The destruction of my diverted attack is visible from the path leading towards the forest. A large part of the upper canopy is simply missing. Oops. I can’t imagine the local biome went undisturbed.

“We might want to pick up our pace a bit,” I tell Sammy.

Would be really awkward to get there and find Matthew strewn about in bits and pieces. Can’t imagine she’d take that well. When I start jogging, I make sure to keep an agonizing pace so she isn’t left behind.

The speed we travel to the forest at pales in comparison to the full throttle speeds I’d managed on the way back to the marketplace. Despite that, Sammy’s robe starts to stick to a layer of sweat, and her breathing becomes labored.

“Catch up when you can,” I tell her after checking the surroundings. Nothing is nearby, giving me the confidence to speed away and not have to worry about something happening to her.

Letting my speed carry me forward as fast as possible feels freeing, wind rushing through my ears in a way that tugs at something left dormant inside my chest for a time untold. Such is life that the giddy feeling would be so fleeting and the brief stint of speeding across open land without worrying about my sister bleeding out in my arms comes to an end.

[Perception] lights up like a Christmas tree when I pass into the forest. I don’t even try to count the number of presences registering. Instead, I make my way to the most familiar of the bunch. In my haste to find Matthew, I pass by dozens of scrambling monsters of all types.

Anything I’ve seen from my Tower is present. Howling and growling, snarls and roars, shrieks and grunts. Like a kicked bee’s nest, the entire forest is in an uproar. So much so that I become witness to monster against monster action for the first time.

To the east, wolves circle a mother of the forest, an antlered bear. On the flip side, goblins surround a herd of much too large deer. And at the center of it all, several dozen monkeys make a punching bag out of my ward.

These three groups seem content to leave each other be and do their own thing, but all I see is a bounty waiting for the opportunistic me to shake up the status quo. As far as Matthew goes, he looks beat to all hell. However, from how he’s ripping apart monkeys with his bare hands, twice as tall and at least three times the size, he seems to be doing just fine.

Physically, at least. Not too sure about mentally. From his movements, looks like any rational thought was left behind ages ago. Best to watch and observe while making a pretty penny of my accidental wanton deforestation.

With a newfound level of excitement, I equip my armor and greatsword, then slip towards the wolves surrounding the mother of the forest. They seem to be wearing it down faster than the goblins with the eer, so to reap the best benefit, I should take all of them down.

[Imbue] coats my blade with a layer of shadow, and [Dash] helps me cross the space between. The wolves don’t even know what’s hit them when my greatsword cleaves the hindlegs off two. There are a total of five, but the moment they turn to address my presence, the mother of the forest lets out a guttural roar and charges.

Weighing as much as a semi, the mother of the forest slams its antlers into one, goring it through the neck. Swing its head throws the corpse into another. I don’t stay still and dispatch the last one, turning my attention to the massive bear.

It backs away now that it isn’t surrounded, but today’s not the day for mercy. Rather, today is a day of giving back to others. And with recent events, what I give is swift, merciful death. My greatsword clashes against the massive bear’s antlers and stills.

[Slash] rectifies that, cleaving the bear down to the center of its chest.

Turning, I circumvent the monkeys. Some of them think it wise to try and intercept me, breaking away from the central play. Whether out of boredom or because they don’t have functioning eyes, I’ll never know. [Dash] and brute force cleave them in half in a split second.

The monkeys seem to get the message and leave me be to make my way towards the encircled deer and group of goblins. I let my body move instinctively, feeling the ease in which I move across the vegetation, dirt, and roots with a proficiency I don’t deserve but appreciate nonetheless.

Three deer, twice as big as any I’ve ever seen outside of the Tower, kick and buck and skewer any goblin with either too much bravery or too little brain. I’d bet on the latter after my few encounters with them.

When I arrive, I do so with visceral fury. [Stab] gores one unsuspecting deer. It lets out a small, pained noise before falling over, crushing two goblins beneath its weight. The two remaining deer decide I’m far more terrifying and not worth the attempt at defense and recklessly charge away, blazing a trail through the goblins and sending them scattering.

“Damn,” I mutter, losing sight of them in but a second. Without prey, the goblins set their sights on me. “I guess I’ll have to take a consolation prize. A pity.”

Slaughtering the goblins is a task I find repetitive and not at all challenging, but sometimes opportunity calls for doing menial tasks. Big and small, they’ll all add Coin to my wallet. Can’t fault them for their pitiful strength.

My [Imbued] blade shatters the paltry defenses the goblins muster. While there might be twice as many here as there are monkeys, it’s only a matter of time before they all lay lifeless at my feet.

Routine task complete, I check on Matthew.

He’s grown even larger than before, but his clothes leave little to the imagination. Torn and little more than rags, they don’t manage to hide the pulsing black veins that writhe as if alive beneath his skin.

As pale as pale can be, he looks as if he’s already stepped halfway into the realm of embraced undeath. I visibly watch as a monkey’s fist slams into his arm. He doesn’t even react when the arm snaps in two, bones piercing skin. He latches onto the offending monkey’s head with his good arm and rips its throat out with his teeth, then holds the corpse over his head and lets it drip all over him.

As if excited, the black tendrils pulse in excitable rhythm. My shadow squirms in disgust, and I have to agree. Especially when Matthew’s broken arm begins to snap back into place with loud pops, causing him to grunt.

The monkeys don’t wait for him to finish, many assaulting in the space around him. He’s constantly being battered and repeating the snap, crackle, and pop method. Doesn’t matter how bad the hits he takes are. A little blood apparently goes a long way towards patching him up. Humpty Dumpty must be jealous.

All of this happens in the span of a few seconds. Now that I’ve gauged the situation, I worry less. Even if monstrous and not at all okay, Matthew is in no immediate danger.

“Matthew!” Sammy’s voice cuts across the slaughter grounds, drawing his attention up and away. For the first time since I found him, he shows a sign of emotion—relief. “Watch out!”

In the moment he looks away and stops fighting back with everything he has, the monkeys dogpile him. Several grab each arm and leg, climbing up his enormous frame and scaling him like a tree. The back of his head gets the punching bag treatment. His neck strains against the onslaught of fist, tooth, and claw.

Then he stills as his neck sharply snaps to the side. All at once, his body falls limp.

Did I jinx him? “Oh shit!”

I [Dash] forward repeatedly, carving a path through the monkeys that dare stand in my way. They don’t stop beating his slumped form, don’t stop gouging out chunks of black veined flesh.

Not until my blade cuts a group in half. Seeing me cut their friends down, the horde of monkeys shriek as if I’ve offended them. One starts to pound on its chest, and the others follow. The forest quickly becomes an overwhelming echo chamber of very pissed monkey sounds.

Not that I care.

“Come then!” I roar, blood pumping as the veritable army surrounding me surges forward.

The first monkey gets close, and my foot caves in its chest and sends it careening into the others behind it. Vitality heats up my limbs and fills me with invigorating energy, what I know now as exerting my stamina.

Fueling my violence, energy burns in my hands, legs, and chest. My blade never stops its arcing flow of bloody tribute as I embody a reaper.

Stab left, slash right. Kick forward, block and stab behind. The erratic dance of my capabilities pitted against the monkeys grows to a feverish pitch, one I fall into with ease.

Clarity unlike anything I’ve ever experienced settles over me as the battleground becomes a means in which to test myself upon.

“Get out of there, Wyatt!” Sammy screams.

I won’t stop, absolutely not.

I’ll not leave Matthew to die, and I’m… having fun. Seeing two more monkeys appear after each I cut down thrills me to no end. The devastation of my blade satisfies a primal need for carnage.

A tempestuous song of blood manifests unto the world with my every action, a song I wish would never end. Each movement feels natural, focused, right. An acute awareness, a sensation hard to describe as anything but near omniscience in a small bubble around me, gives me the ability to up the ante.

A monkey leaps at my back, but a sidestep sends it hurtling past me and into its charging brethren. Ducking under another’s gorilla arms, I delight in the fading of light from its eyes when my booted foot caves in the back of its head.

Flurries and onslaughts, tidal waves of flesh break themselves on my armor. An urge to step away and really throw myself into the fray of blood, flesh, and bone calls to me, beckons ever so passionately.

And I wish to answer.

But my mission here isn’t to slay all of these monkeys with impunity, it’s to save Matthew. He needs healing soon, or I’ll figure out what happens when a Numbered dies. With so many foes, I don’t have time to think, let alone catch my breath.

The seemingly endless waves don’t stop coming, no matter how many I cut, kick, punch, or stab. Sammy’s [Ice Spears] picks off a few here and there, but the incantation makes her casting speed far too slow to be of any impact. Not to mention the monkeys might be feral, but they aren’t stupid.

Rearing my whole will to abate the impulse to leave Matthew draws my attention for a split second, one in which sends me lurching forward and into waiting arms. 

[Living Shadow] bails me out, using [Suppress] to allow me to slip free and [Dash] away. I reset my stance next to Matthew’s fallen form and watch as my autonomous shadow joins the fray, casting [Suppress] wherever might be most effective.

Before I can get back into the flow, several blows knock me back. I try to catch my step and end up tripping over Matthew’s prone form. The monkeys are on me before I hit the ground.

“Looks like it’s my turn.”