Chún set a fast pace straight back towards the Heaven and Earth Vine clearing. The Golden Crow was almost completely behind the Mountain now and, despite his recent cultivation improvements, he was not pleased by the idea of travelling through a forest at night when it was filled with Earth- or even Sky-ranked Essence Beasts.
Bounding off a couple of branches, he pushed himself faster. This particular trip had carried him much farther than he had travelled before, though in a different direction from the waterfall. Something was bothering him — an instinctive feeling of being watched.
He halted on the next large branch and mentally pushed a request to the Cloak to hide him, while he concentrated on drawing his Essence inward, away from anything that might be using Essence to track him. Already difficult to see in the falling dusk, the Cloak rippled and then shifted to match the appearance of the branch he was sitting in, visually hiding him.
Without his Essence sense extended he felt blind, though, so he thought about the mist the Cloak had become in the cave.
But subtle, he thought at the Cloak.
Within moments fine wisps of mist spread outward from the tree and Chún relaxed slightly as he felt everything they brushed against.
"Mountain? Am I imagining things?" he thought down the link to his locus.
"No sounds," the Mountain replied tersely.
Chún blinked and some of the undefinable tension eased as he realised the usual sounds of the forest — which at dusk were normally quite loud, with daytime creatures settling and nocturnal ones waking — were absent.
"That was what was making me uneasy," he pushed down the link. "What is going on?"
"I… am not sure," the Mountain replied after a moment.
"Nèige… what? You are literally the Mountain — how can you not know what is going on?" Chún hissed urgently into the link, his tension rising again.
"I can see what is happening — it simply does not make much sense," explained the locus. "Look."
The familiar Essence illusion map floated before Chún's eyes.
He studied it carefully — then did a double take.
The forest around him was filled with moving points of Essence.
"What are all those dots?" he asked, pointing at the scattering of pulsing motes converging from every direction.
"Essence Beasts. They all began travelling in your direction after the fight with the Lingzhi almost simultaneously. At first the movement was focused on the area where the fight occurred, but then it began to shift to follow your path of travel. They slowed somewhat when you asked the Cloak to conceal you, but they are clearly moving in a searching pattern as they close in."
"Why would all the Essence Beasts in the nearby forest suddenly take notice of me? I have been travelling through these woods for the past month and only encountered Essence Beasts when I practically tripped over them," the teen asked in puzzlement.
"Whatever the reason, they appear to be gathering in numbers. This is concerning…" the Mountain replied, sounding distant, as though part of its attention was elsewhere.
"These are not all evil Essence Beasts like the damned mushroom, right? Can you not request they disperse?" Chún asked worriedly.
"I am attempting to do so — but Essence Beasts are not under my control, especially the higher-level ones. I can only make strong requests. I am detecting at least one Sky-rank beast, possibly two… this is not good." The locus's mental voice sounded strained.
"I take it they are not listening?" Chún sighed.
"There are now enough Essence Beasts gathered in the immediate area to form what humans normally call a Beast Wave," the Mountain explained hurriedly. "In truth, a Beast Wave is more akin to a collective mind shared among the beasts within the group, especially if several high-level beasts are present. Higher-level beasts act like generals — the group begins to move like a single creature and attacks intelligently through coordination. The more beasts in the wave, the greater the intelligence and danger."
"A, a… what? Those wipe out Empires!" Chún stuttered, nearly falling from his branch in shock.
"This is only a small one," the Mountain reassured him. "I am persuading individual Essence Beasts outside its range of influence to leave the region, so it will not grow much larger — except for any beasts that become trapped inside the encirclement. Perhaps a low Mortal-rank wave? A couple of Sky-rank Consumers could handle it."
Chún hissed in frustration. "I do not have a couple of Sky-rank Consumers to fight for me — and if this Beast Wave is searching for me, they will find me. There is no way to avoid crossing its path."
"Actually, between the Staff and the Cloak you probably do have the equivalent of a couple of Sky ranks," the Mountain pointed out, "but since you can only be in one place at a time and lack the techniques to match a Sky-rank beast — or even several Earth-rank beasts — I suggest you do not attempt to stand and fight."
"Thank you for the obvious advice," Chún said dryly.
"What I do not understand is why this Beast Wave suddenly formed. The Essence herbs you carry are tempting rewards for many beasts, but at most you should have attracted a few that crossed your path," mused the locus.
"Excuse me? The herbs are what?" Chún ground out through the link as he studied the map. The progression of the wave had slowed slightly, but the ring of creatures was still closing.
"Essence Beasts consume herbs for advancement just as Consumers do. Sometimes they even guard them until they mature further, to gain a greater benefit — that is common knowledge. Healthy Earth-rank herbs grown in ideal conditions, like the ones you carry, are very attractive to beasts of similar rank," the Mountain explained.
The locus paused.
"Even more puzzling is that Sky-rank beasts or peak Earth-rank beasts should have little interest in such herbs. They are far too low-level. I do not…"
"What about the damned mushroom?" Chún interrupted as a thought struck him.
"It is very… specific. It is Sky-rank, but its Yin saturation would harm beasts that could not tolerate it… however…"
"It is those damned cries it made, right? They carried far through the forest. Hells — it probably planned this," Chún growled.
"That is a likely scenario," the Mountain admitted.
"En. Well, let us make sure it gets ground up."
Chún pointed to an area directly ahead where noticeably fewer beasts were approaching. Movement there was also less coordinated.
"Why are there fewer beasts there?"
"Because of the Heaven and Earth Vine. She has killed most of the beasts that once lived near her territory — the direction you were heading — so there were fewer to be attracted to you. There is also very little connection to the rest of the wave there because the beasts are too sparse."
Chún grinned fiercely as he leapt from the branch with all his strength.
"Cloak, conceal as much as you can. We are going through that gap."
After bounding through several trees at high speed, the Mountain warned urgently.
"Some of them must have sensed your movement or Essence. The circle is contracting rapidly — a couple are converging on your position from ahead while the others pursue."
Chún laughed, even as through the branches he could feel the faint tremor of hundreds of paws striking the forest floor.
"We only need to take out the ones in front and outrun the flankers. If the rest chase us into Her Highness's clearing, I suspect she will thank us for dinner."
The Staff in Chún's hands crackled with energy as he slammed it into a raging Iron-Backed Ape that had leapt from a branch ahead of him. The beasts in the trees were one of the things he had not anticipated, and they kept trying to force him down to the ground, where he could see racing forms and flashing eyes keeping pace beneath the canopy.
"Son of a—"
Using the momentum from the impact, he hurled himself upward as the ape choked on blood and crashed into the forest floor, prompting a chorus of pained howls as the several-hundred-catty body smashed into the ground-bound pursuers. The impact shuddered through the trunk beneath his feet.
"Cat on the right…" warned his locus.
A form hurled itself toward his back from a tree behind him.
His Cloak twitched and the Ganoderma barbs it had collected during the earlier fight shot through the air, impaling the attacker with wet, meaty thunks even as Chún brought up his Staff to block the glowing purple claws of the huge black panther that had clawed its way up the tree trunk to attack him.
"Another one of you bastards… ugh," he grunted.
The Essence coating both weapons clashed and detonated in a bright flash and concussive crack that sent him rolling from the branch and the screaming cat in the opposite direction. The panther's squall cut off abruptly with a sickening crack even as Chún slammed into another tree at the same moment.
His Staff shifted into a set of metal tiger claws over his right hand. He jammed them into the trunk to stop himself from falling and desperately boosted himself upward as a snarl from nearby warned him another panther was close.
"Less talk, more fight!" urged the Mountain.
Then it corrected itself: "Actually — less fight, more moving towards the clearing. You are in danger of being surrounded!"
Chún pushed as much Essence as he could manage into both Cloak and Staff simultaneously.
The Cloak exploded outward into an enormous wave of billowing mist that flooded the canopy in all directions. The change was clearly unwelcome — cries of rage and pain erupted from every side as the mist touched hidden forms.
At the same instant the Staff flashed brightly.
With a sizzling crack, a massive bubble of lightning blasted from the weapon and leapt into the mist in every direction, illuminating the canopy like sudden daylight. The air crackled with heat and the metallic tang of lightning.
The cries of rage turned into screams.
The tree Chún was currently clinging to shuddered, groaned, and began to glow as lightning surged through the wood. The trunk popped and cracked like beans frying in a pan.
"JUMP—"
Chún had already leapt before the Mountain finished shouting, his senses telling him instantly that remaining on that tree was a terrible idea.
The Cloak snapped into its water-armour form, enclosing him and the pots in a thick bubble of water and sealing over his ears just as the tree he had left behind exploded like an oversized firework.
A storm of wild Life Essence, boiling sap, and wooden shrapnel blasted in all directions. The concussive wave hurled Chún and several smaller trees, along with soil and plants, high into the air.
He came down hard. The Cloak dissolved back into mist to cushion the impact.
Trees and Essence Beast bodies were strewn everywhere, as though some giant hand had crushed the forest flat. Sap steamed from shattered trunks and the air was thick with drifting splinters.
Chún groaned as he staggered to his feet. The sharp stink of burnt sap and ozone flooded the forest.
"This is going to be a nightmare to clean up."
"I am growing an Essence Crystal here, like you suggested the other day. It will absorb the excess wild Essence," the Mountain replied calmly. "In fact, I have been growing them along your entire path of battle."
The locus paused.
"I suggest you run. The remainder of the Beast Wave that was outside the blast radius is catching up… and it is not pleased."
"Bunch of egg-layers…" Chún cursed.
He sprinted toward the nearest standing trees in the direction of the clearing just as a veritable rainbow avalanche of long-range elemental attacks screamed through the forest behind him.
Fireballs, icicles, pure Essence bolts, and countless other flashes of energy tore through the trees, accompanied by furious howls, the forest roaring as branches shattered and trunks burst apart under the barrage.
Barely dodging the attacks, Chún twisted and darted through the barrage like a swallow skimming storm winds as dirt fountained beneath the impacts and Essence detonations blasted craters across the forest floor.
He was nearly deaf and half-blind by this point, relying almost entirely on Essence sense. His lungs burned and every breath tasted of dust and blood.
"En… they are angry."
He cackled madly as he reached the trees and bounded up the nearest forest giant while the Cloak flung waves of ice blades behind him.
"Catch me if you can, bastards!"
It was completely dark when Chún finally collapsed behind a large boulder, panting heavily. His wounds had mostly healed, but exhaustion weighed heavily on him.
"So much for getting back before the Golden Crow went to his nest," he muttered, cautiously peering around the stone at the moving shapes in the forest.
"It is only a li to the treeline of the Heaven and Earth clearing," said the Mountain, "but some of them are already moving between you and the edge. You will not be able to sneak past them without being detected. They will tie you down before you reach it."
"Then we do not sneak. And we do not stop to fight."
Chún's voice hardened.
"We go through the scouts the way that Bear did to the trees. Remember that first 'fight'?"
"You are not built like a bear," the Mountain objected. "You lack the body mass required to replicate that charge."
"Speed and momentum," Chún replied. "And I am fairly tough, right? If the Cloak and Staff push as much power ahead of me as they can, I should be able to plough straight through them — or jump over them."
He charged as much Essence as he could into his body, Staff, and Cloak, then launched himself over the boulder with such force that the rock cracked beneath his feet.
He became a blazing comet of Essence. The wind howled past his ears as the forest blurred into streaks of shadow.
The air cracked as he accelerated faster than he had ever moved before. The Cloak reshaped itself around him into a sharp arrow-like form that parted the air. Behind him a roaring wake of displaced earth, plants, and wind blasted outward.
Naturally, this attracted the immediate attention of the Beast Wave.
Massive attacks of every colour and shape thundered toward him.
He ignored them.
A few beasts appeared directly in his path, but they burst into bloody mist as he smashed straight through them.
Within a single shùn, he had already outpaced most of his pursuers.
Another shùn later, his body abruptly stopped channelling Essence.
His meridians burned from the strain of pushing beyond their limits.
The comet of Essence vanished and his speed collapsed instantly, leaving him flung forward through the air on sheer momentum.
Triumphant howls rose behind him as the Beast Wave began to close the distance.
Essence attacks blasted into the ground around him as he smashed through the treeline and tumbled violently into the familiar grass of the Vine's clearing, cool and damp against his skin.
The beasts burst from the forest only steps behind him.
There was a sound like ripping cloth.
Ice-crack reeds erupted, flinging razor shards through the charging tide. The visible creatures exploded into shredded meat.
More poured from the forest — only to be seized by enormous vines that burst from the ground and tore them apart.
"They are not stopping!" the Mountain warned urgently. "Her Highness says get into your cave — she will deal with them."
A horrifying shape rose at the treeline, the ground heaving as its body forced upward through the forest like a living landslide.
It resembled a gigantic black earthworm — an Essence Burrower of terrifying size — rearing nearly a quarter-li into the air.
"Sky-rank beast! She needs you out of the line of fire!"
Chún staggered to his feet and ran for the cave as the clearing filled with the sounds of tearing vines and screaming beasts. The stench of blood and crushed greenery hung thick in the clearing.
Above him, massive spheres of elemental Essence — fire, ice, lightning, metal, water, earth — blasted from the Vine and slammed into the attackers with thunderous concussions.
Suddenly he felt himself lifted from the ground and carried toward the cave entrance.
Looking down, he saw a familiar pattern of silver-and-gold scales — much larger than he remembered.
"Silver Snake? Thank you…"
A mind-shredding scream split the air.
Chún turned in time to see the giant Essence Burrower outlined in sickly yellow-green Essence as it spat globes of corrosive fluid toward the Vine.
The Vine answered with floating spheres of crackling elemental power that intercepted the attacks mid-air.
The rest of the beasts were being slaughtered by ice-crack reeds and erupting vine roots.
"The Beast Wave's collective mind is collapsing," the Mountain informed him. "Creatures not driven by bloodlust or personal grievance are breaking away and retreating."
The Silver Snake dumped him unceremoniously at the tunnel entrance before racing back toward the battle.
Chún slumped into a sitting position against the rock wall and watched the colourful massacre unfolding across the clearing. Broken vines and torn bodies steamed under the cooling night air.
As massive vines erupted beneath the Sky-rank Essence Burrower and began crushing it, he laughed hoarsely and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Come to Mother Vine, bastards," he muttered darkly, "Looks like she's hungry tonight."