“We can’t let them get away, Nick. How far ahead are they?” Seo-ah asked nervously as the group followed Nick. He had unequipped his weapon, maintaining only a shield in case of emergency, and was just doing his best to follow the tracks in the snow when Seo-ah’s question interrupted the uncomfortable silence that had settled upon the group as he worked.
“I don’t know,” Nick told her and then pointed at the tracks, “but look at the length of these steps. There’s a real chance we’re gaining on them, not the other way around.”
“Nick,” Tabitha interjected, breaking his concentration again.
“What’s going on?” he asked, turning back to Tabitha, who had the group comm to her ear.
“Allen’s pinging us, he’s close by, moving quickly. He said to hold up a minute and wait for him, and he’ll be right here,” Tabitha answered.
“We aren’t pausing. We’re tracking. He can catch up,” Nick told her, knowing that if Allen was with his group and moving full speed, there was no way they wouldn’t outpace Nick’s team, who were having to carefully make sure they were heading in the right direction.
Ultimately, it only took Allen’s group five or six minutes to catch up. Rather than Allen calling out when his group was close, he sent his drone, ViVi, flying in front of Nick’s team. Words scrolled across a screen that unfolded from the machine, reading, “Nick, raise one hand if it’s safe to approach. Don’t do anything if it’s not safe.”
Nick just blinked, proud of Allen’s caution but also finding the idea that an enemy wouldn’t notice a flying drone to be ridiculous. At any rate, Seo-ah jumped the gun and raised a hand, signalling Allen over.
A moment later, Allen showed up with his group: Rosemary, Spencer, Allen, Maria, Topaz, Derrel, Reginald, and Christina.
“I’m surprised you guys handled the ambush,” Lou remarked, taking the words out of Nick’s mouth as he sized up the group. “Where’s the veteran that’s supposed to lead you? Did Kaylee really not assign you anyone to lead the group?”
“That would be me,” Rosemary announced, the last word drawn out with an arrogant tone as she looked between the other members of her group as if challenging them to argue the statement.
“Tch,” Topaz clicked her tongue, seemingly a little annoyed with the girl. “You were useful enough once the fighting started, I’ll admit, but we’re only alive because I noticed something was off, Little Miss Confident.”
“Yeah, the illusions you made confused those monsters long enough for us to get organized, but it was Maria that cut apart that giant moose thing . . .” Christina added, giving Rosemary the side eye.
“Indeed,” Rosemary replied, not bothering to argue as she looked over at Topaz. “Nick, you’ve trained your staff well, and under my leadership, we survived as a Gallows should. The alchemist saved our lives—well, her caution combined with your perfectly timed warning call. Allen was able to scout ahead with that drone of his and identify exactly where the trap was. He’s a real genius. And the rest followed my attack strategy with the advantage of that foreknowledge.”
Allen, beet red from the compliment, just reached his hand out toward ViVi as it swooped up next to him, giving it a light pat and telling it, “Good girl.”
“Well, then . . . good job. With how tough the two traps we ran into were, it’s a good thing you managed to make it out,” Nick said, patting his friend on the back before turning once again to the trail they were following, “but now that you’re here, we’re going to need your help. Can you get ViVi to scout ahead of us? Make sure we’re not walking into another ambush?”
“Nick, is Clarissa—” Spencer interrupted before Allen could give any affirmative.
“She’s missing. They got her,” Nick told him bluntly “We have to focus and move quickly to get her back.”
Nick could hear the audible gulp as Spencer, whiter than the snow he was standing on, nodded.
“You heard him, girl,” Allen told his drone, giving her one more pat on the “head,” if the top of the device could be called that, before sending her out ahead of them.
“That is an incredibly useful device, have you considered mass producing it or selling the rights to your design?” Rosemary asked as she watched it take off into the air ahead of them.
This seemed to offend Allen, as his mouth hung open for a moment.
“You can talk shop when we get back to the base, Rosemary. Let’s move.”
With that, quiet returned to the group as they continued down the trail, tracking the prey ahead of them. Nick was a little annoyed at the fact that it was taking so long to. He was even more annoyed—and even unsettled—by the realization he hadn’t voiced yet: the prey they were hunting were far more intelligent than he had anticipated.
Every single one of the traps they had run across had been placed along the patrol routes in such a way that the groups would stumble into them at roughly the same time, and there was exactly one for each group. That meant that while Nick’s people had been fighting for their lives to kill the monsters around the base, there had also been enemy scouts watching them over the course of the week. They had tracked the number of patrol groups, mapped the routes they took, and knew when they would switch over groups—and they had figured out exactly how to ambush them in a way they wouldn’t be able to detect: from beneath the snow.
The fact that the enemy had not only figured all of this out, but also designed the traps to capture rather than kill them also indicated this was only one part of a larger plan. Clearly, the herbivores’ organizational structure was much more complex than Nick had originally imagined.
While he was thinking about this, Allen’s voice suddenly broke the silence: “Heads up, everyone. I'm picking up something strange up ahead.”
Nick tensed. “What kind of something?”
“It’s . . . hard to describe,” Allen replied, sounding puzzled. “But the landscape is changing. We should be able to see it soon.”
As they crested another small rise, Nick’s eyes widened in disbelief. The sea of snow dropped down into a deep valley that contained a dense forest of coniferous trees that rivaled the tallest redwoods in height. The tightly packed trees promised a thick canopy blocking out light from above and creating a murky forest floor as a result.
“What on God’s green earth . . .” Adele muttered, voicing everyone's thoughts.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Seo-ah said as she looked down into the valley hundreds of feet below them.
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With hesitant steps, they followed the trail down into the valley and towards the forest. As they skidded and slid down the steep snowy path, the frigid grip of the tundra was replaced by a thick, oppressive humidity that seemed to smother their every breath.
The ground beneath their feet became slick not with snow or ice but with a layer of decaying leaves and needles. Despite the warmer weather of the new biome, a single glance at his companions told Nick that they were as uncomfortable with this change in weather as he was. The arctic quiet that was only occasionally pierced by harsh winds or the sound of their own footsteps in the snow had also been replaced by a myriad of small sounds stacking over each other—the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds in the distance, the small cries of unknown creatures far away. It was unnerving as he couldn’t tell which one might be a threat.
“This makes no sense at all,” Lou complained as Nick searched the shadowy forest floor looking for a new trail, no longer having a clear line of broken snow to follow.
Whatever pace they’d managed earlier was much slower now that the prints had vanished, forcing Nick to track a line of disturbed vegetation, crinkled leaves, and indentations in the earth, where it was clear one of the prisoners was being slowly dragged across the ground.
“Yeah, I don’t get it . . . How can this be? We were just in a frozen wasteland moments ago,” Topaz asked as she bent over, pulling out an empty vial and equipping a special glove from her inventory as she quickly collected a mushroom sample off the ground as they walked.
Derrel picked up a fist-sized stone from the ground, absently tossing and catching it in his hand while looking around. “I don’t know about you all, but this feels like a horror movie to me, like there’s some danger lurking deep within—”
“Tch, like the tundra was safe,” Rosemary scoffed at the remark. “Do you think those stunted, goblin-sized rodents can brave this world, but you can’t?”
“They might have done so from the trees. We’re on the ground,” Reggie countered. “And sure as my beard is red, the reason our ancestors stayed in the trees so long could be lurking around any corner.”
“But you don’t have a beard. Christina got you to shave it, remember?” Allen pointed out.
“Exactly. Your safety is at the mercy of Shrodinger’s Beard,” Reggie shot back with a laugh, but still activated his single-hit-blocking orange shield over the group.
Then, as if on cue, a sudden gust of wind swept through the dense foliage, kicking up the leaves Nick was tracking and causing everyone to glance around them like they were about to be attacked.
“Don’t worry,” Spencer said, raising his hand. A moment later, the trail became visible again as the footsteps they were following became illuminated, glowing yellow as they were highlighted by magic.
“That’s handy,” Nick noted, impressed with the mage’s craft. He looked over to Allen. “Is it safe ahead of us?”
“Nothing obvious stands out,” the artificer assured him.
“We don’t have time to waste, not for Clarissa and not for this magic. It’s limited in use,” Spencer urged, the determination bleeding through his voice as his words practically begged Nick to move quicker.
“We’ll find them,” Seo-ah assured him, putting a hand on Spencer’s shoulder. He nodded, and the group continued on, chasing the prey that had taken their comrades.
Eventually, Shrodinger’s Beard turned out to be full and red as the ground started to shake beneath them.
“What— What’s that?” Rosemary asked.
“ViVi is detecting some strong mana concentrations in the trees around us,” Allen warned everyone.
Three of the towering trees around them groaned and swayed like they were caught in a windstorm, their roots churning the earth as a thunderous tremble rippled across the forest floor. Suddenly, the knotted wooden eyes on each tree opened and scowled angrily as they came to life and attacked. Thick legs made of twisted roots kicked out, catching Elizabeth, Rosemary, and Reginald and sending them flying backwards with surprised cries, and Nick threw himself to the side as a root foot the size of an SUV tried to stomp on him.
Lou darted forward, charging the creature that had tried to squash Nick. The aura around his hands flared into blades as he used an unarmed technique taught by Mr. Walters himself. Then there was a loud crack as Lou's strike hit the creature’s leg and a chunk of wood was sent flying. Then the next chop came and more and more wood flew, Lou hands moving so quickly the glowing purple aura left afterimages of movement as he karate chopped into the wooden colossus’s leg.
"Hit and move, Lou!" Nick shouted as he got to his feet. The treant’s arm descended like a giant club, but Lou was no longer there, having sprung back just in time.
Nick saw the creature shift, turning to chase Lou, so he charged and thrust his spear forward, lighting it up with holy flame. He drove the weapon into the crevice of the same leg that Lou had hit, and sap burst from the wound as the fire spread inside it.
The treant roared, releasing a sound like a thousand splitting logs, and swung at Nick with an arm made of branches. Nick used Charge to zip away, and the treant took two lumbering steps after him.
Oliver, seizing the opportunity Nick had created, launched himself at the tree monster’s flank and tore chunks off the creature’s injured leg, mercilessly bashing it with his mace.
The treant, caught between spear, mace, and fist, roared its defiance and tried to strike back. But the trio attacked and fled in turn, leaving the treant spinning as it tried to kill each of them in turn.
Then, with an echoing crack, Oliver tore through enough of the treant’s leg with his mace that the creature couldn’t support its own weight. “Timber!” he shouted as the coniferous creature fell backwards into other trees, its body crashing with the deafening sound of shattering timber and its body breaking into several parts. The life in its knotted wooden eyes quickly faded out.
With one of the monsters down, Nick turned to help his friends with the others only to find the other two creatures had been felled already. One was a burning pile of logs, and the other was all but dead as Adele’s giant conjured axe, Elizabeth’s glowing sword, and Stacy’s and Amanda’s weapons chopped it into kindling.
With the last of the treant monsters dead, everyone regrouped. Adele and Topaz healed the injured while the others looked around, ready for more of the trees to suddenly start moving. Spencer kicked the burning logs that had once been a treant, the flames around his hands snuffed out with a gesture. Then he walked away, his hands already moving and his lips muttering another spell. When nothing happened he stopped, eyes wide in surprise.
“Crap . . . this isn’t good,” Nick heard Spencer complaining as he tried to cast a spell over and over again, the magic fizzling out in his hand.
“The tracking spell not working?” Nick asked.
“Yeah, the stupid fight ruined the tracks, and now I can’t find them even with magic. I don’t have a stronger version either. I’ll have to— I’ll have to start going clockwise from here in circles till I can pick something up,” he said, frowning as he looked over at Nick.
“Allen, what do you have? Can ViVi find anything?” Nick asked, turning to his tech companion and hoping he had a solution.
“I’m way ahead of you,” Allen told him. “ViVi already scanned the signatures Spencer illuminated earlier, and she has the trail in her database, at least for a good distance. Just follow me,” Allen told him, erasing the momentary confusion and dousing the group’s worries in an instant.
“Incredible technology,” Rosemary commented as the others began to move.
They didn’t make it that far before Allen stopped them again. “Hold up. They’re just ahead.” Everyone’s pace came to a crawl. “Proceed with caution. It’s . . . It’s a city like one I’ve never seen before.”
“Really? How so? Like made of monster trees?” Nick asked, not used to Allen looking so shocked as he looked over at the screen his friend was holding, only for Allen to pocket the thing and creep forward through the bush before Nick could get a clear look.
Nick followed Allen, only to have his jaw drop as he emerged from the forest into a vast clearing. Before them stood a sight that truly blew his expectations of what the herbivores were capable of: a sprawling, primitive city built entirely within and around the colossal redwood-like trees. Wooden structures jutted out at odd angles, connected by rickety bridges and platforms that stretched hundreds of feet into the air.
“So this is the home of those filthy fiends in need of purging,” Adele muttered through gritted teeth as her weapon momentarily glowed with her holy aura.
Nick’s mind raced, trying to process the impossible architecture before him.
Seo-ah put a hand on Nick’s shoulder, clearly even more worried than before. “This is going to be a lot harder than we thought, but—”
“We’ll find your brother,” Nick assured her, feeling just as much pressure as she did to make sure everyone, Taejo included, came home safe.
