It was early in the morning. I looked down into the small pond, at my own reflection. Crimson eyes, light brown skin, dagger-like very long ears, white hair tied into a ponytail with shaven sides and two, dark grey, antler beams, no longer than a few centimetres growing from my forehead. I wore leather armour with satchels around my waist and my two daggers in sheathes on my right leg. The armour was a little tight, pressing down on my lean and athletic body.

"Are you sure you don't want my help?" Elvia asked me, sounding quite concerned.

Of course, she would be, we had spent the past six years together, as mother and son...

"Yes, this is between me and him," I said.

She smiled at me.

"Alright, but please promise me to stay safe," Elvia said.

"Of course, mother," I responded with a fake smile on my face.

She immediately grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. I was now nearly as tall as she was, maybe about two and a half metres tall I'd guess. Truly a giant, even among wood elves who were on average around one-ninety to two metres tall. When Elvia let go of me she handed me my fur-lined cloak with a hood that she had made. I smiled as I took it and put it into my satchel, which was surprisingly spacey.

"Oh, how my little boy has grown," she said as she ruffled my hair.

I heard a gag in my mind.

"I will be going now, mother," I said to her as I approached the spot of the tree surrounded grove that was the exit. Simply two tall trees so close to each other that nothing would get through.

Elvia opened them up and I stepped outside, waving at her with a smile on my face. I kept up that smile until the moment the trees closed behind me. She had tears in her emerald green eyes.

As soon as the trees closed I let out a loud sigh and cracked my knuckles.

Finally, I thought.

For the past six years she had been my mother, and for the past six or so years, she had ignored my trauma and my problems. But that didn't matter, now I could finally kill that stupid cat.

In the corner of my eye, I could see M flying towards me. For the past six or so years he had been keeping an eye on Terror for me.

"Where is he?" I asked as M landed on my shoulder.

"Two kilometres to the north, in a small glade, a small hill at one end, surrounded by trees and there was a boulder," M said.

I smiled and activated my warp magic mark.

"Let's play," I said. "[Far Step]"

I took a step to the north, envisioning the glade, the small hill, the trees... even the boulder. After being consumed by the black-dark green energy I appeared in a small glade just like M had described. And there, on the hill was Terror, looking larger and stronger than before. He looked at me with anger in his now six golden eyes. I stared back, with a casual smile on my face, deactivating my warp magic mark.

Terror was taller than before, that much I could say even while he was laying down, the long piece of fur that had extended from the back of his head had now fused with his spine and the two extending from his shoulders had connected to each other, now forming a sort of ring over his back. He was less bulky and his head looked a lot longer. At the end of his tail were spikes and he had now six golden eyes instead of four blue ones.

"Missed me?" I asked as M left my shoulder.

Terror jumped towards me with a fearsome growl, no hesitation at all. But he didn't get far. My magic mark activated almost on instinct and the fine lines resembling thorn tendrils crawled across my skin. I felt the connection to the ground all around me and conjured countless thorn tendrils from the ground. They were thicker than my muscular arms and had thorns sharper than most blades. These thorn tendrils wrapped themselves around Terror's entire body, binding him and cutting his body open at the same time. I felt a tingling sensation as blood dripped onto the thorn tendrils. Terror had stopped not even half a metre away from me, unable to move and not even able to touch the ground. With each attempt to free himself he just made his situation worse for himself. I tilted my head and just smiled at him.

"How nice to finally meet you again my old friend," I said, extending my arms to the side, exposing my chest, as if to welcome Terror into a hug.

He let out a growl and tried to move again, this time with far more power. I tightened the grip the thorn tendrils had on him, making blood squirt out of his wounds.

"Did I say you could move?" I asked as if I couldn't believe it, then I punched him in the face with enough force for him to feel it but not enough to blow him away. "Did I say you could fucking move!?" I yelled as loud as I could.

For a moment I thought I could see fear in Terror's eyes, fear that was quickly replaced by anger as Terror tried to free himself yet again. And this time he even managed to break some of the thorn tendrils but the broken ones were replaced before the leftover bits could even fall to the ground.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. You can't move. You can't fucking move! I didn't say you could yet... so don't!"

I chuckled.

"You know... I spent the past six and a half years preparing for this day. And I want it to be special. And by that, I mean that I want you overgrown fucking cat to suffer!"

I pressed my middle finger right against Terror's nose. He tried to bite it off but the thorn tendril around his neck prevented him from even moving his head.

"In those years I had a lot of fun, you know? But... but the voices, they became worse. They just became worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and worse... and I just don't know what to do!"

I sank to the ground as M rose up into the air from my shoulder and began circling us. The voices whispered as the wind that carried them blew around me.

"I feel like you'll listen to me Terror, we're enemies, after all, right?" I asked, looking up at Terror's six eyes with hope in my eyes.

"And enemies help each other. Yes, they do. And I'll help you right now-" I got up and brushed away the dirt from my leather and fur pants that Elvia had made for me, "-I'll help you by ending your pathetic fucking excuse for a life!" I yelled loudly.

Again there was this fear in his eyes. A shiver went down my spine when I saw it.

"Now then, let's start this fight, shall we?"

I jumped back about ten metres, almost crashing into a tree and released all my thorn tendrils before swapping my magic mark. [Blood High] immediately activated. Terror approached me quickly, so quickly in fact that I had barely enough time to enhance my instincts, agility and strength. Luckily for me, I did in fact have enough time to do it, which was very bad news for Terror because my fist was buried in his face almost the same second and the next he was already flying backwards with blood drops suspended mid-air. When he crashed into a row of thick trees I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"You see!? You've become weak! All this time you seem to have only become weaker!" I yelled.

Terror got up... because I let him and let out a loud roar. Along with the spit he also expelled mana from his body. There was enough mana pressure to break some branches off of the trees around him. And it was also enough to slit the ground beneath me, but not nearly enough to bring me to my knees. My left eye twitched.

"Your futile attempts are starting to make me angry. At least try, c'mon. You could do it before, why not now?" I asked with disbelief in my voice as I grew tired of these little games that fucking oversized cat was playing with me.

Is he playing me for a fool?

Maybe you've outgrown the overgrown cat? Ira suggested.

Possible... totally possible...

"Die!"

"Idiot!"

"Slave!"

"Cockroach!"

I clenched my fist and grit my teeth.

"And you can fuck off as well you stupid voices!" I yelled out loud as mana began to violently surge around me.

Trees splintered, the ground split and Terror looked at me in fear.

Thirty minutes, Ira said.

I chuckled.

Considering that I trained for over six years I'd expect more than that.

Oh, don't worry honey. It took me a century to master this power. Now go and kill that fucking cat! Ira said, encouraging me.

Terror growled as I approached him.

"You scared now kitty? Now you know how I felt when you nearly killed me all those times... well now that I think about it we didn't meet that often. You just had this unhealthy obsession with me... Are you a fucking stalker or something?"

Terror just looked at me with fear and confusion in his six eyes.

"Oh, I really don't like that look you're giving me," I said as I launched myself at him.

Terror didn't have time to react. By the time he had noticed that I moved I already stood beside him and he was pinned to the ground by my mana pressure alone. Now he struggled to even growl at me. But that didn't stop him from trying to scratch my ankle with one of his long claws. I once again tilted my head to the right and looked down at him.

"Oh you poor, stupid, idiotic animal," I said. "I'll fucking kill you!"

I raised my left foot, channelled more mana into it for more strength and then crushed the claw he tried to use to cut my ankle with it. Terror let out a growl of pain.

"Now you've fucking done it... you've fucking done it!" I yelled.

I took one of my daggers out of its sheath and pointed it at one of Terror's eyes.

"Will you miss the eye if I gauge it out?" I asked.

Fear crept into Terror's eyes as he tried to get away. The pressure I had put on him was powerful, but not quite powerful enough to keep him from moving completely.

"Oh, you fucking cat!" I yelled as Terror tried to... crawl away from me.

I couldn't help but chuckle. It was funny to see the creature that had nearly killed me crawl across the dirty forest ground like this.

"As funny as this is-" I swapped my magic marks, "-I can't let the guest of honour leave quite yet!"

Thorn tendrils broke through the ground and once again wrapped themselves around Terror's ground, pinning him to it. He was once again incapable of moving. I walked up to his head once again and placed one hand on his head and had the other firmly gripping the black dagger.

"Now, are you ready for our... fun little activity?" I asked.

Terror let out a loud growl as he tried to move, only making the thorns dig deeper into his body.

"No, no. Don't move. That's no fun!" I said angrily as I rammed my dagger into one of his eyes.

Terror let out a pained growl but instead of fighting back or anything, his body went limp for a second. Then it suddenly tensed up and Terror let out a loud roar as a light shimmer began radiating around him. His remaining eyes turned golden, same as his claws and the tips of his two tails. Golden dots also began appearing all over his fur and I could feel the ground split beneath me as I was nearly forced to my knees by the mana pressure Terror suddenly emitted.

Well fuck...

I jumped back when Terror broke free of his thorny restraints. Even the thorn tendrils I summoned immediately after and wrapped around his entire body weren't enough to stop him, every time he would simply break free with an eardrum-shattering roar. And to add to that I suddenly felt a rock behind my foot and began falling to the ground, back first. Of course, Terror used that moment to charge at me with his maw opened and spit flying out of it. I grit my teeth as I swapped my magic marks and immediately enhanced all I could, reflexes, speed, strength and on top of that was [Blood High] due to the few drops of blood I could see. As I fell to the ground I clicked Terror in the jaw, bringing him of course and making him crash into the ground. For a few metres, he just slid across it and crashed right into a tree that fell down onto him.

I got back up from the ground and wiped the spit off of my face.

"Briliant, just brilliant..." I whispered to myself.

That's why beings that can force evolve are so dangerous, Ira said.

I angrily stared at Terror who had already recovered and was now walking towards me, piercing me with his golden eyes, a branch lodged into his side and blood ruining his white fur. At the sight, I couldn't help but smile.

"At least this won't be boring," I said as I put the dagger back in its sheath and then cracked my knuckles.