The existence of the goop presented Zan with an unexpected problem. He had at least eight more outposts to torch. Even if every outpost did not have the goop surrounding it, like the first few he had burned, he would need to slow down on his approach regardless, just in case the outpost had goop. Otherwise, the slippage would toss him from his trusty bike.

Seeing the next outpost up ahead, Zan slowed down. Which was the problem. He was navigating rough terrain. Slowing down in this thick, bramble-heavy landscape meant he was practically waddling his bike to the outpost.

Examining the ground and finding no goop, however, Zan brought his bike back into a higher gear as he sped again directly at the outpost.

Yet there was an obstacle he did not expect — goop beyond the perimeter!

Skidding to the ground and bruising himself, Zan was thankful for the special clothing he wore to protect himself. Had he not been wearing it, Zan could have only imagined the huge gashes which would have graced his skin.

Seeing the automotron foe already heading his way — and a gold-colored one to boot — Zan scrambled to his feet.

Drawing his blade, he quickly drew the blade over the fire, setting the weapon ablaze with lethality.

Two golems. One gold, one normal.

Zan charged the regular golem and got a running start. With his momentum, he slam-kicked into it, causing it to crash into its companion.

Righting himself right away, Zan dived behind the gold golem, cut away its weakly protected legs, which were no match for his flaming sword. Rolling out of its way while it collapsed to the ground with a thud, Zan hopped upright and brought his blade in for the killing blow. Then another blow for the second golem.

Pressing his earpiece, Zan said, “Careful. That goop can be within the outpost as well. I learned that the hard way.”

“Roger-roger,” Jiehong said over the communication line.

‘Roger-roger? What was that?’ Zan asked himself with a laugh. ‘He must’ve heard it from the Colonel or something.’

Back on his bike and going slow, Zan passed by a Jiehong tangling with two gold-colored golems. ‘Yeesh!’ Zan said. Zan wanted to help Jiehong, but passing by, he saw Jiehong had the situation handled. He had tangled with multiple gold-golems before and though he could not remember off the top of his head if Jiehong had, if he had not, now was his time to tangle. Zan passed his friend by with a wave and spoke into his earpiece, “Losing ground?” he said with a friendly laugh.

“Not for long!” Jiehong yelled as sounds of punches and yowls punctuated the air.

On his way to the next outpost, Zan saw trouble on the ground.

Not ‘goop’ trouble. More unevenness and root vines sticking out.

By now, Zan could maintain his speed while turning in and out from the obstructing roots jutting up from the earth. With pressure, Zan made hard turns, which frequently nearly made him fall. His finest hour ahead of him, though, Zan gleamed a practical moat of goop shoring up the next outpost’s perimeter.

Nearly slowing down, Zan instead got a bold idea.

He sped up.

Then, speeding up further, he got an even bolder idea.

Gripping tightly his bike handles, Zan released a modest sum of magical energy into the bike. He had not yet attempted any magical imbuing, whether in the battle or before during his practice.

The effects of magical infusion Zan saw right away.

Speeding up dramatically, the bike flew through the goop like it was nothing.

In fact, tumbling toward the outpost like a cannonball, Zan realized in horror he could not stop the bike. He and the bike smashed into the golems and the outpost with a thunderous clash, sending bits of golem and fortifications everywhere.

Panting, though probably more hyperventilating than anything, Zan stumbled to his feet after pulling himself from the wreckage. The golems were dead. ‘Good,’ Zan muttered.

He was hurt, though. Zan again thanked his lucky stars for the protective fairy silk garb he wore.

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Dragging his bike out from the wreckage, Zan then set fire to the outpost.

Compounding issues, however, caused the outpost’s nearby goop to explode in a fiery curtain of pain.

Trying to find his way out to the next outpost, Zan couldn’t. The explosion, the crash, both disoriented Zan. With the flames climbing higher, Zan tried to find an opening in the wall of fire.

Thinking this might be his end, Zan struggled heroically until Jiehong came rushing through the wall of flames, protected by a simply created magical barrier. Zan could see the barrier’s blue-ish hue tent and bend the air around Jiehong.

“Toss mud and grit on the fire! It works!” Jiehong shouted.

Both Zan and Jiehong began to frantically threw oodles of earthen matter atop the fire. To Jiehong’s credit, he was right. The flames settled down instantly; though the effort wasn’t something they could have ignored, not if they wanted to prevent themselves from being burned alive, the effort took the better part of twenty minutes. On top of his already sustained injuries, Zan was now well and tired.

“Hold still. Let me heal you a bit,” Jiehong said, laying hands on Zan.

Zan felt the healing warmth spread through his body. Healed of his minor burns and muscle ache, not to mention his low energy levels, a few tears of grace came from his eyes.

He thanked Jiehong. “Buddy. You’ve depleted a lot of your magic. Is the Slipstream still up?”

Both boys looked to the sky. The Slipstream still was up there. Not for long, though.

“For now,” Jiehong said, who then reached for the sky and uttered the prayer. Zan saw how a gentle glow came from his body after the prayer recitation.

Sharing a smile and the will to keep going, Jie helped Zan up, and the battle resumed as though nothing had happened.

“You really do always find a way into the most dangerous situations,” Jiehong said.

“It’s a habit of mine,” Zan said. “A skill, you could say.”

Jiehong laughed and got on his own bike. “Till the next outpost!” He yelled as he peddled like a madman and was gone before Zan knew otherwise.

Back on his bike, Zan peddled like a madman himself. ‘Note to self,’ Zan said. ‘Be careful when using magical bike acceleration…’

With a body as fully restored as anyone could expect in a violent situation, Zan rushed ahead, giving little thought to the surrounding terrain. He had time to make up and didn’t want a thing like ‘landscape’ to eat away at his time. Ignoring such a thing as where he was traveling on went as well as one would imagine. Zan fell over himself twice from the upstanding root structures. With many curses, slowed his pace while biking.

Reaching the next outpost in record time… slow time, that is… Zan didn’t feel like the slug-it-out approach. He threw a grenade and instantly destroyed both gold-golems protecting the outpost. He slowly biked the rest of the way, torched the outpost, then resumed his trek to the next outpost, happy to gain speed again as it meant smoother ground.

“On your right!” Zan said to Jiehong as he passed.

“Oie! Making good time, are we?” Jie said. Sweat flying from his face.

“You… know it!” Zan said, panting like never before.

“Your stop!” Zan said, indicating the outpost.

“Lucky me…”

Zan could still hear the friendliness in his voice. Despite the exertion of the situation, Jiehong always kept a good attitude. When things were going his way, Zan added with a hint of gloom. He remembered Jiehong’s angst earlier and had to steel his opinion with the truth he saw firsthand. But Zan shrugged it off. People came in shades and hues. Jiehong was no exception.

Coming up on another outpost, Zan considered going in all old-fashioned like with blade in hand. But seeing the efficiency of the grenade from the previous outpost, he unlatched another grenade and gave it a toss.

A thunderous explosion. Two more dead golems. Both of which were red-golems.

Zan torched and went on his way.

Not seeing Jiehong behind him, Zan knew he had gained the edge. He pushed himself a touch faster, but did not feign ignorance with the road, and maintained his careful speed. His impatience had gotten the better of him earlier. Not anymore! He kept his eyes on the road — what little there was — and focused on the changing terrain from ‘rough’ to ‘roughest’ to ‘somewhat rough.’ Adjusting instantly for each terrain, Zan thought he was getting the hang of it. Though he remained on the lookout for more of that strange ‘goop’ he encountered. Thankfully, he had not yet encountered anymore, which at least told him the enemy did not heavily rely upon it in these outposts.

Coming up on another outpost, Zan considered using another grenade, but he had already used two grenades of his six total. He could not discount the possibility of greater threats coming upon him. So he took this outpost with his martial prowess.

Footing the kickstand so the bike would remain upright, Zan withdrew his sword. He ran his blade over the torch at the bike of his bike, after he reignited said torch using magic.

Just like that, he was good to go.

He came upon the enemy like a storm and gave the red golems no quarter. Red golems had only slightly more than the lowest grade of golem when it came to protective layers. With his flaming blade, there wasn’t too much they could do to prevent their demise. Zan did not bother to dodge behind them; with his fire blade, he simply hacked away at the red golems like they were expendable pieces of cloth.

His blade did what he knew it would do, though.

The golems and their heavier armored plates were no match for his magical fire which cut through their defenses and send heavy slags of scrap metal to the ground.

With torch in hand, Zan brought the flame to the outpost but stopped at the last second. “Hello?” he said. He waited for a response. Then he said, but much more loudly, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

He heard a response. He heard, something.

Returning the torch to his bike, Zan investigated the rudimentary outpost.

He was sure he wouldn’t find anything, but he had to be sure. He thought he heard someone. Though he had never known the Woodland Expanse to take prisoners outside of a large-scale battle — such as when they abduct whole villages — Zan tempered his knowledge by telling himself, ‘I do not know how the enemy functions. Caution, always.’

Battering his way into the outpost proper, Zan saw nothing behind the rudimentary wooden fence surrounding the single room building. So he kicked down the only door and entered the building. Not knowing what he expected to find, Zan steeled himself for anything. Good thing he did, too, because what he saw inside shocked him.