I race towards the forest Tara swipes into existence ahead of the youngest kids. Tara is floating above them like a mother hen. She squawks a bit as I pass them.

I hear angry shouting behind me in Spanish. Good. Hopefully they take the bait.

It seemed like they were planning to fight or ambush me in the ice area. I don’t know if ambushes are even allowed in this game, Lee had wanted honorable combat in his first designs, but Tara might have convinced him to change things up. I’d rather not find out the hard way.

I hear huffing behind me as I take cover behind a tree. Juan passes by calling for me to wait. But I want him to keep going, to win this competition. My suspicion is those sore losers he’s forced to work with won’t stop with attacking me. I stay quiet as my first friend outside of Sojourn dives deeper into the undergrowth looking for me.

I put my hand on Driger’s warm badge. It’s pulsing more after the recharge. Like Driger is telling me it wants to be unleashed. I pull my hand off the badge. It’s not time yet. Driger is unpredictable at best.

I watch as the kids spread out and explore the forest. I hear Lee let out a whoop above the treetops. I can’t see him.

“Gēgē, those guys are chasing you! Have fun.” Lee’s warning rings out above the forest. Great. Somehow my brother is flying. What has Tara done?

I wait about a minute behind the tree trunk, struggling to control my breathing after the sprint. Rustling grass is the first clue my pursuers are catching up. I bet they wanted to let any potential backup race ahead, too distracted with the competition to help me. A branch cracks and their footsteps grow louder as they pick up speed.

I watch from a crouch as they rocket by me. The first is thin with long strides. Number two streaks by with his arms pumping. It’s Pablo. The third figure is eerily quiet compared to the others. The fourth is breathing heavily but determined. The fifth is struggling to keep up with his shorter limbs. It’s time.

I lash out, my Rayment flashing into life around me as my body accelerates. I see a red glow flare to life on my target and then I’m pinning him to the ground.

The red glow around him is a little slippery. I quickly switch tactics as I straddle his back to an all-out assault focusing on punches to the back of his head. After I start punching, I remember to activate the Cascade ability. I say it out loud thinking everything else seems voice activated. I think it’s working. My fists grow brighter with radiant light as each hit connects.

The thug screams for help as his red glow dims. He covers his head with his hands, and I adjust my aim, putting less weight into each punch so I can hit rapidly and shave his shields down. By the time his friends see us, my target’s Rayment breaks, and I’m launched airborne by the blast. Cascade was the right choice for me!

I finally see Lee. He’s airborne, gleefully flying on what looks like a winged velociraptor with a bird beak. Raptear. Lee always said it was his favorite. It’s a lot larger than any Terror I’ve seen so far. Is that a pair of binoculars he’s got? Lee waves at me.

Then I’m falling. Worried about my landing. The treetops grow larger as the earth tries to force me into a deadly embrace. I do my best to control my descent and angle my body into a better position for grabbing anything to break my fall, counting on my arms to hit a branch I can grab.

The leaves crash into me like a verdant wave, but I finally catch myself on a branch. Physically, I don’t think what I did is possible. My arms should have been pulled out of their sockets. I’ve done enough parkour training with Dad and other daredevils to know what’s safe or insane.

And what I did was insane.

I suspect the Rayment interacted with the tree hologram somehow, but that’s a rabbit hole I don’t have time to explore. Yet.

My remaining enemies circle the tree below me. Pablo calls out, “Come down and face me like a man you coward!”

“Because five to one is a fair fight, right, Pablo?” He scoffs at me and summons a Terror from his badge.

“I summon Scorpitox!” A sickly purple and green light swirls below the badge in Pablo’s downturned hand. A cat-sized scorpion-looking thing steps out from the nausea inducing light making little clicking noises as it moves. It would be a lot more frightening without its cartoony googly eyes. The rest of the thugs step back a bit and summon their Terrors. I see a muddy brown light, an icy blue and a grey.

I take the hint and pull the badge from my jacket. “I, Matt Wong, summon Driger.” As the red light appears I turn my hand down above the scorpion creature climbing towards me. Driger hisses and swipes at me even as gravity pulls it away.

“Go get ‘em, Driger!” A tiny roar erupts from my furry little avatar of aggression as Driger claws Scorpitox’s back and pounces at Pablo’s face. Pablo’s screams of terror punctuated by the flapping of tiny wings are music to my ears. Now for the next part of my plan: divide and conquer.

One of the lights was further from the rest, coming from behind another tree. I find somebody who looks like a smaller Juan waiting behind the tree with a translucent pony. The pony is doing its best ice sculpture impression as it stands ready by my foe. I land on mini-Juan feet first and roll away. His Rayment absorbs the damage and he gasps out, “Kelpony, use River’s Rage!”

It feels like somebody dumps my back with ice water as I duck behind the next available tree. I notice a small gauge for Rayment integrity at the top left of my vision as it flashes with the hit. Looks like I’ve still got more than three quarters left based on the little tick marks dividing up the health bar. There’s also a small snowflake icon. I bet a week’s Crypticks my fall into the trees had more kinetic energy than that cold shower. The Rayment must take less damage from non-combat sources. The snowflake must be a side effect of River’s Rage. A slow?

The pony ice sculpture follows me. Time to throw it off the scent. Literally. As the ice-like snout peeks around the tree I grab its neck behind the head. Kelpony’s eyes widen comically. I smile at it and begin to spin its whole body around me in my best impression of a plane’s rotor. I release the pony letting centrifugal force launch it out of combat.

I return to face mini-Juan.

“Kelpony, use Dew Whip!” I just smirk at him as I plant a solid punch in his midsection. His Rayment flares and prevents the hit from doing much. I ready an elbow to his face when I’m blindsided by a feathery form latching onto my arm.

“Matt, let’s talk.”