Chapter Fifty-Three: Kill’Yava and the Forest Mother!

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Now that they’d finished with Olivia’s companion, Aiden wanted to see the progress of everyone else. He immediately noticed that Isaac no longer ran around the jungled after the panthers, which meant he either succeeded or failed. Hopefully the former. Isaac didn’t seem the type to give up after failing once or twice.

He’d already proved that more than a couple of times.

Blizzy ran ahead of Aiden and Olivia, disappearing into the jungle. Her chirping led them toward Isaac, his face tear stained as he clutched one of the baby panther kittens.

“Hey,” Olivia said softly, crouching low. “Isaac, what’s wrong?”

Aiden sat down next to the boy, pressing his own back against the large tree trunk. Staring at the ground, he appreciated the beauty of the world around him. He was bad at emotional stuff, so he just put a comforting arm around the other boy.

From the looks of things, nothing he said would reach through now.

But that didn’t stop Olivia from trying. “Hey, we’re here now. You caught one of the panther babies. I saw how hard you were trying. You did a really good job, so what’s the matter?”

Isaac shook his hand once, staring down at the kitten that mewled up at him. “It’ll be okay now. It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay…”

It need not be said that everyone dealt with the apocalypse’s world hopping and constant trials of life or death on a regular basis. This was the first time Isaac showed any outward reaction to everything.

I feel you, man. Really, I do. The pressure of it all wore Aiden down, making the struggles that much harder. It took so much more effort to push through towards an unknown goal, to push for some uncertain future.

“Yes, it’ll be okay,” Olivia agreed, sitting next to him. “Aiden, I’ll stay with him if you want to go look for the others.”

Nodding, he pat Isaac on the back. “Hangout with Oli for a bit. She’s good company. I don’t know if it means much right now, but you’re not alone. You have us.”

Aiden really felt like he should say more, opening his mouth only to clamp it closed. Patting the boy’s back again, he turned away. Taking a few steps away, he noticed that Blizzy’s presence was acutely lacking.

Turning around, he noticed her curled up against the boy, snoring softly. His arm provided a nice crook for her to rest in. Aiden smiled. I hope that helps him a bit.

Out of everyone, Isaac and Ian were the most unknown to him. Josh was too loud-mouthed and open about things for him to have to guess at what bothered him. He made it very clear. Cloudy was similar in that regard, voicing her thoughts aloud and oftentimes without a filter.

James was still a big question mark to Aiden, but the older boy seemed to handle everything in stride. In fact, he handled it a little too well at times.

Then there was Ian and Isaac, the two people that Aiden worried about the most. Ian was shy and awkward, but he wanted to be involved in the conversations and the group. Isaac, on the other hand, almost regularly made an effort to avoid being in the groups if Aiden didn’t make him.

The only person Isaac actively sought out was Ian. Hopefully that connection would be enough to bring Isaac back from whatever hole he’d spiraled into.

A problem for another time. As much as he hated it, Aiden was undoubtedly the leader of their ragtag bunch. Responsibilities he never thought he’d have now amounted, and that included attempting to make sure the people he led were okay. Definitely a problem for another time.

That was out of his depths. He didn’t know how to placate people or manage them for efficiency. He didn’t want to treat them as anything but peers. However, the system elevated him to a position he couldn’t ignore.

Grumbling internally, Aiden renewed his efforts. A roar shook the very ground, originating from deep within the forest biome.

Rolling his eyes, he muttered to himself, “Twenty bucks on Josh.”

The boy just had a tendency to push people - and beasts, apparently - to their breaking point. His aggressive nature made it easy to want to punch his face in. Aiden didn’t fancy himself a very aggressive person, so he could only imagine the kind of trouble Josh was getting into in the bestiary.

Venturing into the forest revealed Bartholomew abandoned, wreckage of shattered trees, and gouts of earth ripped up and strewn about.

“What did he pick a fight with?” Following the obvious signs of destruction, he muttered, “Hope he’s not dead. Maybe he’ll learn.”

The farther he followed after, the more concerned he got. Blood splotches covered the ground. Worrying amounts of blood pooled on the ground, so Aiden hurried his pace, grabbing Silver from his pocket and beginning to cast Icy Touch of cooldown.

Shards started to appear around him as he followed the trail. It began to narrow until he found Josh standing over a large antlered bear. His arm bled profusely, the limb hanging uselessly at his side.

But that wasn’t the most pressing thing.

Aiden rushed forward, throwing himself in front of Josh and the downed bear and activating both Crystalline Embodiment and Ice Shield just as the massive crushing weight of a giant manticore slammed down on top of him.

His legs almost gave out instantly as the powerful beast continued to attack. Kneeling, he reinforced the Ice Shield with his shoulder, hoping Crystalline Embodiment would hold up if the shield broke.

“Aiden?” Josh asked, spitting out a glob of blood. “Wh- what’s happening?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?!” Aiden shouted. Shit, can I even kill this thing without pissing off the Naudox? Actually…

The manticore hopped to the side, lunging for the downed bear. “Arctic Gale! Hoarspike!”

The combo attack cut through the air, but the manticore pushed away from him with the help of its wings and swiped the attack away. Can I even beat this thing?

With the bit of space it afforded him, he repositioned in front of the bear as well. “Josh, go get help. You hear me, Josh? Go get help!”

“But-”

“I said go, damnit!” Clicking Silver, his familiar blade appeared. The Ice Shield crumbled to the ground, leaving him feeling naked before the massive beast. The manticore easily rivalled the antlered bear in size. The ground under Aiden’s feet was sticky with the bear’s blood. How the bear still lived, he had no idea. Only the sound of its labored breathing clued him in, but from the way it sounded, the bear would die soon.

Shit. We’re so screwed.

“Help!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Help!”

Dauvar wasn’t that far. Neither were Olivia, Isaac, and Blizzy.

However, from the way the manticore tensed, he didn’t have long before it tried for round two, and Aiden did not feel confident about the outcome.

Why am I protecting the bear anyway? The thought flashed through his mind, but he didn’t have enough time to contemplate it.

The manticore was coming.

Aiden refused to sit idly and let it run him over. He rushed forward to meet the beast, stabbing forward with Silver. The manticore didn’t care about his weapon. To it, the Pen probably looked like little more than a toothpick.

Azure energy wafted off the beast, blasting into Aiden. With barely any time to react, he crouched low and shoulder into the wall of power.

And proceeded to get laid flat on his back.

The manticore’s full weight landed on Aiden’s armor, knocking the wind out of him. A monstrous roar of triumph ripped out of the beast’s thoat, blasting Aiden in the face with a wave of sound that left him reeling.

Little he did mattered to it. Kicking only made it press on him with more of its weight, so he stopped struggling. He focused his gaze on the manticore, realizing that it could’ve killed him multiple times already.

But it hadn’t.

The sound of footsteps approaching reached Aiden. “Apologies, Candidate. Some of the beasts are a bit territorial. It seems your friend wrestled the Forest Mother into Kill’Yava’s territory.”

“Get it. Off me.” He could barely speak with the full weight of the manticore bearing down on Crystalline Embodiment, several shards of ice stabbing into his chest.

He heard the Emissary make a sound - a mixture of whistle and growl. Kill’Yava glared down at him, huffing in displeasure. As soon as the weight left his chest, he dissipated the armor and sucked in a greedy breath of air, nearly wretching as the oxygen flooded his brain.

Groaning, he rolled over to his hands and knees. With all the strength left in his body, he stood. Blinking away stinging tears while holding his sides to ease the stitches, he observed Dauvar nurturing the Forest Mother. Much like Anna, Dauvar conjured several verdant orbs. Each one seemed to fulfill a specific purpose as they descended across the Forest Mother.

“For as big as she is, the Forest Mother didn’t stand much of a chance against Kill’Yava,” Aiden observed aloud.

“On a good day, the Forest Mother would escape with few injuries against Kill’Yava. In terms of beastiology, the Forest Mother is still young. Kill’Yava is an ancient protector. You could say he’s currently on vacation, so having people intrude makes him unhappy,” Dauvar responded without turning toward Aiden.

“Josh would happen to find the biggest, baddest thing in here and piss it off,” muttered Aiden. Looking around, he looked for the boy. “Where’d he go anyway?”

“Apologies, Candidate. He retrieved his weapon and began to make his way here to reinforce you. To stop you both from dying needlessly, I told him to join the others in the jungle. From what I observed, he’s pretty shaken. Looks like Kill’Yava struck without warning,” the Emissary explained.

“He would try to come back and fight in that shape. Muscle head.” Aiden sighed. The action caused him to break into a coughing fit. Tucking his head into the crook of his arm, he rode it out, doubling over as it only proceeded to get worse.

Once it finally quit, blooded stained his sleeve. He groaned, “Fuck me silly.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Anna responded, a strange rhino running up behind her. He raised a brow, opening his mouth to speak. She held up a hand, “Heard the shouts. Everything okay?”

A tickling sensation assaulted the back of his throat. The coughing fit was bad enough that he didn’t want a repeat incident. Nodding, he tried to lift himself up and take a step, nearly falling flat to his face.

Anna caught him. “What’s wro- Oh shit!”

Blood caked her hands. Looking down, they saw his chest. Blood dyed his shirt pink. His body felt numb and his head light. “Ow.”

Any remnants of strength fled, but Anna guided him to the ground. Once settled, she lifted his blood-stained shirt to reveal numerous cuts and massive bruising.

“How were you even standing?” she muttered, a green orb appearing between both hands. She pulled it apart, stretching it into a sheet that she settled across his chest. Repeating the action, she coated his wounds in the verdant energy until he could no longer see them. “That should do it, but you won’t be moving for a few minutes.”

“You’ve got a keeper, Candidate,” Dauvar said.

But Aiden didn’t hear. The dizziness was too much, and he’d lost focus of the world around him. Even as Anna finished, his consciousness fled reality.

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