1

Jordan chased Emma and Brett as they blasted like a rocket toward the end of the realm. He was losing distance on them and guessed they were going twice his speed. But he had one thing in his favor: the sun was beaming, and the sky was cloudless. As they became an ever-decreasing spot on the northern horizon, he watched them like a hawk.

Giving the trees below him only the most cursory glance, Jordan raced, not wanting to lose sight of his target. He stared at the unfettered view: the river to his left, the tower on his far left, and a series of large hills to his right. Brett appeared to be headed straight for those hills, having turned east slightly after they left the goblin camp.

Although he had no intentions of slowing down, his lungs wanted to explode. Unlike Brett, who was using an innate telekinesis ability, Jordan depended on his physical Grimalkin stats.

He started to lose them as they shrank to the size of a dot and blended in with the shadowy trees on the hills. He’s taking her there, Jordan guessed. When I lose sight of them, that’s where I’ll go. Despite his best efforts, Jordan could feel his limbs involuntarily slowing. As much as he pushed himself, his body was reaching its limit. He could have stopped and allowed his body to recover, even for just a minute or two, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He chased the speck on the horizon relentlessly.

Part of the reason he wouldn’t give up were his feelings for Emma, but the other motivation spurring him on was his guilt. I let her down, he thought. I should have handled the situation better. And he believed it. He knew he’d not been at his best with her. It was a perfect storm; her dire predicament had triggered his post-traumatic stress disorder. Still, I could’ve at least told her that I suffered from PTSD. Maybe it would have alleviated her feelings of alienation. Maybe she wouldn’t have felt—

Jordan sensed the movement more than saw it. The trees up ahead and below him shifted to his right. The tree limbs, which he realized belatedly were bereft of leaves or other foliage, snatched him from his perch at the top of the trees. They curled stiffly around his body and punted him down towards the forest floor.

2

Jordan slammed against a hardened root that had grown above the ground. A sharp pain erupted through his back as he rolled off the one-foot-high protrusion. So much for a soft landing, he thought miserably.

He gazed up at whatever had attacked him, and his Creature Description details appeared.

WOOD GRYPHON (Level 30)

HP: 488

MP: 115

STRENGTH: 64

CONSTITUTION: 48

DEXTERITY: 45

INTELLIGENCE: 11

WISDOM: 8

XP: 211

DESCRIPTION: Failed research experiment from C9’s Wood Chime Division.

What had felt like several trees attacking him was actually one massive creature inhabiting a large clearing in the forest. The forty-foot-tall giant looked like a hybrid between a horse and an eagle with an enormous beak and long claws instead of hooves. Jutting out from its wooden frame were the limbs that had snared him. Four on each side, they flapped lazily, the ligneous skeletal remnants of what were once wings.

The Gryphon tilted its long neck toward Jordan, examining the fallen prey with glowing green eyes. Its head hovered twenty feet above him. A low, throaty growl that produced strange clicking noises followed. The creature clucked at him, emanating a hollow wooden sound that reminded him of wood chimes.

As Jordan equipped his boney bastard sword, he noticed a thick layer of moss growing on the underside of the colossal beast.

The Gryphon screeched at him, then pulled its head back to strike. Jordan quickly rolled to his right as the opened beak crashed into the earth. With its beak still buried in the soil, the beast tilted its head and stared at him for a second. From just eight feet away, the monster’s eyes were the size of dinner plates. Gradations of emerald green shimmered through them like veins.

Jordan jumped to his feet. Another bolt of pain rocked through his back. The Gryphon pulled its head out of the ground then stood on its hind legs, ascending above the highest trees. Its gold-colored wooden frame cast shadows over the entire clearing. The monster jerked forward and thrust its long claws toward Jordan. He ran to his right as the talons sank into the earth behind him, splintering roots and throwing more soil into the air. He quickly turned and swung his sword, cleaving a chunk of wood off the Gryphon’s leg. The beast stumbled and limped. It rose back up again and flapped its nonexistent wings. Sinewy timber muscles bulged from the limbs that tapped against the adjacent trees, showering pine needles over the clearing.

“Damn, I could really use one of those orc axes,” Jordan groaned. He knew his aerial weapons wouldn’t work, so he checked his spells as the Gryphon pounded back to the earth. “Looks like Boulder is going to save my ass again,” he sighed, readying the spell, and running for the cover of the trees.

Behind him, the monster crouched and charged at him. Jordan felt its beak close around his legs. His steel splint mail bent inward from the force and he heard one of his bones snap. In his field of vision, his HP dropped from 366 to 298. He screamed and whipped the Boulder over his shoulder, hoping to connect with the Gryphon. Behind him, wood cracked and splinters sprayed. The creature released him and Jordan fell forward as his legs buckled beneath him. He rolled onto his back again, but this time, the move brought sheer agony as his broken bones scraped against each other.

The Gryphon screeched at him, and Jordan saw the damage the Boulder spell had done. The monster was missing its lower beak. However, the Gryphon still lunged at him with its sharp upper beak. On his back with the sharp point closing in on him, Jordan thought, I am so dead.

3

Jordan felt hands swoop in under his armpits, and he was dragged to the safety of the woods just as the Gryphon pounded into the earth. Dirt shot up as half of the monster’s head plunged into the soil and roots. Again, the large green eyes rolled and looked at him above the rim of the ground.

“Thank god I caught up with you,” Keshon said as she lugged him further into the forest. “After you left the camp, I tried to keep up with you.” The Grimalkin healer shook her head, causing her long dreadlocks to tap across Jordan’s face. “However, at your level, you were just too fast for me.” She leaned him against a Douglas fir as the monster continued to screech from the clearing. It rammed the top of its head against the first row of trees, which cracked and bent. “That thing isn’t going to stop, is it?” Keshon asked.

Jordan groaned painfully. “Nothing ever does.”

The Gryphon bashed into the trees again.

“Jeez, how do we kill something so gigantic?”

Jordan peered up at her. “One blow at a time.”

She grunted. “We could use Harper’s fire magic right about now.” She dragged him further away from the giant Gryphon, which had taken down the first row of trees. “Your Boulder spell seemed to work well.” She queued up the same spell and fired the rock at the Gryphon, but the beast was moving too erratically. The Boulder flew past its neck, vanishing as it reached the one-hundred-meter limit.

Keshon tried again. She whipped the marble ball with more velocity this time, but the Gryphon had learned from the aerial tactic. It skirted the rock, which sailed by its head. The monster bulldozed into the next layer of trees, causing a redwood to topple toward the two Grimalkin teammates. Keshon yanked Jordan further back. The movement jarred his broken leg and the veteran hunter screamed agonizingly, but she didn’t stop, hauling him much deeper into the forest.

“Stay here,” she said as she ran forward to re-engage the Gryphon.

Jordan couldn’t help but laugh. “Where am I going to go?”

The monster had cleared a path from the downed trees and pushed further into the forest. Keshon stared up at the beast and trembled. The enormous Gryphon scared the hell out of her, and she had never expected being on the front lines of such an intense battle. The creature screeched and started pushing against the earth, wedging its head between two trees. Keshon whipped another Boulder at its head. Again, the Gryphon evaded the projectile at the last second. She cursed and ran back to Jordan. “Should I try another spell?” she asked shrilly.

He grimaced and shook his head. “Try shooting at its legs.”

She circled back and fired another Boulder. The monster raised its leg, but it was too late. The marble stone hit dead center as wood exploded across the forest. With its left leg decimated, the Gryphon slumped to its side.

“Yes!” Keshon screamed as she fired again. The creature did a sideways hop to avoid the blow, but the move did more harm than good. The round stone blew through the side of its neck. Splinters the size of logs burst out from the gaping hole. The Gryphon screeched, stood up awkwardly, and thrust the full weight of its front torso into the opening in the trees. Keshon uttered a startled yelp but froze. The monster’s head crashed through the trees and wedged into the ground at her feet. It lunged forward and raised its beak above her head, looking to crush the Grimalkin healer. Keshon fired her last Boulder at an upward angle. It split the Gryphon’s head down the middle. The heavy remains of its wooden skull landed on her, driving her into the soil.

4

“Ugh, I can’t get this off of me,” Keshon cried. The split halves of the Gryphon’s destroyed head pinned her like two massive logs. She struggled to breathe under their heavy weight and ached all over but couldn’t determine where she might have been injured.

“Can you wiggle out?” Jordan’s voice floated from twenty feet away.

Keshon pushed against the wood and groaned. “I can’t.”

She heard twigs cracking and realized that Jordan was pulling himself to her. She wanted to tell him to stop, but she knew she needed his help. She wondered where Emma was and cursed herself for falling for her ruse. “This isn’t exactly going to plan, is it?”

Jordan grunted.

After a few long minutes, he reached her and effortlessly hoisted the logs off. Despite her pain and strained breathing, Keshon laughed. “Now, why couldn’t I do that?”

He grimaced as he shimmied alongside her and shoved the wooden remnants out of the way. “I’m at level 66. You’re just a 7.”

“Hmph, I thought I was a ten,” she joked halfheartedly. He stared at her, unimpressed with her attempt at humor. “Anyway, I’m not a 7 anymore. That wooden sawhorse bumped me up to 15.”

He snorted. “Then I should have left the logs for you.”

No longer pinned to the ground, Keshon gazed at Jordan. “I guess I should wait for Harper to dictate where my attribute points go.”

The veteran shook his head. “Uh-uh, we’ve made that mistake before.” He pulled himself up to a sitting position. “It’s just you and me out here. Drop the points evenly into all your stats.”

It wasn’t quite that easy. Keshon’s 32 points wouldn’t divide into her 6, so she dropped the extra 2 into constitution. That left her status at:

Keshon (Level 15)

RACE: Grimalkin

CLASS: Healer

HP: 54/96

HPR: 1.28

MP: 76

MPR: 1.88

STRENGTH: 62

CONSTITUTION: 64

DEXTERITY: 61

INTELLIGENCE: 95

WISDOM: 94

ENDURANCE: 52

XP: 363