The standoff lasted three hours.

  Arin remained on his branch, watching the wolf watch him. The creature was patient in a way that suggested it had experience with waiting. It occasionally shifted position, stood to stretch, or sniffed the air, but the wolf never strayed more than a few feet from the base of the tree.

  It knows I'll have to come down eventually. Or it's waiting for me to make a mistake.

  The afternoon sun crept across the sky, casting longer shadows through the forest. Arin's essence continued to slowly drain, although not yet critical, it was noticeable.

  [ Current Essence: 58/100 ]

  I can't just wait here forever. But I also can't fight a level seven wolf head-on. Not without a plan.

  Arin studied the wolf carefully, looking for weaknesses, patterns, anything he could exploit. The creature was large, probably three times his current mass, with powerful jaws and sharp teeth. Its movements suggested speed and agility far beyond what the boar had possessed.

  But it had one limitation that worked to Arin’s advantage. The wolf couldn’t climb.

  The trees are my advantage. If I can use them properly...

  An idea began to form. It was risky, possibly stupid, but staying in the tree until his essence ran out was guaranteed failure. Sure, it might take days but Arin didn’t know how long the wolf might wait.

  Arin began to move, flowing along his branch toward the trunk. The wolf's ears perked up immediately, its body tensing. When Arin started climbing higher instead of lower, the wolf stood, circling again, trying to follow his movement.

  Good. Stay focused on me.

  Arin climbed to a height of about twenty feet, then began moving laterally through the canopy. The oak's branches intertwined with those of a neighboring one, providing a natural bridge. The wolf followed below, its yellow eyes tracking every movement.

  When Arin reached the maple, he continued across to the next tree, a thick pine with dense foliage. The wolf kept pace on the ground, but Arin could see its attention was completely fixed on him now, waiting for him to descend.

  Perfect. Now for the hard part.

  Arin found a sturdy branch that overhung the game trail where he'd killed the boar. The wolf had followed him here, standing almost directly beneath the branch, about fifteen feet below.

  Too far to drop safely. I need it closer.

  Arin began to bounce slightly on the branch, making it sway. The movement caught the wolf's attention more directly. It took a step closer to the tree trunk, head cocked, trying to understand what the strange red creature was doing.

  Arin bounced harder, and a section of his mass deliberately detached, falling through the air like a glob of paint. It hit the ground about five feet from the wolf with a soft splat.

  The wolf jumped back, startled, then approached the fallen piece cautiously. It sniffed once, twice, then recoiled as the acidic nature of the slime registered.

  But in that moment of distraction, when the wolf's attention was on the ground instead of above, Arin dropped.

  He reformed into the wedge shape mid-fall, all of his remaining mass compressed into a single pointed strike aimed at the wolf's back. The creature sensed the movement a heartbeat before impact and tried to leap away.

  Too slow.

  Arin struck the wolf's hindquarters with enough force to knock it off balance. The wedge tore through fur and bit into muscle, and the wolf yelped in pain and surprise.

  But unlike the boar, the wolf didn't go down. It spun with terrifying speed, jaws snapping at the mass on its back. Its teeth somehow found purchase, and suddenly Arin felt himself being shaken like a rag.

  [ -12 Mass ]

  The wolf whipped its head back and forth, trying to dislodge the slime. Arin's mass scattered in droplets across the forest floor, and panic surged through his consciousness.

  Too strong. It's too strong!

  Arin reformed what remained of his body and launched himself away from the wolf, using his newly acquired Charge skill for the first time. His mass compressed and shot forward in a direction the wolf wasn't looking, covering ten feet in less than a second.

  [ -5 Essence ]

  The skill worked, but Arin could feel the cost. Five essence for a single burst of speed.

  The wolf spun, blood matting the fur on its hindquarters where Arin's wedge had struck. Its yellow eyes were no longer calculating. They were angry.

  It charged.

  Arin barely had time to flatten himself against the ground before the wolf's jaws snapped shut on the space where his center mass had been. He flowed sideways, trying to get to another tree, but the wolf was faster.

  Teeth clamped down on a section of his body, and Arin felt himself being lifted into the air. The wolf shook again, and more of his mass went flying.

  [ -15 Mass ]

  I'm going to die. I can't beat this thing.

  Desperation drove Arin to try something he'd never attempted before. Instead of trying to escape the wolf's mouth, he flowed into it. His acidic nature activated fully, and the wolf's jaws began to burn.

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  The creature dropped him immediately, pawing at its mouth, saliva and blood mixing as it tried to clear the caustic slime. Arin hit the ground and immediately split himself in two, sending half his mass rolling toward the nearest tree while the other half remained on the ground.

  The wolf, confused and in pain, focused on the half that stayed behind. It attacked that section with renewed fury, tearing through the gelatinous mass with its claws and teeth.

  Meanwhile, Arin's other half reached the tree and began to climb. From his vantage point ten feet up, he watched as the wolf destroyed the decoy section of his body, scattering red droplets across the forest floor.

  When the wolf finally stopped its assault, panting heavily, it looked up at the tree. At Arin. The creature's muzzle was burned, bloody, and its hindquarters still bled from the initial strike.

  But Arin was worse off. He'd lost nearly forty percent of his mass, and his essence was draining faster than it should, probably due to the effort of maintaining coherence while so damaged.

  [ Current Mass: 61% ]

  [ Current Essence: 42/100 ]

  The wolf growled, a deep rumbling sound that carried equal parts pain and promise. It circled the tree once more, then sat down, just as it had hours before.

  It's going to wait again. But now I'm injured. If I wait too long, I'll be too weak to do anything.

  Arin clung to his branch, trying to think through the pain and fear. The scattered pieces of his body on the ground below were already starting to dry out, their connection to his core severed. He couldn't reclaim them without going down there, and going down meant facing the wolf again.

  What would Levi do? Think. There has to be a way.

  Minutes passed. Then an hour. The sun was setting now, painting the forest in shades of orange and red that almost matched Arin's coloring.

  The wolf remained at its post, occasionally licking its burned muzzle but never taking its eyes off the tree for long.

  Then, from somewhere deeper in the forest, another howl rang out. The wolf's ears perked up, and it turned its head toward the sound. A second howl came, closer, and the wolf stood.

  It looked up at Arin one more time, as if memorizing his position, then loped off into the forest toward the other wolves.

  A pack. It's part of a pack.

  Relief flooded through Arin, quickly followed by a new fear. If the wolf came back with others, if they surrounded the tree and took turns keeping watch...

  I need to leave. Now. While I have the chance.

  Arin flowed down the tree as quickly as his damaged body would allow. He collected what he could of his scattered mass, the pieces that were still viable, and felt slightly stronger for it.

  [ Current Mass: 68% ]

  The rest was too damaged, too dried out. He'd have to leave it behind.

  Without waiting another second, Arin rolled away from the area, moving deeper into the forest in the opposite direction the wolf had gone. His mass felt wrong, unbalanced, and every movement sent small jolts of discomfort through his consciousness.

  I need to rest. Need to recover. But first, I need to get far away from here.

  Arin traveled through the growing darkness for over an hour, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the wolf's territory. Finally, exhausted and barely holding himself together, he found a massive oak with a hollow thirty feet up.

  The climb was agonizing. Several times, Arin nearly lost his grip, his diminished mass making it harder to maintain cohesion. But eventually, he pulled himself into the hollow and collapsed into a formless puddle.

  [ Current Essence: 28/100 ]

  Too low. Way too low.

  But there was nothing Arin could do about it now. He needed rest more than he needed food. His body needed time to stabilize, to recover from the trauma of losing so much mass so quickly.

  As consciousness faded, Arin's last thought was a bitter one: he'd learned an important lesson today. He wasn't the apex predator in this forest. Not yet. There were creatures here that could kill him easily, and his newfound sapience wouldn't save him from simple overconfidence.

  He'd been lucky to escape with his life.

  Next time, he might not be so fortunate.

  ***

  Three days passed before Arin felt strong enough to hunt again.

  He'd spent that time in his hollow, emerging only briefly at night to catch insects that crawled along the bark. The small amounts of mass and essence they provided barely registered, but it was enough to keep him from dropping too low.

  [ Current Mass: 68% ]

  [ Current Essence: 31/100 ]

  I need real food. But I also need to be careful. No more wolves. Not until I'm much stronger.

  Arin descended from his oak and began exploring this new section of the forest. It was different from his previous territory; the trees were spaced further apart, and the undergrowth was thicker. He'd traveled far enough that the landscape itself had changed.

  As he moved through the underbrush, staying low and cautious, Arin noticed something odd. Scratch marks on the trees, deliberate and regular. They were too high for most animals, positioned at what would be chest height for a human.

  Trail markers. Someone or something marks this path.

  Arin followed the marked trees, his curiosity overcoming his caution. After about a hundred feet, he heard sounds. Guttural voices, speaking in a language that sounded harsh and choppy.

  He climbed a nearby tree to get a better view and froze at what he saw.

  A clearing, perhaps fifty feet across, with crude structures made of wood and animal hides. Fires burned in stone-lined pits, and around those fires sat creatures that Arin recognized from Levi's books.

  Goblins.

  There were at least a dozen of them, short and wiry with green-gray skin and pointed ears. They wore scraps of leather and fur, carried crude weapons, and spoke in their guttural tongue while roasting something over the flames.

  [ Goblin Scout - Level 4 ]

  [ Goblin Warrior - Level 5 ]

  [ Goblin Shaman - Level 6 ]

  A camp. I've found a goblin camp.

  Arin watched from his hidden position, his mind racing. Goblins were dangerous, Levi had said so. They were cunning, worked in groups, and were known for setting traps. But they were also smaller than wolves, and individually, many of them were lower level than the creature that had nearly killed him.

  Could I hunt them? Carefully, picking off stragglers?

  The thought was both terrifying and tempting. Goblins would provide more mass than squirrels, more essence than rabbits. And unlike animals, they carried things, tools and weapons that might be useful somehow.

  But they were also intelligent. Killing one would alert the others. They'd hunt him, set traps, coordinate their efforts.

  Not yet. I'm too weak still. But maybe... maybe eventually.

  As Arin watched the goblin camp, one of the creatures stood and walked toward the forest edge, perhaps twenty feet from Arin's tree. It was carrying a wooden bucket, probably going to fetch water from a nearby stream that Arin could hear.

  The goblin was alone. Level four. Roughly Arin's size before he'd lost so much mass to the wolf.

  No. Too risky. There are too many of them nearby.

  But even as Arin thought it, he found himself following the goblin, staying in the trees, watching as it knelt by the stream and began filling its bucket.

  The goblin's back was turned. The stream's sound would mask any noise. The camp was far enough away that a brief struggle might go unnoticed.

  Arin's core pulsed with hunger and something else. Opportunity.

  He was still deciding what to do when the goblin finished filling its bucket and stood, turning back toward camp.

  And looked directly at the tree where Arin was hiding.

  For a heartbeat, neither moved. Then the goblin's eyes widened, its mouth opening to shout.

  Arin dropped from the tree.