When Hazahnahkah awoke, Hwayoung was already walking in daylight. He had been careless with the overuse of his Ramble, and rain had washed away any impurity left behind a human being—most especially any smells, footsteps, or traces of Nazaki’s company. If he had been awake and able, he could have prevented this.

  Not all of the jungle was cleansed though. Hwayoung slowed as the group called out the powerful smells, her sandals sinking slightly into the damp soil as she pushed aside a curtain of hanging vines. Then, it struck her nose. Overwhelming metallic and burnt earth: crusted minerals, scorched sap, charred roots.

  The smells came from a clearing—or what had once been one. Now it was a ruin of violence, a grotesque painting smeared across the vibrant greens and golds of the jungle. The earth itself bore deep, jagged furrows, as though something massive had raked its claws through the ground. The earth scars pooled with a diseased blue and spiraling red, as well as something thicker, darker—bone marrow.

  Hwayoung knelt at the gashes. Each was ten times her size. “Think it was the White Tiger?”

  “If the White Tiger had wings.” Lazul prodded a branch just above him with his rod, several feathers drifting down.

  That wasn’t even a fraction of them. Lying and bleeding out in front of them was a shredded fleshy wing—translucent, veined with blue—lay half-submerged in the muck, its delicate membranes torn beyond recognition. The air carried the faint, sickly-sweet stench of decay. Dalagun crouched, his fingers hovering over the flesh. It simmered to his touch.

  “Never seen anything like it. Even in these lands. Maria, do you know?”

  “I don’t. Nothing of this size or aggression would be tolerated so close to Yurreth’s territories… other than Yurreth herself.” Maria lifted her gaze beyond the clearing.

  The jungle thinned there, giving way to a breathtaking vista: a city of floating islands and cascading balloons gleamed in the distance, its white stone bathed in the golden light of the setting sun. It was like a jeweled nestled in the wilds, highlighting this nightmarish scene in a way that appeared hypocritically dreamy. It was all so strangely beautiful now. Like the painting of a dream.

  Hazahnahkah began to think of Ysan at this: of her murals and paintings and makeup. He wondered if she was even still alive. To think he was going to enter a large human settlement again—nothing good ever came from them. It was amazing they had even approached this closely without him noticing it. He noticed something else too, fur tufts sprinkling the scene like snow. He activated his Third Terror and made several float up a bit, right into Hwayoung’s face. She caught one, then raised a brow at Hazahnahkah.

  “There were more than things with feathers here,” she said.

  Lazul dove onto his stomach. “It’s here now!”

  It broke the air like a cave-in from all directions. A maw flashed from the greenery right over Lazul and straight for Maria. She leapt, screaming as it snapped at the air above her head, upheaving the land around them into raised chunks and cracked slabs as the monstrous form landed in entirety. It was a blur of sharp limbs and blood-curdling wails. And its black and white pattern was blindingly fast. Hazahnahkah did not even have a chance to activate his Second Terror as a claw thrice his length speared Hwayoung through and pinned her to the earth. Dalagun and Galfarys sprung into action, but both were knocked away by its free paw, which then quickly slashed at Maria. She tumbled, screaming. The quiet scene erupted into a back and forth of commands and cries. Zaz was the only one who retained his composure, landing several bolts straight into the underbelly of the beast. Its hind leg stomped, then vanished into the ground. A second later, it sprung back up, bending in ways no hind leg should bend, a bony tentacle more than anything else, clasping around Zaz like a third arm.

  “A Ramble!” Zaz cried, kicking. “Serpent’s breath! It has a Ramble!”

  This changed everything. Hazahnahkah rapidly inspected the beast with all the speed he could manage. If he had a heart, it would have dropped. Their party was excellent with damage mitigation by combining Galfarys, Zalaster, and Lamina’s abilities—but that was only if those three weren’t immediately overwhelmed. This was no normal tiger. This was no normal devil.

  Health (source of vitality and abilities): 200,680,000

  Energy (source of stamina and abilities): 391,269,850

  Agility (speed of actions): 160,100

  Regeneration (rate of recovery per hour for Health and Energy): 500,000,000,000

  Tenacity (resistance to unwanted effects): 100,000

  Strength (physical or mental reality manipulation potency): 96,525

  [White Tiger’s Abilities]

  Untouched: Immune to ailments and aging.

  Fleshcoat: Cloaked in an unknown biological layer, masking its full potential. Damage dealt to Health may instead be absorbed by Energy.

  Shapeshifter: Can alter physical shape at will.

  Devourer: Gains abilities or attributes from creatures it consumes.

  Anti-Incarnate: Triples Strength against Incarnates.

  Tiger Talon: Weaponless melee attacks steal Health equal to damage dealt.

  Seven Chances: When reduced to 0 Health, remains at 1 Health instead. Can trigger up to 7 times per hour; resets hourly.

  Poison of The Tenth God: Any attacks inflicted by this creature can spread a shadow across objects or targets. These stripes are closer to a, dealing damage up to 1% of its Strength per stack per minute. Damage varies widely. Caps at 10 stacks.

  This was absurd. Hazahnahkah actually wasn’t sure what to do against a foe like this. He wasn’t sure whether to try and communicate to the group how dangerous this was or to just go all out on offensive or defensive measures. Seven Chances with its Regeneration would make it nearly undying even with Hazahnahkah’s Terrors.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  To think there were Rambles that could even change the physical shape! And to think that even unintelligent life could possess them! Hwayoung shouted and thrust Hazahnahkah into the tiger’s paw. At this, Hazahnahkah utilized his Third Terror, teleporting the girl to safety, healing all her wounds, and intensifying gravity’s influence on the tiger. The ground collapsed. An underground lagoon opened up. Soon, everyone, tiger included, was scrambling away from the fresh and gurgling basin. The beast was frenzied at this. Its speed surpassed Hazahnahkah’s warping, nearly beheading Galfarys and Zaz if Hwayoung hadn't dove in to parry it. Then, its tail met her face and she went flying through a tree. The shock would have killed anyone, if not for Hazahnahkah.

  Several bolts from Zaz bounced off it. The tiger twirled, and the sweeping sand burst into a billowing grey cloud that nipped at the eyes and nose. Hazahnahkah activated his Third Terror once again, clearing the entire area so forcefully that trees that had not budged for thousands of years were blown backward to his will. When everyone finished wiping their eyes, the tiger was gone. Even Galfarys was left standing stupidly. He had been so focused on defending everyone else and himself. All of his swords had missed. He tried to track it with his safety field and failed.

  Hazahnahkah and Hwayoung are developing their Agility… as quickly as they can—their lives could depend on it!

  Hazahnahkah: Impressed 60/100 → Trusting 75/100

  “Serpent strangle me,” Dalagun huffed, crawling. “It broke my Ramble instantly.” He raised his arm, there was a marble shield that had not been there before. It was cracked, and what was left of it was evaporating into the air as if it was never there at all.

  Galfarys lowered Lahahm, who was somehow still sleeping even now. “It bypassed mine. It must have been waiting here for hours or I would have sensed it the moment it moved.”

  “Useless as usual,” Zaz said.

  “Oh?” Hwayoung scowled. “At least he did something. Lamina stood there and watched.”

  Lamina was too busy rubbing her nose to her snake’s to show any sign of shame. “Mama said it wasn’t a fight worth worrying about.”

  “Then what is?” Hwayoung asked. “Why are you even here?”

  “When it’s a fight worth worrying mama about.”

  It took everyone several minutes to gather themselves. Lamina then looked to Hazahnahkah, and inspected where Hwayoung had been impaled. Zaz frowned at them.

  “Ought to find some shadow for that, although I confess The Sword's Sister is rather useful. I imagine she has limitations.”

  “He,” Hwayoung corrected, mildly annoyed. “And it’s The Sword.”

  “Sure, whatever. It’s a sword.”

  Hazahnahkah didn’t really care for what Zaz wanted to spout. He was one of trillions of people with that same opinion.

  “You mean you still don’t believe it’s Hazahnahkah?” Hwayoung asked.

  “Even if it is, it is still not the One True Hazahnahkah.”

  “And what is this one true crap about?”

  Zaz turned up his nose. “If you weren’t given the dream, it’s not for you to know.”

  Hwayoung looked at everyone, who did not expand on this. Only Lazul looked back, with a shrug. Maria seemed too winded from the White Tiger encounter to even pay attention to anything besides her bodice.

  The battle hadn’t been as bad as the storm upon the petal sea, but it was certainly humbling for them. Hazahnahkah had no doubt he would have been able to protect Hwayoung with ease, but he had lost track in the pandemonium of where everyone else exactly was—and that meant he couldn’t do much if their corpse was snapped up and dragged away into the darkness. He imprinted this realization into a canvas of sand for Hwayoung to read.

  I CANNOT SAVE WHAT I CANNOT SEE.

  Hwayoung shuddered at the message, but nodded. She pressed Hazahnahkah closer to her hip and turned towards Lazul. The man seemed completely unaffected by the attack. He pushed at the bamboo with his staff, rubbing his stubble.

  “Nature resists me here. Something else pushed first, and harder.”

  Hwayoung frowned. “Remember we’re pursuing Nazaki, not ungodly tigers.”

  “I assure you there was no tiger.” Lazul pulled away from the bamboo and paced to the opposite side of the clearing.

  This was where the wounds in the earth were worst. The bamboo thickets were ripped open like the stomach of a cow, dark and vile smelling, as if something dead had been dragged through and walked this way. The opening was human sized, but a human of great power surely.

  “This was what the tiger fought with. No tiger waits so long after so great a battle unless it believes it needs the first strike. It was expecting its prey to come back.”

  “So the White Tiger fled the opposite direction. Then what came this way?”

  “A human, clearly. Or something of our size.”

  “Nazaki?” Hwayoung hummed to herself, not believing her own words. “There’s no way. Even if he holds The Sword's Sister—he would have died in a fight against that.”

  “Then Bankanzaku, perhaps.”

  Hwayoung laughed. This surprised the old man. She shook her head quickly. “No, whatever the White Tiger fled from, it wasn’t Bankanzaku.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  Hazahnahkah was not sure how Hwayoung was so certain, but she was rarely so unwilling to hear out someone else—she must have had her reasons. This confidence did not stop her stomach from tightening. The blade could feel her unease. She looked at the blood. It was dry. It had been dry for days. This scene had waited here overlong, and so had the tiger.

  Lazul seemed to want to travel backward, although he did not say this. “Whatever it was, it went towards the village.”

  “But whatever that was, it wasn’t Bankanzaku. We keep going,” Hwayoung said. “It’s what Nazaki would have done, so we too must do it.”

  Hazahnahkah was not exactly in favor of this decision. He remembered where the village was, and could warp them back, and then once again return to this place. So long as he knew where everything was, there was no challenge in teleporting the space that contained them there with his Third Terror. He explained this to Hwayoung before bed, but she shook her head, dismissing him as quickly as she had Lazul. Hazahnahkah pushed back again—something he had never had to do before. He wrote under the wing Hwayoung slept, imprinting in its vanes and feathers as one would wet clay.

  IS IT REALLY OKAY TO LET WHATEVER DID THIS NEAR THE VILLAGE?

  Hwayoung didn’t even blink at the resistance. “Slavers live there.”

  SO DO SLAVES.

  Hwayoung bit her lips. “It’s better they live as slaves than as Yurreth’s servants. With any luck the abomination will have them free of both.” She rolled over, as if to deny the conversation, but the curve of the feathers still faced her open eyes.

  Hazahnahkah wrote in them even more severely.

  FREE THROUGH DEATH?

  “There’s nothing we can do.”

  THERE’S SOMETHING I CAN DO.