Bandit swung from vine to vine, soaring beneath the canopy as he sped across the jungle. While his hands were busy picking out his path, his eyes were hard at work, scanning the ground far below. The trees were so much bigger than they had been in the world that came before. Then again, everything had gotten bigger since the Voice had arrived and ended the rule of the hairless tribe. The entity that his friend Neek called ‘the System’.

Despite everything that had happened, the changes to the jungle and the crisis underway, it was good to be home. But Bandit didn’t have time to think about the past or the future right now. He had nearly arrived at the boundary of the shadow tigers’ territory, where a decisive showdown would soon commence. A war that would determine which species would live to see another day, and which would vanish like dust in the breeze, their flesh becoming food for the insatiable jungle.

The air was filled with the electric tension of imminent conflict. The knowledge that the world could erupt into blood-drenched violence at any moment. Beside Bandit ran fifty of the tribe’s best warriors, a mixture of veterans and up-and-comers from Bandit’s generation. Brave friends and family he was proud to call his tribe. Even if they won the war, not everyone who had set foot upon this path would be coming home, if any of them did at all, and he offered a silent salute to their courage and resolve.

The rest of the tribe’s strength was arranged in a second group, ranging behind the assault team until their path was clear. Only a handful of the Elder’s elite guard had remained to protect the tribe’s leader, young, and expectant mothers. If Bandit lost this fight, they would be forced to flee into unexplored territory with only a handful of guardians, and their odds of survival were poor at best.

The cries of animals and beasts resounded in the distance, but Bandit ignored their clamor, every scrap of concentration focused on searching for his enemies. He knew from experience that the tigers would never reveal themselves by making a sound. The cruel hunters who stalked in the shadows had besieged the lemurs ever since they had made it back from the island, returning to a home transformed in their absence.

It wasn’t just the tribe and the tigers who were evolving by the day. Every beast who called the jungle home was undergoing their own metamorphosis. Not to mention the strange creatures that came from another world entirely, something that beasts could sense on an instinctual level.

But it wasn’t any of the new arrivals who were slaughtering Bandit’s people, at least not more than any other predator who called the tropics home, but the lemurs’ ancient enemy, the tigers. Specifically, a small group of tigers who had become monsters by their own will, earning them the name of dreadbeast.

The shadow tigers were abominations. Creatures who took life but no longer gave it. They had sacrificed their ability to sire offspring, forsaken the natural order, all for the pursuit of personal power.

It was enough to make Bandit’s blood boil.

But what really made him see red was how the shadow cats used their newfound abilities. Their wanton cruelty and needless slaughter. If they weren’t stopped, not only the tribe would suffer long by their claws. The entire jungle would be drained of vitality and die, leaving only rot and devastation behind.

While the shadow tigers were few in number, they were growing more deadly by the day, as the cursed beasts hunted all living creatures within their territory. Consuming them to fuel their dark evolution. They were far more powerful than any lemur, except for the Elder, whose incredible strength still had Bandit in awe. But the matriarch of the tribe no longer had the endurance to participate in a lightning raid like this. It was up to him to lead his people to war, and Bandit vowed that he would win this fight, no matter what it cost him.

There was only one reason that the tribe stood a chance. Although the tiger’s leader had gathered them together, they refused to live near one another. Instead, the shadow tigers shared bordering territories, coming together only to repel threats or stalk greater prey. The tribe could kill the abominations one-by-one, carving a path to their heart before they knew they were under attack, then finish off the tiger king before his minions could gather their might.

Within a fleeting handful of heartbeats, the tribe would put an end to their aggressors once and for all, or they would die, and their people would perish. An outcome in accordance with the law of the jungle since time immemorial.

The tribe would never have been able to survive in this strange new world if it wasn’t for the changes they had undergone on the island, and the hard lessons they had learned along the way. Not for the first time, Bandit wished that his friend Neek was standing by his side. Neek was a powerful warrior, and the smartest person Bandit knew. Neek was a true friend and someone Bandit could rely on, even if he was a member of the hairless tribe, who had wronged the lemurs greatly in the past.

Neek had taught the lemurs how to command the powers of flame. To use fire to make meat even more delicious, at least most of the time. Neek had shown the lemurs how to fight in formation and numerous other tactics. He had taught them the advantage of surprise attacks, coordinated maneuvers, and fighting on the ground of one’s own choosing. How to take down prey many times his size with clever traps, deception, and metal fangs that could bite deeper than any beast.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Bandit hoped that Neek was thriving and had been reunited with the others of his kind, before shoving all such distractions aside. Now was the time for maneuvering and planning. The time for killing and dying would come soon after. Following that thought, Bandit reached back to touch his metal fang.

Across his back was a sheath that looped around his body, holding the razor-sharp blade the System had granted him after leaving the island. Neek had shown Bandit how useful such weapons could be while climbing the mountain, and he’d decided to master their use then and there. Armed with his weapon of choice, he could rend flesh as well as any tiger.

That was when, as if summoned by the thought, a tiger emerged from the shadows.

It pounced and went streaking through the air, tearing out a lemur’s throat before vanishing once more, having never made a sound. It was one of the scouts patrolling the boundary of their territory, a subservient male bound by the iron rule of the tiger king.

Bandit let out a cry, letting the assault team know that an enemy had been spotted. The tribe closed on the area like a fist, converging on his location. It was vital that they eliminate the scout before he reported their presence. They were lucky that the dreadbeast had decided to hunt the tribe instead of running away. The shadow tigers were agile and impossible to detect by conventional means when their powers were active.

If they lost track of him now, all their planning would come to naught.

Fortunately, the shadow cats tended to underestimate the lemurs, unable to conceive that they could pose a true threat. That they were no longer the easy prey they had been in the world before. If Bandit was right about what was about to happen, the tiger’s conceit would lead him to his doom.

Bandit drew his fang and concentrated on his surroundings. Not looking, not listening, but feeling the world around him. Seeking the subtle sense of motion beyond the periphery of his vision, the whispering that was too quiet for his ears to register. Casting his senses beyond the boundary of his body, Bandit reached out and touched the heart of the jungle.

In this state of total concentration, he could sense the web of life binding the forest together. Bandit ran his fingertips across the shimmering threads connecting all living things, seeking the creature that had forsaken the natural order. A drop of death amidst the ocean of life. Not the pure death that was merely the end of the great cycle, but the taint that was life’s antithesis.

Just when he was afraid that the tiger had fled after all, he felt it.

An overwhelming intent to kill blossomed behind Bandit, sending adrenaline pouring into his veins. He launched himself off the trunk with explosive force, throwing his body out of the way half a heartbeat before the tiger’s claws eviscerated the bark he’d vacated.

Bandit grabbed a vine, swung around, and turned to face his assailant, intent on not letting the scout merge with the shadows again. He let loose a bark, telling the tribe to hold back, having come up with a plan in a flash.

The tiger leapt straight for him, ghostly body nearly invisible amid the shadow-strewn forest floor. Instead of swinging to another vine, Bandit let go. He landed lightly on the ground, as if fear had made him clumsy and he’d lost his grip. Enticed by his show of weakness, the cat came bounding after him. Bandit retreated, running in the opposite direction, straight into a clearing with an enormous boulder in the middle.

The tiger followed without hesitation, every crook of his posture conveying pleasure that he had driven his prey into favorable terrain. Bandit could no longer retreat to the safety of the treetops, and the scout would catch him before he could gain the far side.

Looking around as if hoping to find his allies but spotting none, he pressed his back against the boulder, holding his blade before him with trembling arms. With sinister grace, the tiger leapt in front of him, cutting off any avenue of retreat. He leisurely advanced, pinning Bandit with his back against the wall, delighting in his fear, and savoring his suffering.

In a black flash, the shadow cat went in for the kill. Before he finished closing the distance the dreadbeast paused, confused. The lemur in front of him didn’t smell afraid after all. It smelt like… death.

The tiger realized that something was wrong and turned to flee, but it was already too late. A hundred rocks rained from the treetops, driving the dreadbeast straight toward Bandit, which was exactly what he’d been waiting for.

Bandit had lured the beast into range and was ready to spring his trap. He raised one fist into the air, and a roiling ball of flame sprang to life with a whoosh, bright enough to make the tiger snarl. Knowing that he was trapped, the scout rushed forward to take Bandit down with him.

In that moment, Bandit knew exactly where the creature would be. Exactly where he should strike.

Half a heartbeat later, he let loose with his spell, light streaking toward shadow with death looming behind them both. By the blink of an eye, Bandit struck first. The fireball streaked through the air to catch the tiger broadside, engulfing his head in flame.

Bandit grabbed onto a vine that a lemur on top of the boulder had lowered and was pulled away in the nick of time. The burning tiger slammed into the rock with a sickening crunch, as the stench of scorched fur rose to fill the air.

Overcome with pain and blinded by smoke, the dreadbeast stumbled across the forest floor, rolling on the ground to put out the fire. Before he could smother the blaze, Bandit hit him with another spell, transforming the predator into a roaring pillar of flame. The cat let out an agonized howl and then collapsed, consumed by the conflagration within a matter of moments. Bandit let loose a bloodthirsty cackle, now one step closer to winning the war.

Fighting with a blade wasn’t the only trick that he’d learned from Neek. Eyes reflecting the flickering flames, Bandit wondered where his friend was and where his adventures had taken him next.