"The owners of this area refuse to bow to the power of your group."

"…That's not good." My spell failed, and I pulled my hand off the mark I was repairing. "Coatli! We've got a big one!" The draconians surrounding me tensed, and Yse leaped up on my shoulder.

We'd been prepared for this to happen, but this was my first time actually hearing the message. We had been using the strength of our party to basically overwhelm the surrounding monsters. As long as our cumulative power was high enough, the system did some sort of strength comparison in the background and I could mark the area by default, without having to clear out every monster nearby.

However, I also knew that at some point, we were going to run into a monster who wouldn't be so easily bypassed.

"How big is this area?" Yse asked.

"Big enough," Coatli replied. "We could leave it if we had to, but claiming more territory⁠—"

Something in the jungle screamed, sharp, angry, and shrill. My guards stances shifted from fight to flight, wings flicking out.

"Shit," Coatli mumbled. "It's the Cloud Jaguar. We're heading back! Ed, take the lead! Yse, you're on point, we'll guard the rear. Go!"

I rose and spun, dashing into the jungle at his words. Yse disappeared into the gloom before me, and the draconians took to the wing behind.

"What is a Cloud Jaguar?" I asked Yse, trying to control my breathing as I dodged rocks, trees, and dangerous plants.

"They're a medium-sized hunting cat, with a uniquely patterned pelt. But he said 'the' Cloud Jaguar, so this one is probably at least a named monster, if not Behemoth."

"Wasn't Coatli the Behemoth on this island? Has a new one arisen so soon?" I leaped off a crag, using my new Acrobatics skill to flip over a fuchsia pool of bubbling liquid.

"This island isn't large, but it's absolutely packed full of monsters." Yse tagged one tree with her web, then zipped ahead to attached the other end on the opposite side of a small gully. I ran across it for a few steps, easily clearing the gap. "It's entirely possible there were three or four Behemoths in different parts of the island."

"Good grief." I threw myself low, sliding under a low-hanging branch, bouncing to my feet on the other side. "I mean, I knew this was a monster paradise, but the whole island can't be more than⁠—"

And then, something hit me from behind.

My pistol was in my hand, firing blindly backwards into the thing before I even knew it. Reflexive Dueling had saved my life so many times. But streaks of icy pain sliced through my shoulders as tumbled through the air, and panic hit me hard as I realized this time it might not be⁠—

My face slammed into the dirt, and everything went black.

Returning to consciousness was, surprisingly, pain-free.

Instead of a gradual rise through confused thoughts, like I was used to, everything returned to clarity with a swirl and a snap. It was like being pushed backwards through a straw.

"Ooof." I bounced off a tree and fell on my back. Wait, hadn't been face-down a moment ago…?

"Ed!" Yse landed on my chest, peering closely at me.

"AAAAAH!" I slapped her away and sprang to my feet, only realizing a moment later what I'd done.

"Rude," she called, as she flew off into the underbrush.

"Don't jump on me!" I shouted after her.

"Sorry, sorry." She reappeared a moment later, zipping to the trunk of a nearby tree. "Really, you should do something about that phobia."

"I am." I pointed a finger at her. "I already let you ride on my shoulder. I don't mind if you're nearby, but…" I paused, and looked around. "What happened here?"

The trees near me were covered in gashes. The ground was gouged, rocks were overturned, and the undergrowth was shredded.

"Yse, has he revived?" Coatli called.

"Oh, did I…?" I stopped and examined myself. Sure enough, I was back in my original body. "Lost my avatar, huh?"

"Yeah, the jaguar did a number on you." Yse made a gesture, and my Heart appeared in her grasp. "Here, I grabbed this for you."

"Oh, thanks." I accepted the gem, tucking it back into my pocket. "Hey, did you guys kill it?" I called.

"Took a bit, but we got it!" Coatli appeared from the trees. "Come see!" He waved me over.

I weaved through the jungle after him, soon stepping out into a small clearing. The shade of the canopy was broken here, and the brilliant tropical sun streamed down onto a half-skinned monster.

"This is what hit me?" I stepped forwards, inspecting it curiously. It was huge. "I'm surprised it didn't snap my spine." I paused. "At least, I don't think it did."

"Plants don't have spines." Coatli slapped me on the shoulder, and I staggered into the sun. "Told you that avatar was a good pick."

"Yeah."

I looked over the work. One of the draconians was carefully removing nine-inch claws from paws as large as my head. Another had cracked the skull and was searching for the core. Two more were peeling back the pelt, cutting it free with shards of razor-sharp obsidian.

"Hey, are they alright?" I nodded to the last two, who were sitting in the shade, propped up against trees. One of them was wearing bloody bandages, and the other was cradling her arm.

"They'll recover." He grimaced. "Orin got clawed pretty good when we pulled back, and Larkin fractured her wrist when she was forced to block a swipe. I'd like to give them a week off, to be honest, but what with our deadline coming up…"

"Yeah." I frowned. This was the fourth day since we'd been given the ultimatum. If Nepenthe considered sundown the start of a new day, we might be under attack in just over forty-eight hours. "At least we're almost done with the marks."

"Mhm." Coatli nodded back. "After we've finished here, I think we should head back and try marking that one again. If this thing⁠—" he kicked the corpse "⁠—was what stopped us before, we might be able to complete it and head back to the Sanctuary that way. It would be a lot shorter hike, and if we don't have to trek back out here tomorrow, it'll make things easier."

"Sure." I nodded.

I looked down at the Clouded Jaguar, and shivered despite the heat.

"No lookouts?"

Coatli glanced at me, and shook his head. "We took out the local big-shot. They'll stay away for a bit."

"This thing… it basically killed me."

He nodded.

I crossed my arms. "Is this part of my life now?"

"Scared?"

"It's not a fun thought."

"Hit your limit?"

"Just… tempering my expectations, I guess."

"Recklessness suits you more."

"I like to think I'm as wary as I need to be."

"Well…" He looked up, gazing into the distance. "Power and danger walk side-by-side."

I remembered the feel of those claws in my back.

"But," he turned to me, "you survived, right?"

"I guess." I shook my head.

The jungle seemed darker, looming around our patch of sun.

"Are there ruins here?"

When we returned to the mark, we took a different path than we'd followed the first time. Looking around, I realized there were rough shapes poking through the underbrush, rough pillars of stone that stood at similar heights.

"Yes." Yse was riding on my shoulder. "I investigated them in the past, but I couldn't learn much. They're obviously more weathered now, but I'm fairly sure these seemed to be the foundations of a small village. I think they raised wooden buildings on these cut rocks, although their reasons for that are unclear. Hmm, I wonder if the monolith is still here."

"What's that?"

"Let's go see. Hey, Coatli!" He looked back at her. "Go that way!" She waved her forelegs, pointing. He shrugged and turned.

After a minute or so, Yse led us to a chest-high stone pillar that looked basically identical to all the others around us. It was covered in greenery, but a bit of work cleared it easily.

"Oh…" I ran a hand over the stone. It was covered in dense clumps of symbols, obviously arcane. "This is pretty neat."

"Yeah, I just wish I knew what it did." Yse sounded petulant. "It's obviously magical, but neither Carmine or I could get it to react to any of our spells. And on top of that, I'm quite certain it wasn't cut to shape."

"Really?" I quirked an eyebrow at that. "Land Magic isn't impossible, but this?" I ran a finger across the glyphs.

"Well." Yse leaped onto the pillar. "I agree, it was obviously influenced by someone intelligent. But it's part of the underlying rock. And, no matter how we tried, we couldn't cut or chip it. So it either formed this way, or someone shaped it with some really esoteric techniques."

"Hmm." I concentrated for a moment. "Analyze."

"A skystone."

"Hoh." I rubbed my chin. "That's interesting. Analyze says it's a Skystone."

I walked around the pillar, inspecting the sigils. Sure enough, to the left of where I'd been looking, I found the key symbol, a pair of winged boots surrounded by a series of triangles and lines.

"What's a Skystone?" Coatli asked.

"We're not really sure." I frowned. "However, most people use them as a sort of… teleportation system. But I don't think this one is part of the network." I crossed my arms.

"If this is one…" Yse scampered up my sleeve, returning to my shoulder. "I don't suppose you know where they come from, either."

"Nope." I shrugged. "We know how to use them, but that's it. Best guess is that they're relics of a pre-human civilization."

"The draconians are a pre-human civilization," Coatli said. "Your people didn't start building cities until well after the World gained its Voice."

I spread my hands helplessly. "Look, I don't know how old they are. Humans started turning them up around Monster Zones in the distant past, so they're probably older than us. Someone apparently figured out how to use them, and linked them into a network. Now there's a whole business built around them, called the Skystrider Guild."

"And we can't use this one?" Yse asked.

"Hmm." I rubbed my chin, pondering. "I won't say we can't, but it won't be easy. We would, at the very least, need access to one somewhere else that's already been linked into the network. If we could get to one of those, I could probably hook this one up."

"Are you part of that guild?" Coatli asked.

"No, no." I shook my head. "But a good friend of mine was, and we liked to discuss, uh, theoretical security penetrations. If what he told me is true, I could probably get us hooked in." I ran my fingers over the sequence of triangles and lines, carefully memorizing them.

"That sounds like it would be worth looking into."

"Yeah." I nodded. "As long as we can survive this week."

"Your territory has expanded."

I lifted my hand off the now-glowing mark and summoned the Sanctuary door.

"By accumulating sufficient territory, you have now gained the ability to create a Proving Zone⁠—"

I stepped through, leading my wounded band.

"⁠—Sometimes known as a Dungeon."

I sighed in relief as the door closed behind us.

We'd made it to the starting line. Now we might actually stand a chance against Nepenthe.