Everything happened in a split second. The moment I realized it was above me, the monster descended from the trees, allowing gravity to carry it downwards. Its arms grabbed the tree trunk, slowing it down so it wasn’t hurt upon impact. That left me with mere moments to move, a moment’s hesitation the difference between living and dying. I felt my perception of time slow as I came to terms with my death. In the battle for survival, only the strongest survived.

Thump. I felt my heart beating in my chest as I was frozen in place. I had always known Altus wasn’t a place for humans, and it was a miracle I was alive at all. Still, I resented the fact that the world would throw such an overwhelming beast at such a weak human like me. It wasn’t fair.

Thump. What could I have done differently? I could’ve stayed in camp, where my survival was all but guaranteed. Internally, I shook my head.

“No, that wasn’t going to happen, not with me. Sooner or later, I was bound to leave the camp for one reason or another. It just so happened that that time was sooner than expected.”

Should I then blame Amaya for this? After all, I only left the camp because I was worried about her. Again, I knew it wasn’t true. I wanted to find Amaya for selfish reasons. I didn’t want to be lonely, sure, and she was the closest thing I had to a friend. Even still, I left for a more selfish reason.

“I would never be content living like cattle, trading independence for safety, freedom for comfort. I left to prove I was strong, that I deserved to live.”

Travelling to Altus was a shitty experience, but it did allow me to understand who I was, and who I wanted to be. Upon arriving on this planet, I understood that I would either adapt and become strong or I would become the fertilizer that aids in the growth of the strong. It was up to me to decide which I would become.

Thump. I noticed my heart beating in my chest. No matter what happened, it was always beating, speeding up or slowing down when necessary. The heart adapted to the world around it, changing to face the challenges the world offered.

“Couldn’t I be the same? Why have I given up so easily? As long as my heart still beats, I can keep going. I won’t stop, not for this.”

For the first time since arriving on Altus, I moved my Will instinctually. Due to the foreign nature of my abilities and the energies surrounding it, I had always approached manipulating spirit with caution. Even without that cautionary barrier, it took incredible focus and patience to utilize my Will. Scalisth was right when he said my control was lacking, as it was the factor limiting my growth.

Now, I had let go of what was holding me back. Before, the flow of spirit through my body was like a trickle, but it was now flowing like a mighty river. I felt power filling my source as my Will commanded the spirit in my body to circulate faster and faster. As our group travelled from place to place, I spent a majority of my time observing how spirit flowed throughout my body. I had a lot of theories on how changing the flow could change my body, but I lacked the skill to test it safely.

Now, in the face of impending death, I had thrown caution to the wind. On instinct, I flexed my Will more and more, squeezing every ounce of power I could out of my source. All of this occurred within an instant, and the hulking monster was still above me, halfway down the tree’s massive trunk.

I smiled slightly as I felt my exhaustion disappear as my new mental clarity took over. “My turn,” I said as I prepared to move. As if predicting my moves, the beast raised an arm out to leap towards me the second I moved. That left only one option.

The spirit circulating in my body reached a crescendo, flowing at speeds incomparable to before. With a mere thought, my Will guided the flow to my legs. My muscles tightened and then, like a spring, they exploded with power, sending me flying to the side. Despite my newfound prowess, I was still shocked by how quickly I moved.

Despite my increased speed, the creature reacted calmly to my actions. Predicting where my path would take me, it let go of the tree and used both arms to push against the tree. The thick trunk nearly snapped in two as the monster exploded with power, its muscled body flying in my direction.

At that moment, I learned that my epiphany had also heightened my spirit senses. As before, I felt a weak wave of spirit hit my body, which communicated my exact position to the monster. That was exactly what I was waiting for.

Despite my inhuman acceleration, I had only used approximately thirty percent of the spirit I had accumulated in my body. Flexing my Will once more, I directed another fifty percent to my legs, infusing them with incredible power. Planting my foot down, an explosion of spirit shot out as my legs altered my trajectory, accelerating me even faster in a different direction.

I covered ten meters in less than a second, my momentum carrying me at a shallower angle than I had anticipated. Still, it was enough as I heard what sounded like a small meteor hit the ground behind me. Dirt and debris flew past me as the massive beast gouged a small crater in the earth where it fell.

“It worked! It really worked!” I had theorized earlier that the creature primarily located its prey, me, through a form of spirit echolocation. Like a bat, it would send a wave through the ambient spirit in the atmosphere, which would be carried forward to hit my form. The fluctuations in the natural energy currents would then tell the creature where I was. It was a gamble to assume this was its only way of sensing me, so I made sure to put it in a situation where it had one option no matter what.

With my increased speed, I reached the top of the hill in an instant. Planting my foot once more, I skidded to a halt a few meters from the edge of the cliff. While my newfound power was exhilarating, I knew it wouldn’t last for long. I had compressed all of the spirit at my disposal, and used nearly all of it to get where I was now. If I had a larger source, I might have been able to outrun it directly, but as I am now it would just take the beast a bit longer to catch me.

“Not going to let that happen, though,” I thought as I waited for the beast to find me again. I had no chance of beating it head on, and outrunning it was impossible. That left only one option: let something else do the job for me.

Once again, I felt that familiar pulse of spirit strike me, a roar of hunger and rage following after. My confidence shook slightly upon hearing the monstrous yell, but I kept my cool as I kept myself at distance. The trees tapered away closer to the clearing, allowing me to keep an eye on the beast from further away. Knowing how stealthy it could be, I kept my eyes trained on it the whole time.

It rolled out of the crater it created, its huge arms digging for purchase in the shifting soil. It roared once again, its massive tusks illuminated by the bright sun hanging in the sky. It immediately whipped its head in my direction, not intending to let me escape. Meeting its gaze, I gathered my courage and filled my lungs with air.

I shouted, “Come on, you stupid son of a bitch! Come at me!” That did the trick, as the monster scrambled to get me. As expected, it gained speed quickly, and would reach me in seconds. This was the make-or-break moment. One slip up and I would be dead, all of my efforts wasted.

I quickly backed myself to the edge of the cliff, putting my back to the sun as I faced the monster. Imagining the giant fall behind me, I smiled coldly.

“If I’m going down, I’m taking this fucker with me.” I crouched low, not blinking as I watched every movement of the monster. Just as it was about to reach me, I saw its arms spread out to its sides, as if it were going in for a massive hug.

“It’s making sure I can’t dodge it again,” I thought as I began to circulate the energy in my body faster and faster. “That was smart, but it’s a mistake that is going to cost it its life,” I thought as I released the pent-up energy once again. Muscles tore as I once again went beyond what was possible for a human. With incredible speed, I charged straight toward the monster, its mouth open in morbid anticipation.

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Unfortunately for the beast, I wasn’t going to meet its expectations. Instead of straight ahead, I ducked forward, lowering my body to slide along the ground. The beast’s head passed over mine, and I travelled past its robust chest, stomach, and under the back legs. I cleared the beast entirely, slowing to a stop a meter later. The sounds of flesh on stone rang out as the monster was carried off the edge of the cliff, its momentum sending it flying from the edge.

A roar of frustration spread throughout the entire forest as it plummeted through the air. I sat motionless on the ground, waiting to hear any indication that the monster truly met its end. A few seconds later, I heard a heavy thud as the beast’s massive body struck the ground. The dull noise rang past me and into the forest, which finally became silent after so much commotion.

I waited and waited, expected to hear the sound of the beast clambering to its feet to finish the job it had started. After a minute of waiting, I decided that the sound would never come. Once I had realized I was safe, the tension fell from my shoulders. I moved from my sliding position to a seated one, letting my head fall to my chest. After hearing the absolute silence of the forest once again, I let out a long, shaky breath.

I inhaled, feeling the warm air inflate my lungs before letting it out again. All of my fear and anxiety slipped away, as I tried to convince myself I was finally safe. I let out a shuddering breath as tears began to well up in my eyes. I let out a pitiful sob as I brought my hands to my face, hiding my sorrowful state from the watchful eyes of the world. There, on the edge of that cliff, after being so close to dying on so many occasions, I let my weakness finally show. I sat there in the silent din of the surrounding forest, crying out like a child who had lost its mother.

For the first time since coming to this planet, I had won.

///

After regaining my bearings, I looked around at the clearing, looking at all of the destruction that hulking monster caused. “It really is a miracle that I’m alive right now,” I thought as my gaze lingered on the crater it created when it jumped from the tree. Deciding it was time to leave, I tried to stand up, but fell right back down to the ground. I tried once more, but it was the same result, my legs having no strength left to bear my weight.

I sighed as I looked up to the sky. “I guess it makes sense, the adrenaline’s wearing off and I pushed myself harder than I have in ages.” While that was definitely a contributing factor, I felt as if there was another reason I was so weak. Closing my eyes, I focused my perception inwardly and inspected my body. As expected, the amount of spirit remaining to flow through my body was minimal, with barely a trickle circulating fully throughout my body.

Seeing my body in such a wrecked state brought up an important question: What was that? Opening my eyes, I looked down at my hands, palms facing up. Focusing, I tried to replicate the feeling of absolute control that I had felt before. I was surprised to find that my abilities were no longer at the same level as before, as the feeling of power wasn’t the same as it was a few minutes prior.

Still, when compared to before, I could feel a profound change had occurred. Testing the changes, I flexed my Will and began to circulate spirit through my source. I felt an ache in my chest as I moved energy through my body, but I could feel the changes clear as day.

Firstly, I didn’t have to focus as much to execute changes using my Will. It responded with merely a thought, moving as I wanted it to without having to visualize it first. Secondly, I still had the ability to fully influence the flow of spirit through my body. It wasn’t absolute control like before, but I was able to nudge the tiny amounts of energy towards certain body parts.

While I was circulating energy throughout my body, I felt as though something else had changed, though I had trouble pinpointing what exactly was different. Following the current of energy, I eventually returned back to the origin of the flow, my source. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the incorporeal structure had grown slightly while also appearing brighter. I didn’t know what changes that meant but was sure it was a good thing.

The last change, which was probably the biggest, was how different it felt to interact with the world. If before I was merely watching the flow of energy, I was now feeling it directly. I hadn’t even activated my spirit sight, yet I was able to somewhat visualize the ebbs and flows of the ambient spirit around me. It was as if I was now submerged in water, rather than watching it move from afar.

Curious, I decided to see what my spirit sight looked like after such a big change in my perception of spirit. Redirecting the energy to my eyes was surprisingly easy, and I felt my vision lurch as new stimuli entered my brain. Unlike the blue tapestry of swirling color from before, there was no blue sheen over every single object in my vision. Instead, only a select few items retained the blue coloring. A few currents of ambient spirit close to me were still blue, but the color faded after twenty or so meters.

I looked around and saw that there was a thin trail of spirit leading off of the edge of the cliff. Without standing up, I shifted my weight to hang my head over the edge. The trail continued down before disappearing entirely, but I knew what it would lead to if I could see further. The once powerful body was now a mess of flesh and blood spread across an enormous area. I had read once that smaller animals can resist the impact from a large fall due to their large size proportionate to their mass. A larger animal has much more mass than size, and therefore feels a greater impact when falling from high places.

As I watched the piles of flesh strewn about, a small creature moved out from the inside of the cliff face. It cautiously inspected the area, before lunging at the nearest chunk of flesh. Soon, numerous creatures had swarmed the body, all of them feasting on what once was their fearsome predator. Disgusted by the sight, I turned away, and decided to wait for my body to recover. If it didn’t happen fast enough, I considered the possibility of accelerating the process using my Will.

That would have to wait, though, as my reserves were quite pitiful at the moment. This information led me to conclude that all I could do was sit down and wait until I was ready to go again. Once I was rested enough to move, I would hurry down the hill and get some real rest in the camp.

The thought of going back to camp reminded me of one of the reasons I came out here in the first place. I never found Amaya, and it was all but impossible to do so now after so much time had passed. I considered the hulking monster I faced, and wondered how she would do if confronted with a similar opponent. “Who knows, she might already be dead for all I know,” I thought as I once more looked into the woods.

Looking at the devastation, I concluded that she would’ve probably died fighting the creature. “Since it was my first kill, indirect or not, it probably needs a name. Tusk sounds alright to me,” I thought with a small smirk. I hoped she was alive, if only for purely selfish reasons.

“Ha, if I ever found her, I could flex my newfound abilities on her. She’d probably be super jealous.”

///

Deep in the woods, far from where Olivia sat in waiting, a small figure was moving quickly through the trees. The figure was fast, darting through bushes and around the dark trunks of massive trees with incredible speed. While its evasiveness was impressive, its perceptive abilities were not. The small being believed it had escaped the hunter but was unaware it was still being followed.

The hunter eyed its target with cold calculation. This hunter was surprised at how this creature had survived this long, as it was constantly emitting a presence without knowing it. The predator followed close behind, remaining undetected while waiting for an opportunity to strike.

The small figure, a rat-like creature with long spindly legs, finally slowed down, hiding within a bush for cover. That was the last mistake it would ever make. Undetected to the small rodent, a thing string of spirit emerged from the hunter, snaking its way to its target. Once it was close enough, the string became taught, the end snapping forward like a whip with incredible speed. The small beast noticed the disturbance but was too late to stop it.

In an instant, the small head of the creature was severed, falling wetly to the grass carpet below. Observing the successful kill, the hunter dropped down from the tree it was hiding in, falling to the floor. Dispersing the fall by bending their legs, the hunter stood up straight and looked down at the small corpse, which was twitching slightly.

“Damn, this one’s a lot smaller than the last one I got,” the hunter said, disappointment plain in her voice. Still, food was food, and she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. Her stomach growled at the thought of meat, and she pictured her teeth rending the supple flesh after cooking it over a small fire. The hunt gave her a thrill while the meat gave her satisfaction.

She waited for a moment before approaching the beast. She put a hand to its flank and quickly dispersed the residual Will. The last beast she hunted had an explosive organ that would detonate if triggered, but that was a unique adaptation, and this rodent had no such trait. That meant she was safe to eat it immediately and didn’t have to wait for the energy to disperse.

She clicked her tongue as she thought about her last hunt. The beast was difficult to take down, yet I didn’t get to taste even a little bit of it. “Stupid girl, if you were more careful maybe that thing wouldn’t have come to take it.” Her resentment flared up for a while longer before she reigned her emotions in. The time would come for that, but now she would eat. She had worked hard for this kill and would savor every morsel.

Still, she thought back to the group she had left behind. She hoped that they wouldn’t lose any more people before she got back, but such things were almost inevitable. She could come to terms with some of the group dying, but there were a select few she wanted to be alive when she came back. A particular face popped into her mind, causing the hunter’s heartbeat to race as she envisioned meeting them once again.