Dario’s heart was hammering in his throat as he moved away from his back-stabbing companions.

  If it weren’t for JeeJee’s presence, they’d beat him up and leave him bleeding somewhere in the forest to be devoured by beasts. Beasts had tried to kill him plenty of times, but this kind of viciousness was something new. The worst he’d had to deal with in the Belt were the damn Contadino boys trying to steal his treasures. Would everyone on the second floor be this ruthless? Or just this crooked-nosed noble and his henchmen?

  To be fair, JeeJee had warned him about this, always saying that he was too innocent and careless. That he needed to use his eyes more, to process information and make plans of his own.

  He paused on that thought. Come to think of it, this did seem like one of those moments where it might be useful to have a plan. Running and hiding was always a good option, if you wanted to stay alive. He wasn’t confident in fighting them, but he could sneak around them. They couldn’t beat him up and take his stuff if they couldn’t find him, right?

  But what if it was more complicated than that? He’d run away from them once, and that hadn’t worked out very well. They probably hadn’t forgotten where he lived yet. Balls, they even knew roughly where his mother lived, or if they didn’t, they could find the twins again and figure it out. He couldn’t count on JeeJee to take care of them again, since he was off on one of his grand brothel-tours, which they luckily didn’t know about.

  So what were his options then? Maybe if he helped them find the Lynx and only then disappeared, they wouldn’t come after him. He would have fulfilled his part of the deal, anyway. But how long would that hunt take? How many Reijuu would they have to fend off, each one giving them a chance to let him take an attack? JeeJee had hammered it into him how fast Ambers were. Could he hope to compete with that?

  Then there was one final option, wasn’t there? Flipping their plan around, cutting the grass right under their feet. It wouldn’t be easy to pull off, but it would be the only way to be sure. If they never left this place, they wouldn’t have a chance to come look for him and spread their nasty lies.

  It felt extreme, but they wanted to wound and rob him. Did he have the luxury to hold back? If running wasn’t an option, it was either that or walking a tightrope, hoping he could keep dodging Reijuu attacks for days on end.

  There was only so long he could stay away without raising suspicion, so eventually Dario came walking up to the campsite, hiding the nervous churning in his stomach by waving at the three men with a bright smile.

  “Ah, you’re already up! Eager to start your hunt?”

  “Where have you been?” the younger guard grunted with an angry frown.

  “Why, out looking for tracks, of course! I’ve found some good ones to follow. I wouldn’t mind taking some time to rest, but I’ll be ready to move out when you are,” Dario replied cheerfully.

  The men agreed to leave after a short break for him to eat something. He fought to keep up a pleasant expression, but it was impossible now not to notice the way they exchanged looks, or the way they sneered almost every time they regarded him.

  A shiver ran down his spine as he sat with his back to a well-armed Amber that could end him with a single cut. Luckily they weren’t daring enough to attempt that. Without him realizing it before, JeeJee was protecting him even now.

  So it was with a forced smile and a too-relaxed stride that he set out again, leading the three men deeper into the rock-filled jungle as he scanned for beasts and their tracks. Of course, Dario didn’t have the faintest clue what Silver-Toothed Lynx tracks were supposed to look like, but then again, he didn’t have any interest in finding that particular Reijuu.

  Instead, he had them moving around for a while, bringing them closer to his hideaway. In case things all went wrong, at least he’d have somewhere to hide. Besides, he thought he’d spotted some tracks he did recognize when he was here before, up in the trees.

  Any doubts he may have had about integrating a Koto were wiped away now. Though a fresh integration wouldn’t really put him on par with the seasoned Ambers, he’d need every ounce of strength he could get if he was going to survive this place.

  After some time roaming around, he spotted the first Reijuu from afar. Three large black cats sneaking through the underbrush, coming up from behind on their right flank. He decided to pretend he hadn’t seen them. There was enough distance between him and the three men trailing behind that the cats would strike them first, so this played right into his hands.

  Dario made a show of turning around with a surprised shout, grabbing for his bow as the men were attacked. He looked on eagerly as one of the cats landed its claws in a guard’s back, but then the Ambers demonstrated their quick reflexes again, triggering a shield artefact that pushed the Reijuu back. It held them off long enough for them to get in a better position. With Dario’s arrows for support, they made short work of the cats.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Do you know how much one of these costs?” the younger guard shouted as he stomped up to Dario while waving a healing pill around. “Are you going to pay for this? Huh?”

  The guard shoved him and he went stumbling back.

  “I was up here looking for tracks! They came from behind! My eyes can see a lot, but they’re far from perfect.”

  He swallowed as the guard gripped his sword, hatred showing clearly in his scowling eyes.

  “Pah,” the guard spat after a tense silence. “Some fucking scout you are. You’ll be paying me back for this, mark my words.”

  The three men exchanged a few words that he couldn’t make out, then gestured for him to start walking again. They followed him closely this time, only a few strides behind. Realizing that they were nearly within striking distance of his back made the hairs on Dario’s neck rise. He cursed inwardly at how quickly his plan had backfired. It would take a lot more than three cats to take care of the two Ambers, and he was quickly running out of time.

  Should he just make a run for it?

  His hand drifted casually towards a pocket on the inside of his jacket, where he kept the fog-generating artefact. But even with that, the odds that they would manage to strike him down despite the cover were uncomfortably high. He looked around for a distraction, then felt a flash of relief when the younger guard spoke up.

  “Hold. Look at this,” the man said, picking up a large brown feather and shooting Dario an accusatory look.

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  “I’m just a scout, not a beast specialist,” he shrugged.

  “Fucking useless,” the man muttered. “This feather belongs to a Green-wattled Capon. It’s a fat type of grouse with delicious meat and eggs. They make a great meal for cats like the Silver-toothed Lynx. We could use one as bait, if we manage to catch and find one.”

  Dario nodded, brows lifting. He could use this.

  “The feather looks relatively fresh,” he said. “It might still be around this area. Maybe it would be best if we split up, to cover more ground? We could take a few hours and agree to meet up at the entrance to that pass over there,” he suggested, pointing to a location further down where two vine-covered walls rose to form a shallow gorge that rose higher as it passed deeper into the rocky terrain.

  Hokori frowned as the senior guard whispered in his ear. Dario’s pulse raced but he kept his expression carefully neutral, leaning casually against a tree trunk.

  “Two hours. If we don’t find the grouse in two hours, we move on,” the noble said, giving Dario a level look. “I hope your hunting skills, at least, are worth something. This better not be a waste of time.”

  “I’ll do my very best, sir,” Dario said with a cheerful smile, taking a small cylinder from his pocket and tapping a latch on the side that caused a bit of air aura to puff out. The other men each also emptied a compartment of a similar cylinder, so that by the time it filled up with ambient air aura, they would know an hour had passed. Then he grabbed his bow and set out before the noble changed his mind.

  As soon as he was out of sight, he hid and watched as the other men each left in different directions. They would actually be out hunting this fat bird. Good. This was his chance. two hours. He had to make the most of it.

  He circled back to their agreed meeting point, the start of a passage through two large rock formations. Deeper into the passage, those walls rose to thrice the height of a man, but at the beginning it was still possible to climb them, in particular the right side which had something of a slope. He could see plenty of foliage up there, indicating that it was a kind of elevated plateau where the jungle simply continued.

  Then he paused, considering what they might have been whispering about. What if they drew in Reijuu here and tried to pull him into that battle to get him to take a hit? He’d need an escape, so he set up his escape artefact with the rope pulley up on the other side of the cliff, attaching it around a tree on top of the wall and hiding the other end of it behind some plants down in the passage.

  With that done, he set out to find one of those monkeys. There was one more option he’d thought of: rush to Amber in record time. That way, he’d have better chances against Reijuu and the guards would be less likely to mess with him. But for that, he’d need at least one Reijuu corpse to harvest a Koto from.

  He crawled up the incline and pushed through bushes with sharp thorns, following the trail he’d seen. He cursed as they tore at his clothes and pack, cutting a sharp line across his leg, but then he was free. There was no time to tidy up, so on he went.

  Ki pumped through his seams and into his eyes as he ran, head snapping from left to right as he frantically scanned for tracks. Trees grew denser and denser, until he came to a halt, breathing hard, when he spotted a few scattered stony cores with bits of pulp still attached to them.

  Snapped branches and torn leaves provided a trail that he hurriedly followed, every now and then spotting a still fresh piece of half eaten fruit. He ran as fast as he could until he finally picked up a sign of orange-yellow Ki, grabbing his bow and arrow and creeping through the brush as he veiled himself.

  When he pushed past a bunch of leaves to lay eyes on the beast, he stopped in his tracks.

  Rich ochre and gold fur covered the man-sized ape on the legs and back, running along its torso in a single stripe on either side. Most of its upper body was covered in much shorter beige hairs, revealing thick muscles all over. A single eye filled most of its head, thin lines of gold webbing across making it look like some royal treasure, and it was staring straight at him.

  “Oh,” he breathed, brows rising as he took a careful step back. “Hello, there. You’re a tad bigger than I was hoping for. Would you, ah, care to be friends?”

  The ape roared and Dario ran.

  “Why did he call it a monkey!”

  He cursed as he sprinted right back the way he’d come, dodging past flashing branches. Taking two wide leaps on top of a pair of boulders to reach slightly higher ground, he then twisted around while nocking an arrow. The Reijuu, bounding forward on hands and feet, must have seen him through the foliage, because it dodged just as he loosed, the arrow missing its target.

  With a frustrated groan, he dashed off again, looking for any obstacles that might slow the raging beast down. But it was simply better at traversing the jungle than he was; anything that would be an obstacle for it would be worse for him. He was drawing it closer to his hiding place, but he already knew it was going to catch up to him well before reaching it.

  He tried breaking line of sight and creating an illusion that went the other way, but the damn Reijuu saw right through it with its single, Ki-empowered eye. With every failed attempt at drawing it off, the realization that he was going to have to stand and fight was sinking in.

  As he burst through a clearing, he nocked another arrow and turned around as he leapt, watching its legs carefully. Left, he thought as he made the small adjustment and loosed, rewarded with a meaty thwack of the arrow sinking into its right shoulder.

  But it wouldn’t be enough to take it down, instead only enraging it further. It roared and dashed for him. He only had time to throw off his pack and bow and grab a small buckler and his dagger before the beast was on him.

  It leapt, clawed fingers grabbing for him, but he was already ducking low, passing underneath its arms and circling behind. The beast growled and turned as he watched intently, knees slightly bent and ready to move as he scanned its body for signs of movement.

  Just like in training. Watch for muscle twitches and follow the flows of Ki.

  He spotted the next lunge before it happened, its right side lighting up with Ki to his vision, so he pivoted out of the way while slashing out with his dagger, scoring a bloody line across the beast’s ribs. Enraged as it was, its next leap was even more telegraphed and he got in a deep cut on the side of its stomach.

  After several exchanges he was left panting and sweating, but also grinning as he clutched the knife in his hand. The ape was already bleeding from at least five different wounds. It felt almost unreal to be beating an obviously stronger opponent, but the beast wasn’t that clever. Dodging the obvious blows of a dumb and angry beast was so much easier than dealing with JeeJee’s underhanded trickery. For the first time in his life, he felt truly thankful for the old pervert’s training.

  Dario was wondering what was taking the beast so long to attack again, when he noticed the build-up of Ki moving up from its chest to its head. It was the Ki of light, but from its darker hue and the way it moved, the beast used it differently than he did. This would be another aspect entirely: heat.

  He hurled himself to the side as the Reijuu tensed, a mass of Ki roaring into its eye. A breath later, a yellow-orange beam sprang from its head and dug a smoking furrow in the grass where Dario had just been standing. He just barely managed to roll away and got back to his feet, creating some distance.

  The ape was already mustering its Ki for another attack.

  “Kill me with light Ki, will you? We’ll fucking see about that,” Dario spat, setting his jaw and lifting the small buckler he had on his left arm. With a frown, he pushed out his own Ki, creating a shimmering layer on top of the shield.

  After years of studying the nature of light Ki, it felt like an old friend, one that he knew well enough to finish his sentences. The beast may be leaning on different aspects, but it was still using his beloved light Ki. And the further away the Ki traveled from its seams, the less control it would have over it.

  There was only a brief flash from its eye as a warning and then the beam struck, but Dario was ready, only slightly adjusting the angle of his shield. He let out a grunt as pain bloomed in his head, but then, right as the beam struck his shield, he reflected the elusive light Ki right back.

  There was a brief flash of warm light and then the ape was toppling over with a smoking hole burned right through its throat.

  Dario whistled appreciatively as he looked at his smoking buckler, then grinned as he glanced back at the dead ape.

  “Guess you didn’t like what you saw in the mirror, huh?”