Dave turned to see where it came from. A Nodefox stood not too far behind him. He cursed himself for being so entranced by the river that he forgot his surroundings and immediately summoned his spear.

The Nodefox looked surprised at his reaction for a second, but it didn’t waste any time and swung his arm down again. An arc made of razor sharp concentrated air sailed towards Dave’s head.

Dave barely ducked under it in time. It almost clipped his shoulder, but he recovered quickly and shot a Minor Spark towards his attacker. The Nodefox kept it’s calm though and without even moving a shield made of blue light appeared in front of him.

Minor Spark crashed into it and quickly sizzeled out, the shield remaining intact.

That wasn’t what threw Dave off the most though. No it was the fact that this thing started talking. Not like Bixby in Dave’s voice though, no it talked Nodefox. And it seemed to be making fun of him.

He felt some weird rage build up in him. He had been looked down upon a lot over his life, but it felt different when you were in a life and death struggle and the other party didn’t even seem to take you seriously. Especially if the before mentioned other party barely reached above your hip.

Dave rushed at the Nodefox spear first. The thing jumped backwards, impossibly far, and landed a safe distance away.

Dave rushed at it again, this time he extended his spear forward in a thrust as far as he could, hoping to catch the Nodefox by surprise. But it simply jumped up this time, leaving his tip to pierce air.

The Nodefox was now almost 20 feet in the air. It wasn’t flying but rather floating, drifting downward very slowly. Before Dave could marvel about that further, he had to roll out of the way as another wind blade rushed towards him.

But he wasn’t quick enough and it clipped his shoulder, sending out waves of pain. It felt like a paper cut on your finger, only far larger.

Seeing Dave’s pain, the Nodefox laughed and sent out another wind blade, before it finally reached the floor again. This time Dave was barely able to get his spear up and blocked most of the impact. Only to find the Nodefox staying a few dozen feet away, still being amused about Dave’s lack of capabilities.

This circle simply kept repeating itself. Every time Dave reached melee distance with his opponent it simply leapt away. And every Minor Spark was met with an energy shield to block it. Worst of all, the thing didn’t even seem to get tired.

Dave was just completely outmatched.

A few more thrusts were missed, another Major Spark blocked and Dave started getting tired. Due to sheer luck Dave wasn’t seriously injured yet, but he had aches in every part of his body.

Something needed to change. Dave ran at the Nodefox and by turning his whole body into it feinted a forward thrust as hard as he could. The Nodefox quickly jumped away with enough space to spare like before. But this time Dave immediately sent Major Spark after it. The air crackled as a lightning bolt shot towards the still flying Nodefox.

A blue barrier simply appeared and absorbed the discharge with a sizzling noise though. Dave’s just stood there, spear still in his right hand and was impressed by the NodeFoxes quick reaction. The NodeFox sneared and rolled it’s eyes, more surprised about Dave’s laughable attempt then by the surprise attack.

Before it could respond with another wind blade of it’s own though, Dave threw the spear at it. It soared through the air. He was surprised again at how accurate he could throw, even though the Nodefox was only a few feet up and away his shot flew through.

For a splitsecond it looked surprised for real now. Less than an inch before the tip impaled the exposed chest of the NodeFox, it just stopped.

It hang in the air not moving.

In fact Dave noticed that something felt different, the river was still thrashing before them, but the wind had stopped. The chilly embrace of valley wind had disappeared. The Nodefoxes eyes quickly started scanning the battlefield, as did Dave’s. But the Nodefox was quicker and as his eyes found something he suddenly looked more scared then a second before, when he was about to be impaled by a spear twice his size.

Dave followed it’s gaze and saw an older looking Nodefox standing on a rock just a few feet over. Dave hadn’t even noticed it before. It’s fur was looked almost black in the darkness of the night, even though the moonlight was plenty.

With a flick of it’s hand the spear, as well as the frozen NodeFox, kept drifting to the ground. Once they were the wind started again.

As the darker NodeFox made his way over the other on started trembling a little. And Dave could swaer he was getting pale. As far as a Nodefox could. It started making some noises that Dave couldn’t understand but the tone sounded a lot like the noises a child makes when it’s caught by their parents doing something they know they shouldn’t.

The older NodeFox replied with calm sounds. Only a single sentence. The other NodeFox paled even further but nodded. It started walking away now. Without even looking at Dave, as if their fight was suddenly forgotten.

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Dave played with the thought of firing a Major Spark after it but he doubted it would get through after seeing what the dark Nodefox was capable of. The older Nodefox turned to him and gave him an appraising look.

Had he known what Dave was thinking about?

Dave wasn’t scared of the dark beast attacking him, weirdly enough, but probably because he could’ve done so mutliple times during the fight. But he still, he had to control his legs as not to run away.

When the old Nodefox spoke Dave was baffled.

“I see they have some surprising talents in this young race.” his voice sounded dark and raspy. He held nothing jovial or educated like Bixby. Like a voice that had seen and comittted violence too much to still care. “I’m sorry the sudden attack from my nephew but you did well in fighting and have probably learned a lot. I’m surprised about the strength of your skills.“

Something in his tone was setting Dave off. The taunting and snear looks from the other Nodefox hadn’t hurt him as much. They came from a sense of believing itself to be better. Empy Vane. But this Nodefox didn’t even have to believe himself better. He knew that Dave was nothing compared to him.

It made Dave feel small and he didn’t like feeling small. So he reacted by activating his skill and raising his palm. Looking back he had known that it wasn’t a good idea, but he could get hotheaded in situations like this. Years of school having traumatized him.

But before even the first crackle could appear on his arm, a gust of wind slammed into him and threw him a good 10 feet though the air.

He crashed into the ground and slid for a few more feet before coming to a halt. His ribs ached and he saw stars from the impact. In fact he litterally saw stars because he was looking up. But they moved in a way they shouldn’t move.

The next second a dark Nodefox face appeared above him.

“That was stupid. But also brave. I think I like you boy.”

A gust of wind swept over him and the Nodefox suddenly was gone. Leaving nothing but a chilly breeze and pain.

Dave laid there for another minute or two before he fought back to his feet. He wasn’t seriously injured but his head kept spinning and he had probably cracked one of his ribs. What was hurt most was his pride.

He had to admit he had felt kind of great after breaking his friends out of the tree dungeon. He felt strong. He thought he could protect his friends in need. But there was nothing he could’ve done against that monster.

A few windows appeared in his vision, most of what they contained was still blurred but he read the words level up. So the only logical step for Dave was to check his Skills as fast as he could.

Disappointed Dave saw that he hadn’t gotten another Skill like last time after a fight. But he had gotten a level in Minor Spark, raising it to Level 4. And another level in Soul Weapon, raising it to Level 3.

He grinned. It was a step into the right direction, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough.

With pain he started making his way back to the village, giving the river a last look. Step after step he fought forward, using his spear as a crutch again. He could use a heal right now. But one thought was even more prominent in his mind.

“I need to get stronger.” he whispered into the darkness.

“I will get stronger.” he promised into the wind.

“Damn that dark Nodefox sounds scary.” Ryland said while munching on his fifth banana. Bixby was still asleep. At first, Dave wanted to wait for Bixby to wake up before he told his story, because he wanted to know more about those Nodefoxes.

But after the state he was in when he returned to camp, he couldn’t ward off the questions from the others. Not wanting to disturb Bixby’s sleep, he gave them a brief explanation about the night before, while Sam was healing the bruises he had from last night. Luckily he hadn't been seriously injured.

Max looked like he was lost in thought but he chimed in, not lifting his eyes from the ground, “It’s hard to imagine there are people or things that are that strong around.”

He locked eyes with Dave and laughed.

“Don’t get me wrong, I was deeply impressed when I saw you shoot lightning the first time. And I still can’t quite believe it.” his smile dimmed a little “But like Ryland said, this guy sounds scary.”

“So what do we do now? Do we still go for the Node? I don’t know if this Nodefox and his nephew are still around here but I don’t want to meet them again yet.” Dave asked, mostly oriented towards Max.

It had become apparent over the last few days how much the group relied on Max to guide them and make decisions. When having a group of any size, it’s important to have one person taking the lead. Sure in a small group every voice can be heard and acted upon, but it usually ends up being one voice that calls the most shots.

In the beginning Dave was a bit jealous when he saw how the others always turned to Max when decisions were to be made. When they found the valley, they only went down after Max said so. And there were lots of little decisions that were made on the road where Max’s voice sometimes weighed more than two others. It wasn’t always an obvious thing. And Dave wasn’t sure everyone was conscious of it. But there was always a little quiet after a question where the others waited for Max to answer.

It was mostly the attention he was jealous of. Dave wouldn’t want to be the leader. It was one thing to pick a road for a group of six, but if what Bixby said was true, there was more ahead for Max.

So here was that little silence again, where the others gave Max a second to respond first. And he did. In a well spoken and thought through way. Like always.

“Nothing changes with our plan. Besides, I really want to see what those Nodes look like.”

“What about the dangers?” Mira asked. Bixby had told them there would be some sort of challenge to take over a Node. Usually in the form of guardians, to ensure that not everybody with Max Skill could claim a Node, but that they instead needed the support of others behind them.

“Leave them to me.” Dave said, holding Max’s eyes. Eventually Max gave a slight nod, but with a look that Dave knew meant “We’ll talk about it later.”

Normally they had that look when they were out socially and both wanted to make fun of something but knew it wasn’t appropriate. So they held it for later. Now this look had more concern in it than the normal lightheartedness.

Dave shrugged this thought away for now. Max hadn’t seen what was out there. He didn’t know how strong some of the players out there were. Dave knew that there was nothing his group could do to hold back that dark Nodefox. They needed to find a way to get stronger.

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” Bixby asked in a cheery voice as he made his way over to them. Dave sighed, he hated repeating himself.