Welnar slowly stirs, awakening to a strange tugging sensation on his leg. He rubs his eyes, groaning as his entire body hurts… Then he sees the source of the tugging - A beast of some kind. It looks like a wolf, but its fur is black as night, with similarly black wisps floating off of it…

  Welnar shrieks, and with a surge of adrenaline yanks his leg out of the beast's mouth, thankfully only having his pant leg torn in the process. “Get the fuck off me!” He yells, invoking his fear aura which causes the beast to yelp, and quickly run away…

  {“Monarch? You there?”} He asks mentally.

  {“Yep. Glad you’re alright.”} She responds.

  {“Alright… Where am I? What happened?”}

  {“You got knocked out and tossed off the mountain… You only lived from your passive mana hardening.”}

  {“That explains the pain… What about the monks? Are they alright?”}

  {“I… Don’t know. Sorry Welnar.”} Monarch says solemnly. Welnar sighs, sitting up and taking stock of his situation… His body hurts like hell, but nothing seems to be broken. He looks up above, seeing the cliff he was thrown off of and the sun high in the sky… Noon. He’s pretty sure the cliff was the same one he’d been sitting at earlier too… Actually, that begs the question.

  {“You’ve been out for a while, but not a full day.”} Monarch answers before he can even properly ask the question.

  Welnar slowly gets to his feet, leaning on a tree for support. It’s a dense forest all around, save for the sheer cliff behind him… Wait, his Armory! Welnar looks around wildly, seeing none of his Scarlet Weapons.

  {“Calm down. You can feel their location, even out of sight if you focus.”} Monarch says calmly. Welnar takes a deep breath, calming himself… He closes his eyes. A few seconds later, just as Monarch said, he can feel the rough locations of the weapons… They’re fairly close by too, probably tossed off the cliff just like himself. He wills the weapons to return to him, and they begin to levitate, flying back to his side in swift order, ducking past the trees in the way.

  “That’s better.” Welnar sighs with relief. {“Wish you told me about that sooner though…”} Monarch gives a half-hearted chuckle in response. With that sorted, Welnar starts to think about what he needs to do next… Get out of this forest, and get back up to the Monks. He can only hope that Sorcerer didn’t destroy everything…

  “They have to be fine… They have to be…” Welnar mutters to himself as he begins to walk.

  {“Be careful. That wolf you saw was a magical beast, and it may come back with friends.”} Monarch says. Welnar shrugs.

  {“I’ll be fine.”} Even though his body isn’t in the best shape, he’s fairly certain he could take on an animal with just the scarlet weapons. Hell, with how effective his fear aura seemed on that wolf he might not have to fight any at all. At least, he hopes.

  {“Can you see a clear way out of this forest Monarch?”} Welnar asks after about ten minutes of walking in one direction.

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  {“Hmm. If you hold still for a bit and give me some time, I could probably find something… This forest is full of ambient mana, which works out great for my sight.”} She responds. Welnar slumps down against a tree. {“Hop to it then… I don’t want to waste time.”} He says, his mind full of worry for the Monks.

  {“I know Welnar, I know… It’ll be okay.”} She tries her best to assure him. Welnar would simply sit there for the next few minutes, waiting for Monarch to get any info… He considered trying to use the pocket dimension from the Scarlet Shortsword to shortcut straight back up the mountain… He knows it’s possible, the Collector moved through it afterall. But he doesn’t trust himself to not mess it up and end up accidentally merging himself with a wall or something.

  {“Alright, I’ve found our way out.”} Monarch finally says, Welnar jumping to his feet. {“Lead the way, Monarch!”} He says with newfound vigour, beginning to follow her instructions through the forest…

  {“I picked up on more magic beasts around here too while looking for an out, so we should be fine. I’ll steer you away from any I know of.”} Monarch says proudly. {“...Scratch that there’s something approaching from your left.”} She says a few seconds later dejectedly.

  {“Awesome job Monarch…”} Welnar says sarcastically, freezing in place as he listens. He can hear the faint rustling of bushes and trees, growing closer by the second. It sounds big, and it’s coming in hot… He turns to face the source of the noise, readying himself. He thinks about activating his Mana Charge, but decides against it. He needs to give his body some time to recover…

  He waits and waits as the sounds get closer and closer until finally, the beast rushes into view! Welnar jumps to the side, narrowly avoiding it as it charges forward, skidding to a stop after missing and turning around to Welnar. It’s… A bear? It doesn’t look any different-

  With a series of sickening crunches and squelches, dozens of very human looking eyes begin to open on the bear’s head. Welnar shudders and gags as the skin covering the eyes is peeled off, blood pouring from the sockets. What the fuck kind of magic beast is this?!

  The bear stands on its hind legs, letting out a roar… A roar that for a few seconds, sounds more like a human, screaming in distress. {“How… Disturbing.”} Monarch comments. “Yeaaah nope nope nope I’m good.” Welnar says, stomping his foot and widening his arms, making himself look as big as he can to the bear… And adds on his fear aura on top of that, hoping to make it run away.

  It freezes as the aura seems to take hold of it, the bear going back to all fours and slowly backing away, roaring more and more… Looks like it’s working. Welnar throws in some yelling to try and dissuade it further until suddenly, the bear lets out a deafening scream, causing Welnar to stumble back and cover his ears in pain. Then it leaps at him! In a panic, Welnar pushes the Scarlet spear forward, impaling the beast in the stomach mid-jump. Despite its size, it seems to have trouble pushing back against the spear as it roars in pain. Seeing this, Welnar continues to push the spear, driving it forward until it hits a tree, pinning the bear.

  {“The hell was that scream… It sounded way too human, and way too loud.”} Welnar thinks, his ears still ringing. {“It was definitely magical in nature. The sound was imbued with mana, probably specifically designed to disorient and damage hearing.”} Monarch says. Makes sense… Welnar looks the bear in the eyes, all of its eyes focused squarely on him as it struggles against the spear. What a strange thing…

  The scarlet shortsword floats forward, rising above the pinned bear. With a wave of his hand, Welnar drives the shortsword into the head of the bear… It stops struggling. The spear and shortsword return to Welnar’s side after a few seconds of stillness.

  {“We should keep moving before we find more beasts.”} Monarch says. {“Don’t have to tell me twice…”} Welnar responds, as he continues his trek out of the forest. He can’t stop thinking about that bear though… He’s heard of magic beasts before, but nothing like that creepy thing.

  {“Magic manifests in all shapes and sizes… Although I believe the being’s mind also heavily influences the manifestation of magic. Their sapience, their life experiences, or lack thereof… It all influences how you ultimately control mana.”} Monarch comments.

  {“Didn’t know you were a philosopher now.”} Welnar teases. {“I know I’ve got a point, you’re proof of it! You cannot deny the fact that the concept of Survival your magic is based on manifested because of how you lived.”} Monarch defends. Welnar nods in response.

  {“That is undeniable, yeah. And it does make sense… I wonder what caused that bear to get such creepy magic.”}

  {“Questions we may never know, unfortunately.”} Monarch responds solemnly… The pair continue through the forest with idle chatter for a good while, thankfully unbothered by any beasts, magical or not. Eventually, Welnar manages to find his way out of the forest, and to a road… Then, making his way back to the mountain… By the time he finally hits the mountain path, the sun has begun to set. Welnar only hopes that everyone is okay…

  {“They have to be… They have to be.”} He repeats to himself. They have to be fine.

  And yet… His hopes fall on deaf ears, as when he finally reaches what was once the home of the Glowrock Monks…

  All that remains is rubble. Rubble, and blood. Welnar falls to his knees, feeling light-headed for a few moments. Sorcerers… All they do is take…

  Three words echo in his mind, a mantra at this point.

  Make them pay.