Practical Hell.

Breath hitched, Loki remained frozen, ensnared within the tangled roots that shielded him like skeletal fingers while he slowly bled, his body growing numbingly cold.

His pulse thundered so fiercely that for a moment he feared the Glimmerfang could hear it.

Its hollow, phosphorescent eyes swept the forest floor, scanning for faint disturbances as Loki suppressed the urge to cry out.

The oppressive stillness it radiated devoured even the faintest of rustles.

It knew he was here—just not 'where'.

A silvery mist wove around its paws as it stalked forward, head twitching in eerie, staccato jerks. It wasn't searching by sight or scent, but through something more insidious—senses attuned to life, heat... fear.

Loki clenched his jaw, stifling the burning urge to exhale. The wound on his torso throbbed, radiating white-hot pain through his side. He was bleeding out, quickly.

'Damn it. The coppery tang might have already given me away.'

Suddenly, the Glimmerfang halted, its malformed ears flicking toward the deeper woods. A faint rustle—perhaps a small animal scurrying through the underbrush. Its mouth twisted into a grotesque snarl, and then it vanished into the shadows.

Loki didn't move.

Seconds stretched into agonizing minutes, each one clawing at his sanity. His cramped muscles screamed, cold sweat and blood soaking through his clothes, making it sag down.

Still, he waited... and waited.

Finally, the forest settled into its uneasy quiet. No hum. No glowing eyes. Just the smothering silence of a place that had forgotten what mercy was.

'Move now or die here.' Loki mentally encouraged himself to move. 'Instructors watching us, my ass! I almost died you fucking retards! Sons of bitches…Cheese puff eating discord mods!'

Biting down on a groan, he uncurled from the twisted roots. Pain flared in his injured side as he pushed himself to his knees, fingers clawing at the damp, leaf-strewn earth. Every nerve stood on edge.

No sign of the Glimmerfang.

With a shaky breath, Loki took a cautious step back, eyes raking the dim, twisted canopy overhead. The sickly, golden light filtering through the leaves felt darker now—tainted, wrong.

A sharp snap—a twig breaking.

Instinct kicked in and Loki spun, catching a brief flash of shimmering light slicing through the gloom before—

CRACK!

Pain detonated in his skull, hurling him into the dirt like a ragdoll. Blinding stars erupted behind his eyes as he scrambled back, mind reeling. The familiar, sinister hum surged—closer now, sharper.

Through the throbbing haze, Loki saw it.

The Glimmerfang standing on all fours, just beyond the mist, incorporeal and hollow-eyed, exuding malevolence made manifest.

It had never left. There was a vulpine grin on its shadowy features, like enjoying Loki get happy at the false sense of escape and then fall into despair. Starts shone inside its hollow eyes.

Loki staggered to my feet, blood roaring in his ears.

What should I do…run…?

He thought over it logically.

And it hit him.

The forest was an endless maze of fiends much stronger than this one and full of false paths. Escape was a cruel fantasy.

The fiend tilted its head, almost curious, savouring the rising dread radiating from Loki.

As if it had enjoyed enough, it lunged. Faster, this time.

Loki twisted, narrowly dodging its talons as they cleaved deep gouges into a nearby tree, splinters raining like wooden shrapnel. Stumbling, Loki bent down and snatched up a jagged rock, the rock oddly hot around his dead cold fingers.

'Think. Stay alive.'

As soon as the fiend landed, its form turned to mist once again, taking it dark form.

And that was when through the pounding terror, a fragmented thought came forward.

'It must materialize to strike. Every attack so far had been real, not incorporeal. No ghostly claws—just lethal force.'

While he was contemplating, it lunged again.

Loki flung himself aside, swinging the rock with desperate force.

ACT! THINK LATER! You didn't go through that pilgrimage just to become a weak ahh fiend's snack!

As the fiend's mouth opened, big enough to swallow Loki whole, the sword like teeth met the stone in his hand with a sickening crunch, snapping its head sideways.

The fiend's body turned to smoke once again before it could crash into a tree. However, it was enough for Loki.

It's true. It must become solid to attack.

Adrenaline surged, burning away hesitation.

Roaring through clenched teeth, Loki charged, gripping rocks like makeshift weapons. Pain blazed through his side, but he forced it down. Another swing—harder, wilder—connected with the glimmerfang's ribs.

Losing its composure, the mist like aura around the fiend totally disappeared as it stayed in its corporeal form, trying nothing but to tear Loki down.

It is a mindless beast in the end…

As the fiend jumped at him, Loki crashed into the nearby wall and pivoted himself behind it. The fiend's dagger like teeth dug deep into the tree and protruded from the other side, lodging itself into Loki's arm.

A pained cry escaped his lips as he turned around at the fiend, eyes red with pain and anger.

Any semblance of hesitation vanished into thin air as he started to club the glimmerfang's head with the stone in his hand. One…two…three…and he kept doing it. Even with the mist starting to coalesce around the fiend's body, he didn't stop.

[Momentum has been activated!]

The glowing notification burned in the edge of my vision as he struck again... and again... and again.

[All stats will be buffed by 200%]

The sound of the system went into a muted backdrop as he kept smashing the stone into the fiend's head. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he cried, unrelentingly smashing the rock into the fiend's limp body, breaking everything from the skull to the ribs. But he didn't stop.

He didn't stop even when the tooth lodged into his arm twisted it and broke the bone inside it.

Bringing his hand back to swing with full force, he attempted at smashing it one last time.

However, a hand held his wrist and the rock effortlessly fell in Loki's lap.

"Good heavens…" The voice was like hearing to a song underwater. The one who had held his arm looked down at Loki and then at the fiend lying dead beside him. Their lips curved into a subtle smile. "…you're lucky. You really are."

Flinging him over their shoulder, the figure looked back. The sound of sword leaving its scabbard echoed in the eerie quiet of the forest.

Inside Loki's mind, the system chimed.

[All features of The Lattice Interface have been unlocked.]

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♔THE LATTICE INTERFACE ♔

Name: Loki

Thread Rank: Level 2 → Level 3

Achievement: Unclaimed → Scion

Alignment: Balance

Fate Influence: Stirring

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Core Attributes

Vigor (VIG): F → F+Essence (ESS): D → DMight (MGT): F → FFinesse (FIN): C → CClarity (CLR): S → SFortune (FTN): A → A

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Thread Resources

Health (HP): 750 → 760Energy (EP): 200 → 200Focus (FP): 250 → 260

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Combat Flow

Momentum: Attained.Convergence: Locked.

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Sigils & Techniques

Sigil: REACH LEVEL 10 TO UNLOCKTechnique: N/A

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Ascension Path

REACH LEVEL 20 TO UNLOCK

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