Tasha fiddled nervously with the vial in her pocket as she marched down the hill. This one contained the Cohosh Root Extract, a relatively mild hallucinogen. There had only been time to try it once, two evenings ago, but how sweet that embrace had been.

The effect from a single drop was like a thin, silky veil draped over her entire body. Looking through its filter made everything just a tad more interesting, sanding away those rough and bored edges of reality to make it all more bearable. It was just strong enough to take the edge off, while still leaving her mostly functional.

Her quads burned as she braked with each step to stop herself from picking up more speed and bumping into Jim who was right in front her. Their Party was packed so closely together that all she could see from her height were people's backs and a few faces, expressions grim and focused as they marched silently into what might become a dangerous battle. There was a flutter of nervousness in her stomach that had her squeezing the vial again.

It would've been a bad idea to take it now, of course. Except… maybe it wasn't. There had been something there, the morning after she'd enjoyed her first drop. A strange new feeling, though it was only faint, as she went through her morning archery training. Right when she activated her Ability, it had felt as if something was there, just out of reach, calling for her.

If only their party could have stopped for even just a day, taking the time to properly understand the bounds of their mysterious new powers. They were so singularly focused on reaching this stationary MAFT, while most of their thinking went into long discussions of risk management and the motivations of the aliens that had caused this Reset.

To Tasha, the how seemed far more important than the what or the why. A single tiny chip was capable of moving a rock or an arrow fifty yards away from it? By what mysterious mechanism could that possibly be accomplished?

There was an enormous chasm in capabilities between them and this alien coalition. It didn't matter why they did what they did, because there was exactly nothing humanity could do about it. If they had the near absolute power to control matter and energy, they could annihilate the human race with a snap of their fingers.

First, they had to learn. To understand. A plan of action should come after that.

A poke to her shoulder made her snap out of her musings.

"Look alive. We're almost there."

Kobe looked serious. Focused. She gave a sharp nod as she checked her arrows and pouch of venom.

"Stay safe, alright?" He added with a forced smile.

"Yeah. You too."

"We're coming up on the last hill. Remember, we're only picking them off from a distance!" Dericka held up a fist as she spoke through [Party Comms] to ensure that everyone would hear.

Their line of sight to the settlement had been blocked by green hills as they marched down and up again, only the plain grey rock and ominous black trees of the yellow zone visible to the west. Before they even saw anything, they could already hear the rapidly rising clamour of barks and yelps. It only got louder as they crested the hill, where it became clear that the situation had not gotten any better.

Not far below their position, the ground rose again into a lower, flatter hill. On that plateau stood what was more a camp than a settlement, a few crude shacks packed together, surrounded by a shoddy wooden barricade.

One of the thick boards that made up the barricade was already leaning out precariously, two dogs rearing up to push it down, only to flinch back from stabbing spear points. Many more were circling with nervous energy, barking madly and nipping at each other, as if to push the others to test the defences or leap over the barricade.

"We hold this position for now. Fire at will, but avoid risky shots."

Tasha stepped past a quietly grumbling Dmitriy, heart pounding, forcing herself to move with slow control as she dipped an arrow in her venom pouch before nocking it to her bow. She judged the distance, loosed, then immediately opened the targeting overlay to select the arrow as her target. It looked to be going wide, so she set the vector to point diagonally down and waited for the right moment to trigger it.

The arrow jerked left and she heard a yelp as it hit one of the dogs in the leg. She let out a breath. That should be a kill. She thought she could hear some shouts from the settlement as well. There were some people waving at them, so they must have spotted their party.

She shot another arrow, waiting until it was nearly at ground level before changing direction to the left. It was more likely to hit one of the moving targets when it flew horizontally like that, though it cost a bit more energy. Another yelp, and then two dogs broke off to run up to their party, a few others whining anxiously as they looked between their group and the settlement.

Those would be harder to hit, so she kept her focus on the ones attacking the settlement. A few arrows from the others went wide as she sought out her next target, then she heard a curse from Kobe.

"Crap, they've got an opening now."

Three dogs were pulling away the loose board as others surged towards the new entrance. Seeing that the dogs were bunching up, she loosed two arrows in quick succession before targeting both. They went too high but she directed them down as they passed the pack.

There was a snarl and a loud thunk of a dog getting bashed by Jim's shield, and she flinched back when she realized how close it had been. Another dog was seizing up, two wires sticking out of its back as Kobe cut open its throat, slicing through its black and beige fur with the tip of his spear. She had to force herself to look away from the blood that pumped out of its artery, swallowing dry spit as she nocked the next arrow.

"They will be overwhelmed! We must intervene!" Dmitriy chose to bellow over the incessant barking instead of using [Party Comms].

There was a fierce fight going on near the gap in the defenses, spears stabbing as dogs snarled and bit. As she watched, two dogs grabbed a young man by the leg and pulled him out, his mates managing to grab and pull him back, the man crying out in agony as he became trapped in a tug of war.

"It'll be too easy for a pack to circle and flank us. We'd need them to break out and form up with us," Kobe replied through [Party Comms].

"There are still too many dogs, we need to thin them out. Hold positions and keep firing arrows!" Dericka said.

Tasha zoned out the noise and focused on firing arrow after arrow.

One loose, two loose, open the overlay, select the arrows, wait until they're right above and… Trigger down.

A few more dogs broke off from the pack, but they were easily dealt with by their frontline. She lost track of how many arrows she fired, until she was looking for a next target and noticed that the press of dogs around the opening had gone.

There were only about a dozen dogs left now, circling around the camp as they howled in frustration. The camp had suffered from the assault though, two more boards having been pulled loose, a few people in tattered clothes guarding the gap with spears.

Dericka seemed to have realized the same, calling for them to move down and approach cautiously. But right as they finished their descent, they spotted another pack cresting a hill to the north. At least two dozen more.

"There's more coming! You have to break out now!" Kobe shouted, hands cupped to his mouth.

Tasha couldn't make out the shouts from the people in the camp, but she did see some of them pointing to the approaching pack of dogs.

"We can't run the risk of being overrun in this valley. One more volley near the gap, then we retreat," Dericka ordered.

Two more dogs were downed by arrows, then there were cheers and shouts from their Party as the other group finally made a push out of their camp. Most of them wielded spears, with a few holding what looked to be wooden boards converted into crude shields.

The dogs initially flinched back from the group's rush, but then began to chase them down, nipping at their heels. Their pace slowed as the rear guard was forced to turn around and hold off the lunging dogs with spear and shield.

"Move back up the hill!"

"No, wait! They need our help!" It was Kobe protesting, this time.

"If we don't get up that hill now, we'll risk being swarmed. Move!"

Dmitriy and Kobe did not move, making the group hesitate as the back and forth continued. Tasha could see the other pack of dogs approaching, realizing Dericka was right. But even if they were up on the hill together with this other group, the dogs would be circling and trying to pick people off. It would not be a good position to be in.

"The yellow zone," she found herself breaking into the discussion, heart pounding as heads turned to her. "We need to head to the yellow. Remember the snakes? The dogs won't cross the border."

She saw Dericka's head snap back, judging the distance to the yellow zone, then turning north again to see how close the new pack had gotten.

"Are you sure?" The woman asked, her green eyes boring into Tasha's. She fought the urge to squirm and look away. The technically correct answer was 'no', of course. She was not and could not be certain, but what else could explain the snake's behavior? They had never seen or faced any animals that had crossed zones. Besides, if the creatures could simply cross zone borders freely, it would defeat the entire purpose of zoning.

She nodded, trying to look more confident than she felt, and Dericka whipped around, grabbing Dmitriy and Kobe, but Tasha couldn't make out what was said over the constant mix of shouts and yelps.

"We move to the yellow. Double time. Dmitriy, Kobe and Jim in the rearguard. Archers are only to shoot if they have a clear shot. Move, move, move!"

Dericka moved, Millie and Elza quickly running behind, dragging the girls along with them.

The other group was slowly drawing closer, struggling to fight off the dogs, having to jump in and save people that took bites to their legs. A few of them were already moving with a limp.

Kobe and Dmitriy were shouting at the top of their lungs for them to move faster, to move to the yellow. When they saw how close the other pack was coming, they finally sped up.

Tasha jogged backwards, shooting an arrow whenever she had a good angle, managing to pick off two more dogs as they moved.

The frontrunners crossed into the yellow zone, but Tasha decided to wait near the border, moving to the side to be able to shoot from a better angle. The three men continued to shout at the approaching group, which was quickly breaking formation as they ran for their lives.

It was clear to everyone watching that they simply wouldn't make it. The dogs were too fast.

"Dmitriy, Jim, Kobe, get closer to the yellow. Don't get surrounded. We need you here," Dericka ordered through [Party Comms].

Tasha spotted a dog about to grab someone by the leg, took a shot at it, but by the time the arrow sunk into its neck, the young man had already fallen down. Tragically, his fall was what saved the group, the pack of rabid dogs abandoning their chase to collapse on that poor soul, tearing him apart. The barking paused for a few horrible moments as they fed, a horrendous wail piercing through the noise as people clasped hands over their mouths and averted their eyes. A few of their group made to turn around, crying in anguish, but they were pulled back by the others.

The few dogs that still gave chase to the running group were easily picked off by arrows or their rearguard, and then all the stragglers crossed into the yellow zone, collapsing to the ground.

There was a tense moment when the first dog ran up to them, but it stayed on the grass, never crossing a foot onto the grey rock of the yellow zone.

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Tasha turned to the other Party which was a mess, panting and moaning and crying out for Joe, which she assumed was the young man who'd fallen.

Dericka called for them to get in a loose formation and stay alert, shields facing towards the yellow zone as they waited for the others to get their bearings.

Of the surviving seven people, only two were women, the majority of the group looking like they were in their twenties. Their leader looked to be in his late forties from his salt and pepper hair and beard.

"Thank you. You saved our lives."

At least two dozen dogs were running anxiously back and forth along the border between the zones, only backing away after Kobe stabbed one of them. They kept their distance but followed along, howling and barking loudly enough that the two Parties were forced to move deeper into the yellow zone to be able to have a conversation.

They moved cautiously past one of the huge, dead-looking black trees, never moving out of sight of the grasslands to their right.

Peter, their leader, explained how they'd ended up there. They apparently first settled in their starter zone, but were forced to run from a beastwave after about ten days. They wanted to try the same in the next zone, but it was a swamp with flying creatures so they fled to these grasslands instead. They'd saved up enough for a mobile MAFT, which is what allowed them to build a camp. It had been great at keeping the dogs out, who usually only roamed in packs of six.

But then, after the ten day mark, they'd been given a quest to go out and kill twenty dogs, which turned out too much of a challenge as they'd been investing all their Value in gear and building materials instead of Stats and Abilities. So they ended up failing the Quest, after which they were assaulted by what looked to be most of the dogs in the entire zone.

Tasha zoned out as Dericka shared their own journey, biting at her lip as she again fiddled with the vial in her pocket. Should she have gambled and taken a drop? Her instinct told her that the strange feeling she had that morning was somehow related to her Ability. If she could learn more about it while under the effect of the Cohosh Root Extract, it would be worth it…

As she brought her attention back to the conversation, it seemed that the unhappy conclusion was that they only had bad options. The dogs were still following them along the border. They could have started taking them out with arrows, but they only had about three dozen arrows left. That would leave them potentially exposed for the rest of the zone. The risk of returning to that zone was anyway too high: from the notifications of the other group, their 'challenge' was still active for another twenty-four hours, so more packs of dogs might still show up.

The other option was to camp in the yellow to wait for the challenge to finish and for the dogs to leave. Again, nobody wanted that, afraid of the unknown dangers that would be hiding here. The temporary compromise was to move only just far enough that the dogs could neither see nor hear them, hoping that would be enough to get them to leave, before trying the green zone again. Spending only a few hours in this zone was deemed an acceptable risk compared to the certain dangers of their other options.

So deeper into the yellow zone they went, moving down a slight slope towards two of the massive trees where they would wait for a few hours. They walked in silence, people looking around nervously as they passed underneath the menacing branches that reached far from the tree.

The group settled in the middle of a large space between two trees, looking out at a third tree a few dozen yards away. There were large, dark gaps between the huge roots that could have been hiding tunnels underneath, but nobody was up for exploring those.

Tasha made a decision, then, her curiosity burning too bright to bear. She simply couldn't wait any longer to find out what that feeling had been.

Excusing herself, she moved behind the tree on the right, picking up a few pebbles and taking out her vial. Not wanting to hesitate further, she immediately put a single drop on the back of her hand, the extract taking effect after barely half a minute.

Her shoulders relaxed as she let out a relieved sigh, closing her eyes for a moment as that blissful feeling passed over her body. When she opened them again, the outlines of the pebbles in her hand blurred slightly, the grey colors melding together with that of her skin. Her legs somehow felt light and restless at the same time and there was a pleasant flutter in her stomach. She smiled as everything suddenly became unusually interesting.

But she didn't come out here to relax. Taking a deep breath, concentrating through the intoxicating tingle and blurry vision, she flicked one of the pebbles up and opened her overlay. As she'd done many times before, she activated her Ability to change its direction, but now only focusing on what she felt as it triggered.

And there was that faint sensation again, something that swam out of her and attached itself to the pebble, pulling it down. Another flutter of excitement went through her as she realized that it couldn't be a random hallucination, it had to be the Ability that she was sensing.

She tried again, this time redirecting the pebble to the right, and now she felt it even more clearly. With the third pebble, she tried to ignore the Ability overlay and touch the pebble itself, to reach out and steer it directly. It didn't seem to work, but then out of nowhere she got a notification.

Unique Feat achieved: Exceptional Mind - PE Node connection!

Reward: 1 [Direct Manipulation] Token

"Huh?" She whispered to herself, not knowing what to make of that. After a bit of browsing through the System Interface though, it was obvious even to her addled mind that it could be used to unlock something called [Direct Manipulation - Momentum]. From the description, it sounded like that would finally get rid of the clunky interface somehow? That sounded great.

Ignoring the tiny voice that said she should think this through while sober, she spent the token on the Ability and toggled it on.

Immediately, she was assaulted by a wave of new sensations.

"Wow," she breathed, blinking open-mouthed at the obscure cluster of impulses that washed over her. It was like she'd opened some invisible eye and an entirely new sense had opened up to her. It felt disorienting and profoundly strange, but not in a bad way.

It took her a minute to get her bearings, separating the strange new stimuli from what was being caused by the space drugs. To parse these confusing new sensations was not an easy feat, but luckily she had plenty of experience dealing with something like this.

As she focused on her surroundings, her new sense seemed to be telling her that everything had something like a heavy bubble inside of it. These bubbles were… somehow interacting both with objects and each other, pulling things in different directions. A massive bubble that stretched across the horizon was pulling at another at the center of her body. If the bubbles represented forces of movement, could the large one then be the Earth's gravity?

She flicked a pebble forward and felt how its bubble stretched, first in a thin elliptical, parallel to the ground, until it was inevitably pulled down by gravity, bending down to the ground. But she thought she could just reach out and-

She curled a finger and up the pebble flew, just a single foot, before it clattered back down to the ground.

"Hey, are you doing alright over there?" A young man's voice.

Tasha turned her head slowly, blinking at the unfamiliar youth. It was hard to make out his face through her blurry vision.

"...Hello?" The word sounded strange to her, as if it was someone else's voice.

"Hello," he said with a smile, "I'm Justin. I saw you wander off and figured I should check in on you. Not exactly a safe place here, you know?"

"Uh… Yeah. I'm just, uh… working on something," Tasha spoke slowly, slightly slurring her words. The guy was looking at her a certain way, frowning perhaps? What did he want?

"Are you okay? You seem-" He began to ask, but there was a distant sound and his head snapped to the left. He gasped. A few shouts sounded from the group but she couldn't make out the words. Tasha blinked. What was that expression on his face? Surprise? Shock?

She followed his gaze, turning her head slowly to the right. There was someone else standing next to the far off tree? No, it was too tall to be a person. She squinted, trying to get a better look.

Standing besides a pile of rocks, about thirty yards away from them, was a humanoid creature with green scales, grinning widely to reveal sharp teeth. It had a thickly muscled right arm, nearly as long as it was tall, while its left limb was some kind of small, disfigured claw.

It looked a bit like the green monkeys they'd faced in the zone before, only much bigger. Could she be hallucinating? No, the other guy was also looking at it.

Another wave of the extract kicked in and lines began to blur as Tasha gaped open-mouthed, trying to make sense of it. The creature seemed to reach out with its massive right hand to grab a bunch of rocks, then it raised its left claw. What the hell was it doing over there?

There was a blinding flash of light from the claw and she turned her head away as she shielded her eyes, blinking through the afterimages.

"Get down!" Dmitriy's voice was loud in her ears, but she didn't understand why he was shouting.

Then she felt a row of huge, stretched bubbles pointing towards them, followed by a series of loud cracks, rocks hitting stone, one of them close by.

As her vision cleared and she looked up, she noticed that Justin was gone, only a red mist hanging where he had just been standing. She stared in confusion and reached her hand out to touch the mist, but it was already gone. A chill went down her spine.

"Get to cover! Jim, Kobe, with me! We have to charge it! I'll block the stones!" Dmitriy's voice again.

Feet slapping on stone.

"Nooo!"

The blood-curdling scream coming from behind the tree was what finally shook Tasha out of her stupor, adrenaline starting to clear her head. That was Dericka's voice. What the hell was happening? She shouldn't just be standing here.

"Seek cover damnit!" Kobe yelled again through [Party Comms].

Only when she saw the creature reaching for more rocks, she was filled with sudden panic and urgency, fully realizing that she had to move right now. Looking for somewhere out of sight that still had a vantage point, she decided on the tree. Its rough bark and many branches made for easy climbing and in a few moments she was sitting on a larger branch, looking out at the green monster.

She felt a flash of fear as it cocked its arm for another throw, heart pounding in her throat. Still she nocked an arrow with shaky hands, letting loose in its general direction without even bothering to aim. Without activating her Ability, she raised her hand, feeling the arrow's bubble, then moved her finger as she stretched and re-shaped that bubble to point towards the creature.

The arrow struck, but plinked off its green scales before falling to the ground. The beast whipped its arm around in another violent throw, launching the rocks with immense speed. Tasha felt Dmitriy raise some kind of wall, then how the massive bubbles that went through it immediately diminished. Stones that were about to crush the three men instead fell down and bounced harmlessly from their armored legs.

"PE Capacity down to nothing. Next throw will go through! Charge!" Dmitriy said, sounding out of breath as they continued their mad dash.

She dipped and shot another arrow, adjusting the bubble to aim for its eye but narrowly missing. Its gaze flicked up to her as the arrow ricocheted off its forehead, then back down to the three approaching men.

Dmitriy and Jim raised their shields as they closed in, bracing against the next blow from its huge right arm which was already rearing back. Kobe sprinted left, aiming for its other flank. There was a loud metallic thunk as it struck with sudden speed and Tasha's stomach sank as she saw shields flying and the two men bouncing and rolling over the rocky ground like ragdolls.

There were shouts and wails of despair from the other group, but she didn't have a good angle to look that way.

Kobe used the opening to launch his iron-tipped wires, but just like her arrows, the barbed tips failed to pierce its scales. He cursed, leaping back just in time to dodge a swing, then circled to its left flank again as he brandished his spear.

Tasha readied another arrow but then the creature ignored Kobe, reaching for another fistful of rocks before looking up at her as it cocked its arm back.

"Oh shit," she said, immediately pushing herself off the branch she was sitting on, realizing too late with a flash of impotent horror how high up she'd been. In an ill-advised reflex, she held her hand out as she came down, and her arm snapped as she slammed into the hard ground. She felt the massive bubbles of its throw again, heard rocks impacting the tree and clattering on the rocky ground around her. More screams from the group behind, but she couldn't focus on them now. Pain spread through her entire left side, blessedly dulled by the drugs as she gasped like a fish out of water, trying to get some air back into her lungs.

For a moment, it felt like she could only hear her own stilted breaths. She tried to orient herself, but the ground was spinning so much that she couldn't tell which way she was facing. A bestial growl, another flash of light and an alarmed shout from Kobe gave her a direction to turn in.

Blinking to clear the tears from her eyes, she willed the world to stop spinning. If she didn't help, he would die. Her damn arm was broken. She didn't even know where her bow was. But then her vision suddenly focused on an arrow lying right in front of her. She began to crawl towards it, then realized she didn't even need to grab it.

The arrow had a faint bubble which was oriented straight down. Tasha used her new Ability to shape it, pulling it up to angle higher. Zoning out everything besides her and the arrow, she watched how it rose unsteadily, but as soon as she elongated the bubble it went flying.

Tasha limited the speed at first, steering the arrow carefully this time, straight at the creature that was again swinging at Kobe. A bit to the left, then a bit lower. Yes, that should be exactly right. A final pull on the bubble and it sped up, slamming straight into the beast's eye.

Its head snapped back and it stumbled, screeching in pain. Kobe did not waste the opening, sinking his spear in its stomach. But still it didn't fall.

Dmitriy was back on his feet, left arm hanging uselessly by his side, but gripping a mace with his right as he limped towards it, his face a picture of angry determination.

Kobe was right in front of it still, pulling his spear free of its stomach, when the creature pulled its arm back, ready for another strike. Dmitriy growled as he pushed through his wounds, moving from a slow, limping walk into a jog, but it wouldn't be fast enough.

Tasha quickly focused on one of the rocks in the creature's pile, gesturing with her head as she made it shoot up towards the creature with the last of her PE Capacity. It struck it straight in the head, a few green scales flying off from the blow, but even that only distracted it for a moment. It was just enough for Kobe to stab it again in the stomach, but then it swung.

She cried out as Kobe pushed himself away from the spear, bending his head and torso back as he fell to the ground. With no room to spare, the creature's arm just barely passed over Kobe's face, and then he landed on his back, facing towards the beast.

It looked down at him with a vicious grin, blood seeping past the arrow sticking out of its eye socket, unaware of the two wires snaking up. Straight into the two stab wounds they went, one to the right and the other to the left, bypassing its tough scales. Once they were in, the monster's muscles seized, its whole body stiffening as smoke came out of its maw.

"Incoming!" Dmitriy bellowed, having picked up enough speed to leap right over Kobe's prone body. He flew through the air with his mace finishing a long overhead swing to finally bury itself in the creature's head with a meaty crunch. They both went down as the rest of his body barreled into it. Dmitriy got up again after a short moment, lifting his mace for one final strike, but the creature had already gone limp.

It was dead. There was a wave of relief as she noticed Jim slowly rising to his feet, but then Tasha caught a quick glimpse of the group behind as she looked around, which was enough to fill her with horror. Smears of blood on rocks, blood pooling beneath broken bodies, Dericka crying out in despair as she tried to hook the Fixer Upper onto what could only be a corpse.

She squeezed her eyes shut, letting her head fall to the ground. Now came the aftermath.

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