Dangerous.

That was the only word fluttering through Lukas’s mind, as he tried to keep his exhausted form from hitting the floor. Terraporting had saved him from being reduced to a fine paste on the ground, but he wasn’t foolish enough to consider himself safe. As much as he wanted to leave these muspels and focus on following Tanya and the others, he knew it wasn’t an option.

For one, he didn’t have anything in his arsenal that allowed him to run fast. Well, comparable to muspels. He had already siphoned two muspels so far, but something told him that whatever had attacked him was stronger than the ones he had killed. If not in skills, then certainly in their application. That final blow had taken almost all the juice he could muster, and the muspel still looked like it had miles to go before dropping dead.

And that wasn’t the only thing.

There was an aura about these muspels, an all-consuming feeling of rage and bloodlust backed by a power as implacable and unyielding as a mountain. It wasn’t a matter of strength, but beyond that. A sensation, primal and terrible, that flooded through his consciousness, the feeling of a rabbit cornered by wolves and about to be ripped apart, helpless and terrified.

It was… not a good feeling to have.

And for the first time in his life since meeting Inanna, Lukas knew that he was going to die.

Like, maybe not literally die, but whatever these monsters were capable of, it was enough to reduce him to a state where dying would be a far preferable option. He tried his best to keep himself from staring in blank shock. A lapse in judgment wasn’t something he could afford, not right now at least.

As hard as it was for him to admit, it… they frightened him. He was a Level-3 at Lifeforce Manipulation, even though he had leagues to go before he’d be able to fully harness all the power and skill it’d give him, but these guys? Terraporting had saved him from that fate, but if he didn’t manage to get out, he’d be in for some real trouble.

For the first time in his new life, Lukas considered running away. There was nothing wrong with fighting an opponent you couldn’t beat. Something you couldn’t understand either? That was another matter. And then there was the issue of the portal that would definitely close if he didn’t reach there on time. He was eighty seven percent sure Tanya would wait for him at the portal site, to keep the svartalfars from jumping off and closing the Well if nothing else. For fuck’s sake, he had all but declared war against the muspel community and given how svartalfars were sticklers for protocol, there was a chance he had already damaged his reputation with them.

Seriously Inanna, why do these things keep happening to me?

As always, there was no answer.

“Yeah,” He shot back. “Which one of you saw that coming?”

The muspels looked at each other, as if physically confirming if there was anyone among them that had expected him to terraport. Lukas sighed at the rigid, blank faces, and sighed. Seriously, his humor was wasted upon these creatures. Like.. why? At least that could prove as a suitable distraction. For fuck’s sake, he needed some distraction if he wanted to stop shaking in fear and take proper action.

“Terraporter,” one of the muspels growled. “The seidmadr can terraport!”

One of my many annoying traits I’m afraid,” he shot back. “Now if you’re done, I really must leave. There’s this portal I really need to catch.”

The sounds of growling coming from behind caught his attention. From the corner of his right eye, he could see a group of ifrit encircling him. The muspel in front of him raised his fiery club in the air.

“Right!” He drawled, falling into a combat stance, Blob already back in his hand. “And now you like me so much that you want me to stay for long. I mean, don’t get me wrong, you guys are cute and all, but I’m afraid my inclinations lie on the blonde female type.”

“You think you have a choice?” The club began to burn even more vigorously, and Lukas got the impression that it might be a good idea to move. “You’ve broken our laws. You won’t get out of this land alive.”

The club smashed downward.

“For someone so tough, you fellas are being awfully sensitive about— oh fuc—!”

The world exploded.

Fire and burning rock detonated out of the ground. Torrents of flame that could incinerate his body with the slightest touch, burning boulders that would reduce him to paste the moment they hit, and a gale of volcanic ash that just had to be bad for his skin— all of them came at him at the same time. And then there was one muspel that wanted to personally maul him into dinner by smashing its fire-laden fists into his face.

Lukas deflected the majority of the flames away employing kinetomancy, and was happy to see that Blob had enough strength to cut boulders into pieces. He extended it out like a whip and tore through the nearest muspel’s arm, cutting it off, before hurling it at an ifrit and striking it in the face.

But it wasn’t enough.

His ability to defend against projectiles using Shatterpoint Intuition was extreme, but even he had his limits. He could not be fast enough to defend against a simultaneous attack against every point of his body from all sides.

But he wasn’t in the presence of Tanya or the svartalfars anymore. He didn’t have to limit himself anymore. He had options. Gathering power in his legs, Lukas leapt straight backwards, employing friction manipulation to cut past the air resistance to increase the distance between himself and his attackers —

— only for another muspel punching into him from the right.

The hit left him bent into a bow, forcing all the air out of his legs as his body bent in half. Before he knew it, he was flung in front, the invisible power thrashing him into the terrain below, until he was buried between four feet of rabble.

“No one said you could leave,” said the creature. “You will die, and it will be glorious!”

Before Lukas could so much as open his mouth, the muspel threw its club like an angry hammer of god, crashing against the force-shield Lukas had barely managed to put up. The attack crashed against his skill like a truck through a wooden fence. The sheer impact was deafening, and created a massive crater, pushing Lukas several more feet within the ground.

And then the crater began to heat up.

…

…

Lukas swallowed. The ground beneath him was going to blow up. And if he didn’t get away, he’d get blown with it. If he tried to stop it, he’d die. If he tried to escape, he’d die. If he stayed where he was, he’d die. There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this and that was to try to live by any means necessary….

The third hammer of force came thundering down upon him.

Activating Monster Prototype DRANZITHL

Initiating Consciousness Shift

Enact.

This time Lukas was ready. With a sudden leap, he instantly crossed a distance close to a hundred feet.

And then a second force-wall came crashing just inches away from him.

Lukas didn’t wait to see the results. Turning around, he began leaping ahead, traversing dozens of feet in every single jump. And behind him, the muspels came striking at him, hammering against the terrain, creating craters and erupting lava. Lukas was fast, but they were faster. Within the very first minute, he had already been hit in eight different points on his body. Several of his muscles were sprained and torn apart, and his tibia was close to fracturing. If he didn’t immediately manage to escape, things would turn very, very bad for him.

Absolutely wonderful.

“Tch!” He grimaced, as he jumped at another corner, mere moments before the ground beneath him exploded in a burst of magma. The molten rock had touched his clothes and burned a massive hole through it. If not for the dranzithl’s regeneration, he’d have been short of a leg. He’d need to get away from this place as fast as possible—

BOOM!

The ground before him exploded, unleashing a veritable wall of crimson, the flames surging higher and higher until it was the size of a small hill. The sheer force of the explosion was so great that Lukas was bodily lifted and sent hurling for several dozen feet. His back slammed into one of the craters, with half-melted rock and stone digging into his spine from behind.

“Urgh!” He groaned. It was the only intelligible sound he could make as he tried to regain his bearings.

His head was pounding and he felt like he had just been spun out of a washing machine. Shifting slightly, he realized that he was half-buried in stone and half-molten rock that was slowly corroding through his robes.

“Fuck!” He grunted, and stood up, vainly trying to keep some semblance of civility on his person. Kind of difficult to do when more than half of your trousers are charred and gone.

Then he saw it.

The blur behind the wall of flames. It was a massive, shadowed figure, larger than anything he had ever faced before.

And it was getting larger by the second.

He saw the face next, an eerie mix of charred flesh and bone. The flesh, if it could be called as such, was dark brown with flecks of crimson and blackened silver, with several horn-like protrusions jutting out at odd angles. The eyes shone with a mad, blue, almost primordial light, contrasting with the bright crimson surrounding it.

Slowly, the demented beast’s full form came into clarity. It took a single step out of the flamin wall, causing tremors on the ground. Then another step. And another. Its body was humanoid, but only just. Its limbs were thicker than oak trunks, and it loomed over him, his head barely reaching above its waist line.

It lifted its head and roared.

One moment, there was nothing. Then, violence permeated the air. The sound was loud— an inept description. Lukas was already on the ground, his ears and eyes and nose already bleeding, while the dranzithl’s regeneration kept healing them back at a spectacular rate. His heart felt like it would explode, and his hands shook as pinpricks ran along his skin.

The monster tilted its head slightly downwards, and Lukas saw its large, blue, skeletal eyes.

Something told him, yelled at him, that he should run. But his muscles didn’t obey his command. His legs spasmed as he tried and failed repeatedly to stand on his feet. None of it seemed normal, and his mind nearly slipped away in fear. He— what was he doing— he was forgetting something.

Danger.

Right. That was it. Danger. He was in danger—

The monster opened its maw again, and its eyes glinted like a predator. It wasn’t calculating how to fight him or how to avoid combat. No, it was akin to a starving man looking at an eat-all-you-want buffet, with layers upon layers of delicious and exotic dishes laid out just for it to feast upon.

“Rejoice, trespasser. Your meaningless life will come to an end at the hands of a Bylestyr.”

Prey Found You

“Yeah…” Lukas mumbled. “Yeah, it did.”

The titan lifted its maw and roared.