, but the tenderizing he’d gone through finally made itself known as he fell to his knees, huffing and puffing. Mud splattered everywhere with blood and guts mixed in, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. The throbbing pain made such concerns retreat to the back of his mind.

As Kara approached, Ryan kept [Spatial Cognition] up and running to make sure that there were no more stragglers. The area seemed to be clear, but he’d discovered over the course of the fight that the frogs were cleverer than he first thought.

“That sure was something. Not bad for a newbie, though...” Kara laughed and kicked some mud onto his already mud-covered trousers. “You’ve got crud all over you. Maybe you should go jump in the river.”

A laugh bubbled up as the tension left his body. He flopped over in the mud, adding a fresh layer of muck to his already dirty body, and let himself relax. He sat there for a second enjoying the respite, before realizing that he’d need to get cleaned up somehow. With a grunt, he let his weapons drop to the mud and dragged himself to his feet. He limped over to the edge of the wetland and promptly threw himself into the river.