Nic swept forward like an invincible tide. For every enemy that threw themselves at him, a single palm strike was enough. One of his six arms shot forward to meet them, and a faint shadow surrounded his hand like a layer of ash.

The blows seemed almost slow in comparison to the enemy’s brutal speed; yet as his hand approached, clad in swirling ash, they lost their momentum. The strike became inescapable. The hand seemed to fill more and more space.

And they were blown away.

The Heart-Colony was unleashing more and more infected beasts. They came at him snarling and howling, their bodies torn apart by the glowing roots within. He sent them back with simple blows. Since they didn’t care if he cut their heads or limbs away, the best method was sheer force, suppressing them and throwing them back again and again. When they fell he covered them with mud.

The jaguar, so covered by parasitic roots it looked like a writhing mass of luminous worms, shot along the ground and jumped for his throat. He caught it with a flick of his tail, swatting it up high. As it dropped back down, he swung his palm to catch it mid-air and send it hurtling away.

The impact shook the air.

And already, another foe had arrived. A wolf tried to slip around him, and he caught its back leg, swinging it against a tree to break ribcage and organs beneath into pulp. The beast let out a single whimpering yelp-

A stag with massive antlers charged forward. Nic caught it by either side of its horns, and split it straight down the middle with his flaming sword.

On either side of him the humans were holding up. The defenders kept their guards high; on his right was a man who produced a field of ice that slowed enemies until they were defenseless against the man’s long halberd, while to his left, a woman clad in summoned platemail with the head of a lion fought using sword and shield.

With Nic backing them up they formed a spearpoint moving closer towards the Heart-Colony. Behind them, the hunters directed their fire into steady volleys. Melville had conjured up a trio of lightning clouds that sent a steady one-two-three beat of lightning pulsing through the air to strike the heart. Every few beats the lightning would be joined by a blazing arrow covered in green flames, or a bolt of piercing blue light.

The heart was losing mass. It had long since lost its shape, the cage that held the putrifying bodies breaking away as the dead captives sagged out in a spill of limbs and grotesque fluids.

Now something central was showing through. Something that glowed brilliantly.

“FALL BACK!”

Nic called out, and Inkspur echoed. As the hunters paused, and clumsily started to retreat, Nic lunged forward.

His serpentine form slithered across the ground like a crooked arrow, moving left and right to catch the remaining foes and swat them away. In moments he was on top of the heart, and his six arms crashed down.

Four hands gripped the edge of the wound, and the fifth drove the flaming sword in, cutting it wider. His sixth and final hand shot deep and seized something that squirmed and struggled within his palm-

But it was too late.

Nic ripped the Heart-Colony’s central stalk out, feeling the whole beast shudder and die as it lost its center.

With a final reluctant cry, the parasite-possessed bodies all around the glade fell over, twitching.

The humans took one long, slow look at the damage, and then began to cheer. It was over. They hugged each other and exchanged the usual mix of stupid grins, laughs, high fives, jokes…

They hadn’t lost anyone.

Clutched in Nic’s hand was a cluster of long, thin stalks of grass the clouded transparency of crystal, with small flowers growing amidst them. All of the grass connected to a single lumpy mass of shriveled, hairy roots, which resembled an old man’s bearded face.

Luminarch Eldergrass. E-Class // Medicine. Born when many creatures who have fed and become addicted to luminarch blossoms form a heart-colony, this grass contains traces of their memories. A minor treasure for grasping Concepts, it can be refined further into a spiritual pill.

Nic stuffed it down into his bag and rejoined the others, shrinking back into his axolotl-shape.

“You!” Nadine was grinning from ear to ear, although she still stood awkwardly on the leg he’d tripped. “You won’t believe how fucked I thought I was… First that bear comes out of nowhere, and then a six-armed snakey-thing? I didn’t realize that was you! I thought the two of you were fighting over who got to eat me…”

She wiped the sweat from her grinning, mud-smudged face.

“But I was pretty sick saving Conrad’s life, right?” She nodded her head over to the shieldsman who’d fallen to the two wolves- the battle’s worst injury.

Nic just smiled as Inkspur settled onto his shoulder. “You did good. Better than I expected.”

If anything, he’d made the mistake. The moment the battle had begun, he’d burst forward and tried to kill the enemy, leaving his weaker comrades exposed behind him. It was instinct- but his instinct had been forged fighting alone.

If he’d held back from the start, it might have been a slower battle, but they would have won without him spending so much of his Warform’s energy.

“You know how to handle a blade.” He acknowledged, carefully.

“Junior fencing champion, for all the good I imagined it doing me…” She countered, with a fierce smile.

“Actually, I’ve got a job for you.”

It took some time to steal a Node if the owner wasn’t already dead. If somebody tried to take one of the three Nodes surrounding Winterhome, a beacon would go up, and they’d have time to intercede.

But if this Node was far from Winterhome, and would be even further away from their group by the time they reached the hunting grounds. A hungry beast could very well steal it before anyone made it back.

Which meant someone needed to stay back- and with the hunters as weak as they were, their squad needed to stay with them as guards.

“Nadine, I’m giving you this Node to guard. Don’t fuck up. It’s probably got some crazy benefit for you to claim, so, enjoy.”

She blinked. “I’m not going to the hunt?”

“Your best defender is too wounded to continue.” Nic shook his head. “You did good, but you still lost.”

Aggravation and anger flickered across her face, before she sighed, pushing the palm of her hand across her lips and nose as if she was physically wiping the expression away. “Alright, alright, you got me…”

The core of the Node was a deep pit in the basin’s center, below where the Heart-Colony had rooted itself. Nadine climbed down, and Nic dropped after her.

As he landed, the saber-woman was staring in wonder. The walls were covered by fiery scars which bled thin vapors of orange sparks into the air. Those sparks swirled and danced like a thousand fireflies, surrounding floating weapons that drifted above the thin layer of mirror-still liquid that lay at the bottom of the chamber.

Each weapon was beautiful - and blazing hot, as if they had just been forged. They glowed malevolent shades of orange and red.

You have discovered Dominus Node ae31b9

‘The Hidden Valleyforge’

200 Essence awarded.

This is a Fortune Type node. Unique treasures and opportunities will occur here, gathering over time.

Current Ruler - None

Nic made a blubbing sound that was as close as his body could get to a whistle. “Hurry up and claim it. I’ve got a bet what it does…”

Nodding, Nadine lifted her hand and awkward said… “I claim you?”

It was enough. The intent was there.

A single resonation rolled through the air, and the swords began to radiate a dull light. Nadine lifted her hand and one of them, a long saber with a two-handed hilt like a shortspear, actually shifted to face her.

“I think…” She tilted her head to one side. “I think I can kind of, pull on them? But they pull back…”

“Probably some kind of test before you can claim the weapons. Uh, probably don’t go and, y’know, try to just grab them with your hands.” The heat radiating off the half-forged weapons was no joke or illusion. The chamber was an oven, slowly roasting in the residual flame within the blades.

Nadine slowly nodded.

She lifted a hand and closed her eyes, the skin between her brows furrowing up as she knelt to concentrate. The saber began to shiver faintly in the air, twisting as if pulled in two directions. It shifted back and forth unsteadily until-

Nadine’s eyes flashed open and she gasped, breaking the silence, panting hard. The sword went still.

“Holy fuck that’s hard. Like uh, like how you do the cultivation, but heavy…”

“Then it’s good practice.” Nic said cheerily, already starting to climb back up. This was a good Node. His people needed weapons, and they needed to practice their cultivation. Two birds with one stone was a fair prize, and as for him, he had the eldergrass tucked away.

It was time to move.

---

The excitement was high, after their first battle. Nic listened to his fledgling warriors chirp like happy birds, recounting moments of the fight or boasting of what they’d do next time. He was impressed. They weren’t instinctive fighters - but they were already cohering into groups.

As they walked he slipped among them, giving advice. Elisa, the mechanic who fought with scrap-spiders, needed to focus more on attaching to the enemies. She was too afraid of risking her golems by having them latch on and dig in…

This one fought with flowers that built up energy into explosive charges. He needed to put them behind his enemies, not in front, so his friends could force them back into the killing field he’d created. Otherwise, the enemy would just move around.

This one was just gunshy. They needed encouragement…

“Nicolas?”

“Yeah, Sofia?” He responded lazily.

“I just thought I’d say you’re doing well. In truth, I worried a little bit. Great warriors don’t always make good leaders…”

Nic turned his head. Perched on a nearby tree trunk were dozens of butterflies with wings patterned like the orange-white of a tiger’s face and the yellow of its eyes.

To his left, the vines grew up into a wall of green covered by leaves that resembled reaching hands. Many of the three-fingered hands held small, bright-red berries, as if offering poisoned candy.

“I like this world…” Nic admitted.

“I should do a good job taking care of it.”