"A forest," Azure commented dryly. "If one needed to test a practitioner of the Wood element, this would be the perfect place."

  I nodded, processing everything around me. Trees stretched out seemingly to infinity in all directions, their gnarled trunks creating impossible-to-follow shadows.

  "There are two possibilities here. The first being that Elder Molric is giving me an advantage…" I trailed off, and as I did, a nearby branch wilted, turned to dust without any apparent cause.

  "Or?" Azure asked, though it sounded like he already knew the answer.

  "Or it will be Hell-difficulty level even with my supposed advantage."

  The air around us felt thick. Each breath felt heavy and syrupy, each exhalation carrying a strong metallic smell of concentrated red sun energy.

  "Considering what we know of the elder’s... unconventional experimental methods," Azure mused, "I think it safe to assume that he has not chosen to be generous."

  "Yes," I agreed quietly, "that is what I fear."

  Suddenly, a slight rustling noise caused me to freeze, but it was simply the vine adjusting its position to better protect my vital areas. Still, no sense in waiting to find out what had it so agitated. I produced one of the absorption stones Elder Molric had given me.

  The absorption stone pulsed as I activated it, and converted its reserves into refined red sun essence which flowed into my Foundational Rune. As my energy levels returned to normal, I felt the warm sensation spreading throughout my channels.

  Just as I completed the absorption of the stone's power, I felt the vine stiffen against my skin. Its usually supple length turned into a tautness similar to that of steel cable, and I felt vibrations in its structure - almost as if it was trembling.

  That... was not a good sign.

  "Where?" I asked softly, knowing it would understand the question I was asking.

  The vine's tip reached out hesitantly, and pointed towards a particularly dense grouping of trees whose leaves were a deep purple color. Those shadows seemed darker than they should be and were moving in unnatural ways that had nothing to do with the wind.

  "Master," Azure’s normally calm voice had a hint of anxiety in it, "what do you plan to do?"

  I continued to watch as something dark and sinuous began to emerge from the writhing shadows. "Well, the elder told me to survive. He did not tell me that I had to kill anything." I grinned, though it may not have come across as completely sane. "So, I will do what any rational person would in this situation."

  "And that would be?"

  "Running like crazy in the opposite direction."

  I spun on my heel and took off, unwilling to wait to see what abomination Elder Molric had created in his laboratory. The forest flew past me as I ran between the twisted trunks and beneath branches that attempted to snag me with their reaching arms.

  The vine had relaxed somewhat once I started running, but it remained in a defensive position, prepared to respond at a moment’s notice. Good thing it did, since we’d hardly gone sixty meters before Azure warned me:

  "Master! Left side!"

  Without any hesitation, I triggered the Blink Step rune on my thigh, and my perception of reality distorted as I teleported three meters to the right.

  Not a moment too soon because just as I disappeared something massive shot through the space where I had been running at an incredibly high rate of speed.

  I gasped as I got a clear view of our attacker.

  It was…, well, it could technically be considered a snake in the same way that Elder Molric’s fire-breathing plant could technically be called a plant.

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  The creature was easily eight meters long, its scales a grotesque mix of purple and green colors that seemed to twist and writhe even when it was not moving. However, it was the modifications – wooden growths protruding from its body at fixed intervals to create an organic plate armor, head encircled by a crown of thorns and branches, and its fangs appeared to be constructed of some sort of living wood – that really caught my eye.

  "The red sun energy it emits indicates mid-stage Rank 1," Azure reported while I dodged another extremely rapid strike. "These modifications however... they’re disturbing. It most certainly has additional abilities."

  I had to agree with him. The wooden elements were not merely attached to the snake; they were an integral part of it, and the snake was using them exactly as naturally as it used its scales.

  Someone,likely the elder. had done a great deal of advanced research here.

  A part of me wanted to try to manipulate it — after all, those wooden parts had to be susceptible to my control…

  The vine's warning squeeze around my neck jolted me back to reality. Right. Not the best time to mess with mutant snakes, especially with something much worse possibly closing in on us.

  "Too bad," I murmured as I activated Blink Step again to dodge another attack. "Would’ve been fun to see if I could play around with those modifications."

  The snake’s next attack missed me by a larger margin as I began running again. Its angry hiss echoed behind us as it ceased pursuit, digging itself into the earth and disappearing.

  Good thinking on its part; whatever was pursuing us was rapidly closing in.

  As I continued to run further into the forest, one idea continually went round-and-round inside my mind: when (if) I survived this ordeal, I was definitely going to ask Elder Molric about flying runes. Running was okay and all, but being able to fly over such monstrous mutations as these seemed a vastly better survival tactic.

  With each step, the forest grew thicker, but I was also aware that the trees themselves were becoming increasingly modified, their bark developing a metallic sheen similar to the snake’s scales.

  But that wasn’t the worst of it; something was still following me.

  I could neither see nor hear it clearly due to the twisted trunks and twisting shadows, but I could feel it. With each impact of its movement, I could feel tremors in the ground that caused the metallic trees to ring like empty bells.

  Whatever it was, it was large, and it was closing in on me quickly.

  The vine around my neck continued to tighten regularly – three quick squeezes, pause, repeat. It was trying to time something...

  "Master," Azure whispered, "the energy signature behind us is... substantial."

  Another shockwave shook the ground, stronger this time. Closer. The metallic ringing of the trees had become increasingly frantic-sounding, like the warning bells in a doomed city.

  "How substantial?" I asked, though I wasn't certain I wanted to know the answer.

  "I can’t say for certain, but I am starting to understand why Elder Molric provided you with those absorption stones.”

  Oh, wonderful.

  The tremors were happening faster and faster now, and the intervals between them were decreasing rapidly as whatever was pursuing us accelerated its pace. The sounds of splintering wood and tearing earth filled the air as it tore through the forest in its wake.

  I was burning through oxygen as I pushed myself to run as fast as I could. The Blink Step rune on my thigh was primed to activate at a moment’s notice, but I chose to hold off activating it. Using it now would waste energy.

  The vine’s warning pattern changed abruptly – two quick squeezes followed by a sudden pull to the right.

  “DODGE!” Azure shouted.

  I activated Blink Step immediately, and the world blurred as I teleported. However, something felt off about the teleport. Reality itself seemed to catch on something jagged.

  And then I felt an explosion of pain across my left side as something massive collided with me during mid-teleport.

  The world spun wildly around me as I was flung through the air, crashing into one tree, then another. The bark shattered like glass upon each impact. Eventually, a third tree finally stopped my impromptu flight, its trunk cracked severely from the impact of my collision.

  I landed hard on the ground, and tasted blood. Dimly, through the fog of pain, I saw the plants surrounding me begin to move and entwine themselves into a protective barrier around my battered body.

  “Master,” Azure’s voice sounded as if it came from a great distance, “You need to move. Now!”

  Groaning, I opened my eyes and gazed upward through openings in the shield of protection that the plants had formed.

  My blood ran cold.

  What had been chasing us emerged from the area of the forest that had been destroyed.

  It moved on six legs that resembled living stone, and with each step, it created large impressions in the earth. Its body was a twisted hybrid of rock and plant life – granite slabs woven together with thick, pulsating vines that were emitting red sun energy. There were multiple heads sprouting from its serpentine neck, each of which represented a different and terrifying combination of rock and vegetation.

  What horrified me the most was the amount of energy that it was releasing. This was not a Rank 1 mutated being such as the snake. This... this was something else entirely.

  All six of the monster's heads turned toward my hiding place, and six pairs of eyes began to glow with murderously bright crimson light.

  As I locked eyes with it, one single thought managed to fight through my terror:

  I really should have asked more questions about the "failed experiments" the elder had mentioned.

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