The forest Zenith had dropped him into didn’t have a name Aries recognized, which put it firmly in the category of problems he couldn’t solve right now.

He walked without direction at first, just movement, boots finding uneven ground through damp leaves while the trees kept most of the sky to themselves. Nothing looked familiar. No sounds of camp or any signs of anyone who knew he existed.

’I should find Valea and regroup with everyone. Figure out everything else after.’

He pressed a hand to his chest without thinking. The stone was there, not a physical shape exactly, but something.

’What if it’s gonna killing me? What if it’ll controlling me?’

A presence settled inside him like a second heartbeat.

He let his hand drop.

’A man I’d never met shoved a glowing crystal down my throat, healed the damage immediately after, and teleported me into an unknown forest,’ he thought. ’And somehow this isn’t even close to the strangest week I’ve had.’

He kept walking.

Then stopped.

Three boars lay across the clearing ahead, scattered in positions that made it clear they hadn’t had any chance to survive the attack.

Each one was large enough that normal predators would’ve had nothing to do with them.

Aries crouched beside the nearest "Man, these boars would make a great dinner tonight," he muttered. "But why would whoever killed them just leave them behind? Did they do it for no reason, or were they planning to come back for a feast?"

’No, wait...’

The wounds across its hide were deep and long. No bite marks or any ragged tearing from a territorial fight. Whatever came through this clearing hadn’t hunted these boars.

He straightened, scanned the treeline once, then kept moving. Standing between three butchered carcasses wasn’t somewhere to stay.

’these claw marks. I don’t think a human did this. There wouldn’t be attacks like th—’

"HELP—"

The scream tore through the trees to his left. Aries was running before it finished.

He pushed through undergrowth, ducked branches, followed the sound until the trees thinned and he broke into a small clearing and stopped.

A figure, small and young had wedged themselves into a narrow hollow between two broken rock slabs, packed in so tight the gap nearly disappeared at a distance. Hanging roots and loose stone made the entrance almost invisible.

Around it, four Dranox moved in slow patient circles, glowing eyes fixed on the gap. Occasionally one would test it with a casual swipe of claws, then pull back.

They weren’t charging.

But they were doing something worse. Waiting and letting fear and exhaustion do the work to make the young person come out of the narrow hollow.

Running was smart choice. But he hated that it even crossed his mind.

Two fireballs hit the nearest Dranox before it registered his presence, the force rolling it sideways across the dirt in a shrieking tangle of limbs. The other three snapped toward him instantly.

Aries walked forward and put himself between the hollow and the creatures.

"Stay back there," he said, not looking behind him. "Don’t come out no matter what happens."

A small shaky reply came back from the hollow.

Then back towards the three figures in front of Aries, one dranox crouched low. Then the first one moved fast and direct, claws raised before he’d fully tracked it.

Aries twisted sideways. The swipe missed his face by an inch, air from it brushing his skin.

Before it could recover, he drove a firebolt into the back of its skull at close range. It went down hard and stayed.

Two more came together.

These were smarter. They didn’t charge straight — they crossed paths in front of him, overlapping trajectories, pulling his attention left then right then left again in tightening circles, glowing claws flashing from alternating directions.

’They’re working together,’ he thought, tracking both. ’Trying to make me forget about the third one.’

He already lost the tract of the third.

One of the pair lunged for his face. He dropped under it, fire surging into his palm, and drove it hard into the creature’s waist. It hit a tree hard enough to crack the bark.

He was already turning.

The claws caught him across the shoulder.

"Ughh—!"

Four lines, deep through flesh. His body staggered sideways.

He caught himself, but blood soaked through his sleeve immediately, running warm down to his fingers.

’Damn. I didn’t track the third one. I should have been more careful and kept my guard up.’

"Y-You okay, mister?"

The voice from the hollow. Small and genuine and trying very hard not to be heard by the wrong things.

Aries looked at the three Dranox reassembling across the clearing.

His shoulder burned steadily. His hands were shaking — blood loss or mana running dry, he couldn’t tell which. Reaching for more sent a deep ache radiating through his chest that had nothing to do with the claws.

He put one knee on the ground.

’Come on.’ He pulled. Got almost nothing. ’I’m not done yet. Come on—’

Something pulsed against his ribs.

From somewhere deeper than his ribs. It moved through him once and settled back, and the air around him felt different after it in a way he couldn’t name yet.

The three Dranox launched at once.

Three directions. Three sets of claws descending from different angles, all of them airborne in the same moment.

Aries was on one knee with a torn shoulder and empty hands, and he had exactly enough time to think this is going to hurt before the inside of his skull went white.

A violent pulse moved through him from the inside out, like a door in his chest being forced open by something that hadn’t asked permission.

Dark purple light unfolded around him.

From his chest to his arms. The air around him. Everywhere, spreading outward with the same quality the crystal had carried in the cave.

The claws were almost on him.

The purple light pulsed harder.