Hazy grey nothing filled Verus’s vision and mind. His body felt light and numb, as if he was detached from it and floating. It was difficult to even think or observe his surroundings. His thoughts moved slowly, if at all. Time had no meaning anymore. There was only the grey nothing.

Then, the grey vanished in an explosion of color and noise that overwhelmed Verus, causing him to panic. Air whooshed by him as he found himself falling. He let out a scared yelp and heard someone else make a similar noise but couldn’t see them. He tried to reorient himself, but he hit the ground before that could happen.

Thankfully, he didn’t fall far and he landed on something soft. Groaning, Verus tried to clear his fuzzy thoughts. What had just happened? Oh, right. The portal!

Verus tried to sit up, but something was holding him down. He looked over to see Escora still clinging to his hand. Warin was right beside her, and she had grabbed his shirt with her other hand. They were both gasping and shockingly pale, but Verus doubted he looked any better.

All three of them had landed on a damp heap of moss in the middle of a forest. A thick canopy of leaves lay overhead, supported by countless thick tree trunks that lay in every direction. More clumps of green moss and tall ferns covered the ground.

“Where are we?” Warin asked. He sounded more than a little disoriented.

Verus blinked. “The Algorian Reaches, I’d guess.”

Escora shuddered and then quickly let go of the other two disciples. “I thought spatial gates would be a much more comfortable way to travel. That was horrid.”

“Maybe they aren’t all like that? It was our first time too,” Verus replied as he got to his feet and looked around. The numbness from before had already faded away, although his hand was a little sore from being squeezed so hard.

He didn’t see much other than trees and ferns, but a chorus of birds and frogs chirped and croaked in the distance. The forest air was hot and muggy. He could already feel himself beginning to sweat. It was much warmer here than he was used to, and the humidity made it worse.

Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment, Verus reached out with his senses. The ki flowed strongly here. It was a vibrant mix of all the basic elements and almost suffocating in its intensity. It felt like he could cultivate using the nearby aura just as easily as if he was using a shard.

“Incredible. Feel this ki! Why was I fighting so hard for shards?”

Escora grunted and got to her feet. “Your imperial palace would never let us come to a managed ki reserve like this unless they stood to benefit greatly from it. There must be more to this visit by the emissary than we know.”

Her choice of words annoyed Verus. “You’re an imperial too. Your tribe has been part of the empire and taken oaths of loyalty for generations, and you’re a member of the Great Wind Sect.”

“There’s more to me than my imperial citizenship though,” Escora replied with a frown.

“And there isn’t more to me than being an imperial?”

“Like what?”

Verus hesitated. He couldn’t think of anything.

“Maybe we should concentrate on our surroundings,” Warin said. “I think I sense something nearby.”

“What do you think it is?” Verus replied as he scanned the nearby trees. He wasn’t trying to change the topic. This was just more important.

That was when something slammed into his side, knocking him over as it crushed his ribs. It was Escora. She’d tackled him, and as they both flew sideways, something huge dropped down onto the spot Verus had been standing less than a second ago.

Verus and Escora hit the ground and then scrambled back to their feet as they studied his attacker. Larger than a horse, it glowed subtly in the shadow of the trees and its form was faintly transparent. The thing hissed angrily and its form shifted as it turned to face its prey. A spirit.

It took a moment for Verus’s eyes to make sense of the glowing energy that made up the spirit, but then it came into focus. The spirit had four legs, a scaly hide, a long thin tail, and a triangular head with a mouth full of sharp little teeth.

“It’s a lizard spirit of some kind!” he yelled as the specter turned to glare at him. Its eyes glowed a red color and were brighter than the rest of its body.

Escora was already facing it and had taken up a fighting stance. “Obviously!”

“What do we do?” Warin asked fearfully as he stumbled back away from the spirit.

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Before Verus could try to calm his friend down, the spirit hissed angrily again, and a blast of ki swept over the disciples. It hit Verus like a freezing wave of cold dark water, sending shivers down his spine and causing his insides to freeze up. The cold was only a side effect though. Verus instantly recognized the ki as being fear based. The malevolent energy tried to squirm under his skin and drill into his heart to paralyze him, but he resisted by falling back on his lifelong training. He begin circulating his ki and chanting a quick mantra as he activated the Faithful Soul Ward. As the power of devotion sprang into being, it pushed the fear ki from his body and cleared his mind.

It seemed like Warin had also activated the Faithful Soul Ward, because he was chanting something under his breath and was standing straighter and looking less afraid now. However, Escora fell to her knees and let out a pained gasp as she clutched her chest. Verus spared her a glance before turning back to the spirit, which was now headed her way.

“I’ll distract it. Help Escora!” Verus yelled as he ran ahead to draw the specter’s attention.

“Alright! I know just the thing. I’ve practiced for this!” Warin replied as he headed over to Escora’s side.

Verus couldn’t spare his allies another thought. The lizard spirit opened its jaws wide and lunged his way. Verus was ready though. He used Vanishing Feather Step to dodge the creature’s attack, and its jaws snapped shut inches from his arm as he blurred away from it.

Spinning around, Verus channeled ki through his body and into his arm before punching the lizard spirit in the face. His fist sank an inch into the spirit’s transparent body. The thick ki resisted Verus’s attack but not completely. Some of the ki that made up the spirit’s body dispersed away like smoke, leaving a small smoking gash.

“Damnation. This thing is hard to hurt,” Verus swore as he jumped back to avoid a slash of the lizard’s claws. There was no way he was going to be able to finish it off with just ki-enhanced punches and kicks.

The lizard spirit’s red eyes swirled with intense alien madness as it regarded Verus for a moment, but as he backed away, it turned to look at Escora and growled hungrily. An understanding came over Verus. This was a predator that fed on the fear of its prey to grow stronger. Torturing them until it they had been reduced to nothing, and Escora was its target. Warin was helping her to her feet, but her defense against the spirit’s supernatural fear aura seemed weak, and she was still in no shape to fight.

“Over here, you ugly abomination!” Verus yelled as he charged back into combat and kicked the lizard in the leg.

His attack did next to no damage, but it got the spirit’s attention. It glanced away from Escora and tried to bite him again, however Verus wasn’t hit. Grinning, he countered by jumping to the side and kicking the spirit’s leg again. For something made of ki that probably weighed next to nothing, the spirit wasn’t all that fast.

Whack. The lizard’s long thin tail smacked into Verus’s ribs, throwing him sideways. His feet skidded across the ground and then he gasped in pain as he fell to his knees.

Verus sucked down three deep breaths before climbing to his feet, but he was too slow. The lizard spirit had ignored him and charged straight for Escora. Still unsteady, there was no way he could catch up to it.

Warin hadn’t been idle though. The chubby young disciple was standing next to Escora with one hand on her shoulder and his eyes closed. He was chanting loudly as the spirit approached, seemingly unconcerned and lost in the technique he was using. Escora looked much better. She looked to have thrown off the spirit’s emotional attack and new resolve shown in her eyes as she gathered her ki.

Blue water ki pooled between Escora’s hands, spinning as it condensed into essence. The Telhri disciple then twisted around and snapped her arm toward the charging spirit. As she moved, the water essence extended into a long whip. It cracked loudly as it cut through the air with incredible speed. Almost too fast to see, the whip slammed into the spirit’s head, raking across its eyes before bursting.

A large cloud of ki rose up from the spirit’s head as he it screamed in pain and stumbled back, but Escora didn’t let up. As she and Warin moved out of the spirit’s way, she summoned another whip and then lashed the spirit’s side. The essence technique did far more damage than Verus’s punches and kicks. It bit deep into the spirit and tore apart the ki that made up its body.

Escora yelled as she prepped a third whip. “Even without its eyes it can still sense us. We need to destroy its core or make it retreat back to the eternal plane.”

“I’m trying to keep the spirit back with a ward, but I don’t think it’s working. It's too powerful,” Warin added as he opened his eyes and stepped away from Escora. Gesturing with his hands, he went right back to chanting after finishing talking.

“Right,” Verus shouted back as he eyed the lizard. It was now hissing madly as it spun around blindly in an attempt to defend itself from the water ki attacks, but it was still dangerous. As a spirit, damage to its body wasn’t permanent, and it still had its claws and ki abilities. Where was its core? Verus couldn’t see anything he thought resembled a core within the spirit’s transparent body. Also, what was he supposed to do if he found it?

Wait. He shouldn’t be trying to use his eyes. They would only deceive him. This was a spirit. He needed to use his ki senses. Closing his eyes, Verus reached out with his spirit. The lizard specter immediately dominated his awareness. Even among the thick ki of the Reaches, its power stood out. It was a deep shifting blob of dark alien ki. The power repulsed him, but Verus stiffened his resolve and pushed his awareness deeper into the spirit. Where was the core?

Verus sank deeper into the darkness, letting the corrosive and hateful power flow past him. The spirit was a creature of terror and horror that preyed on the weak and vulnerable. Fear pressed down on him from all sides, alien and terrible, but he kept it at bay with the Faithful Soul Ward. Devotion to his goals and his allies filled him, leaving no room for anything else.

Then, something brushed against Verus’s awareness. A concentrated bundle of essence that hung in the center of the spirit, like a lurking fish in muddy water. The core! He’d found it.

Verus’s eyes flew open and locked on the location of the core. He could see it now that his spirit had touched it. It was a dull round shadow in the center of the lizard’s belly. It seethed with revolting ki.

Instantly, the shimmering form that comprised the lizard spirit convulsed and turned toward Verus. Its newly regenerated eyes flashed red as it glared at him, and Verus flinched in surprise as the effect of its fear aura doubled, pressing down on him like a heavy blanket soaked in tar. The predatory spirit had sensed what he’d done, and it now considered him the greater threat.