Chapter 11

  “Strange.” The sudden interjection pulled Danny from the reading.

  “What?”

  “The earth animal, it lost levels.”

  “Wait…that can happen?”

  “See for yourself.” Danny took the guide’s advice and Identified the fox. [Level 7 Navigator Fox] The animal had gone from Level 10 to Level 7.

  “Is that normal?”

  “No. That’s why I said ‘Strange.’” The guide snorted. “The ability you gained from the Bond must have come from the creature’s own power.”

  “Is it going to be ok?” Danny was suddenly worried that he had hurt the fox.

  “Probably.”

  “Probably? You don’t know?”

  “No. I don’t know, native. Because you are an anomaly. Try to keep up.” The fairy sneered. “A few levels is no big deal. He’ll get them back eventually. Get cleaned up and go pack. We leave at sunrise.” Danny had almost forgotten the fact that they were leaving as soon as he broke through. The fairy flew back into the temple. Danny sat down next to the fox.

  “I guess you need a name now, huh?” The fox yawned. “Boy names. Treasure. Fox. What about Sly or Robin? Those aren’t really fox names though.” What about… “As King of Beasts, I hereby dub thee Indiana Jones. Named after the greatest treasure hunter of all time. Indy, for short.” The fox jumped in place and ran around in a circle in excitement. Indy playfully hopped into a low stance, daring Danny to try to catch him. Danny accepted the challenge. The two ran about the courtyard. Then they added sticks from the pine trees to their games. Before long the sun was setting, and Danny had yet to begin packing.

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  Danny hurriedly stuffed another set of robes into the sack. He finished packing the necessities and then he gathered the survival pack he had refilled since his clearing of the monster nest. He looked around the room. It was small. Barely any room to move around. The sunlight from the window reflected an ever-present swirl of dust that hung in the air. The wooden bedframe creaked as Danny lifted his belongings. It felt strange to say goodbye. He had barely been here a month, but Danny was struck by the sense of loss in his chest. Today was the day.

  His staff balanced precariously among the packs as Danny shuffled into the prayer chamber. It was only due to his enhanced strength from his breakthroughs that he was able to carry it all. Unfortunately, that did not make it any less awkward to handle. The tenuous balance was maintained for a few moments before Danny’s grip faltered. Inches from the stone floor, the baggage was enveloped by a blue glow and hovered in the air. A familiar winged figure floated into the prayer chamber, arm raised. “Now thats just unfair,” Danny said.

  “Practice your Qi Manipulation and you will be able to manage at least this much.” Danny groaned at the idea of yet another thing to train, but the thought of carrying stuff with his mind was an appealing one. The pair, and the floating supplies, exited the temple.

  The fox ceased its prancing about the courtyard when it saw them walking down the steps. It squawked and scampered over to Danny. He reached down and scratched between its ears. “Alright Indy, it’s time to head out.” The fox cocked its head to the side as Danny rose. Then he realized that the fairy had not waited for them. Danny took one last moment to breathe in the cozy pine scent and feel the cool breeze on his skin. Danny jogged a few steps to catch up with the fairy.

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  The light broke through the canopy in thin beams that flickered with the breeze-blown branches. Danny felt like he was in one of those famous landscape paintings. Now that the threat of the Horrors was gone, it felt peaceful. The occasional call of a songbird echoed through the forest, the population had been lessened drastically by the monsters. Soaking in the serenity around him allowed Danny a moment of reprieve from the training that had consumed his moment-to-moment life since the Integration started.

  Before long, the novelty of the trip was lost. Danny began to feel impatient, bored. He also was curious about where they were going. He remembered how the guide was able to bestow a mini-map to him and wondered if he had something similar for himself. How else could he find a path? Or did he not know at all and just wore a confident facade? Danny could ask. But he refrained. The fairy looked so somber. Well, not much different than usual, but when Danny started asking questions the guide usually turned it into a training session. Questions stopped being asked quickly.

  And so they trekked on in relative silence. The fox, however, did not seem to get the memo. He bounded and hopped around, ducked into the leaves, and all around went wild. Out in his element, the fox pranced through the forest. He seemed an endless font of energy, it was exhausting to watch. Now and then, the fox would walk alongside Danny. That would last a moment before he grew bored and went back to causing a ruckus. Until he suddenly went still. The fox stared into the distance, entranced. With a Yip!, Indy dashed forward. Realizing that the human was not following it stopped and turned. It hopped up and down as it squawked at him, urging him to follow, before disappearing into the trees.

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  “We should follow him. Based on your ability description, he might find something useful.” The guide said.

  Danny stopped himself from interjecting that they should follow regardless, they were bonded, but it would be a waste of breath anyway. The fairy didn’t seem to view the fox the same way as Danny. It was a tool to him, not a companion. Danny felt that was callous. However, they both agreed on one thing, so follow they did.

  As Danny trailed Indy, he noticed it started to get darker. I could have sworn it was hardly past noon. When he looked up to verify, Danny saw that an opaque fog hung suspended in the canopies. It wasn’t like a normal fog either. For one, it stayed in the canopy instead of sinking low to the ground. Secondly, it was gray, nearly verging on black, like a sort of factory smog. Danny could barely see the sun struggling to cut through the obstruction. The trees began to twist. Branches reached out like claws above and around him. Naked of their needles, the trees set an ominous tone to the once serene forest.

  “Monsters ahead.” The guide said. “I won’t be helping you.” Danny wanted to reply that he didn’t need babysitting, but a screeching in the distance made him hold his tongue. An orange bandit broke through the fog and ran toward Danny. The fox held a carved statue in his mouth. Is that…a fairy?

  “That’s—” The guide was interrupted by a swarm of leathery-winged bats. They were brown, furry creatures. Their eyes were a beady red dot on either side of a mouthful of exaggerated fangs and a repulsive pig nose. The cacophony of screechs and squeals was bone-chilling. The fox just kept on running, right past Danny and the gobsmacked fairy. The floating staff pressed against Danny’s chest, and he instinctively grabbed ahold. “Alright native. Time to see how far you’ve come.”

  Danny whipped his staff into a wooden whirlwind. Leaning heavily on the movements of Form Two: Rising Tempest, Danny formed an impenetrable shield from the spinning staff. This form excelled at facing relatively weak attacks from multiple angles. Danny was surprised to see that about a quarter of the bats broke off to continue chasing the fox.

  I can’t worry about that now. Danny refocused himself. The wind whistled as the staff smacked into a diving bat, snapping its thin bones like dry sticks. Danny rebuilt his momentum and another bat sailed to the ground broken. He never let his staff stop. As soon as they neared him they fell to a heap on the ground. Danny picked them apart like an electric bug zapper picked apart flies. But the bats were many. Inevitably, one slipped through. Then another. Soon, Danny had three bats hooked onto his arms and chest. They dug the claws at the end of their wings into him, holding tight. Then they drank from him. “What is up with all these blood-sucking monsters?”

  Danny plucked them from his body. The highest level among them was Level 5. It was pitiful compared to Danny, who was over halfway through the Awakening stage. Once he pulled them free, he awkwardly threw them away. It did little to the bats since they could catch themselves mid-air, but he succeeded in keeping as much blood inside his body as possible. Danny plowed through the thinning swarm. The bats soon realized the futility of throwing themselves at him. They flapped there in the air, waiting, It was much different than the suicidal rush that the Horrors had preferred. Danny wondered if that was a species thing as he spun the staff to preserve momentum.

  One of the bats let out a clipped squeak and turned around. A few of them turned and watched as if debating retreating as well. Before the bat could fly more than a few feet away, a large blur descended on it from above the mist. Danny hadn’t even seen so much as a shadow up there. The larger bat had blood-red wings. It sunk its fangs deep into the deserter. It drained the smaller bat dry. Letting the traitor fall to the forest floor, the red-winged bat let out a rallying cry. Danny Identified it. [Level 15 Midnight Myotis]

  The remaining bats hurled themselves at Danny, clearly more afraid of the boss bat than the staff-wielding man. The one-way charge led to a handful more furry brown corpses on the ground. Partway through his defense, the boss bat let out another screech, this one targeted at Danny. It was more intense than the rallying cry had been, more focused. Ears ringing, Danny stumbled, and a couple of bats managed to get their hooks in him. Danny recovered quickly and ripped them out. He spiked them onto the ground and caved in their skulls with swift strikes from his staff. He was careful not to look at the results. He was sure it made a sickening sound. Except…Danny couldn’t hear it.

  A warm trickle dripped down the sides of Danny’s head. The red-winged bat, seeing its compatriots all killed, let out another of the sonic attacks. Danny again stumbled. He felt a resounding pain in his head. With the hearing loss, this shouldn’t even affect me. I can’t even hear it. The hesitation his puzzlement caused earned him another splitting headache. The pain vibrated throughout his skull interrupting all attempts at thought. But with that last screech, Danny had felt it. Something other than the sound. A Qi whose composition Danny could not yet unravel, but it was there. And if Danny could feel it, then surely there would be some way to defend against it.

  Danny watched the boss bat carefully. He saw it puff its chest up with a deep inhale. He couldn’t hear it, but he could feel the energy behind the sonic blast heading for him. He reached out and attempted to grab ahold of the Qi, to send it off target or halt it entirely. It slipped right through. Danny was racked with a pain that covered his vision with black spots. Now the pain spread through his entire body and caused his breath to catch. Once the spots faded, Danny’s vision blurred. And remained that way.

  The energy was too fast, or slippery, like it resisted his attempts to manipulate it. The bat sucked in another deep breath. The timing between attacks was growing longer. The bat seemed to be tiring, but Danny was the one who would be worse off if this continued. Desperate, Danny turned to a time-tested technique: the pressure washer. He raised his hand and copied the bat, inhaling deeply and drawing in as much Qi as possible as quickly as possible. He then pushed it all into his palm and began to squeeze it into a little ball. Just as he saw the flying monster about to release its built-up energy, Danny loosened his grip on the Qi in the direction of the bat. A jet stream of his own energy was unleashed. It cut through the sonic blast and dissipated the energy, leaving Danny unaffected. Danny’s Qi also punched a hole through the bat’s mouth and out the back of its head.

  Danny looked around as if checking to see if anyone else saw what he had done. He saw the guide floating a little ways off. The fairy was mouthing something that Danny couldn’t make out. Reading his confusion, the guide emphatically pointed at Danny’s chest and then to his ears. Danny looked down and saw the jade necklace around his neck. Fighting the embarrassment rushing to his cheeks, Danny dripped his remaining Qi into the healing artifact and felt the sharp pain in his head be reduced to a dull throb.

  “—tive. Oberon’s balls did you forget you can heal yourself?”

  “Maybe…”

  “Hm.” The fairy looked at the carnage surrounding them and then the corpse of the nearly decapitated boss bat. “Sloppy…but workable.”

  “Wait… Where’s Indy?”