by Aaron Oster
Dimly, she was aware of danger nearby, but in her addled state, she couldn’t make any sense of where it was coming from. She blindly stumbled away, staggering through the forest, and hoping she was going in the right direction. The nausea intensified as she went, forcing her to stop several times. Each time, she forced herself to keep going, the threat of danger in the back of her mind too persistent to allow her to remain in place.
It was dark now, the orange light long gone, yet the danger was still there, and Grace forced herself to keep moving. She felt her shoulder smack into something hard, and her body swayed to one side. Then, she was falling once again, hitting sharp stones, and smacking her hips painfully against the ground. Her fall was finally arrested when she hit something else, her shoulder smacking against another hard surface.
Then, the wind was whistling around her, and Grace was briefly aware of a crashing sound.
Grace’s mind snapped back into focus as she hit something hard and saw that she was surrounded on all sides by dark, swirling water. She panicked for a few moments, thrashing about as she floundered for the surface. It was too dark to see, but as the dull roar from above grew louder, she was fairly certain she was getting there.
Her head broke the surface of the water, but before she could get in so much as a single breath, something slammed into her, forcing her back under. Now she really began to panic, her still fuzzy mind trying to find an explanation as to why she was in the water, and who could be forcing her under.
She was sure of one thing — she needed to get out so she could breathe. Grace used Air Siren, blasting the area before her with the rippling wave of sound. Seeing as she was in the water, the blast shoved her back. She used it again, hoping that her attacker wouldn’t be quick enough to catch her if she moved far enough away. She then aimed a hand downward and used the skill one last time, the blast finally allowing her to break the surface.
Grace spluttered and gasped as her head rose above the water, and sweet air filled her lungs. She whirled in place, kicking her legs to try and face her attacker. As she turned and the last of the fog cleared from her brain, she realized two things. One, that she was the only one here, and two, that her ‘attacker’ had been a waterfall.
She reached up, wiping the water droplets from her eyes, and looked around once again. She was in a basin of some sort, with tall cliffs soaring up all around her. A thundering wall of water fell before her, rising some fifty feet into the air. Grace traced the waterfall all the way up and her mind finally started to put things into place.
There had been a fight, and the tree she’d been in had been knocked down and she’d suffered a blow to the head. Then, she’d staggered away and must have fallen down the cliffside. She shivered involuntarily as she realized that once again, she’d come close to death. She also realized that she was becoming quite cold, and despite the warmth of the night, the water wasn’t all that warm.
She paddled over to the shore, pulling herself painfully from the water and flopping onto her back. Her head was still pounding, and her body screamed in agony. Before she did anything else, Grace stripped down to her underclothes, knowing that getting dry was more important than staying warm. Besides, the night air was pleasant, and remaining in the sodden clothes carried with it the risk of falling ill.
Shivering lightly, Grace began to examine herself, checking for broken or fractured bones. Her head didn’t feel too bad, but having smacked it as hard as she had, she suspected she might have a concussion. Her left shoulder was pretty sore, but after checking, she found that it was still intact. The worst pain came from her hip, and when she looked down at it, she could see why.
A long, jagged gash ran along the skin there, blood still seeping out and flowing down her leg. She cast about for a moment, searching for her bag, but had no luck. She could feel tears threatening to fall then, as she realized that she was injured and all alone. Worse, Morgan would have no idea where to find her, and she couldn’t see any way out.
Grace shook herself, then regretted it as her head throbbed once again. She knew that she couldn’t break down and she couldn’t give up. If she wanted to survive, she couldn’t wait around in the hopes that Morgan would find her. She would have to do something and depend on herself. Grace eyed the water once again, wondering if her bag might have gone over with her. Even if it had, she knew she wouldn’t be finding it tonight.
She was tired, injured, and wouldn’t be able to see a thing in the dark water. The injury on her hip needed tending, though she had nothing to use as an antiseptic. They’d been around healers for all of her training thus far, and as far as she knew, Morgan had all the important supplies. Still, she was fairly confident she’d be fine.
The cut, while wide and painful, didn’t look too deep, and she had fallen into the water. She could only hope that that would be enough to keep it from becoming infected. Grace then reached for her uniform, unbuckling one of the sleeves and binding it around her upper thigh, angling it to cover the wound. It was a bit awkward, but after a few minutes of adjustments, she got it to sit right.
She then grabbed her clothes and crawled away from the shoreline, toward the cover of some low bushes. They were the first she’d seen since they’d landed here, but Grace was too tired to really give that much thought. She simply slung her clothes up on top of them, hoping that they’d dry by morning, before climbing partially into cover and curling up. All she could do was hope that if Morgan somehow found her trail, he’d be able to spot her down here.
Her body throbbed in pain as she curled up, still fighting back the tears that wanted to overcome her. At that moment, more than ever before, she felt like a scared girl who was in way over her head. Grace was too tired to berate herself for her weakness, and within just a few moments, she lost the battle to stay awake and drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
***
Morgan darted between trees, his eyes flicking every which way in a desperate attempt to find some sign of his student before the beastmen or something else did. A snarl from off to his right made Morgan whirl, and he threw up a Stormforged violet shield, just in time to catch the slavering monster and throw it off course. The dark creature soared through the air, twisting in a catlike manner, and landed on the trunk of a nearby tree.
To his right, Lumia roared, tearing into another of the beasts and ripping it nearly in half. However, instead of expelling a spray of blood as one might expect, the creature shattered, vanishing into sparkling motes of light and leaving nothing behind. The creature on the tree threw itself at him, thinking it got him while distracted, but Morgan’s shield morphed into a spear, catching the creature through its midriff and shattering it as well.
“What the hell are these things?” he called, but Lumia didn’t answer, as she had no idea either.
All they knew was that just fifteen minutes after their search began, these creatures began to show up. Small at first and easy to ignore, but as time wore on and they killed more of them, the creatures began to grow, morphing and evolving. Now, they were some four feet long and three at the shoulder. Powerful, lithe, and compact, the things were covered in dark fur and had gleaming red eyes.
Worst of all, Morgan couldn’t get a read on them. To his Aura Sense, they simply glowed blue. No core, no rank, no nothing. Just a single, blue mass. Another creature came hurtling out of the darkness, but a blast of Lumia’s fiery breath reduced it to ash. Well, in actuality, it was more like motes of light, which was far less satisfying.
“Any signs of her?” Morgan called, crouching once again and beginning to search the ground.
As far as he knew, that had been the last creature in this wave and they now had a few minutes to search for Grace once again.
“Still nothing,” Lumia said.
She was in her hybrid form, as it gave her better maneuverability in the trees and made it easier to search. However, they both had a problem, and as the creatures kept coming, it had become more obvious. If Grace had left any tracks, thes
e things were quickly making them disappear, constantly disturbing the ground and removing any potential signs of her passing.
Morgan wanted to scream in frustration. He had so many tools at his disposal, but now, just because of the landscape, he was unable to utilize one of the most potent ways of tracking he had and was instead reduced to scrabbling in the dirt.
“Looks like we have more incoming,” Lumia called just a couple of minutes later.
Morgan cursed under his breath and rose, turning just in time to see six-foot creatures, now with crackling yellow light dancing along their spines, come barreling into the clearing. This fight was much harder than the last, Morgan being forced to use a bit of effort to crush them this time, which wasn’t altogether a good sign.
If these creatures continuously came back stronger, then eventually, he’d lose. Unless he could find their source, he could forget about worrying about Grace and have to start worrying about himself. He growled, spinning in place, and lashed out with a side kick, catching one of the creatures in the side and shattering it to pieces.
He finally felt something for the briefest moment as his foot impacted. A flash of blue seemed to leave the creature, racing away before vanishing. Had Morgan been anyone else, he might have dismissed it as his imagination playing tricks on him. Morgan had been around long enough to know when something strange was going on.
So, instead of ignoring the strange light he’d seen, Morgan threw himself at yet another creature, the last in this wave. Another blot of light stretched off into the darkness as this one shattered, disappearing after only a few feet. Still, if it had happed twice, it would happen again.
“I think these are made from some sort of skill,” he finally said as the pieces in his mind clicked together.
“Do you think it’s from some sort of beast that’s hiding out there, or is it one of the beastmen?” Lumia asked.
Morgan shrugged, hearing the growls of yet another wave. They were definitely coming faster now, the time between attacks shortening considerably with each wave.
“Just keep driving them my way, and we’ll find out soon enough!”
35
Morning found Grace feeling even worse than the night before. She was more torn from her sleep than anything else, waking up to the feeling of something cold and slimy running over her foot. She jumped up, kicking her foot with a light scream, and sending the offending snail soaring through the air to land some few feet away, where it resumed its slow slide completely unharmed.
It was only once her racing heart began to slow that she realized just how much pain she was in. She groaned, hunching over as all of the punishment that her body had taken last night came back all at once. Her head throbbed painfully and she reached up, wincing at the large and tender bump she felt there.
Looking down at the wrapped leg, she quickly undid the strap. A long scab now ran along where the cut had been, and though the skin around it was red and somewhat inflamed, she was fairly confident that it wasn’t infected. The splotchy lines of bruising that was now marking her legs, stomach, chest, and shoulders told her that her fall had done a lot more than leaving her with just a couple of cuts.
She rose painfully to her feet and limped over to the water’s edge, leaning down to take a drink. The cool water washed the nasty taste from her mouth and seemed to alleviate the headache somewhat. She then rinsed her makeshift bandage before wrapping it around her thigh once again, the now cool bandage feeling absolutely amazing against her hot skin.
Grace then moved along the waterline, looking down into the clear water to try and spot her bag. The pool was shallower than she’d first thought, perhaps ten feet at the most, and crystal clear. With the sun shining, she could see straight to the bottom, and after a few minutes of searching, she was forced to accept that she’d lost her pack somewhere along the way.
Bending down, she washed her face and did her best to comb her hair with her fingers. She imagined she looked like a horrible mess right now, but at the moment, that was hardly important. What she needed to do was try and find some way out of here so she could get back to Morgan. She was sure he was looking for her, so the least she could do was try and make it easier for him.
Limping back to the bushes where she’d slept, Grace examined her uniform. It was torn and bloody in several places, but her dip in the water had washed most of it away. There were several gaps when she pulled it back on, the largest being over the area where she’d cut her thigh. It was better than walking around in her underwear, and she wasn’t about to complain about having the minor protection the armored clothes offered.
She knew that she must have hit whatever had cut her pretty hard to be able to tear through the toughened material, as she could see small, gleaming fibers peeking through the tears in the cloth. Her eyes traced a line back up the side of the cliff where she’d fallen, and Grace felt another shiver run down her spine.
She’d been lucky. Extremely so, in fact, having fallen down where she did instead of landing on the hard ground. A fall like that would have killed her without a doubt, no matter how strong or tough she was. She wasn’t Morgan. Right now, she was barely better than the average human. She could feel herself beginning to panic, when she heard Morgan’s voice in her mind, a past lesson coming back to her then.
“If you ever feel as though you are about to panic, close your eyes and take a deep breath. I find that filling my lungs with air tends to clear my mind.”
Grace inhaled deeply, forcing her lungs to expand to their current capacity. Pain flared along her stomach and ribs as they shifted, aggravating the bruised muscles. Her back cried out in pain as well, more of a burning sensation than throbbing pain, but Grace did her best to ignore it, forcing her mind to focus on nothing but her breathing.
“Once you’ve managed to calm your breathing, move your focus to something else immediately. I would recommend looking at your status, as it’s always available, and it doesn’t hurt to remind yourself that even alone and unarmed, you’re never helpless.”
Morgan’s calm voice sounded in her mind once again, and Grace dutifully followed her teacher’s instructions, pulling up her status.
Name: Grace
Super: Rank - 5
Energy to Next Rank - 104/3,500
Mage: Rank - 4
Energy to Next Rank - 529/2,300
Super Ability - Self
Mage Ability - Sound
CP - 180/180 (Regen - 1.3 per second)
MP - 180/180 (Regen - 1.3 per second)
Strength - 23
Agility - 16
Constitution - 16
Intelligence - 18
Wisdom - 13
Super Skills - Expand Blows, Body Shift
Mage Skills - Air Siren, Echolocation
Grace stared at her status, noting just how far she’d come with Morgan’s guidance. Sure, her attributes were still a bit skewed towards Strength, but Morgan had assured her that this could be balanced in time. He’d also told her that everyone was predisposed to having one attribute that stood above the rest. For him, it was Agility, and he said that hers may very well be her Strength. But he’d also said that only time would tell.
She closed her status, and Grace now found herself to be much calmer, the earlier panic at her predicament now all but gone. She knew that she had to find some way out of here. She might have water in abundance, but her stomach was already beginning to rumble. Anything she may have eaten the day before had been thrown up, so she was quite hungry.
More than that, she knew that staying here out in the open left her exposed. If a beastman patrol came by, she’d be seen for sure, so she needed to find a way out of here. This in mind, Grace began to limp along the walls of the basin to the only exit she could see — a small split in the stone where the water flowed through before vanishing.
It hadn’t been large enough, and the current hadn’t been strong enough to pull her through last night, but there had to be a runoff for the water. Otherwise, t
his basin would be filled to the brim. However, as Grace reached the crack in the stone and peered through, she found that this was most definitely not a viable way out. The thin stream of water didn’t continue in some sort of stream, but vanished into the air, falling hundreds of feet to land in another pool below.
Despite not having found a way out, Grace still took the time to admire the view through the crack in the stone. She’d had no idea that she was so high up, and from here, she could view a good portion of the landscape. The Wilderwood stretched far into the distance, but on the very edge of the horizon, she could just make out another shift in the landscape.
The area was dark and hazy, with thick mists rolling into the air. Judging by her height, she had to say it was several hundred miles away, at least, and that was when she was staring straight ahead. When she turned, all she could see were trees, marking the continual stretch of the Wilderwood.
Small clear patches were visible in some areas, and in one, she could see a massive opening with soaring stone structures reaching into the sky. They looked nothing like human dwellings, appearing more cave-like in nature than anything else. Grace could have stayed there all day had she had the time, but another rumbling growl from her stomach brought her back to reality and her current objective.
She sighed, pulling back from the crack in the stone and began hunting for another way up. After a full hour of searching with no results, Grace slumped against a cliff face, panting and dejected. There wasn’t so much as a single path leading out of this basin, and any attempts at climbing had left her exhausted and in a great deal of pain.
The rocks around the waterfall were slick and smooth, worn down by years of water flow, and as she went further away, the walls became slightly inverted, making the climb there all but impossible. She’d tried crossing the water and checking on the other side but had been met with similar walls.
