The next morning dawns brighter than most, at least to our eyes. The titanic tree seems to shine all the brighter as the first breaking of the sun’s light shoots from beyond the horizon, causing the still darkened sky to light up in spotlights of shimmering, magical color.

Blinking the sleep out of my eyes and allowing them to adjust, I clear them to see my Party at the ready.

“Sleep well?” I ask Belina, giving Artemis’ fur a little ruffle as she paces around sniffing with a still drowsy Horus balancing athletically on her back.

“For the most part. I tried to just let myself accept that we have done all we could thus far and that today will fall to our luck on whether or not we reach Journeyman. You?” she replies as we begin a fast march toward the tree, its mountain home seemingly reachable within an hour or two.

“Like a rock.” I reply, my head on a swivel for threats, “I had some ‘what if’s’ racing through my own brain too but I just decided that we will succeed, that’s all there is to it, and then I just let my mind rest. Let’s hope it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, yeah?” I say with a wry grin.

“Ha, well I’m glad it helped you sleep, not sure it’s going to actually do us any favors though. Fate is a fickle mistress, or so they say.” She opines with a faux-snobbish expression on her face at that pearl of wisdom before breaking into some small giggles as I smile amusedly at her antics.

Ahead, the trees begin to thin, leading to a vast plain before entering the true foothills of the mountain, a mountain now helpfully tagged by the System as we see its great form in closer detail now.

{Marvel Mountain}

I trade a glance with my Companions, seeing, in order, a set of raised eyebrows, a tilted snout and squinted little eyes meeting my own confounded expression.

“I guess it’s not sentient and/or sapient since it doesn’t have a level, maybe?” I posit aloud, receiving a shrug in return from Belina, Artemis and Horus having lost interest already, enhanced Intelligence or no, they are still animals after all.

All of a sudden, Belina cries out in surprise as she is thrown from her feet in a puff of exploding dirt!

The cloud of dust hangs in the air, obscuring my vision, until I slice off a low hanging branch for use as a fan and wave it away, eyes peering with concern into the now diminishing obfuscation.

Finally, the form of a furred Beast roughly the size of Belina or reaching up to about my mid chest on two legs, reveals itself clawing at our Party-mate with abandon as she frantically tries to block the flurry of strikes with her shield!

(Gaian Groundhog, Assassin, Lv.25}

I race towards her, Artemis at my hip, as we notice in alarm that Belina’s spear is trapped underneath her body and their combined weight is too much for her to move enough to grab it.

Not to mention, the very salient detail of the infernal creature having a Class! And a good one at that!

Horus, piercing cry as the only warning, comes swooping down with wicked talons alit with the sun’s energy, taking huge gouges out of the Beast’s exposed back, gouts of crimson blood arcing out as he wings off again for another flyby.

The Beast, to frenzied to pay too much attention to the wounds, whines slightly but does nothing to slow its furious and nearly constant strikes!

Its head seems to tilt toward us as we are just about to reach it, a garbage lid-sized and wickedly, clawed paw heading toward our trajectory.

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But Belina only needed an opportunity…

With the Beast’s attention divided, she uses her body weight and abs to kip up. While not quite enough to bring her to her feet, it does allow her to just barely grab her spear with one hand, activate her now Journeyman tier Flaming Spear, and drive the fiery point deep into the groundhog’s chest!

It lurches away with a shriek, ribbons of blood turning into a fountain as the spear falls from the wound. By this point, the Beast is dead, it just doesn’t know it yet…

Artemis and I will just have to make it aware of the fact.

My glorious husky leaps at the wounded creature and slams down one of her huge paws onto the already wounded area of its back, cracks of bone and widened wounds weeping even more blood in result.

The Beasts whines now, beginning to realize its end fast approaching.

Best to put the final nail into that coffin then…

I channel a fully empowered Wild Rampage, new and improved as it is, and plant my hatchet deep into its skull with all my might, the body crumbling almost boneless as I draw my hatchet back out with a lovely squelch.

Congratulations! You have killed a (Gaian Groundhog, Assassin, Lv.25} for a total of 1,000,000 XP!

Ignoring the notification, although gratified at the amount of XP, I rush to Belina as she pulls herself upright and dusts herself off.

“You okay?” I ask with concern as I look her over, Artemis sniffing at her in a similar display of care and Horus coming to land on my shoulder with his little head poised fixedly upon our teammate as well.

“Yeah…nothing really hurt but my pride. I felt the vibration but I just didn’t react fast enough.” She explains with a downcast expression.

“Hey, none of that now. That thing had ten levels on you and still you managed to not only survive its surprise onslaught but force it back! That’s a victory no matter how you look at it. Okay?” I tell her seriously, eyes intently on hers to reinforce my point.

Looking a little uplifted, she replies with a weak but passable smile, declaring “I guess you’re right. I’ll just have to do better next time!”

“That’s the spirit!” I praise, smiling with no small amount of wonder at her clear grit.

Using a few moments to collect ourselves, we re-orient on our towering destination and continue our brisk hike, the trees opening up before finally disappearing entirely as we reach the small plain just at the base of the mountain’s foothills.

The terrain is fairly flat in this new biome, tall grass reaching the height of our hips except in areas where it has been either trampled or eaten recently. A few small hillocks jut out randomly throughout and could either be dens of Beasts or natural formations but I lean toward the latter. Best to be safe, right?

The ascending foothills roughly a mile or so away cast a faint shadow upon the plain, adding depth to the spare areas of shadowed darkness and limiting visibility slightly, concerningly enough.

But with our last weeks spent in combat inside a fairly dark forest, this actually seems quite illuminated anyway!

“See anything?” I ask, all 4 of us standing at the edge of the forest proper and peering intently beyond.

“Nothing. Has to be a trap, yeah?” Belina responds, biting her lip in as she continues searching for any sign of an ambush.

I direct my questioning gaze upon Artemis, receiving a response across our bond right after.

“I see nothing but I smell the recent passage of several large and, I believe, powerful Beasts heading in the same direction we are.” She informs me helpfully.

“Hmmm, can you narrow down the timeframe at all?” I ask in response with a furrowed brow.

I merely receive a canine shrug in reply, so I suppose not then.

“Alright, nothing to be done about it. We will just keep our heading and prepare for anything. If nothing else, we should probably get some good XP if we do get attacked.” I tell my Party.

“Works for me. I’ll take the lead and keep an eye on the ground better this time too..” Belina says resolutely as she unceremoniously walks out into the open plain with her shield at the ready and her spear held firmly.

Artemis, giving me a bemused look and a quick influx of mental affection across our bond, trots after her with her sniffer working away and her head roving left to right and back again.

Horus, from his perch on my shoulder, gives the side of my head a quick nuzzle before lifting off and trailing our teammates from above.

“Well, that leaves just me then…” I say to myself with some small bit of forced bravado before continuing as I teeter on the precipice between forest and plain, “You were going to have to leave the forest sometime…” I chide.

Taking a deep breath and letting my worries disappear with my exhalation, I take my first resolute step beyond the boundaries of the Great Forest that has so quickly become both home and training ground for me and my little family. I certainly hope to return soon but some instinct, some feeling deep inside my very soul, warns me that it will be unlikely.

Steeling myself for the road ahead, I don’t look back as I hurry to catch up to my team.

One more final push and then…

The Contest.