“Rain! RAIN! Wake UP!” Kim shouted at me.

My eyes snapped open, and I shoved hard into the ground, pushing myself to my feet, staggering forward and reaching forward to the mount on the wall where I hung my saber — then I remembered I was at a lake.

I stumbled back, reaching through a pile of belongings for the knife.

“What?” I asked, eyes searching around us.

Silhouettes approached from the edge of the forest. The popping noise of a chain breaking came from behind me. Dozens of fox kin leered at us from the forest's edge, surrounding us and penning us in from every direction. The one that got away must have gathered the others, and they joined to fight us all at once. They didn’t look happy with us.

“Well, shit.” I said, licking my lips. “If we wait for them to come closer, we will have to fight them all at once. If we charge them, we can fight a smaller number of them at once. Defeat in detail.”

I looked at Kim. She nodded, holding her spear.

I charged the line circling us, heading straight forward. The ground was jagged and uneven, my footing unsure, but I still charged forward. The foxes took a second to respond, pausing at the surprising move. They still reacted fast enough for the first to block my knife. Enhanced with Qi and with my strength in the Fourth Realm, I batted the weapon out of the way.

Then I punched it in the neck.

The fox dropped the weapon, crumpling backwards and grabbing at its throat with a hiss. My Qi came to life, light and power and heat flowing through each of my limbs, even as half a dozen monsters charged me from every side.

This was a shitty way to wake up. Almost as shitty as an assassination attempt.

I spun, whipping out with a kick that knocked 1 monster backwards into 2 more before slashing to my right.

I was faster than they could guard against. Stronger than they could block. I carved through them like a knife through butter, the advancement in my cultivation changing each fight from a gruelling ordeal to a tiny obstacle to step over.

5 of them died to my hands in seconds. I turned to look at Kim. They had isolated away her from me, but she was holding her own fine. The monsters on the other side of the clearing were still rushing towards us, yet to clear the full distance.

A monster tackled me from behind, pushing me to the ground. Rock and gravel scraped against my face, the force pushing my mouth open. I spat out dirt as I pushed myself back up; the monster straddling my back.

Fox-kin attacked me from either side, sharp weapons landing like blunted blows to my arms and stomach. I controlled and focused my Qi, sending it down my meridians. With a twist of will, Qi sprung to life outside of my body, taking form in the shape of a crescent moon stretching from inside my palm.

A chain popped behind me.

I swiped out, catching a monster in the leg. A howl answered the wound, causing the surrounding monsters to pause for just a second. It was long enough for me to force myself to my feet and slam into the monster, carving open its stomach. It fell backwards, away from me. I stumbled forward. A monster had slammed into my back, but I remained standing. This time, I remained standing.

Dull aches came from bruises all over my body, but I had no time to focus on them. I manifested the technique in my other palm, a blade of silver light forming attached to my body. I swung out.

The monsters from the other side of the clearing had caught up, surrounding me. Every swipe cleaved through flesh, so the monsters stepped back instead of standing in my range, poking forward with their weapons. I spent several seconds simply fending off other blows.

I did not know where my knife went. Likely dropped as they forced me to the ground.

A dozen times I blocked an attack, 6 or more enemies surrounding me.

Then one hit me.

I staggered backwards, gasping as a sword cut a gash through my chest. Blood poured from the wound. Scrapes and rapidly forming bruises covered my entire body, though my new physique meant that most of them weren’t even bleeding. The cut to my chest was different.

The fox in front of me had silver fur, nearly glowing in the light. He held his sword full of poison and confidence, light glowing out of his eyes and arms glowing with silver Qi.

I felt my arms shoved behind my back as they forced me to the ground. The monster sheathed its sword.

A chain popped to my left.

He reached down, putting his hands on the side of my head. I got ready to push forward with everything I had and headbutt him. I could form more blades, cut away the arms holding me —

Something splashed in the water.

Then there was a noise.

It would be a misnomer to call it a roar — it was so full of sound and power that the water in the lake exploded outward like a bomb had gone off. I heard nothing. Instead, I felt the raw force vibrate through my body, like a plane flying feet above me. A wall of water slammed into us from the side. The ground buzzed, rocks bouncing off the earth, and the monsters stopped moving.

The monsters looked at the lake.

The silver fox in front of me released his grip, stepping backwards, putting a hand on his sword as water rained down around us.

A gigantic hand reached out from the bottom, pulling its body up. Chains still clung to its body, presumably dampening its power. Segments of ivory white exoskeleton covered its flesh like armor, separating at the joints to reveal leathery black flesh. Its fingers ended in white claws that surrounded the tip, carving out the ground in a slow motion as it hefted its head above the lake’s edge. Water flowed over the rocks and ground, mixing with the blood of dead monsters to paint trails of red over the shore of white sand and stone.

Staggering out of the lake, it must have stood over 10 feet tall. Its fingers dug into the mask covering its face, silver eyes searching the crowd of monsters and dilating into slits. Finally, it dug its nails under the mask and between its face. It pushed, forcing most of the mask to crack to pieces, falling to the ground.

Half of the foxes ran as the mask fell away. The monster bled from black flesh on its face where anchors hooked the mask into its flesh.

Its jaw unhinged, stretching monstrously wide to display multiple rows of white teeth, and as easy as reaching out and picking an apple, it stepped forward and plucked the silver fox off the ground. I watched, nearly in slow motion, as it simply crunched down, biting the fox in half and swallowing the piece whole.

The fox men screamed or grunted, half of them running and half of them charging the monster to wail on it ineffectually, unable to even scratch the ivory white shell.

Its face was almost human, save for the unhinged jaw and the disproportionately large, bulging eyes of silver. The mask clung to the top of its face, having only freed its mouth to eat, and it treated the monsters like a buffet.

“Get up!” Kim slapped my shoulder as she ran by me.

I turned and ran.

The monster didn’t chase, satisfying itself with the few who remained to fight it. We ran to the forest’s edge, stopping and turning and panting.

“Potions?” Kim asked, not looking away from the monster.

It was looking back at us now, having left the area around the lake a bloody mess.

Dismissing the blades of Qi at my arms, I reached into my pocket and pulled two free, handing one to Kim and keeping the other to myself. There was one more left, sitting in my pocket. I felt the itch as my wounds knitted themselves together.

I finally got a good chance to look down at myself. My clothes clung to my skin, absent the holes carved open through my shirt and pants. Most impacts hadn’t left more than bruises and shallow cuts, often unable to break skin. The hits still hurt. Cuts and bruises decorated Kim just as much.

“Lose any fingers?” I asked.

“Not yet.”

We both stared forward at the monster. It observed us for a moment more. Then it turned away, walking back towards the lake.

Chains still hung from its body, wrapped around it and dragging behind. They rattled, but not with the sound of metal. The chains made the sound of glass bells hitting one another. It lifted its arms and pressed on the air itself. Its hands shone with silver light — and something else. Mixed in with the glow was a moving shadow, nearly invisible in the permanent night time of this plane.

The tips of the monsters finger’s disappeared, and then with a tearing noise, it ripped open a hole in reality.