“I’m so sorry, Harvey. Nothing ever attacked us before…” Hannah fussed, “I had no idea there were fish like that swimming around in there.”

  “They probably weren’t strong enough to risk attacking you last time. We may be growing fast, but while we’re wasting time arguing about who’s in charge, the wildlife’s busy eating each other.” Harvey guessed.

  His robe was sopping wet, sticking to his body like a second skin. Luckily, thrashing around underwater had accomplished his goal of cleaning himself off, so the smell wasn’t as unbearable as it would have been a few minutes ago. Fighting through the aches and tenderness the potion couldn’t erase, he climbed to his feet. His back groaned in protest as he bent over, unfastening his leather boots to pour out the water that had accumulated inside.

  “I’m surprised you’re so calm. I lost it when I saw all that blood float to the surface.” Hannah gasped, pausing between words as she fought to steady her breathing.

  “Wasn’t my blood,” Harvey remarked.

  “Still. What happened to you? Three days ago, you’d be having a panic attack.” She asked.

  “I don’t know.” He chuckled, squelching his wet socks back into the boots. “A lot of things, I guess. First being that I have more than a single point of Willpower, but I also have a purpose again.”

  “Helping Elena?” Hannah asked.

  “Not just her. When I got here, I was scrambling, still reeling from what I left behind, with no idea what was ahead of me. Now, I know.” He explained, “I may not like that it's all death, carnage, and hard work, but I like that it’s for a good cause.”

  “I know what you mean. It was hard keeping my game face on at first, but the more people we saved, the more I started feeling like we had a fighting chance of getting out of here.”

  “You guys have done great work. Thanks for diving in after me, by the way.” He smiled, snatching her into a quick hug.

  “Ew, you’re welcome, but let go. It's like we’re wet towels rolling around a washing machine.” Hannah laughed, pushing him away. “Are you good to keep moving?”

  “Yeah, let’s just take it slow for a minute while I recover. Those anchor eels nearly sucked every last drop of essence out of me.” Harvey answered.

  Before they left, he threw the dead trout in his Slipsack. It was big enough to feed a small family, and it would be cathartic to eat it. He may not be willing to watch it drown, but he wasn’t above doing unto others what they tried doing to him. He smiled as the body disappeared, the bloodstained grass beneath it the only proof it had ever been there.

  They walked along the river, aimlessly wandering as the cold afternoon air dried their clothes. He’d expect to be shivering in weather like this, teeth chattering like that wind-up toy that showed up in a bunch of old movies, but something about his empowered body helped him ignore the cold.

  Now that they’d made it out here, there really wasn’t any rhyme or reason to where they went next. A suitable beast could be anywhere. When she and Julian were out looking for survivors, they would canvas like a search-and-rescue team, moving back and forth between the walls of darkness at the North and South. They’d already searched this area twice, but figured it wouldn’t hurt to stick to routine in case anyone had migrated deeper in.

  Every so often, a hawk would appear on Hannah’s shoulder, fly in circles around them, and come back when it didn’t find anything. It was fascinating, watching it melt into her tattoo like its body never existed, despite how real it looked. It searched for traces of expended essence and didn’t find anything for hours.

  They did run into a few hungry animals. A boar charged out from the bushes, but a few bolts from Harvey knocked it off course before an arrow thwacked into its throat. It looked just like the stonetusks, but with the usual brown skin and white tusks he’d seen on National Geographic.

  A deafening screech from the tree crowns nearly knocked Harvey out, but he regained his composure just in time to protect his throat with a fangbreaker-covered arm. Like many Carrionwing before it, the bird died. It was called a bellbird, and was covered head to talon in beautiful snow-white feathers. They rarely went more than an hour without some beast testing its luck, but none were strong enough to pose an actual threat.

  The constant attacks made him realize how surrounded by life he must have always been.

  On Earth, when a kid was scared of a spider, the saying was always that they’re more scared of you than you are of them. Birds and bugs were always around, but they made sure you never saw them. Now, the birds and bugs were getting cocky and made sure their presence was known.

  Harvey’s jaw dropped when they reached the edge of the trial for the first time. Like a sheet of glass, the vibrant green forest simply ended where the black void he’d awoken in began. It split the world in half, with healthy trees cut down the middle. Walking up to the edge, he tried to look down over the side, only to find his head banging against the invisible barrier. It was almost like they were in a glass diorama, and he half expected some giant schoolteacher to turn on the lights and reveal that the world outside was just a dark classroom where he was part of a cosmic show-and-tell.

  “Pretty trippy, right?” Hannah asked.

  “That doesn’t even come close to describing it. Is this place even real?” Harvey asked.

  “What even is real at this point?” Hannah asked, hands on her hips as she stared up into the sky.

  As they marvelled, the Essence Hawk appeared, squawking wildly as it flapped in the air in front of her.

  “Did it find someone?” Harvey asked.

  “No? When it finds some essence, I usually feel what it feels. Like an echo of what happened. But I’m getting nothing.” She hesitated.

  “Maybe it saw something while it was flying around?” He guessed.

  With a screech, it darted through the trees, staying close enough to the ground for them to follow. They sprinted after it, weaving through the forest like Olympic sprinters as a noise grew louder in the distance. Far ahead, an angry chorus of howls and barks filled the air. Bloodstained bushes and broken branches hinted something had been chased through the forest, and it was confirmed when they spotted two large wolves covered with dark brown fur devouring a fallen deer.

  The hawk flew right over their heads, distracting them while Hannah lined up her shot. With practiced ease, the first arrow soared into the beast's torso, impaling itself just behind a front leg. It yipped and turned to face her, sounding more shocked than pained. The arrow sank barely past the arrowhead, proving the resilience essence had granted it. Shock turned to fury when a second arrow, gently glowing from the infused essence, sank a few inches deeper.

  Leaving their meal behind, both wolves sprinted towards them, and Harvey barely had time to send a bolt their way before their claws were upon him. Luckily, he’d learned a thing or two fighting bloodrunn, and had gotten better at using fangbreaker-covered kicks to keep some distance. It wouldn’t kill them very fast, but it would keep him safe as they fought their war of attrition.

  Where bloodrunn were light and nimble, relying on speed to stay alive as they bled their victims dry, these wolves looked to overpower him with unrelenting force. Taking an athletic stance, his muscles strained as he fought to protect himself, only sporadically able to send return fire at the pair. Luckily, he wasn’t alone, and Hannah’s arrows quickly ramped to a deadly force. He could practically hear them vibrating as they pincushioned the wolves.

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  He punched out with his left hand, essence erupting as his shield-covered fist connected with its bony jaw. The shockwave sent the hound flopping onto its back. Seeing his opening, he unloaded three bolts into the soft-white underbelly of the beast. The mental nudge of a kill notification announced its demise, but a searing pain in his shoulders delayed his celebration as he was thrown to the ground.

  Instinctively, he covered the back of his neck and shoulder blades with a fangbreaker and shook when he felt it explode outwards the instant his essence filled the sigil on his forearm. Instinct and desperation overcame his senses, and he rolled onto his back to prepare to fend off the hungry maw making its return.

  The wolf’s amber eyes were filled with pain, hunger, and victory as it stood above him, ready to clamp down onto his throat. Then, its eye was replaced with the slender, brown shaft of an arrow that shook with barely constrained force.

  With a whimper, the wolf fell over, and Hannah rushed to pull him to his feet. Without saying a word, she followed the exultant howls ahead.

  They found two more carcasses, each feeding another pair of wolves. These fell much faster thanks to Hannah reaching the upper limit of her Steady Draw skill, but a costly miss as Harvey kicked away the final wolf to protect himself reset her strength.

  “Damn it!” She swore. There was a fierce determination in her eyes he’d yet to see. So far, she’d bounced between sly amusement and grim determination, but a righteous fury had overtaken her as she tore through the wolves.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t want…” Harvey began, shocked at her intensity.

  “Not your fault.” She snapped, lurching forward.

  Harvey ran to keep up with her, only pausing when he saw the massive wolf and its two companions stalking towards an injured deer. Where the smaller wolves looked like any timber wolf you’d find on earth, the alpha was monstrous. Instead of the tawny brown fur of its brothers, this wolf was jet black with streaks of icy white shooting down its back.

  Pale light glowed around it, and the shadows of the trees slowly contorted. It violated the laws of nature, taking what was merely an absence of light and molding it into a living force that surrounded the bleeding buck. It was terrified, antlers shaking violently as it avoided putting weight on an injured leg. It had moved to stand in a small clearing where the sun’s rays shone down, and was surrounded by living shadow.

  Harvey gasped when a needle of darkness sprang out, shooting towards another leg. The skin broke, and blood began leaking out as the buck released a terrified bleat. The surrounding wolves almost seemed to laugh as more and more spears of darkness ravaged their cornered prey.

  Unwilling to watch the torture any longer, Hannah sent an arrow flying into the midnight fur. It was the weakest she would shoot, unless she missed again, but the moonlight surrounding it still lurched as its concentration broke. Shadows below broke free, struggling to move back to their natural place before the alpha reasserted control.

  It left a thin ring of shadow surrounding the buck, but turned its attention on them.

  “Do you have a plan?” Harvey asked.

  “Shoot until they stop moving,” Hannah growled. True to her word, she let arrow after arrow fly, choosing to aim for the smaller prey now that their leader was distracted.

  Harvey did the same, launching bolts as they rumbled towards him. Just as they drew near, he had an idea and drove a fangbreaker-covered foot into the ground. Launching himself upward, he jumped higher than he ever had before and grabbed a branch of the tall tree above him.

  “Hannah! Grab on!” He yelled, reaching down below. She turned towards the tree and got a running start, kicking off the trunk to catch his waiting hand. Days earlier, he’d barely managed to pull himself over a branch just like this. Now, he pulled them both up with ease, even managing to swing her up a level higher than himself.

  Angry barks joined violent scratches as the wolves fought to climb after them. With their sharp claws, they managed to get enough of a hold to pull themselves up, but a swift kick or bolt easily sent them tumbling back down. Hannah fired like a turret, raining arrows down like the tree was a watchtower guarding a fortress wall. It didn’t take long for the wolves to realize they were fighting a losing battle, and the injured lackeys backed into cover to lick their wounds.

  He and Hannah may be safe from tooth and claw, but the alpha seemed unconcerned as it stalked forward, collecting more and more shadow along the way. It was strange. Instead of light returning to the void left by its theft, the shadowy nooks became gray and colorless when its shadows were stolen. The light emanating from the white fur intensified, its eyes shining silver as darkness crept up the trunk of their tree.

  Harvey wondered if his fangbreakers could protect him from the spears of shadow. Even if they could, his essence reserves were dangerously low, and the wounds on his back were still bleeding. Hiding up a tree may have only delayed their demise.

  Just like the creature they fought to save, they were trapped.

  Hannah waited patiently, only releasing her arrow when she had a clean shot through the leaves. It sank into the wolf’s neck, but the darkness kept coming.

  “I’m running out of arrows,” She called down.

  “Just keep climbing. There’s gotta be a limit to how far the shadows can reach!” Harvey called back. The branch underneath him wobbled precariously as he clambered to his feet, but just before he leapt to the next branch, he felt a strange sensation pushing against his weave.

  He’d come to understand the exhaustion that came with channeling essence, and he knew what it felt like when an invading force tried to impede the veins moving power throughout his body. This wasn’t like the Carrionwing acid eating away at his soul. It was something else.

  He’d never noticed it before, likely because he hadn’t been given a reason to, but it was like he was standing in a bubble. The wolf was trying to pop it, but it was fighting back. Like gas filling up a balloon, his body radiated power all around him through his weave. It was constant and unending, not requiring any essence to function.

  The spears of shadow still strained their way towards him, but it was like a sharp knife trying to cut through solid wood. Either the blade or the bark would give in eventually. It just depended on which failed first. By the time the shadow reached Harvey’s skin, it was like a punch from a five-year-old. Whatever force protected him, it had reduced the attack to nothing.

  Realizing he was safe from the shadows, a wicked grin crossed his face. No longer afraid of the beast, he stared down at it.

  He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw fear replace the arrogance plastered in the wolf’s eyes for just a moment. In the end, pride won out, and it refused to back down. It stepped closer and closer, sending more energy up towards him. Instead of sharp spears, it sent a cascade of darkness to consume him. Squeeze the bubble until it collapsed in on itself.

  A seed of doubt sprouted in his mind as the tide of darkness grew closer. He had no idea what protected him. What if it couldn’t outlast the wolf? A searing heat burned through the stain tattooed on his chest, and his protection began to falter.

  Seeing the weakness in its prey, the wolf poured everything it had into the final gambit. The light surrounding it flared like overcharged LEDs, and the shadows surrounding Harvey started squeezing around his neck.

  As the darkness began closing in, he frantically climbed higher. He wasn’t fast enough. Like the noose on his chest, the shadows strained to suffocate him. His lungs clamored for air for the second time that day, and he realized the only way out of this situation was to charge through the darkness and overcome his enemy.

  Taking no heed for his own safety, Harvey leapt from the tree with both hands raised above his head. If he could kill it, the suffocation would stop. He doubted he had enough essence left to end it with arcane bolts, and couldn’t risk it running into cover. So, he decided to risk it all.

  The heat in his chest vanished the moment he made his decision, and that same hidden power protected him once more. Covering both arms with Fangbreaker, he smashed down into the beast’s back.

  A sickening crunch confirmed he’d broken bones, but the body continued to writhe underneath him until an arrow whizzed right past his ear and into the beast's neck.

  It was the needle that broke the wolf’s back, and a kill notification appeared in his mind. Unwilling to sacrifice their own lives for their dead companion, the two remaining injured wolves bolted into the wild, desperate howls sharing the end of their shadow-wielding brother to the world.

  Hannah jumped down gingerly and bolted towards the still bleeding buck. It bleated in panic at her approach, and she remembered the need to act calm as she tentatively approached the beast.

  Radiant light shone from both of their bodies as The System transformed potential into progress. Safe at last, he chose to simply bask in the radiant glow of his level-up. He’d been close to his tenth level already, and the unique strength of his final kill blessed him with more progress than he had any right to ask for.

  Your class, Arcanist, has reached Level 10. +1 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +2 Wisdom, +1 Willpower, +2 Free Points

  …

  Your class, Arcanist, has reached Level 11. +1 Vitality, +2 Endurance, +2 Wisdom, +1 Willpower, +2 Free Points

  …

  Your race, Veilstrider, has reached level 9. +1 to all stats

  …

  A new skill can be created at a Loom. Congratulations