PreCursive

  I don’t think I’d ever been so panicked in my life.

  As Johann, Fade, and I dashed frantically through the woods in the dire of the host, we tried to thin the growing monster horde as much as we could. Practically, this meant we were wildly swinging at every f Monster Core we could, trying to shatter them before they could plete. We didn’t even bother to make sure we’d mao truly take out the cores on our path. We just struck at anything in our path.

  The three of us may have left dozens of ruined cores in our path, but it didn’t matter.

  Every minute huook their pce, stretg as far as the eye could see through the boughs of this forest.

  We had been running for over ten minutes by now, but eventually, our luck had to run out.

  Behind us, the first of the monsters finished f. As howls and screeches filled the air, all I could do was grit my teeth and pump my legs harder.

  I heard the hordes of monsters begin to charge after us. I couldn’t even bother to try and take out the still f cores ahead of me, anymore. I needed all energy I could spare just to keep running.

  Unfortunately…

  It was too much for Johann.

  He broke.

  Out of the er of my eye, I saw the ent look over his shoulder briefly. Whatever he saw made the blood drain from his face. Even though we were both sprinting and panting, the other man still had the breath to start sobbing. He turo me with a hysterically apologetic look on his youthful features and spoke only two words.

  “I’m sorry!”

  Before I could answer, Johann’s body suddenly took on a bright yellow glow.

  His running speed more than tripled.

  Johann took off, rapidly accelerating away from Fade and I.

  I…nearly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Johann…

  Was leaving us behind.

  You bastard…

  “You…BASTARD…” I nearly screamed between puffs of breath. I felt a sense of hopelessry to roll over me, before I squashed it brutally with my middle ring.

  I couldn’t afford that right now.

  Risking a gnce over my shoulder to see what had reduced Johann to a coward, my heart stuttered in my chest at what I found.

  There was an endless sea of monsters charging through the trees behind me, just barely in sight. There were so, so many of them, all svering and snarling as they chased after us. They filled the entire horizon of the forest, from as far as I could see iher dire. Behind them were even more bloodthirsty beasts, with more f every sed. I don’t even know if they were specifically chasih how absolutely stark raving mad they looked.

  I grit my teeth, turning back around. Ohing I had noticed was that they were gaining on Fade and me.

  I couldn’t outrun them forever. And I don’t think I could make it back to the host before they reached me.

  I couldn’t die here. I wouldn’t allow myself to. I had too much to live for now. Sylvia and I had only just reached an uanding! I had a LIFE now! I had THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO!

  I. WOULD. NOT. DIE. HERE.

  Reag down and scooping up a shocked Fade, I ratcheted Sylvan Vigor to max power and activated Thorn Cloak at the same time. Feeling my skill settle over my shoulders, I leaped as I high as I could into the air, one hand outstretched before me.

  And triggered Thrapple.

  A grasping head of thorns and burrs shot from my palm at blistering speed, disappearing into the tree tops. I felt it impaething moments ter. My arm was nearly yanked out of its socket as I was rapidly pulled in that dire. The trees ran together in a blur as I rocketed upwards, only for our ast to abruptly halt.

  My hastily thrown-out skill had brought us to the very top of a tall tree. Just in front of me was a small nook iweeree branches. I scrambled into it, clutg Fade to my chest almost desperately. As soon as we were ihe small cramped space, I hunched over and did my best to cover us both pletely in my cealing skill-borne cloak.

  If we couldn’t outrun the horde, I hoped to fug God that we could hide from it.

  I looked down at Fade in the dark depression I had found for us. His bright green eyes pierced through the darkness created by my cloak, glowing slightly. I saw the young wolf take a deep breath before he snuggled tighter into my chest. I nearly sobbed at the gesture, clutg him as tightly as I dared, ung about his horns.

  Moments ter, I heard the dread-indug sound of the horde start passing far beh us. They thundered past the tree I was hiding up in a thunderously monstrous cacophony. But that wasn’t all.

  Above the tree we were in, I heard wis and the screeches of even more monsters. If possible, my eyes widened even more before I cursed in the depths of my mind. Of course there would be airborne monsters created by the Break as well, you fug idiot.

  I could only pray that they both didn’t look down, and couldn’t pierce the shroud of Thorn Cloak.

  The advance of the horde tinued for minutes. God, it might have even been half an hour before I heard the sound of thunderi, paws, and wings start to taper off. In that time, I never once allowed myself to unte any moment I was sure that some ravenously hungry monsters would climb the tree Fade and I were hiding in and fall upon us in an y of blood and fangs. Or a sharp-eyed flyer would swoop down from the ied skies and drag us away to have uts ripped out.

  But…

  Nothing happened.

  My st-minute gamble to escape the horde appeared to pay off. An almost sobbing sigh of relief escaped my lips before I could stop it. I felt a long ft tongue lick my cheek, almost in reassurance.

  “I’m okay,” I breathed, smiling slightly down at Fade. The wolf had an almost worried look on his lupiures. “We’re okay.”

  At least, for now. Time to actually figure out if that was true.

  Cautiously, I lifted my skill-borne cloak enough for my head to peek out.

  Nothing. I didn’t immediately see any flying monsters just waiting above the treetops to swoop down on us. Fully exiting the cealment of my cloak, I set Fade down on the hollow that we were hiding inside and crept to the edge. I looked down.

  Well, it doesn’t look like all the monsters were gone.

  Far below us, there were still a few lingering monsters milling about, almost in fusion. It was like they khere was something they should be doing, but couldn’t quite ma.

  Actually, wait a moment. I took out my far-eye once more, extending it and looking below me.

  Gods, they were hideous. The particur monsters below us looked to have been malformed. They almost looked mutated in some way, with additional vestigial limbs or evera eyes, mouths, and ears. Or they were possibly even missing some of those.

  I watched as one particur mutant Warg, with what looked to have no eyes, a single leg, and ara tail growing out of its mouth instead of a tongue wiggle around uselessly on the forest floor. It, and all the other mutants that had bee behind, were beyond grotesque.

  But they looked mostly harmless. I had no way to prove it, but I’m guessing that they were the product of being so rapidly created. That didn’t matter right now, though.

  Instead, I had to think of my move. I couldn’t stay in this tree forever. Luckily, I had a method of unication.

  I retreated from the edge of the tree and rummaged around in my pack of supplies. Withdrawing both my gold unication and my cheat sheet, I looked it over with a frown. What kind of message could actually vey how absolutely fucked this situation was?

  I guess I’d go with this one.

  Flipping my in the specified manner, I spelled it out.

  ‘Immi disaster. Request extra.’

  There was no way that I was going to try and make it back to the host like this. If I did, I was going to run straight into the back lines of the horde. There was no way I’d be able to survive that. That had beeire point of hiding up here.

  By my estimate, I might be as far out from the Army as an hour at a dead sprint. That put me at a signifit distance from the retive safety of the host.

  I had no way of knowing just how many monsters were iing these woods now. Even though all I could see below me were useless mutants, I had to assume that it was a death senteo try and travel on foot. Luckily, I had a least a little bit of experien traveling by tree top. I had never fotten my experien the forests of Addersfield, just after gaining my css.

  Damn, it was taking a long time for Noe headquarters to link my . When I had intially called for that coward Finch, it had only taken them a few mio act. Maybe they already knew about the break, and were sed right now?

  Restless, I decided to climb to the very top of the tree that I was hiding in, in order to get a little reaissance done. Uhe curious and worried gaze of Fade, I scaled a nearby brand gazed off into the horizon.

  I was intending to use my far-eye, but I didn’t eve.

  What was happening was viewable from where I was. In a very, very, very bad way.

  On the horizon I could see a familiar bright blue star, asding into the sky rapidly.

  My eyes widened, my mouth dropping open in shock. There was more than one of those instaltions?

  God…

  This particur Break was far off into the distance, only barely visible from my position. A rough estimate put the rising spell at maybe twenty, perhaps thirty miles away. But it was still unmistakable. I watched in shock as the star reached its zenith and burst open, filling the sky with bright blue Mana. The shockwave couldn’t reach me from this distance, but I still felt a small, slight sizzle of power roll over me.

  I let out a slight, shuddering breath. What were the Loyalists thinking? This was beyond overkill. Just one of those enhanced Ward Breaks had created as many monsters as soldiers that existed in the Army of the Uprising. Presumably, all of these monsters were inteo deal with said army. But there roblem.

  These monsters weren’t going to just disappear if they succeeded. They were perma creations, at least until they were sin. Say that the Uprising was pletely wiped out by these hordes. That would leave tens of thousands of monsters iing these nds, ravenous for their meal of Aether. They would ra and bee an absolute catastrophe for the rest of the fug ti, much less the Kingdom of Herztal.

  This almost seemed…apocalyptic. Stupidly so.

  Who the fuck would sign off on this?

  I jerked in surprise when my form was silhouetted against the tree top in a slight shadow. I turned around in dread, already suspeg what I would find.

  Sure enough, farther out thahe one I had just seen, was another Ward Break spell. This one might be nearly fifty to sixty miles from my location, but there was no mistaking the sight.

  To me, it looked like they were being staggered. If they had already set off two more of these things, it made me wonder just how many I’d already missed. After all, I had been incredibly panicked on the run from the first one. Had there been more of these unched during my mad dash, just out of sight?

  I let out a shuddering breath.

  And what if there were even more bei off, oher side of the host….

  Could the war even proceed anymore, with a disaster of this scale? Was that the goal of the Loyalists? Infliany monsters on everyohat they had no choice but to surrender?

  It might even work, out of sheer y.

  I had no idea.

  I felt pletely lost.

  Suddenly, I was knocked out of my spiral of dread by the feeling of my silver location jerking. I had pced the in a small sown pou the inside of my right glove, pressed up against my skin. Right now, it was jerking wildly in pce, almost as if it was trying to fly away from me.

  To my uanding, that meant I was supposed to follow the dire it was jerking. Apparently, Headquarters wanted me to move, instead of having someone e to my location.

  The problem was, the was jerking away from the dire I knew led to the host. In fact, I would say that it was leading me farther into the forest.

  There was a somewhere ihat I was to meet up with.

  Well…I guess I had little choice. I sure didn’t want to wander head-first into the horde.

  Casting o g the blue star on the horizon as it burst, I shimmied down the branch I was still up to collect Fade. Digging out my mask from the pack I had stored it in, I dressed myself back up in my Noe cloak as well.

  Once Fade was held tightly to my chest, I uhrapple at a nearby tree and started my trek across the forest opy.

  I had a meeting to get to.