The vegetation grew denser as they pressed deeper into the forest, the crimson foliage closing in overhead until only thin shafts of light pierced through.

  Riven shoved aside a enormous fern with leaves the color of bruises, its surface slick with moisture that left his palm feeling unclean. Each step forward required effort now, the forest resisting their intrusion with a passive hostility more effective than any direct attack.

  Plants taller than even Aron's considerable height formed walls around them, creating a claustrophobic tunnel that limited visibility to mere meters ahead. Riven's shoulders tensed with each step, the weight of vulnerability settling across them like a physical burden.

  "Watch your step," he muttered, more to himself than the others as he navigated around a cluster of what appeared to be mushrooms, their caps pulsing with an internal violet glow.

  The air hung thick and oppressive, saturated with scents that should have been pleasant but instead turned his stomach. Sweet floral notes mingled with the earthy smell of rotting vegetation and damp soil, creating a perfume too rich, too cloying. Each breath felt like drawing air through wet cloth, heavy and unsatisfying.

  Why does it feel like I'm drowning in it?

  He pushed forward, his body taut as a drawn bowstring. Every few steps, he had to hack through curtains of hanging vines or push aside massive leaves that resembled red-violet fern fronds, their surfaces slippery with condensation. The constant resistance wore at him, each obstacle a reminder of how easily they could be ambushed in this living maze.

  The sounds were worse than the obstacles. Uncountable noises erupted from all directions—rustling to the left, cracking branches behind, something moving through the canopy above. Riven's head swiveled constantly, his heart rate elevated beyond what the physical exertion warranted. There were too many directions to watch, too many variables to track.

  Elea moved ahead of him with quiet efficiency, her silver armor catching occasional shafts of crimson light. She showed none of his hesitation, navigating the hostile environment with practiced ease. Behind him, Lya stuck close, her breathing quick but controlled. Aron brought up the rear, his massive form somehow managing to squeeze through gaps that seemed too narrow for his frame.

  Riven tightened his grip on his sword hilt, the familiar touch providing little comfort. He had been resisting using his Spatial Eyes, concerned about depleting his Koras too quickly in an environment overloaded with details. But the constant, unseen threats were becoming a greater risk than exhaustion.

  If I can't detect problems in time, what good is saving energy?

  Decision made, he reached for the warm core behind his sternum, allowing his perception to expand outward. The effect was immediate and almost overwhelming—information flooded his senses, threatening to drown him in detail.

  He quickly adjusted his approach, expanding the radius of his perception while deliberately reducing its intensity. No need to know where each insect lurked; he couldn't process that level of detail with his current mastery anyway. Instead, he sought a workable balance—extending his awareness to cover roughly fifteen meters in all directions, with just enough sensitivity to detect large elements like his companions and significant movements in the environment.

  Through this modified perception, he could sense the basic layout of their surroundings—the positions of major trees, the density of undergrowth, potential paths forward. Nothing immediately threatening registered, which allowed his shoulders to relax slightly.

  Beside him, Elea maintained her composed vigilance, moving with controlled confidence as if she had mastered this situation completely. Her calmness was almost irritating in its perfection, but also reassuring.

  The relative peace lasted only moments. Something shifted at the edge of his perception—movement in the branches to their right, then another, and another. Not random swaying from wind, but purposeful, coordinated shifts.

  "On the right!" Riven shouted, sword already raised. "It’s coming!"

  The moment the words left his lips, Elea moved. Her grip tightened on her long, ice-blue blade, its slight curve shimmering as she leveled it toward the threat.

  The creatures came into view but stopped just at the edge, hanging from the branches with powerful hands, letting the rest of their bodies dangle beneath. Riven counted at least ten of them, possibly more lurking.

  They resembled oversized monkeys, each standing about one and a half meters tall, with red patterns streaking across their ashen grey skin like tribal markings. But the resemblance to normal primates ended there. Each creature possessed four arms—two sets extending from their muscular torsos, with defined muscles rippling beneath their skin as they held their own weight effortlessly.

  For a breathless moment, the creatures simply observed them, heads tilted in what might have been curiosity.

  Then, as if responding to some unheard signal, they all opened their mouths simultaneously, revealing rows of elongated canines. Their collective howl split the air—a sound of pure aggression that set Riven's teeth on edge.

  Elea stepped back slightly, making a quick gesture behind her. "Aron, stay close to Lya and protect her."

  Aron had already moved into position, his massive body almost completely concealing Lya from view, lance held at the ready. Riven and Elea formed the front line, their weapons raised as the creatures launched themselves forward, swinging from branch to branch with terrifying speed.

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  The first creature crashed into Riven's guard, its weight surprising for its lean frame. He blocked the initial strike with his sword, steel meeting flesh with a dull impact that traveled up his arm.

  For a moment, he thought I can handle this.

  Then the creature unleashed a barrage of strikes with all four arms while clinging to him, its movements too rapid to track with normal sight.

  He blocked and dodged most of the attacks, but two blows slipped past his defense, striking his ribs with enough force to momentarily stagger him. The pain flared sharp and immediate.

  Fuck. They're fast.

  Riven pivoted on his supporting leg, brutally throwing the creature to the ground. But as he raised his sword to finish it, something slammed into his arm. The impact sent vibrations through his muscles, nearly making him lose his grip on the hilt.

  He spun to face this new attacker, but it was already gone—vanished back into the branches above. The creature he'd thrown down had also disappeared, retreating with unnatural speed.

  He tightened his grip on his sword, frustration building. These weren't like the monsters they'd encountered before. Instead of charging mindlessly, they swung at incredible speeds, struck with precision, then retreated before he could counter. Their strategy constantly shifted, making them maddeningly unpredictable.

  A creature swung down from overhead, all four arms extended to strike. Riven deflected its attack, but before he could counter, it had already propelled itself to another branch. Another dropped from above, claws raking across his shoulders before bounding away to a different position. He couldn't predict where the next attack would come from. Each time he turned to face one threat, two more would strike from different angles.

  One landed on his back, four limbs wrapping around his torso, jaws snapping toward his neck. Riven twisted violently, but before he could dislodge it, another creature slammed into his side. The impact drove the air from his lungs, leaving him gasping.

  They're coordinating. Not just a swarm—a pack.

  One would immobilize him while another struck, then they'd switch roles before he could adapt to the pattern. He'd faced stronger monsters, but few so tactically sound.

  Before he could recover, another creature leapt at him from the front. Riven raised his sword to block, but the beast clung to the blade, its weight forcing his guard down while its jaws snapped inches from his face. He had no time to deal with it properly before something crashed into his back, nearly driving him to his knees.

  The creature still clung to him, teeth flashing mere centimeters from his face. Tension coiled through Riven's body like a spring wound too tight.

  With his free hand, he channeled Koras into his fingers, grasped the monster's head, and drove his fingers into its skull with enhanced strength. The creature shrieked, falling to the ground and clutching its face with one of its many hands.

  A flash of silver caught Riven's peripheral vision. Elea's blade swept in a perfect arc—not toward the creature still clinging to him, but through what appeared to be empty air to his left.

  A heartbeat later, a monster swung into exactly that space. Her blade met it in mid-flight, cleanly severing its head from its shoulders. The body fell to the ground, still clutching at the branch it had been aiming for.

  She had killed it before it even knew she was there.

  Elea wrenched her sword free from where it had embedded itself in a tree trunk after passing through the creature, blood arcing through the air with the movement. She didn't even glance at Riven as she spoke: "Stop looking at where they are. Look at where they're going."

  Then she was gone, pivoting to engage another creature with the same terrifying precision.

  Her words cut through the fog in his mind.

  Where they're going. Not where they are.

  The battle had devolved into pure chaos—screaming monsters in all directions, the clash of weapons, bodies colliding. For Riven, it was even worse.

  His Spatial Eyes were giving him everything at once. Too much. Far too much.

  Creature on the left—no, there are two. Three behind me. Movement above. Which one is attacking? Which has already attacked?

  Information crashed over him in waves, each sensation blurring into the next.

  Sharp pain lanced through his brain and his eyes. He tried to focus on a single monster, to track its trajectory, but his perception kept yanking his attention elsewhere—another creature moving, a branch swaying, Aron shifting stance twenty meters away.

  Stop it. I need to—

  Something struck his shoulder. He hadn't seen it coming, hadn't sensed it until impact because his senses were drowning in useless noise. He blocked the next blow on pure instinct, but his counter-attack missed entirely. The creature had already swung to another branch. Or had it? His spatial sense showed movement everywhere, overlapping, contradictory.

  His head throbbed. The violet glow behind his eyes intensified with his frustration, making the sensory overload worse. He was fighting blind despite seeing everything.

  Riven gritted his teeth. Anticipate their trajectory.

  He pumped more Koras from his core throughout his body and lunged toward a monster on his left. This time, he didn't aim for the creature itself. He followed the rhythm of its swinging—branch to branch, always the same pattern—and struck at the branch it would land on next.

  Too slow. The creature adjusted mid-swing, avoiding his blade entirely.

  Damn it.

  Another came toward him. This time he watched the trajectory more carefully, anticipating not just the next branch but the one after that. He swung.

  His blade caught two of the creature's right arms at the joint, severing them cleanly. The monster hit the ground howling, unable to grasp anything properly. Riven drove his sword through its skull before it could recover.

  Better. But my head is still pounding, and the Spatial Eyes are still feeding me too much.

  Among all the sensations bombarding him, at the last possible moment, one struck like a needle pricking the back of his skull. He ducked just in time, barely avoiding a blow from another monster.

  Then he drove his sword point directly into the creature's body, killing it instantly.

  A brief opening in the chaos. He used it to assess the situation.

  To the left, Aron was struggling—four creatures harassing him from different angles while he tried to keep Lya covered. The giant was holding, but barely. One false move and they would overwhelm him.

  Behind him, through the chaos of his Spatial Eyes, Riven sensed Elea's position. Six monsters surrounded her now. Maybe seven. Her movements were still fluid, still controlled, but he could detect a subtle change in her rhythm. She was slowing. Not much, but enough.

  The calculation was brutal and simple:

  If he helped Aron, Elea would be left facing six, maybe seven creatures alone. She'd looked competent earlier, but those odds? If she went down, the survivors would crash into them like a wave—fresh, coordinated, and they'd be fucked. Completely overwhelmed.

  If he helped Elea, he could engage her attackers, help her hold the line. But that meant leaving Aron struggling with four creatures while protecting Lya. If they broke through before Riven could turn back...

  Two bad options. No guarantees either way.

  Decide. Now.