***** PoV: Skeeraga the Huntmaster *****

“For Coveria we Challenge!” echoed my minions, who were just as excited for the hunt as I was. “Attention, all teams. The challenger has exceedingly high mobility and probably has some kind of stealth skill. Execute plan Beta Foxtrot Zulu as soon as their headstrart is up.”

My minions all acknowledged the command, some of them verbally responding “Yes Huntmaster,” while some of them saluted, but most of the others simply stood there silently. As much as I’d like to have them all respond in the same way, most of them are hunters through and through, not warriors or soldiers. Being sneaky is more important than unnecessary displays of respect. If they have problems, they’re not afraid to bring them to me directly, and we usually solve them then and there.

Normally, my minions are perfectly capable of waiting patiently for the headstart to be over, but this time was harder than usual, given how thoroughly outclassed we are by this Challenger. There is a fair chance we will not succeed, but we shall try our best nonetheless. I would never have earned the position of Huntmaster if I was prone to give up when faced with long odds.

As soon as the ten minutes were up, my minions exploded into movement, regrouping into their transportation formations so that the roc’s and wyverns under my command can pick them up easier. Most of my minions were going to be deployed in the general area in hopes that they would get lucky, while I sent my best to where I saw the Challenger disappear, so that they can follow their trail.

While they were rushing to catch up, I was planning ahead. What is over there that they could be looking for? Sure, there are lots of places to hide in the forest, especially if they go deep enough to enter the edges of the Primordial Forest, but surely there is more than that? Looking back at my notifications, I was reminded that it said they were looking to absorb large quantities of life and fire mana, as well as somewhere they could rest.

Which probably means they’re heading for the deepest part of the Primordial Forest, since that is where the highest concentration of life mana is. The only problem is that is the territory of the vermigano vines, the sneaky life stealers, which is why my minions don’t normally go over there. No point in trying to track a challenger if they’ve failed the challenge because they’re dead after all!

Somehow, I don’t think this Challenger is going to be killed quite so easily…

***** PoV: Victrina Vitafino *****

[So we’re going to the center of the vermigano vines, and we’re going to take a nap inside the core?] I asked as we stealthily floated through the forest, a bit shocked at how easily we were traversing it. I was expecting to have to go significantly slower than this, but I’m not complaining. Admittedly, he wasn’t anywhere as sneaky as he could have been, but fortunately, he was willing to let me help him with that. At the same time, I was learning how to do partial shifting, as we were mostly in human form, with a pair of dragon wings sticking out of our backs, using an odd combination of anti-grav coatings on the wings and space magic to hover along.

{Yes. Normally, I would not condone stealing life mana from other living things, but those plants are a parasite of the forest that must be removed. I have seen what plants like that can do to a rainforest when growing up in the Amazon, and I cannot let them continue.} Arthur replied, {It’s too big and well entrenched to just rip it out, but fortunately it cannot absorb life mana very quickly. This means the best way to get rid of it is to simply absorb its life mana until it dies, then let nature take its course. If it’s anything like the similar plants from back home, it will not be anywhere near as fast at siphoning mana out of things as a life elemental can be.}

[Huh. I had not considered it from that perspective. How close do we have to get before we can pull off the sleep anywhere shenanigans?]

{I’m not sure, I’ve never had a reason to see how far I could push my range before. I’ve heard rumors that Ulysses, my adoptive father, has managed it from over half a world away, but I know for a fact he can punch people from that distance, so take it with a grain of salt.}

[Wait, he can punch people from how far away? How do you know this? Are you sure he’s not exaggerating?]

{It’s a matter of public record back home. The short verison is there was an event that the entire world was watching remotely where two different teams were playing a team based board game, with one team in our house in Amazon City, and the other team in Hong Kong at my adopted sister’s boyfriend’s family’s house. Someone thought it would be a good idea to assassinate my sister where the world could see, so they did something odd with their stealth ability so that the camera could see them, even if nobody else could. Unfortunately for them, Papa has been over there enough that he didn’t even have to think about where to aim, he just teleported over there and punched them in the face from over 17 thousand kilometers away. Then Mama, who was probably carried over by Papa, did something that completely negated their stealth ability, and they got sat on by an angry dragon until somebody came by to cart them off to be interrogated. Because of where and when it happened, only the most die hard skeptics don’t believe it, and most of them are still trying to deny the existence of magic, so nobody really cares what they think.}

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

[How can they deny the existence of magic? That’s like trying to deny the existence of heat or light! Heck, its like trying to deny the existence of your very soul to a certain extent!]

{That’s just it, I think most of them have unlocked bloodlines that say things about who and what they are that they refuse to acknowledge, so rather than dealing with their issues they try to proclaim that magic isn’t real. Some of them are descendants of those who’s world views are inflexible enough they cannot adapt to the way the world changed when magic came back. And some of them are just idiots.}

[Yeah, there’s idiots everywhere. Anyway, what’s your best guess on the range for sleeping?]

{I’d say probably about ten meters. Maybe fifteen if we’re careful.}

[I can work with that. The vines in general may not be the best at catching flying things, they’re much better at sneaking up on unsuspecting grounded targets, the shorter ones close to the core will be a lot more agile. The core has to defend itself somehow, yeah?]

{Fair enough. We should be close to the core, maybe another minute or two until we get there?}

[Yeah, that sounds about right to me.]

{In that case, one last thing before we arrive. Elementals do NOT usually just steal mana like this. Normally, they curate their environments such that the ambient levels of mana increase in density and quality. Our ability to absorb mass quantities of mana like this is usually reserved for emergencies, and used for either self defense, healing, or offense.}

[So more an environmental symbiote rather than an environmental parasite? Is that why these plants annoy us so much? I know I wasn’t fond of them before, almost nobody is, but now I really don’t like them.]

{Exactly! And we’re here. Shall we just go for it and see what happens?} he asked as we surveyed the clearing. Or, what used to be a clearing rather. The vines had completely taken over the space, criss crossing the formerly open area as densely as any spider’s web, holding the blue green sphereical core about six meters across suspended above a pile of broken trunks.

[Wow. I wonder what kind of disaster led to these trees getting knocked down?]

{I think it was the vines themselves that knocked these trees down. Look how little life is left in those trees. They got drained of their life until they could not support their own weight, plus the weight of the vines, and now there’s not even mushrooms growing on their slowly rotting trunks. We’ve already seen the vines move when they ambush something, so they probably just vacated the fallen trunks after they fell, and started making this web.}

[Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.] I said, taking a deep breath that was contained by the helmet. [Alright, let’s do this thing. I don’t think the vines have noticed us yet, and even if it does wrap us up, I think we can just wait until it brings us closer to the core and then sleep from there. Unless line of sight is necessary?]

{Line of sight is helpful, but not strictly necessary. Actually, I think there’s an area about midway between the edge and the core where there’s less vines running through. If we back up, I think there’s room to lunge through that gap into the relatively open area with our wings folded, and then open them back up and hover freely for the couple of seconds it would take to hide and sleep.}

[Sounds like a plan to me!]

As he predicted, we were able to get about halfway to the middle of the clearing without being detected by any of the sentry vines. I’m not entirely sure what I expected of the hide and sleep spell, but it wasn’t stare at the core while yawning and then suddenly we’re curled up in a ball inside the core.

Interestingly enough, once the magic was going and we were starting to absorb the mana of the core, for the first time since he landed on me I felt a clear separation between the two of us. There was a part of me that was lamenting the loss, that actually enjoyed almost seamless and effortless cooperation needed to do even the simplest of tasks when smashed together like we had been. Meanwhile, there was another part of me that wanted to freak out at how easily we got along even better than I had with any of the guys who had tried to court me in the past.

The part of me that enjoyed the cooperation then urged me not to think about it yet as that train of thought is going dangerously close to acknowledging things that would force us to pay the mana price. Instead, we should just forget about those worries for now, so we can snuggle up to him and enjoy the nap. In the end, I decided the cooperative voice was right, we cannot afford to worry about the future just yet, so I somehow snuggled up to him and let my consciousness fade.