After walking for ten minutes, Leo felt he had recovered a decent amount from his fight with the snake.
It was time to pick up the pace.
He broke into a jog, heading toward the lake. He'd still need the Body-Strengthening Spell active to reach the cave quickly once he got there, so every second counted.
The only problem? He was navigating by general direction alone. He might be off by quite a bit. So as he jogged, he kept his ears sharp, listening for the one sound that would guide him — the waterfall.
Ten minutes of steady jogging later, he heard it.
The familiar crash of water against rock echoed through the trees, growing louder with each step. Relief flooded through him. He adjusted his course and slowed to a walk as the lake came into view.
He stopped at the water's edge, bending over with his hands on his knees. His breath came in ragged gasps. He needed at least a minute to steady his heart rate before diving in. Swimming while winded in a lake that housed a giant crocodile was a death sentence.
After catching his breath, he dove in.
The water closed over him, cool and dark. He swam toward the waterfall with smooth, deliberate strokes, staying alert the entire time. His eyes swept the murky depths beneath him, searching for any sign of the crocodile.
Nothing.
No shadows. No ripples. No movement at all.
He finally reached the waterfall and pushed through the curtain of cascading water, entering the cave behind it.
Unlike the massive chamber he'd found last time, this cave was shallow — only about seven feet deep. It could fit maybe three people comfortably, no more. He moved to the very back of the cave and sat down against the stone wall, slowly catching his breath.
Two minutes. That's all the time he had left on the spell.
He was about to undo it himself when something made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
A shadow.
It loomed behind the waterfall — large, dark, and unmistakable.
He knew exactly what it was before it got any closer.
*The crocodile.*
Leo's hand shot to the knife he'd set down barely a second ago. He grabbed it and dove sideways, throwing himself away from his sitting position with every ounce of speed the spell still afforded him.
The crocodile lunged through the waterfall like a battering ram.
Its massive jaws slammed into the exact spot where he'd been sitting. Stone cracked under the impact. This time, there was no magical barrier to save him. No invisible wall between him and death.
But it missed.
The beast sat still for a split second, disoriented from its failed lunge.
Leo didn't give it time to recover.
He leaped onto the crocodile's back and drove his knife down with both hands, aiming straight for its skull.
*Crack.*
The blade chipped on impact.
The knife — worn down from repeated use throughout the day — barely scratched the thick, armored scales covering the crocodile's head. It dug in slightly, breaking a few scales, but the wound was superficial at best. Barely any real damage.
The crocodile bucked violently.
Leo went flying, his back slamming against the cave wall. Pain shot through his spine, but he gritted his teeth and kept his grip on the knife.
One minute left. Maybe less.
The crocodile pulled back, repositioning after its failed attack. It was trying to create distance, to get room for another charge.
Leo didn't let it.
He pushed off the cave wall with his legs, launching himself at the beast. He aimed for its back again — the only position where those massive jaws couldn't reach him.
The crocodile dodged.
It was fast. Terrifyingly fast for something that big.
Its jaws snapped sideways, trying to catch Leo mid-air. The teeth closed inches from his torso — close enough that he felt the rush of displaced air across his skin.
He twisted desperately, diving away. But even as he dove, his mind was already calculating.
Mid-air, he rotated his body and kicked off the nearby cave wall. The stone gave him the leverage he needed. He rocketed back toward the crocodile like a human projectile.
This time, the moment he reached its back, he grabbed its neck with one arm. He locked his grip tight, making sure he couldn't be thrown again.
Then he raised the knife.
He found the same spot — the patch of broken scales where his first strike had landed.
He drove the blade down with every ounce of strength left in his body.
The knife punched through.
It sank deep into the skull, cutting into the brain beneath.
The crocodile thrashed once. Twice.
Then it went limp and collapsed onto the cave floor.
Leo collapsed right on top of it.
His arms trembled. His legs felt like water. The adrenaline that had been holding him together drained out of him all at once, leaving nothing but bone-deep exhaustion.
*Too much. Way too much action for one day.*
He needed to rest. But he also needed to stay alive.
The spell wore off seconds after the crocodile stopped moving. He felt the enhanced strength bleed away, leaving his body feeling hollow and weak. All he could do was lie there on the cold stone floor, chest heaving.
But he couldn't afford to be careless.
After a few minutes of catching his breath, he forced himself to move. He dragged his body to the back wall of the cave and propped himself up against the stone. He positioned himself as far from the lake entrance as possible.
Now he just had to wait.
Wait for his mind to recover enough to cast the spell again.
The reason he couldn't just recast it immediately was simple — the magic took a real toll on his mind, regardless of how much magical energy he had stored. Even though the magic itself would replenish over time, the act of shaping it, controlling it, and forcing it to do what he wanted exhausted his mental capacity.
It was like a muscle. The more he used it, the more it would grow over time.
As he learned more magic and gathered more energy, he would eventually compress it all into a star. By forcing his mind to contain and control that condensed magic, he was essentially training it. Building it stronger with every use.
But right now, that muscle was spent.
So he sat against the cold stone wall, eyes fixed on the waterfall entrance, and waited.
Minutes crawled by.
Leo slowly regained his stamina while his mind recovered in parallel. As the fog of exhaustion lifted, his thoughts turned practical.
He couldn't afford to go looking for another herb today. His stamina was too low. If he ran into anything else out there — another beast, another predator — he'd be dead. He needed to head straight back to Solhaven the moment he was able.
Besides, something about that crocodile had been nagging at him.
It was strong. Unnaturally strong.
*Almost as strong as the snake.*
That shouldn't have been possible for an ordinary beast. Something had been enhancing it. Something had been fueling its growth.
To avoid any further danger, he made his decision. He would leave immediately once recovered.
Roughly an hour and a half passed.
Leo stood up. His legs were steady. His mind was clear.
He cast another Body-Strengthening Spell on himself, feeling the familiar surge of power flood through his muscles. But instead of diving straight into the lake, he paused.
He peered out through the curtain of falling water, studying the lake carefully.
And what he saw confirmed everything.
There, floating on the surface of the lake about thirty feet out, was a lily pad. It was larger than any lily pad he'd ever seen. And sitting on top of it was a red lily — vivid and striking, with water dripping steadily from its petals like morning dew that never stopped flowing.
It was glowing.
A faint, unmistakable shimmer radiated from the flower, visible even through the veil of the waterfall.
Leo's breath caught.
*A magical herb.*
That explained everything. The crocodile's unnatural strength. Its territorial aggression. Its relentless pursuit of anything that came near the lake.
The beast had been consuming that herb — or at the very least, feeding off its ambient magical energy. It was getting closer and closer to evolving into a true magical beast. And it had been protecting its food source with lethal ferocity.
That's why it attacked him every single time. It wasn't just predatory instinct.
It thought he was trying to steal the herb.
Leo stared at the glowing red lily through the falling water, and a slow grin spread across his face.
Well.
Now that the crocodile was dead, and the herb was right there in front of him...
He was going to do exactly that.