Black and white sharp lines floated in a living blackness that absorbed all sound, and it all felt so familiar. A reminder of the cubeplant. Of home.

The memories of the warm golden light and the gentle caress of the breeze were distant now, and they walked in silence, in the cold darkness.

White lines now surrounded them on all sides, as they fully entered the dense part of the forest, and their path had become extremely uneven, with rises and falls in the forest floor, and large and small trees blocking their way, forcing them to go around massive tree trunks, and even bend their necks as they stepped underneath gnarled knots of exposed roots.

It was a pity really, and Nar was sure that it would've been a beautiful sight to see, all of those trees growing so closely intertwined… Instead, all was black and white, and the cold breeze reached out with its cold fingers to send icy shivers of unease crawling down his spine.

Nar rubbed his eyes and blinked them several times. He had barely slept before Cen's aura had woken them, and in the two hours they had been walking, his strained [Sight], together with his [Dark Vision], were starting to tire his eyes. Of course, his stamina would keep him seeing until it ran out, but neither it, nor his HP, ever did anything to remove the discomfort of weariness. Alive and moving? Yes, he always was. Comfortable? No, never…

Kur had altered their formation a little, and Jul now walked besides Gad at the front of the party while Mul had stepped back, to the spot that was Nar's. As for Nar, he now walked in his old, familiar position, at the very back of the party, from where he guarded them from ambushes from behind.

"I'm not comfortable with leaving our backs exposed like this," Kur had told them, a few minutes into their black and white walk. "Let's do a small change…"

And so, Nar now guarded the party's back, and if he were to be honest, he felt almost relieved to be back there, behind the others, and it felt as though this was his true place in the party.

"It's not. It's just what's familiar to you," Kur had told him, when Nar voiced his thoughts. "To put you at the back… That's a disservice to you and your path, and we're only doing it for now. Plus, I haven't given up on your independent role either."

Nar knew his party leader was right. His mobility, his flexibility… It was a waste not to employ them, but for now, in that familiar dark and almost corridor-like embrace, his old spot in the formation felt right, being well worn and understood.

Sometime later, he was awakened from his mindless thoughts by something twitching at the back of his mind. He flashed his icon on the party view, and a second later Kur raised a hand to halt them.

"You alright?" he whispered, after approaching Nar with Cen still passed out in his arms.

But Nar didn't answer, instead scanning the blackness around them. It was still dark despite being nearly half eight in the morning, though it was hard to decide whether that was due to the fog or the dense canopy hidden from sight above them, or even the dense cloud cover blocking the skies beyond that. It was probably a mix of the three, conspiring to keep them ensnared in darkness, but Nar had the feeling that the fog was the most to blame.

"I felt something," he eventually said.

"[Instinct]?" Kur asked, motioning for Jul to join them.

"I'm not sure," Nar said. "Just something… Oh! There it is again!"

Jul froze half way towards them.

"Get ready for armor!" Kur hissed at the party. "Jul?"

"We're surrounded by fear," she whispered, looking straight into the darkness to her side. "So much fear…"

"Shit…" Mul muttered, triggering his flaming armor.

Nar wasted no time in activating his own gear, feeling the now familiar constraining sensation of it materializing over his body with his aura powered, flexible plates.

"They're scared…" Jul whispered again. "But not of us."

And [Instinct] flared in his mind, populating the blackness around them with danger.

"Here they come!" Nar shouted, as howls filled the dark around them.

"Coyotes!" Kur shouted. "Bunch together, back-to-back!"

However, his order came too late, and a massive furry beast pounced on Gad out of the darkness, bringing her down. Two more quickly followed it, aiming to end the threat of their tank swiftly, but red arrows whistled through the darkness and found snouts, eyes and throats, and spreading malevolent [Bleeding] status effects.

Tuk dashed forward and grunted to pull the morsvar back up.

"I'm okay!" Gad shouted. "I'm okay! Get back in the center!"

Snarls and howling echoed all around them, seemingly coming right from behind Nar, despite him having his back to the party.

"They control the fog!" Kur warned them, now standing in their midst, Cen tightly wrapped in his arms. "Be careful! They'll try to trick you with their illusions!"

Snarling teeth lunged for Nar's throat, but he reacted faster, cutting through the coyote's snout. However, all he felt across his blade were dissipating wisps of fog.

"Like that?" Nar asked.

"Yeah…" Kur said, his tone tight.

"Crystal," Rel whispered, blindly aiming her arrow at the darkness. "What do we do?"

"We need to be patient," Kur said. "They're fast, and they work together to bring down their prey. They'll try to separate us, and bring us down one by one. We can't let that happen! And watch your throats!"

"And the fucking illusions too?" Mul asked.

His tone was a lot closer to his real one, and the suppressor had clearly detected combat and eased up to allow enough rage to be brought forth for fighting.

"That too," Kur said.

The howling suddenly stilled, and an eerie silence descended upon them once more.

"Are they gone?" Tuk asked.

"They're just looking for an opening," Kur said, eyeing the darkness around them.

And as he spoke, a trio of the beasts rushed out of the fog, aiming for Viy, and her spear darted forward, deadly, and cut through two of them. The first one vanished in threads of fog, but the other one yelped in pain, and the third one abandoned its attack and vanished into the fog once again.

With a grunt, Viy finished off the wounded coyote. "They're weak! I didn't even cycle into my weapon!"

"Their strength lies in their illusions and teamwork," Kur said. "Just stick to the party and we'll weather them down!"

Silence descended again, and but for his sped-up heartbeat and the occasional whispering breeze, Nar heard nothing around them.

"Are they also known for being patient?" Gad asked, from the other end of the party.

"... yes," Kur said, his tone pained.

"Great," Mul grumbled. "Now what? We can't just wait for them to keep attacking us. They'll end up wearing us down."

"I know!" Kur said. "Just let me think…"

A low snarl came from the darkness in front of Nar, and quick as his attributes allowed him, he stabbed forward, and was rewarded by a whimper of pain and something going heavy at the other side of his blade. Before he could celebrate however, coyotes exploded out of the fog, intent on overrunning them.

"Hold!" Kur shouted. "Stay together!"

Nar retreated until he felt Kur's hand stop him from behind, and Rel's elbow bumping into his.

His sword rose and fell, cut and chopped, and furry things bleed and whimpered before his mowing blade. And just like they had come, they were gone again.

"Did we scare them off?" Rel asked, panting at his side.

"I don't think so," Kur said. "There's supposed to be at least a hundred in the pack… Plus the White Coyote might have spawned as well."

"What's that?" Tuk asked.

"Optional boss," Kur whispered. "30% chance of spawning…"

"Fucks sakes!They're not there when we want them to, and now they're here when we don't want them to!" Mul said. "Fucking typical!"

"Tuk?" Kur called, ignoring the brawler.

"Yes."

"Can your rings cut through the trees?"

"The wood?" Tuk asked, frowning. "I don't know, but I think so? Are these trees really hard or something?"

"No. Just normal wood," Kur said.

"Then it should be okay."

"That's good," Kur said, relieved. "I think this is your show, then."

"Me?" Tuk asked, confused.

"Yeah. We're all bunched up together, and we're surrounded on all sides. And if you can cut through the trees, then… You don't really need to see where you're tossing, do you?"

Nar watched as a slow grin formed across Tuk's black and white lines of a face.

"I gotcha man!" Tuk said. "Alright everyone… This is the Thousand Petals. Or at least, the little bit I've managed to memorize so far."

Light flared in the dark as nine rings of aura shone in nine fingers, and Tuk's grin hovered in the darkness, deep shadows encasing his stare. The ring tosser took a deep breath, and flung his rings around him.

"The circle is all encompassing," he muttered to himself, as his rings drew a circle of light around the party, and yowls of pain and the cracking of tree trunks rang around them.

"The shape of infinity follows everything," he said, and Tuk tossed his rings again, the nine of them barely touching his fingers.

"What in the pile is he saying?" Mul asked.

"Shhh!" Rel hissed. "It's just for memory!"

The rings of light drew the shape of an 8 around the party, and when they returned, Tuk tossed them in a similar pattern, except horizontally this time.

"And infinity stretches in all directions…"

It's working! Nar thought, listening to the cries of pain and death echoing from all around them.

"You're doing it!" Rel whispered at Tuk. "You can do it!"

"And all at once!" Tuk said, tossing his rings out in a double, interlaced figure of an 8.

"Wow…" Nar breathed, tracking the glimmering trails of light across the dark. Wherever they went, they seemed to briefly dispel the fog, as though burning through it to reveal running coyotes and exploding tree trunks and roots.

"Now we're talking!" Mul shouted. "Take that you shits!"

A loud, ear splintering howl pierced the dark in reply to Mul's taunts.

"Boss?" Gad asked, her voice calm.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Yep," Kur said. "Looks like it did spawn… Just our luck."

"What do I do?" Tuk asked.

His concentration broken, the rings returned to his fingers, and he looked to Kur for further instructions.

"Just keep going!" Kur said. "You can at least keep them from swarming us."

"Got it!"

Tuk's rings flew again, the ring tosser starting from the circular first pattern of a Thousand Petals once more, and Nar scanned the darkness as they glittered through the fog, searching for the boss.

"Get ready to taunt it," Kur said. "It's bound to attack any moment!"

In reply, Gad hunched forward, bending her knees and raising her shield in front of her, and a loud, strange roar shook the dead air, and all the coyotes went silent.

"What now?" Viy whispered, holding her spear pointed at the fog in front of her. "That didn't sound like the coyotes…"

The sound reverberated through the fog once more, a strange mix between a roar, a creaking and a clicking, and as if on cue, the coyotes howled in unison, and Nar's [Instinct] screamed at him.

"Watch out!" he and Jul both shouted.

Shapes darted out of the fog, their tactics abandoned in favor of simply overwhelming them with their far superior numbers. Within moments, they were surrounded on all sides by gleaming claws, snarling mouths and swiping tails trailing fog behind them.

The coyotes darted around them, agile and quick, on thin, nimble limbs, but Nar's sword was faster, cutting them down with impunity. However, the coyotes seemed to have abandoned all sense of self-preservation, and they threw themselves at Nar, aiming to kill him but never attempting to dodge out of the way of his blade.

"Something's weird with them!" Viy shouted, having realized the same.

"They're blinded by fear!" Jul said. "They can't think anymore! And there's a…"

Something huge and white leaped out of the fog, snarling at Mul, its teeth sharp even in the flat lines of white and black. The brawler cycled his aura harder, flames roaring off his arms to block the boss in a cross-guard, and stepped forward to meet it. The coyote however, twisted mid-hair, touching a foot to the ground to Mul's left, and propelled itself forward towards the now exposed center of the party, aiming for Rel, Tuk, Kur and the still unconscious Cen in his arms.

No! Nar thought in horror.

However, suddenly, the coyote shifted its aim once more and pounced straight into Gad's shield instead.

Taunted! She did it! Nar celebrated.

And that's when something else roared out of the fog, towering over Viy, a green light glowing at the center of its chest. His eyes went wide, as the new, misshapen enemy slammed down its fist on Viy, who looked up in stunned shock.

At the last moment, Jul reached over and yanked her back, and the new foe's fist blew a small crater on the ground in an explosion of dirt, rocks and leaves, and just barely missed the spear woman.

Nar blinked at the monstrosity before them. It had gnarled limbs, with two massive arms and fists and legs, and it towered above them, standing almost 15-feet tall.

"Tree guardian!" Kur shouted.

Tree guardian? Nar thought.

"I can't taunt it!" Gad shouted.

"It's too scared!" Jul said. "Nothing's going to work on it!"

"Will your debuffs work?" Kur asked. "Can you make it even more afraid?"

"I… Maybe," Jul said, almost regretfully.

"Then do it!" Kur shouted. "Mul, swap with Viy. That thing's made of wood!"

"I'll turn it into a torch!" Mul grunted, hot violence dripping from his lips.

"Tuk, keep tossing! Rel, help Gad bring down that boss, and Nar, keep killing, and cover any holes that appear in the formation! If anything gets through to the center, we're all dead!" Kur shouted. "Come on people, this is what we trained and prepared for, so let's do this!"

Kur had barely finished speaking when the tree guardian howled in agony, and bright flames lit up the dark, pushing back the fog.

Actually… Is there less fog now? Nar wondered. It was still dark, but the fog at least seemed to be thinning. In fact, he could now see several coyotes running around them, where once there had only been darkness, and he even caught glimpses of tree trunks further into the fog.

"The fog is lifting!" he shouted.

"Must be because we're thinning their numbers!" Kur said. "Just keep going! We got this!"

Nar and Viy teamed up to form a south and east edge of devastation against the coyotes, mowing anything that came within reach, and Tuk's rings devastated everything else around them in bright dashes and lines of light.

The beasts seemed intent on staying away from the tree guardian and the coyote boss, and between Mul's fire and Jul's fear seeping into the already terrified monster, the two of them seemed to have it well in hand. That left Gad and Rel, dealing with the coyote boss on their own, and they too seemed to be handling the white, furry beast well enough.

Gad was doing a great job keeping the coyote focused on her, and despite its illusionary tricks, Gad was simply taking its hits on her shield, armor and her massive [Constitution] and [Toughness]. From one quick glance Nar stole at their fight, it looked as though the big coyote was no threat to Gad, and after a second look at the boss, Nar realized the beast was built more for speed and mind tricks rather than full on direct assault against a tank like Gad.

We got lucky, Nar thought, cutting down through two coyotes at once. Whatever's made them scared also threw all of their advantages out the window. If they had worked together instead…

He shook the thought away as one of Rel's cursed, [Bleeding] arrows pierced the boss' fur, causing it to yelp and falter in its attack.

A few more of those, and it will just bleed out, Nar thought, and he focused back on his own fight.

As the body count piled around him and Viy, the fog receded further and further, and Nar's [Dark Vision] slowly changed into a hybrid between its enhanced [Sight] and his passive sight's capabilities. It was a little disorientating, but it was still workable.

"Almost there!" Jul shouted.

"Good! Mul, get ready to set it on fire!" Kur said.

A sudden, terror-filled roar filled the forests, and Nar glanced back in time to catch the tree guardian raising its hands to its misshapen, hollow-eyed face, dark vapor streaking out of his eyes, mouth and nose as Jul's [Insidious Terror] took hold.

Mul wasted no time and punched forward, aiming an angry fiery fist at the monster's midsection, which had previously been out of reach due to his smaller stature and the guardian's fear filled, but still deadly and surprisingly fast blows.

The brawler hit him once, bringing the tree guardian down with the full might of his over 50 points of [Strength], then he hammered it a second time. Then thrice, with loud, reverberating blows. But unlike its arm, the tree guardian's torso remained dark.

"I think it's too wet!" Mul shouted.

"Just keep going!" Kur said. "You're still bringing down its HP!"

However, instead of doing as Kur instructed, Mul closed his eyes and focused. The suppressor gleamed red around his neck, shining through the armor, and then Mul's fire armor suddenly doubled in size, real flames pouring from him.

The tree guardian started moving again, but Mul latched onto its torso, and the wood monster screeched as the hungry, aura powered flames dried then licked its body, and finally, caught on. It might have been a mighty creature, but as Nar had come to learn, weakness and damage types played a critical role in every fight, and that wooden monster was just no match to Mul's bright, searing fire.

At the same time, after a yelp of pain, Gad brought down her mace on the boss' head, cracking its skull open. Almost immediately, the remainder of the fog evaporated into the air, leaving their sight clear once more.

Gad brought her mace down on the boss again, its fur bloody from half a dozen arrow wounds, and silenced its whimpering for good. With that, the last of the coyotes scurried back into the still darkened forest.

"Let them!" Kur shouted, before Nar or Viy could chase them, and Nar stared wide eyed at the countless dead beasts that he slaughtered without realizing. Between him and Viy, they must have taken down at least fifty of the creatures…

But a roar dragged his attention, and he glanced back in time to see Mul jump off the tree guardian, and together, they all gathered to watch the monster howl in agony, rolling in the dirt in a futile attempt to put off Mul's rage fueled flames.

Jul covered her eyes, and Nar too, felt his heart tightening. In his more normal sight, the tree guardian looked a lot less threatening, despite its size, and just looked as though a tree had become a monster to watch over its brethren, and its fiery end… Well, it brought no one any joy.

"Someone finish it," Kur said, his voice raspy. "The aether reservoir is in its chest…"

Nar stepped forward, taking it upon himself, and Mul joined him, ready to help.

[Sword Aura], 50 points, he thought, intent on making it quick.

The brawler held onto the creature, keeping it still, and Nar's blade whistled down with final intent, tip first, to penetrate through the tough, burning wood, aiming for the glowing, green core at the center of the guardian's chest. The blade splintered and shattered through the aether reservoir, and green light exploded around him, looking like little motes of light, or like tiny, green glowing insects flying away into the receding darkness.

He clenched his jaw and yanked his sword out of the now dead guardian, quickly stepping back from the torrent of aether before it went out of control and reacted against his aura armor.

"Why did it attack us?" Viy whispered, deactivating her helmet. "I thought you said they wouldn't!"

"I don't know," Kur whispered back, still staring at the bright flow of green aether.

"We hit the trees," Jul said, pointing at a large hole in one of the tree trunks. "And even terrified, it tried to do its duty to protect the forest."

"Shit…" Tuk whispered, looking to be on the verge of tears. "I-I'm so sorry…"

"Don't!" Jul said, shaking her head. "We did what we had to do, and we survived."

"She's right," Nar said, his tone low. "We did what we had to do, and it attacked us."

Gad clasped Tuk's and Viy's shoulders and squeezed.

"We are enemies here, Tuk, and no matter what they look like, or their intentions, they can always mean our deaths. And better them than us," the tank said. "The dungeon will fix the trees, and respawn the beasts and monsters, but if we die, no one is bringing us back."

"I… Yeah," Tuk said, wiping at his eyes. "Shit! Sorry, I'm being so fucking stupid! Of course we need to fight them. What in the pile am I even thinking?"

"You're thinking with your heart," Gad said, tapping his chest with a clawed fist. "And like Kur said, that is not a bad thing. In fact, I hope you never stop doing it. Just don't let yourself become blinded by it, alright?"

"I… Yeah, I won't."

Viy tapped Gad's hand on her shoulder, and with a final squeeze she let go, just as the last of the tree guardian's aether dissipated into the canopy above them

"Think it's worth harvesting these?" Mul asked, pointing at the nearest coyote with his chin. "They're valuable, aren't they? Like those mist-aspected berries?"

Kur rubbed his chin. "They are but…"

A loud roar reached them from somewhere behind them. It lasted a good few seconds, its undertones sounding mournful to Nar. Or angry.

Or both, Nar thought, glancing at the slain tree guardian.

"Is that…"

Another roar cut Rel's words, then another, and another… And soon, the forest was filled with that deafening warcry.

"How many are there?" Gad shouted.

"Too many!" Kur said. "We need to run! To the ravine!"

"Which way?" Mul shouted.

"I'm checking!"

Nar's heart beat faster and faster with every second that Kur took to find the right direction, and with the fog now gone, he could very easily hear the approaching, thundering footsteps. And there were a lot of them.

"They're coming," he warned, trying to keep his tone calm.

"I know! I know!" Kur hissed. "There! That way! Go!"

They ran in the direction he had pointed, not in formation, but in a simple, all-out retreat.

"How do we cross the ravine?" Mul asked.

"I don't know!" Kur shouted. "We'll figure it out when we get there!"

"And what if they surround us?" Tuk asked.

"Then we fight!"

They fled through the trees, tripping and stumbling on roots, and getting entangled by bushes. Behind them, it sounded as though the very trees had risen to chase after them, shaking the very ground in their anger and desire to reach those who had harmed the forest in their care.

"They're getting closer!" Jul shouted.

"Going as fast as I can!" Kur muttered.

"Here! Give her to me!" Nar said, reaching out a hand to Cen. And without waiting for his reply, he yanked Cen out of Kur's shoulder and held her tightly against his own chest.

Free of his burden, Kur was able eke out a little bit more out of his [Speed], and nearly fifteen minutes later, Kur checked the map again.

"Almost there!" Kur panted. "Look… For a way… To cross!"

"Can we jump?" Viy asked.

"Not… All… Of us!" Kur replied.

"We'll find a way!" Nar shouted.

"I see it!" Jul said.

They dashed madly towards the growing dark line in the forest floor ahead of them, and then, at the last minute, they halted right before plunging down into the depths of a wide crack on the ground, and from far below, Nar heard the distant rushing of water.

I could jump, Nar thought, considering the over 20-feet gap that separated them from safety. Maybe Viy too. But not the others… Damn!

"What do we do?" Tuk asked, staring back at the trees they had just escaped from, as in the not so far distance, the stampede was still coming for their blood.

"I don't know!" Kur panted. "Look for a way to cross!"

"There's none!" Jul shouted.

But Mul was suddenly on the move. He ran back to stand behind a thick tree trunk, and punched it.

"What in the Pile are you doing?" Tuk shouted at the brawler. "They're already angry as it is!"

"I'm making a bridge. Get out of the way."

"Oh… Yeah. That might work…"

Mul punched the tree twice more, and with a loud series of cracking and snapping timber, he pushed against it and the trunk came crashing down across the chasm.

"Quickly!" Kur shouted.

Nar dashed forward first, and with his sword, he cut through the branches in his way, clearing it for the others to follow after him more easily. Meanwhile, Mul stood behind them, waiting for them all to cross.

"Go!" Gad shouted at him.

"No! You go!" he retorted. "They're scared of my fire, remember?"

Gad hesitated for a split-second then she jumped onto the fallen tree.

"You better be following me!" she said.

"Of course I am!" Mul said. "What else do you think I'm going to do?"

"No idea…"

Together the two of them crossed the chasm, and as they reached the middle, a crowd of tree guardians came to a sudden halt before the ravine.

"Stay back!" Mul shouted, raising a flaming fist above his head. "Don't make me do this! We just want to go on our way."

The crowd of eyeless monsters watched them in an eerie silence, their chests not even heaving from the exertion of their run. If not for the different tones of glowing green orbs in their chests, Nar could almost mistake them for trees, so motionless as they stood.

"That's good," Mul said, stepping backwards towards the rest of the party, already waiting on the other side of the chasm. "We didn't mean any harm to your forest. It was an accident, and then we had to defend ourselves. We didn't want to kill your friend, either!"

It was almost strange hearing Mul speaking so compassionately, instead of his grumpy, annoying, angry self.

Then again, is it? Nar wondered, eyeing the retreating brawler, his fist raised and still encased in brilliant flames of orange and yellow.

He knew that the brawler had a core of gooey softness, and he had shown it multiple times in their Climb, once he had calmed down a little, and he continued to display his genuineness now that they were out… So perhaps, if anything, it was all that anger that was the wrongful behavior for him.

I wish he didn't have that affinity, Nar realized, his throat tightening. Or that fucking thing around his neck.

Who knew what affinity Mul could have had? Who knew how Mul himself could have been, had his family not screwed him over so thoroughly.

Jul is fighting her fear, Nar thought. But for all his anger and rage… Is it even possible for him to overcome such a thing?

And even Nar himself, despite denying it, and smothering it, still felt the burning embers of his hatred and resentment simmering somewhere deep within his being. No matter what Aedina had meant about coming to regret it, would he ever reach a stage of his life, where he felt ready to let go of it? To forget, and to forgive all he had seen, and suffered?

Mul reached their side of the ravine safely, and Nar stifled his stray thoughts.

No time for this, he thought. Not now…

And if he had his way, then not ever either.

Mul kicked the tree trunk away with a [Strength] empowered kick, and the whole thing went crashing down into the darkness of the ravine at their feet.

"Can they jump?" Tuk whispered.

"Shh! Don't give them any ideas!" Viy hissed at him.

And suddenly, with a loud chorus of creaking and clicking, the tree guardians retreated back into the forest, and in the blink of an eye, they were gone amidst the densely packed trees.

"Are they still there?" Rel whispered.

"I think so," Jul said, in a similarly hushed tone. "But I can't sense them anymore."

"Good," Kur said, doubling over and panting, his helmet retreating into his armor. "Let's just le…"

Behind them, another loud roar echoed through the darkened skies, startling them, and what seemed to be the sounds of shouts and screams reached Nar's ears.

"I think someone's fighting," Nar said, frowning in confusion.

"Yes…" Jul whispered. "I think so too!"

"What?" Tuk asked. "Who?"

"And against what?" Gad added.

"Fuck's sakes!" Kur muttered, glancing in the direction of the rising noise. "Now what?"

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