The lion was enormous, twice the size Cass had imagined them to be. Its fur was pitch black. Electricity sparked off its fur and streaked down its flanks in brilliant flashes of blue. The air around it smelled of burning metal and buzzed with energy.

The Herald’s eyes through the trees consumed her vision. She couldn’t look away.

Her hands tightened on her staff. The lion was level 26? How is anyone supposed to kill that?

You are not, Salos answered telepathically from her shoulder. You need to run.

Cass took a hesitant step back, and suddenly everything was in motion.

The lion leapt from the bushes. 600 pounds of feline launched at Cass, jaws open, claws extended. Teeth gleamed in the dark. Claws sparked with electric blue light. That light snaked through its black coat, the fur standing on end.

Cass threw herself out of the way, barely keeping her feet as she scrambled away from the enormous monster.

Behind her, Alyx was scrambling too, her sword already out.

The lion landed between them. It snarled as it lunged for Alyx.

Alyx batted the claws aside with her sword, but her entire body staggered backward under the sheer weight of the lion’s blow.

Cass threw a Wind Blade. It struck the back of the lion’s head, ruffling its fur, but little else.

Run! Salos yelled again.

You want me to leave Alyx? Cass demanded.

Yes! Do you want to die?

It paused its attack on Alyx to glance at Cass but it was uninjured from the strike.

Alyx scrambled backward in the moment’s distraction, but that was all it was. With another snarl, the monster snapped back to Alyx.

Cass tossed another Wind Blade and another, but they broke harmlessly on its thick fur.

Her stomach knotted. This wasn’t working.

Isn’t there something you can do? Cass asked him. He had a body now. Didn’t he have skills?

Want me to light the thing up with illusioned fire? That is about all I can do to that thing right now. As a reminder, I am currently at an even lower level than you.

Cass bit back her frustration. Was this all they amounted to? An irritant or a distraction?

You knew how to beat the Lord of the Deep, she said, tossing another Wind Blade. She aimed for the thing’s raised paw, buffetting it off track as it swung at Alyx again.

Completely different. If you had wandered into the true Lord’s chamber with no plan that would have been that. This is the same idea. We are fighting it already. There is no time to set up a clever ploy or find a potential exploit. There is no winning in the face of monumental power.

Alyx’s sword made a lucky strike, it scratched the lion’s flank, drawing blood, if not much.

But, the lion howled bloody murder at the minor wound.

Cass’s skin prickled. Atmospheric Sense screamed. There was barely time to warn Alyx. “Get back!”

Alyx’s eyes went wide as she stumbled away from the howling cat, just as a deluge of lightning poured from the sky.

Cass was blind from the flash, but she could feel both Alyx and the lion still moving from the airflow around them.

You cannot kill it, Salos stressed again.

Tell me something new. Cass blindly rushed to Alyx’s side. They needed to regroup.

You’re running the wrong way, dammit, the lion’s over there!

So is Alyx, Cass said.

“Are you okay?” Cass asked Alyx aloud as she stumbled into the other woman and her vision cleared.

A clearing had been blown into the forest. Lightning had destroyed the trees around the lion. Its body sparked with electricity in the center, for the moment still.

Alyx nodded, standing at the edge of the burnt-out circle. “We need to escape.”

“Yes,” Cass agreed.

That’s what I’ve been saying! Why agree with her but not me?

Cass shot him a glare. There wasn’t time for this. She didn’t know why the lion had paused its attack, but there wasn’t time to question it.

Alyx nodded and the two sprinted away from the new, lightning-created clearing. They’d gone maybe two yards when they heard the lion behind them again.

“It's leaping!” Salos yelled. “Right, dodge right!”

Cass pulled Alyx behind the tree Salos had pointed out, just as the lion flew through the air they’d just occupied. It skidded past them, its large claws digging trenches in the loose forest soil.

You’ll never escape like this!

Cass couldn’t help but agree.

The wind howled viciously around them, circling the lion’s clearing as if called by its terrible howl.

It called to her. The wind promised an escape if she would just take it. It circled around the clearing and the lion in an impatient dance as if waiting for her. It would not contain itself for long, though.

Already, currents pulled off in other directions, more promises of daring escape, she need only Wind Step onto any one of them and be gone in an instant. She could feel Salos urging her to do just that.

But Alyx couldn’t do the same. She was stuck with her two feet and there was no way she’d escape alone on those. Not with the distance the lion could leap or the speed at which it ran.

There had to be something else they could do.

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Fine! Salos shouted. Be an idiot! If you’re going to be, then let's at least go for the greatest rewards while you are at it.

Cass raised an eyebrow at him.

We will play Bell the Cat, he said. Or the reverse, I suppose.

I still don’t understand.

Look at its neck closely. See anything?

Cass peaked around the tree, the lion was running toward them. They needed to move! But there, around its neck, Cass could see it. A slender collar, the same color as its eyes, and the electric sparks. And from the collar hung an orb that Cass recognized.

That looks just like the treasure I collected from the Centipede.

The Herald’s treasure, Salos confirmed.

They ran as the lion chased them around the tree. Cass and Alyx dodged behind another and another.

How, exactly, do you suggest I take its treasure? Cass asked Salos. It's uncomfortably close to its mouth.

Three options, Salos said. Kill the Herald and loot the corpse, cut the collar off and retrieve the treasure from the ground, or snatch the treasure off its neck.

Cass grimaced. Cut the collar off, got it.

If you can… Salos muttered unhelpfully. Once you have it, be prepared to run. Just snatching it isn’t enough. You need to get away with the treasure too.

Why not just run away then?

Because you care about that other woman. Who do you want it chasing? You with your speed and Wind Step skill or her? I’d rather it chase her, but if you insist on being stubborn…

It’ll chase whoever has the treasure? Cass confirmed.

That’s what I said.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was better than nothing. “Alright, let’s get its treasure.”

“You can’t be serious,” Alyx said between frantic breaths.

“I can escape if it's chasing just me,” Cass said. There wasn’t time to argue further.

“Then I need to cut it free for you,” Alyx said.

“What?” Cass asked, but Alyx was already pealing away, sprinting to a separate tree.

“Focus its attention on me!” she shouted.

I can do that, Salos said, perhaps too eagerly. He whispered something and suddenly Alyx was glowing bright purple. Cass found her eyes following the woman rather than the lion. She blinked rapidly, forcing her focus away.

What was that? Cass asked.

Fairy Fire, he said. A minor illusion spell. Harmless, unless inattention can cause harm.

The lion lunged at Alyx, blowing through the tree trunk she’d stepped behind. It exploded in a cloud of charred wood and splinters, the upper half falling in an eruptive roar as Alyx tumbled out of the way.

She scrambled to her feet, her sword resolutely held in hand. The lion lunged again, its claws outstretched, its jaws open and waiting.

Salos, cut the Fairy Fire, Cass commanded, racing out from cover to Alyx’s side.

The lion was so fast. Faster than Cass. Much faster than Alyx. There was no way Alyx would get out of the way in time. No way for Cass to do anything to help.

And then Alyx shimmered. One moment, its claws were a fraction of an inch from her tattered armor and exposed skin, the next, space around her warped.

Suddenly, Alyx was on its right, her sword slipping under the collar. She pulled up on her blade.

Her blade didn’t cut.

The momentum of the lion dragged the sword from her hand and yanked her off balance. She stumbled to the ground.

Alyx pushed herself up as the lion skidded to a stop, its head whipping around looking for her.

Cass slipped under her arm and the two of them raced for cover again.

“What happened?” Cass asked.

“I don’t know what that collar is made of, but it felt like I hit metal, not leather.” She shook her head. “We aren’t cutting that collar off.”

“Salos?” Cass asked.

He shook his head. I thought that might happen.

Say that first, next time!

Alyx glanced over her shoulder, “It's coming.”

Cass and Alyx sprinted for a tree, dodging behind moments before the lion caught up.

“What now?” Alyx asked.

“Kill it or pull the treasure off the collar,” Cass said, repeating Salos’s instructions.

Alyx snorted. “This is madness. Will the treasure just pop off if we pull on it? Or will it be the same as the collar?”

Cass shot Salos a pointed look.

“It should just pop off,” he said and Cass relayed to Alyx. “That’s how it was designed.”

Alyx grimaced. “How do you suggest we do that? We will be mauled before we have a chance to try it.”

Likely, Salos agreed.

Not helpful. Cass glared at him.

His little cat shoulders shrugged.

“I don’t suppose you can pull it off?” Cass asked him.

“Do you see opposable thumbs?” He held his paws up for emphasis.

“You’ve got a mouth,” Cass said defensively.

He just glared at her.

“Fine, fair enough.” That didn’t leave them with many options. In Jothi again, she said, “Let’s see how good my Stealth is.”

“You’re going to try and sneak up on the thing actively chasing us?” Alyx asked incredulously.

“I’m going to try sneaking up on the thing actively chasing you,” Cass corrected.

Alyx’s face blanched, but she nodded. “Alright. Hit me with that attention catching fire.”

Again, Salos did so without further prompting.

“I don’t know how long I can keep it distracted. Don’t take long,” Alyx said, stepping out into the open again.

Cass activated Stealth. The wind wrapped around her, redirecting her presence into a messy nonexistence.

“Any last advice?” she asked.

“Be careful,” he said, hopping off her shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Cass asked.

“To help your stupid friend,” he said without looking back.

There wasn’t time to ask anything else, the lion was already on Alyx. She batted aside a claw with her sword, parrying with a strike of her own. It glanced uselessly across its bristled fur.

Salos wove between her feet, darting out to slash at the lion’s ankles then slipping back into the shadows like a ghost.

Cass padded out into the open, holding tight to Stealth. Between it obscuring her and the more obvious target of Alyx, there shouldn’t be any reason the lion should look her way.

Lightning arched off the lion’s body, more and more as its frustrated growl grew. Cass dodged out of the path of the electricity.

She inhaled sharply. It didn’t matter if it noticed her or not if it was going to use area of attack skills. At least, Atmospheric Sense could tell where the lightning was going to be before her eyes noticed it gathering around the creature’s body. She could do this.

She ducked under another bolt of lightning, the air buzzed with energy. It prickled her skin.

A paw strike meant for Alyx swung inches to Cass’s left, missing her as much through luck as Dodge’s skill.

Foot by foot, inch by inch, Cass slipped closer to the lion’s maw.

It loomed over her, its face level with Cass’s. Its eyes were still focused on Alyx. It lunged after the retreating swordswoman.

Cass ducked. The lion’s head raced over her, the snap of its jaws biting closed on empty air loud and unsettling.

Above her hung the orb, hanging from the collar like some house cat’s bell. She could do this.

She reached up, her fingers wrapping around the object.

It was cold to her touch. And smooth. About the size of a fist. It broke away from the collar easily. The second her hand wrapped around it she could feel the effects of Stealth pop.

A window appeared in her vision.

Herald of the Forest’s Treasure Stolen

[Leave the territory of the Forest or Defeat the Herald of the Forest to Manifest Treasure

Tutorial Sub-quest: Defeat the Lords’ Heralds Checkpoint (2/3) Completed

Reward: Chance to Manifest Treasure, 1 Choice of 3 options.

1. Skill, Dex based, Aura

2. Trait, Minor, Domain

3. Buff, Beginner, Stat]

Notifying Herald

Good Luck