Unfortunately, anesthesia and pain killers were a luxury they had no access to here in mushroom world. Heath had to use his other hand to cover Michael’s mouth to prevent him from howling in agony. Even if they had run a good distance away from the where the pursuers had originally found them, they could never be careful enough.

The healer buckled and arched as Sonja yanked the shaft out of his arm. Eik had already obliterated anything that might have been on his fingers by drenching his hands in Profound Toxin and even triggered Accelerant a couple of times for good measure.

The moment the arrow was out fresh, red blood began to flow out and down his arm, staining his clothes further. Eik stuck both fingers into the wound to stop the bleeding, one from each side, causing Michael to struggle more against Heath’s immovable hold.

Biting down on the collar of his undershirt, Michael immediately let the green hum of his Heal ability surround his hand and pressed into the wound, placing his hand over Eik’s. His breathing consisted of a series of ragged gasps but as he focused his attention on the healing, he gradually gained more and more control over it until inhalation and exhalation came in measured, rhythmic movements.

“Okay, I think I’d like that healing potion now, please,” he said to Sonja. “It had better be more effective than the stuff Eik makes.”

“Hey, what did I do?” Eik complained, generously resisting the temptation to wiggle his fingers around inside the wound.

“Sorry…” Michael drawled with a grin.

Sonja placed the blood red orb on his tongue and, just like Atla had explained, the protective shell containing the fluid began to break down and spill the medicine into Michael’s throat.

“She said that this is the strongest healing potion that we can use as E-rankers. Anything stronger would have severe side effects on us. I heard addiction is also a dangerous risk if your body can’t handle the strength of the substance.”

“I think I already feel it working a little bit,” Michael added, lifting his hand emitting healing light slightly to look at the wound. “I think there might be something for the pain mixed into it as well. My arm is starting to grow numb.”

“How about we start moving again then?” Eik suggested. “Your arm can heal as we walk now that you’ve taken the healing potion, right?”

“Probably?” Michael nodded, clearly unsure.

“Menka’s squad of stupid idiots will know what we’re aiming to do. They’re going to try to intercept us by the fungus king, I’d bet. We have to get there before them!”

The going was slow compared to the pace of their earlier escape but as they ran they had actually moved closer to the fungus king whose titanic hat stood clear in the light of the afternoon suns.

With remarkable speed, Michael’s wound began to knit itself together as they walked. He kept his own healing ability active without stopping but the majority of the regeneration was caused by the healing potion.

Soon they started jogging in a light tempo, trying to make better time but also saving their strength for whatever awaited them in at the foot of the fungus king. They expected a boss fight of some kind to mark the end of the Crucible practical, and although it was an uncomfortable thought, Menka Tokanami’s henchmen would probably make another appearance as well.

“We’re getting closer,” Heath said as they reached the shade of the cap. Their pace slowed to a crawl as an encounter with the other group became increasingly likely. If they were waiting for them, it would be around here.

The streams appeared to be converging at the foot of the fungus king, sloping down into a rushing tempo while the land around rose and became a ridge that surrounded the center where the fungus king grew. Because of the ridge the base was not yet visible, the change in landscape alone warned of something unlike what they had seen until now.

“I see another stream over there to our left as well. Although calling it a stream might be a bit misleading at this point. It would be better described as a river. And look at the freakin’ trunk on that big thing!” Heath whispered as he made it high up enough on the edge of the ridge to look across. “Is that—”

Stopping himself abruptly, he dropped to the ground and rolled toward the others to get them down as well. “Get down! Now!”

“Is it them?” Eik asked as he laid flat on the moss.

“Yeah, they’re right there!”

“Where are they?” Sonja asked.

Heath rolled onto his back and threw a thumb towards the center and a little toward the right. “They’re not exactly on the opposite side, but if we’re at six o’clock on a clock and the opposite side is twelve o’clock, then those bastards are somewhere around two o’clock or something like that. They’re set up with a tent and everything too, I think.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“What do we do?” Michael asked. His wound had gotten a lot better. The blood had clotted well and he could move well enough to use his abilities and not be a hindrance in battle. He was still keeping the healing going as much as he could but the potion still seemed to be doing most of the work.

“We can’t just go at them right away, but at this point we’ll have to go through them to get back,” Sonja muttered with a finger on her chin. “I think we should wait until it’s gotten a bit darker. That makes it easier to get in an ambush. I think I have an idea.”

They snuck back the way they had come and sat down in the cover of a cluster of mushroom trees to wait for dusk. A few hours later the suns were nearing the horizon, casting long shadows across the landscape and the four friends prepared to make the first move against the enemy.

Occasionally, the tall, creepy striders would pass by, ambling along through the now deep waterways. Their spindly legs seemed to let them stay balanced without being washed away by the rush of rush. Digging their spikes into the riverbed, they climbed down toward the center where they gathered.

Near the base of the massive stem of the fungus king a breathtaking mycelium network snaked and slithered its way outward, the uncovered roots disappearing into the earth where the ridge mounted. Here the striders appeared to be feeding, long, disgusting proboscises extending all the way down to the ground without the striders having to bend their gangly limbs.

While they had been waiting they had made numerous, cautious trips back up the ridge to make sure that the remaining four hunters hadn’t moved from their position along the edge. A lookout was posted at the top, scanning the surroundings as they slowly turned.

“Don’t they realize how exposed they are up there? They know we have an archer on our side too,” Michael said.

“But it’s also the place with the best vantage point around here. They probably want to make sure that we don’t sneak in and complete the scenario before they can get to us.”

“It just seems a bit risky.”

“I suppose it is risky that they’re so visible,” Eik said with a shrug. “But the alternative is to have a worse vantage point and being even less able to see a potential ambush. That, or wait so far away that we might sneak past them.”

“But we are going to ambush them anyway,” the healer mumbled.

Eik grinned. “Isn’t it great? I guess the mission is more important to them than safety. Maybe they don’t think chumps from a fresh world like us are capable of posing a genuine threat.”

A sense of animosity had been buildings steadily over the past day. Ever since it had become painfully clear that the other team was indeed here to take their lives, it had become easier to distance themselves from the hunters’ identities as people. In the minds of Eik and the others they were quickly becoming nothing more than obstacles to be removed in order for life to continue.

Even Michael, who had been horrified by the murder of the mage crippled by an arrow in the hip, had begun to see the necessity in killing them. It was just something that had to be done.

“I suppose they think that mage we brought down was just pure luck on our part,” Michael said.

“Assholes,” Heath muttered.

“Let’s get going then,” Sonja said as they set out toward the top of the ridge. Heath and Michael stopped where the ground rose and hid among the fungi. Eik and Sonja continued up, crawling the last few paces to the edge where she pulled out an arrow and handed it to him.

He grasped the metal tip between his fingers and let the Profound Toxin flow freely from his palm to cover the head of the projectile. He kept his toxin-drenched fingers wrapped around the tip as Sonja nocked the arrow.

"We should try to get you some arrows that can carry a load of my toxin," he whispered.

"Absolutely, yes."

Only once she pulled back the string and took careful aim did he let go and run back down to join Heath and Michael among the trees. By now the moss was illuminating everything from below and the light of the mushrooms was slowly becoming more intense.

They watched Sonja let loose her arrow and heard the scream of pain and surprise as it struck the one keeping watch.

Eik also felt Profound Toxin calling out to him, informing him of its contact with the foreign system, reporting its infiltration. The feeling was vague and distant.

He didn’t even have to do a test activation to know that he would be unable to use Accelerant. He needed to be touching the victim. At least he did for now.

Disengage carried her all the way down where she landed in a rolling break fall and leapt in to join them. As she settled into a kneeling crouch, a second arrow was already ready to go on the bow string.

They had carefully chosen their hiding place beforehand for having almost no glowing moss to give away their position. Seconds later three silhouettes came rushing around the bend of the ridge and continued down the slope in search of their quarry.

They passed closely by and Sonja was able to plant an arrow into the twin woman with a long sword. Sprouting from the right side of her chest, the force of the projectile sent her spinning to the ground with a hollow thud.

The golden boy was upon them in the blink of an eye, but Heath was already there to fend off the attack. Thrusting his sword with lightning speed, the tip of the blade tinking off the tank’s heavy shield with a bright flash of flying sparks. Ignoring his failed attempt at a quick kill, the man simply let his momentum carry him into the barrier, leading with an armored shoulder.

Forced to retreat as the battle became a melee, Sonja’s third arrow of the fight wasn’t loosened at full draw and deflected by the Gohkamorian’s broad axe. It was big enough to double as a shield if he so chose. Towering above the haughty-looking man, the giant swept the heavy axe up and down in front of his teammate, blocking his advance completely.

It hit Heath’s shield hard and sent the tank stumbling back as he desperately tried to right himself.

“Are you kidding me, you ugly brute?” the young man complained, his demeanor growing more and more difficult to reconcile with his knightly appearance each time he opened his mouth.

“Shut up.” The Gohkamorian’s bass rumbled, his manner of speaking fitting his look perfectly as opposed to his colleague.

Keeping his shield up, Heath charged ahead with his thick blade peeking out from behind the metal barrier, the hum of a renewed Single Protection a testament to Michael’s improved engagement in battle.

Meanwhile, the woman with the arrow in the chest had yanked the projectile out with a grunt of suppressed pain. As she was smearing something into her steadily bleeding wound a shadow materialized above the Gohkamorian. She tried to call out to warn the colossus, seeing her own chances of survival diminishing as they continued to sustain losses and injuries, but she barely got the words out.

Eik, almost invisible in the mid space between the light of the moss and the fungi, descended like a herald of death.