I blink. A blast of hot air hits my face, thick and humid enough to swim in. Mist drifts across rocky terrain festooned with vines and moss. It feels like a jungle, but there aren't any trees to speak of. I stumble even though it doesn’t feel like I moved at all. However they keep teleporting me, it is instantaneous and precise.

  “What kind of idiot are you?” Kora hisses in my mind. “Why didn't you take anything? Are you an unarmed combat specialist?”

  “I'm an empty hand specialist,” I say sarcastically, widening my eyes as much as I can and scanning the misty landscape. I can’t see a damn thing, but I don’t stop looking. Something here is supposed to kill me, after all.

  Taking deep breaths doesn't feel as satisfying as it should. Oh. No trees, rocky terrain, shallow breathing. Altitude. I must be really high up for it to be affecting me this much this quickly. Probably doesn't help my oxygen intake to have some mysterious asshole threaten me in magical writing.

  “Thank the Twelve,” Kora says with obvious relief. “I didn't know artists of the Empty Hand existed on Earth. I specialize in bladework, but much of my martial skills should transfer to your style well enough.”

  “What a relief,” I say, inexplicably feeling the urge to laugh. “I was afraid you only knew magic.”

  “I have some limited arcane and divine knowledge, but I'm best suited to Mentoring a martial Class.”

  Of course there’s magic. I shouldn’t be surprised. Kora sounds so relieved and grateful that I don't have the heart to tell her that the last weapon I held was a shitty bow at summer camp in middle school. And I never actually hit the target. The way she's talking makes me wonder what her stake is in all this. If this is real, then she's got to have some kind of motivation to be a Mentor. I mean, is she even here? Or is she dead? A ghost?

  My skin prickles. I'm supposed to be in a fight for survival, and here I am, standing in the open, wondering about the disembodied voice in my head. I don't see anything, but the mist provides about a dozen easy paths to sneak close to me. I need to move. Maybe… high ground? I'll probably get to see it coming, the ‘certain death’ dickhead with the letters was talking about.

  I set off towards a nearby outcropping that rises perhaps ten feet before disappearing into the swirling mist. Despite my allegedly impending doom, I find my thoughts wandering again. This was supposed to be an ‘equitable fight.’ What would that even be? I have faith that I could win a fight against a mid-sized dog. Probably. Maybe. If it was docile. Something friendly. A labradoodle. Too big. Picturing a chihuahua with its evil bark and sharp little teeth, I'm forced to downgrade from mid-sized, drive right on past small, and land on miniature before my confidence rises. There. I could take a miniature poodle, surely.

  A particularly dense patch of mist hides the approach to the cliff. I stumble blindly over uneven ground and nearly fall. Twice. Kora doesn't say anything, but it certainly feels like there's a silent judge hovering over my shoulder. And I am not getting particularly high marks. The base of the cliffside is vertical and nearly sheer, dripping with condensation from the constant fog. My stomach tightens. I've watched some documentaries on free climbing, and even those crazies wouldn't dare this route blind.

  “What is your strategy, Competitor?” Kora asks after I stand staring at the cliff for a few seconds. She tries to hide it, but I can hear her doubt creeping back in.

  “Just kind of winging it, honestly. You got any tips?”

  “Perhaps we should seek high ground to locate our foe. This climb should be trivial for one of the Empty Hand.”

  “Yeah, trivial. I'll just get right on it.”

  “Well?” she prompts when I don't move.

  “Listen, Kora, sorry to burst your bubble, but—”

  A scrape is all the warning I get. A blur. My shoulder crunches into the rock wall. My lungs empty in a gasp. Black agony steals my vision, and I lose my footing, eyes clenched tightly.

  “Up! Quickly, Competitor!”

  Sure. No problem.

  Groaning through the pain, I find my feet somehow and turn. A shadow, easily ten feet at the shoulder, looms in the mist. A rumble trembles through the cliff behind me. My chest shakes like I'm too close to the speaker at a metal concert. Was that a fucking growl?

  Skill acquired! Perception (Common):

  You are better at seeing hidden objects and enemies. Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  Skill evolved! Perception (Common) has become Perception (Legendary)!

  You have become unusually astute at noticing hidden objects and enemies, often seeing through even the most capable disguises and hearing even the slightest sounds. Additionally, your eye is naturally drawn to secret and important objects in the environment. Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  Skill acquired! Identification (Common):

  You can intuit information about unfamiliar creatures and objects of your level or lower. Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  Skill evolved! Identification (Common) has become Identification (Legendary)!

  Your knowledge of unknown creatures extends to those of higher level than you, including details impossible to discern, such as strengths, weaknesses, and historical data. This information is limited the higher the level disparity. Evolve to gain additional benefits.

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  Identification: Stone Lion of the Gurnash Pass

  Level: 22

  Strengths: Agility, Strength

  Weaknesses: Hah

  These hunters are feared throughout many sparsely inhabited stretches of the Aethid homeworld. Known to kill for sport, they typically wound easy prey and lie in wait for any who come to rescue them.

  Addendum! You didn't earn these Skills… at all! Your vision was just too shitty to appreciate the horrific doom I reserved for you, so I gave you a boost. You're welcome!

  The words are there and gone in an instant, seared indelibly and instantly into my brain. The world changes before my eyes. My vision sharpens, the mist fading almost to nothing. No, not to nothing. The mist still exists, but I can see through it almost as if it isn’t there. My harsh breathing roars in my ears nearly as loudly as the lion’s growl. My nose picks up the heavy animal musk of the beast even from twenty feet away.

  “This… this is wrong,” Kora says slowly. “Level 22?!”

  I barely give her the slightest thought, because now I can see it. Whatever the fuck it is. If this is a lion, I am a mermaid. Roughly the size of a fifteen passenger van, the broad snout and gaping maw of the creature could vaguely be described as feline. A yellow rope of thick spittle hangs from its teeth, swaying with its breathing. Powerful muscles ripple beneath its taut skin as it leans back into a crouch, claws digging into, and through, the stone.

  Most of me screams in incoherent terror. I never wanted this much detail. The more I notice, the less I even think about fighting. I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of hurting this thing, weapon or no. I guess that’s dickhead’s point. He, or she, or it, wanted me to know just how screwed I really am.

  “Move! Now!”

  The lion springs in a single fluid leap.

  The world seems to slow, annoyingly. I’d rather we not prolong this moment. I mean, I’ll never get out of the way in time. Even if I do, to what end? To avoid death for another few heartbeats?

  No. It’s better this way. I’ve been dead for a month. If this is real, I doubt there’s an afterlife, but I have the barest instant to hope that I’ll see Katie again before…

  Time must be moving slower. How the shit am I still alive?

  Wait, I’m moving?

  It’s like I’m a spectator watching my death from a distance, but I’m not dying. I’m dodging. My newfound perception forces me to feel way too much of what’s happening as my body moves like it never has before. Little used muscles fire in tandem, ripping themselves to shreds with the effort. I drop beneath the scything claws and into an acrobatic roll. My ruined shoulder grates on the stone, the agony a distant memory compared to the molten fire burning through every muscle. I come to my feet at the edge of a field of mist that completely obscures the rock beneath, even to my sharper sight.

  Time restores itself. The monster crashes into the stone with a frustrated roar. Every cell in my body screams under the torture of holding me upright. I’m back in control, but I don’t want to be. Not if I have to feel this pain.

  Kora. It must have been. Some kind of spiritual possession.

  Every muscle in my body is torn. Even my fucking bones hurt. I wish I had died before I felt this, especially knowing more pain is coming, and worse. The lion is already scrabbling at the stone to turn around.

  Let it be quick. Damn it, I was ready.

  “Coward,” Kora says with crushing disappointment. “I don't know why I saved you. Death comes for us all, but only the craven seek it readily.”

  Anger pierces the haze of pain. My mouth opens in a scream of frustration and sorrow.

  “You don’t know me!” I growl, ignoring the sounds of the monster gathering itself behind me. “You haven’t been through what I’ve been through. You don't understand.”

  “No, you don't understand. I fought for my people, fought with every scrap of power my soul could muster. I failed. I failed them all, and now every person I ever knew or could have known is dead. Spare me your self pity. Die, or fight, it makes no difference to me. I won't bother saving you again.”

  Her words are like searing irons plunged into my spirit. I can't connect them to a face, or a name, or even a species. I don't know who her people were.

  But I think of my dad, my brother. I think of Katie. Would I fight for them, for her, if given the chance? Even, absurdly, my mother's face pops into my mind.

  Even her?

  Yes. Absolutely.

  But where do I even begin?

  My energy runs out. I collapse to the stone. The lion hurtles over my head, swiping fruitlessly at the air. It vanishes into the mist. A distant roar, far too distant, echoes back before fading to silence. The wind lifts into a gust and shifts the mist aside.

  A world, unrecognizable to my own, stretches out far below, rivers like paper cuts, mountains like rumpled bed sheets. Stone islands float through the sky with lengths of cloud trailing in their wake like comet’s tails. My foot hangs over the edge, and I hurriedly pull it back over. One step. One more step, and I would still be falling.

  Like the lion…

  Achievement! “Taste the Titans!”

  You have defeated an enemy with a five level advantage over you!

  Reward: You are more capable of applying neutral and passive Skills to enemies of higher level than you.

  Achievement! “Savor the Strong!”

  You have defeated an enemy with a ten level advantage over you!

  Reward: You are more capable of applying defensive and offensive Skills to enemies of higher level than you.

  Achievement! “Masticate the Mighty!”

  You have defeated an enemy with a fifteen level advantage over you!

  Reward: You are more capable of resisting the neutral and passive Skills of enemies of a higher level than you.

  Achievement! “Gormandize the Gods!”

  You have defeated an enemy with a twenty level advantage over you!

  Reward: You are more capable of resisting the defensive and offensive Skills of enemies of a higher level than you.

  Achievement! “The meek shall inherit!”

  You defeated an enemy without a single aggressive act!

  Reward: The soul energy you obtain from this encounter retains some of the aspects of the defeated enemy.

  Congratulations! You've absorbed soul energy!

  Error. Missing Class. Soul energy held in stasis. Please select a Class.

  I'm not sure of what most of that really means, but I do notice one thing. Those notifications lack the… snark of the previous ones. They feel almost automated, like maybe the blue letters aren’t always fully in the control of the demented person trying to… wait, why are they all about eating?

  Addendum!

  There it is.

  Addendum! What. The. Fuck. How are you… I mean I watched it happen and I still can't… fine. Fine! Round two, bitch.