55th of Season of Fire, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

  Obsidian was a lot more nervous than he revealed to Rose and Jas. Newt was strong, there was no doubt about that, but he was still merely at the third realm; he needed to sleep once a week. He would have to sleep alone, with nobody keeping watch. Alone inside the Valley of the Lost. And while overhunting the danger zone would eventually force the elders to kick him out, what were the odds of that happening?

  Newt would have to cross the entire length of the danger zone to find the monsters, but it was much more likely for him to run in circles within a single square mile. No, Obsidian had no confidence at all that Newt would manage to leave anytime soon. Despair might even force him to cultivate and increase his realm, and without manuals, without instructors, without guardians… Calamity.

  I’ll beg his master and teacher. They should have enough authority to do something.

  Obsidian was unsure, but he personally had little say in the matter. In truth, he had no authority at all to move the sect forces, but he hoped the two elders held some sway. The one thing he and his friends could do was abandon the next geysers, and head straight for the exit. He doubted the day’s difference would matter, but it was all they could do.

  Suddenly, a red blot appeared in the distance, and Obsidian immediately retreated.

  “Another hadrosaurus,” he warned the girls.

  The species must have been popular with the elder in charge of populating the Valley of the Lost.

  “Jas, you and I will advance towards it slowly. Rose, keep your eyes open for any other signs of danger and make sure we don’t leave your line of sight.”

  What in the heaven’s name snatched Newt from that geyser? Was it a hadrosaurus? Did he kill it? Was he hurt?

  Right before his first battle without Newt, Obsidian could only hope that his young friend would prove capable of coping with his problem. Obsidian focused on handling his own share. He had a sister and a friend to escort safely out of the befuddling mists.

  ***

  Newt stared at the footprint before him, boiling with fury. Slight tremors induced by rage shook his hands, and he was so angry that his stomach began hurting to the point of retching. He had started leaving marks of passage after every two dozen steps hours ago. The marks were nothing fancy, merely a stomped, extra deep footprint in the hard ground, and yet they served their purpose. Newt had come across one.

  He was certain it was his. After all, how many cultivators wandered around the valley, periodically stomping their right foot into the ground, just to leave a mark? Just in case, he placed his boot into the print.

  It matched.

  He clenched his teeth and tried to calm down.

  Why am I angry? The realization that you’re walking in circles is a bad thing, usually. But this is what I wanted to achieve. I was trying to fight against the direction the mist wanted me to take, and I have obviously succeeded, since I can still feel that tug on my senses telling me to go left.

  Suddenly, straight ahead of Newt also became attractive, and he muttered a silent curse. For a moment, he questioned his reasoning. Was it possible for random changes of direction, which were meant to draw him in deeper, to make him return to a spot he had previously visited?

  The answer was obviously no.

  If my assumption is correct, the fog should draw me deeper and deeper, until I reach the heart of the ninth-realm zone. That means I’m doing something right. The veins in Newt’s head pulsed again; he closed his eyes and pressed his temples with his clenched fists. The Valley of the Lost was not assaulting his mind, not directly, but defying its nature with nothing but sheer will was exacting its toll.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  It’s been an hour since he had cleared the third geyser, and he was exhausted, mentally and physically. Newt’s shoulders were stooped from the pain. The feeling of safety straight ahead disappeared.

  Rest. I need rest.

  He sat, then went down on his back, staring at the endless expanse of fog above, his eyes closing from fatigue, but he forced himself to keep them open. At first, he thought about nothing, then one after another, thoughts trickled through his mind.

  This isn’t working.

  Even if I know I can resist a part of the bewildering influence and more or less set the course to walk around in circles, that doesn’t solve the most basic problem. I don’t know where to go. Where is the exit?

  He kept massaging his temples, staring at nothing. I’m on the wrong track. The creatures native to the Valley of the Lost can’t be fighting migraines all day every day just to stalk prey. That means there’s a solution different from intellectually processing what you are feeling and forcing yourself to do the opposite of what your body tells you to.

  Newt screamed in pain and frustration. It was an incoherent, bestial sound, but it captured his feelings perfectly.

  What am I missing?

  Suddenly, the previously dangerous area to the right became more attractive. It was safe, whispering and calling to Newt. He focused on the unnatural sensation. The zone widened and moved, then grew more narrow.

  Newt shot to his feet, stumbling, but gritted his teeth and pursued the feeling. He had felt it a hundred times, and never bothered to explore it. He had better ideas to test, but all those tests ended in failure. Desperate, he went to see what was happening. What was making the shifts.

  The attractive zone’s shrinking slowed, then Newt sped up and it started expanding. Finally, the safe area disappeared, becoming unattractive once again, and the mist in front of Newt thinned to reveal an azure stegosaurus.

  The dinosaur’s back was turned towards Newt, its spined tail swaying left and right with each slow step not fifty feet away. Newt remained still, doing nothing, and the stegosaurus disappeared from his view.

  With its disappearance, the neutral area before him once more grew attractive.

  That… is something.

  Newt realized he could use his budding sense of danger to find potential threats or prey. The spirit beast’s scales were tinged with blue tones, its attribute likely one of water, meaning it probably had better-than-average regeneration. The ability provided a minor advantage in quick fights, but could turn the tide in battles of attrition.

  Regeneration is not the only ability granted by the water attribute. The stego might also make the surrounding foggier, turn the mist to ice, breathe out glacial storms or scorching steam…

  The bestiary entry for third realm stegosauruses mentioned launching projectiles with the flicks of its mighty tail, but the fourth realm descriptions were in a book which Newt and his team had not read because of lack of privileges and access to information above their realm.

  He recalled the fourth realm ankylosaurus fending off velociraptors. Aside from self-healing, there were no offensive maneuvers it used to attack or defend, but that particular spirit beast was exhausted. The stegosaurus should be the same in theory, but he doubted whoever brought it into the valley had done so just to fill up numbers. There had to be a catch.

  Only one way to find out.

  Newt hurried after the dinosaur, and the stegosaurus once more appeared fifty feet away. Newt could run the distance almost instantly, but a fourth realm opponent could use that same fraction of time to react to his sudden burst of motion and energy. So, Newt took the slow approach.

  He stalked the stegosaurus, walking slightly faster than his prey. He shortened the distance to thirty feet when the dinosaur froze. The scutes adorning the beast’s back swayed left and right, and it flicked its tail, twisting it to point the spines at the incoming enemy.

  But the problem was, the enemy was coming from the rear, and yet the stegosaurus was preparing for a frontal assault.

  Newt’s curiosity was piqued. Was the stegosaurus reacting to him, or was there an unknown enemy in the mist ahead? Newt burned with the desire to approach, but a fourth realm spirit beast was not something to be trifled with.

  If worse comes to worst, I can escape it. Stegos are slow, and I think I finally understand what’s happening. I just need to test it out.

  Newt lightened his body with warm air, sneaking forward without a sound. Three steps later, the stegosaurus flicked its tail too hard, digging at the dirt with its tail spines and spraying earth. The beast was growing even more agitated, huffing in a breath of air, inflating its body to appear more intimidating.

  The approaching opponent seemed powerful enough that the dinosaur would prefer to intimidate it with a show of force, rather than risk a head-on clash.

  Newt stalked closer still, and the stegosaurus let out a deep, throaty bellow, warning the still invisible opponent.

  My guess seems to be correct. The Valley of the Lost inverts the sense of danger. The area in front of the stego, which seemed safe until a moment ago, seems to be brimming with danger for it to react like this, when in fact its back is completely exposed.