Roxanna quested with each footstep, probing with her toes before setting the ball of her foot, lightly at first, testing for noise before shifting her weight forward and rolling her foot down along the outside edge.

Ramal led, Dnoeth behind him, and Roxy was in the back. Ramal was twice the size of either of them, yet he was silent as a mouse despite this. In front of Roxy, Dnoeth was also approaching each step with intense care. They were both trying to emulate Ramal’s instructions on stalking silently and for good reason. Their leader moved through the woods as if he was born to it.

Ramal had acquired the subskill Cartographic Scouting within minutes of entering the forest. It was an evolution of his Absolute Awarenessability and provided a mapping function and a 5% boost to his movement speed–Roxanna wanted that skill.

Realistically she was hoping for one like it, not the same skill because Cartographic Scouting relied upon the information Ramal gathered via Absolute Awareness. Still, she reasoned that some similar, less powerful version was probably achievable.

So, she was moving stealthily while attempting to maintain a mental map of where they’d traveled. Dnoeth was doing the same; he wanted the ability every bit as much as Roxy, perhaps more.

The cliff's top had presented a clear strip of land about 20 feet deep that seemed to run its entire length. To their delight, not far from the spot where they crested had been an expansive briar patch of blackberries and raspberries of which they’d eaten their fill.

There had also been another similar berry with the same pebbled appearance, but white with a curving banana shape. Dnoeth had volunteered to try one, and after checking the bushes, Ramal gave his approval. He showed them several spots, both down low and up high, where the berries had been eaten by wildlife, meaning both birds and small animals ate them. Just to be safe, and since there was an abundance of familiar berries, he’d only eaten the one and so far not suffered any ill effects.

The Forest reminded her of the old woods back home. The undergrowth was minimal, and there was a lot of deadwood covered by mosses in various states of decay. Many of the trees were familiar, if slightly different than the ones she knew. The canopy was primarily the dark green of oaks mixed with the lighter, more transparent shade of maple and the tear-shaped leaves of what she thought might be a type of poplar.

They stopped periodically to gather nuts when they came across them, and her pack was filling up. It was primarily chestnuts or something similar with the same spiked outer shell that they knocked off before stowing and a lesser number of oversized acorns. The acorns had a sweet, dry taste, unlike the bitter acorns back on Earth.

They’d also come across what looked like a walnut tree, which had been exciting until Ramal said the nuts were most likely not good for eating. He pointed out that, unlike the berries, none of them had been shelled and eaten by the native woodland rodents. So, those they left.

Roxanna set her foot where Dnoeth’s had just been, rolled it down silently–Ramal froze before her. “tisss!” he exhaled, sharp between teeth with an upheld fist.

She stiffened and scanned the surrounding forest, crouching with batons at the ready. He pointed left and, per their plan, swapped places with Dnoeth placing himself in the middle.

“Five creatures, midsized, wolflike, and headed right at us,” he said in a breathy whisper. “Remember, defend first, swing for joints and heads, and stay on your feet at all costs.”

Roxy was shocked by the level of detail Ramal was able to gather with his skill. She couldn’t sense anything from the wood before them. She silently dedicated herself to redoubling her efforts at gaining something like it.

She and Dnoeth nodded in acknowledgment. Ramal tensed, then gave up the pretense of stealth. “Here they come!”

Suddenly, a riot of snapping and crunching erupted from the wood before them, and a heartbeat later, five black and grey, horned creatures cleared a downed log in a dead sprint.

“Fucking hell,” Dnoeth muttered.

The horns were grey, a foot long, and curved from the sides of broad bulldog-like heads to point forward. They were angled like the prow of a ship while the animals ran with their heads up. Roxanna imagined the horns would present much more threateningly when they were lowered.

The center beast was larger, darker, and its horns were more white than grey. That’s got to be the pack leader, she thought as her senses flared to life. She concentrated on the left two–they, in turn, focused on Roxanna.

As they closed, she jabbed a foot forward, feigning attack and causing both animals to react ever so slightly. They’re not mindless beasts.

The wolves recovered instantly as she rocked back into a defensive fighting stance. She’d only just learned how to fight with the batons, but the fighting stance felt familiar almost immediately.

The leader closed faster than the others, and several yards out, it leaped at Ramal with head down, horn points leading, like a snarling missile. She couldn’t spare any attention to watch, but a loud crack and a yelp told her that Ramal won the first clash. Then the two she had to contend with arrived.

Roxy darted toward the outer beast, hoping to intimidate it and deal with the other one first. It worked, and the wolf pulled up as the other continued to close toward her seemingly unguarded right flank.

At the last second, spinning and throwing her body to the left, she snapped both batons down, aiming for its head. Her spin was a split second late, and a horn caught the underside of her right arm, slicing it open. Still, her strikes landed hard, just behind where she was aiming, on its neck and shoulders. The pain in her arm was hot but dull, and Roxy easily ignored it.

The animal sailed by, and she thrilled as it howled in pain and crashed down, rear legs seemingly unresponsive. I broke its back. She realized.

Her focus whipped back to the second beast just as it bore down on her with its mouth wide open. She tensed for impact with no time to dodge, blocking with the left baton held horizontal and braced with the right one behind as Ramal had instructed.

She barely got them up in time, thrusting forward. Her blocking baton went right to the back of its open jaws at chest height. The horns, angled up, closed on her face, and Roxy threw her head back to avoid being speared. Then its weight slammed into her chest, and she was in the air.

They landed hard on top of the first wolf to the sound of a pained cry. Its strength and weight surged, attempting to force through her block to impale.

Roxy flung her arms right and head left, and her lightning-fast reaction saved her life, but a horn still sliced through the outside of her shoulder.

The wolf’s powerful attack, having mostly missed her, slammed into the crippled animal on which she was pinned. Both horns drove deep into the shoulder and neck of the lamed beast, and it released a wet, fearful cry.

Her batons were twisted close to parallel and wedged awkwardly in the beast’s mouth, losing thier leverage to fend it off again. Her right arm, cut twice now, was bleeding everywhere.

Roxy couldn’t fend the beast off for long in this position and she felt panic begin to well up. It snarled and ripped its horns free, jerking her arms and battons back at the same time. Its head flailed, horns slicing before her face, as the beast attempted to tear them out of her hands.

Desperation allowed her to hold onto her weapons, but only barely. Without those, she was a good as dead.

The animal had position now, she had to act. God, I hope this works.

Roxanna wrenched her upper body further left, sliding her torso off the wounded wolf and clearing just enough space to shift the angle of her batons, pointing their ends into the beast’s mouth instead of skewed.

She extended her energy, mentally screaming for the stone to reform into spikes. The essence in the rock responded instantly and sharp points lanced through soft organic matter.

They struck bone driving her upper back and head into the forest floor. Braced against the ground, the spikes blasted through skull-bone. Dull, wet pops sounded as one point erupted from the back of its head and the other from its ear. Fur, blood, bone, and brains sprayed out as the beast spasmed then collapsed atop her lower body and its companion.

An angry, wet snarl came from her right. It was the first beast. How isn't it dead?!

Somehow the crippled animal was still alive and still trying to kill her. Blood ran from its mouth and coated its front legs as the grisly thing scrambled and twisted to get closer, lashing its horns within inches of her face.

Roxy was pinned, had no leverage, and her batons were stuck in the other’s skull. The bloody crippled bastard scratched closer, gaining position enough to kill a defenseless and prone Roxy. She flexed her core and lifted her head, attempting a sit-up against the several hundred-pound dead animal draped over her mid-section.

She barely avoided a lethal horn slash, and again her right arm paid the price as grey horn stabbed up through the back of her shoulder and thunked into bone.

Roxanna screamed, more from the horror of the sound than from actual pain. She instinctively tried to bend herself away and pull her body off the horn. The wolf wasn’t waiting though, and she was still well skewered when the beast violently flipped its head upward.

The point tore out through her shoulder and jerked Roxy closer as she fell back. A horn caught her on the way down, ripping a gouge up the side of her neck and along the back of her head behind her ear. Roxy twisted toward the thing, attempting to the grab the horns.

A swiftly moving form appeared above her and the snarling beast. The form swung, and there was a hollow thwack. The creature went still.

Moments later, the form pulled the creature from her lower body, and then Ramal was there, lifting her to a sitting position and leaning her against the wolf carcass. He ripped a strip of fabric from the bottom hem of his shirt and pushed gently with a large hand on the right side of her upper back. “Lean forward; let me get a look at that.”

She bent forward, reflexively reaching to the wound. Ramal caught her hand and pushed it back. “Not yet.” Then he pulled her hair back, shifted her shirt aside, and lifted her arm, inspecting each wound in turn. “You hurt anywhere else?”

“No.”

“Good.” He ripped the hole in her shirt wider, enlarging it enough to press the makeshift bandage to the back of her shoulder. “Here. Keep pressure on this.” Roxy reached across and did as he said. “Your wounds are already clotting, but this puncture is the worst, and this can only help it heal faster.”

As the adrenaline surge faded, her wounds began to burn with a white-hot fire. The shift was fast, causing Roxy to suck a breath and grimace. “Arghh. Fuck, this hurts.”

Ramal squatted before her; other than the torn-off strip of shirt, he looked unharmed. “Jesus Ramal, did you even get touched?”

He turned to the side, displaying a rip and minor cut along his ribs that was already healing. “Just this,” he said. “This isn’t my first rodeo. Never mind that–we lost Dnoeth, and I can’t protect us both from another attack like that. We need to get out of these woods and down to that road so we can meet back up with him. I’m guessing he’ll respawn at the same spot he entered the game.”

Roxanna’s head spun slightly at the news of Dnoeth’s death. All of her senses said she was really in Kuora; this wasn’t a game, not really. This was real–it all felt so real. She knew it wasn't, but what her head understood conflicted with what her body knew.

Considering death and rebirth, or respawning, while her mind and body quarreled… it was a bit disorienting. Roxy decided not to dwell. “Ahh, right. I suppose that makes sense. Okay.” She made to stand, but Ramal put a hand on her uninjured shoulder, keeping her from rising.

“Not yet. There’s something right over there that feels wrong.” He pointed in the direction they'd been moving. “I need to get a look at it. You wait here, keep quiet, and heal up. I should be back in less than five minutes.”

“Wait,” she said as he stood. “Shouldn’t we just go? I can move now.”

He shook his head. “No, I need put eyes on this. Our boy Darkfyre is in that direction, and whatever I’m sensing is massive. We need to know what it is.”

He met her with a level gaze, and Roxy nodded, “Okay. That makes sense.”

Ramal nodded, and smirking, he set two bloody batons in her lap; they’d returned to their original shape. “You’ll be fine. If you get attacked, just do what you did to that one.” His head tilted slightly, indicating the cast-off wolf beast. “Not much in these woods does well with a blown-out skull or twelve inches of rock through the ear.”

Roxy snorted a chuckle, then grimaced as pain flared from the movement. “Just hurry back.”

“I will,” he replied. Then Ramal took off through the woods.

Roxanna tracked the sound of his receding for a mere handful of heartbeats until she was alone in the silence of the woods. “Well, this isn’t creepy at all.” She whispered to herself, turning as far as she could without pain to peer about. Then Roxy noticed the system notification. She pulled it up and smiled. Level up, baby.

Ramal stepped out to stand in dry knee-high grass with the dense ancient forest behind him. Before him, the grass faded into a wasteland. The foreground was dotted with the random rotting remains of particularly stubborn long-dead trees. Beyond that, less than a quarter-mile distant, started the snow; not far beyond were huge white powder drifts. But none of that was what held his attention.

At first, he’d thought it a mirage or a massive dead tree with its base covered by snow. But a couple steps to the side allowed him to see the truth. Everything moved relative to the thumb-thick, midnight-black line. It was a structure.

Slowly, Ramal realized the base was obscured by the curvature of the planet, and still, the thing appeared to poke outer space. Its tip was undefined, seemingly swallowed up by a shimmering that Ramal figured might be the ionosphere. How high is that? 100,000 feet? More?

For several breaths he stood there, shocked to silence.

“Fuck.” Ramal turned from the sight and began running. He needed to get back to Roxanna and then go get Dnoeth. This tundra was a serious problem. Somewhere beneath that frozen hell was their guy, this E. Darkfyre. How the hell were they going to get to him?