Monty pulled Jack and as he stumbled forward he tried to look at the scene before him. It was almost pitch black, Jack could barely see anything, other than a strange glow that appeared at the base of some of what he assumed were trees around them. Monty activated something on his armour and light started emitting from him, giving them enough light to see their surroundings.

  They were in what looked like a forest, if the forest was taken from an old vampire tale. The trees were tall but void of any leaves, flaking bark and broken branches hanging from them. The ground was damp earth, there was a distinct wet rotting mould smell that permeated the air.

  As Jack looked up above him, there was an unsettling absence of anything in the sky. He expected something, a star, cloud or moon. Instead there was nothing, it was as if Jack were looking into the sky on the clearest night ever, but all of the stars were missing, his sense of depth was gone.

  Combined with the much stronger concentration of Death mana in the area that sent goosebumps racing all over his skin, the combination was fear inducing. Monty gave him a little shake and caught his eyes.

  “Jack, it’s ok, take a deep breath.” He reached into one of the tubes on his belt and pulled out a crystal filled with Life mana. “Draw in from this and raise your amplification, It will help clear your head.”

  Jack did as he was told, he took a deep breath and drew in the mana from the crystal. It immediately started flowing through his body and was pulled into his vortex as the amplification started. He compressed the vortex as much as he could and watched as the mana in his system increased.

  He focused for a breath and just followed the mana as it moved through his body, falling into the rhythmic pattern it was making. Once he was comfortable with the amount he had in his system being about half of his capacity, he started to slowly purge mana from his body. He tried to match the rate he purged to the rate he was amplifying but he had to adjust a few times before he got it settled.

  As the mana he was purging from his body started to flow into the area around him he noticed the effect the Death mana was having on him lessened and he felt the fear fade a little. He looked up and saw Monty surveilling the area, seemingly on high alert as he was taking in their new environment as well.

  “Ok sorry, I'm feeling better now. That was unexpected. Is it because of my [Prismatic Sensitivity] that it affected me so much or are you just holding in your fear?” Jack asked, trying to lighten the mood.

  “I feel it a little as well, Death mana is unsettling to most people and at the concentration it is here it was to be expected. Your sensitivity is probably making it worse however. You are doing great so far.” Monty mentioned as he kept scanning the area.

  “We need to move a little bit from here, there isn’t much cover for the first part of our test. Which seems to be working very well at the moment.” Monty said, as he patted Jack on the shoulder and motioned off beyond the trees.

  As they started to move off, Jack felt Monty draw in the mana that he had been purging, holding it ready. Jack kept a hand on Monty's back as they were moving, his head swinging from side to side as he tried to take everything in.

  There were rocks strewn throughout the soil, and dead roots everywhere. In small clusters at the base of some of the larger dead trees there were collections of small bones, looking like they were from some sort of animal.

  They had been walking for about ten minutes when they heard a sound in the distance. It sounded like the snapping of a tree branch followed by a skittering sound. Jack felt his heart start to pound.

  Monty looked around and supposedly having found what he was looking for he held out a hand and slowly guided Jack towards a cluster of dead trees that had surrounded a large pile of rocks. He kept his body turned towards the direction of the sound the entire time.

  He turned for a moment and scanned the trees and rocks, he then turned and motioned for Jack to move in between them. The space was cramped but he followed their main rule. Do what Monty says.

  Monty stepped forward and grabbed a dead branch from the ground. He activated some skill and the branch seemed to glow with a slight green tint for a moment as it stretched and straightened. The light faded and it was half as tall as Monty was and had a sharp tapered point. Monty lifted his makeshift spear and looked off into the dead forest around them.

  All the while Jack continued to generate and purge mana into the area around them. He was here to be the battery so Monty could be the sword. All thoughts of heroics and epic battles with monsters faded the moment he felt that surge of fear as the sound of something hit his ears.

  He took a deep breath and tried to let the memory of sunshine that Life mana gave him push away the fear as he continued while watching Monty.

  The man stood motionless, poised and ready to launch his spear at any moment. All of a sudden his body burst into motion and the spear rocketed from his grasp. He reached down and grabbed another branch, repeating his earlier actions and held the spear up at the ready.

  They waited for what felt like hours, but must have only been ten minutes. After which Monty came and sat with his back to Jack looking out towards where they had come from.

  “We should be ok here for now. I think the first sound we heard was one of the rodents trying to escape a lupine. My [Life Sense] is limited here at the moment due to the lack of life mana. They are still living creatures though so when they approach I will sense them so don’t worry” Monty said as he took off his back pack and rummaged through it.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  He placed a small spherical device on the ground in front of Jack and seemed to feed it a bit of mana. The device lit up, pulsing out a soft almost campfire-like light. It also provided some warmth to the area which Jack appreciated as the ground he was sitting on was damp and he was beginning to feel the cold.

  “You are doing great Jack. This is working better than I expected. You are purging mana at a consistent enough rate that it is actually reducing the concentration of death mana in the area. I should be able to shore up the area a little and make it more comfortable and safer shortly. For now just keep doing what you are doing.” Monty said as he continued to keep watch.

  That is exactly what Jack did. He kept trying to focus on purging mana and looking around them hoping to see some of the mushrooms or quartz just to keep his mind active. After about twenty minutes, Monty stood up and walked over to one of the dead trees behind Jack. He reached out his hand and pulled in on the mana in the area, Jack felt most of it rush towards Monty.

  Jack stared as he saw the massive broken stump change, almost as if a brand new tree had sprouted from inside the rotted old one. It grew rapidly, standing over four meters tall in the span of a minute. Its branches stretched out providing shade from the non-existent sun as green leaves sprouted from the branches.

  Monty repeated it with a stump on the other side of the rock cluster and soon there were two large trees leaning in and forming an arch above where Jack sat. Monty walked over and sat beside Jack and turned his attention once again outward.

  “Once we build up a little more I will grow out some branches behind us as a wall. Between the rocks and that we should have a fairly defensible spot here for the next 24 hours. How are you feeling?” Monty asked.

  “Honestly? I am terrified. I thought I would be ok, maybe even a little excited but … this is real. I am scared, Monty. This place is alot.” Jack said.

  “Fear is a good thing here, Jack. Fear will keep you alive if you can control it. If you can’t, well then I am here.” Monty reached out and placed a hand on Jack's shoulder.

  “You are being rushed into things that people have years to prepare for. They go into these things with large groups and into situations where conditions are perfect for them. You get a week of preparation and almost the most un-optimal environment possible and you only have me with you.

  “This isn’t a game, there is no ‘Glory’ or ‘Prestige’ to be gained here. Rifts exist and people exploit them when it is beneficial to them, when it isn’t they ignore them. Only in cases where the Rift could become a problem do people care enough to even offer a reward for someone to attempt to close it.

  “I make it my mission to take on those jobs, to travel to the rifts that people forget or do not care about and close them. I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through simply because of greed or inconvenience.”

  Jack just nodded, not being sure how he was meant to respond. He turned his mind towards what he could control and made sure he was producing as much mana as he could do safely.

  Hours passed and Jack continued to produce mana. Monty utilised it two more times and created a little shelter based on the arch from earlier. Branches grew out of the trees and linked together, forming walls behind them and a ceiling above. A little branch even grew down from above which Monty placed the device that was generating light and heat into, it hung like a chandelier above them.

  Monty had to throw spears two more times, both of which Jack never even saw what he was attacking, but once the spear was thrown the sounds around them stopped. The area around them slowly felt less and less oppressive. The Death mana in the immediate space around them being pushed away by the life mana he was constantly purging.

  There was nothing visual, as far as Jack could tell. Once the mana left his body, he could kind of sense it but nothing he could see. Monty insisted he could see it. Something about one of his traits allowing him to view mana in the environment around him, he walked forward occasionally and marked a spot around him in the soil.

  After what Monty told him they were six hours in, Jack started to relax a little, becoming more accustomed to his surroundings. As he started to relax he saw Monty stand abruptly and grab a spear he had made earlier.

  “Jack, put your back to the wall. I will try to keep all of them away but be ready to use your shock wave if anything gets past me. There are more than I expected on their way here. They may be reacting to the mana you are generating but I am not sure.” Monty rattled off quickly.

  He reached out and a green glow embraced the tree closest to him as three more spear-shaped branches grew out of the bark. He reached over and broke each of them off, doing something to each before stabbing one end of them into the ground.

  In the distance there was a howl. It felt far off in the distance but it rumbled through the area and Jack felt it in his bones. Off to his left, closer but still a distance off another howl joined sounded. Much closer and in the direction that Monty was currently looking, another howl answered the others.

  Jack’s eyes could only see as far as the light from Monty or their tree generated, it only gave him a view of about ten meters around him. His eyes darted around as his heartbeat started to race, he could feel Monty pulling on the mana around them.

  He could hear a different sound in the distance, more of a rustle that sounded like hundreds of tiny feet racing across the damp forest floor.

  Monty took the stance he had when he first demonstrated the shockwave skill for Jack. His wide stance shifted and his fist pulled back then twisted his body, throwing his first forward. As his fist snapped through the air and came to a stop a cone of force erupted from the end of his hand.

  The shockwave was stronger than anything Jack had ever seen before, half of the dead trees in its path were simply ripped out of the ground and blasted away. Monty repeated the motion and everything else in the area was also cleared. As far as Jack could see, there was a clear open area in front of them. There were holes where the remains of the trees had been ripped out, roots and all. The soil left in piles, scattered by the force that followed.

  Monty stepped back waiting as the sound of little feet started again.

  At the edge of his vision he finally got his first glance at a rift creature. He was immediately reminded of a wombat. Instead of the cute fluffiness of a wombat though this was a feral rabies infested version with long sharp rat-like incisors.

  He didn't have much time to study it more than that, it raced into range of Jack’s vision and was immediately followed by at least ten more of its brethren all chomping with their large teeth as they raced towards Monty.

  He barely glanced in their direction, keeping his eyes trained to the distant howls. He turned his body slightly and raised his foot angling it towards the approaching swarm of dog-sized rodents. He stomped the ground and a bright green light flowed into the soil and raced towards the approaching creatures.