First it was the lightning and thunder, then the crash of debris against the waves, and then that stinging mist that effused his surroundings in a purple haze. He'd expected them to come one by one as they had the first time he'd encountered the storm, but he'd barely processed the message before the chaos was completely on top of him.

  His feeble attempts at protection hadn’t even bought him a second.

  Multiversal debris flashed in and out of the cave, swirling and slamming against the walls and his outstretched hands as he fought to protect the tree. Shards of glass and sharp rocks stung as they impacted his skin like falling hail, but Tyler stayed firm, willing his mana into the Dragon’s Bones as he stared through the chaos.

  “Gah!”

  A giant, gaping maw flashed into existence in front of him, and he instinctually slammed his fist into it, launching it across the room with the force of his whole body. It was only after the fact that he realized it was just the head of a statue — the stone crumbled against the opposite wall before flashing out of existence once more.

  “Not now,” he spoke through gritted teeth. “Not again.”

  A metal pole spun towards him, and Tyler screamed as he slapped it aside.

  He couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t.

  After all this time, he’d finally felt hopeful again. He’d felt like maybe the world did have a sense of justice, that if he’d just kept working at it he could gain the power to write his own destiny. And it had been working, too.

  Crack.

  The sound of reality breaking snapped through the world like a god’s whip.

  A chorus of fierce caws split the air, shaking the island as beings of immense power began to announce themselves. He could feel weight pressing against his soul, like the gravity he’d felt around Savadiere but from every direction at once and wholly unrestrained in its dominance. Every movement, every action, every thought felt like he was fighting through molasses, his lungs struggling to breathe against this suffocating force pressing down against him.

  Through the chaos, he thought he could hear dozens and dozens of duneclaws screeching back at the monstrosity. But the noises were instantly silenced as a wave of energy washed over the island, sending tingles down his spine. Just like that, and they were gone.

  He struggled towards the entrance of the cave, gripping his strongest duneclaw knife in one hand and the core of protection in the other. His pile of supplies had come undone, and now rogue spears and duneclaw jerky were battering against his back, mixing with the stinging of the violet mist in a cacophony of sensations.

  What is this thing? How is it doing this? And how could...

  His eyes widened as his log was instantly wrenched out of place, and he caught a glimpse of one of the creatures through the haze of debris and mist. It was pure white, and so small as to be just a tiny speck in the distance. But with every flap of its wings, it was as if all the trees on the island rippled with its power. It leveled its gaze towards him, and he felt time pause, slower than it had ever before.

  System Boon Engaged: Analysis

  Incarnate Songbird

  These elementals hold sway over all living things. Those that oppose them may find their hearts stopped with a single note.

  Even as he stood still in time, the bird was still slowly flapping its wings, opening its beak to caw in his direction. He had never felt so small, so insignificant before. It was like he was an ant, happening upon the wake of an elephant for the very first time.

  But why was it after him? He hadn't done anything —

  The slow rumble of a slow-motion crack filled the air, and he realized his mistake.

  The thing wasn't after him. It was after the tree.

  Behind him, the stone floor of the cave had cracked, sending iridescent light shining onto the stone walls and carvings that surrounded it. The banana tree was trembling, its leaves flashing bright green as if in alarm.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  No! Tyler mentally screamed as a torrent of magic slowly poured from the bird, grasping the massive tree like the invisible hand of a giant. No!

  As time resumed, a wave of force barreled into him like a speeding train, passing through him in a violent woosh before impacting the tree.

  Crack.

  He was lying on his back, his head spinning from the impact. But he could feel the ground trembling as he struggled back to his feet. The tiny pinpricks from the mist seemed to intensify.

  “No…”

  It’s going to kill me without even noticing that I’m here.

  Tyler pushed himself back to his feet. What could he —

  “Fuck!”

  Another wave caught him in the chest, and it was only due to his weeks of constant practice that the Dragon’s Bones dampened the blow enough for him to keep his bearings.

  The tree was being wrenched out of the ground, though. It furiously shook, branches snapping from its vast canopy as the plant strained against the pull of the monster.

  Woosh. Another wave. He just barely managed to keep standing.

  But slowly, cracks were spreading throughout the floor.

  No.

  Before his conscious mind could catch up, his feet were already moving. His long gait ate up the terrain in seconds, propelling him towards the thing even as the pressure clung onto him like thick cobwebs. Grass flashed by, then trees, then sand.

  Another burst of force slammed into him, and he took it on crossed arms, stumbling for just a moment before he was back to sprinting towards the thing. He could taste salt in his mouth, rendered airborne by the churning sea.

  Within breaths, he was at the edge of the beach, his feet digging deep crevices into the sand with each step. The bird was hovering off the shore, its attention still completely locked onto the tree.

  “Leave me the fuck alone!”

  Tyler’s feet touched down on the edge of the water, and he jumped.

  He wasn’t going to make it.

  But as he soared through the air, the Flowing Sands thrashing through him with all the force his Peak-Novice mana could muster, he realized that he had known that all along.

  His knife trailed behind him, clutched tightly in his hand as he wound his arm backwards as far as it could go. And behind all the training and practice that had consumed his new life, he hurled the thing towards the bird.

  Tyler crashed into the roiling water with a tremendous splash.

  The purple mist felt even more powerful in the water, the closeness of the cosmic ocean causing the energy to flow through him like a tide just barely restrained by a collapsing dam. The Core of Protection unfurled, blocking out the swirling debris and the attacks that he knew would be coming from the bird. But even still, the waves buffeted him, and it was all he could do to keep himself going upwards.

  But as he surfaced, he knew that his aim would have been true. Except…

  No.

  The knife was still hovering midair, just inches away from the bird. And for the first time, he felt the full weight of its attention.

  The Core of Protection cracked.

  His muscles seized, spasms running through him as the pressure on his soul tripled in an instant. From the edge of his skin to the marrow deep inside his bones, every cell in his body quivered with the onslaught as his body fought to keep itself from falling apart.

  With every flap of its wings, a violent song crashed against his very being. The very same technique that had slaughtered dozens of duneclaws was now pressing against him, growing tighter and tighter by the second. He was getting buffeted closer to the edge of the cosmic ocean, the power of the Dimensional Storm hurting almost as much as the creature’s attacks.

  Tyler coughed up a mouthful of bubbles, only for it to be replaced with a suffocating chill as his mouth filled with cold, salty water.

  No air. No escape.

  He was dying, he knew. The thing’s magic was already mangling his body, pressurizing his blood and crushing the air from his lungs. His heart was slowing to a stop, straining painfully as the force around it redoubled with every beat.

  But even as his vision blurred and his fingertips grew numb, he felt that little flame of emotion grow hotter and hotter within him.

  Every moment of his life he’d bowed to the whims of the universe, huddled in the shadows in a desperate bid to survive. He was done letting the world take from him as it pleased. He refused to let this thing win.

  Tyler roared as he surfaced, his hands gripping onto something despite the lack of anything solid around him as he willed Resilience through himself, spinning that deep cyclone of mana in his core and straining with all his might against the bird's pressure.

  You will not take this. You will not take everything that I have worked for. You will not steal this new life that I have built.

  His muscles fought against the immense power locking them in place, twitching and tearing as they shucked the fibres of oppressive magic one by one. His eyes fluttered open, and he glared straight at the bright white monster hovering above him, blood dripping from his mouth but his jaw set firm.

  With every ounce of his being, he screamed in defiance, crashing his indomitable will against the weight of a cruel and uncaring world.

  And his body responded, ripping through the chains of magic woven through his limbs —

  And then all he knew was a world of black and violet.

  — – —

  But unbeknownst to him, as Tyler’s heart sputtered to a stop and the breaths died from his lips, that cyclone of Resilience within him was finally reaching a tipping point. Resonance bloomed in his soul from all sides, mixing with the dense cloud that already suffused every inch of his soul. And as he floated there in that space between worlds, blood still and the Core of Protection hanging broken from his neck, his Resilience condensed into a hard, dense mass deep in the center of his core.

  And as the last strands of his life began to fray away, the energy came flooding back outwards.

  Congratulations! You have advanced to Journeyman.