Scias moved cautiously along the road, his footsteps light.
"People must have used this path," he muttered, scanning the horizon. "Should be relatively safe compared to the deep forest."
The road curved ahead, and as Scias moved forward, he froze.
A hulking silhouette blocked the path—a monstrous boar with crimson tusks protruding from its lower jaw.
The creature stood twice Scias's height at the shoulder, its hide covered in bristling brown hair. Most alarming were the rocks sticking out from its hide like natural armor.
Scias ducked behind a thick oak, observing the beast as moved.
'Earth affinity,' he concluded, noting the stone protrusions. 'And perhaps even fire affinity,' looking at the crimson tusks.
'Likely far above my level.'
He backtracked silently, circling through dense underbrush to avoid the creature until he could rejoin the road. His detour cost him nearly an hour, but the alternative wasn't worth contemplating.
By midday, the road widened into a small clearing. Scias paused, crouching to examine tracks pressed into the mud—massive paw prints unlike anything he recognized, each larger than his spread hand.
'Fresh,' he concluded, touching the impression lightly. 'Within the hour.'
He altered his path again, cutting east through a patch of tall grass offering concealment from whatever monster lurked around.
The afternoon brought new challenges.
A pack of dog-sized creatures with scaled blue hides and elongated snouts blocked his path. They moved with eerie coordination, communicating through chirping sounds as they hunted small prey alongside the road. When one lifted its head, sniffing the air in Scias's direction, he noted the small crests of ice forming around its nostrils.
'Frost breath?' Scias muttered, slowly backing away.
'No thank you.'
He waited in silence for nearly an hour until the pack moved on, resuming his journey only when certain they wouldn't double back.
As dusk approached, Scias encountered the most puzzling sight yet—a magnificent stag with six-pointed antlers that gleamed with metallic luster.
Unlike the monsters he'd avoided, this creature seemed almost serene, grazing peacefully beside the road. When it lifted its head to regard him with intelligent eyes, Scias noticed the faint shimmer of energy surrounding its form.
The stag made no aggressive move, merely watching Scias.
Scias continuing southward with frequent glances over his shoulder until the creature disappeared from view.
It reminded him the white stag he saw back then at the pond he frequented to bathe.
"This road isn't as safe as I thought," he concluded, making camp well off the path as darkness fell.
Dawn broke with heavy mist clinging to the forest floor.
Scias set out early, hoping to make better progress. Not even twenty paces from his campsite, he encountered a Water Hare, its blue fur distinctive in the morning light.
Unlike the other monsters, he knew this one.
With practiced efficiency, Scias launched a series of earth projectiles, striking the creature before it registered his presence. He harvested its core quickly, adding it to his growing collection.
"At least I know where I stand with these," he said, wiping his blade clean.
By midmorning, the road curved sharply west, leading into a section of forest where the trees grew unusually close together, their trunks twisted and covered in luminescent fungi.
An unnerving chittering sound could be heard.
Scias crept forward cautiously until he could make out the source—dozens of mantis-like creatures with translucent wings and bladed forelimbs that gleamed like steel.
They swarmed around what appeared to be a massive hive structure built against an ancient oak.
'Not a chance,' Scias thought, retreating silently.
This detour forced him nearly half a league off course before he could safely circle back toward the road.
The day grew hotter, and with the heat came new dangers.
A trio of salamander-like creatures crossed the path ahead, their skin crackling with visible heat that scorched the vegetation where they passed. Steam rose from their footprints, and Scias felt the temperature rise dramatically even at a distance.
He waited in the shelter of a hollowed log until they passed, sweat beading on his forehead from their residual heat.
'This is madness,' Scias thought to himself.
'The road attracts so many monsters.'
By late afternoon, his progress had been painfully slow—perhaps two leagues covered through constant evasion and lengthy detours.
When he spotted a grazing herd of deer-like creatures with six legs and eyes that glowed purple in the shadow of the trees, Scias chose yet another alternative route.
This deviation led him into a marshy section where the ground squelched beneath his feet.
The humidity was stifling, insects buzzing in thick clouds around his head. He swatted them away, pushing through chest-high reeds.
A massive shadow fell across the marsh as something enormous moved beneath the murky water.
Scias had barely any time to register the danger before a serpentine monster erupted from the bog—a colossal snake with scales that shifted between shades of green and brown like moving camouflage.
Its head alone was the size of a small cart, jaws lined with backward-curving fangs dripping viscous venom.
Scias stumbled backward, drawing his dagger in one fluid motion. The creature's body coiled, massive muscles tensing as it prepared to strike.
The snake's tail whipped too fast, catching him squarely across the chest.
The impact drove air from his lungs and sent him flying backward. His body crashed against a massive tree, bark splintering on impact.
Pain exploded through his back and ribs as he slumped to the ground. Scias caughed out blood, vision swimming with black spots.
Through the haze of agony, Scias saw the massive serpent advancing, its forked tongue flicking out to taste his fear in the air.
The snake's massive head reared back, jaws spread impossibly wide as it prepared for another attack.
Scias forced his body to move. His ribs screamed in protest, but by sheer will he rolled sideways just as the serpent's head smashed into the tree where he'd been slumped moments before.
The impact shattered the trunk, sending splinters flying in all directions. Wood cracked, the massive tree toppling with agonizing slowness.
The serpent kept its unblinking gaze fixed on Scias, not noticing as the shattered tree crashed down upon its coiled body.
The impact pinned the creature momentarily, drawing a hiss of pain and fury that echoed through the marsh.
Scias struggled to his feet, each breath sending waves of pain through his torso.
'Broken ribs,' he thought.
The serpent thrashed violently, its powerful tail whipping upward to shatter the fallen trunk in an explosion of fragments.
It freed itself with frightening ease, already moving toward its prey.
Scias seized the brief opportunity, drawing deeply on his mana reserves.
Fire erupted from his outstretched palms—not a single projectile but a barrage of concentrated fireballs that streaked toward the serpent's head.
The flames struck their target with satisfying impacts, but Scias's moment of triumph died instantly.
Where he'd expected the creature to recoil in agony, the fireballs merely left slight scorch marks on its armored scales.
The serpent seemed almost amused by his efforts, its tongue flicking out as if tasting his desperation.
"F*ck," he cursed, diving behind a boulder as the tail swept past with enough force to crack stone.
The snake circled, its body moving with surprising grace for something so big.
It struck repeatedly—each attack coming from a different angle.
Scias ducked and moved through mud, barely staying ahead of the creature's relentless pursuit.
Occasionally, the serpent reared back and sprayed viscous poison. The corrosive liquid hissed where it landed, dissolving everthing it touched.
'Think,' Scias commanded himself, ducking beneath another tail swipe.
'Its scales are too hard.'
He launched a series of wind blades—his most powerful cutting spells—only to watch them deflect harmlessly off the creature's armored hide. The effort cost him precious mana with nothing to show for it.
His foot slipped in the mud, nearly making him fall into a pool of the serpent's venom.
He recovered his balance with a desperate lunge, ideas racing through his mind and discarded just as quickly.
'Cold,' he thought. 'snakes hate cold.'
But even as the idea formed, he dismissed it.
The creature was simply too large, and even at full strength, his mana reserves couldn't generate enough ice to freeze something so huge.
The serpent lunged forward, jaws snapping shut mere fingerbreadth away from Scias's face.
In that moment of terrifying proximity, he saw something—the only potential weakness in the creature's defences.
Its eyes.
Where impenetrable scales protected the rest of its body, the massive yellow orbs remained one of the most vulnerable places on its body, protected only by thin translucent layer.
Its eyes gleamed with malevolent intelligence as they tracked his movements.
Scias changed tactics immediately. Rather than distributing his attacks across the creature's body, he concentrated entirely on a single target.
He dodged another poison spray, then planted his feet firmly in the mud.
The wind blade he formed was different—smaller but denser, compacted into a spinning disk of air that cut like a circular saw. He poured mana into it, focusing on precision rather than power.
With a flick of his wrist, Scias sent the blade flying directly at the serpent's right eye. The projectile struck true, slicing deeply into the gelatinous orb.
The creature's reaction was immediate and violent. It reared back, a shriek of pain erupting from its throat as dark fluid leaked from the damaged eye.
The sound was so piercing that Scias clamped his hands over his ears, momentarily disoriented.
That momentary distraction proved costly.
The serpent, now enraged beyond reason, moved with unexpected speed. Its tail whipped around in a low arc that caught Scias squarely across his already injured chest.
The impact lifted him completely off his feet, hurling him through the air like a toy.
He crashed into the marshy ground twenty paces away, the landing knocking what little breath remained from his lungs.
Mud and water sprayed in all directions as his body landed.
For several heartbeats, Scias couldn't move—couldn't even breathe.
His vision tunneled, darkness creeping in from the edges. Through a narrowing field of view, he saw the massive serpent slithering toward him, its damaged eye weeping dark fluid, its movements now erratic with pain and fury.
He commanded his limbs to move—to crawl, to stand, to fight—but his body refused to respond.
The broken ribs shifted with each shallow attempt at breathing, sending pain through his torso.
'Is this the end?' he thought, closing his eyes.