Abby hit the ground in a roll that did very little to arrest her momentum. Instead, she skipped across the ground, digging a deep trench with every instance of contact. Finally, after almost half a mile, she slowed to a stop, where she lay in the overturned soil, her entire body smoking with the consequences of using her escape skill, [Radiant Retreat]. Unlike most skills, it had the potential to harm her, but when faced with a situation like she’d just escaped, it was a necessary evil.

Still, as she lay there, she couldn’t ignore the damage she’d done to her own body. None of the burns had been permanent, but because they utilized radiant mana, they were extremely painful to endure.

After a long while, she opened her eyes to see that night had fallen, and after a quick scan of the stars, she estimated that she’d traveled at least a thousand miles to the south. If her estimates were correct, that put her on the edge of the Emerald Expanse, which was an enormous rainforest populated by powerful monsters as well as a reclusive race of elves.

Abby had no interest in dealing with elves. She’d had enough of them directly after her ascension. So, as she lay there recovering from her skill, she focused on remembering the forest’s layout. It covered a truly daunting area, which meant that she would need to spend quite some time traversing it. Complicating matters was that it was also known for playing host to some truly terrifying monsters.

She was no Zeke. If she met a peak monster in the wild, she would surely die. So, avoiding that eventuality was at the top of her list.

Prudence told her that she should just turn back and return to the Imperium. She had broken protocol by leaving her people behind, but if she knew much about Zeke, she didn’t expect that any of the others would return to tell the tale of her cowardice. He wouldn’t leave any of them alive, and if he did, they would be his prisoners. No one – except for her – would escape.

In any other situation, she might’ve felt guilty about what she’d done. However, those other Knights had acted without her knowledge, putting her in the line of fire. It was a miracle that she’d managed to survive.

Of course, she recognized the irony of what had happened. It wasn’t so different from what she’d done to Zeke, Pudge, and Talia so long ago. That didn’t make it any better, though. In fact, it made it so much worse because it forced her to consider how her actions had affected the people who should’ve been closest to her.

And her conclusion was an obvious one.

She was a selfish person. She always had been, even going back to her first life back on Earth. Sure, she had been forced to endure an abusive husband, and she would never believe that she deserved what he’d done. What she did believe was that both things could be true. He was an abusive asshole, and she was a selfish person who’d never weighed her own advantages against the affects on other people and come out favoring the latter.

It was a difficult realization, but it had been lurking in the back of her mind for years by that point. And now that she had effectively freed herself from the Imperium – she had no intention of going back – she had no shield against the aftermath of her actions.

She had ruined everything, and there was nothing she could do to escape her self-recrimination. For a long while, she simply lay there, ruminating on her own selfishness as she allowed her body to heal.

It was nearly morning when she finally picked herself up. She hadn’t fully recovered, but she was well enough to begin her journey. Because during that time, she’d decided that she wanted to be anywhere but the Imperium. They were evil. She couldn’t convince herself otherwise, now. And with that surety gripping her mind, she could not force herself to return.

So, she had only one way to go – through the Emerald Expanse and to the other side. There were cities there, unaffiliated with any force with which she had come into contact. Perhaps she could start over there. Maybe she could build the life she’d failed to create so far.

With that in mind, she started forward.

That first day, she barely covered twenty miles. Every step sent pain arcing throughout her body, which forced her to take it slow. The second day of travel, undertaken after spending the night resting in an abandoned hollow, was easier. However, she was forced to kill a few monsters along the way, though none were strong enough to truly tax her abilities.

Like that, she continued on. Days passed, becoming more than a week, and eventually, she lost track of the passage of time. Vaguely, she noticed the cycle of day and night, but she couldn’t bring herself to care how long she’d been in the forest. After all, there was nothing pressing clambering for her attention, so she had no reason to pay the passing days undue attention. When she was tired, she rested. Hunger meant scavenging for wild edibles or killing various beasts for their meat. She was no stranger to wilderness survival, so she had the skills to keep herself moving.

But it wasn’t easy.

The deeper she went into the forest, the more dangerous it became. The wildlife trended towards giant reptiles that resembled dinosaurs, but there were plenty of odder creatures around as well. From slimes that dropped from the forest canopy to devour their prey to living trees that used vines to entrap and strangle unwary animals, the variety was truly impressive.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

And daunting.

It harkened back to her days immediately after the Crucible. Back then, she’d spent months battling her way through a similar environment, and at the time, she had looked upon it as something similar to what Zeke had been through directly after his arrival into the Radiant Isles.

Even then, she knew she was wrong.

Zeke had spent years in those troll caves – he didn’t even know how long he was down there – without even the most basic of safety nets. He’d not known what was going on or how he was meant to survive. By comparison, her own experiences were a walk in the park.

Yet, she’d emerged from that time a different person.

It was a formative experience, and she leaned on that now.

One thing she did come to understand was that she needed to stop comparing herself to others. That was the root of her issues, and if she continued down that road, any hope at happiness would be dashed upon the rocks of comparison. It was a recipe for disaster, and so, she forced thoughts of Zeke out of her mind.

The effort was freeing, but it was not easy.

At least at first, she spent more time backsliding than moving forward. Yet, over time, it became easier until, at last, she managed to steel herself against the inviting nature of comparison.

After a few weeks, she caught her first sighting of the elves. It happened by accident – just a random glance that resulted in her seeing one of them crouched amidst the thick underbrush. The elven girl was shorter than Abby would have expected and darkly complected, with much of her mostly naked body covered in intricate tattoos. Most prominent was a band of blindingly white inch that stretched across her face like a blindfold.

Abby waved at her, but that motion of intended greeting only served to spook the girl. After that, another three days passed before Abby saw another one – this time, a male, though his body was slight enough that it was difficult to tell the difference at first glance. Whatever the case, he stalked Abby for one mile after the next, never coming closer than twenty feet.

Despite the thick vegetation, he never made the slightest sound, and Abby suspected that if he chose to attack, there wouldn’t be much she could do about it. Maybe she could win, but getting a clear shot would be exceedingly difficult. So, she pretended that she didn’t even notice him.

Then, suddenly, he just wasn’t there anymore.

As Abby continued to progress, she kept looking for his return, but there was no indication that he was there. That left her feeling saddened. As much as Abby liked to pretend she was immune to the effects of social interaction, she still valued the presence of other people. And though the elf had never actually spoken to her – or acknowledged her in any way – she had taken comfort in his silent company.

Now he was gone, and she felt all the worse because of his absence.

But despite her feelings, she couldn’t halt her progress, so she continued along her path. And as one day passed into another, she began to sense something changing about the jungle. It took her a long time to realize what it was, but when she did recognize it, her heart started to beat out of her chest.

She sensed a predator.

It was difficult to quantify what that meant. There was an olfactory component to it of course – a sickly sweet smell of rotting meat. Not a strong odor. Almost an undercurrent. However, once she recognized it, it was unmistakable.

Then there was the noise, or rather, the lack thereof. Everything was quiet, which was odd in the middle of any forest, much less a jungle so thick with life as the Emerald Expanse.

Suddenly, she froze.

Abby knew good and well that she was not well-equipped for stealth. Her armor, as dirty as it was, was still so shiny that it was probably visible from half a mile away. That, and she’d never focused on concealment.

She summoned her bow, then an arrow, and crouching low, she crept forward. It was at that moment that the monster chose to attack. The underbrush didn’t even rustle before something clamped down on her arm. She screamed, ripping her limb free and throwing herself away in a backward somersault. Her feet hit the trunk of a tree, which she used to launch herself in the opposite direction.

It was just in time, too, because the monster rammed the tree a second later. It shattered beneath its jaws. More importantly, Abby was afforded an opportunity to see her attacker.

It looked like tyrannosaurus rex, though with jet black scales and a row of red spikes along its back. Mid-air, she used her inspection skill:

Bloodscale Alpha – Level 91

The thing was more than five levels her senior, which meant that she was at a distinct disadvantage. Making matters worse was that the thing had punctured her armor, and subsequently, her chest. It wasn’t a lethal wound, but judging by the wetness she felt beneath her breastplate, it was bleeding profusely.

She hit the ground in a skid, already drawing back the ethereal string of her bow. She let loose with [Eruption]. Radiant energy descended from the sky, slamming into the Bloodscale with undeniable force. It burned through the creature’s scales, and spots danced in Abby’s eyes. She followed that up with an immediate use of [Ire of the Sun Goddess]. Mana rushed through her, enveloping the projectile she’d summoned via [Radiant Arrow].

Then, she started counting.

One.

The effect of [Eruption] began to fade.

Two.

The monster emerged, its scales melted into a wet and smoking slurry.

Three.

It roared, then staggered forward.

Four. Five. Six.

Abby dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding its charge. Fortunately, the thing was far from its best shape, and it could scarcely control its own body. However, Abby could sense dense flows of mana roiling within its hulking form. It would recover. She had no doubts about that.

She continued to count, holding her bowstring taut the entire time. Mana surged through her, flooding into the summoned arrow. When she got to nine, she was forced to leap high into the air, kick off the monster’s lowered head, and flip around in mid-air. She was still airborne when she reached ten, and her skill completed its charge.

She loosed the arrow.

It tore across the few intervening feet, scorching into the monster’s head, and searing its way through the monster’s brain. She felt a flood of kill energy before she even hit the ground. The monster fell a moment later.

Panting, she looked around. Her wound was bleeding worse than ever, and if she didn’t stop that soon, she knew she would begin to weaken. More troublingly, she could sense that her fight had gotten plenty of attention. A brief rustle of underbrush announced the arrival of a smaller, but no less deadly dinosaur-like creature. She ran, and it was just in time, too, because three more came on the first’s heels.

She didn’t see it, instead focusing on sprinting away.