The trip took less than fifty minutes.
Jayden touched down just outside Ruby City's limits, the hoverbike's engines cycling down with a muted hum. The forest loomed ahead, an impenetrable wall of ancient trees and tangled undergrowth. The air here was different.. thicker, heavier, laced with the scent of damp earth and something wilder. Something predatory.
He dismissed the bike with a flick of his wrist, the machine dissolving into particles of light which flowed back into the glove. Then he proceeded into the woods.
The forest welcomed him with silence.
Jayden stepped past the tree line, his boots sinking slightly into the soft earth. The canopy above was dense, filtering the weak morning light into fractured beams that danced across the forest floor. Around him, the undergrowth rustled... beasts, small and skittish, scattering at his approach. Their instincts were sharp; they could sense his powerful aura even when it was dormant.
But not all of them fled.
