Don’t attack them.

  I was convinced Volix wanted to see me dead, but the Elemental Phoenix was no longer in the Great Fire Spirit’s grasp. He chose to help me, so I did the only thing I could think of: I decided to trust Volix, ignoring the doubts swirling through my mind.

  The Chimera didn’t strike me when the opportunity arose. Its heads swiveled toward the retriever-sized bees. I released a burst of light, leaped into the air, and used Mirage to turn invisible. Doing so strained the bond, but I could maintain the racial ability for several seconds before the strain would tarnish the effort of the last few days.

  As the dazzling light disappeared, the Chimera was alone with the bees. Their predatory hum rang in my ears like distant thunder, which only improved my mood as the massive bees flew straight toward the Chimera. The ether they emitted was a sight to behold. It almost manifested outside their bodies, cladding the dog-sized beasts in a poisonous green–reddish hue. Each of the predators was an Evolved beast, their bodies augmented.

  But as fast and deadly as they appeared, the bees failed to reach the Chimera. Several blobs of death and rot struck the fastest bees, their bodies withering within seconds. A beam of light tore through two bees simultaneously, and wind blades severed another pair’s wings. Regardless of the casualties, the bees’ strategy did not change. They flew relentlessly toward the Chimera, until several lizard heads emerged from its neck, spewing searing hot orange flames at the flying predators.

  The flames seemed to trigger something within the bees. More ether poured out of their bodies, and they began to writhe as their butts elongated and shifted. For a moment, they looked more like wasps, their stingers the size of my finger, protruding from their swollen butts.

  Stingers cascaded toward the Chimera in a heavy downpour, dozens hitting their mark. I had to leap aside, barely clinging onto a thick branch that stretched further away from the trunk and the epicenter of the battlefield. Pulling myself together, I turned to see the Chimera looking like a mess. The parts struck by the stingers bulged and expanded, dark-green lines forming beneath the skin like a network of impending death and pain.

  It was the bees’ poison, and it spread rapidly. The Chimera ought to have a form with a healing trait–probably several–yet it panicked as more and more beasts closed in on it. The bees attacked frantically, shooting stingers at their target and ignoring the consequences to their own lives. Several bees fell half-dead to the ground as strength left their bodies, whereas others slowed down considerably, their energy drained.

  No more ether poured out of the bees as soon as their stingers hurtled through the air, their threat decreasing drastically. As far as I was concerned, they were no longer Evolved beasts. If anything, the bees transformed into Wild beasts as soon as their stingers were no more.

  But as fun as it was to watch the Chimera suffer, I couldn’t afford to stay here. Mirage fizzled out, and hundreds of bees turned to me. Whether they sensed Volix’s ether on me, my World…or were just angry at everything and everyone didn’t matter. They split up and attacked me as well.

  No thought permeated my mind as I leaped from the towering tree. I smacked into the trunk and tried to hold onto it, but a branch beneath nearly poked my buttocks. One moment I was nearly violated, and in the next I was falling to the ground from a tree that towered more than a hundred meters into the air–upside down.

  The Ferronox Mantis’ scythe arms shot toward the tree, carving into its tough trunk only thanks to Nullblade, and slowed my fall after a dozen branches, thick and thin, failed to. The fall came to a sudden end a few meters above the ground, my heart palpitating like there was no tomorrow. And honestly, if I’d been a little bit unluckier, there would have been no tomorrow for me.

  My neck hurt, and so did my shoulders and head after sharing the brunt force of the fall. The branches had been a little too tough and way too durable for my liking, nearly winning against my neck in a bout of endurance.

  But I was alive, and the last bits of Nox’s Soulfusion ended. The scythe arms dematerialized, and I fell the last few meters to the ground.

  Groaning, I leaped to my feet, the cacophony of thunderous hums ringing in my ears.

  The Chimera was–

  To be fair, I had no idea where the beast was. Hopefully dead. If not, it would die soon enough. For all that mattered, it had stopped pursuing me, replaced by hundreds of very angry bees.

  Stingers hurtled through the air, one lodging between my shoulder blades – too close to the spine for my liking. The poison spread instantly, the sensation in my lower body nearly fading from my grasp. Fire poured out of my back, the Major Fire Aspect as well as a trace of phoenix fire surging through me and purging the poison quickly.

  One stinger was simple to remove, but it grew increasingly difficult as a second, third, and fourth struck me in the calf, lower back, and neck. The next was the most problematic and required immediate attention. Ether rolled out of the core like waves, flooding the Blazing Gates as I replaced the fire-attuned ether within. Attuned ether poured through Volca’s mark before surging into the Fire Aspect. A moment later, I was wreathed in azure flames, skin melting.

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  Even the soul-shared portion of fire resistance, topped with my body’s natural resistance, was not strong enough to endure the flames. I still embraced them, feet carrying me further and further away from the beehive. Fireballs lobbed beautifully through the air, swallowing one bee after another, yet their number only seemed to increase.

  At last, the noises I was searching for rang in my ears.

  As the trees whipped past me, stingers zipping close enough that I knew the beasts were closing in on me, the roar of a river grew closer.

  No! You said you dislike water!

  Volix voiced his displeasure, but it wasn’t like we had much of a choice. I didn’t like this either. The current was too strong and swift for me to pass safely.

  I had no choice. The spray that kicked off the rapids peeked through the bushes. To my left were the depths of the forest, so I twisted my body and shot right without a second thought. Planting my foot firmly on a tree root, I pushed off. The humming in my back grew louder; several stingers hit my back, but I burned them and the poison within before it was too late.

  The river’s roaring grew louder, a cacophony that almost drowned out the thunderous hums from behind. Sunlight streamed through the trees, revealing the edge of the forest Volix had mentioned before. Dipping and dodging, I evaded more stingers.

  Bursting onto the riverbank, walls of mist and haze confronted me, obscuring my vision. Only the violent rivers before me hinted at my destination, yet what the Elemental Phoenix hadn’t mentioned was the river’s shape. It howled as it shot straight over a cliff’s edge, swallowing my curses as the enormity of what was about to happen unfolded before me.

  This was not your average river. It was a steep drop.

  Even if the bottom were free of rocks, the undertow created by a river of this size was certain to drown an experienced swimmer, let alone a rookie. But I clenched my jaw, stared at the sky peeking out from beyond the canopy, and sprinted straight for the edge.

  A series of poison-dripping stingers shot into my legs and lower abdomen. Throwing myself forward, I leaped over the edge of the waterfall.

  Before me, a massive forest stretched out far and wide, a river coursing its way through wild terrain like a colossal flood dragon.

  Gravity reasserted itself and I plunged into the ocean-blue depths below, catching glimpses of the space around me distorting as a scream ripped through my throat.

  The terrors behind me disappeared, the thunderous hums growing distant. Even as the beasts’ desire to end me prevailed, their pursuit stopped suddenly. The implication was terrifying, but I was fortunate to be distracted by the depths before me.

  Pain surged through my body as I crashed into the water below. My vision turned blank and I lost my sense of direction. Yet death was generous to stay away from me. I didn’t splash into a bunch of stones and wasn’t impaled either. There was no pit filled with voracious beasts.

  Alas, the situation was far from great.

  Overwhelming forces pulled me from every direction as water surrounded me from all sides. The flames coating my body were swallowed, the searing heat replaced with icy chills that stabbed into me like frozen daggers. The waterfall rained down from somewhere with terrifying force, weighing down on me, soaking my clothes. I tried to kick my way upward, hoping I was moving in the right direction, but my lower body was numb.

  Panic rose in my chest as I failed to move my legs. My arms flailed in the torrents around me instead, but it was helpless.

  I was going to drown. The realization echoed in my mind.

  No! Fighting to move, I tried to discern which way was up even as I was thrown around by the forces surrounding me. My vision narrowed, my throat tightened, and the frozen daggers carved deeper into my flesh.

  I am going to drown.

  Trying to adapt to the situation, I failed to restrain the panic within me. Instead, I let it go, Ether pouring through the weave like a relentless beast. Ether surged out of the Gates in a desperate plea to do something, yet it was to no avail. My body sank to the ground, hazy eyes tunneling in on a speck of dust. A shimmer of color. Gold, the size of a coin.

  Burning ache settled in my lungs and darkness closed in on my mind and body, yet the golden speck of dust at the bottom of the waterfall shone brighter. It closed in on me…or did I close in on it? I couldn’t tell, nor did it matter. It was all forgotten in the desperate desire for air.

  Not even the warlike drum rumbling in my chest caught my attention as the World stirred.

  Suddenly, a defiant roar tore through the World and my soul, shaking me thoroughly.

  A pair of golden eyes fluttered open within me, vigorous and demanding.

  Survive.

  A familiar voice reverberated in my mind.

  Aureus. I thought, my consciousness fading.

  SURVIVE!

  The Earthheart roared, anger surging through the bond, momentarily ripping through the weakness of my body’s fleeting strength.

  Before I knew it, I reached out to the Earth Aspect, power surging through my veins as the bottom of the waterfall shifted at my behest.

  The golden speck moved closer, revealing its true nature; it was a maelstrom. A golden swirl of energy. Ether, attuned to an element I should be able to recall but couldn’t. It resembled something I’d seen a Ruler do, yet I failed to recognize it.

  That didn’t stop me from touching it. The maelstrom was an epitome of power. It was the only thing that could help me survive.

  Yet, as the tips of my fingers touched upon the maelstrom, darkness closed in on me. The last thing I noticed was a shift in the world around me. Then…nothing.