A deafening silence blanketed the city. Gunfire ceased. Explosions sputtered out. Even the wind refrained from making noise.

  If not for a sudden, barely audible cracking of wood, I would have thought the world was frozen. Almost as though the whole world was waiting to see if the challenge would be accepted.

  Something near the center of the city groaned and splintered. Even from here, I could see the buildings start to vibrate and roll. Those vibrations didn’t stay near the center. They built and expanded. Affecting more and more of the city. Eventually reaching as far as the walls. Walls that were more than a mile from whatever was going on.

  Slowly, a canopy of green rose from the center of the city. Growing higher. Higher. Higher. Even as the last of what could only be leaves passed the tops of the massive structures that had surrounded it, it continued to grow.

  Finally, as the tree reached higher than I thought possible, the trunk ended. Not in dirt or even air. It split into countless threads of wood. Each of which danced and twisted around each other as they lifted their host higher and higher. Until they stopped.

  Like a chaotic melody, a series of ripples raced across the canopy high above. But between one moment and the next, they converged and collapsed into one another. With the sudden movement, a massive explosion of mana rushed out from the tree.

  It hit me like a punch to the solar plexus. Every bit of air rushed out of me as my body went into fight or flight. Whatever that thing was, it was beyond anything I had ever seen or heard of. Yet it was here in the center of a major city. One that produced food for most of the cities in the range. A city that humanity could not lose. Not now.

  But what could we do against it? I doubted that any of our weapons could really do any lasting damage to it. Not before it wiped us out.

  I watched in breathless horror as the tree started to bend. As more than a dozen limbs crawled out of its top and reached for the wall.

  A second roar of challenge echoed through the city, confusing me for a moment. Surely the challenge wasn’t directed at the tree. It would be suicide to challenge such a being.

  Before I could contemplate anything more about what was going on, the tree whipped its body up and around. The multitude of limbs trailed after it only to continue even as the trunk came to a jerking halt. The air cracked and vibrated as every bit of energy raced along the limbs.

  A fountain of blood and debris erupted from the point they hit. Whatever had been there was little more than dust and liquid. No longer able to issue its cries of challenge.

  I sat there, dumbfounded at what I had just witnessed. As the various parts of the tree retreated. While the tree itself settled back into its spot at the center of the city.

  A wave of sound rushed over the city as sirens blared. Not the sirens that warned everyone of some danger. These signaled that the danger was over. That the city was clear. That people could come out of wherever they were hiding.

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  “It looks like the battle is over.” A voice called through what had to be the train's intercom. “We will be underway just as soon as we disconnect from the city. We should be arriving at the platform in a few minutes. Thank you for your patience.”

  “Well,” Bert huffed out a breath. “Glad that’s over. I just hope there are a few stores open when we reach the station.”

  What the fuck was wrong with him? He was acting like what had happened was nothing. Like whatever that tree was, it wasn’t a threat. The idea of it still being around scared the living shit out of me.

  I mean, who could tell if it suddenly decided to destroy the train? And if it did, it wasn’t like any of us could stop it. Hell, could anyone out there stop such a creature? And where did it come from?

  So many questions flew through my head, none of which I could answer. Finally, though, I asked him a question. “How are you so calm about this?”

  “Look right there.” He pointed down at a part of the city directly below us. When I didn’t, he rolled his eyes. “This city is littered with shelters. Each protected by the city itself.”

  “And how does that change anything that just happened?”

  “Lionsguard uses the environment around it to prevent any monsters from getting in. That isn't always possible. Cities without that option have other ways they deal with the swarms of beasts. Harvest is one of those that is designed to take advantage of the city itself. To turn everything into a kill zone.”

  “That is fucking insane.” I was scared just being in a city that thought such a strategy was even worth a second thought. “Who in their right mind would live in such a city?”

  “Did you not pay attention in history class last year?”

  “No,” he shot me a scathing look. I rolled my eyes. “I was too busy working on studying for my certification test.”

  “For what this time?”

  “Basic weapons and shields.” I shrugged like it was nothing. But honestly, that test was hard as hell. And even with all the information I had managed to cram into my head, I still didn’t pass the test. Though having experienced reality and system failures helped me understand why it was so overly complicated and redundant.

  “Wait? Really?”

  I held up a hand to forestall his excitement at having the qualifications to work on his gear. “Don’t get too excited. I failed the test.”

  “You? Fail? I…”

  “I skipped over all the redundancies, thinking that the designers and rules were overdone. That I knew better. Let us just say I have been thoroughly educated.” He grimaced. “Now, tell me what has you so excited about the shops near the train station.”

  His mood perked right up. “My mother swears that there is a bakery that rivals her cooking.” I highly doubted that. “While my dad says there is a weapons shop that sells monster-based weapons.”

  “You want a weapon made of monster parts?” I shook my head. “Do you even have the money for that?”

  “Ah, but here they cost half as much as back home. After all,” he gestured at the piles of dead that people were already going over. “They have all the monster parts right here.”

  A soft thunking sound vibrated down the train as something released from the back. A moment later, the train started to creep forward, picking up speed as it made its way toward the platform.

  It wasn’t even a full minute later that mana surged out of the back of the train, and we started to slow back down. Smoothly sliding to a stop just as the last car entered the station.

  “Welcome to Harvest. Feel free to wander around, but please keep out of the way of those loading and unloading the cargo sections. This train will be departing in two hours.” Bert didn’t wait for the voice to finish as he did something to force the table to fold back into the wall and made for the door.

  When he reached the door, he must have noticed that I hadn't moved. “Come on, Eli. If we don’t leave now, most of the good stuff will be gone.” I didn’t want to leave, but he was just too excited, and I had promised to stay near him. With a sigh, I made sure I had my pad and my emergency tools as I got up.

  Bert didn’t wait for me; he booked it out of the door and toward the platform. Only stopping there as I was stuck in a crowd of others wandering along.