The ground on the other side of the barrier was scattered with blood-red flowers. The sight annoyed me, but it also stirred something—a distant memory of master sketching these very flowers. I shook off the thought. Useless memories had no place here. I refocused on the task, scanning the area with my senses. That’s when I felt it—an overwhelming, omniscient aura creeping closer. My heart pounded in my chest, and I spread my own aura into the dirt, feeling the world around me as though it were an extension of my body.

The forest shifted, and I felt it—something was coming.

Fast.

I unshrouded my sword just as the ground trembled beneath me. The creature burst through the treeline, slithering at me with terrifying speed—a snake, massive, like an ancient serpent, its scales blackened and peeling in places as if rotting. A vile stench hit me as it opened its mouth, spraying a cloud of sickly green venom straight toward me. I barely evaded the toxic spit, the grass where it landed hissing as it melted into sludge.

I swung my sword at the creature, the blade singing as it sliced through the air, but when it met the serpent's scales, there was an awful clang. My sword couldn’t break through. Its skin was thick, armored like steel. Before I could react, the snake's tail snapped toward me—a blur of motion too fast to see. It smashed into my ribs, and I was sent flying backward.

I crashed into a tree, hard enough to hear the wood crack, my vision swimming as pain surged through me. The impact left my body screaming, but it couldn’t compare to the hellish agony I’d endured for two years. I spat blood onto the forest floor and dragged myself to my feet, gasping. My clothes were torn, hanging in strips, and blood soaked my shirt from the jagged tear across my ribs.

The snake was already coming for me again, its unblinking eyes full of malice. I grit my teeth and focused, channeling my aura into my blade. My sword glowed with a faint, sickly light. I sprinted forward, slashing at the creature again. This time, my blade bit into its flesh. Blood gushed from the wound, thick and black, splattering across the ground in long streaks. But it wasn’t enough—the cut was shallow, and the beast barely flinched.

Before I could follow up, it retaliated with another swing of its tail. This time, it connected with my gut, and I felt the bones crack beneath the impact. I flew back once more, slamming into the earth with such force that the wind was knocked out of me. I gasped, my body wracked with pain. When I looked down, my stomach was torn open, blood oozing out in rivers. My vision blurred for a moment as the world spun, and I pressed my hand against the wound, trying to keep my insides from spilling out.

I can’t win this.

The serpent loomed over me, its massive head lowering until I could smell the stench of decay on its breath. Patches of its scales were rotting, flaking away to reveal rotting, oozing flesh beneath. "Kid, you stand no chance," it hissed, venom dripping from its fangs and splashing onto the ground near my feet, sizzling as it burned into the earth.

“I know,” I rasped, my voice hoarse.

“You are cursed,” it continued, its voice dripping with something like pity, but more mocking.

“How do you know, snake?” I asked, my face a mask of calm despite the throbbing, gaping wound in my stomach.

The creature’s tongue flicked out, tasting the air. “I can smell it on you. That stench of suffering, of something rotting from the inside. You have endured, but more pain waits. So much more. Why do you want to leave the forest? To find more agony?"

I spat a mouthful of blood, staining the ground. “It was my master’s will.”

The snake paused, then let out a rumbling, sickening laugh. “I will let you pass,” it said, its voice low, “because you have wounded me. No one has done that in years.” Black blood dripped from the shallow cut I’d inflicted, sizzling as it hit the forest floor.

I blinked through the haze of pain. “Everything comes with a price,” I said, glaring at it with hollow eyes. “What’s yours?”