The Storm King

The outskirts of the Redspark Forest were quite peaceful. Wind poured in from the storm deep in the interior, but with so many trees in the way, it was little more than a pleasant breeze closer to town.

Leon led the push further in. Fortunately, though he had a pair of guides from the town courtesy of Yurkij, he didn’t have much need of them yet—so many pilgrims had come and gone through the Redspark Forest seeking the Stormborn Oak that their feet had carved a path through the underbrush. All Leon’s party had to do was follow this path.

As they walked, Leon called the older and stronger of the two guides—a middle-aged man at the sixth-tier—to tell him in greater detail some of the dangers to watch out for in the forest.

“There are many,” the guide began, his demeanor business-like. “In my experience, more powerful folk wanna try an’ fly into the forest. Bad idea, bad idea. If they ain’t torn apart by the winds—you can feel ‘em out here, they’ll get stronger further in—so if they ain’t torn apart by the winds, then they get torn apart by flocks of man-eatin’ birds an’ bugs.”

“Sounds delightful,” Leon said as he spared a glance back at Anna. A quick mental command had her moving forward to join him and the older guide at the front of their little marching column. “Are these flocks particularly large?”

“The birds? Aye, that they are. Hundreds of ‘em, lots more on bad days. Their males ride the storm winds in matin’ dances, but the time for that was a couple months ago. Now, they’re like to be too busy fuckin’ to fuck with us s’long as we stay on the ground. Them bugs are different beasts, though. Smallest are spiders the size of your head, largest are centipedes longer’n some of them great sea serpents, who’ll eat an eighth-tier mage alive in one bite.”

Anna smiled and excitedly asked, “Have you seen any of these bugs before?”

“Me? Nah, if I had, I’d be rotten bones out in the forest. I’m one of the smartest guides in all of Redspark. Wanna know why?” He leaned over and gave Anna a subtly flirtatious smile.

“Why?” Anna asked, playing into the guide’s game a little bit.

“‘Cause I know to stay on the damn path,” the guide explained before bursting into laughter. After a few good guffaws, he settled down and further explained, “The paths branch further in. I know ‘em all like the back of my hand. I know how to get everywhere in this here forest.”

“Impressive,” Anna said. “It’s quite a large forest.”

“Not large enough to hide its secrets from me!” the guide boasted.

“Good,” Leon said. “Our chances are only boosted with such a knowledgeable and well-traveled guide with us. What was your name again?”

“Davin,” the guide replied.

“I’m Leon,” Leon stated.

“Everybody knows that,” Davin said.

Valeria, who’d been walking just behind Leon, finally interjected, “You have quite the rude tongue, Davin.”

“I’m just callin’ it like I sees it, milady. Let the client set the tone, and I’d say the tone’s been set.”

“It’s fine,” Leon said with a smile to his silver-haired wife.

“Maybe. Until he forgets his place in a crucial moment. This forest is dangerous, the last thing we need is him running away and abandoning his duty.”

“I can hear you, you know,” Davin said.

Valeria rolled her eyes.

“You can be rest assured that Davin doesn’t run!” Davin claimed. “I don’t leave my clients in dangerous positions! ‘Cause I don’t lead my clients into dangerous positions in the first damn place!”

“Confidence is good,” Anna remarked. “Why don’t you prove it a little more by telling us more about the kinds of beasts we’ll encounter further in. If we’re unlucky?”

Davin immediately launched into a longer explanation of the various flora and fauna to watch out for in the Redspark Forest. Leon paid attention to him, but he also spent a significant amount of time just taking in the forested ambiance. The forest so far had been so peaceful that it almost seemed comical that they were talking about the dangers that existed within, though they were less than a mile away from Redspark, so he wasn’t that surprised at the peace.

The underbrush off the path was thick, the trees were tall, and the canopy shielded them well from the light of the Origin Spark. Birds chirped in the distance, and if he listened well, he could hear the shuffling and calling of various beasts further out. After projecting his magic senses, he could even locate some of them.

He had the misfortune of immediately seeing some kind of black deer with almost radiant white spots being chased down by a small pack of wolves with glowing green eyes the first time he used his magic senses to check out their surroundings. The deer was quickly run down by the wolves, though Leon was already turning his attention away as her terrified screams were silenced by a wolf locking its fangs around her neck.

A burst of magic from the deer drew his attention back to the grisly scene as lightning erupted from the white spots on her body, but the green-eyed wolves darted back and howled, and the lightning bent around them, leaving them unscathed. Then they moved back in for the kill, and the deer was torn asunder.

An unpleasant end to a life, but Leon had seen many similar things growing up in the Forest of Black and White and was unaffected by what he’d just witnessed. Instead, he almost felt right at home.

He kept his eyes open and magic senses projected as they pushed deeper into the forest, looking out for any signs of the more dangerous beasts that Davin described.

Several dozen miles away, he saw the branches of several neighboring trees heavily weighed down by an enormous flock of large, gray birds. They were making quite the racket, and judging by how they were pressing against each other, Leon guessed that Davin was likely right in his guess that the birds would leave the party alone—they were too busy mating to bother with them.

In a darker corner of the wide-spanning forest, he saw another dark, white-spotted deer being unceremoniously dragged into a shadow by a black paw rising from the shadow. The paw was as large as Leon was tall, and the deer, despite letting out a few blasts of lightning, stood no chance of effective resistance. She was almost dragged helplessly into the shadow until another deer, this one with bright, extremely unsubtle golden fur came charging in, his antlers glowing with light just as golden as his fur. The stag charged his glowing horns into the shadow, forcing the doe to be released and the shadow to retreat.

Leon grinned at the sight. Lightning triumphing over darkness was how the world ought to work, in his view.

The first sign of trouble for his party came not from any dramatic confrontations with large creatures, but rather from something so small as to be unnoticed until it was almost too late—the Tempest Knights were permitted by Alix to march without their helmets since they were all sixth-tier or higher. That decision was punished a couple hours after beginning their march into the forest, one of the knights was bitten on the cheek by some insect that had been buzzing around his face for a while. The thing was no larger than a mosquito, yet a moment later, the Tempest Knight fell, his muscles completely locked up.

Leon didn’t realize anything happened until the Knight fell and the others began shouting. After a swift glance back, Davin sprinted over to the knight’s side and, fast as lightning, stabbed him with a thin needle. The knight’s muscles immediately relaxed, and he groaned in pain.

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“Aologies for that,” Davin said. “Night mites ain’t usually seen in these parts, wasn’t expectin’ ‘em. We’ll fix that right up, don’t worry…” Davin nodded to the other guide, and they each took a lantern from their soul realms. The lantern was small and made of silver. A candle made of red wax was within, and when Davin and the other guide lit it, the fire burned a dark, almost demonic red. “This’ll keep them tiny bastards away, easy!”

“How long will that candle last?” Leon asked.

“’Bout half a day,” Davin said. “We’ve got plenty of spares, though! So long as you ain’t plannin’ on staying in the Redspark Forest for longer’n two weeks, it’ll be no matter.”

Leon nodded, then turned his eyes to the Tempest Knight. “How’re you?” he asked.

The knight blinked a few times and then pushed himself to his feet despite protests from the knight-healer of their party. “I’m feeling perfectly fine, Your Majesty,” he said. “Remarkably so…”

“Makes one curious what that needle was,” Anna said as she stared at Davin.

“Antitoxin,” the guide replied. He nudged the other guide. “Guidin’ a Strategos is serious business, yeah? We came prepped.”

“It’s good to know that we’re in good hands, then,” Leon said.

“That’s us,” Davin replied. “Good hands.”

Without further ado, they pushed further into the forest. They passed several forks, though they kept to the main path. At Maia’s insistence, they paused at a stream, though only long enough for her to dip her toes into the water for a few seconds.

[I wanted to see if anything’s living in it,] she explained to Leon. After he sent her a questioning look, she frowned in disappointment and said, [I sensed nothing.]

[Looking for other nymphs?] he asked.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Maia’s frown deepened. [Or something close.]

They pressed on, crossing the stream over a short bridge. As they moved in, Leon heard several insects, attracted by the strange burning wax in Davin and the other guide’s lanterns, get zapped by lightning as they strayed close. Davin’s lantern even killed a flying thing the size of one of Leon’s fingers with six pairs of wings and altogether far too many other limbs.

“Lucky that one’s dead,” Davin said when its body, which the lantern reduced to ash, was blown away by the wind. “Those things burrow into skin to lay their eggs. In two weeks, the mage would get eaten from the inside out. Only consolation is the thing’s venom killin’ ‘em afore then.”

With that pleasant image in mind, the party kept moving. With every step, the wind seemed to get stronger as they drew closer to the edge of the storm raging over the forest. Leon could feel it growing stronger, too, his blood singing louder the closer he drew to the edge.

It was almost a relief when they followed the path around a hill and found a cat larger than Anzu’s griffin form with deep red fur covered in gold stripes prowling down the path toward them. Leon was surprised as his magic senses hadn’t located the beast despite how little effort it appeared to be making to hide, but instead of being particularly alarmed, he was just relieved to have a possible outlet for the excess energy the storm was building within him.

In a single smooth movement, Leon donned his armor and drew Iron Pride. Silver-blue lightning flashed along the blade in an obvious challenge as the large cat glared at him with wary yellow eyes. Leon took another threatening step forward as the rest of his party spread out behind him and drew their own weapons, and the cat dissolved away into mist as if it had never been there at all.

“A mirage panther,” Davin explained. “We’re too numerous for them to fuck with, but good to keep an eye out for ‘em anyways. Probably best that no one goes off the path for a while, that thing’ll be watchin’ us.”

“An interesting beast,” one of the Tempest Knights observed—a Bear if his thick red braided beard and hair were any indication. “There might be some value in returning here, my King, after this business is done. There may be valuable war beasts to be had.”

“Many have tried to break the beasts of the Redspark Forest,” Davin responded. “None have succeeded in my recollection. It’d be quite the ambitious undertakin’ to nab any such creatures from this place an’ break ‘em.”

“A little ambition is good for the soul,” Valeria responded. “Without it, how would anyone grow?”

“If you say so,” Davin said noncommittally. “Nice lightning, by the way. Got somethin’ special in your blood, do you?”

Leon drew his armor and sword back into his soul realm, somewhat disappointed at the prudence shown by the beast. “If you can call the power of the Thunderbird ‘something special’,” he quipped. “More grandiose terms would be acceptable, though not necessary.”

[They are very much necessary!] the Thunderbird complained from his soul realm, announcing her presence in the process.

“If you say so,” Davin repeated. “Doesn’t seem that special to me, but hey, I’m just some fuck in a forest.” Without another word, they kept moving.

After a dozen miles, it was clear that it wasn’t only the wind getting stronger, the fog spilling off the storm was, too. It was hardly noticeable just past the entrance arch, but now he was starting to see it gathering between the trees and pooling in the drainage ditches on either side of the path. He couldn’t sense anything dangerous about the fog, but his magic senses flowed perceptibly slower through it, which had him feeling somewhat concerned.

Still, he pressed on, as if Davin and the other guide weren’t concerned, then neither was he.

The wind began to pick up as they drew close to the edge of the storm. It roared through the trees, which stood firm amidst the strong wind. However, not too far ahead of them, Leon could sense an open area about a quarter mile wide where nothing grew. Barren dirt, ravaged by the edge of the twister that encircled the interior of the Redspark Forest. The fog was thicker than ever there, preventing Leon from seeing what was on the other side, save for the occasional glimpse given by bolts of red lightning striking the trees beyond the storm’s edge.

“All right,” Davin loudly said as they drew closer to the storm’s edge. “This’ll be our first real obstacle. If any of you want to turn ‘round, this is where to do it.” He jerked his thumb at a wooden sign Leon had almost missed by the edge of the path, upon which had been written in several different languages, including Nexus common, ‘Extreme Danger Ahead’.

“No need for the warning, Davin,” Leon said. “We’re going in.”

Davin laughed loudly. “Wonderful! Wonderful! All right, let’s get our asses movin’!” Without another word, he turned around to face the windy, foggy wall about a thousand feet in the distance. “Stay behind me in single file, if you please…”

Leon nodded to the rest of his party, who arranged themselves in a single file. The giants tried to take the rear, but the other guide walked past them, apparently electing to follow them at a distance of some thirty or forty feet.

Meanwhile, Davin retrieved from his soul realm a large pole about twice as long as he was tall. At the end of the pole was a metal ball with a single ancient rune carved upon it that Leon didn’t recognize. It was quite complex, hinting at it being a more bespoke rune tailored to more specific conditions.

Davin advanced, holding the pole in two hands like a pike, the metal ball acting almost like the blade. The wind screamed around him, but as his magic activated the rune at the end, the wind bent around him, forming a serene tunnel through which they moved. The other guide appeared to be walking at the other end of the tunnel, marking with his presence where their protection from the edge of the storm ended.

It was impressive magic if easily replicated as far as Leon could tell. Given his power, he didn’t think he’d even need any enchantment to do it, he could brute force his way through the storm quite easily. But if Davin was going to lead the way into the unknown, Leon was more than happy to walk just behind him.

“It’ll get better on the other side!” Davin shouted as the wind drowned out all other sounds of the forest around them. “Just stay behind me!”

He pressed forward, the pole cutting a way through the storm’s edge. The fog parted before them, and an opening in the gusting wall formed. Davin pushed in, followed by Leon, Valeria, Maia, Anzu, and the rest of the party.

The wall of the storm was thick, and Leon almost felt like they were walking through a cloud given the fog all around them obscuring everything beyond their thin tunnel. After about five hundred feet, though, they pushed through, emerging on the other side of the wall into what almost seemed like a completely different world.

The fog was much thicker than on the other side, though the air was impossibly still given the storm wall just behind them. Red lightning flashed about the treetops, the ground shaking from the boom of accompanying thunder. In the distance, obscured by the fog but visible nonetheless, was an ethereal white light.

“The Stormborn Oak is that way,” Davin said as he pointed toward the light, the rest of Leon’s party filing through the tunnel bored through the storm wall. “If we stay together, there won’t be any problems reaching it.”

Leon was about to respond when a black stinger at the end of a long tail covered in black chitinous armor lashed down from above, impaling Davin through the chest. Davin opened his mouth to scream, but only blood poured from between his lips as he was lifted by the curling tail.

Leon drew his weapons and armor again to confront whatever was above them, and when he turned his gaze upward, he saw a grotesque creature staring back at him. It had the ‘face’ of a centipede and the body of an ape. Its tail appeared to be a long legless centipede that ended in the stinger impaled through Davin and had stretched itself to what seemed to be an impossible length given the creature was in the branches almost a hundred feet above them. Its entire body was covered in the same black chitin as the tail, while its eyes burned red with malice.

“Black hunter!” the other guide shrieked in panic, but before he could do anything more, the creature spat a glob of something green and foul-smelling at him at a speed the young guide couldn’t dodge.

The giant in front of him, however, stepped in front of the spit, but as the spit splashed over its metallic body, it immediately began to melt.

“To arms!” Leon shouted as lightning surged through his body. “Kill that thing!”