I called forth Enkidu, who appeared all around me mid-air like a giant serpent.
At my will, a single link of it shot towards a tree, coiling around it like a whip crack. The moment it tightened, my entire body snapped in that direction.
The pain was blinding. My shoulder nearly ripped free from its socket from the force, but I still held on.
The jungle’s roar didn’t stop. The branch attached to the chain splintered under the force, but I wasn’t done.
Enkidu writhed at my command, flinging another length of chains into the canopy. The second anchor point caught was on a moss-slick boulder jutting from a cliff face.
My fall slowed, from instant death speed to maybe only a few broken bones because of it.
Branches whipped my face, tearing my skin and drawing lines of hot blood as I swung across the forest. My shirt shredded like paper, but I kept going.
I flung the chains ahead again, shaping their path with a single vicious thought. They obeyed, coiling around a thick, ancient trunk. The tension built until it felt like my chest would explode.
The momentum tore a ragged scream from my throat. The jungle canopy exploded past me, a wall of green and brown that smelled of wet rot and iron.
I released the chain at the last second, letting the arc fling me towards a cluster of vines that looked thick enough to hold weight.
The landing was... anything but graceful.
My boots smashed through a tangle of wet leaves. My body slammed into a thick branch, cracking it clean in half. Pain spiked through ribs, shoulder, hip — it felt like my entire skeleton was arguing with gravity.
I bounced, scraped, and rolled as the vines caught and slowed me. The chains coiled instinctively around my torso like a protective serpent, taking the last edge off the fall.
And then — I hit the ground hard.
The impact stole the world for a moment.
When color and shape returned, I found myself sprawled on damp earth, half-buried in rotting leaves. My heartbeat sounded like a war drum in my ears.
Above, the last wisps of my mana shimmered and faded. Enkidu’s chains slithered back into nothingness, leaving only bruises and the metallic taste of power spent.
My breath came in ragged gulps, each inhalation burning like acid down my throat.
But the jungle didn’t give me even a heartbeat to savor it.
A low, throaty snarl vibrated through the air. Leaves shifted, parting in a ripple of black and green.
A shape stepped into view. It was hulking, scaled, and ugly as sin.
It was a Blackmaw Lizard. About the size of a small horse with scales slick with a muddy sheen and eyes glowing a sickly yellow. Two jagged tusks jutted from its lower jaw, dripping venom thick enough to eat through bone.
It was a single ring monster. Fresh out of the drop, no weapons, bruised ribs — perfect timing.
The beast’s gaze locked on me, with his pupils narrowing. Its throat inflated, bulging like a black blister about to burst.
"Wonderful," I rasped, spitting a thread of blood. "You couldn’t wait five minutes?"
The Blackmaw hissed at the sound and lunged at me with lips peeling back over jagged teeth.
Instead, I moved, rolling sideways just as its massive jaws smashed into the spot where I’d been. The earth exploded in wet loam and broken roots.
Pain flared along my ribs. I couldn’t afford to stop.
The chains erupted from the spirit card pressed against my grimoire, unfurling mid-motion in a shimmer of pale, runed iron.
Like a serpent hungry for blood, Enkidu lashed out.
The Blackmaw turned when it saw the chains, but it was too slow.
One coil looped around its tusked snout, wrenching it sideways with a sound like grinding stone. Another coil slammed into a forelimb, tightening so fiercely that the bone creaked under scales.
The beast roared and frothed with venom spraying in wild arcs.
I forced myself upright as my body screamed in protest. My vision swam — black at the edges, but clear enough.
The monster thrashed, rolling and twisting, trying to tear free.
"Bad idea," I whispered.
Enkidu responded — the runes along each link flared cold and cruel. The chains snaked tighter, binding the lizard’s jaws shut, legs bent at grotesque angles.
It tried to pivot, tail whipping the air like a flail.
I ducked under the blur of spiked tail and drove Enkidu’s last free coil straight into its throat.
The chain punched through scaled flesh like a spear, rupturing something vital inside. Hot, coppery blood sprayed across my face, filling my mouth and eyes.
The Blackmaw convulsed. Its hiss turned into a wet gurgle.
I didn’t wait. I yanked Enkidu’s links back, the chains tearing out through muscle and sinew with a sickening rip.
The beast toppled, limbs twitching.
My breath rattled in my chest, every inhale a punishment. Sweat and blood mixed, stinging my eyes. My golden gaze locked on the corpse, chest still heaving.
Slowly, the chains loosened, slithering back toward me. The runes along Enkidu’s length pulsed one last time before fading, like a serpent coiling back into the shadows.
The jungle fell silent, broken only by my rasping breaths and the distant caw of some unseen carrion bird.
I wiped blood from my lips with the back of my hand.
"Not bad for a warm-up," I murmured in a low and ragged voice as points showed in my orb.