Adom bounced on his toes, working some life back into his legs. Fifteen hours in the same position had left him stiffer than he'd expected, even with his enhanced physiology.

The night had fully claimed the Highland valley, leaving only moonlight to illuminate the strange landscape below. Stars glittered overhead with unusual clarity—fewer light sources to compete with out here in the wilderness.

"Time for dinner," he muttered, fishing Mari's meat pie from his inventory. The smell that wafted up when he broke the crust made his stomach growl appreciably.

He washed down the savory meal with water from his canteen, noting he'd need to refill it soon. The river Skyreacher had pointed out should provide safe drinking water. According to the rough mental map she'd provided, he still had at least two days of travel ahead.

"Best get moving then," he said to no one in particular.

Adom cast [Flight] again, reveling in the efficiency boost his newly formed circle provided. The spell felt smoother, more responsive—like the difference between driving a cart with square wheels versus round ones.

He launched himself eastward, following the silvery thread of the river below. The moonlight transformed the landscape into something dreamlike—shadows deeper, highlights brighter, colors reduced to shades of blue and silver.

The reduced gravity and his enhanced spell efficiency allowed him to cover ground rapidly. Forests gave way to rocky plateaus, then to valleys filled with strange, bulbous plants that seemed to glow faintly with bioluminescence.

Several hours into his journey, the wind shifted, bringing with it a new scent—one that made Adom wrinkle his nose instinctively.

Death. Decay. Predator.

The smell reminded him of a deer carcass—that unmistakable mix of rotting flesh and the musky scent of whatever had been feeding on it.

Adom slowed his flight, descending slightly for a better look.

The terrain below had changed, becoming more jagged and less hospitable. Scattered among the rocks were unmistakable signs of predation—bones, some bleached white by the sun, others still carrying strips of desiccated flesh. Many were enormous, clearly belonging to creatures similar to those he'd seen in Skyreacher's valley.

"Definitely not in friendly territory anymore," he murmured, noting a particularly impressive skull that must have come from something at least thirty feet long.

The remains formed a rough path leading toward a narrow canyon—a perfect ambush spot. Even in the moonlight, Adom could see drag marks in the dirt, places where massive bodies had been hauled across the ground.

This wasn't just a kill site; it was a larder.

Just as that thought registered, a sound cut through the night—a high-pitched buzzing that started faint but grew rapidly louder. Adom looked up, trying to locate the source.

The sound intensified, vibrating the air around him. Then he saw it, silhouetted against the moon—a shape that his brain initially refused to process correctly.

A mosquito. Except it wasn't the tiny insect he was familiar with. This thing had a wingspan of at least twelve feet, with a proboscis nearly half as long as its body. Its compound eyes reflected the moonlight like polished obsidian as it oriented toward him.

"You have got to be kidding me," Adom said flatly.

The creature dove, its buzz becoming a deafening whine.

Adom hovered in place, raising his index finger toward the incoming insect. The Axis flowed through pathways that felt newly optimized.

He wanted to test something.

A spell he'd once had to prepare carefully, that once would have drained nearly his entire mana pool, now formed almost effortlessly. Energy gathered at his fingertip, condensing into a pinpoint of brilliant white light.

[Plasma Ray].

A beam of superheated energy, no wider than a pencil, lanced from his finger. It struck the giant mosquito mid-dive, precisely where its thorax met its abdomen. For a split second, nothing seemed to happen—then the creature simply came apart, its exoskeleton unable to withstand the concentrated heat.

The two halves of the insect fell away from each other, trailing wisps of smoke as they tumbled toward the ground.

Adom glanced at his status:

[Mana Pool: 2767/3067]

"Three hundred mana for a bug," he said with a mixture of satisfaction and annoyance.

A rustling sound drew his attention downward.

At first, he thought it was just the mosquito's remains hitting the ground. Then he saw it—a segmented body weaving between the scattered bones, each segment at least two feet wide. The giant centipede's armored plates gleamed dully in the moonlight as it investigated the fallen insect parts.

Numerous legs rippled in synchronized waves as it moved, and a pair of venomous-looking mandibles clicked eagerly at the prospect of fresh food.

"Ugh," Adom grimaced.

He could blast this creature too, but at 300 mana per shot, he'd quickly deplete his reserves if he encountered more of these oversized arthropods. Better to conserve energy for real threats.

Adom rose higher, putting more distance between himself and the ground. His newly expanded mana pool gave him confidence, but not recklessness. He'd only just achieved First Circle; there was no need to test its limits against every giant bug he encountered.

"Flight is expensive, but still cheaper than combat," he reasoned, adjusting his course to continue following the river while maintaining altitude.

The sensation of power flowing through his expanded pathways was intoxicating.

Adom checked his mental map again. At his current pace, the journey would take far too long. Skyreacher had warned against flying higher, but with his new capabilities...

He adjusted his spell, pushing more energy into it. He shot upward, the ground dropping away at a dizzying rate. The cool night air rushed past him as he ascended to nearly a thousand feet above the valley floor. Up here, the wind was stronger, but his enhanced control compensated easily.

From this height, he could see much further. The three peaks that marked his destination stood in sharp relief against the star-filled sky, much closer than he'd realized. If he maintained this altitude and speed, he could potentially reach them by morning.

Ten minutes into his accelerated journey, something caught his eye—movement against the stars. Not the erratic flight of insects, but something larger. More purposeful.

He remembered Skyreacher's warning: "Great wind-hunters patrol high places."

The shapes resolved as they drew closer—four winged creatures with wingspans of at least twenty feet each. Their bodies were streamlined, with long, narrow snouts filled with needle-like teeth. Leathery wings stretched between elongated finger bones, and their tails ended in diamond-shaped fins that seemed to help them steer.

The lead creature spotted him, letting out a shrill cry that the others immediately echoed. As one, they banked toward him, jaws gaping.

Adom assessed the situation. Four predators. Too maneuverable to outrun. Too determined to ignore.

Alright then, he thought, flexing his fingers. Let's try something else.

The first creature dove at him, its speed impressive. Adom waited, timing his response carefully. When the creature was just twenty feet away, he gathered mana into his palm and twisted it.

[Air Blade].

He made a slashing motion, and the compressed air between his hand and the creature condensed to near-solid density before releasing in a cutting wave. The blade of air struck the creature's left wing, slicing through the leathery membrane as cleanly as a scalpel.

The creature shrieked, its aerodynamics instantly compromised. It spiraled downward, unable to maintain flight with half a wing missing.

The other three spread out, attempting to flank him.

Adom spun in place, gathering more energy. As the second attacker approached from his right, he released another [Air Blade], this one cutting horizontally across the creature's path. The creature tried to bank away but was a fraction too slow. The compressed air sliced through its neck, nearly decapitating it.

The remaining two screeched in what might have been anger or fear. They circled more cautiously now, assessing this strange prey that fought back with invisible weapons.

Adom didn't wait for them to regroup. He shot upward suddenly, then cut his flight spell for a moment. As gravity began to reclaim him, he used the momentary free-fall to spin and face the third one that had tried to dive on him from above.

[Air Bullet].

A concentrated sphere of hyper-compressed air shot from his palm, striking the surprised predator directly in its chest. The impact shattered ribs and ruptured organs. The creature convulsed once before its wings went limp.

One more

, Adom thought, reactivating his flight spell to halt his descent.

The final pterosaur was smarter than its companions. Instead of attacking directly, it circled at a distance, shrieking continuously—possibly calling for reinforcements.

[Flow Prediction]

Adom mentally calculated the creature's flight path, then accelerated directly toward it.

The sudden aggression seemed to confuse the pterosaur. It hesitated just long enough for Adom to close the distance. As they converged, Adom extended both hands and manipulated the ambient mana around him.

Glowing filaments extended from his fingertips, wrapping around the pterosaur's wings, neck, and tail. The creature thrashed against the magical restraints, but Adom's core channeled more than enough power to hold it.

He guided his captive away from its fall-ing companions, assessing it more carefully now that it wasn't trying to eat him. Despite its fearsome appearance, there was an elegance to its design—perfectly evolved for its environment.

"Cooperate!" Adom said, directing more mana into the threads. Instead of simply binding the creature, he began weaving the threads into its nervous system, establishing a rudimentary control network.

The creature's struggles weakened as Adom's influence spread. It wasn't mind control in the traditional sense—more like creating a magical override that allowed him to suggest movements that the creature's body would follow.

"Easy now," he said, feeling the pterosaur's panic. "I'm not going to hurt you if you cooperate."

Gradually, the creature's wing beats synchronized with Adom's mental commands. Its head stopped thrashing, and its tail fin adjusted to the course Adom desired.

He released some of the visible threads, maintaining only the essential control matrix. To an observer, it would now appear as if the creature was flying normally—except with a human passenger.

Adom positioned himself on the creature's back, just behind the ridge where its neck joined its body. The skin was surprisingly warm beneath him, and he could feel powerful muscles working with each wing beat.

"East," he commanded, focusing on the three peaks. "Toward the mountains."

The creature banked obediently, its flight now smooth and purposeful. Adom checked his mana reserves:

[Mana Pool: 2112/3067]

The air blades and control spell had cost him, but not nearly as much as they would have before his breakthrough. And maintaining the control required only a modest continuous drain—far less than sustaining his flight spell over the same distance.

*****

As dawn broke over the horizon, Adom decided to try something. He'd gotten communication with Skyreacher to work—maybe he could learn something from this creature too.

He used his druidic abilities, reaching beyond the control threads and into the mind beneath.

"Can you understand me?" he projected.

The response hit him like a brick to the face—pure, undiluted rage.

"GET OUT!"

Adom winced but kept the connection open. "I just want to talk."

"Your threads BURN. They're INSIDE me." The creature's thoughts were razor-sharp, slicing through the mental space between them. "Let GO."

"I need to reach the mountains," Adom said simply.

"You killed my brothers."

"They attacked me first."

"YOU CAME INTO OUR TERRITORY!" The mental scream was so intense Adom almost lost his concentration. "Those are OUR skies! We've hunted there since before the small things crawled out of the mud!"

Adom maintained his calm. "That doesn't mean you had to attack. We could have talked first."

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"Talked?" The creature's confusion was genuine. "We don't talk to food."

"I'm not food."

"Everything smaller is food. Everything bigger is enemy. You were small. Now you're enemy." The creature's logic was brutally simple. "When you release me, I will tear your limbs off and eat you while you watch."

"Not the smartest thing to tell the person controlling your body," Adom pointed out.

"I don't lie. Not like ground-walkers. When I kill, I kill. No tricks."

Adom sighed. "Look where that got you. Three of you dead, and you—"

"They're dead because you used tricks. Unfair. Cheating."

"They're dead because you attacked something without knowing what it was capable of," Adom corrected. "That's just poor strategy."

The creature went silent for a moment. Adom felt its mind working, primitive but not stupid, wrestling with a concept that clearly didn't fit its worldview.

"We've always attacked anything that enters our hunting grounds," it finally said. "Always worked before."

"Well, it didn't work this time."

"No." A strange sense of puzzlement filtered through the rage. "It didn't."

A pause.

"What are you?" it finally asked.

"I'm human," Adom said. "A mage. From... very far away."

"Human," the creature repeated, as if tasting the word. "Never heard of such a thing. Never smelled one before. You smell wrong. Like the air after lightning strikes."

"That would be the magic," Adom explained. "The power I used against your brothers."

"It was my right to attack you," the creature insisted. "You were in our territory. That is how it has always been."

"And it was my right to defend myself," Adom replied evenly. "That's how it's always been for my kind too."

Adom considered asking about the Stone-Singers or the dangers ahead, just as he had with Skyreacher. But the creature's resentment burned hot and unrelenting. Any information it provided would likely be designed to harm him.

"Let's keep flying," Adom said, pulling back from the deeper connection while maintaining his control.

The creature didn't respond, but Adom caught its thoughts anyway—calculating how long until it could break free, imagining tearing him apart with almost childlike enthusiasm, replaying the deaths of its hunting partners with a mixture of confusion and fury.

Some beings weren't worth talking to.