After walking even further into the forest, Zuria noticed the surrounding trees and vegetation were getting bigger and bigger. He could see that further ahead there's no light at all even though it was day time.
The sun was blocked by the abnormally gigantic trees around him.
Seeing the ominous path in front of him, Zuria frowned and mumbled. "It's kinda scary... And I'm stupid enough to ignore that broken sword, although broken it's still useful for protection..."
He really regretted it and is considering turning back to take it. However, he decided to continue forward without going back for the sword.
"What is the use of a broken sword in this situation? It's true I'm scared of pain, but dying is always painful, might as well go and be done with it!"
Zuria braced himself for any possible attack as he kept walking into the dark path ahead. With his feelings chaotic he finally stepped into the dark.
Then a sense of fear gripped his heart. He stopped in his track before turning around and walked back to the brighter area before he once again stopped and turned to look at the dark forest.
"I have died before, so dying once again is nothing that serious..." He muttered slowly trying to convince himself that dying is better than struggling to live. Still undecided if he should continue of retreat from this place.
But the forest wouldn't wait for his decision.
A sudden, low-frequency hum vibrated through the ground, rattling the leaves at his feet. It was followed by a sound like a massive hide dragging over stone, and from the solid wall of black shadow, two points of sickly yellow light slowly descended to his direction. The air went frigid. Zuria's self-pity vanished, replaced by a pure, animal panic.
The sword, he thought, I need the sword!
Yet, as the massive, unseen thing took a ponderous, earth-shaking step closer, a deeper, colder realization snapped through his terror. What good is a flimsy, broken piece of steel against this?
All that death seeking depressing thoughts vanished as fear and a sense of crisis hit him like a massive truck.
Without further thoughts he immediately bolted. Running away with all his might to his right side, going against the bushes.
What the hell is that? He thought as he tried to remember just what kind of Demonic Beast was known in this place.
But he came up with nothing. No Demonic Beast he knew is that big and suffocating.
Zuria tore through the undergrowth, his rag of clothes snagging on thorns he didn't even feel. The ground was now uneven, rooted with massive, slick knots that threatened to trip him. The thing behind him didn't seem to be running, yet its immense footsteps were gaining on him, each one a heavy, thudding echo that vibrated through his very bones.
He glanced back, catching a fleeting, terrifying glimpse. It was not a single beast, but a massive, segmented shadow, like a colossal centipede or a train made of stone and chitin. The sickly yellow lights, distant but huge, were its eyes. They swung low, slowly sweeping the area like twin, predatory lanterns.
He was heading deeper into the abnormal forest, and he needed cover now. The trees were too big and too tall for him to climb and he was sure climbing trees would only make him die faster. Not far away he spotted a gaping fissure in the root base of one of the largest trees—a dark, narrow gap where the trunk seemed to have split years ago. It was a risk; he could get stuck, but staying in the open was death.
He dove headfirst toward the hole, his fingers scrabbling for purchase on the damp soil. He shoved his body into the opening, scraping his shoulder painfully, just as the monstrous sound of dragging hide skidded to a halt directly above him.
The ground shuddered. A thick, metallic odor like ozone mixed with rotten meat, filled his cramped refuge. A heavy, obsidian-colored limb, segmented and sharp, stabbed down, testing the air right beside his head.
Zuria froze, his breath locked in his throat. He had to be completely silent. He had to be nothing. He pressed his face into the dirt, listening to the deep, resonant hum of the creature as it searched. The yellow light was now gone, blocked by the sheer mass of the monster towering over his tiny sanctuary.
It doesn't see me, he realized, a cold surge of triumph cutting through his panic. It's sensing the vibrations I made running.
But the limb didn't retract. It paused, then tapped the root directly beside his ear, a massive, percussive sound that felt like a bell ringing inside his skull. It knew something was close. All it needed was one more step, one small shift in weight, to crush his hiding spot completely.
He waited. He didn't dare move a muscle. Every instinct screamed at him to scramble deeper, but he knew the sudden movement would confirm his location. His heart hammered a frantic, self-betraying rhythm against the dirt—a drumbeat of life the beast was surely picking up.
The obsidian limb slowly, deliberately, began to press down against the root fissure. Wood groaned, thick fibers tearing with a sound like wet leather being ripped. The crushing weight was immediate, tightening the small space around him. The air was squeezed out of his lungs in a painful rush.
This is it, he thought, the dark, familiar pull of resignation returning, but this time it was tempered by a searing anger. He wasn't dying for nothing; he was being squashed like an insect that he is.
Then, just as the pressure became unbearable and his vision started to tunnel, the low-frequency hum shifted. It went from a focused search to a low, distant rumble, and the ground beneath Zuria's chest vibrated differently.
The massive limb above him didn't retract, but the crushing pressure eased, replaced by a simple, immense weight.
Something else was moving nearby. Something bigger.
The enormous creature overhead—the segmented shadow, the Cthonic Leviathan—let out a grinding, mechanical shriek that shattered the unnatural silence of the forest. The single, searching limb pulled away and the immense, dragging sound of its hide began to move, not toward Zuria, but off to the left, toward a new, louder disturbance.
Zuria lay trembling in the dirt, inhaling dust and the metallic scent of fear. The crisis had passed, not by his strength, but by pure, horrifying luck.
He slowly, agonizingly, began to pull himself out of the crushed crevice, watching the titanic shadow move away in the distance, drawn by a struggle he hadn't yet heard—a struggle that had saved his life.
For the first time, he was swallowed by the fear of death. Imagining the process of his death if he got caught by that monster made his legs weak and his body trembling.
The pain he would feel and the slow death as he was being eaten.... Alright stop! He needs to stop imagining it, it was too disturbing!
"No way I'm going to let myself be eaten alive!" He muttered with his body trembling.
He needs to train his magic! He decided, eyes burning with a newfound vigor he lost long ago.
Zuria clawed his way fully out of the root crevice, not caring that his clothes were now shredded rags and his skin was scraped and bleeding. He stumbled back against the massive, slick bark, gasping for the cold, stale air. His fear was a churning nausea, but beneath it, a tiny, hard kernel of resolution had formed. The thoughts of a gentle death, of painless surrender—they were utterly, violently gone! He had seen the truth of dying here: it wasn't a peaceful end; it was being crushed and consumed.
"No," he spat, the word barely a whisper, yet holding a sudden, ferocious edge. "I won't be food!"
He pushed away from the tree, forcing his trembling legs to move. The sheer shadow of the Cthonic Leviathan was still visible, a moving mountain of obsidian chitin, now locked in a silent, colossal confrontation with whatever disturbance had saved him. The air thrummed with a new, deep-frequency vibration—the sound of two enormous, impossible things preparing to collide.
Zuria didn't wait to see the fight. He turned and plunged deeper into the dark, abnormal forest, but this time, his movement wasn't a panicked bolt. It was a driven, focused retreat. He was looking for one thing: safety, and with it, the chance to finally understand the power he knew he possessed.
"Magic.." He muttered. He needed to be hidden, and he needed silence to focus. He pushed past the bizarre, over-sized vegetation until he saw a cluster of monolithic, smooth stones, almost like a natural tomb or altar, nestled against a stand of trees that seemed to grow together in a protective, arching dome. It looked solid, defensible, and perhaps, more importantly, shielded from the heavy vibrations of the fight happening miles away.
He squeezed into the small, root-choked space between two of the largest stones, pulling himself into a tight, miserable ball. The stone felt cold and reassuringly still.
Closing his eyes, Zuria focused, ignoring the frantic drumbeat of his own heart. He was trying to calm his nerves, no matter what, panicking would give him nothing but trouble, he knew that a panic driven action would end up in disaster.
So he keeps trying to calm himself and try to cast his first attempt at magic.