The Jungle of Divide was covered in a dense brush of glowing dark green. Giant trees towered above their heads, their canopies glowing a distant lighter green, but they were well spaced in between, allowing for smaller trees and heavy bushes to grow across the undergrowth.

  Mul had taken one look at the trees and twisted his nose. “Great. The guardian made it so that there’s plenty of space for giant war beasts to maneuver about.”

  Nar had to agree with his assessment. The Jungle of Divide was the simplest and most evened out area that they had seen thus far, and by a long shot. It just screamed perfect battleground.

  Nar walked in front, opening up a somewhat easier trail for the shorter Mul to follow in, and he cut through anything that looked too gnarly or like it hid troublesome insects. They were, of course, coated head to toe in insect-repellents, but he had no illusions that tonight, the healers would be busy prying off ticks and other undesirables from the apprentices.

  Where are you? Nar thought, stretching his [Hearing] to the max.

  Sej and the other guides from the Avrishimnara Consultancy had warned them to be careful with over-relying on their senses, as the Atlatl support casters were capable of sound-aspected skills. They could be striding right next to a raiding party, complete with war beasts, and they wouldn’t hear a thing from under those shrouds.

  “Anything?” Kur asked in their private chat.

  With guides and other apprentices with good sense attributes in the platoon, it was Jul that Kur still trusted the most. Nar doubted anyone stuck in that domain could match, much less beat, the powerful bonuses and the fear sensing capability that her [Awareness of Fear] granted the quam.

  “No, but I hear fighting in the distance,” Jul said. “Maybe four or five battles, behind and both to our left and right.”

  “Juf’s and Dak’s frontlines,” Kur told her. “Sorry, I will let you know about any fights so that it doesn’t confuse you.”

  “Thank you, but right now, there’s nothing around—”

  TUN! TUN! TUN! TUN!

  “Incoming!” one of the guides shouted, beating everyone else to it.

  “Must have been covered under a [Sonic Shroud],” one of the other guides said.

  “Doesn’t matter now. No need to panic,” Kur said into the platoon chat. “Jul, which way?”

  “They’re coming from the left, right and behind us,” she said. “The biggest group is coming from the left, probably four warbands. Then two from the back, and one more from the right side.”

  “I agree,” Sej said, who Kur had promoted to leader of the guides. “They’re likely trying to push us further into the jungle and away from help.”

  “Tough luck for them. We didn’t come here to run. We came here to kill, and we’re more than enough for that,” Kur said, his voice almost flat. “As mentioned before, let’s rotate the circle so that the heavy tanks are facing the biggest advance. Calli, move your party forward to intercept one of the war bands coming at us from behind. Ger, you take the other party. Kos, Rov and my party will prepare to provide support and move as needed. Nar and Mul, you guys hold off that last party coming from your side for now. Let’s see what these Atlatl are capable of first!”

  A chorus of yeses followed his orders, and Nar heard the circle shifting to answer Kur’s commands.

  “I know you’ll want to look out for me, but don’t get too close, alright?” Mul said.

  He and the brawler had turned about to face the incoming enemy as soon as they’d dropped their shrouds and begun charging at them, and now, while Nar stretched his neck and shoulders, Mul warmed up his wrists.

  “I can heal through anything,” Nar told the brawler.

  “I know. But seeing Calli’s burned face was enough for a lifetime,” Mul said. “Please?”

  “Alright. I’ll keep my distance. Just pay attention to any [Aura Blade]s headed your way,” Nar said.

  Mul nodded. “And don’t worry about blowing them up around me. I’ve got 121 points of [Toughness] and the third highest [Constitution] in the party. I can take damage.”

  “I know,” Nar said.

  The heavy charge continued to approach them, the ground rumbling feebly.

  “It would’ve been nice to have the shit brains here,” Mul grunted.

  “Ah! I’m telling.”

  “Don’t you fucking dare!”

  Explosions rang at their back, lighting up the Jungle of Divide in the gray of aura as casters unleashed their projectiles upon the enemy. If the Atlatl had thought them easy pickings they were in for one Pile of a surprise.

  “Watch out! There’re shields on the big guy!” one of the guides said.

  There are shields on the what?

  The war band emerged from the distance, plowing through the brush, and at last Nar laid eyes on their enemy.

  A complement of five raptor riders surrounded by a pack of two dozen or so smaller raptor variants, followed by two heavy breachers, which were armor-covered brutes with three long horns, and at the back, a beast belonging to the family of dinosaurs called titanosaurus. Its long neck rose high above the jungle floor, and although it moved ponderously, upon its broad back was a rotating platform housing a unit of ranged Atlatl. And as the guide had warned, there was a shimmering, light golden hint of a sphere surrounding the platform.

  “Looks like a full war band,” Nar said. “And I do see a shield here too.”

  “Well, isn’t that great,” Mul said.

  “Congrats, everyone!” Kur said. “Looks like we have a bunch of elite war bands for our first fight! Let’s do our best!”

  Nar’s mind filled with unhappy people, and Mul too groaned at his side.

  “I know we’re fighting for our lives here, but knowing I’m not gaining almost any XP from all this is a real bummer,” the brawler said.

  “I’m level 69. I’ll gain loads!” Nar said, laughing. “And who knows, maybe we’ll get enough tokens to make it to the epic rewards.”

  Before Mul could retort, Nar stepped forward, aura flooding his crimson blade.

  Let’s give them a greeting! Nar thought, grinning to himself.

  He filled the sword up to the brim, close to his [Mastery]’s limit of 1267 points of aura, leaving out just enough so that he could hold onto the blade until it reached the vanguard of raptors and raptor riders.

  His aura lit up the jungle, turning their surroundings grayscale, and the blade swallowed the distance between Nar and the charging enemies. Four of the five raptor riders managed to get out of the way, but the smaller raptors weren’t as fast, nor were the breachers or the giant dinosaur, and they all disappeared under an explosion of gray.

  As it cleared, Nar’s grin grew wicked.

  “We’ve been fighting the giants in the Canopy for so long that I forgot most things go down with a couple of punches,” Mul said, eyeing the damage. “Also, show off.”

  Nar ignored him and the raptor riders heading their way, and did a quick tally. Almost a dozen of the small raptors had been wiped outright, and while the bigger raptor that had been too slow to dodge was still standing, it was shaking its head in a daze, its rider was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully, that one was dead too.

  “They’re still strong though.” Nar cautioned.

  “All I care is that there isn’t twenty million HP in every one of those things,” Mul said, and Nar noticed the increase in temperature around them “So, what’re your orders, boss?”

  Nar swallowed a grimace. “Don’t call me that. Leave the raptors and breachers to me. You get over there and bring down the big guy. No point in wasting our aura against the barrier if we can just bring their ride down to our level and kill them in the confusion.”

  “On it!” Mul shouted, lowering his head to almost disappear in the undergrowth and taking off.

  “Don’t get squashed!” Nar warned.

  His initial attack had aggroed both the breachers and the raptor riders, and the fast-running beasts were bearing down on him in an attempt to stop him from firing off what they must have interpreted as a charging attack of some kind. Too bad for them, Nar could now fire his [Aura Blade]s off instantly and almost one after the other.

  He lit up the jungle with his aura, forcing the raptor riders to scatter before him. He wiped out the rest of the smaller raptors while the breachers barreled onward, protected by their thick, golden accented green armor and by what Sej and Sarke had explained were heavy [Toughness] and [Constitution] attributes. Still, at best the lumbering things had upwards to two million HP. What was that to Nar now, who had nearly finished off Silver Fists by himself?

  The raptor riders finally reached him and Nar cycled his [Aura Quickening], going from stationary to a blur in the blink of an eye. He had not expected [Champion’s Cycling] at all, or to one day be able to accelerate himself at will and without a time limiter to keep track off, and his [Aura Quickening] now felt just like an extra set of attributes that he could turn on and off at will and in varying degrees. He couldn’t wait to show it to Tys and his master. Oh, the look on their faces was going to be something else.

  Nar darted in between the dinosaurs, slashing right and left with his [Aura Edge] to greatly boost his damage. As Mul had said, it was gratifying to see his damage be damaging, and not just soaked up into an endless HP shield. The doctrine they’d learned in Slaying was largely the same for the more normal-ish sized enemies, but it was so satisfying to see his blade slice through a beast’s knee on first hit, rather than bounce back. Of course, the fact they were all a lot stronger from the gains in the Canopy also played into it.

  Nar leaped atop the downed beast, screeching for the loss of its limb, and taking advantage that its rider had been pinned down by his tumbling mount, he drove his glowing blade through the Atlatl’s neck, in the gap between its green and golden armor. There was a moment of resistance, as there always was, then the HP barrier was overwhelmed by the concentration of damage and the critical location, and Nar pierced through the monster’s throat and spine.

  He quickly pivoted and drove his sword through the back of the raptor’s neck, ending its struggle.

  “Another one down!” he shouted.

  “Are you seriously trying to compare?” Mul shouted back, [Exploding Fist]s ringing out from under the panicking giant.

  Nar laughed as he chased after another rider, and he felt relieved that indeed, under the giant beast, Mul was safe from the archers atop the rotating platform. The caster seemed focused on maintaining its barrier, and while the archers’ powerful bows delivered punching and insanely fast arrows that landed around him in explosions of foliage and dirt, Nar was faster, and the archers had to take care not to hit the riders or their raptors.

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  The riders of the breachers sat covered by a heavy, metal plated box atop their rides, so they weren’t as much of a concern to the archers and their armor protected them from Nar. But, the breachers were built for power, not mobility, and Nar was running circles around them, focusing on downing the raptor riders while he considered how to best bring down the heavy armored breachers without erasing his entire surrounding and wasting aura.

  That’s when he heard the hurried footsteps detaching from the main battle and heading over towards them.

  Someone’s coming?

  A few moments later, he glimpsed a jungle suit brushing past a growth of glowing ferns, and a delver stood, hesitant, by the edge of the fight.

  “Are you… Pir?” Nar asked.

  In a gush of blood, he severed through a raptor neck, and for a moment, allowed its rider enough time to get up.

  “Hi!” she said, waving cheerfully at him.

  Pir remained hidden behind the ferns, likely worried about drawing the attention from the archers on the big dinosaur. It was hard to see in that semi-light, but he had a sense that her eyes were a swirl of browns, greens and even reds. He wondered if that was an effect from her awoken, virulent affinity, rather than a racial trait given that she was human. Although, then again, Sej was also human, and she was blue.

  Nar deflected the Atlatl rider’s bone and teeth club, and shoved his shoulder into its chest, winding him and throwing him off guard. Then, he thrust his blade into the monster’s sternum, waiting as his [Lingering Aura] ruptured the creature from the inside, sucking its HP try. The monster made a grab for him, but Nar twisted his blade free, spun and kicked the legs from under the monster. A [Sword Aura] to the face finished it off.

  The breachers were still maneuvering for another charge, so Nar figured he had some time, and ran over to the newcomer.

  The woman, her skin an ashen gray with touches of brown, and a mop of shoulder length pale brown hair, took a step back from him. He froze, confused.

  “Sorry, habit,” she said. “Kur said not to worry, and that you can self-heal, but still…”

  She grimaced and waved at herself. “Virus affinity, and early upgraded pathways… When I cycle, I can contaminate you by touch or even breath if I go all out. It’s nothing a healer can’t heal of course… If, uh, you get there fast enough.”

  Oh… Nar thought, reading the resignation from her.

  He smiled and stepped closer.

  “Sounds like an opportunity to upgrade my passive healing skill,” he said, and he shook her hand before she could avoid him.

  She gasped, then stared at him in confusion. She had likely sensed her affinity triggering a status effect and said status effect vanishing almost immediately.

  “See? Already burned through it,” he said, chuckling. “The Miasma in the Hungry Jungle was the same… But the breachers are coming. Hold on!”

  Nar fired off a set of [Aura Blade]s at the armored dinosaurs, one under his control and the other under control of his second self.

  “Actually, this is why Kur sent me over!” she shouted, as he dodged around the breachers’ charges. “Let me infect them. Their armor won’t be able to stop me, and Kur wants you to conserve aura rather than bring down the whole jungle to get the job done.”

  “Oh! That’s great,” Nar said. “Work away then.”

  “But… You’re right next to them! My skills are a lot stronger than just me cycling.”

  “Don’t worry and hurry!” Nar said. “We need to help Mul!”

  Pir frowned, but she raised her hands, and… nothing happened.

  No gas. No color. No change in the air or even a sigh of movement reached Nar’s senses.

  One moment he was dodging around the two dinosaurs, avoiding getting crushed in between them, and the next, he heard panicked coughing from within the armored boxes housing the breacher’s riders.

  The jungle tilted with a sudden onset of nausea, and Nar jumped away from the now distracted breachers. Both riders and dinosaurs tried to fight off and make sense of the dark streams running down their eyes, ears, noses and mouths, and entirely forgot about Nar.

  Oh, wow, Nar thought, touching his nose and eyeing red stained fingers. She actually managed to give me a status effect!

  [Viral Hemorrhagic Fever] it read, and indeed he felt warmer already, his thoughts turning sluggish.

  “Nar! Oh my fucking gods! I told you!” Pir shouted.

  Nar however, just cycled harder, and burned through the virus aura within him.

  “What in the… Pile?” Pir asked, as her status effect was dispelled.

  “This stuff is stronger than the Miasma…” Nar said in amazement, his aura already healing what little damage her skill had managed to inflict. “Any chance you can keep infecting me? Maybe I’ll gain a passive resistance skill to viruses!”

  “I… You… What?” she asked, stunned.

  “Ah. Sorry. I got a bit carried away,” Nar said, eyeing the two breachers.

  One of them collapsed, its four mighty legs spread under him, and from the desperate sounds and banging, its rider seemed to be having issues opening his armored box. The other rider had managed to free himself from his protection turned death trap, and he managed a few steps before hurling a torrent of dark brown onto the glowing underbrush.

  That’s some affinity, Nar thought. Unless you’re a healer and can cleanse yourself, or you can do it like me, this stuff is invisible and impossible to avoid… And deadly if you don’t get help soon or down a consumable.

  The whistling through the air got him moving on instinct, and he deflected the arrows aimed at the viral caster.

  “Oh!” she startled, as Nar blurred to stand in front of her.

  The archers and barrier caster upon the rotating platform on the titanosaurus were shouting at each other, eyeing their dying compatriots with eyes wide with horror. They didn’t know what was going on, but their comrades were bleeding out from every orifice now, their skin slick with dark brown blood. They had correctly identified if not the biggest threat before them, at the least the worst one.

  Can’t even tell if I’m the worst thing in this fight anymore, Nar thought, as the last rider collapsed on a puddle of his own blood.

  “Can you get through that barrier?”

  Pir shook her head. “I tried it with the others before coming, but it didn’t work. Sorry.”

  “That’s alright, can you bring down that dinosaur, then?” he asked her, earning a nod. “Mul! Get back here unless you want to start bleeding from every hole you got!”

  By now, everyone in the party had at least thirty points in [Hearing], meaning they had at least had some awareness of the conversations around them, and the brawler didn’t waste any time with questions.

  “Work away whenever you think he’s safe,” Nar said, as the brawler sprinted their way.

  “Now should be okay. He’s got an affinity to fire, right? That gives him some resistance,” she said. Again, she raised her hands, and even though Nar pulled on his [Sight], he didn’t catch anything.

  A few seconds later, the giant creature rumbled deep within its chest, blood droplets leaking down its great, flaring nostrils. The barrier caster barked orders at the archers, and Nar had to give it to these elite war bands. They didn’t panic.

  Arrows continued flying their way, which Nar deflected, and then…

  “They’re running away!” he shouted. “Find cover! I’m going to block them!”

  He gave the two of them enough time to hide behind one of the massive trees then rushed after the dinosaur.

  The war beast was limping heavily from its left front leg, great burns having eaten at its flesh, and Nar headed there, sword shining and intent on finishing Mul’s job. As he approached the panicked beast, its ponderous steps shaking the jungle, Nar once again felt warmth dripping down his nose, his thoughts slowing to heated up butter.

  This time, curious, Nar didn’t reach for more aura, and instead left it to his [Indomitable], to see how the passive skill would fare.

  The great beast almost tripped on its own feet, coming down on Nar, and Nar sped up his [Aura Quickening] to keep pace. The sword blurred, leaving a trail of blinding gray in the green glowing jungle, and with a splatter of blood and a sizzle of cauterized flesh, the bottom half of the creature’s limb went flying. Nar darted from under the beast as it came down in a great spray of dirt and brush, and grinned as, just he and Mul had hoped, the pale golden barrier came into contact with the ground and burst open in a thousand fragments.

  “I’ll get them!” Pir shouted, before Nar could move in to end them. “Save your aura.”

  “Got it!”

  Already he heard the Atltal archers and caster coughing and puking from the other side of the giant beast’s belly. Likely with much less [Constitution] than their rider brethren and no [Toughness], Pir’s viral aura made short work of them, and when he jumped up the dying titanosaur to have a better look of his enemies, he found them already in the late stages of the status effect, with blood leaking from everywhere.

  “Crystal,” he muttered.

  The faculty, including the Master of Aura, had always said that there was no affinity that stood above another. It was all in the way one used his affinity, but also because each affinity had something it excelled at, something it was inherently bad at, and for the rest of the situations it was simply workable.

  But now, watching the Atlatl drop one after the other, and the great heart in the giant beast under him slowing down to a halt, Nar questioned that doctrine.

  Does [Toughness] even work against it? He wondered, as the beat stilled beneath him. The much sought attribute only mentioned physical damage reduction but in a way this viral damage was physical. Likely it was similar to poison damage, which was reduced by [Toughness].

  Inside himself, his [Indomitable] had rallied, cycling harder, and the [Viral Hemorrhagic Fever] had already been burned through, the damage being now quickly patched up.

  “You okay?” Pir asked, approaching him. “It looks like my skill really doesn’t do much to you.”

  “Yeah, I’m all good,” Nar said, jumping down to join her. Meanwhile, Mul was at a much safer distance, checking one of the dead breachers with a grimace on his face. “Do you mind if I ask if [Toughness] affects your skills?”

  Pir nodded, still somewhat taken aback by Nar’s capabilities. “You need resistances to actually prevent the onset of my viruses, but enemies with large HP pools and [Toughness] can really bring down the damage I can do.”

  “I see.”

  So while Jul’s fear and Viy’s guilt can be resisted with [Ego] or [Steadfastness], you need more to stop these viruses, Nar thought, eyeing the dead Atlatl at his feet. And I guess that bosses and tough enemies will render her skills almost harmless. And if there’s a healer nearby to cleanse her status effects… Hmm. Pros and cons, checks and balances. Guess the Master of Aura is still right.

  He glanced at the woman at his side, who had her eyes closed. Pulling on his [Aura Sight], Nar could just about make a backwards motion within her pathways, as the caster was likely pulling her viral aura back to her core so that she stopped being a threat to her allies.

  And there’s that too, I guess. That’s a huge con, and probably why Kur sent her here. Pile, he really is going to stick me with all the troublemakers, isn’t he? Nar thought, repressing a sigh. Still, while maybe I came on too strong, asking her to infect me when we just met, [Viral Resistance], or whatever it might be called, would come in handy. I am supposed to build an invincible path… that means maybe I should be looking to gain all sorts of passive resistances. Fire, ice, poison of course. [Endurance] does currently give me a nine percent resistance bonus against all kinds of damage, but gains in [Endurance] are hard to come by. Actually, I wonder if [Endurance] has hidden bonuses, like [Ego] does… But do I need to reach one hundred percent damage reduction to trigger them?

  His [Ego] now provided him with a staggering 600% reduction to soul, psychic and mental damage/debuffs, as well as 400% reduction in effectiveness of attempts at being mentally controlled and manipulated. Alongside the hidden bonus which allowed him to resist low [Presence], as well as be able to detect and resist any attempts at controlling him by now up to level 135 enemies, his mind was essentially a fortress already. But, and there was always a but, only up to a certain point.

  Just like defenses grew, so did the damage, and the two of them kept each other in check and balance. Of course, Nar’s mental defenses were staggering for his level, hence why at level 69 he could resist low [Presence], something that the aethermancers had told him was insane. Plus he could also resist mental interventions from enemies sixty-one levels above him. Which, according to the aethermancers, was also mind-blowingly powerful. But what about anything or anyone above level 135?

  You’re not safe yet, Nar. So don’t relax, he told himself.

  When he returned, he would check in with the priestess to see if she was willing to help him further train his mind, provided that her level was above his resistances. As for poisoning himself, burning, and whatever else was necessary in order to earn more passive resistance skills, he would see what Tys thought of it.

  I bet she’s already planning to do it anyway.

  He sighed. He hadn’t fully resolved his heart on the matter of how he had likely been manipulated by Tys, the Master of Blades, and by Priestess Aedina in order to unlock his [Aura Blade] much earlier than it was usually possible. He wasn’t angry anymore, and perhaps he had never truly been, as the manipulation had been done in order to grant him the power he had begged his teachers to give him. But perhaps, he had to admit that he trusted all of them a bit too much and too early, and even if done to his benefit, them going behind his back like that had broken some of that trust.

  Or maybe it just opened my eyes… Pile, maybe I was just naive, he thought. But I’m not sure how I’ll trust them going forward.

  While he had been willing to trust their future promises that everything would eventually make sense, he still carried the secret shared between him and the Master of Blades, of how the discovery of his affinity would not negatively impact his path nor all the work they had been putting into it. And Tys was likely in on the secret as well, except she hadn’t brought it up.

  Kur has a bit too much on his hands right now, so I’ll wait a little bit before telling him. But I will tell him everything before we leave the jungle, Nar decided. Now that he understood how powerful sense attributes could really be, there was no way they could ensure they weren't being spied on back on the ship.

  He snorted and shook his head.

  In the end, the only ones we can truly depend on, is our party.

  “Phew! Done! You can come over now, Mul!” Pir called.

  The brawler stomped over.

  “That’s some affinity you got there,” he said. “We’re going to have to figure something out if we’re going to be fighting together.”

  “Yeah…” she said. “And, thanks for having me.”

  “No worries. We’re glad to have you,” Nar said, grinning at her.

  Damn it, Kur. Who else are you gonna send my way? The smothering guy?

  “Is everyone done?” Kur asked.

  “Easy-peesy!” Eum said. “These guys are nothing compared to the giants of the Canopy.”

  “Shut it!” Calli said. “Ours had no barriers.”

  “Looks like not all the war bands were elite, then,” Kur mused.

  Both Pir and Mul looked up at Nar with evident expectation.

  “Ours was,” Nar said. “But we took it down quickly thanks to Pir.”

  “Nice one!” said a voice Nar didn’t recognize, and which set off a furious blush on the viral auramancer. “You go, Pir!”

  “Yes, good job,” Kur said. “Looks like we’re all in one piece too, well done. But don’t let your guard down. This is far from the worst we’ll face in this campaign. Rotate the heavy frontline tank parties back to the front, and let’s keep going. Pir, you stay with Nar for the moment.”

  “Okay!”

  “For the moment he says,” Mul said, chuckling under his breath. “Looks like your party is growing. Should we start calling ourselves Nar’s party?”

  “Ugh!” Nar said, earning their laughter.

  Part of him did worry that was exactly Kur’s plan, and likely spurred by Gad. He just hoped that he wasn’t actually going to end up with a full party of his own.