'Won't they give up?'
Tristan ran as far as he could, yet the wasps still pursued him relentlessly.
To make matters worse, running faster than creatures that could fly, especially with an injured leg, was no easy task.
He tried to lose them by weaving through trees and bushes, but the swarm of insects wasn't easily fooled. Their senses were unusually sharp, able to detect his attempts at concealment.
Tristan knew he couldn't keep going much longer. Fatigue weighed on his muscles, and he started feeling the strain in every movement. He jumped through some bushes, but as he stepped on a pile of dry leaves, something strange happened—he couldn't move his foot. It felt like something was pulling him down.
In a hurry, he reached down and brushed away the leaves, revealing the cause of his problem: fine, sticky white threads spread out like a web, anchoring him in place.
The threads were elastic and clung to him like glue.
Tristan pulled, but he couldn't break free. Seeing the wasps closing in, he wasted no time and created a black blade to cut through the threads. But what happened next left him speechless: a white light burst from the web, causing the cut threads to reconnect, returning to their original form.
"Damn it!" he muttered, frustrated.
He continued trying to cut the web until, suddenly, a creature landed on his shoulder.
It was a small black spider, its body covered in a strange white liquid that looked like glue.
Before Tristan realized it, a giant web had formed, covering a large area around him. Before his eyes, an army of spiders was now fighting the swarm of wasps that had been chasing him.
More spiders began landing on him; they were fragile, and Tristan had no trouble crushing them.
Unfortunately, there were too many. For each one he killed, five more appeared.
Hundreds of spiders spun webs around him.
The creatures moved with terrifying intelligence, as if they knew exactly how to trap him. They swarmed around his legs, crawled up to his head, and began binding him with meticulous precision.
Desperately, Tristan searched through his backpack.
He grabbed a glass bottle containing a transparent liquid and a blue crystal. Removing the lid, Tristan tossed the bottle into the center of the web above his head.
By now, his body was almost completely covered in webs, and the spiders were on the verge of encasing him in a cocoon. Anxiously, he began rubbing the crystal between his hands, drawing out its core essence. Focusing, Tristan concentrated on altering the properties of his natural essence.
Electrons could be easily removed through friction, creating an electrical potential difference. If the generated electric charge exceeded the air's resistance, an electric discharge would occur in the form of lightning.
Small sparks began flickering around his hands. He moved with difficulty, feeling like he was being wrapped up like a mummy.
He held the crystal tightly in his right hand, gathering his strength. He struggled against the spider web, aiming toward where he'd thrown the bottle, and a tiny, hair-thin bolt of lightning shot from his hand.
As the lightning touched the damp web, yellow and orange flames spread quickly.
Dozens of charred spider bodies fell to the ground.
Soon, the flame spread to where Tristan was, burning the web around him along with some of his skin. When the web weakened enough, Tristan gathered his strength and circulated essence through his body.
Propelling himself forward, he managed to escape the terrible trap.
He looked up, watching the flames spread to the tree leaves as the wasps and spiders continued their deadly clash.
While he was focused on the battle above, he was caught off guard—something struck him from behind, sending him flying through the air.
Whatever hit him had considerable force. He hit the ground a few meters from where he had been.
An intense pain coursed through his body, but he just gritted his teeth. After all, pain was an old acquaintance of his.
He stood up, a bit dizzy, and turned to face his unknown attacker.
What he saw was an enormous toad, about half his height.
The toad opened its wide mouth, and its tongue shot out, covering the distance between them in an instant.
Tristan managed to dodge the attack by leaping to the side.
He had to touch the ground with his weakened left leg, causing him to briefly lose his balance and stumble.
The toad's tongue struck the wasps flying behind him, and as it retracted, the toad swallowed the wasps in one gulp.
The toad flexed its legs and leaped toward him again, its head tilted down, revealing the bony plating on its head.
Just as his enemy was about to reach Tristan, something strange happened. A projectile dropped from the tree branches above, piercing the toad's back.
Tristan stared in surprise. He saw a kind of bone spear impaling the toad. Still in the air, the toad was lifted by a vine attached to the spear.
He blinked a few times in confusion.
'What kind of place is this?'
***
In that ancient, cursed forest, Tristan's last few days had been a constant test of endurance and caution. A week had passed since he arrived in the forest of tall, winding trees, where he had to be wary of potential dangers lurking in every corner.
At that moment, his breathing was fast but controlled. He was running at full speed, occasionally glancing back to see a group of seven boar-like beasts chasing him relentlessly.
They had dark orange fur and two long, white tusks, so sharp they looked capable of piercing large rocks. Each was barely half the size of an adult man's leg.
He'd observed these boars manipulating the ground with vital essence emanating from their bodies, so he knew they were magical beasts. Individually, they weren't a significant threat to him or most creatures in the forest, but together, their numbers and combined abilities were enough to intimidate even the forest's fiercest inhabitants.
In Tristan's memory, the sight of a three-headed bear—usually one of the most feared predators in the area—fleeing like a frightened kitten before the wrath of this group was still vivid. He was grateful to have witnessed it before accidentally provoking them himself.
It didn't take long for him to realize how dangerous it was to challenge the creatures of this place without knowing their abilities and characteristics.
The sound of a grunt grew close, and Tristan ducked just in time to see a boar charge through the spot he'd occupied a moment before.
The beast collided with a tree trunk, creating a large hole and sending wood splinters flying.
Two other boars lowered their snouts to the ground, and the earth shifted, forming spheres that the boars launched at Tristan.
With a swift movement, he dodged and used a tree as a shield.
'Damn it, where is that bastard?'
Suddenly, the surroundings changed. A wave of gray smoke spread through the trees and bushes, quickly covering the area and radiating a powerful, wild aura. Seeing the atmosphere become denser and hazier, Tristan's lips curled into a small smile.
'It seems the guest of honor has arrived at this party.'
Of course, Tristan hadn't been running without a destination. His target wasn't the boars but the owner of this territory.
The smoke spread over the ground and climbed to the treetops, plunging the normally dim forest into total darkness.
Yet he could clearly see a black deer emerging through the trees. The creature was larger than an adult human, with skin covered in small holes that opened and closed, releasing dense smoke.
Tristan smiled.
He thought about how terrible boar meat tasted; the last time he ate it, his teeth almost broke, and he had to use dark magic to cut it into pieces he could swallow.
Tristan wondered what the meat of a smoked deer would taste like, hoping it would be much better.