Wait, where's everybody else?

He was sure they had all stepped through together, but there was no sign of them anywhere. That's when it dawned on him. Azerael had said that they were going to defeat a monster. However, he never said they'd do it together. A true test of courage.

Alexander scanned his surroundings. Of course, it was Kora Forest, that much was clear. The morning fog rolled along the fallen leaves, while every few feet emerged a few blades of grass. The air was brisk. Mostly because the sun hadn't fully risen yet. Alexander spotted a couple of trees that had warped into an 'X' and decided that he'd take a seat at the base of their trunks to try and come up with a game plan. He was somewhat glad that he had brought his grey cloak that morning, acting as a windbreaker for the cool, gentle breeze that whispered through the trees. He exhaled, then brought up his palm and conjured a ball of fire.

At this point, Alex was sure he was lost. In the past few months, he and the others travelled all around the forest, taking on small monster-hunting missions from Azerael to teach them about different species and how to handle them. He was sure they'd covered every square inch of that place. But this was a first. Especially this pair of entangled trees.

Alex began to step away from the trunks in hopes of examining it, until he heard a faint deep growl that permeated the space around him, seemingly shaking the ground beneath his feet. His eyes darted. Left, right, below, behind. Nothing was there, and yet that growl grew louder. No... Closer...

With the next growl, the ground beneath his feet began to shake even harder, hard enough to make him lose his footing, and hard enough to make the hard-packed dirt beneath him crumble as Alex looked around more frantically. What the hell is going on?!

Then a deafening crack erupted from the dirt's surface, as a massive creature exploded up from the ground. Alexander's eyes widened. The monster looked almost like a snake, but with four legs and scales of slate. He rolled out of the way as the creature landed, taking a bite out of the ground where he had once stood. As the monster reared its head his way, Alexander threw off his cloak and sprinted forward, slamming a flame-coated punch into its snout. Then another. Then another. He threw as many punches as he could until his hand began to bleed, and the dark-grey stone snout of the monster had a fresh coat of red.

Alexander took a leap back as he noticed that the monster didn't seem fazed, not even in the slightest. Then he finally got a closer look at the creature. He remembered reading about something in the cabin's library that matched this monster's description. A Stone-Scaled Forest Drake. They were exceedingly rare, especially here. How Alex had happened to stumble upon one was unknown to him, though he knew that this test was going to be far more difficult than he had initially realized.

"And after the first test was so easy..." He wiped his knuckles on his pant leg. The drake repositioned itself as the branches above cracked. Alexander looked up in time to see that its massive tail was heading straight toward him as he stepped to the side. Narrowly avoiding it, Alexander charged forward, delivering a kick into its side. The drake hissed and whipped its tail, catching Alex in the ribs and sending him into the tree adjacent.

He coughed and wheezed as he fell to the ground. If I didn't have my energy circulating, I'm pretty sure my ribs would be broken right now, if not worse... He looked up to see the drake partially burrowing itself, then starting in his direction, like a shark breaking the ocean's surface. Alexander got ahold of himself as he turned around and kicked off the tree, flipping over the drake as the tree collapsed. 

The drake reemerged. Alexander expected the creature to turn around to face him. Instead, the drake whipped its tail wildly, giving Alex very few opportunities to dodge. After the first few, he realized he wouldn't be able to dodge the next one as he brought his arms up, taking the full force onto his forearms. He recoiled at the pain, but reoriented himself, using a branch to slingshot himself toward the beast as it began to turn in his direction.

As he shot forward, he coated his arm in a much more intense blaze of flame. Fire Magic... He slammed his fist into the drake's side once more. BLAZING FIST! 

The creature let out a deafening screech as the flames erupted from all sides, engulfing the drake. Alexander kicked off of it as he did with the tree and landed on the coarse dirt below. However, to his dismay, the monster was still moving. He braced himself as the creature jumped up. What he didn't expect, however, was for the drake to fully submerge itself underground, the resulting shockwave launching him into the air, rebounding as he hit the ground.

The rumbling continued as the creature tunneled around below his feet. He tried to think, attempting to calculate where the drake would show up next. Though that much was difficult, given how much concentration he was putting into staying on his feet.

Another thunderous crack echoed through the forest as the drake emerged from underneath Alexander, who was forced into the air. Thinking quickly, he was able to reorient himself just enough to push off of the drake's teeth before they severed him in two. The creature disappeared into the ground once more. Alexander struggled to catch his breath as this cycle repeated, each time bringing him closer to death as his movement slowed.

Alex knelt down, not having enough strength to stay standing. This is bad...

It was when he heard the rumbling below him growing stronger that he had an idea. It was a risky one, a last-ditch effort that would require the right timing. However, he knew he could pull it off if he just focused. After all, this monster was tough. But it wasn't Azerael.

He closed his eyes and waited. Waited for the vibrations to grow strong enough. Finally, just as the ground beneath him began to warp, he jumped back, letting the drake tower into the air forty feet above him. He channeled the energy into his legs, shooting off the ground like a rocket into the creature's stomach as he held on for dear life.

With the rest of his energy, he reeled back his arm and coated it with a violent torrent of flame and, with all of the might he had left, punched into its stomach. Its underside was soft and meaty compared to the rest of its body, allowing his hand to punch right through as the drake let out a visceral screech. He kept the flame going, cooking the drake's insides as the unrelenting spray of its dark-green gore showered his face. As the monster hit the ground, Alexander prepared one last spell. Just for good measure.

"FIRE MAGIC: SEARING JET!!"

The drake let out another, much weaker screech while the flames penetrated its underbelly. Alexander could feel himself getting dizzier by the second, but he wasn't willing to take any chances. Not until it stopped screeching.

Finally, he fell onto his rear, out of breath and barely able to sit up. The creature was no longer moving, no longer breathing, and Alexander finally heaved a sigh of relief, before reeling in disgust. "Ugh! This thing smells terrible!!"

He began to wipe off his face, when out of the drakes stomach floated an orb. It appeared to glow brightly and at first, Alexander had thought he was dying. And yet, it persisted even after he rubbed his eyes. He knew it was probably a bad idea to take any steps toward it, but curiosity got the better of him and he found himself just a foot away from it. As he reached his arm out, his vision was overtaken by a blinding light.

Kieran zipped from trunk to branch, slashing through monster after monster, painting his cobalt dagger red. Dozens laid slain in his wake, his royal-blue coat clean despite the bloody scene behind him. He saw another monster before him and in a flash of lightning, yet another beast met its demise as it fell. Kieran racked his brain, but couldn't figure out why, despite being at it for an hour, he kept coming back to the same couple of trees. Warped around each other, seemingly forming an 'X'.

He stood up from his knee and looked around, his focus razor-sharp. Since he'd mostly decided to travel north, he figured he'd move through the forest to the west. After another ten minutes, he definitely knew that something wasn't right when he landed at the base of those two trees. Looking north, he caught the sight of his masterwork, the dozens of Dire Wolves, Hobgoblins and Tree Golems he'd rendered into fertilizer.

He shook the feeling of doubt rising in his mind as he looked around once more. Clearly something's wrong with this place, he thought. Have Mages cast an illusion in hopes of attacking? No, that wouldn't make sense. There wouldn't be a reason to attack in the first place, Master and I generally keep to ourselves.

He tried to believe that whatever was going on was due to some kind of Arcanic phenomenon. After all, Kora Forest was known to emanate large amounts of natural Arcanic Energy. It was why Azerael had set up camp where he had for so long. However, Kieran knew that there wasn't enough raw energy to pull off abnormalities of this level.

The pieces he had weren't fitting anywhere in this puzzle, and ultimately he resigned himself to leaning against a tree. Making sure that he wasn't anywhere near the ones that were tangled up. He didn't know what it was about that 'X' across from him. It didn't make him uneasy, but they definitely didn't make him feel quite right, either.

Kieran became skeptical. More than he already was, at least. Nothing about this place screamed 'Kora Forest,' and yet it was all familiar enough to make him believe it was. But one thing was certain: he'd never once seen those trees before. He realized that it seemed dumb to note he didn't recognize a couple of trees in an entire forest, however these ones in particular almost seemed to have their own aura.

It was only after he took a deep breath and reopened his icy eyes that he'd finally noticed something, right there at the base of the 'X'. Three twigs oriented in an arrow, pointing directly north. Kieran's impatience hit a tipping point. After all, he had just gone that direction, he'd been going in that direction for an hour! It was right when he was about to crush the twigs beneath his boot that he'd realized something.

Was the 'test of courage' part a red herring? Master knows my abilities, he's taught me for six years. I doubt he thought I'd have had much trouble taking on a monster or two, which means...

He placed his foot back on the ground and followed the direction of the arrow, this time walking through the forest instead of zipping through it. After another ten minutes down the path, he found another set of twigs, pointing him east. Interestingly enough, he'd recognized this area, even if only because of the two dead wolves. However, these twigs were new to him. Perhaps they'd always been here, and he was just moving too quickly to notice. 

He walked for awhile, finding arrow after arrow, following each one to the next. He continued this for almost an hour, until he found it. Floating there in a clearing of the forest was a bright, glowing orb. It bobbed in the air, as if beckoning him. He stepped forward a few paces and then placed a hand on it as the forest around him lit up.

All Kieran could think is that it was much brighter than he'd ever expected possible in the daylight...