Elijah hit a tree hard, breaking several branches on his way down to the ground. He hadn’t expected a thunderclap from the Spellsword but it shouldn’t have surprised him. The attack, luckily, didn’t do too much damage, just three more health points. He’d noticed that with Benjamin’s version as well—it was more of an interdiction spell than a damage spell.

  He couldn’t help chuckling. After all, Elijah had watched Benjamin use that spell several times, but he’d never been on the receiving end; it was quite an interesting experience. He stood quickly as Tyr rushed towards him, bringing his hands together for another Thunderclap. If he was using mana this freely, he likely had many points in Intelligence—which explained the low hit points. He likely had high Apprentice or maybe even Journeyman-tier in that stat.

  A reposition was necessary if he was going to avoid getting crushed against the tree and run through by the man’s eponymous sword. Bats swirled around him again, depositing him behind the man.

  He drew his dagger—a simple, unenchanted piece that Nicholas had procured for him—and lunged at the man’s back with it. The Spellsword rolled out of the way, the blade of the knife nicking his shoulder and taking off a single hit point.

  “I like that,” the man chuckled. “That’s a pretty effective movement spell. How’s the range?”

  Elijah had to dodge the man’s thrust. He summoned a single bat from his scout spell and let it fly into the air. It was more cost-effective than summoning the entire swarm. “Pretty much unlimited, only downside is I can’t move anyone besides myself more than a few dozen miles at a time.”

  A flash of green to the left drew both Elijah and Tyr’s attention.

  “Crap, right back to Nethy,” Tyr moaned as they saw Nicholas had landed a killing blow on one of the two men he’d been fighting. “And right into the hands of the Reapers.”

  That caught Elijah off guard. He thought these players were memories created by the game, like Zed had been during the first trial. But if they were worried about the Reapers being in Nethy, that must mean they were current, active players.

  “Wait!” Elijah tried to call out to Tyr, but the man drove his blade into Elijah’s leg. His muscles locked up as the Spellsword activated his electrical spell.

  His mind fogged from the pain, barely focusing closely enough to activate his ‘Dragontooth Swarm’ spell. The bats sprung out from his skin, forcing Tyr backward, thankfully taking his electrified sword with him.

  He quickly explained what he had assumed to the man he was battling. “We don’t have to keep fighting. Shouldn’t keep fighting. Neither of us has to get sent back for a respawn into the grips of the Reapers.”

  Tyr laughed.

  “You think this game is going to let both parties out of this mission alive?” The man flourished his blade with every word. “Sorry, man, we were given explicit instructions to take out every dryad in these woods. And right now? My interface lists you and your friends as dryads.”

  He lunged blade first, angling the tip of his weapon at where Elijah’s heart should be. Elijah’s scout bat came out of nowhere, going straight for the man’s eyes. The death of his friend had been enough of a distraction to Tyr that he’d forgotten about the little creature. It tore at the man’s face with thorn-like talons, distracting him long enough for Elijah to dodge the blade and retaliate with his own strike. Not with the dagger in his hand, but with his open palm. He struck both the hilt of the man’s weapon and his chest, activating his Reality Warp skill for both. A notification of the skill leveling up popped into his vision before minimizing.

  That was fine; it was the other menus that appeared that were most interesting to Elijah. He spotted a sturdy-looking branch about five meters up and activated another teleport to reposition himself onto it. He was getting close to mana drain with only five mana remaining and cursed that he hadn’t had a chance to boost his Intelligence with any of his unallocated points yet.

  Looking back at the debug menus floating in his vision, he saw that his hunch had been right—Tyr’s own Intelligence score was twenty-five but none of his other stats were anywhere close to reaching Apprentice. His party must not have a Sasha to knock sense into them.

  His armor and equipment were equally unimpressive, being basic, unenchanted gear.

  Elijah > Nic, can you take over for my familiar and send him my way?

  Nicholas > You got it.

  Tyr had finally caught the bat that had been assaulting him and turned to face Elijah. If he used ‘Thunder Clap’ now, the angle would send Elijah high into the sky. The spell wouldn’t kill him, but the landing almost certainly would. Nicholas reacted faster, though.

  Elijah had expected Nicholas to take over Bitter Dryad’s fight and then send the creature to Elijah; instead, he’d pulled Elijah’s familiar off of the other player and hurled it at Tyr. It screamed while flying through the air before slamming hard into the Spellsword. Talon-like claws extended from the miniature dryad’s fingers, and it went to work clawing and raking at the man’s face.

  Elijah dropped, driving the dagger between the man’s shoulders. If he’d been playing a Rogue-style class, it would have been considered a ‘Backstab’ but instead it only counted as a critical strike.

  [COMBAT LOG]

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  CRITICAL SNEAK ATTACK!

  You’ve landed a blow in a weak spot on an unsuspecting enemy.

  Damage x5.

  Damage Dealt:

  4 [Basic Dagger]

  x5 [Critical Sneak Attack]

  = 20 damage

  He hadn’t expected it to count as a sneak attack as well, but the extra multiplier was a boon. Tyr exploded into green shards as the attack’s damage dropped him down to zero health.

  Luck.

  Elijah knew he wasn’t a frontline fighter by any means. Every time he got into a fight with another player or a high-level monster, he only ever won by sheer luck. The game glitching and killing the Acolyte, Mara’s intervention in the rooftop battle with Tom, glitching the dev room’s Core against the Reapers, and now an incredibly lucky sneak attack against Tyr. He wondered if the game AI was fudging the numbers more than it said it actually could.

  The horde of dryads surged forward as another flash of light showed why Nicholas was the better brawler. Elijah had to climb upward to avoid being crushed. Noting the surroundings, he saw what had them so concerned; a new fire had started. This one was closer, just off the left flank of the group. The entire forest was burning.

  Bo > Rear and sides are secured. We've got another problem, though. Benjamin firebombed a guy as he was coming out of the trees.

  Benjamin > He startled me! It’s not my fault; it was a knee-jerk reaction.

  Nicholas > Enough! Where’s Sasha? We need to get out of here.

  Elijah searched the mobbing dryads, looking for any sign of her, worrying that she had been killed. Had there been an enemy that neither he nor Nicholas had seen? He finally glimpsed her health bar through the crowd. It was fleeting, but Elijah saw she was losing health fast. She’d been on the ground healing a dryad when the group had rushed forward, and now she was being trampled.

  Elijah jumped down, pushing several scared dryads out of the way until he found her prone form. He bent down to lift her up, but as soon as he started lifting, his leg gave out. Pain shot up his thigh from the wound that Tyr had caused. They both fell back to the ground, his leg useless and arms trapped beneath her body. He did his best to angle himself to protect her. His arms guarding her head, his body covering hers. Hips aligned, he was briefly aware of how their pelvises lined up before another jolt of pain distracted him. Feet slammed into his head and sides, each blow knocking off several health points. He clenched his eyes against the pain.

  His thoughts blurred, and the taste of blood filled his mouth as the dryads hit him over and over. He didn’t blame them; they were children. Fleeing certain death would send anyone into a panic. Just when the pain had become too much and he could feel his consciousness slipping away, he felt something different. A bright warmth spread through his body, combating the pain. He opened his eyes. Through the haze of the pain he saw her.

  Sasha was looking up at him, worry etched all over her wooden face. She had her hands pressed against his chest, dumping healing energy into him. Every stomp, every strike of a dryad’s foot was like a fireball cast against his nerves, but Sasha didn’t let up.

  It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, but the constant barrage felt like it had taken hours before finally letting up.

  Elijah slowly got to his feet as the last of the dryads slipped into the wood line and out of sight, leaving only the Guardian and the party behind. Nicholas rushed over and helped Elijah to his feet while Benjamin and Bo helped Sasha up and checked her over. Even through the fog of the endured pain, Elijah took notice of how much Nicholas had grown since he’d first met the man. Elijah and Sasha had been in a very compromising position, and instead of attacking him like Nicholas would have done before, he was brushing Elijah off and checking him. He was growing not only as a leader but also as a friend.

  Nicholas snapped his fingers in front of Elijah’s face. “Dude, you in there? Sasha, your healing should include concussions, right?”

  Elijah shook his head. “I’m okay, dazed,” he mumbled. It wasn’t a lie; he’d been through a harrowing experience, but thanks to his friends he’d come through unharmed.

  He felt for his connection to Bitter Dryad and the Dragontooth Scout. Both connections were terminated, and he didn’t currently have enough mana to re-summon them. He took out one of his last few mana potions, intent on summoning them both in case he needed them for the next part of the trial. He stopped when a bone-chilling scream echoed out through the burning forest.

  “Mother,” shouted the Guardian, rushing back towards where they had left her, unable and unwilling to continue ignoring his calling of protecting her. Nicholas turned with Elijah still in his arms, intent on following when the whole scene went dark.

  Out of the gloom, a single light began glowing, washing the clearing in a brilliant white glow. A single figure stepped out of the treeline, with skin as white as freshly fallen snow. She was shorter than the Mother had been, just a little smaller than the Mother’s children had been during the first memory they had seen, but she radiated the same aura that she had during the most recent memory.

  As she approached the party, the root armor that had given them form within the memory that wasn’t a memory receded back into the ground, leaving the five of them once more in their own forms

  “You did well, children of man. Although the Mother fell, most of her children escaped. That would not have been the case if not for your timely intervention.” She gave a slight nod to Sasha, still being held up by the rogue and mage.

  “Are you the Mother?” Elijah asked, sensing a familiarity within the creature.

  “Yes, and no,” the dryad told them. “Nature in all its amazing aspects has no true beginning and end. When a forest dies, it leaves behind the seeds of its return.”

  A single acorn appeared in her hand, which floated free before burying itself in the ground. “Even when a fire can burn down a thousand years of growth, in another thousand years the forest will remain and the fire will be forgotten.”

  “So you’re the goddess reborn?” Bo asked from behind Elijah.

  The Mother-child nodded her head with a soft smile. “As correct as any assumption about the nature of divinity could be. As long as the children of the forest still survive, and there is hope for regrowth, then I shall live on.”

  “Where do we go from here then, Mother? Will you be able to aid us in the coming fight?” Nicholas’ voice was reverent, as if praying to the goddess, but fell as she shook her head.

  “The battle to come is among the children of men. That is the Goddess Fate’s dominion, not mine. The Heartwood have touched you, but still I may not interfere.”

  Her ivy and branch wings extended from her back, and she moved closer to Nicholas, hovering, or hanging, at eye level with him. She placed a hand against his cheek. “You have the potential within you; your entire team does. You must go alone from here, my Sovereign, but you will succeed.”

  With a smile, she vanished, and the team was deposited unceremoniously in the antechamber of the trials.