She didn’t remember a pledge to explore strange new worlds in the Paladin’s Oath and felt an immediate desire to return to her own—relatively—mundane world. Eden's heart hammered in her chest, but her hands were remarkably steady as she gripped Tidal tight. The aether-bound trident felt familiar and reassuring, its three prongs gleaming in the alien sunlight. Her armor remained unsummoned, conserving its aetheric charge. She didn't know how long she'd be here.
The obsidian beach stretched maybe fifty yards in both directions before curving out of sight. The surf lapping around her legs might appear strange, but she could instantly sense the water in it. Through that link, which stretched far beyond her vision, she had the vague impression of the purple waters encircling a small island. Beyond the beach rose a dense jungle of massive trees with gray-green trunks and fleshy, pulsing leaves. Everything felt wrong—the weight of the atmosphere, the quality of the light, and even the way sound seemed to carry differently.
Then she heard them. Chittering, clicking sounds from up the beach followed by movement in her peripheral vision. Eden turned, and her stomach dropped. Four creatures emerged from the jungle's edge, moving with predatory coordination. A second later, her ability kicked in and helpfully labeled them Two of them carried crude wooden crossbows.
Eden thought, forcing down her panic, somewhere
The Raptor-Hounds spread out in a rough crescent so that if she moved up out of the surf, they could easily move to encircle her. The crossbow-wielders hung back while the two melee fighters advanced, claws extended. They moved like a pack, communicating with subtle gestures and vocalizations.
“Not going to make it that easy for you ugly jerks,” Eden muttered.
Refusing to play into her opponents’ tactics, Eden backed deeper into the surf until the purple water reached her knees. The ocean felt warm and strange against her skin, but it responded to the call of her affinity readily enough. Her latched onto the water like a familiar tool, and she could feel the vast reservoir of the alien sea all around her.
One of the crossbow-wielders raised its weapon. Eden thrust Tidal forward and mentally pulled. A wall of water erupted from the surf, rising fifteen feet high and three feet thick just as the monster’s crossbow released with a muffled . The crossbow bolt buried itself harmlessly in the liquid barrier. The other shooter fired a moment later with the same result.
Hissing through bared teeth, the two unarmed Raptor-Hounds didn't hesitate. They charged through the shallow water toward her, surprisingly fast despite the drag. Eden waited until they were twenty feet away, then with her willpower. The wall of water collapsed forward in a crashing wave that slammed into both creatures. They went down hard, tumbling in the surf, but recovered their footing quickly—too quickly. These things were tougher than they looked.
Eden didn't give them time to regroup. She stabbed Tidal into the water at her feet and reached out with her power, feeling the moisture in the air, the spray from the wave, the water clinging to the Raptor-Hounds' fur, and with a moderate effort, she shaped it to her desire. Two spheres of water, each the size of a bowling ball, formed in the air and shot toward the recovering creatures. The spheres flew true and engulfed both Raptor-Hounds’ heads completely, sealing around their necks like liquid helmets. The creatures frantically clawed at the water, trying to tear it away, but Eden held it firm.
The crossbow-wielders fired again. Eden twisted, and one bolt whistled past her shoulder while the other grazed her arm—a hot line of pain that she shoved aside. She couldn't maintain concentration on both drowning spheres and defend against ranged attacks indefinitely. She needed to end this, fast.
Eden charged out of the surf, Tidal held waist high, points at the ready. The first drowning Raptor-Hound had dropped to its knees, movements sluggish, consciousness fading. She drove Tidal's center prong through its throat. The creature spasmed once and went still. No longer needed, she let the engulfing sphere splash apart.
The second one was still struggling, clawing futilely at the water around its head with increasing desperation. Eden yanked Tidal free and pivoted, before driving all three prongs into the creature's chest. Ribs cracked and blood spurted around the wounds as the Raptor-Hound collapsed.
She thought while trying to grimly repress her instinctive revulsion to the violence.
The crossbow-wielders had dropped their weapons and drawn crude knives, the blades of flaked obsidian. Together they charged, trying to overwhelm her with a coordinated strike. Using , Eden yanked moisture from the air itself. The humidity here was oppressive, almost suffocating, and it responded eagerly to her power. A localized downpour erupted around her, sudden and intense, like someone had opened a faucet directly above the beach. The rain was so heavy it obscured vision, turning the world into a gray curtain of falling water.
She could use that. The rain bent to her will, forming whip-like tendrils that lashed at the charging Raptor-Hounds. One took a strike across the eyes and stumbled, blinded. The other pushed through, raising its knife for a desperate lunge. Eden sidestepped and brought Tidal around in a sweeping arc. The trident's outer prong caught the creature across the throat. Blood sprayed—darker than it should be, almost black. The Raptor-Hound went down clutching its ruined neck.
The last one—squinting through a mask of blood—had recovered enough to circle her warily, knife held ready. Eden could see the calculation in its eyes—it knew it was outmatched. For a moment, she thought it might flee. She had just enough time to briefly wish it would before it attacked.
The Raptor-Hound came in low and fast, trying to get under her guard. Eden brought Tidal down in an overhead strike that the creature barely dodged. It slashed at her leg with its knife, opening a shallow cut across her thigh. Pain flared, but Eden choked down on the sensation.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Eden feinted left, then reversed and drove Tidal's prongs into the Raptor-Hound's chest. The creature's eyes went wide, then dim. It slumped to the black sand and didn't move. Eden stood on the wet beach, breathing hard, her torn clothes soaked from blood and the conjured rain.
The downpour dissipated as she released her concentration, and the alien suns beat down on her once more. Four corpses lay scattered across the beach, already beginning to look less real—like props from a movie set rather than actual bodies. Her arm and thigh stung from the cuts, but the pain was fading as her worked. She'd won. Four against one, and she'd won.
she told herself.
Even as motes of released aetheric energy drifted up out of the corpses and into her, a blue notification screen appeared in the air before Eden:
RAPTOR-HOUND DEFEATED x4
LOOT AVAILABLE
Eden blinked at the text, then remembered Delta's presentation; dungeon monsters generated loot. Unlike Velgrin's undead, these creatures were constructs of the Nexus itself, and the system rewarded those who defeated them. The screen following her, Eden approached the nearest corpse and focused on the loot prompt. The four bodies all shimmered at once, and three items materialized in the air before her. A small glass vial containing a dark crimson liquid, a bone white half-mask carved to look vaguely feline, and a square clay tablet about half a foot long on each side and covered in alien glyphs. As she focused on the three items, a text box appeared over each one:
Vial of Beast-Blood Tonic (Consumable) — Once consumed, grants +20% melee damage for 60 seconds. After effect ends, take 5% recoil damage.
Bestial Mask
(Accessory) — While worn, once per hour, auto-negates fear or confusion effects.
Scent of Prey
(Utility Power Tablet) — Permanently grants the power Scent of Prey. Through the sense of smell, the user becomes aware of wounded creatures within 60 feet, showing their HP % more clearly and potentially revealing their location even when not otherwise visible. Can also be used to accurately follow a fresh blood trail over terrain.
Eden stared at the items, her mind racing. The tonic and mask were both useful, but not immediately helpful. The tablet, on the other hand, might help her find Rowan and Sam. If there was a blood trail...
She quickly grabbed the three items out of the air and, with a thought, sent the Vial of Beast-Blood Tonic and Bestial Mask to her Inventory.That left her just holding the . The etched surface was smooth and warm to the touch. Eden hesitated. Delta had mentioned power tablets in his presentation, but either she’d zoned out at that moment or he'd been vague about the integration process. Was this safe? Would it hurt?
Unsure how to trigger it, Eden focused on the tablet a little harder to see if the Nexus would give her any additional information. Fortunately, a new prompt appeared:
Would you like to integrate the power, Scent of Prey, with your aetheric network? Warning: This will be a permanent physiological alteration.
[Yes] / [No]
Eden focused on the word and the tablet cracked along its middle before crumbling to dust in her grasp. For a moment, nothing happened. Then primal energy exploded through her body—not pain exactly, but an overwhelming presence that rewrote something fundamental in her nervous system. Her sense of smell suddenly sharpened to an almost unbearable degree. She could smell the salt in the alien ocean, the rot of the jungle, and the metallic tang of the Raptor-Hounds' blood. Beneath it all, as her brain began to sort through it all, she detected something faint but distinctly familiar. It was an unmistakably human scent: sweat, blood, and fear.
The intensity faded after a few seconds, her brain rapidly adapting to the enhanced input. Eden took a shaky breath and turned toward the jungle. A trail of scent leading into the darkness between the trees. Rowan and Sam had gone that way, along with their captors.
Eden retrieved her phone, already knowing what she'd find; no signal. Her carrier didn't offer interdimensional roaming. She tried her HUD messaging next, pulling up the interface with a thought.
Eden: Made it inside. Following trail inland. No signal. Will update when possible.
The message failed to send. A red error indicator flashed in her vision, indicating there were no valid recipients in range. Eden dismissed the interface with a frustrated thought. Delta had warned them that wild dungeons blocked most communications. The HUD messaging
work between Paladins inside the dungeon, but nothing could reach out.
She was on her own.
Eden peered at the jungle beyond the beach, at the dark spaces between the massive trees, at the trail of scent that pulled her forward like an invisible rope. Every instinct screamed at her to wait, to hold position, to let the team catch up. But Rowan was in there. Sam was in there. Every second she waited was another second they were in danger. She’d made that same mistake before, hesitating to take the Paladin’s Oath until it was too late, and it hadn’t been her who paid the price. It had been Mark.
Eden told herself.
She knew it was a rationalization even as she thought it, but her feet were already moving, carrying her off the beach and into the alien jungle. The canopy swallowed her almost immediately. Despite the twin suns overhead, very little light penetrated the dense foliage. The trees were massive—same trunks easily thirty feet around, bark that looked more like gray-green rawhide than wood. Their pink and brown leaves were broad and fleshy in texture, some of them pulsing faintly with bioluminescence that provided the only illumination in the gloom. Vines hung everywhere like cables, some of them twitching with what Eden hoped was just wind.
The atmosphere was even more humid under the canopy, almost suffocating. Her enhanced sense of smell was both blessing and curse—she could follow the trail easily, but the overwhelming input of rot and growth and alien vegetation made her head swim. The scent trail led deeper into the jungle, following what looked like a recently carved path. Vegetation had been hacked away, leaving stumps and torn vines by the dungeon’s inhabitants.
Eden moved as quickly and quietly as she could. Tidal held ready. Her heart hammered in her chest. Every shadow looked like a threat. Every sound made her flinch. After what felt like twenty minutes but could have been longer—time was hard to track in the unchanging gloom—Eden noticed something wrong. The path ahead forked, splitting in three directions. But the scent trail didn’t proceed down any of the three trails; it went off into dense and untrodden foliage.
Eden remembered Delta's warning:
What if the jungle was changing the paths? Making navigation deliberately difficult. That made as much sense to her as the monsters somehow blazing through thick foliage without leaving so much as a bent branch. Eden stood at the forking paths, trying to decide what to do. The trajectory of the scent trail was the closest to paralleling the branch to the left. The middle path looked more heavily traveled. The right path seemed to lead upward, toward higher ground.
Eden chose the left trail and immediately second-guessed herself. What if she'd chosen wrong? What if she got lost out here?
She pressed forward, following her nose through the shifting jungle and doing her best to parallel the scent trail.