Banda awoke to the greeting rays of sunlight. The calm lasted only a moment before he jolted to his feet in a panic. When and how he had gone dark despite his best efforts, he did not know, but fortunately it seemed there was no danger lurking nearby.

  As he scanned the forest, Banda realized something. He felt better. Much better. As good as he had ever felt.

  Banda glanced at the branch he had unwillingly made his bed, then briefly at the sun before being reminded of its insolent ways. And he fell into thought.

  He needed to sleep too, just as he needed to eat. That was the only explanation that made sense to Banda. It was not some beast’s ‘claws’ but merely something that had to be done.

  Banda frowned. Sleeping was more annoying than eating. Still, he stifled his opposition. Not sleeping meant he was easier to kill, and that was unacceptable.

  He looked back to his spot on the branch. It was a good spot. It kept him safe while he slept. Even if he had to sleep, that did not mean he would sleep just anywhere.

  Banda made up his mind quickly. He could remain around this area, and return to his branch when he needed sleep.

  But that was a matter for later. Sharpness and strength had returned to him, which meant it was time to hunt.

  ---

  Heavy booms rumbled through dark clouds of the sky, as Banda was locked in a titanic battle with an armored beast many times larger than himself.

  Its body was short and wide, protected by a hard shell, and propped up by four flat legs the size of tree trunks. It had the scaled head of a lizard and a long reptilian tail that ended in a ball made of the same material as its shell.

  Banda darted away as the club of the Anklo’s tail shattered the tree behind him, and then again as it cratered the ground. The beast itself was slower than him, but the same could not be said of its tail.

  Banda dodged a third time and lunged forth, but a frenzy of tail lashes forced him to retreat. He threw a stone on his way back, but the Anklo’s head sucked into its shell, which closed just in time for his stone to bounce off harmlessly.

  Banda scowled. It had been like this ever since the fight began. The Anklo’s tail lashed at him without pause at a distance. If he tried to get close, it would whip all around itself in every direction. And if he threw a stone, it would hide within its shell.

  No matter how fiercely he fought, he just couldn’t find a opening. It would be an easy fight if he could destroy the club of its tail, but his bleeding fist reminded him that was not an option.

  The Anklo paused for a moment, then whipped its tail strangely. Its aim was off, and Banda easily ducked under it. But the tail bent around the tree it struck, and the club whipped back around at blurring speed.

  Banda barely had time to put up his guard as the tail club sent him crashing away, straight through a branch up high. His branch. Banda’s arms stung but they were not broken. Though the same could not be send for his branch.

  A strange rage coursed through his veins. An agitated, distressed, hurt rage. Divinity surged and quickly shattered off as the light of advancement shone over him.

  The Anklo’s tail whipped towards him again, and Banda punched it with a cluster of cracking divinity over his fist. The stony club shattered into a hundred pieces as the Anklo recoiled with a cry of pain. And Banda was upon it.

  The creature slunked its head into its shell, but a single blow of Thunder broke it open. Banda struck the second through that opening to its soft flesh and blood splattered back over him.

  The beast spasmed and collapsed on the ground, but Banda was already gone. He picked up his branch in a fluster and tried to put it back on the tree, but it only fell back down lifelessly.

  Banda looked down at it. An upsetting emotion he didn’t quite understand bubbled up from within until that feeling turned violent.

  He kicked off the tree with such force it destroyed it, and slammed his tiny fists down on the shell of the Anklo’s corpse. He battered and broke it, but no matter what he did, the feeling would not go away.

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  The violence slowed to a stop, as Banda stood over it with an overwhelmed expression. He clenched his teeth and ran off. He wanted his branch back, but he needed to sleep. He had to find somewhere else, for the sake of survival.

  ---

  A wyvern circled Banda as if it were the predator. And Banda watched it. A great reptilian creature with large wings for arms and two hind legs. A long scaled tail grew from its back that ended in a sharp stinger.

  The beast flapped in and out of the trees, and swooped down at him again at blurring speed. Banda rolled away from its talons and dodged the lash of its stinger that followed, as he whipped back a stone.

  But the beast twirled away and screeched back a cone of violent wind. Banda threw himself away as the cyclone ripped through the ground, and watched the Wind Wyvern return to circling him from above.

  Banda frowned. It was too fast and too sly for him to catch, and his stones did not damage even when they struck. The claws of its talons were large and threatening, but Banda felt the tail stinger even more dangerous. And he didn’t know how many more times he could dodge it.

  Irritation started to boil over as the wyvern kept circling him. It was as though it thought that it was the predator. That he was prey.

  The wyvern dove again, and light shattered off Banda as he inhaled deep. The Wind Wyvern breathed a torrent of wind, and Banda let out an earth-shattering roar.

  Concussive force tore through the tunnel of wind like a thousand fangs and smashed into the wyvern. The great beast crashed through the forest, and just barely thrashed to its feet in time to see Banda descent from above and smash its skull with Thunder.

  Banda stood over his fallen foe with an arrogant expression, and smacked it for daring to fight him. He was starting to encounter stronger monsters, but he grew stronger still. The young savage devoured the wyvern’s soul and continued his hunt with pride.

  It had been many suns and moons since he first woke, and he had never known defeat. Some beasts were dangerous only because they used tricks against him. But Banda was smart. He could defeat their tricks. And he was strong. Stronger than everything else. This forest was his.

  The head of a giant wolf appeared among the trees to his side, and Banda’s eyes were slowly drawn to it. Its maw thin and long, with a tongue hanging out between its sneering fangs. Its red and yellow spiral-patterned eye focused unnaturally on him. Its taunting malice suffocating.

  Fear ran through Banda’s core. For the first time, he did not consider fighting. He fled. He ran aimlessly as fast as he could in Feral Form, with no other thought but to put distance between himself and The Wolf.

  It was different. He did not know what it was, nor why he was afraid of it. And he did not seek the answer. He simply ran as fast as he could.

  Banda cut through the brush and between the trees. He jumped over creeks and around cliffs. He turned at a hill, and The Wolf was waiting for him.

  He dug his feet into the ground and kicked off back where he came. He ran like the wind and hid under the brush.

  He made himself quiet. As quiet as possible. Instinctively, he withdrew everything into himself. His mana, his intent, his presence. But The Wolf found him. And the look in its gaze sent sickening spines piercing through his stomach.

  Banda burst away in a frenzy. He changed directions again and again and again in rapid succession, but The Wolf always found him. Always waited just beyond the trees.

  The more Banda fled and failed to escape, the more his dread grew. There was something about its eyes. The way it looked at him. Mockingly, as though all his efforts against it would be futile. Inviting him to test the thought. Banda did not dare.

  His eyes darted around frantically as he sped in random directions. A chill sharper than any other ran through his spine, and he flung himself away, just barely evading The Wolf’s giant maw. Its spiralled eye squirmed and flickered towards him.

  Banda burst away again, faster than before as his features turned monstrous. Pain tore across his very being, and his instincts warned him of the threat his own power posed on his life, but he did not care. The danger of The Wolf was greater.

  This time, Banda ran with a goal in mind. He rushed to find the strongest monsters. He antagonized them, tricked them to encounter The Wolf so that their fangs and claws would fall on each other.

  He sent them one after the other, and the forest went quiet. Banda stopped and stood on guard to all around him. He glanced left and right, front and back, then front again. And The Wolf was there, holding the head of one of those powerful monsters in its jaw.

  Fear took hold of Banda so firmly he could not bring himself to move. There was nothing he could do. He could not escape. He could not kill it. Every fiber of his being trembled. He could not even meet its eyes. He wondered if it would let him go if he asked. If he pleaded.

  Banda looked up, and his heart sank. He could tell it was smiling. It enjoyed his fear. His inferiority.

  Banda fled. Without looking back, without changing his course, without thinking. He fled. And The Wolf pursued. It was gaining. He could feel it drawing closer. Its fangs nearly on his skin.

  Banda tripped on a rock and crashed along the ground into a new part of the forest. He sprung to his feet frantic vigilance, but The Wolf was nowhere to be seen. The fear that had pierced his flesh like claws gone.

  Was it toying with him, he wondered. Mocking its prey again. Banda waited, but still nothing happened. This part of the forest looked different. He wondered if The Wolf could not enter it. Maybe it was safe.

  Banda waited a few moments more, his frayed nerves still stiffened his limbs. But slowly, he started to move, and he ran deeper into the safe land.