The morning sun was brutal. The bright yellow light pierced through the thick green canopy like hot lasers. The temperature on the jungle floor spiked rapidly. It was not a dry heat. The air was incredibly humid. It felt like walking through a hot, wet blanket.
Jin wiped sweat from his forehead. His hand came away slick and dirty. He took another heavy step over a massive, moss-covered root. His leather boots sank deep into the black mud. He pulled his foot free with a loud squelch.
He was Foundation Level 4 now. His muscles were much denser than yesterday. His lungs held more oxygen. His heart pumped blood more efficiently. If he were walking on a paved sidewalk on Earth, he could probably jog for twenty miles without stopping.
But this was the Zenith jungle.
There was no path. There was no road. They spent the last two hours hacking through thick, thorny vines and climbing over giant fallen trees. The ground was uneven and covered in slick, rotting vegetation. Every single step required active effort and balance.
Giant insects buzzed around Jin's head. Some of them looked like dragonflies the size of large birds. Nyx's Aether-seal kept them from biting him, but the loud, constant buzzing was incredibly annoying. It grated on his nerves.
He looked ahead. Nyx walked ten paces in front of him.
She did not sweat. She did not breathe hard. She did not even leave footprints in the soft mud. Her black boots seemed to glide over the uneven terrain perfectly. She pushed thick fern fronds out of the way with effortless, fluid motions.
She was a machine. Jin was just a tired man in a torn silk shirt.
Another thirty minutes passed. The heat grew worse. Jin's legs started to shake. The muscles in his thighs burned with lactic acid. His healed lower back was stiff. The deep tissue injury did not hurt anymore, but the new muscle fibers felt incredibly tight. They pulled uncomfortably with every step he took.
His mouth was completely dry. He needed water. He needed a flat surface to walk on.
He saw a massive, grey tree trunk a few yards ahead. The roots were huge and formed a small, dry platform above the mud.
Jin dragged his heavy boots toward it. He reached the dry wood and turned around. He let his knees buckle. He slumped hard against the rough grey bark. He slid down the trunk until his rear end hit the hard wood. He let his arms fall limp at his sides. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes.
He gasped for air. His chest heaved up and down rapidly.
"I need a minute," Jin said. His voice was hoarse and dry. "I can't walk anymore."
Nyx stopped walking. She was twenty feet ahead of him. She turned around slowly.
She looked at Jin sitting on the roots. Her featureless obsidian visor gave away no emotion. But her body language changed entirely.
She did not offer him water. She did not tell him he was doing a good job.
She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She stood completely straight. She looked down at him. Then, she started tapping her right foot against the ground.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
It was a slow, steady rhythm. The tip of her black boot hit a flat rock in the mud. The sound echoed slightly in the quiet clearing.
For a Divinity Realm shadow-guard who spent her entire life standing perfectly still in dark corners, this was a massive display of emotion. It was pure, unfiltered impatience. She was a weapon built for war. She did not understand mortal fatigue. She did not understand why her asset needed to sit down after only two hours of light travel.
"The Academy is still hundreds of miles away, My Prince," Nyx stated in his mind. Her telepathic voice was flat, but the annoyance was clear. "If we stop every two hours, we will not clear the jungle for a month. Kaelen's hunting dogs will find us long before then."
"I am not a machine," Jin said out loud. He kept his eyes closed. He focused on slowing his heart rate down. "I just hit Level 4. My body is still adjusting to the new density. And I haven't drank water since yesterday morning. I need five minutes."
Nyx stopped tapping her foot. She kept her arms crossed.
"Five minutes," she agreed coldly. "Then we move. The imperial pursuit is highly motivated."
Jin nodded against the tree bark. He let his muscles go entirely slack. He enjoyed the brief moment of rest. He listened to the buzzing insects and the rustling leaves. He tried to ignore the extreme thirst scratching at his throat.
He sat there for three minutes. The tension in his legs slowly started to fade.
Then, the audio environment of the jungle changed.
The normal sounds of snapping twigs and animal calls were interrupted. A new sound cut through the heavy, humid air.
It was a voice.
It was not a beast roaring or a bird shrieking. It was definitely a human voice. It was coarse and loud. Then, a second voice answered. A harsh, barking laugh echoed through the trees.
Jin opened his eyes instantly. He pulled his head off the tree bark.
He listened closely. The sounds were getting louder. He heard the heavy crunch of boots stepping on dry branches. He heard the metallic clank of gear and weapons hitting against armor.
They were close. They were walking directly toward their position.
Jin felt a sudden, massive wave of relief. His Earth-trained brain reacted instinctively to the sound of other humans. On Earth, if you were lost in a massive, dangerous forest, you looked for a park ranger. You looked for a hiker. You found someone with a radio or a map, and you asked them for help. You asked them for the fastest way to the nearest road.
Humans meant civilization. Civilization meant safety.
"Did you hear that?" Jin whispered. He planted his hands on the roots and pushed himself up. His tired legs protested, but he ignored them. He stood up straight.
"I hear them," Nyx replied. Her arms uncrossed instantly. Her hands dropped down to her sides, hovering right next to her hidden weapons.
"We should go talk to them," Jin said. He dusted the dirt and dried mud off his torn silk pants. He tried to make himself look presentable. "They might have a map of the sector. They might have a comms radio. If they are local hunters, they know the fastest way out of this jungle."
He took a step forward. He prepared to walk out into the open and wave them down. He raised his hand to shout a greeting.
He never got the words out.
Nyx moved. She did not walk. She blurred.
She crossed the twenty feet between them in a fraction of a second. She grabbed the thick fabric on the back of Jin's shirt. Her grip was like a steel vice.
She did not pull him behind the tree. She did not tell him to duck.
She hauled his entire body weight off the ground. She bent her knees and jumped straight up into the air.
The sheer physical power of the jump was terrifying. She carried Jin twenty feet straight up the side of the massive grey tree trunk. She bypassed the lower branches entirely. They crashed into the thick, broad leaves high above the jungle floor.
Jin gasped in pure shock. The sudden vertical acceleration made his stomach drop.
Nyx landed perfectly on a thick, horizontal branch hidden deep inside the dark green canopy. She threw Jin face-down onto the rough wood. She dropped her own weight directly on top of him, pinning him flat against the bark.
She clamped her black-gloved hand tightly over his mouth.
Jin struggled on instinct. He tried to push her off. He did not understand what was happening. Why was she attacking him?
Nyx pressed her weight down harder. She crushed his chest against the wood. She held him absolutely immobile. Her grip over his mouth was airtight. He could not make a single sound.
"Never trust anyone in the wild," her cold, telepathic voice sliced into his mind like a knife.
It was not a suggestion. It was an absolute, brutal command. The sheer intensity of her mental voice made his teeth ache.
"You are thinking like a mortal from a peaceful world," Nyx scolded him. Her face was inches from his ear. "Erase that mindset immediately. It will get you killed. In the Apex Empire, humans are the worst monsters. They are infinitely more dangerous than the beasts."
Jin stopped struggling. He went completely still under her grip. He listened to her harsh lesson.
"Out here, there are no laws," Nyx continued. "There are no imperial guards to enforce the peace. The people who walk through this jungle are scavengers, rogue cultivators, and black-market mercenaries. If they see a weak Foundation Level 4 boy wearing torn royal silk, they will not give you a map. They will cut your throat, steal your boots, and sell your internal organs to an unlicensed bio-surgeon."
She shifted her weight slightly. She moved her head to look down through the gaps in the thick leaves.
"You do not ask for directions," she stated. "You hide. You survive. Do not move a single muscle, My Prince."
Jin lay pinned against the rough bark. He breathed heavily through his nose against her leather glove. His heart hammered in his chest.
He realized she was completely right. His corporate logic had failed him again. He was still expecting the rules of Earth to apply here. He expected human decency. But this was a universe built on genetic supremacy and murder.
He slowly nodded his head against the wood, signaling that he understood.
Nyx kept her hand over his mouth for three more seconds to ensure his compliance. Then, she slowly pulled her hand away. She lifted her body weight off him.
She crouched low on the branch next to him. She parted two large green leaves with her fingers. She looked down at the muddy clearing they had just evacuated.
Jin crawled slowly forward. He kept his belly flat against the wood. He moved up next to Nyx. He peered down through the gap in the leaves.
The heavy footsteps grew very loud. The coarse voices were right below them.
The bushes at the edge of the clearing parted. Five men stepped out into the bright sunlight.
They were not friendly park rangers.
They were massive. They were heavily armored. They wore thick, rusted plates of insect chitin strapped over dirty leather tunics. They carried heavy plasma rifles and jagged bone swords. They were dirty, scarred, and violent.
Jin watched them. He felt a cold chill run down his spine despite the terrible heat. He learned his first real lesson of the wild. Nyx was right. In this universe, a smiling human was just a predator with a better mask.