A part of Eik was excited to see all the different plants growing in the new stretch of woods. New species bloomed all around, as if they’d been there for years. As they continued through, leafy canopies overhead, it began to sink in just how much their world had changed, and that the implications might be severe.

Long grass crunched underfoot, making it difficult to traverse. Vines hung from the tall trees like nooses, just waiting for a careless person to get their neck stuck. Birdsong and the whir of insects dominated the space, reminding Eik of the rain forests he used to see on TV. A place like this did not belong in this part of the world.

“What are we gonna find out here?” Michael asked nobody in particular. “Is it really okay to send a team of F-rankers on an exploratory mission like this?”

Sonja swung her thin blade through some meaty leaves, their path mostly created as they went since they’d failed to find any footpaths. “The scouts have found a number of monsters that pose an identifiable threat that needs to be subjugated, unlike this place, which remains a mystery.”

“I get that, but it still feels risky,” Michael said, constantly scanning the foliage for any signs of movement.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Heath said. “But Forest’s resources are particularly limited right now, so for low-rankers like us, it basically this or be on standby back in town. Would you rather twiddle your thumbs all day?”

Michael didn’t answer.

“Hey,” Sonja called. “I think there’s something up ahead.”

At once, Heath moved up to take his position as vanguard with his tower shield. Sonja leapt to the back and drew her bow, while Eik and Michael huddled in the middle, Eik with his hectona fang and Michael holding a round-shield and a heavy, one-handed mace. They moved slowly, Heath pushing foliage aside with the tip of his sword. What met their eyes when they finally stepped through the last layer of vines and leaves was a vast lake. Something like that shouldn’t have been there.

It stretched on, almost like a sea, the opposite shore hidden by distant fog. Or rather, there had better be a damn shore somewhere in there. The sudden appearance of a great lake was unsettling enough in itself, but a sea would be a different matter entirely. The grass past the tree line was not quite as wild, usurped further down by a thin, sandy beach.

“This is… This is simply not natural…” Michael muttered, white-knuckling his mace and shield, sticking close to Eik.

Eik chuckled. “We passed natural long ago, Mike. I’d say right around the time people began to punch houses and win,” he said and stretched his neck to look into the water nervously. “But this definitely isn’t a comforting discovery…”

Heath took his first step into the sand, now only about ten meters from the water. Judging by the rapid darkening of the surface of the water, there must have been a sudden drop into the depths near the shore. “I wonder if there’s anything in there,” he said, inching closer and closer.

“Maybe you should reconsider what you’re doing for a moment, bro,” Sonja commented, staying well away from the sand.

“I’m obviously not going to go in!” Heath said and rolled his eyes. He glanced into the dark water again, taking a few, wary steps back before trudging toward the team in earnest. When he looked up, the three of them were frozen, eyes locked onto something behind him. Eik raised a hand to stop Heath from moving anymore, mouthing for him to be quiet.

“What?” he asked and turned.

A little ways down the coast, a giant stood drinking from the lake. Heath drew in a sharp breath and froze as well. More than anything else, it looked like a bison, with the exception of a few minor details. It was twice the size of what the animal should have been, its height probably allowing it to graze on the leaves of trees.

As the team began to slowly back away, the animal looked up from the water and regarded them with an apathetic gaze.

“Stay silent,” Sonja hissed, her eyes never leaving the enormous beast, six pronged horns protruding from its forehead to make it look almost like an antlered elk. “and move slowly.”

They would have done that anyway. The thing was huge. With a blood-red coat, the mutated bison looked like something out of a cautionary tale. Gaze remaining uninterested, it began to slowly move along the sandy bank, course set for the four humans.

It moved almost as if the direction was coincidental, but the moment Michael made it into the forest and became obscured by foliage, it charged, the bestial cry that echoed through the trees sounding downright obscene compared to the throaty grunt of an “old” bison.

“Into the forest, now!” Eik shouted, slapping Heath on his armored back as the big man hauled ass, rattling like a toolbox strapped to a roller coaster.

The beast was gaining on them fast, having crossed more than half the distance between them by the time Eik made it to the tree line as the tail of their escape. Vines and branches whipped him across the face as he fled further in, hoping with all his heart that they were at least roughly heading back the way they had come. The only thing that indicated which way he should run was the noise of Heath’s outfit, since the density of the vegetation offered next to no visibility ahead.

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Unfortunately, even the sound of Heath crashing through the forest somewhere in front of him was soon drowned out by the advance of the titanic bison as it obliterated everything in its path to get to them, birds scattering above.

Eik could practically feel the imminent impact as the bison neared with frightening speed. “I’m gonna get caught!” he shouted and planted a foot high up on the trunk of a tree and jumped for the lowest branch. “I’m going above it instead!”

“What?” was all the answer he got from Heath somewhere up ahead as he ascended the branches one by one until he was sure that he had made it above the bison’s potential attack range. With his F-rank strength the climb was effortless.

Below, the beast thundered through the underbrush, scuffing the tree Eik was in as it passed and shaking it to the point where Eik feared it might snap in half. But otherwise it passed without paying him any heed.

Shortly after it had passed under Eik, a shout reached his ears at the time that the giant reared up as if in attack. The tree cover was too dense for Eik to properly see what was happening. Any more than glimpses was impossible, but the fact that the bison was now staying in place could mean that it had caught Heath.

The sounds ringing through the canopies spoke of a fight, so Eik drew in a breath and leapt from the branch he was on to the adjacent tree. Keeping his balance with a hand on limb above, he stepped along the branch to get closer to the action.

“Heath, to the side! Avoid!” Sonja’s voice shouted as something clanged against metal.

Eik jumped to the next tree over again, the scene unfolding before his eyes. Heath was facing the beast with his shield raised, an arrow protruding from the bison’s powerful thigh which seemed to be nothing more than a minor bother.

An attempted goring was caught by Heath’s shield, but the force of the attack sent him off his feet to crash back first into a tree, and it was only by a hair’s breadth that he managed to jump out of the way of a second strike, which left the trunk in tatters. Was this freakin’ thing an Awakened?

Sonja put another four arrows in the bison while Eik moved to a position above the animal. All the arrows struck around the same area, putting a limp in its movement. She was moving adeptly in and out of cover to avoid the attention of their foe. As it prepared for another charge, Eik stepped off the branch, venom fang in hand.

The bison didn’t so much as rock when the F-ranker landed on its back, but the moment the hectona fang parted skin and penetrated flesh, pumping in toxin, it went wild, howling and bucking like mad. As it continued to lurch violently, Eik had to take his hands off the fang, still buried deep under the monster’s shoulder blade, to grab onto the long hair running down its back, lest he fell to the ground to get trampled to death.

Even if it wouldn’t do much, he still let the poison flow into the fur and down the skin of the huge bovine, irritating it further. When Eik’s fingers began to slip he only barely managed to get a hold of his weapon and jump off to put some distance between himself and the beast.

He broke his fall with a roll and got up to face the monster, but it was already coming for him, globules of luminescent blue toxin flying everywhere, forcing him to dive away from the charging colossus.

“Eik, I’m coming in!” Heath shouted as he rushed past Eik to take up a position on the new front.

Eik turned around and ran into the foliage. “Hold on, I’m going around!”

He made a small circle to get behind the beast to get in another injection.

As if it had eyes in the back of its head, it hopped out of the way of the fang with agility unbecoming of something that size. In the same movement, it spun and bumped him with a shoulder bulging with muscle, sending him flying into the vegetation.

When he came to a stop in the soft mulch of the forest floor, he felt nothing but the absence of air in his lungs. The breath wouldn’t come.

For several seconds, he rasped and gagged as his body fought for oxygen, unbidden panic welling up, but as shallow breaths finally began to come, so did the clangor of the battle come back into focus.

Stumbling through the underbrush, head spinning, Eik almost stabbed Michael as he suddenly appeared from behind a tree.

“Eik, are you okay?” he asked, looking distraught.

“Well, ‘okay’ might be too generous a term, but…” Eik heaved.

“Let me take a look at you for a sec—”

“Do it while we move, but don’t engage.”

A quiet hum accompanied a pulse of silver light from Michael’s palm, immediately followed by the green haze of the healing magic.

“What was that?” Eik asked. “That pulse of light.”

“My new skill,” Michael explained, a hint of excitement sneaking through on his face and in his voice. “It’s called [Single Protection], and after a bit of experimentation I’ve found out that it reduces the force of the next attack that hits whoever I use it on—in this case, you.”

“Hope it works, because we have to help Heath,” Eik said and rushed the bison from behind, venom fang held high to strike.

Sensing his approach, the Awakened beast bucked and kicked with its hind legs like a horse, catching Eik square on the chest.

Eik was flung back the way he’d come, sliding on his back along the forest floor and coming to a stop at Michael’s feet, the young healer looking down at him with concern.

“It works,” Eik croaked, massaging his rib cage.

“Are you sure?” Michael questioned, starting his healing up again. “You don’t look too good.”

“Yes, I’m sure because I’m not dead. Have you seen that thing?”

Michael glanced back at the battle. “How’s Heath able to stand his ground?”

“Heath is a defensive specialist. He has the [Shields] skill as well as the [Fortitude] skill, which translates to plain physical toughness. He’s also E-rank.”

“That sounds pretty amazing.”

“Yep. Also, if you look closer, you’ll notice that he’s not just standing still,” Eik said as he got to his feet, popping a couple of healing spheres. “He and Sonja are taking turns to pull its attention and hiding in the foliage.”

Michael continued to heal Eik for another moment before something caught his attention and he put his ear to Eik’s chest.

“What?” Eik asked.

“There’s a…” the healer began and paused. “You carry a wooden plaque, right?”

“Of course.”

“I think you’re getting something.”

Eik fished out the plaque from his collar. There really was some script being etched into the flat surface. He raised an eyebrow at the text.

“Isn’t the timing on this a little too good?” he questioned.

Michael just shrugged, reading along over his teammate’s shoulder. “It’s pretty common to be offered stuff that corresponds to your wishes, habits, and needs. And with all the action we’ve seen this past week, it’s really no wonder that you’re getting a new skill.”

“I guess,” Eik said. “I’ll happily take it anyway.”

[Choose one:]

[Blades]

[Concentration]

[Movement Boost]

“Blades doesn’t seem half bad either,” Michael noted, glancing at the bloody hectona fang in Eik’s hand before getting up.

“I agree, but if I can’t get to the bastard…”

Ignoring an urge to hesitate, Eik hurried to draw lines through [Blades] and [Concentration].

The script faded.

[Acquired Movement Boost — Lv. 1]

Eik just hoped that the skill did what he was expecting it to.