In stark contrast to the rain-filled plane, the next rift led them to a warm, sunny plane without a cloud in the sky. There were large, barren trees growing all over the place, each one covered in pale brown needles that looked more like quills Leo had seen in pictures of some magical beasts. While he spotted a handful of regular-sized birds flapping around, carefully landing on the spiky trees and pecking at tiny fruits, Leo didn’t see any magical beasts roaming about.

  “Finally,” Taylor grumbled, closing her eyes and basking in the warmth of the sun’s rays as she let out a sigh. “Much better.”

  “And no soul dampening, either,” Leo agreed, pulling a dry set of clothes out of his bag. “This plane was marked as a tier 15, so keep your guard up. We got lucky that the crabs were weaker.”

  Now that they were alone again, Taylor didn’t hesitate to change into her own dry clothes right in front of him, and Leo could only shake his head as he tried to turn away and give her some privacy. No matter how much he tried, it seemed there was a limit to how much the feral woman was willing to conform to society. Once they were dry once more, Leo hefted his pack onto his back and pointed off in the distance.

  “This is a huge plane, so it’ll probably take us a day or two to get to the rift we need. Maybe three seeing as we actually have to pinpoint its location as well,” Leo said, raising an eyebrow as he looked at his companion. “...Longer if you want me to cook those crab legs anytime soon.”

  “They can wait until we stop,” Taylor decided in a remarkable show of restraint. “And I’ll find the rift. A few days is enough for my soul to find them all.”

  “Right. I almost forgot you could do that with your soul,” Leo drawled, shaking his head as he began walking. “You know, your soul. Probably the most important part of yourself to keep inside your body. Other than maybe your heart or brain, I guess.”

  As they walked, Leo alternated between keeping his eyes peeled for any danger and jotting down his records of the previous, waterlogged plane they’d just had the pleasure of trekking through.

  “How many rifts did the last plane have?” he asked, glancing at a cawing bird as they got too close and it took off from its spiny perch and flew away.

  “Five rifts. Plus four dead ones,” Taylor said matter of factly. The amount of time it took her strange technique to detect all the rifts depended on the size of the plane they were in, but for a plane that was only tiny, it didn’t take her more than a few hours.

  “Are you sure?” Leo asked, frowning as he went to record her findings before her numbers actually registered. “That’s too many rifts. The plane was tiny. Tiny planes only have between three to eight rifts within them, usually no more than six. That would mean there were nine total rifts at one point. That’s one too many.”

  “Yep. Five rifts. Four more dead ones,” Taylor repeated with a shrug. “Felt it with my own soul.”

  “Huh. Strange,” Leo muttered, jotting down the numbers beside his makeshift map. There was every chance he was simply misremembering his old lessons his parents had once taught him, but he swore eight rifts was supposed to be the hard limit for a plane of that size. Come to think of it…

  Leo flipped back through his journal, his frown deepening as he found what he was looking for. He’d been a bit preoccupied at the time, but the numbers Taylor had given him for her own poison-filled plane didn’t make any sense either. She’d told him the plane held twelve live rifts and five dead ones, which was a total of seventeen. Her world was medium-sized, which should have an absolute maximum of fifteen rifts. In fact, in over half the planes the two of them had been to, Taylor had given him numbers that shouldn’t be possible. Leo still didn’t quite believe Taylor’s explanation that she was sensing dead rifts, as such a thing shouldn’t be possible, so he hadn’t really noticed before now. But if she really could sense dead rifts, and these numbers were accurate…

  Something doesn’t add up, he thought, staring at the neatly recorded numbers as he tried to figure out what any of this meant. Either countless Cartographers before him had come to a completely incorrect conclusion about the number of rifts planes held based on their size, or far more Cartographers liked to keep certain rifts a secret than he’d originally thought. Or, in the worst case scenario…

  Far more planes had collapsed than anyone had ever realized.

  Leo shivered as he tucked his journal away, making a mental note to do some additional research the next time they came to a town with an actual library. He couldn’t shake the feeling he’d accidentally stumbled upon something big, but there wasn’t much he could do about it right now. He was already in the middle of dealing with one impossible mission, he really didn’t need to tack a second one onto his plate right now. Taking another step forward, Leo bumped into Taylor, stumbling back a step as he realized she’d come to a dead stop. Blinking, he looked down at her, surprised to find her glaring at one of the nearby trees.

  “Taylor? Is everything alright?”

  “Something's wrong,” she said, her nose wrinkling as she glared at the spiked tree. “That tree smells different.”

  Immediately, Leo unsheathed his sword, preparing for anything as he peered at the identified tree right alongside her. He’d been around Taylor for long enough to know that her senses were far greater than any regular person's, and if she said something smelled off, then that was good enough for him.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “It might be another plant-based magical beast,” he said, trying to pick out some sort of tell-tale marking that would give the tree away. There was no way all of the spiky trees they’d passed were magical beasts, else this plane would have been a veritable death sentence. But a few here and there that used the regular trees as camouflage? That was certainly doable. The higher in Grade that magical beasts got, the more cunning they potentially became. And this was a tier 15 plane, which meant setting a trap was absolutely possible.

  “Hmm… No birds,” Taylor muttered after a moment, pointing at the offending tree. “No fruits, either.”

  Sure enough, unlike all the other trees with birds hoping around on them and pecking at the fruits, this one was completely barren. No fruits or birds could be seen, which was a giant red flag.

  “Oh yeah, that’s a magical beast in disguise,” Leo agreed. “Which begs the question… How do we fight a tree? I doubt your claws will be all that effective, and we don’t exactly have an axe. Poison probably won’t work very well on it either, plant-based magical beasts are pretty resistant to that sort of thing, if not outright immune.”

  Of course, they could both simply turn and walk away from what was obviously a magical beast waiting to pounce on them. But the whole point in them taking this more dangerous route was to hunt dangerous magical beasts and grow stronger. Avoiding it was not an option.

  “Chop it down with your sword?” Taylor offered, glancing at his held weapon. “It might work.”

  “You can’t use a sword to cut down a tree,” Leo said, shaking his head. “The blade is way too thin, it’ll just snap off. I could probably shear off a few of the thinner branches, but that’s about it.”

  “Set it on fire? It’s made of wood, which means it burns.”

  “That’s… actually not the worst idea,” Leo admitted. “This is a pretty dry and arid environment, which means it will probably burn pretty quickly if we can get the fire to catch. Do you think you could distract it long enough for me to try and get it to catch fire?”

  “Sure,” Taylor shrugged, shrugging off her pack and letting it fall to the ground. “Just be quick.”

  With their plan made, the two of them got to work getting an actual fire started. Collecting dry, fallen branches was simple enough with all the actual trees filling the plane, and it wasn’t long before they had a roaring fire going. At Taylor’s request, they took a quick break to cook the crab legs he was still holding onto, which tasted slightly less bad than he expected them to. They were still atrocious compared to any actual animal, but at least Leo didn’t feel like throwing up as he ate. Once their stomachs were full, they got ready to carry out the plan.

  “Remember, you’re not going to be able to kill this thing, so don’t waste your time trying to get close. It doesn’t have a neck for you to tear out,” Leo reminded her. “Just claw at the branches a bit, keep it distracted.”

  “I know the plan,” Taylor grumbled, glaring at him as she crouched down, her eyes locked onto the tree. “Get into position.”

  With his longsword still in its sheath, Leo snatched up a burning torch in each hand as he moved over to the other side of the tree and waited for Taylor to get started. Plant-based magical beasts often relied on other methods of sensing their prey beyond sight, but attacking it from two different sides was probably still the best idea. Once he gave her the signal, the attack began.

  Taylor sprinted across the open ground, rushing fast enough that the roots which erupted from the ground snagged nothing but air as they tried to grab onto her. Once its roots failed, the tree let out a deep, rumbling groan that sounded like wood snapping under pressure as it leaned forward, its many spiked branches swinging down in an attempt to club its assailant. Taylor showed off her impressive agility, nimbly lunging from one side to the next, dodging each strike of the branches and even scoring a few deep gashes with her deadly claws as she lashed out in turn. Leo didn’t miss how a few of the spikes cut shallow gashes in her flesh when she struck, but Taylor seemed oblivious to the pain as she focused on the plan.

  With the tree leaning toward his partner and distracted, Leo took a deep breath before taking off. His physical evolution meant he was literally built for speed, and he dumped everything he had into crossing the ground between him and the tree as quickly as possible. Just like Taylor, he ran over the roots too quickly for them to snare him. And with her keeping the magical beast’s attention, there was nothing stopping him from getting right up against the base of the tree.

  Nothing beside the massive branch which whipped back in an attempt to knock his head clean off his torso.

  Throwing himself forward, Leo slid on his knees under the spiked branch as it swung overhead, his reflexes barely fast enough to allow him to dodge. With an exhilarating laugh, he leapt up, finishing his run by slamming both of the flaming torches into the base of the tree. He had enough strength in his enhanced body that momentum took care of the rest, and while one of the torches was knocked away from the force of the impact, the second one splintered and stuck.

  “We’re good!” he shouted, leaping back just in time to dodge another branch smashing down where he’d been standing a split second before. “Fall back!”

  Thankfully, Taylor didn’t argue, and the two of them quickly reconvened at a safe distance beyond the tree’s range. Panting from his mad dash, Leo watched as the tree groaned yet again, beginning to shake as the flames at its base finally caught. As fire raced along the magical beast’s wooden form, he and Taylor watched as the tree swung about with its spiked branches blindly, trying and failing to fight off the flames.

  “I don’t like this one,” Taylor said after a few moments of watching the tree burn, her voice strangely muffled. After spitting a few chunks of wood and blood onto the ground, she grimaced. “Tastes like wood.”

  “You bit one of the branches?” Leo asked incredulously, looking at his companion as she made an irritated face and stuck out her tongue. “You have those spiny bits in your mouth! Why would you do that?!”

  “The tree was an enemy,” Taylor shrugged, wincing as she blindly rooted about within her mouth for the largest splinters Leo had ever seen. “Enemies get bit.”

  “You are ridiculous,” Leo sighed, ensuring the tree was fully aflame before turning his back to it. “We have to wait for the tree to finish burning before we can grab its gems anyway, so keep still and let me help. And if you bite my fingers, so help me I’m not cooking for you for a week.”

  tongue. That's got to be easily one of the worst locations for them haha.

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