The next stop was an hour's march away in the twisting three-dimensional tunnels. We had to backtrack several times as they had changed since we last visited. Venter was not sure if that was the Worms, the magic, or the strange readings she was getting.

There were a couple of fights on the march, but Perich dealt with them in the front, and Haemir brought up the rear. I helped set up the instruments at the next site, and Val was getting the idea.

It was only five minutes later the first worm appeared, and it was accompanied by Shadow Monsters. The Shadow monsters took a variety of shapes and sizes. Ardisia and Kai were no good against the shadows, and neither was Haemir. I left the worms to them and concentrated on the shadows.

They were also bronze rank and were quick. I could swipe my claws at them and totally miss them due to them withdrawing a part of themselves. I had to constantly use Quick Sharp and Hunter Step to be where they were not expecting me to be. On the other hand, if they touched me for more than a second, Mana would drain out of me. The more I was enveloped, the faster the drain. I had to swipe sections off them, and once sections were detached, they would fade away. I had to whittle them down so there was not enough left to sustain themselves. I really wanted not to have them so close, but my Rend Skill was the only thing that would affect them, and it was only useable with my claws.

I was finishing one off when suddenly everything went black, and my Mana started dropping like a stone. I used Rend everything I could reach, and a glimmer appeared in front of me, but without mana, I could not use the skill, let alone get out. I dove backwards toward where Ardisia was using Quick Sharp and slammed against a wall. A pounding headache was growing due to Mana's loss. Roots sprouted from the wall, and Mana went up for a bit. I started fighting back with Rend as Lyari used her energy transfer skill to give me the mana to fight back. I had been accumulating Reapers Blessings as I sharpened my claws as well as Haemir’s claws, and I used them all to cut the shadow apart.

The more I sliced with Rend, the less mana was drawn out of me and the more I had to use. Eventually, I killed it and replenished mana naturally. This must have really drained Lyari. I will thank her later. My headache was still there and pounding, so I grabbed some berries from my bushes and swallowed them.

I couldn’t stop because another Shadow was about to engulf Haemir. There were a lot fewer shadows than worms, and there were fewer worms than before. I caught sight of Perich coming back from Val and Zavis’ side, so they must have had it worse than we did.

I collected a lot of Dark quintessence.

The headache took ages to fade.

The third site was relatively calm, which was a relief. There was only the occasional manifestation. I spent most of it helping with the instruments.

“I hate you. I hate this space. I can’t believe you said I should do this.” I got the impression Val was not happy with me.

The trip out was a long slog through winding tunnels. The vertical ones were the worst, especially when we had to descend.

We had an evening in a town I didn’t recognise. The next morning, we entered a new Astral Space. At the gate, it looked to be a moonlit forest. We stayed at the gate for two hours while the professor took a new set of readings. I saw no movement. The smells were of wolf, rat and bear. The forest was silent. I strained my senses and pushed for any small thing. Kai roamed the perimeter, but I didn’t let him go far without knowing what was out there.

The ground has a frost on it. Moonlight shone down, but I could see no moon.

“Be careful here,” Venter said. “Beasts range from iron through to silver. Rarely is there gold, but there seems to be no order to it. We could come across iron and silver in the same place.”

Great. Val and I are the most vulnerable. Why did they let us come?

We moved off, and I headed forward to scout. It was cold, and I could see my breath before me.

Then something ambushed Kai, and I picked up my pace as he was fighting another small rodent. Two other Kais got there before me, and the ambusher was dead when I arrived. It was another rat, larger in body than Kai, but only iron rank. I couldn’t tell what type of rat it was, so I let Kai eat it. Giant Rat pelt was an option, so does that mean it was stronger than normal?

I could smell the faint trail, and two Kais followed it as the third spread out. I decided a shield and axe would be best here. I used the shield I coated in poison Resin to see how it would go.

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The two Kais found another Giant Rat and dispatched it with no problem.

Then I heard a long wailing howl in the distance. It stood out as the rest of the forest was eerily silent. The most noise was coming from the people behind me. I don’t think Haemir know how to be silent. Lyari was more in her element here amongst the trees.

Kai gave the warning, and I said, “Left side. Silver incoming.”

Perich moved to intercept with a solid staff in his hand. Haemir fully transformed into a large Troll two and a half meters tall, and Lyari summoned her small plant children, sorry, plant warriors.

A giant bear lumbered toward them I massed more than a laden cart and was taller than me on all fours. Perich met it with a might-empowered blow from his staff. Haemir slammed into the side with claws flying, and Zavis started slicing from the opposite side. Venter kept a watch from the back as it was good for people to challenge their own level.

Val moved beside Zavis and sent her Sword wave at it but then barely seemed to scratch it. Perich was in full fight, and skilled blows were raining down on the bear faster than I could keep track of, but the bear was not backing down, and Lyari was kept busy healing Perich and Haemir. Zavis seemed fast enough to keep up, and he would signal occasionally, and bolts of lightning struck out, as well as the occasional crash from his Thunderstruck skill.

It was the last skill that worried me, and I kept out of the fight. My senses were alert to the noise as it might draw more attention. The forest was silent for a reason.

The two Kais found them first and were in full retreat as about two dozen Giant Rats came running after them. I moved to intercept and dropped a Hunter's Tether on them to pull them together. Then, I threw a Cutting Web net, catching about half of them. The webs sliced their hides, and the poison sunk into their blood. Three Kais engaged two others, and Ardisia snagged four. I pinned the last free ones with my axe, got a spear and went through the net, killing the caught ones while damaging the net as little as possible. They were all iron rank, although some were stronger than others.

Then my hearing caught the sound of more, and I said, “More from the front. Bronze, I think. Stop with the Thunder.”

I reabsorbed Ardisia and moved to intercept with spear and shield, and Val came behind me. She must have realised she was only a liability in the silver rank fight.

The smell was wolf, but they were something different. They stood on two legs and had a wolf head with wolf claws, teeth, and fur. They were about two meters tall. They were fast for their size, and there were two of them.

I engaged one with my spear and took a hard hit on my shield. Val started to dance with the other. We were both outmatched, but we just needed to delay them. I barely kept up with my one with quick applications of Quick Sharp and Hunters Step. Mighty Oak and Pierce meant it was bleeding, and my shield work was mostly keeping me free of injury.

I had no attention to spare for the other fights around me. One misstep here and I would die. I didn’t like cutting things so fine. I had some tricks in my hunter's pack that would give me an edge, but I had no moment to get them.

Spear thrust, duck, shield, move, slice, shield bash, duck around the tree and Pierce again. I was bleeding from a claw strike I missed, and the wolf thing was suddenly hassled by plant warriors and tree branches that seemed to move in its way.

I had a bit more time to attack and orientate myself. I had moved too far from the others, so I backed back toward them.

This thing was ferocious and had a tough hide skill. It howled, and its mate also howled. I glanced at its mate, and Haemir was there going head-to-head with it. Blood was flying from both, and Val was damaging it from the side. I had no doubt Haemir would outlast it in a blood fest like that, especially with Val adding to the damage.

The Silver rank fight had not finished, but Parich and Zavis were in control of the fight, and the monster bear was looking worse for wear.

I shouldn’t have looked as a massive strike hit my shield and sent me flying. I lost hold of the spear, and the wolf thing pounced on me. Claws ripped my armour and fur, and I dropped my shield and clawed back. Ardisia manifested from my fur, taking the next strikes but tangling the monster, clinging to it, and digging her thorns deep. She was adding to the bleeding and letting me rip into the underside of the monster with hand and foot. And with my teeth, as I worked on the tooth and claw technique, I sunk my fangs into its shoulder, missing its neck. I ripped out a hunk of flesh. Kai lets both my claws and teeth damage up a level.

Roots that were not Ardisia tangled the wolf’s feet, so he couldn’t bring those claws to bear, and I finally got my teeth into its neck and bit deep. Blood splurted everywhere, and it tried to shake me off, but I had all four of my clawed limbs dug deep, and Ardisia and Lyari were restricting its movement. I used Rend on all four limbs with Mighty Oak and all my Blessing of the Reaper, and I tore strips of it and flung myself away, tearing a huge hunk of flesh out of its neck with my teeth.

It bled out and died with Ardisia feasting on its blood.

I was covered in blood, and my armour was ripped and torn. I was bleeding, but that was stopping as I received healing from Lyari.

“Shit, Theo, you look worse than me,” Haemir said as he looked down at me. His wounds were closing faster than mine, but I might have more blood on me.

The silver fight was also finished, and Zavis looked exhausted. Perich looked fine, and the professor just looked like they wanted to keep moving on.

“We will take a few minutes,” Perich said. “The first site is probably still a couple of hours away.”

I got out some water and washed myself down. I looked at my ripped armour. Some major repairs were needed, but I could patch it for now.

I sat to meditate and see what a silver-ranked bear would give me.