I landed on the small clear border line that divided the Josu Rainforest and the Pointe Tundra. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I cast Stealth. My body disappeared as momentum from traveling sent me a couple steps forward, right into the rainforest.

The light overhead dimmed to the glow of dawn. I glanced up and saw, high above my head, how the umbrella of leaves on the top of every tall, pale tree tangled together without letting a single beam of light through. The air was hot and heavy with humidity. It took me a second to adapt to the muggy atmosphere and another second to accept the slight smell of decay in the air. It wasn’t rotting flesh — I knew that smell well enough — but of organic things decomposing. Like how Henry’s little flower garden in the hostel smelled in the Spring after he mixed in the fertilizer.

A light drizzle sprinkled down around me, but I couldn’t see where the rain was coming from. I turned half a circle. At the edge of the rainforest, where it’s border collided with a different region, the sky was blue as ever over a sprawling tundra. No rain over there. But it definitely was lightly raining here. Droplets clung to branches overhead and random bursts of bright green fern-like plants that grew right out of the wonky shaped tree trunks. In fact, there were more plants growing out the sides of trees than on moist ground. From where I stood, the rainforest floor was a blanket of moss that covered rocks and grew up the side of trees. There was no way to tell north in this forest because the moss grew all over the trees.

The only other things I could find on the ground were mushrooms. I examined them more closely. Hm. They were small and white. Not what I was looking for, but it was a step in the right direction.

I finished my quick survey of the area and jumped up to a tree branch that connected to others like a jungle gym obstacle course. My new skill, High Jump, took me right up to the first level of branches. I landed lightly and couldn’t help the wide grin that spread over my face. Oh my god, that was so fun just being able to jump like that. It was like flying! I couldn’t help but look around for somewhere else to jump to. It was the first time that I’d been able to use this skill. Practicing it a little by jumping around like a caffeinated bunny wouldn’t hurt anything, right?

Before I could make that fantasy a reality, three Hunters came out of the transportation circle one at a time. Still invisible, I looked down at the C ranked men.

One with a bushy red beard and tank armor looked around the rainforest. “Which way do you think she went?”

I frowned. Damn, that was fast. Clearly, my play time was over — before it even began.

Another in light armor with a large, beaked nose looked around the forest and shifted his shield around nervously. “I don’t see anyone. But we need to get off the ground.”

The third man, a Mage in green robes and holding a gnarly wooden staff, motioned to the right. “There’s some low branches there. We could use that to climb up.”

“Ugh,” Red Beard moaned. “I don’t do well with heights.”

Beak Nose thumped him over the head with his shield. “Dumbass! That money is wasted on you.” The sound of metal on metal echoed off the trees.

My brows rose, a little surprised that he would make such a stupid move. At the moment, I couldn’t feel any monsters. But that didn’t mean much, since he just announced their location so clearly.

“Sh!” The Mage hissed. “We gotta go, now.” He glanced around and scowled. On the ground, next to his brown boot, an inch thick tree root slowly slithered closer to him. He stabbed the root with his staff. The root recoiled as if in pain. He didn’t bother looking back as he ran to the closest low hanging branch.

Luckily, it was in the opposite direction from me. Content, I turned and got ready to leave. Between Stealth and Feather Step, I should be able to get away from them easily enough. Especially if one of them didn’t do well with heights. From Red Beard’s clunky armor, he probably wasn’t going to be moving that fast any way.

A jolt went through my body as I became aware of several monsters coming our direction — fast.

Red Beard held out his arm and let the Mage jump to his arm then spring off, landing on a low hanging branch. The Mage grabbed at the tree and hoisted himself up. He looked down at his companions, his staff appearing back in his hand and he lifted it slightly in the air.

Suddenly, Beak Nose stiffened. He gasped, obviously feeling the monsters closing in. He let out a yelp and ran towards Red Beard. He didn’t even ask or pause before he climbed on top of the large man and jumped up onto the branch next to the Mage.

Red Beard was thrown off balance from his teammate’s frantic moves. He stumbled to the side, his head bowed so that his helmet covered his face. When he tipped his head back up, his face altered between pale white and red as the hair on his face. “Hurry, lift me up!”

The Mage frowned in concentration and the tip of his staff started to glow green.

A green film covered Red Beard and he rose into the air. “Hurry!” he pressed.

Three soundless blurs darted around the wet trees. In the dim light, I caught sight of the rainbow colored crests of the Velociorhea. Like lightning they bolted toward the floating Hunter.

Red Beard looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened and his face settled to a frightened pale white. He gripped his bastard sword and swung it at the first Velociorhea that jumped at him. His blade struck the monster right on its gray feathered chest and flung it to the side.

From his perch in the tree, Beak Nose pulled out a dagger and threw it at the next Velociorhea. The monster dodged to the side and the dagger sank into the ground.

“Hurry!” Red Beard screamed.

The Mage jerked his staff up, sweating like he was reeling in a ton of bricks. He groaned under the pressure, but kept at it.

The Hunter jerked higher in the air, half way up to the branch. Beak Nose dropped to his stomach and reached out for Red Beard’s gloved hand.

The largest Velociorhea yet jumped onto Red Beard, it’s giant talons dug between the stomach sections of the Hunter’s armor. The monster ignored the Hunter’s agony and stretched its neck up towards Beak Nose’s hand.

Beak Nose screamed and jerked back just in time as the monster’s mouth clomped shut. He scrambled to his feet. In the process, he knocked into the sweating Mage.

The Mage swore and the green glow disappeared from his staff.

The screaming Hunter and monster dropped to the ground with a thud that echoed around us. I was stiff with horror, could only watch as the downed man swung his sword frantically, screaming. His first swing missed the quick monster. Before he could swing again, the third Velociorhea closed in and stood on his arm, pinning it to the ground.

“Fire!” Red Beard howled. “Fire!”

A fireball shot from the Mage’s staff and soared toward the monsters.

They jumped safely to the side. The third Velociorhea looked up at the Mage and let out a screech that sounded like a combination of a dog’s growl and a crow’s caw.

The only injured Velociorhea recovered and rejoined the attack even though black blood from the gash on its chest. It lunged at the downed Hunter and grabbed his helmet with its talons. He screamed as the claws left red trails from chin to forehead. The Hunter’s cries deepened when the Velociorhea jerked at his helmet. The buckle broke under his chin and the helmet ripped right off his head. Red Beard’s bellows were silenced when the largest Velociorhea dove at him and snapped his neck in its mouth. There was an audible crunch that twisted my gut. I pressed my fingers to my mouth. Dear god..

The two remaining Hunters stood on their branch and stared down with pale, shocked faces as the Velociorhea pack started to tear apart their companion’s corpse with feral savagery. There was no reason to fight against them now and the realization seemed to render them dumb.

I glanced away. Red Beard was being eaten in front of me, and it all happened so fast. The Velociorheas were clearly well coordinated monsters. And they weren’t the only ones in the rainforest. Concealed within the dim light between the trees, there were many more.

I truly didn’t take Maveric’s advice for granted, but the seriousness of his warnings didn’t hit me until then. I took one more look at the blood smeared monsters pushing at each other to get another bite before I jumped to the next tree. I had to put some ground between them and me with the last remaining minute of my Stealth.

As empty as the ground floor was, sixty feet up in the canopy was full of things. The air was a little fresher and it was a bit brighter, the faint sunlight taking on a green shade as it glowed through the thick layer of leaves. Sturdy branches spread out of endless bridges that twisted and turned around each other. The dense connectivity made traveling easy, when one branch turned or became too thin to walk on anymore, another was just a step away.

Small ferns and pushy plants with twisted white flowers spotted the branches. Well, they were white until accidentally touched. Then they turned red, full of blood. I learned that the hard way. As annoying as it was, they didn’t have energy crystals in them and I didn’t take the energy to destroy every one that I saw.

Slowly moving through the rainforest, I shifted every which way to peer at the ground floor below. All I could see was green moss and white mushrooms. One of those stupid white flowers came into my perifery and I twisted on the branch so that I could step over it. Just as I raised my left foot into the air, a sharp sting zinged up my right left.

I paused, shocked. When did a monster get close to me? I gasped and looked down.

A vine as thick as my finger had wrapped around my ankle. It’s tip had bored a hole through my boot and was latched onto my leg like a leech. The green of the vine was starting to turn red.

I gritted my teeth and swiped out with my kindjal and severed the vine. The part that was attached to me fell off, my own blood oozing from its severed end. It landed limply on the branch then rolled right off. It dropped twenty meters to the ground. That must be where the decaying smell came from. Dead things from up here. Since it wasn’t ‘fleshy’ it wouldn’t have a meaty decaying smell.

The rest of the vine shrank back like a cut rubber band and slid to the underside of the branch. I leaned around and saw a bulbous plant attached to the bottom of the branch. Its body almost looked like a swollen green pepper with purple veins webbing across it. Three vines swayed around as if the air wasn’t stagnant. The fourth vine, still dripping blood, was curled up like a wounded animal against the body. A red title bar appeared: Assassin Vine Lv 20.

The three fine vines shot toward my face. I jerked back and swung my kindjal. Another vine was cut in half, the green tip falling down with the light rain to the dim land below. The other two pulled back.

I cast Mist. The foggy particles spread through the humid air like an infection, pushing away the musky smell and replacing it with a fresh scent. It covered the whole branch, especially under it, like I wanted. I jumped down from the branch and landed on solid mist with the Assassin Vine at eye level.

I thrust at the bloody plant with my kindjal. It stretched out its remaining uncut vines towards my chest in a suicide attack. The first vine struck my chest just as my kindjal hit the bulbous center of the monster plant. I jerked my kindjal to the side, slicing it in half. Clear liquid with a faint red tint that stank like bad onion, gushed from the split center. The body gaped open and revealed a pale blue glow on the base of the plant where it attached to the branch. While the vines writhed through the air like insane worms, I sliced at the plant once more and cut its energy crystal in half. The Assassin Vine exploded into little fading lights.

[+95 EXP]

I caught the drop orb before it fell to the ground. A vial of Assassin Vine juice, probably the stuff that fell from the bulbous center, was added to my Items Bag. My noise wrinkled, thinking about its smell. The faint red in the liquid must have been my blood. Does that mean that some of me was in that vial? If so, it would feel a little wrong to sell it Maveric.

A jolt of awareness went down my spine. Four monsters were moving towards my location very fast. I jumped back onto the branch and crouched low as I looked down through the mist. Out of the dim light, four Velociorheas appeared through the trees. Even though they didn’t have any distinguishing features, the levels over their heads — which ranged from level 35 to 45 — indicated that they were different from the ones that I saw earlier. Which meant these monsters were probably hungry.

The highest leveled and largest one, which I was starting to understand meant the leader, stepped up to where the severed vines hand landed. It sniffed at the ground intently and side-stepped around, still sniffing. Then it lifted it’s head, nostrils flaring on it’s toothy snout, as it drew in large breaths and looked through tree branches and mist right at me.

*****