A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, The Mycelium***

***Magnus***

Something moved in the periphery of my vision and I snapped my head around before aiming the tip of my spetum in the general direction of the movement.

One of my palms was already pointing a ball of plasma at the potential enemy while arcs of electrical discharges danced around my arm. The new mutation was making everything so much easier. I didn’t even have to think about building up the energy. It was simply already there at my fingertips when I needed it.

But even though I reacted nearly instantly, there was nothing out there. No enemy to roast with arcs of lightning and supercharged plasma.

Just as the previous times, something came close enough for me to notice, then slipped away before I could identify it.

“Did you see it this time?” Thalia asked. She and the others had been alerted by my reaction.

“A shadow,” Astra said. “No larger than a human if I am not mistaken.”

“There was definitely something,” I affirmed while I watched the fog. When nothing emerged from the mists, I relaxed slightly and allowed the plasma in my palm to slowly dissipate with a wave of hot air and the smell of ozone.

If I could, I would have willed my second sight to penetrate the fog which was providing a convenient cover for whatever was stalking us. “I am sure it is trailing us. I am not imagining things. It’s unnerving how it somehow repeatedly manages to barely graze the edge of our sight. It stays just outside of our vision. Could it be a nightstalker?”

If the thing had the same sight as me it would explain how it manages to always skirt around the edge of our vision.

Mark shook his head. “No. Nightstalkers are rare, but they are relatively well-known predators at the Old Camp. They follow their prey when they hunt, but not in this manner. More importantly, they are only active in complete darkness. We are dealing with something native to this environment.”

Since splitting up with the drakes, we had delved deep into the Mycelium and none of us were comfortable with the thick fog shadowing the environment with seemingly eternal twilight. At first, the alien vegetation was colourful and bright, like a coral reef showing off its hidden beauty.

The deeper we went into the fog, the greyer and drearier the world became. Greyish-white fungi replaced the spiky grass and the few corals which remained in this zone lost their vibrant colours. Now they looked like a boneyard overgrown with fungus. The fungi and corals formed their own biosphere with smaller ones taking up the role of grass, all the way up to tree-like structures creating a canopy above us.

The sun seemed nothing more than a distant memory to this place.

“If my Precognition wouldn't scream bloody murder each time one of you twitches, I would have thought you are jumping at ghosts,” Mark added while looking around. My friend also wisely checked the sky. He had his new compound bow ready, but the arrow was aimed at the ground while his eyes searched for a target. “I can see next to nothing in this soup.”

“Something is out there,” Thiago Colen assured us while following something with his head. “It never came close enough to see, but I can hear it. It’s currently moving in that direction, circling around us.”

He pointed, his finger following the sounds of some unseen foe only he could hear.

Ginevra nodded. “It is very good at staying quiet, but there is definitely something out there. I can hear it too.”

“As can I,” Astra said. She had several of her filaments spread out around us, touching and sensing the environment like feelers, providing her with a sense of echolocation. The rest of her filaments was wielding an entire set of spears. They fanned out from her back, ready to cover almost every angle of attack.

I could have copied her, but my shorter filaments never allowed me to perform as well as she did. Echolocation was also a skill which required extensive training and experience, so I preferred to rely on my visual senses. Maybe I would train the ability when I found the time.

We waited for another minute while Thiago and Ginevra tracked the movements around us with their exceptional hearing.

When the creature refused to come closer once more, I slowly lowered my spetum and started walking again. “It feels like something is hunting us and I don't like it. Whatever it is, it is toying with us. It must be smart enough to recognize when we sense it.”

“Should we flash step towards it the next time it approaches?” Astra asked. “We could at least try to identify it.”

“No,” Thalia replied firmly. “You already tried it three times and all we got was more sightings of shapes hidden by the fog. If we split the group and lose someone, I see no chance of finding them again. Especially when you two start zipping all over the place leaving no tracks to follow.”

“What can I say? The creature is fast,” Astra muttered defensively.

“We leave tracks,” I pointed out unhelpfully.

“Every thirty metres or so,” Ginevra groused. She and her partner weren’t the best fighters, but hearing and tracking skills were above even Astra’s outdoor skills. No wonder Ginevra had made a living as a poacher.

“Thalia is right. We won't do that. The last time you tried hunting the creature you didn’t find your way back and we had to call out so you could follow our voices. I would rather not announce my presence to any predators living here. The fog is an annoyance, but it hides us too.”

I nodded. People weren’t afraid of the dark. They were afraid that there was something else with them.

Mark raised his voice, “Maybe we are allowing ourselves to be spooked too easily. Yes, knowing something is following us is nerve-wracking, but I think if it could pose a danger to our entire group it would have attacked us already. At worst, it is some sort of opportunistic predator hoping for an opportunity. Let’s just not give it an opening and we should be fine. What is worrying me more is the coming night. Have you seen anything which could serve as shelter?”

I mulled over his words for a bit. “You are right, Mark. But I would rather just hunt the thing down and be done with it. How long can this go on before we inevitably make a mistake? Better let it know now that we are hard to digest.”

“Can you promise to find us again after following it? Because we surely won’t be able to catch up to you,” Thalia asked. “Can you at least find your way home on your own?”

“Sure!” I answered with absolute confidence.

“Then show me the direction towards the mountains,” Thalia challenged.

I pointed in the direction from which we came, not hesitating at all.

Thiago coughed and pulled out a compass before adjusting my arm about thirty degrees to the left.

I hadn’t been totally wrong. But wrong enough to miss the drakes and eventually get lost.

“No harm, man. This fog plays tricks on me too.” He waved the compass in his hand. “This place messes with everyone’s senses.”

Grumbling, I partly retracted my previous statement. “You have a point, though nothing stops me from using my own compass. Okay. Maybe we should do it differently? Just give it an opening? Lure it in?”

“Do you want to play bait?” Thalia asked.

“Not really,” I replied, fearing my suggestion would end up with me being bait.

Astra raised a hand to stop the discussion. “Let’s just move on okay? Make enough distance to leave the thing’s territory. The less time we spend in this fog, the less time it has to find a weak spot in our guard.”

When nobody objected, we finally moved on with more purpose in our steps.

We had been walking for hours and the last rock formation which I identified as convenient shelter had been outside the fog. The coral-like vegetation covering the area offered little protection. I supposed it would have been possible to hack a path into the denser part of the grey, shroom-like bushes which grew in patches, but I didn’t trust it to be a safe solution. There were some larger tree-like formations, but they didn't look like they could be used to hold off large predators.

When I arrived on Tirnanog, I had survived a night by sleeping in a tree. According to what I knew now, I had been extremely lucky nothing with a taste for humans had found me.

“Can we dig a shelter?” I asked.

“We will have to start doing so in an hour or two, or we wont get done by nightfall,” Astra pointed out. “I would rather avoid it, but better a dirthole than sleeping in the open. It may give us some time to come up with a plan if something dangerous finds us.”

We continued our journey and it began to rain which was not surprising at this point. The fog had been alternating hourly between a drizzle and heavier rain as if the world couldn’t decide on the best method to drench us in water.

What was concerning though was the sudden speed with which the latest weather change happened. Unlike the previous times, the rain got heavier and heavier as we walked, developing into an outright storm.

Then the sky above us lit up with light, turning the fog surrounding us into a world of white brightness.

I blinked, and the world was back to normal before the crack of thunder rolled over us.

“That felt too close for comfort,” Mark commented while shielding his eyes from the rain which was now coming from a sideways angle.

“Three seconds times 343m,” I announced quickly. “So about a kilometre away.”

Thalia pointed away from one of the larger tree-like mushrooms. “Which means we should get away from any high points and dig in a little earlier than planned.”

We were about to move on when a second, much louder lightning strike thundered the world.

With it, I sensed something approaching us quickly. It was purposeful, aiming in a straight line for our group.

Flash stepping, I appeared in front of Ginevra a mere moment before the attacker could barrel into her. My spetum barely caught the creature in the chest and I was pushed back, my fingers slipping along the wet shaft as the creature forced itself forward as if it intended to impale itself.

I caught a pale, leathery limb striking out. It was multi-jointed with a paw at the end, sprouting a set of four wicked claws.

The initial momentum of my counter was enough to divert what should have been a lethal blow to Ginevra’s head, but the creature’s raw animalistic power forced the claws back on track, coming threateningly close to Ginevra’s face.

One of Astra’s spears impacted the monster’s side, once more derailing its single-minded attack. Her speartip drew blood, but couldn’t penetrate the tough skin completely. It stopped just a few centimetres into the creature’s hide.

Wrestling with it, I could have sworn there was something like subdermal chain mail beneath the creature’s skin.

My spetum was already wedged between the creature’s ribs, refusing to go any deeper.

Turning its attention to me, it grinned with its hound-like snout, revealing rows of uncanny teeth as it studied me with two red, beady eyes.

Then Mark was on it, wedging a nail-like dagger in its throat.

Letting go of my spetum, I laughed and caught the clawed arm which snaked around to eviscerate Mark. “Die you ugly bastard!”

When it returned its attention to me, I let go of the power, pouring everything I had to give into the creature.

It screamed and I could smell burned flesh before it ripped itself away from us and disappeared within the fog and rain almost as fast as if it had flash stepped.

Flash-stepping after it, I discharged another lightning strike at the thing.

Realizing I was alone, it turned around to charge me. Guided by my sub-identities, I only raised my hand and discharged all the power I could muster into the sky to create a local imbalance in the lightning storm's charge.

Right as the creature reached me, a lightning bolt more powerful than anything I could have produced on my own struck our position and raw power ran through me, setting every fibre in my body on fire.

When it was over, I couldn’t make out anything but white before I realized I was looking into the fog surrounding me. Then the rain which had been temporarily evaporated in the vicinity began falling once more.

Astra appeared next to me and bonked me over the back of my head. “Don’t try that again, you idiot! I bet it wanted you to run after it like some imbecile! It probably has some friends out there!”

“Did you see where it ran off to?” I asked. “Forget that, did you see what I just did?” I laughed. “I caught a fucking lightning bolt!”

Astra bonked me again, making my helmet ring, but I didn’t care.

“It ran off after it caught the edge of the impact.”

Together, we returned to the rest of the group which had formed up to cover every possible angle of attack. Astra was admonishing me for my reckless behaviour, but I couldn't care less right now. What I had done was born of pure improvisation and a moment's inspiration, but it had worked!

Admittedly, my sub-identities deserved most of the praise, but they were me as much as I was them.

“What the fuck was that?” I asked the others over the storm before quickly picking up my spetum which had fallen to the ground. I was still slightly befuddled at how little damage we had done to the creature. Astra, Mark, and I each got in a clean strike with a blade and we didn’t do more than scratch the thing. It also tanked a full lightning blast from me and behaved like I had done little more than taser it!

“It… it… it looked like the thing which almost ate me at the Old Camp,” Mark stuttered after a moment of hesitation. “But the one I killed had dark skin. Almost black. This one was white!”

“I hope your dagger is poisoned, Mark,” Thalia reminded her partner.

“Of course it is!” he shot back. “But I don’t think it will do much. The one I managed to paralyse bit off my entire hand and still didn’t die from it.”

“Attention people!” Astra shouted. “Everyone! Switch to the chat! We no longer talk via sound while we are out here!”

‘First of all, Ginevra, Thiago, why didn’t you notice it?’ Astra continued. ‘You had no problems tracking it previously.’

‘It came at me right after the thunder,’ Ginevra pointed out. ‘I was deafened for a moment.’

‘I don’t think it aimed for Ginevra by accident,’ I added. ‘Ginevra and Thiago are the only ones who managed to track it beyond our vision range.’

We were interrupted when I noticed something approaching quickly, dashing through the rain towards us. Was the fucker back for more already?

There was no time to think. I simply raised a hand and unleashed a lightning arc in its direction, feeling more powerful than ever after the lightning bolt had supercharged my reserves. The creature bleated and dropped like a sack of grain. It tumbled and came to a halt in front of us as a smoking, twitching wreck.

Too late, I realized it wasn’t our foe, but some tripod-shaped thing with the features of a grazing animal. Probably startled by the storm.

‘Dig in right now?’ Astra asked after a heavy pause while the group stared at the corpse. ‘We are wasting time.’

‘Won’t any shelter we dig be filled up with rain right away?’ Thiago pointed out.

‘We walk through the night,’ Thalia messaged. ‘Watch out for the thunder and stay close. I don’t believe we will get much sleep tonight. If the lightning hits us, it hits. I believe everyone here can take a strike or two without dying.’

We continued through the storm, miraculously left alone by what we decided to name a night-terror. It was likely licking its wounds and waiting for a better chance. I wasn’t so optimistic as to assume that the poison on Mark’s dagger had done more than give it indigestion.

On and on we went until five hours into the trek the ground became steeper and rocky. It was a rapid drop in elevation, likely leading down to sea level from the plateau we had been on. There we found a narrow crevice to hunker down. It wasn’t comfortable, but it provided protection from the wind and rain.

While the others were setting up camp, I took Astra’s hand and pulled her with me to the crevice’s entrance. “We will take the first watch!”

“Magnus…” Astra sighed. “I am really tired.”

“Tired?” I gestured at the storm. “There is no time to be tired right now! We have to dance with the storm and catch ourselves some lightning bolts! Trust me! You will feel it too once the first one hits you!”