Kifeda eyes stung as sweat rolled down his face. Despite the lack of Sol in the sky, the jungle around him was sweltering. He kept his eyes on the underbrush around him. Spotting a glimpse of white in a dense thicket, he rolled up his sleeves. Stretching his arm to its fullest, he felt his fingertips brush the rubbery surface of the mushroom.

  He gritted his teeth and pressed further, grasping the entire top of the fungus. With slow and steady pressure he pulled it free. He sighed in relief and wiped the sweat from his brow.

  He placed the mushroom in the sack the trial had provided him.

   he sighed internally.

  Ten minutes later he finally found another one.

  This time, the collection didn’t go as smoothly.

  He had spotted this one entirely on accident. A misplaced boot landed on unstable ground, sending him sprawling. He lay in the dirt cursing all things nature for a moment. Then he spotted the white cap of the mushroom. It was covered from above by a tangled snarl of roots.

  He laid on his belly, reaching out with his arm. It seemed just slightly too far. He was contemplating trying to cut away some of the roots when something crashed into his back with a bloom of agony.

  He coughed and spasmed, trying to roll away. Through the haze of pain he felt hands grasping at his belt.

  With a wordless shout he bucked and struggled to break free, but the weight on his back only grew.

  “Quit that before I send you back to spawn for this round,” a harsh voice growled in his ear. “I’m just going to take what you’ve got off your hands. If you keep making it difficult, I’ll take the easy way out.”

  Kifeda struggled for another moment, but he lacked the strength to oppose his unknown assailant. He gave up and panted from the exertion while his single mushroom was stolen.

  “Just one?” his attacker said with disgust. “Even I’ve got five by now, not including the others I’ve managed to gather. I figured your Aesir must have had some reason for picking you, but I guess it wasn’t for combat or gathering.”

  He felt his now empty pack hit the ground next to his head.

  “I’ll let you up now,” the voice said. “If you follow me or try to fight when I free you, I’ll kill you.”

  He felt the weight vanish from his shoulder and spun around. He caught a glimpse of a slender figure already almost gone in the surrounding trees. Before he could gather his legs underneath him, they were gone.

  He seethed for a moment. He had never been ambushed before. His keen senses and active avoidance of doing any work in the palace had resulted in years of honed attention. Kenura never caught him if he truly wanted to remain untouched.

   Kifeda cursed to himself.

  Summoning his fangs, he made short work of the roots surrounding his only remaining prize from the encounter. He pulled it free quickly and easily. A whisper at his back was his only warning.

  It was enough.

  He activated [Arrest], [Sprint], and [Hide] all simultaneously.

  He was gone from the clearing before the end of [Arrest]’s duration.

  “Guess you’re good at running away at least!” the voice shouted from behind him.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Kifeda ignored it and slipped away through the forest.

   he said, banishing all thought of the rest of the trial.

  With his determination renewed, he had managed to gather seven of the mushrooms by the end. Trial two was starting, and Kifeda felt a calm descend upon him.

   Kifeda thought with resolve.

  He shot up the nearest tree trunk and onto the canopy, just like in the first trial. The branches of the jungle trees were much higher, but they formed an unbroken canopy.

  For the second half of the first round, Kifeda had been doing more than looking for mushrooms. He’d also been scouting and mapping the area.

  After the first trial, he had realized something.

  Each round, they started in the same locations. The layout of the trial grounds did not change from one round to the next.

  Using this idea, he located the thief who had mugged him in the first round. Then he traced their path back to the most likely edge of the jungle they had spawned in. Now, he ran that direction as swiftly as he could without blowing any cooldowns.

   he thought. When he spotted her, a grim smile stole onto his face.

  The woman who had attacked him and stolen his meager haul was facedown in a clearing. Doing push-ups.

  Kifeda felt an almost overpowering desire to simply ambush her now. He quickly reined that feeling in, settling deeper into the treetops to observe her. From their last encounter he knew that she was much stronger and faster than him. Even if he caught her completely unaware he probably wouldn’t end up victorious.

  He would probably need a critical hit on [Backstab] and that still might not finish the fight outright.

  After a couple more minutes his attacker rose to her feet. A light sheen of sweat coated her skin, and he could finally make out her features.

  Her hair and eyes were such a dark brown as to be almost black. She had a slightly bored expression that Kifeda would not have expected to see. As he watched she untied the knot she had used to make her cloak a harness during her exercises. Kifeda stared at it suspiciously, wondering why she hadn’t simply unequipped the unwieldy fabric instead. His suspicion grew when she equipped a longsword, its sheath appearing at her side.

  Some people of the Nine Realms felt more at ease with their equipment out almost constantly. Others preferred to unequip gear they weren’t actively using.

  Almost no one did both, even with different kinds of equipment.

  He put his suspicions in the back of his mind when she headed into the jungle. His quarry was on the move. Kifeda moved silently through the boughs of the the trees behind her.

  It didn’t take long for her to find her first victim. Kifeda smirked to himself and equipped his fangs.

  She waited until the man she was planning to rob was fully occupied with trying to reach a mushroom before she struck. As soon as he saw her move, Kifeda was flying from the treetops down towards them.

  Even with her distracted, he almost didn’t manage it.

  At the last second before his impact, her head swiveled to meet his gaze. Her arms came up to defend herself, but she was unarmed.

  Kifeda was not.

  He adjusted his aim accordingly and took her through the palm of each hand. To her credit, she didn’t scream. It wouldn’t truly have mattered if she had. Kifeda’s weight slammed into her immediately afterwards, driving the air from her lungs, and her body off the back of her prey.

  He wasted no time in following up. Rather than pull his daggers from her hands he shot a knee at her face. Her arms tensed and ready to defend herself, she was instead caught unawares and brained for it.

  While she was stunned, Kifeda made the most of his opportunity.

  “She robbed me last round!” he shouted to the stranger she had ambushed. “Let’s take her down together!”

  He hoped it would be enough.

  She roiled and bucked from beneath him, grasping the hilts of his daggers at the same time. Her superior strength overturned his leverage and he found himself falling backwards. Rather than attempt to maintain a futile hold, Kifeda dismissed his knives and rolled away from her with the force of her own attacks.

  When he came to his feet, he was gratified to see that the other man was grappling with her.

  They were much more evenly matched.

  he thought before launching himself into the fray once more.

  He didn’t allow himself any blind strikes. His attacks were compact and concise, allowing her no room to turn them against his tenuous ally. Between the two of them they had her out in just another minute or so. Once she was dead, they sprang apart with alacrity.

  “Kifeda Ogeto,” he said. “Chosen of Hodr.”

  “Aston Lancaster,” the man replied. “Chosen of Vidar.”

  “Well met, Aston,” Kifeda said. “I’m sorry to use you as bait, but I couldn’t hope to match her on my own.”

  “Not at all, Kifeda” Aston said. “Without you I would have been forced to hand over my mushrooms and maybe my life. Hodr has chosen wisely in this competition.”

  “As has Vidar,” Kifeda said, offering his hand.

  Once their shake had concluded they nodded to each other and went their separate ways.

   he thought.