'Who is she?'
Leon collapsed to one knee, gasping for air while his thoughts sought for answers. He felt heat lingering in his eyes and skin, yet there was no sign of the golden fire.
Then, he stared at his trembling arms as if some chained part of him had been broken free.
His eyes caught sight of Zoe leaning against a rock, gasping heavily. She looked back, but her expression was hard to read.
"Thank you… But shouldn't have done that," she said in a soft voice that echoed in Leon's ears like a mountain breeze.
Then, the creatures that had been lying lifeless rose, shook their fur, and ran. Zoe laughed and stood, turning in the direction they had fled.
"Are you coming?" She turned with a soft smile and whispered.
Leon stared at the ground, pulled a rusted rod from a weakened concrete, and used it as a pillar to aid him in standing.
He stretched, throwing his hands sideways as he unleashed the sharp pain flowing through his bones with a series of crack sounds.
"The extraction point is that way," she said, pointing.
"But there's a canyon in between. The only safe path is through a valley everyone is avoiding. They say something… powerful… nests there."
'A valley everyone avoids?' His mind raced as he stared at where she pointed to, and back at her with a confused, frightened expression.
'Do I need an alliance? Nah, I won't survive alone.' He stared at her while he made up his mind.
"We'll have a better chance together," he said, his voice sounding alien to his own ear.
But after it faded, he caught Zoe's cautious stare. To him, it wasn't just a normal stare, instead, it was an investigative stare.
Their alliance wasn't one forged in friendship, but one forged in shared, desperate language of survival.
As they neared the valley, two huge bat-like beasts surged toward them. But before Leon could act, Zoe wiped them out, vaporizing them with just a swing.
'It's a good thing I chose to move with her. I'd be dead if were alone.'
Looking at her as she wiped off their ichor from her arm, Leon's eyes widened while his thoughts roared in him.
Before they could even place a leg in the valley, thick, poisonous air washed over them, causing them to cover their mouth and noses.
It was no joke why others fled from this place. Now he was here, unknowingly inhaling tiny amounts of the slow-acting poison.
The deeper they walked, the heavier the air became, thick and humid in their lungs.
All the trees they glanced at and passed were all draped with thick, sticky webbing that glistened with a faint purple light.
'How come she's walking like we were in a good place?' Every turn Zoe took, every swing she made, all seemed like he was the only one walking in a poisonous and deadly environment.
Leon broke down completely when he realized she wasn't even covering her mouth.
Every crunch of bone underfoot sent Leon whirling around. He placed his steps carefully, noticing the ground was utterly overtaken by bones.
They weren't just animal bones, instead, there were humanoid ones as well. Chills pierced Leon's spine as he saw how twisted some of the remains were.
"What kind of being has gold-colored bone?" he muttered, spotting a fully intact, gold-colored skeleton.
Just as he stopped talking to himself, Zoe turned and gestured for him be silent. Then, she leaned down and crawled under a huge tree root.
Leon repeated the movement after she had reached the other side. But as he straightened himself, his blood ran cold causing his bones to scream as he saw a colossal beast in the far distance.
"This is a bad idea," Leon muttered as he stumbled back and clung himself tightly to the tree.
"It's the only way across before darkness takes over," Zoe replied, her voice sounding like a serial killer's to Leon's ears.
'Is she crazy? That's a death sentence.' He swallowed, glanced at the beast, and shifted his gave back to her.
Before Leon could realize it, Zoe was already moving toward the creature. He tried to follow, but his chest hummed so violently it made him turn back toward the shelter of the tree.
He could feel his own soul begging him to flee. But then he saw the look on Zoe's face as she turned back to him, something stirred in him causing him to move without knowing.
Though his body trembled uncontrollably, he still moved. Zoe's gaze lingered in his head so hard it felt as if it had become part of him.
They moved as quietly as they could, but every crunch of bone underfoot sounded like a thunderclap.
Slowly, they neared a massive structure of webbing and salvaged metal built into a cavern wall.
It wasn't a normal beast nest, instead, it was a nest that caged the creature living at the heart of the cavern from outsiders.
Then, they saw it clearly. It was larger than any other creatures they had encountered. Its chitinous plates were a darker, royal purple, and a single jagged horn crowned its head.
It was dormant, its multilayered eyes closed, but its size alone was enough to freeze the blood in their veins. Clutched in one of its forelimbs was a prize that made Zoe gasp softly.
A small crystal, pulsing with a soft blue light, rested on a nearby rock.
As Leon's eyes fell on it, he remembered the recent news he read concerning a rare energy source that was both pure and powerful.
With it, even a low-level awakened student could rise to the highest rank in a blink.
"We are going in for that," Zoe said, stopping to stare at the crystal. Seeing her face shimmer with delight, Leon knew that no matter what, she wasn't leaving without it.
"Without that, we aren't leaving," she added, confirming what was in Leon's mind just a second ago as she fixed on it like a hawk. "The next trail could be worse than this. It's our only advantage."
Leon's mouth dried up instantly. He swallowed hard, fearing the mere wobble of his throat would be enough to stir the beast awake.
He stared at her for a long moment and hissed. "What's your plan then?"