A figure stood among the trees.
The distance and fading light made details hard to discern at first, but as AJ watched, the figure moved towards the pack. The creatures' submission became more pronounced, wolves lowering themselves completely, bears inclining their massive heads, even the prowling Shadow Stalkers stilling their movements.
The figure approached one of the Razor Bears and, without hesitation, the person mounted the creature's broad back, settling into position with practiced ease. The bear didn't react beyond a slight shift to accommodate the weight.
As the figure joined the pack fully, the afternoon light finally revealed some details. It was middle-aged man with greying hair, his posture straight despite his worn, ragged appearance. A simple knife hung at his belt, and a storage pack rested against his back. Nothing about him screamed power or cultivation mastery, yet the creatures obeyed without question.
The man raised one hand, a simple gesture. The pack resumed their eastward movement as one coordinated unit.
AJ remained frozen in the canopy, his compressed form pressed against a branch as his mind whirred. A human commanding this many diverse predators. Moving them with purpose and to somewhere in specific.
He followed from the treetops, moving with extreme caution. The gathering travelled steadily eastward as twilight deepened into night. AJ expected them to stop, to make camp or rest, but the pace never slowed.
The man rode through the night without apparent fatigue. Occasionally he'd pat the bear beneath him, or gesture towards obstacles that required navigation. The creatures responded immediately to every command, their reactions suggesting the man had deep-rooted control over them rather than having tamed and trained them.
Hours passed.
The moon rose overhead, casting pale light through the sparse canopy. AJ's substance remained compressed and hidden, his presence undetected as he shadowed the gathering's progress.
Dawn approached gradually, grey light filtering through the trees as the sun prepared to rise. The man showed no signs of having slept, his posture alert as he guided the pack forward.
AJ noticed him muttering occasionally, too quiet to hear clearly, but the tone carried anger and bitterness. There was a subtle vengeful edge that suggested this journey had deeply personal motivation.
The pack stopped briefly as full daylight arrived. The man dismounted, moving among the creatures. He paused beside a Stone Wolf, running his hand across its grey fur while speaking quietly.
He's not just controlling them, AJ thought. They respond to him like a pack leader.
The man's muttering grew more audible during the rest period. AJ caught fragments, names he didn't recognize, mentions of destruction and making them pay. The words painted a picture of someone seeking revenge, heading somewhere specific with deadly intent.
An unknown settlement, AJ thought. That's the most likely destination.
AJ had made up his mind at this moment, innocent lives would be lost should this man attack the settlement. And even if AJ didn't care about them couldn't be sure if or when the man would head to Valentra and cause problems.
But AJ needed more information before making a move.
The pack resumed their journey after roughly 30 minutes of rest. The man remounted his bear, and the gathering continued eastward.
AJ had an idea as morning fully established itself. He needed answers, and observation alone wouldn't provide them.
He positioned himself deeper in the forest, away from the pack's direct line of sight. His compressed slime form remained hidden among the dense foliage as he prepared to call out.
"Where are you going?" AJ's voice emerged from the shadows, carefully modulated to make pinpointing his location difficult.
The effect on the pack was immediate. The man jerked upright, his head snapping towards AJ's general direction. The creatures stopped moving as one, their attention shifting towards the source of the unexpected voice.
"Who's there?" the man demanded, his hand moving to the knife at his belt. His eyes scanned the forest, searching for the speaker.
"What do you plan to do with these creatures?" AJ continued, ignoring the question. "Are they truly under your control?"
The man's expression shifted from surprise to defensive wariness. "Show yourself. Who are you?"
"Answer my questions."
"I don't answer to voices in the trees." The man's tone hardened. "Where are you?"
The Shadow Stalkers had already begun moving, their forms slipping into the undergrowth as they headed towards AJ's approximate location. The man was using them as hunters, sending them to find and eliminate the unknown interrogator.
The man didn't want to answer his questions leaving AJ with nothing else to gain from this situation.
Time to end this.
AJ moved immediately, flowing through the canopy avoiding the area where the Shadow Stalkers were searching. His form silently circled around the pack's position.
The creatures remained focused on where his voice had originated. The man stayed mounted on his bear, his posture tense as he waited for his hunters to report.
AJ compressed himself further as he approached, shrinking his form to something barely larger than a fist, making him all the more difficult to spot and catch.
He dropped from the canopy silently, landing in the undergrowth metres behind the man's position. The bear hadn't noticed, focused forward like the rest of the pack.
AJ transformed in an instant. His substance flowed upward, expanding rapidly into his human shape as he closed the final distance. His right arm hardened, the fist sharpening until it formed a deadly spike.
The man began to turn, some instinct warning him of danger.
Too late.
AJ's spike drove forward with all his force. It pierced through the man's back and chest in one smooth motion, the hardened slime punching through flesh and bone with brutal efficiency.
The man's eyes went wide with horror as he looked down at the spike protruding from his chest. His mouth opened, but no sound emerged beyond a choked gasp.
AJ withdrew the spike quickly. The man slumped forward, sliding off the bear's back to crumple on the forest floor. Dead before he hit the ground.
The effect on the creatures was immediate and catastrophic.
The calm shattered, whatever control the man had maintained vanished with his death, leaving 50 predators suddenly free of the constraints that had kept them peaceful.
A Stone Wolf lunged at the nearest Razor Bear. The bear reacted quickly, its blade-like claws slashing across the wolf's side blood spraying across the forest floor.
Chaos erupted throughout the pack. Wolves attacked bears, ravagers turned on raptors. The massive armoured badger-creature grappled with two wolves simultaneously. Natural rivalries and territorial instincts reasserted themselves with explosive violence.
The Shadow Stalkers, already separated from the main group during their search, disappeared into the forest entirely. They'd been solitary ambush hunters forced into pack behaviour, with that compulsion gone, they chose to flee rather than fight.
AJ carefully moved through the melee. His human form shifted continuously, adapting to threats as they emerged. He targeted the largest creatures first, the Razor Bears whose size and natural weapons made them the most dangerous.
A bear turned towards him, its attention drawn by his movement. AJ met its charge with a hardened spike that drove through the creature's skull. It dropped mid-lunge, its momentum carried its body forwards crashing at AJ's feet.
The creatures barely noticed his interventions, too focused on each other to register the additional threat moving among them. AJ used their distraction to his advantage, striking from blind spots and retreating before they could retaliate.
He took down three more bears in quick succession, then shifted his attention to the armoured badger-creature and the oversized lynx. Both fell to precise strikes that exploited gaps in their defenses.
The wolves were numerous but smaller, their pack tactics disrupted by the general chaos. AJ eliminated the strongest looking specimens, reducing their threat level.
10 minutes of brutal slaughter reduced the pack to scattered survivors. Several Ravagers fled into the forest, their scales gleaming as they disappeared between trees. A handful of raptors followed, their forms vanishing with surprising speed.
AJ didn't pursue. The remaining creatures posed minimal threat, and chasing them through unfamiliar territory would waste time and energy.
Silence settled over the clearing. Bodies littered the ground, wolves, bears, and the other creatures lying motionless in pools of blood.
AJ stood amongst the carnage, his human form splattered with blood that wasn't his own. The fight had been easier than expected, the element of surprise and the pack's self-destructive infighting turning the potentially dangerous encounter into a walk in the park.
He began the work of absorbing the corpses. His substance flowed over each corpse, breaking down the matter and integrating the resulting mana. The mana within the creatures was modest individually, but accumulated across dozens of bodies, it represented significant gain.
The process took some time but it was well worth the effort.
The man's body lay where it had fallen, ignored during AJ's harvest of the creatures. He approached it finally, his substance reaching out not to absorb the corpse, but to examine the equipment.
The knife was simple iron, well-maintained but unremarkable. AJ absorbed it anyway, no sense in leaving weapons lying around. The storage pack held basic supplies, food, water, and some plants, nothing exceptional.
Then his substance touched a folded piece of paper tucked into the pack's inner pocket.
AJ reformed his hand, carefully extracting the note and unfolding it. The handwriting was rough, scribbled hastily as if written in poor light or with shaking hands.
Strange building, wife died. They'll pay for what they did, I'll make sure of it.
That was all. No context, no explanation of who "they" were or what had been done. Just a destination and vengeful intent.
AJ studied the note carefully. Millbrook, presumably the settlement the man had been heading towards. A strange structure nearby, significant enough to mention specifically. The creatures clearly had been gathered as weapons for an attack.
He absorbed the note, preserving its contents within his memory while destroying the physical evidence.
A strange structure near a settlement, AJ thought. Might as well take a look and if I find sufficiently villainous people I'll call it revenge for this guy.
Structures like the Tower of Trials and the Spire of Echoes had been valuable opportunities for growth and also held the possibility of providing answers or more clues to do with the Wish Event.
AJ continued his absorption work, processing the few remaining corpses. The accumulation of mana from each creature totalled to a noticeable increase in his reserves. More importantly, the variety of creatures provided diverse potential materials that might prove useful in the future.
The mental burden of an unknown threat was lifted from his shoulders. Whatever violence the man had been planning on enacting wouldn't reach Valentra.
By the time AJ finished, the sun had climbed well above the horizon. The clearing showed only disturbed earth and bloodstains where dozens of bodies had lain. Everything of value had been absorbed and integrated.
AJ reformed his human shape, considering his options. The original plan had been to investigate this gathering, then explore the general region before circling back towards Valentra. But the note changed things.
A strange structure near or in a settlement called Millbrook. The distance wasn't specified, but it shouldn't be too far.
The opportunity was too valuable to ignore. Strange structures had proven to be significant every time he'd encountered them. If this one held similar importance, the detour was justified.
And the settlement itself warranted a visit. They'd been targeted for attack, although the chances of learning more about the man were slim it couldn't hurt to try.
AJ set off eastward, the morning sun warmed his back. Ahead lay unknown territory, a settlement he'd never visited, and potentially another piece of the puzzle that was this transformed world.