Collection

Kai looked up at the ever so dimming canopy.

"Huh, it's only getting darker and darker."

Narcen nodded. "These parts of the forest run wild. Just be ready for any encounters."

"Encounters?" Kai asked. He made a confused expression. "Like what?"

Narcen's tongue flicked out, tasting the humid air. "Creatures of many kinds dwell in these parts, not all friendly to trespassers. Giant insects, territorial beasts, carnivorous plants - some things even I don't know."

Kai gulped.

He turned his amber eyes on Kai and patted his back with his tail. "You decimated our whole village. Whatever we face, you should have little trouble dealing with it."

He looked down and patted the huge knife on his hip. "Even I have some practice with combat."

Kai nodded, gaze drifting over the shadowy foliage surrounding them. Already he felt an itches. Decently sized mosquitos were bombarding his skin. He heated up the air around him with solar wind. All the mosquitos around him plummeted to the ground.

"Neat," Narcen observed.

"Why don't they attack you?" Kai asked. He tripped over a root but caught himself in time.

"Well, the biggest reason is that they can't penetrate our scales."

Kai grumbled. He wished he could just naturally evade mosquitoes.

Narcen smiled.

"What, you jelous?" He said playfully

"What? No! Being scaly sound like a hassle!"

He laughed. "Now you are just muttering nonsense."

Before long they reached the fern-encircled glade the shopkeeper had described. Crimson Zenga fruits hung ripe and heavy from the low shrubs dotting the clearing. As Kai studied the bounty, a sudden screech pierced the air.

Whipping around, Kai saw a massive insect barreling through the underbrush toward them, mandibles clacking. With practiced ease, Kai lifted a hand, eyes flaring purple as he summoned a controlled burst of his nebula The blast engulfed the creature, reducing it to drifting ashes.

Narcen stared wide-eyed. "Amazing! That was quicker to deal with than I thought it would be. Usually those things take a while to defeat."

Kai allowed himself a grin. "Let's gather the fruit quickly. Other monster are probably on their way right now."

Working swiftly, they harvested baskets full of the exotic Zenga.

Leaves rustled behind Narcen. Kai looked over, on alert. The leaves rustled again. Narcen slowly backed away with his knife out. Kai activated his cosmic magic once more.

A blur of black darted out of the underbrush. It was extremely fast. Kai didn't see it. And now it was in a different spot, waiting to pounce.

He hear more rustling, and then a deep growl. Once again a blur ran past him and Narcen.

"Narcen!" Kai shouted. "What is this thing!?"

"I don't know!" He yelled back. His feet dug deeper into the soil. He stood his guard with his knife still out.

He saw the blur again, but this time it kept running around him in all directions. Directly over him, to the left, to the right. His eyeballs kepts moving with the motion of blur dancing around him. It kept getting quicker and quicker

I need to do something before it attacks. But what do I do? If I use solar wind all around me, it might hurt Narcen. The same goes for nebula and magnetar. It's too fast to single out.

The blur dissapeared. Kai got catapulted forward. Some blood flew in the air.

"KAI!" Narcen blurted out.

He caught himself from face planting into the ground. Blood dripped from his shoulder.

He looked back. The blur was moving around again. It once again pounced on him. He jumped out of the way enough to only get a minor scratch. The blur moved around him again, but now even quicker. Once again it pounced.

But this time Kai was ready.

"NEBULA!"

The metalic high pitched sound emanted through the air. Sharp spikes of the the stardust constructed itself around him. The blur jumped back. Kai got a glimpse of the creature.

It was a huge black panther with bat wings on it. It's eyes were glowing bright red.