The grass was tall enough to swallow their shadows whole. It rustled like whispering water as Himmel's boots pushed through, each step muffled by dew. His earring pulsed once — a faint glow of pale blue brushing his neck — and then a familiar voice spilled through his mind.
"Go north. I'll go south. For now at least."Texan's voice was rough even through the telepathic hum, carrying that same edge of bravado he never quite lost.
"Gotcha," Texan replied. The link faded, and silence returned.
Himmel glanced toward his squad. Winter crouched low, bow drawn and scanning the horizon; Vanessa stood beside her, spear propped against one shoulder, quiet but poised, while Tyler adjusted the charm beads along his wrist, eyes flickering faintly with shamanic runes. Together, they looked like the start of something dangerous, but not yet sharpened enough to cut the world.
"Keep tight," Himmel said. "If you see movement, don't shout—signal."
They nodded, and the group advanced north, the wildlands stretching endlessly around them — green and gold plains broken by dark crags and the occasional gleam of something metal half-buried in the dirt. The air was dry and sharp, like the world itself held its breath.
As the morning aged, the air warmed, carrying with it the scent of minerals and old rain. The tall grass swayed around them in hypnotic rhythm, each blade brushing the next like a thousand whispered prayers. They hadn't seen any danger yet — only the wild expanse, open and endless.
"Damn," Winter muttered, breaking the silence. "You could fit three cities out here."
"Yeah," Tyler said, leaning on his walking stick. "And not a tavern in sight. That's a crime."
Vanessa smirked. "Figures you'd think about a drink first."
"I'm just saying," Tyler replied, holding up his hands. "A man fights better when he's had a taste of something worth dying for."
Himmel didn't laugh, but he smiled — faint, distracted. His gaze was locked on the horizon, where the clouds dipped into the earth like torn silk. "You ever seen a sky this big?" he asked quietly.
The others followed his eyes. The world above stretched forever, streaked with the faint orange of an early sunset even though the sun was still climbing. Birds with metallic feathers wheeled overhead, their cries echoing faintly.
"No," Vanessa said softly. "Back home, the walls block half of it. You forget how much space there is until you walk under it."
Himmel crouched, brushing his hand against the dirt. The soil shimmered faintly — the faint residue of mana, still pulsing under the surface. "Even the ground's alive here," he said. "Everything's… awake."
"Creepy way to say beautiful," Tyler muttered.
"It's both," Himmel replied.
Winter lowered her bow, letting her shoulders relax for the first time. "You think Texan's group got dropped somewhere worse?"
"Probably," Himmel said. "He's got luck that only works after the bad part hits."
They chuckled quietly. For a while, the group just stood there — no fighting, no commands, no tension. The wind carried the scent of distant rain, and the light turned softer, filtering through the grass like golden mist.
Vanessa sat down on a patch of rock, letting her spear rest across her knees. "You know," she said, "my family used to think I'd end up as a seamstress. Guess they weren't wrong — I still stitch people up, just not with thread."
Tyler grinned, sitting beside her. "At least yours had plans for you. Mine just wanted me to stop playing that damned harmonica. 'No one ever saved a village with music,' my old man used to say."
Winter chuckled. "Bet he's eating those words now."
Tyler looked away, smiling faintly. "He's dead. But yeah… maybe he is."
The conversation quieted again, comfortable this time. Himmel's gaze drifted toward the sun — its glow softened by the haze of mana that hung in the air. "Enjoy this," he said quietly. "You don't get many moments like this in the wildlands."
"Enjoy what?" Winter asked.
"The feeling," Himmel said. "That nothing's trying to kill you yet."
That earned a laugh — a real one, deep and unguarded. It carried across the field, a brief pocket of warmth against the empty horizon.
Then the wind shifted. The smell changed. Something was moving in the grass.
Himmel's hand went to his blade. "Break's over."
The shift from peace to violence was so sudden it barely made sense.One heartbeat they were standing in the tall grass, laughing about dead fathers and harmonicas — and the next, the earth moved.
It started as a tremor, a soft vibration underfoot that quickly became a pulse. Then, with a guttural snarl, the ground exploded upward, throwing dirt and grass into the air.
A creature burst from the earth — hulking, all sinew and scale, its body a mass of slick green plates streaked with veins of molten orange. Its face was part reptile, part wolf, its maw filled with uneven rows of serrated teeth. The eyes glowed a bright yellow, animal but aware.Level 3.
Winter was already drawing her bow. "Contact front!"
Himmel didn't even flinch. "Vanessa—left flank. Tyler, hold your cast until I say. Winter, aim for the eyes."
The creature lunged, and the ground cratered beneath it. Himmel met it halfway — his blade already crackling with lightning. Sparks burst from his swing, the impact ringing out like a hammer strike. The thing's neck snapped to the side, but it didn't fall.
It roared — a sound that made the air itself vibrate — and swung a claw the size of a shield. Himmel blocked, but the sheer force shoved him back three steps, leaving furrows in the dirt.
"Holy shit it's strong," Tyler shouted, drawing a symbol into the air.
"Then hit harder," Himmel barked.
Vanessa darted in from the flank, her spear slicing along the creature's ribs. The impact was clean — sparks of magic dancing off the steel — but the creature barely staggered. Its hide was too thick, layered like stone.
Winter fired a volley of three arrows. One hit its shoulder, one buried in its leg, and one clattered harmlessly off its jaw. The beast whipped its tail — thick as a tree trunk — and sent a gust of dirt flying that knocked her flat.
"Winter!" Vanessa called out.
"I'm fine!" she shouted, already nocking another arrow, her cheek bleeding from a graze.
Tyler slammed his palm to the ground. "Earth bind!"
Vines shot up from the dirt — thick, thorned, coiling around the monster's limbs. For a second it looked like they might hold. Then the creature flexed, muscles bulging, and the vines tore apart like wet paper.
The shockwave hit Himmel in the chest — not strong enough to harm, but enough to remind him what this place was: a graveyard that never ran out of fresh meat.
He gritted his teeth, sparks flickering around him again."Vanessa—get ready."
He dashed forward, boots cracking the dirt, and vanished into a blur of blue light. When he reappeared, he was behind the beast. One clean slash — lightning arced from his blade into its back, and the smell of burnt scale filled the air.
The creature reared up in pain, mouth wide enough to swallow a man whole.Vanessa didn't hesitate. She drove her spear upward, through the roof of its mouth.
The scream was deafening.
The creature thrashed once more, body convulsing — then collapsed, slamming into the dirt with a tremor that shook loose dust from the nearby rocks.
Silence hung for a moment. Just their heavy breathing, the faint hiss of Himmel's lingering electricity, and the smell — gods, that smell — of burnt flesh and iron.
Then Winter exhaled. "That's… dead, right?"
Tyler poked the beast's leg with the butt of his staff. "If it's not, it's real good at pretending."
Himmel didn't answer. He stared down at the corpse, chest rising and falling slowly. His blade still hummed with faint current, the blue glow reflected in his eyes.
Finally, he sheathed it. "Good coordination," he said quietly. "We'll need more of that."
"More of that?" Winter asked, raising a brow.
Himmel nodded toward the horizon, where shadows of larger shapes loomed beyond the swaying grass. "Because that wasn't alone."
They didn't rest long.The Wild Lands didn't allow it.
Minutes after the first creature fell, the tall grass began to stir again — but not from the wind.
It rippled in waves. Rhythmic. Purposeful.Predators moving together.
Winter's ears twitched first. "We've got movement. Big."
Vanessa followed her line of sight, and her grip tightened around her spear. "How many?"
The answer came with the rumble — not one, not two, but a herd. Long, sinewy shapes broke through the sea of grass: ostrich-like beasts with giraffe necks and taloned hooves. Their hides glistened like lacquered iron, veins pulsing with molten orange beneath translucent skin. Each step made the ground tremble.
"Ten," Winter breathed. "Maybe eleven."
Tyler squinted, clutching his staff. "Five look smaller—level threes. The rest… stronger. And that big one—" he nodded toward the towering beast in back, its eyes smoldering like molten glass "—that's a level five."
Vanessa's jaw tightened. "We can't take that. We fall back."
"No," Himmel said.
The word landed like thunder. He stepped forward, calm and deliberate, the faint blue sheen of mana forming under his boots. His eyes reflected the distant lightning above as if the storm itself had been waiting for his command.
"They'll chase. They smell fear. We stand here."
Winter stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You want to fight a herd that out levels us?"
He didn't answer.He just raised his sword — and the air shifted.
Electricity cracked faintly in the grass around them. The clouds above began to twist into a low spiral. His party could feel it—hair rising, breath thinning, mana in their veins trembling.
Then, snap.
A burst of blue energy rippled outward, linking every creature with thin arcs of lightning. Their eyes rolled back, bodies locking up mid-step. All ten—except the level five—collapsed into spasms, electricity chewing through muscle and sinew. The smell of burning hide filled the air.
The big one roared, stepping forward through its twitching kin. Sparks crawled along its neck, but it shrugged them off. Himmel clenched his fist—his lightning marks glowing in his pupils like runes—and vanished.
The next heartbeat was chaos.
He reappeared above one of the level threes, sword descending like a guillotine. The creature erupted in blue light, flesh peeling away as current detonated inside it. The shockwave threw dirt into the sky. The outflow of electricity so powerful it damaged the other's near it
Another crack—he was gone again.
Then appeared beside a level four, blade slicing horizontally, the strike trailing a comet of blue flame. The beast's head didn't fall—it vaporized. Along with its head the bodies of the other beasts began to fall.
"Holy—" Tyler started, but a surge of static cut him off as Himmel blinked again, attacking the next. Lightning painted the field in flashes—brief glimpses of his silhouette in motion, his blade tearing light into ribbons.
When it ended, only one creature still stood.
The level five.
It was enormous—easily three stories tall, neck arched, hooves like sledgehammers. Steam poured from its nostrils, the smell of ozone clinging to its charred skin. Its molten eyes fixed on Himmel, who stood amid the smoking corpses of its herd.
Then it charged.
The impact of its first step shook the plain.The next tore up the ground.
Himmel braced—but before he could strike, Vanessa's spear flashed past him, embedding into the creature's shoulder. It howled and kicked, sending a plume of dirt skyward.
Winter loosed arrows in rhythm—three, four, five—each striking between the ribs, but the beast didn't slow. Tyler's staff glowed with a dim blue aura as he whispered an enchantment—healing, steadying the others, slowing the bleeding from small hits that came their way.
"Keep moving!" Himmel shouted, his voice carrying over the thunder.
Vanessa lunged again, dodging a wild swing of the creature's clawed foot. Her spear sparked with lightning—borrowed from Himmel's lingering charge—but the attack barely scratched the hide.
"Too thick!" she yelled.
Himmel gritted his teeth, lightning crawling down his arms. "Then we burn through it."
He vanished again, appearing near its flank. His blade plunged deep—but this time, it stuck. The beast roared, twisting its neck and slamming him with the side of its head. The hit sent Himmel flying across the field, his back slamming against a rock formation with a bone-shaking crack.
"Himmel!" Tyler screamed, but the orc was already back on his feet, coughing blood.
The beast turned toward him again—each step like an earthquake. Himmel raised his sword, but his party moved first.
Vanessa charged low, slicing through its foreleg tendons. Winter rolled and fired a shot into its eye—one, two, three arrows—and Tyler followed with a barrier spell, shielding them from the blast of mana that came with the creature's scream.
The level five reared up, its molten veins glowing brighter, energy building beneath its skin.
"MOVE!" Himmel shouted.
They dove in opposite directions as the creature detonated a shockwave of molten wind. The explosion of heat seared the grass and split the nearby stone.
When the smoke cleared, Himmel stood again. Blood trickled from his nose. His armor hissed with residual heat. He was smiling—but it wasn't the proud kind. It was the smile of a man who'd found something worth breaking himself for.
Blue light surged up his arm. His veins glowed.He raised his sword.
"Burn," he whispered.
The lightning hit like divine punishment. A column of blue plasma engulfed the creature, searing everything around it. The shockwave rippled outward, shaking the ground for miles. The grass burned, the sky cracked, and the creature's scream twisted into silence.
When it ended, there was nothing left but ash.
The party stood, trembling.Winter's hands were shaking as she lowered her bow. Vanessa sat down hard, clutching her side where a stray claw had nicked her armor. Tyler leaned against his staff, eyes wide and glassy.
And Himmel… he just stood there, staring at the smoke curling from the corpse's shadow.
"Let's rest," he said finally. "Then we move at dawn."
The others didn't argue.They didn't dare.
As the embers died out and the air cooled, Vanessa looked at Himmel—the faint blue glow still humming under his skin—and whispered to herself, "How the hell are we supposed to follow that?"
And beyond the field of ash, through the thinning fog, the jagged outline of a mountain loomed. Carved into its base was a stone archway lined with runes that pulsed faintly with life.
Their next trial waited.
A dungeon.
And the storm inside Himmel was only growing.