The path toward success is often more narrow than the one which leads to failure. When you commit to succeed, stay upon that path.

  - Former UWO Command Sergeant Major Umbridge -

  Everything is slow, my breath presses in and out with each step toward uncertainty. Fear is not an option, courage is not a prerequisite. It is adrenaline and sheer will that forces my legs to run. With the slowed perception of time, I take measured strides to avoid the bog holes. There is no time for failure. The path toward success is often narrow after all. People give me strange looks as they pass me going the wrong way. Sergeants yell at me to turn, but I dodge their grasps. I cannot stop. I will not stop.

  The Cleric Verantha runs past me, eyes filled with fear, and then confusion.

  “Where is Bregan?” she yells, but neither of us stops to finish the exchange.

  I’m almost there when the ground tremors harder, the giant creature of myth strides forward. Each colossal leg is like a building. It’s hard to fight against the wind this close.

  I’m almost there…

  “Triage…” I say on instinct.

  Time slows even further, barely a crawl. My pulse feels like a quiet mountain stream in my skull. Everything is so clear, so sharp. There’s no room for anything else, except focus. My body turns as a large dragonfly tries to bite my neck. It turns to attack again, but I roll… it’s so slow, everything is barely moving, and there’s so much time to think. I’ve never had triage active with the passive Messenger of Death.

  I’m thirty-three paces from the closest leg of the Emperor Dragonfly. I can tell it’s winding up to step again. Each step seems to be twenty paces. So I need to move thirteen, no, twelve just in case. The next man-sized dragonfly comes, then another, each one as easy to dodge as the last… until I get that feeling, my mana… it’s running low. In the slowed time, I realize the problem now. Without triage or Messenger of Death… I’ll be killed. Shit. When I give the Emperor Dragonfly my stack of Wither Charges, the passive will deactivate.

  Move. React. Survive. Remember the plan when time comes full swing.

  My unbroken hand touches the Emperor Dragonfly, I feel the surge as fourteen Wither Charges disperse. A line of blue fire snakes up and into the leg, traveling all the way to the Emperor Dragonfly’s core. Time slaps me in the face as Triage fizzles out too. Roll right, jump left, and run.

  Roll right and… fuck… pain in my broken hand as a dragonfly grabs the fingers in its mouth, dragging me across the ground, picking me up into the air. I feel wither charges and memories from dead soldiers and bugs slamming into me. The dragonfly that has my hand by the fingers beats its wings furiously. I summon the Mace of the Ardent Flame and slam it as hard as I can against its face. Fire erupts over it as its compound eyes rupture from the spikes. Three of my fingers get bitten off in the exchange.

  I thud to the ground, rolling in the boggy dirt. Rising to my feet as the adrenaline pounds through my blood.

  “Fuck… run… move.”

  [ 1 x Wither Charge Gained ]

  [ Wither Charges Full ]

  [ 1 x Charge Converting ]

  [ First Stage of Hidden Passive Activated ]

  [ Messenger of Death ]

  Time slows again, giving me a much-needed respite. Blood spills from the fingerless portions of my hand. I grab one of the tourniquets from my cargo pockets mid-roll, dodging another man-sized dragonfly. I slide the tourniquet over and pull the Velcro strap as tight as I can before I twist the rod and latch it in place. It hurts… but I need to keep running.

  The next monstrous leg is coming up. Deep breath. The ground trembles in reverence for this behemoth as its leg steps near me. Pressing water from the ground like pimples. I run up the mounding dirt and push the charges into it again.

  That’s twenty-eight now. I can do this. Time slips back. I groan as my sense of pain returns. More Wither Charges. Full again, before it even… I jump to the side, narrowly missing death by snapping mandibles.

  I manage to disperse the next set of charges, then the next, and the next, I don’t stop, I can’t stop… I’m doing it. I’m fucking doing it.

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  I think I’m at eighty-something now. My legs are tired. The adrenaline barely threads through my weariness.

  The Emperor Dragonfly begins to beat its wings harder, faster… thrashing against the ground, and slamming itself into the large plant, cracking the base of it. It lunges and eats its own comrades. What is it… I hear… no I feel the overwhelming whispers from the brands.

  Whispering Decay, it activated, on more than one brand. A thunderous chittering of mandibles precedes the symphony of humming wings. Moving so fast that my eyes water even when I turn away. The Emperor Dragonfly takes flight, its massive legs peeling from the ground. I grab one of the bristling hairs coming from its legs, twisting my own leg over it. Willing more charges to go into it. It has over ninety now. Keep going. As fast as the charges come, I press them in. Fresh charges fill me as the emperor eats its own kind, turning them to sloshing pulp.

  I’ve given it well over a hundred now, but only eleven have detonated. The air nips at me the higher it flies. Why did I think holding on was a good idea? The other dragonflies are giving it a wide berth now. I have full charges, just in case I need the slowed perception from the passive Messenger of Death. A staggering and erratic flight path sends the little juices left in my stomach sloshing around. Its wings are humming so loud, I think I’m going deaf.

  With the fog cleared now, I see the expansive boglands. Deep pools of water. It’s too high up to see the soldiers below, just little blurs of exploding dragonflies. But I see the top of the plant now. A massive fucking dandelion, but the little umbrella shoots on top aren’t white like they normally would be, they’re different colors. My grip is slipping I think, with only one hand and my legs squeezing. The vibrations are making me numb. I think I bit my tongue hard earlier. Warmth spreads in my mouth.

  A series of black text boxes show up.

  [ Weapon Learned ]

  [ Type: Mage Staff – Plant Aspect ]

  [ Weapon Name Logged ]

  [ Staff of the Brambling Vines ]

  [ Consume to Evolve Abyss or Store? ]

  [ Evolve / Store ]

  My head spins as the Emperor Dragonfly barrel rolls, moving erratically now. Diving toward the massive dandelion. My organs slosh as it lands caving in the plant walls. Seeping ooze swallows me, catching my fall as I slide through it. My leg is twisted the wrong way. My kneecap is on the backside of my knee. The world tilts as the weight from the Emperor Dragonfly bends the stalk of the skyscraper-sized dandelion. Even slowed, everything is moving fast. My breath is held firmly as I slide through the goop. My hand hits the Evolve button. More text boxes show up.

  [ Consuming… Success ]

  [ Rolling for Evolution… Success ]

  [ Evolving… ]

  I slip through a crack in the side of the rapidly breaking plant walls. Fresh air strikes my lungs after I swat the goop from my mouth. Two deep breaths later and I’m sliding against the inner walls for the second time today. Everything is tremoring like I’m caught in the eye of a storm. My body has that pins and needles feeling, still battered from the vibrations. My head's muddled like I went through a washing machine. A loud cracking noise pierces through my deafness, the plant is splitting… fast. Another pop-up.

  [ Armor Learned ]

  [ Type: Tank ]

  [ Armor Name Logged ]

  [ Aegis Armor ]

  [ Consume to Evolve Abyss or Store? ]

  [ Evolve / Store ]

  A fiber smacks me across the arm, shredding my sleeve. Well, evolving doesn’t seem to have done anything useful. Another strike, now I’m slowing, the plant is going horizontal. Oh shit… I’m so fucked. If I store this armor, can I wear it? Will that even be enough? No right? Gravity… shit I don’t know. One way to find out. I slap the store button.

  Okay… how do I…

  [ Evolution Complete ]

  [ Abyssal Skill Added ]

  [ Dark Vines ]

  Okay? That’s good, right?

  Shit, I’m sliding again, the plants falling faster. This is going to… a black vine spindles out from my hand, snagging and grabbing onto the plant wall and burrowing. This is… really good, I think.

  I’m slowing down again, until I’m hanging. The plant continues its cracking and crumbling downwards in a cascade of brilliant chaos.

  When the side of the dandelion hits the ground, it sends a tremor through the rest of the plant. If time wasn’t slowed, I don’t think I would be able to appreciate the beauty of it. Maybe it’s my scrambled brain, but it’s breathtaking. Fluid springs forth like geysers, plant fiber cracks, and folds, splintering and exploding. The dark vine from Abyss pulls me away from the chaos, swinging me back and forth between the ruptures.

  I groan as I feel my mana running dry, Abyss is efficient as hell, but everything has a cost. A new box appears.

  [ Mana Insufficient… Converting Alternate Fuel Source ]

  What does that… I feel a tingling in my spine running down towards Abyss… it’s eating Wither Charges.

  [ Passive Messenger of Death Deactivated ]

  [ 1 x Wither Charge Gained ]

  It cycles again and again as new charges are gained before it peels the new charges from me, burning them into something else until there’s nothing left inside me. No passive, no mana, shit. Time’s in full swing now. My eyes blink fast, my heart is pounding. Everything is happening too fast. I’m like a ragdoll on the end of the vine. Everything hurts, I can barely breathe. It heaves and pulls me expertly through the death churn that’s happening all around me.

  Holy shit this item is overpowered.

  Everything begins to slowly settle. Until it doesn’t, heavy vibrations shake my body, familiar vibrations. Looking up, I see it. The Emperor Dragonfly. Blue flames from the Witherbrands that activated lick at different areas of its body. One of its eyes is clawed out, the other has deep gashes in it. The madness from Whispering Decay seems to be highly effective. It’s flying low, passing over me. I feel a pull coming from my arm suddenly, from the dark vine of Abyss. An unnaturally long vine flies into the sky toward the… no, no.

  “No, bad Abyss!” I yell frantically as it latches itself to the Emperor’s leg.

  The vine goes taunt, and my shoulder dislocates as it snaps me into the air.

  Here we go again…

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