Conversations, shouts and calls quickly faded behind them as the party headed south, wading deeper into the Jungle Tops and the Brightnight itself to put some distance between them and the stream of still arriving parties.

It was disturbing how quickly the jungle seemed to gobble up the sounds of hundreds of people in a matter of a few minutes of walking through the dense vegetation. There was nothing but shadows, colorful lights, and green mist covered tree trunks and foliage no matter in which direction Nar looked at, the massive height of trees and the even taller and titanic mushrooms around them pressed down upon them, compounding their insignificance upon the domain party that stumbled and tripped on their way southward. The distant cries of beasts echoing in the not so far off distance startled people every few minutes, and the chattering of overhead birds and buzzing insects was almost deafening in the sweltering heat.

"Ugh," Mul grunted from up ahead. "Are these insect repellants even doing anything?"

"Bugs are persistent in here," Sej explained from the head of their advance, and looking seemingly unbothered. "It would be a lot worse without it, trust me. Anyways, let's stop here for a few minutes. Everyone, drink some water!"

Nar heaved a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his brown as he took out one of the canteens of water from his inventory and took a few measured gulps of cool, fresh water.

This heat is no joke, he thought, and caught sight of Kur pushing away strands of his much longer hair that had gotten glued to his face. And I'm glad I went to the barber… Who would have thought that [Barber] was a class too?

He pulled a bit more on his sight and considered the glowing cacophony of color and darkness around him. The Pressure they had faced on their Climb had been heavy and burning, so much so that it actually sapped their HPs and damaged their very bodies, but that jungle heat, hanging humid and suffocating over their mouths without even the tiniest of breezes shifting the foliage around them… It was almost impossible not to remember their time choking under the Pressure. Furthermore, just like back then, the jungle was filled with unknown dangers and threats.

They hadn't faced any of the Brightnight's dreaded beasts yet, but already, they could scarcely take five steps without Sej or Sarke warning them about yet another leaf, flower, bush or vine that they should strive to stay away from, and that was nothing compared to all the insects.

Centipedes, flies, beetles, ants, wasps, mosquitoes and spiders, who apparently were not insects, and the list of nasty creepy crawlies just went on and on… It looked as though anything and everything out there was built for and/or looking forward to killing them, and/or using their bodies to feed their young or to lay their eggs into.

"Tuk! Your suit is ripped!" Lim shouted.

"What?"

Nar glanced up from his lip twisted observation of a startling, orange and green glowing centipede that was crawling up a small, fronded tree beside him, the bug being as thick as his wrist and no doubt poisonous enough to kill with a single injection from its larger, bright-orange front legs, and turned his focus to the commotion that grew around Tuk, just a few feet away from him.

"How did I already get a hole in my pants?" the ring tosser lamented, twisting to eye a small gash in the smooth material over his left buttock.

"Uhm, Tuk… You want to get that fixed as soon as possible. You don't want anything slithering or crawling in, as some insects and parasites like to crawl in through your… Well, openings," Sarke said in an unbothered tone.

"My open… Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no! Kur!" the trugger called, his eyes brimming with panic and his voice faltering.

"Okay, relax! Relax!" the party leader said, pushing through the bushes to approach the trugger. "Jasphaer will have a look, and then…"

"Ow!" Tuk howled, tensing, and making them all jump. "Something bit me! Something's… I…"

Oh, shit! Nar thought, leaping forward to grab the trugger as he stumbled, his legs buckling from under him. From the other side, Jasphaer and Leta were on the ring tosser in a flash, shouting for people to clear up the brush around them so they could have space to work. Then, Jasphaer brought out a plastic, thin bed of some kind from his ring and propped it down so that Nar could lay down Tuk over it.

"Belly down. Quick!" Leta urged, as Tuk's head drooped, a layer of thick foam starting to leak past his lips.

"Oh, my Crystal!" Cen shouted, eyeing the proceedings with growing paleness.

"Nobody panic!" Kur ordered. "Form around Tuk! Widen the clearing and kill any insects just in case!"

The two parties were quick to obey his commands, so Nar stayed kneeling besides Tuk, ready to do anything he could to help the two healers.

"Rip out his pants!" Jasphaer asked, his eyes opened wide and focused on a spot just below Tuk's left butt cheek. "I can see where the poison is going in and his aura is fighting it!"

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Nar didn't hesitate, and as the others carved a small clearing around them, killing any insect on sight, he ripped through the material as though it was the bread rolls they often ate with breakfast, and exposed Tuk's underwear to the jungle air. Jasphaer darted in and pulled back the underwear with care but without ceremony, and Nar gulped dryly at the sight of the creature attached to Tuk's skin.

It was a squat insect, with no colorful or bright markings of any kind across its rugged, armored chitin, its barbed legs pinched tightly against Tuk's skin and drawing a trickle of blood. However, the most concerning part was that at the back of the insect, several, frayed, white cloth like threads darted in and out of Tuk's flesh.

Nar's eyes widened. "Is that…"

"Yes!" Leta shouted, but Jasphaer was already on the move.

His hands glowed with gray aura, and without hesitation, he placed one over the insect, while the other he placed over where the bug was infesting Tuk with its offspring.

"I'm purging him!" the healer shouted, and Tuk began convulsing immediately as Jasphaer's aura pushed into him.

Nar rushed forward to hold onto the convulsing trugger, but Leta stopped him.

"Don't! Never hold someone who's convulsing!" the cooline said. "You're just risking damaging them even more. You just roll them to the side to keep their airways open. Carefully!"

"Right…" Nar said, as Leta did just that with surprising smoothness and strength. He pulled back his hands, but they stayed hovering, unsure and useless as Jasphaer continued his treatment.

With a sudden jerk, Jasphaer ripped the creature from Tuk's skin, and with a flare of aura, reduced the bug to ashes. Then, he placed the hand back over the wound and pressed his aura into Tuk's body.

"Eggs are destroyed," Jasphaer said, reporting the procedure either to himself, Leta, or for all of their benefit, as they watched on anxiously. "Targeting the paralytic agent next…"

"Hang in there, Tuk," Leta said. "We're almost done."

"Ugh… Blllul…" Tuk managed, making Nar wince with the desire to do something, anything, to help him.

"Crystal, damn…" Jaz whispered, from behind them.

But just then, Tuk arched his back, his breathing going strained as Jasphaer's hands flared a bright gray for a split second, and then the jungle was dark once more. The healer leaned back, sweating, and Tuk collapsed over the emergency mattress, gasping hard, his eyes struggling to open and his mouth making weak, incoherent sounds.

"Shhh! It's over!" Leta said, combing through the ring tossers thick hair, and passing a cloth over his sweat-slick features. "You did great, Tuk! You were so brave!"

Nar too, dropped down over the cleared, shredded brushes that littered the jungle floor. His heart galloped within his chest, nervous energy coursing through his veins as he considered the half-awake, half-passed out ring tosser.

"Holy shit," he mumbled. "That was…"

He didn't even have words for it! One moment the trugger had been standing and talking just as normal, and the next he was downed and being used as a breeding ground, requiring Jasphaer and Leta to leap to emergency action to save him!

"That was all good!" Jasphaer said, as though in a bid to calm Nar down, and everyone else was still staring down at the scene with pale, wide and panicked expressions. "It's all good! These things happen, but we're here to fix them."

"I don't want them to happen…" Lim whispered, his voice cracking.

"Was he… Was he in any danger?" Kur asked, as Leta reached over the trugger to pull his underwear back into place. "He was, wasn't he… That's one of those burrower insects."

"He was," Sej answered before the healers could, leaning down to check on Tuk's butt, again with a any of shame nor hesitation. "And yes, that was a thread burrower… They first poison their victim with a powerful paralytic that leads to asphyxiation, then they inject their ready to hatch eggs into the dying victim. The larvae hatch within minutes, ready to begin devouring their dead host until they are mature enough to spread around the jungle."

Satisfied with the treatment, she covered the tossers butt again. "He needs to change into a new suit."

"On it!" Jasphaer said.

"I'll help you!" Kur offered, pulling a suit sized for Tuk from his ring, with Mul also joining in on the efforts.

"Come on! Show is over! Let's give the poor guy some privacy!" Row said, clapping her hands to break the daze that had taken them all.

"That was crazy!" Teb said, offering Nar a hand to pull him back up to his feet.

Nar nodded with a grim expression, and took the quam's proffered hand with a mumbled thank you.

"Is the jungle infested with these things?" Tun rumbled, eyeing the endless expanse of dense flora and even some insects scurrying and buzzing around them. "If it can just inject its offspring like that, ready to begin growing and spreading…"

Sej shook her head. "Beasts here have coarse fur and other resistances that help prevent this sort of thing, plus, a lot of other insects, birds and beasts will feast on these burrows, so a balance is always maintained. We sapients, however, don't belong in the jungle, and thus, are much more susceptible to its dangers."

"Fucking great," Jaz muttered, eyeing every shadow and pop of color with glaring suspicion on his ashen eyes. "We've been in here for half an hour and something already tried to fuck us up."

"A lot more than that have tried without you noticing," Sej said, with a sympathetic smile. "The suit and repellants just prevented it. Hence why they're so important!"

"And why we need to check everyone before sleep and when we get up," Leta added.

Nar sighed as Jaz continued to mutter under his breath.

"Remember, no matter what happens you can only use self-healing!" Tys had told him, as they parted ways the previous night. "No matter what happens at all!"

Isn't that just awesome? Nar thought, pursing his lips. Though I guess it's a relief to know that aura's enough to kill anything that makes it inside us… Erhm, it is, right?

He wasn't sure if he even wanted to know.

He shook his head of the nasty thoughts and images and scanned his jungle suit for any damage, noticing how everyone else did the same, not wanting to suffer the same fate that had befallen poor Tuk.

Everything is going to be okay, Nar thought. Just got to keep cycling and nothing's going to grow inside me!

He had been cycling as soon as he stepped foot into the jungle, ready to spring to action at the first whisper of a threat or invasion, and now that he had witnessed what could happen, he cycled a little bit more aura from his core and into his pathways, allowing it to seep across his entire body.

Still, Tys was already being proven right. Half an hour into that damned jungle and he already witnessed something that would forever be engraved upon his mind.

Plus that burrower too… Nar thought, with a grimace. This is gonna be fun.

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