SERA

Sera barely made it out of the door before something pounced on her. Her body twists instantly to dodge as she slams her fist down onto a thick layer of flesh. A growl can be heard as Sera distances herself and gets a good look at the creature in front of her.

Camouflaged Leopard

[ Monster ]

Sera watches as the feline retreats and, in front of her very eyes, fades away into the wooden surroundings. “Sera what happened?” Gray’s calls out.

“Stay back!” Sera roars as her eyes dart around, failing to catch a glimpse of the creature.

“How dare you talk to me that way-” He fails to finish his sentence as Sera dives forward and pushes him away, a claw raking through the ground where he once stood. She reacts immediately and sends another fist flying against it, this time hearing a more solid and sickening crunch from the impact. The beast yelps in pain and attempts to dash away but this time Sera leaves it no room to escape and advances with it. Her arm reaches around and grips its neck as she pushes it down, not giving it room to fight back. With another loud crunch its head is twisted and its body discarded. Sera stares down at it, slightly out of breath. She waits for a moment to see if anything happens, but the creature simply lies there. One thing to note is that the box no longer shows up above its head. Presumably because it’s dead. She turns to look at the gouged wood, the beasts claws having gone cleanly through reinforced wood that no blade can scratch. Her mouth twists a little at the thought. Getting hit might be a game ender.

“Hey! How dare you ignore me?” Sera hears Gray cry out as he scrambles back up, his momentary fear forgotten in his anger. “You nearly got me killed. Fuck! And you lot,” he says, turning around to the small group huddling behind him. He takes in a breath to say something, but then pauses as he looks them down. A glint flickers over his eyes. “Well, none of us know what’s happening. We’re all in this together. How about we stick together?” The three of them huddled together quickly shake their head up and down, their eyes filled with fear and confusion sending furtive glances back toward the classroom. Two humans and a Ferrakin, his signature small, white wings stuck to his back like a painted on sculpture.

“They’re dead, or soon to be,” Sera answers their unspoken question. “We need to move if we don’t want to follow them.” The three guys look at her angrily in response. Sera ignores them and the nonsense coming out of Gray’s mouth as she heads toward one of the walkway branches. Long and wide they act as connectors between the trees with many paths criss-crossing like a wide net. Seeing her move without him, a flash of annoyance crosses Gray’s eyes as he barks at the other three.

“We move,” he tells them as he hurries to catch up to Sera. Sera simply focuses on moving forward, piecing together as much as she can of what happened and what to expect. Everyone must have got a free skill like hers, however they function. Which means she needs to be wary of the others in the group. New creatures showed up too. She can probably tie that to the strange rift in the air she saw. A portal? Sera’s body suddenly jerks sideways as a claw appears out of thin air, slamming into the ground where she was. Her fist goes down and smashes into it. Hard. The beast has barely a moment to screech in pain before it’s silenced forever. Her hand dripping with blood Sera simply stands over the beast and looks down at it, waiting again. Once more time passes and nothing happens.

“What are you doing?!” Gray curses as he kicks the beast away, glaring at her. “Why are you just standing there. We need to move! Or did you forget?” Sera eyes him as Gray takes deep breaths to calm himself down. His face scrunches a little as he realises he’s acting irrationally. “Okay, I call the shots now. Sera. Keep moving up the front. You three stay behind me.” Gray tells them as he shoos Sera forward. She studies him for a moment as her thoughts turn over, making him slightly uneasy. With another glare he points up at his head and mouths bang.

Sera grunts and continues moving forward, soothing her agitated mind. She continues treading through the winding pathway in front of her. Her eyes catch a slight deformity in the environment and she instantly turns and slams into it with her body. The space distorts and another leopard appears in front of her. She slams her fist into it and kills it instantly. This time she only waits a few moments before moving on, again finding nothing. As they travel further down Sera notices vegetation and vines slowly growing and gathering along the edges of the pathways. Her eyes harden at the sight and she picks up the pace, no longer pausing after killing each leopard. At one point she notices something flow into her from one of the leopards she killed but she has no time to check on what happened.

Sera ignores the cries for her to slow down from the group behind her. “Speed up if you want to live,” she says, shutting them up. Their pace continues to pick up until Sera is almost racing across the walkway, only sparing the seconds needed to kill anything on the way. As she travels Sera notices that she is strangely not as tired as she would normally be. Shrugging the feeling off she simply continues to run, watching as the vegetation around her grows thicker and thicker as it creeps up onto the wood. Soon she spots the small opening she had sought. She races toward it as the vegetation grows thicker behind her, quickly coming up to overwhelm the entire pathway.

They make it with little time to spare as Sera dives onto the platform and turns around to face the incoming vegetation, while the others follow her lead. She readies herself to battle whatever comes but the vines and vegetation simply stop at the walkways edge, just before reaching them. Sera remains tense as she watches it. With each passing moment is grows thicker and thicker. Purple vines overwhelm the ground and eventually building upwards into the sky. Alongside it lay purple moss and mushrooms and other mixes of strange fungi. Soon the entire walkway disappears and the only thing to be seen is the dense vines and vegetation covering everywhere, including the sky.

Yet strangely enough, as Sera glances around the small circular platform she stands on, it seems unwilling to enter further. Relieving a small bit of her tension she glances around her surroundings and confirms she picked the right spot. In the middle of the platform stands a single decrepit building stuck in its middle. Surrounding the building is a small man-made moat filled with fresh water and a tiny garden full of all manners of fruit. Inside lay a few training weapons. Real metal, though blunted with age and use. It’s a space a small group can survive off for a time.

A burst of clapping breaks Sera from her thoughts. “Well done,” Gray says, his pompous smile a contrast to his clearly flustered and out of breath features. “Ah!” He says as he sees Sera’s mouth twist down. He points to his head again with a wide grin. “Let’s not get hasty now. Now why don’t you go check if there’s anything dangerous inside.” He says as he points towards the broken down building. She stares at him for a second before walking across the small moat and leaning her hand against the door. Leaning forward she lets her eyes close and her breath slow down. Her heart thumps in rhythm as he gathers that faint feeling she’s had since she was first blessed. It echoes out and paints the faintest of pictures inside the room, like a colorless oil painting.

After making sure it’s safe she pushes the door open and gestures the rest to come in behind her. Inside the building opens up to one large room. To the side lays a small area filled with a few assortments of weapons and training equipment. Not far off rests a few beds with an old fireplace and small kitchenware on the opposite side. The building’s stone architecture had crumbled in places from damage caused a long time ago, but the roots that had been shaped to grow around it remained steady. Oiled to be fire-proof, the house felt ugly and old but - ultimately - safe.

Sera turns to look at the mottley crew that enters behind her. Beside Gray who held his head high as some sort of grab at keeping his pride, the rest looked lost. Their anger had long been replaced by sadness and despair. Sera felt some pity that whatever this attack is, it had come at such a time. Two generations ago and the only thing she would have seen in their eyes is the desire to fight. But peace wears away the need for such desperation in adults, let alone children. A happiness in another situation. Now…Sera found it unlikely many survived.

“Rest up,” she says succinctly, pointing to the beds and then to the fruit outside. “And eat. Don’t think about anything else. Wait — what skill did you gain?” The group looks at her confused, leaving a sense of distaste in her mouth. She closes her eyes and says “think of the ark plate you saw at the beginning. When you see it focus on the skill. Tell. Me. What. It. Says.”

“I don’t have one-” the first of the lot pops up. Before he can go any further Sera grabs him roughly and slams him against the wall, her eyes piercing into his.

“Tell. Me.” She says, her voice growing calmer which seeks to only further his fear.

“Okay!” He cries out, his hands shivering as he screams out with shut eyes. “It says I consume less food to survive.”

“Useless,” Sera snorts. She lets go and turns around to face the others as he hits the ground. The group looks back at her wide-eyed. “Do I need to repeat myself?” she says.

“Mine says I can wield swords easily,” the second human quickly speaks.

The Ferrakin quickly follows suit. “I can tell whether something is alive or not by looking at it.” Sera perks up at his words, giving him a longer stare before moving onto Gray. He simply looks back at her and smirks.

“We both know I’m not going to tell you what I can do.” He says.

“Fine,” Sera returns, letting her gaze leave him. “We rest for now. Later I will test what I can do outside. You lot don’t leave if you want to live.” The group simply nods, Gray included.

“Of course,” he adds on, unable to keep silent. “Your job is to get me out of here. I’m too important to die in a shithole like this. Don’t forget.” He taps onto his head again with a sinister grin, taking great pleasure at the flicker of emotions that cross her face every time he mentions it. Sera draws in a ragged breath as she tries to keep her emotions under control. In the end she ignores him, making sure to stay some distance away from him. With some time to herself she does a check of her body.

Much like the rest of her kin, her body is covered in fur that thins along her limbs and thickens at certain central spots like her hands and stomach. Most of her people are born with brown fur. Sera was known to be rather exotic at birth with hers being tinged red. Melody can still recall the arguments back and forth on whether it is brown or red depending on how the sunlight shined on it. Before all that happened, and her people still cared for her like one does any child. Giving it a pat down Sera finds her fur has become matted and darkened with blood, but thankfully no injuries she can see beyond some scuffs and scratches. Another pat of her ears on the top of her head ensures they, too, are uninjured.

With a small sigh of relief Sera picks herself up and carefully washes the places where she is cut, cleaning the wound. As she does she brings up that odd ‘ark plate’ she had seen before and gives it another look.

Ark Plate Name Sera All-mother [ 0 ] Age 22 Race Eltera Essence 14 Gender Female Titles n/a Focus n/a Bloodline One-Tailed Fox Memory Cubes Ignite [ Bloodline ]

Two Plus Two Equals Five [ Trait ]

“The essence has grown,” she whispers, her mind returning to that moment something entered her body after killing a leopard. She looks over the box. “Me in a box,” Sera laughs. She remembers the message that came at the start, before the ground shook and the monsters came. She had a feeling of two things. What is happening is permanent. And it is happening everywhere. And those thoughts excited her. Sera could feel her lips desiring to drift upwards. She wanted to break out into a maniacal laugh, but forced herself to hold it in. Her dead end had just opened up into a myriad of paths. Gray still thought he held his chess piece. And he did. For now.

Leaving those thoughts aside she turns to look at the strange skill she had gained, mulling it over.

Two Plus Two Equals Five Ability Trait Familiarity 4 / 100 Rank Basic A certain probability to trick the law of equivalent exchange.

“A strange skill…” she murmurs to herself, deep in thought. She thinks back to how her body felt as she traveled. At times she would feel herself being drained of strength as she ran. At other times it felt like she had not run at all for a short while. Because of this Sera still felt full of strength when she should have been exhausted by now. Sera’s eyes widen as she realises, a shiver of glee flickering across her eyes. “Trick the laws of equivalent exchange. It seems those laws are very loosely defined. Now this is interesting. Oh this will be fun.”

With another brisk laugh Sera walks back inside, ignoring the weird looks the group gave her, and grabs one of the dulled swords laying in the training area. Without giving them a chance to speak she slams the sword against one of the roots traveling over the wall. It cracks against the root and shatters in two, leaving Sera with a very short, but sharp blade. Her body turns around and walks back out the door, leaving behind a few words. “Stay put no matter what you hear.” She doesn’t hear their replies as she exits.

She takes another glance around the platform but notices nothing new. Turning away from the vines and the pathway she walks to the platforms edge. To keep people safe any edge to the vast thickets of sprawling trees has its wood shaped upward like a towering city wall. This makes it so that a person can still see the sun, but is unable to look down and see how high they are. Anything but the sky is covered. That is, while the wall stands. Sera grips the sword she’s holding tightly and slams it into the wall as hard as she can. It slowly sinks in as she strains with all her strength, her muscles bulging in protest.

A wall that could normally defend against a drill finds itself slowly being cut into. One inch at a time until finally she makes it through its thick shell. Sera does the seem along four edges, creating a connected square in the wall. And with a kick the cut out piece of wood is pushed out of the wall and falls away, revealing what is behind. Sera finds it hard to remain stoic at the sight, gasping at what she is seeing. The father trees have always said to be tall, their trunk reaching upward like a child yearning for the sky. If anything was considered to be partway to the vast sky themselves it would be these massive sprawling trees.

And yet, as Sera finds herself looking over at the clouds in front of her, she realises it is no longer a myth. The father trees have, truly, made it to the vast sky. Their yearning is over. She, and everyone else in this place, is now a part of the grand sky. Sera swallows loudly as her eyes continue to stare at the scene. She looks upward at the sun, feeling it to be closer then she has ever felt before. She finds herself thinking. Even if they survive. Even if they defeat the strange creatures here.

How do they reach the ground?

Sera’s eyes tear up as she stares across the vast expanse. Her thoughts drift to better times, if but for a moment. “Raze…”