Max stood up and looked south. There was a narrow corridor where the blue forest ended and the Earth forest started. It wasn’t straight, but you could see a good distance away.

“You sure there is something there? I don’t see anything,” Max said as he squinted.

“Positive. There is a brown monster about a mile south of us. It’s headed this way,” Gus said. “I put some system points in ta Sight. I can see better than you now. Trust me.”

Max nodded. He held out his hand to Lily to help her up. “Tell us a story while we walk. I would love to hear about the mother that shaped you into a wonderful person.”

Lily took the hand and stood up. She looked into the forest where her pack with her grandmother’s pearls was stranded. With a shake of her head, she turned and started walking.

James groaned as he sat up. Max had to help him up too. The run for their lives had taken a lot out of him, and James was still recovering. Thankfully, they were just walking now, and he didn’t have a pack to weigh him down.

“My mom was different when I was a teenager,” Lily said. “Time and my father really beat her down. My favorite memories of her are all from when I was a little kid.”

The five of them got into formation and walked along the corridor between the two forests. To their right was the earth forest with tightly growing pine trees and to their left was the blue Mycelium Aspen forest. In between there was hard packed earth where nothing grew. It was almost a road through the wilderness.

She continued softly so her story wouldn’t carry. “I grew up in a house that would consider a mansion small. It was opulent, but far from kid friendly. The painting in the corridor was a beautiful Renoir, but god forbid that little girls fingers would ever come close to it. The whole house was like that. Look but don’t touch. My mom and the nannies were assigned to keep me away from everything and fill my days with lessons in English, Violin, Polo, Needlework. All of it was too much for a little girl of seven. One day my mom snuck me out of the house.”

Gus kept looking over his shoulder, a concerned look on his face. He didn’t say anything though.

Lily glanced back, but kept talking. “At first, I didn’t know what was going on. I thought it was weird that we were taking a taxi since we had a fleet of cars and two drivers. Then we got there. The Greenbelt Mall. It was a whole day of playing and shopping.

“My mom was hilarious in the bumper cars, she looked so surprised when I drove into her. The VR games were the best though. They were so fun and we spent hours shooting monsters. She got motion sick halfway through, but didn’t let me know. She knew I was having fun and didn’t want to spoil it. Eventually, the day ended. I fell asleep in the cab home. I still remember the feeling of leaning up against my mom with the shopping bags piled up on the other side.”

Max heard something in the distance. One of the lighting attacks had triggered. He picked up the pace and angled them farther away from the blue trees. They kept to the corridor though, it was still the fastest path north.

Lily sighed. “Later I found out that my mom got in big trouble when we got home. She knew she wasn’t supposed to go out without my dad’s permission, but did it anyway. I don’t know what he did to her, but she wore long sleeves and sunglasses for weeks. I think she knew that would happen, but took me out anyway. She didn’t want my life to be lessons only, she wanted a little joy in my life, even if that came at a cost to her.”

“Your mom really loved you, huh?” James said softly.

“She really did. She died when she was thirty. Parkinson’s.”

Max softly said, “Thank you for the story, Lily. I wish it had a happier ending.”

“Me too. Tests say I have it too. It’s one of the reasons I came here, I was hoping for a magic solution.”

They were quiet for a bit, Gus continued to look over his shoulder and sped up a bit.

Yang let her camouflage fall and said, “I am sure she is watching you from heaven, proud of who you have become.”

Lily smiled. “I hope so.”

“How would you know, Yang?” Gus asked. “Are you a mom? Did you leave your kid on Earth?”

Yang scowled at him and a knife appeared in her hands.

Gus held up his hands and said, “Hey, hey. It’s just a question. I wasn’t try’n ta be rude, I swear.”

She didn’t reply, instead activating her Camouflage card again and fading away. Soon only a vague impression of a human shape walked in front of the pine trees. Max bet that if she were standing still, he wouldn’t be able to pick her out from the foliage.

“Gus, what do your enhanced eyes see behind us?”

Gus smiled and said, “Look! Look with your special eyes.”

Max chuckled when he realized Gus was quoting a commercial. Max replied, “My brand!”

“There are at least three monsters following, probably more out of sight. They keep dipping in and out of the forest. They are too far away to see details, but there is more than one type. I think they headed this way when they heard the lightning. It’s just like with the guns on the third level. Monsters from all over are trying to find us.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

They hurried up a little more.

“We should head into the trees again,” James said.

“We just talked about how that’s a terrible idea,” Max said.

“Maybe. But I think the lightning trees are reactive, not proactive. We walked for a while before anything happened. They didn’t attack until after you broke that branch. We can head into the blue forest and use their lightning as an extra attack. We can throw something to break the branches around the monsters and have the trees electrocute them. Plus, we will be able to see them coming. No ambushes.”

“You’ve clearly put a lot of thought into this idea,” Max said gently. “But it’s still too dangerous. We don’t know if the trees are reactive, or if they are intelligent. Maybe they weren’t trying to protect themselves, maybe they were trying to hunt us.”

James shrugged. “Alright. But we should stay nearby in case you change your mind. If a titan finds us, you’ll be glad we have the trees.”

“That’s fine for now. But we’ve got to turn spinward after a bit. There is a dungeon tower straight north of here, I don’t want to get-”

Max was cut off when something huge fell from the sky, blocking out the sun. It was like someone threw an enormous blanket over them. It wrapped itself around Max from head to waist, covering him completely and cutting off his air.

He tried to bring his hands to his face, but they were bound down, like they were tied to his waist.

Then the burning started.

Everywhere his skin was exposed felt like it was on fire. It wasn’t hot so it must have been acidic instead. He screamed in pain, losing what little air was in his lungs. He was suffocating now, panic overriding the pain.

He dug his feet in and jerked backwards. That sudden move pulled the acid curtain away from himself. He took a breath before the curtain wrapped itself around him again.

That breath gave him the ability to think. He had a monster wrapped around him. Some kind of blanket slime or something. The fact that no one had rescued him yet meant that the others had been attacked too. He needed to get out of this on his own and help them.

His feet were still free even though his arms were useless. He tried the same move again and jerked himself back, but this time the monster kept itself glued to his face. It was expecting him now. All it had to do was wait until the acid or lack of air did him in.

Most of his skill set was useless without his hands, but he did have Levitate. He turned it on and off rapidly, jumping around randomly at the same time.

The monster wasn’t able to keep up with the sudden changes of direction and inertia and he freed his hands briefly. Just enough to reach into his belt. He grabbed a rotary saw and pulled it out. It was hard to move again as the monster wrapped itself tighter around him, but then the cutting disc came out. As soon as it left the dimensional storage, it sliced through the monster with ease.

Max jerked his hand up, slicing the monster off his right arm and then up to his face. He held it just far enough away to avoid cutting himself. The monster screeched, vibrating in pain. Yang appeared then, yanking the monster up and away.

The monster peeled off, falling to the ground behind them. Max spun and sliced it up a few more times to make sure it wouldn’t get back up. It looked like nothing, just a black carpet of slime.

Minor amount of essence gathered

He looked up to see Yang was helping Gus now. They were cutting a monster off his right leg. James had cut himself out of his monster, but some of it still wrapped around his waist. He was ignoring it, trying to free Lily as she weakly struggled.

Max dashed over to her. He grabbed the edge of the monster and started cutting. His hand started burning again, but he ignored it and pulled. The monster slid apart, the saw parted it effortlessly. He had to be careful that he didn’t cut the struggling girl underneath. Working with James, they were able to separate the ambush monster from its prey.

Minor amount of essence gathered

Once her mouth was free, she gasped. They got the monster off her and James. After a great shuddering breath, Lily started crying. James wrapped her up in his arms and she cried into his shoulder. He didn’t say anything, just stroked her back.

Max felt uncomfortable and turned away. He looked at the monsters again. There were six corpses scattered about, a white orb hovering above each one. The acid blankets must have dropped down on them from the trees.

“Yang, how did you get free so quickly?” Max said.

“They didn’t see me. I had camo up. All six fell on you guys and I had to kill the extra ones before I could help you get free.”

“That came out of nowhere. Thanks for helping me,” Max said.

“I saw it coming, but I wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way,” Gus said. “Damn system. Why can’t we increase our speed and dexterity?”

“Sure would be nice right about now,” Max said and ran his hand through his hair.

He hissed in pain. His hand felt like the worst sunburn ever, and his hair was all frizzy now. Everyone but Yang looked like they had gone to the same terrible barber. Their clothes looked like shit too, spots all over. Like someone had done a load of laundry and thrown in bleach with the colors.

A rustle of leaves was the only warning he got before a monster pounced at him. Max turned to see a boar-wolf bearing down on him. Its right hoof knocked him onto his back and held him there. It opened its jaws wide, huge tusks on display. A crackling purple ball formed inside its mouth, inches above Max’s face.

The monster was interrupted by glass shards to the eye and a flash of blue. The boar-wolf leaned back and squealed in pain and frustration as the purple ball shattered. That distraction allowed Max to get his hand free. The one that still held a circular saw.

With a vicious thought, Max activated its magic and a silvery disc appeared and lopped off the limb holding him down. The monster fell back with a howl. Its summoned twin still had all four legs and held it down to go for the jugular. Max’s weapon still had five more shots in it, and he was happy to direct every one of them at his attacker.

A few moments later, a blue and brown orb floated above the corpse.

Medium amount of essence gathered

That was the second time in so many minutes that Max had almost died. He slowly caught his breath, keeping an eye on his surroundings this time.

“Thanks, James, Gus. Quick thinking on the save,” Max said.

James nodded and Gus grunted. He said. “You’re welcome. I remembered the Warped Mirror card, but I forgot about my ring. I coulda avoided the black slimes altogether if I had disappeared for two seconds.”

“Still. Saved my life. Thanks.”

“Uh, more pig beasts are on their way,” Gus said and pointed. “They must have heard their buddy.”

Max didn’t see anything, but took his word for it. “Alright, let’s run for it. We need to lose them, or at least find someplace more defensible. Yang, grab the cores.”