Joa burned the wet blood off of his fur and swung from tree to tree in the direction of the next fight.

Their defenses had been tested time and time again by the newly minted poachers and were slowly mounting in pressure. At first it was the remains of the old guard, poachers who were hoping to snatch one last quick buck before the professionals moved in. They were quickly dispatched – none even had Mages among them – but not long after the real battles began.

They were made up of small squads, oftentimes smaller even than the groups of poachers that would venture into the Forest, but far better trained. Their armor was of a higher quality, their Mages more powerful, their weapons sharper, their tactics smarter. More and more surprise tactics weren’t enough, and the Beasts had to rely almost purely upon the gap between their Awakened abilities and the powers of the Mages. In a contest of fire, for example, there wasn’t a Mage alive who could contest Joa’s raw power and control. He was far from the norm, but most of the Mages weren’t beacons of power either. They were, however, numerous.

Now, they were increasing the pressure. More foot soldiers, more Mages, tactics adapted to the tricks the Beasts had been using for centuries, and more. Every time they fought, they risked losing a Beast – not just their life, but they could be captured as well, perhaps an even worse fate. But the pressure was growing to be too much. They had no choice but to send either more Beasts, or more powerful ones. Joa didn’t like either option.

He finally arrived at the new battlefield and surveyed the scene. Two baboons faced off against a dozen humans, four of which were Mages. Multiple bodies littered the surrounding area, some pinned to trees with metal spears, others laying with glazed eyes and foam running from their mouths.

One was lithe and long limbed, more similar to Portho in build than most, with green and tan skin; no fur. He slithered around the surrounding foliage, dodging crossbow bolts and attacks from the Mages alike. Surrounding his head was a halo of sickly green locusts, and hundreds of them flowed behind him like a cape. He dashed behind a tree and raised an arm at a red-sashed Mage, and dozens of locusts followed the gesture. The Mage grinned and raised his hands, wrists touching and palms outward, and let loose a blast of fire at the incoming swarm.

Joa resisted the urge to disperse the fire. He knew Rhej’s locusts well: they would not be deterred so easily.

The Mage didn’t know that, of course, so it was a surprise to him when the still smoking locusts burst through the wall of fire and immediately dug themselves into his skin. The poison they carried felt like extremely small bursts of frostbite in the affected areas. Paired with the burning hot temperature they now carried; the screams of the Mage showed their effectiveness. Within seconds, he dropped to the ground in spasms, foam running from his mouth as the venom finally took its toll.

The other baboon was shorter and stockier, a build of compressed strength as opposed to speed. Still, he maneuvered the area with impressive finesse. He had no fur visible, instead being covered in a thin layer of liquid metal. He pulled back his arm like he was going to throw something, and a sheet from his back shoulder coursed to follow. It hardened instantly into a spear, leaving his shoulder bare. He shot it forward with speed a crossbow couldn’t match, and another human was instantly pinned to a tree. After a moment, the liquid metal flowed back, completing the armor once more, and the body fell to the ground.

Joa stepped into view and the metal covered baboon turned to look at him. He straightened immediately and began to wave excitedly, just as a crossbow bolt shattered against the armor of his shoulder. He turned to the soldier who shot it and leapt forward, throwing punches that could crack stone. Maran claimed it still stung when he was hit fully armored, and always had a disproportionately upset response.

Joa rolled his eyes. Judging from what he saw, neither were taking this seriously. If they decided to, Rhej and Maran could have wiped this group out immediately. Instead, they were taking unnecessary risks, toying with their opponents. They would be reprimanded later.

He didn’t even both raising his hands, simply willing the air around the remaining humans to heat hundreds of degrees in a second. Instantly, ten of the remaining eleven poachers fell to the ground as charred corpses.

The final one staggered from the super-heated cloud. His clothing was burned nearly to nothing. Angry red burns covered his skin, his hair was mostly gone, and one eye was gummed shut from instantly dried blood. His red scarf, however, was largely untouched.

A Mage, then, and one disposed to fire. He must have held off the heat to an extent. Talented and powerful, for one so young, Joa thought.

He stood uncertainly, looking at the three apes. He raised his hands in defiance.

Rhej and Maran instantly retaliated, a stream of locusts and a sharpened metal spear the size of his torse instantly flying towards him. Joa raised one hand, and the attacks instantly stopped.

The young man looked to Joa with wide eyes, no doubt believing he was the one who stopped them. He wasn’t; his soldiers just followed their orders.

Joa looked at him and felt a pang of sympathy deep in his chest. He hadn’t thought anything would come from there, anymore. Not for humans in any case. He imagined the young man’s parents were proud of him; judging from how he held off Joa’s attack, he was talented. Extremely so, even. Joa hadn’t been pulling his punches with that one: he had done well. He felt the parents grief as they discovered the death of their child at Joa’s hands. But what made him sympathized most, however, were what he saw in the boy’s eyes.

He looked scared.

“Why do you do this?” Joa demanded. Rhej and Maran looked at him with confusion, but said nothing.

He knew what they were thinking: Why was Joa speaking to him?

Joa was thinking the same thing. He wasn’t sure why, but he blamed Iago. And Dannious.

The boy looked at him with evident surprise. “You can speak?” He shook his head and muttered, “No, of course you can’t. I must be imagining things.”

Joa cocked his head. He didn’t know they could speak? Odd. “You are imagining nothing, child. We can speak; we always have. What is your name?”

He looked around the surrounding Forest in panic. “Is this some kind of cruel joke? Is this The Guardian’s doing? Show yourself!” He shouted at the end, raising his hands in a combat stance.

A single locust landed on his head as the metal spear rested its tip beside his neck, weight on his shoulder. The boy froze, and slowly looked back to Joa.

“There is no joke. What is your name?”

“Monsters,” the boy muttered, his eyes darting between the three apes before him, “You’re all monsters.”

Joa looked back at him, and the sympathy burned up, leaving the same low ember of rage he always felt.

He waved one palm, and the attacks retreated. Locusts returned to Rhej’s halo, and the metal soon covered Maran’s body again.

“You believe you are powerful?”

Joa tapped his chest in the universal symbol of “Go ahead.”

The boy looked to the two baboons at his side, but they made no hostile movements. He cautiously raised his hands together and began gathering orange-red energy. Waves of heat washed over them all, and even his two soldiers glanced at him with various degrees of apprehension. Mostly Rhej; Maran felt invincible in his armor.

“Your hubris will be your downfall,” the boy shouted, “Die, Beast!”

A beam of fire the thickness of a tree trunk blasted towards Joa. He stood calmy in its path, arms at his sides, entirely unconcerned.

A foot away from his body, the beam curved off, spinning in an invisible vortex around him. He kept the fire entirely contained, as soon as it entered his vicinity, even the heat it gave off was cut off.

The boy’s spell ended, and he stared with undiluted horror. The fire wrapped around Joa’s body without harming him. Joa looked the boy in the eyes and knew the flames within were surging.

“You come into our home and attack us unprompted. You kill and capture our young, performing horrific experiments on us in the name of science, fueled only by your own greed, and you call us the monsters?” Joa released the barrier on the heat and directed it entirely towards the Mage. His eyes instantly began to water, and his hair was pushed back as if by a great wind.

“I never even learned your name, and for that I am glad. You are nothing.”

The vortex of fire ebbed and shifted in color, until it was a blinding iridescent white, and the heat doubled.

He released it at the boy and walked away. Rhej and Maran followed.

Behind them, the beam of fire carved through the boy’s chest with no resistance, killing him instantly.

It kept going.

Miles away, within the encampment of humans, a pair of workers from the Transport Guild were carrying crates when a deafening explosion shook the ground beneath them. One looked up instantly, but saw no signs of a detonation.

“The hell was that?” Chris asked, nearly dropping his crate.

“How much do you get paid, boy?” His partner Frank asked. The weathered employee hadn’t even missed a step as he continued with the delivery.

“I-“

“The correct answer,” Frank cut in, “Is not enough to ask questions. Keep moving. It was probably just the Alchemist’s Guild again.

Chris reddened, lifted his crate, and quickly jogged to catch up to his partner.

A short distance away, a severe looking Mage in immaculate robes was looking up at the sky with a slight frown on his face.