The map was surprisingly well drawn. I trudged through the jungle avoiding roots and moving aside massive palm leaves and ferns. The figures of trees and landmarks were neatly drawn. Unfortunately, map reading wasn’t one of my specialties. I looked around at the greenery. Large trees with trunks thicker than a house surrounded me. It was to know exactly where one was. The path looked virtually the same both in front and behind me. I tripped on a root and nearly landed on my face. There’s got to be another way to go through this. I thought for a moment.I took forward my hand. Maybe this will work. I let mana flow through my hands into the environment. The plants and branches responded to me moving out of the way. Mana really was king in this jungle. Constantly using mana to walk through caused me some fatigue. Still, compared to the energy it would have taken to avoid stepping on roots shoving aside tough branches, and taking more detours I was actually saving energy. I stumbled over myself grabbing onto a nearby branch to stop myself from falling. I looked back at where I had trodden. A large divot was in the dark soil. It was imprinted in the thick mud. It was ovular with small depressions around one side.I spotted several more around it. It wasn’t a hole it was a footprint. I placed my hand against it. Its width spanned more than 4 of my hand-lengths. It was definitely huge. It could very well be a monster. I looked around. I could sense some ominous mana but it was faint. I climbed a tree taking well-placed steps and testing my weight on branches before hanging on them. The last thing I wanted was to hurt myself by falling from a tree in the middle of nowhere.

I couldn’t sense a monster even from this height. It wasn’t as if I could sense mana from further away simply because I was higher up like eyesight worked, but I could sense the mana swept up by the wind.

A sea of green stretched out in all directions. The sunlight shone warmly on me. I leaned back against the trunk of the tree. This was surprisingly peaceful, it’s almost like -

A huge humanoid figure rammed into me knocking me off the branch. I scrambled around grabbing hold of a branch. What the hell was that? A giant monkey-like figure jumped down onto my branch. It was at least 2 meters tall with hulking arms and 4 red slits for eyes. It roared sending spittle flying and revealing massive yellow fangs.

It charged at me bounding onto its massive arms. It swung its legs through its arms and kicked at me. I dodged it and punched in return at its legs. I nearly got my fist grabbed with its hand-like feet. It swung at me but I ducked. It was fast but compared to Olivere’s blows it wasn’t nearly as impressive. I condensed mana into my fist and punched it square in the chest. Its thick chest absorbed the pain, but judging from its grunts and startled expression, it still felt the damage. It started jumping up and down on the branch. The entire tree began to shake.

“Hey, knock it off, stop doing that!” I shouted frantically holding onto the trunk. My grip loosened and I half-climbed half-fell the way to the ground. I rolled over before I had to a chance to catch my breath. It landed where I had been a second ago. I got to my feet. Its massive fist as large as my torso was pulled back. I got my arms up to block the shot. I was sent back flying but I gritted my teeth and stabilised my core. I slid back from the impact, my feet dug into the ground churning up earth and roots. My back hit abruptly against a rock. I shook my stinging arms. That blow would have taken my head off. That’s when what I thought had been a mossy rock moved. I took a couple of steps away from the rock. It turned around revealing 2 horns on its snout. The larger one was bigger than I was.

You got to be kidding me, a literal rhinoceros. I thought. It was bigger than the gorilla, far bigger. Its beady eyes swiveled towards me. It pawed the ground and charged me. There was no way I was taking that head-on. I sprinted in the opposite direction. The steps of the rhino shook the ground. It blasted through the jungle plowing through anything standing in its way. I spotted the gorilla running towards me. I already had my hands full. I leapt up landing on the rhino’s back. The back of the rhino was so broad that I wouldn’t fall off it even if I fell. The rhino was now headed straight for the gorilla. The gorilla jumped landing on the back as well. It didn’t make it quite as well though, one of its legs got cut by the rhino’s horn. The gorilla swung at me. I dodged and retaliated punching it in the solar plexus. It stumbled back. That’s when the rhino decided to hit a dead stop, ramming into a tree to help it slow down. We both got thrown off. I rolled over on the ground and onto my feet. The Gorilla recovered equally as fast and attacked me again. It alternated punching and biting me. It was getting harder to predict its movements, the mana trails weren’t as strong. I was getting fatigued. The gorilla moved to the side suddenly. The gorilla’s body had been obscuring the rhino now charging at me. It almost seemed like they were working together. I didn’t have time to dodge. I grabbed its horn as it bulldozed into me. The outcome was obvious, it outweighed me by at least a hundredfold. I got pushed back through the jungle. My feet digging into the ground couldn’t slow down the charge. I was knocked back into a tree. The wind was knocked out of me. It splintered behind my back but held. The rhino huffed and shook its head. It pushed into the tree. It was as stubborn as ever to impale me and trample me to pieces. I needed something else. I couldn’t win this tag team. I couldn’t see the gorilla anywhere in sight. I focused on the mana trails. My blood ran cold. I could sense five distinct mana readings. They all had the ominous, unnatural mana of monsters. One was rapidly approaching. The gorilla burst into view throwing up leaves. With my hands occupied I couldn’t defend myself. It punched at me. Reading the mana trails I managed to dodge many of the attacks, but just barely. I was getting clipped by punches. The force of those alone were enough to make me bleed. The gorilla and rhino worked together when the rhino pushed into me and didn’t allow me any extra room the gorilla would pummel me. I couldn’t dodge anymore. The first blow shook my world, the second knocked out a tooth and the third one made me heave up blood. I lost count after the tenth punch. It felt more like I was watching these things happen to my own body. I needed something different, I wasn’t strong enough to take them on. My body was beginning to lose all feeling, I was close to the end. The next punch to my head turned my vision white. A memory popped into my mind. It might be more accurate to call it purely information.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Mana constructs: Mana constructs require high initial mana output but have a high half-life. Highly effective.

I instinctually straightened my arm. Golden mana poured down my arm and enveloped my hand while simultaneously extending beyond it. It formed a blade around my right hand. It shimmered and crackled with energy. I swung it with all my might. It cut through the rhino’s horn and one of the gorilla’s arm in one smooth swing. It was as easy as a hot knife through butter. It was scary how effective it was. Not that I felt sorry for them, not one bit.

Both of the monsters started back in pain from their wounds. With another swing, I sliced into the rhino’s flesh. The monster rumbled backwards gaining distance between us. My attack hadn’t been deep enough. The gorilla was grabbing the stump of its arm attempting to stop the flow of blood that gushed through its fingers. I sliced diagonally across the monster. The gorilla now dispatched, I now face the rhino. It was pawing the ground with its head held low. It roared and charged at me. It was fast and strong but it wasn’t very smart. I extended my bladed arm and concentrated on it. The blade’s width widened until it was taller than I was. When the rhino reached me it ran right into the sword. It sliced itself in half spraying me with monster guts, its own aggression and killing intent aimed at me had been used to kill itself.

I wiped the spray from my face. I looked at the two monsters ripped apart into mincemeat before walking back the way I had come. The blade hummed but didn’t go away I moved my arms around. No broken bones, that’s good.

A tinkling sound whispered in my ear. I looked around. There was nothing there that could have caused that sound. I turned back around and started back. There was a giant fox in front of me. It lay down casually, completely ignoring me. It licked one of its massive black paws. Its tail twitched and opened for a moment revealing nine tail points. It eyed me with large brown eyes. It was unmistakably a monster judging from the mana oozing from it but it didn’t seem hostile. I heard the tinkle sound in my ears again.

Pain wracked my back. A huge weight on my back pushed me to the ground. The growl of a beast inches from my neck hissed in my ear. I swung at it with my sword. It retreated off of my back. It was another fox equally as elegant as the first one. The fox went to the first one that had been lying down but was now standing with its hackles raised towards me. It appeared that I wasn’t done fighting. These must have been the other signals that I had sensed. They ran at me in unison, their feet light on the ground. I swung at them but their swiftness made them easily avoid the sword arc. The tail of one of them covered my face. By the time it was gone, they were out of sight into the greenery. I held my arm to my opposite side. I didn’t have enough energy to fight for long. I’ll end it with the next swing. I narrowed my senses to just around me, anything beyond that didn’t matter. I sensed a figure approaching. I swung in the split-second it took me to register the sense. When I opened my eyes one of the foxes withered around, its head lay a meter or two away from it, its mouth aimlessly opening and closing. The other fox burst through to its side. A soft whine escaped its snout. It growled at me lowering to the ground. To my surprise, it then raised its head, turned around, and disappeared into the undergrowth. It was obviously fleeing. I heard scampering in a nearby tree. Was that the fifth monster? I couldn’t sense anything in that direction. Maybe I just imagined it? Although I could have sworn I saw a figure there, its green outline might have blended with the forest green. I might have also seen a hint of gold as well. All that remained other than the dead fox was a faint ringing in my ears. This fight had been tough, really tough, I could just be grateful that I was alive. I looked at the nature around me admiring its beauty and the joy of simply being alive. I walked on tired and fatigued. My limbs threatened to fall off. I stopped and chuckled. To my left hanging from vines were distinct round spiky fruit. I grabbed the vine and ripped it along with the fruit off the side of the tree without stopping and disappeared into the jungle.