The unicorn shifter's warning hung in the air long after the words left his mouth.
Leave.
Lizzy didn't move.
Behind her, the forest groaned softly as another pulse of corruption rippled through the soil. The sound was subtle, but she could feel it through the soles of her boots—a slow, spreading sickness crawling through the earth itself.
The unicorn had stopped attacking, but that didn't mean the danger had passed.
Lizzy's gaze drifted back to the unicorn's horn.
The fractures running along its spiral pulsed faintly with dark energy.
Not corruption exactly.
More like… containment.
"You're holding it back," she said quietly.
The unicorn's expression hardened.
"You understand nothing."
Lizzy crossed her arms.
"That wasn't a question."
For a moment she thought he might attack again. Power stirred faintly around him, bending the air like heat rising from stone.
Then the energy faded.
His shoulders sagged ever so slightly.
The moment passed so quickly Lizzy might have missed it if she hadn't been watching closely.
"You should not be here," he said again, though the fury in his voice had dulled into exhaustion.
Lizzy glanced around the grove.
Dead ferns.
Cracked bark.
Dust where green life should have been.
"Someone did this," she said. "And unless you're secretly into destroying your own forest, I'm guessing it wasn't you."
His jaw tightened.
"Your kind did."
"My kind?"
"Contestants."
Lizzy's system flickered weakly as if reacting to the word. That got her attention. "So you know about the System," she said slowly.
The unicorn's eyes narrowed. "I know enough." Which probably meant he knew too much. She'd never met anyone on this world who had met a contestant. At least, no one other than herself. But, they all thought she was god blessed so how could this unicorn know about the system unless...
"You've fought them before," she guessed. Silence. That was answer enough.
"Too many."
Another pulse shuddered through the forest. This time the unicorn staggered. The movement was subtle but unmistakable. His hand clenched against his chest, fingers digging into the fabric of his dark coat as the cracks in his horn flared with jagged black light.
Lizzy stepped forward instinctively. "Hey—"
"Stay back!" The command snapped like a whip. Raw power surged outward from the unicorn, sending dead leaves swirling across the clearing. Lizzy felt her system glitch violently again, the interface breaking into fragments of unreadable code. Lizzy grimaced at the sight and the sensation of what little power she had at her fingertips fizzling out. She had spent all her coins, so she couldn't even buy a gacha skill to hopefully get something to help. No, there was something different about the way this corruption or sickness was acting. It was almost as if the area had been over harvested. Sort of like farming back on earth. When over farming happened in an area, it affected everything around it. Could this world's magic be the same? She inhaled sharply as her mind made the connection.
The unicorn's eyes snapped to hers.
"You took the corruption into yourself to stop it from spreading."
He didn't deny it. Lizzy blew out a slow breath. "That's… incredibly stupid." She ignored the angry bark of laughter that left the unicorn's lips. "I think there's something else that can be done here. We don't have to combat it so fiercely. This is just part of a natural cycle." A thought sprang to her mind and she realized the connections that she had been making to her class were prodding her towards one very clear answer. "I think I can help stabilize things. I think that's what my class means. I think that I can manipulate life energy!" She fought to keep from clapping her hands together. "It's just that normally that manipulation involves other things...but if I can further that and use it as if it's a skill..." She ran fingers over her lips, her eyes unfocusing as she considered everything.
The unicorn snorted. "I trust nothing about contestants." Another tremor rippled through the forest. This one was stronger. Dark energy burst from the ground in jagged tendrils, twisting through the air like living shadows. The unicorn reacted instantly. Power exploded outward from him as he slammed one hand against the earth and light erupted from his horn. The shadows recoiled, but the effort cost him. When the light faded he dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
Lizzy moved before he could protest. Her hand pressed against his chest and warmth surged from her body. Her system began to flicker with a panic until a blue box popped into her field of vision.
{Ding}
{Class Skill Unlocked: Life Force Manipulation}
Life energy spilled from Lizzy's palm like sunlight breaking through clouds. The unicorn froze as his eyes widened. "What?" The corruption within his horn reacted violently. Dark power clashed against the warm glow pouring from Lizzy's body, the two forces grinding against each other like opposing tides. Pain flashed across the unicorn's face and Lizzy gritted her teeth.
"Yeah," she muttered. "That's about what I expected." She grimaced against the sudden pain, ignoring the description box that was trying to materialize at her side. Energy began to stabilize, the force fading as her system strengthened. Lizzy stepped back, shaking a tingling sensation from her fingers as she reconsidered the area around her. "You said contestants only drain the world," Lizzy said. He looked up slowly.
"That is what they do."
"Not all of us."
The silence stretched between them. Finally the unicorn rose to his feet again, studying her carefully. "You are different," he admitted reluctantly.
Lizzy smiled faintly. "Don't sound so surprised." She felt the life slowly seeping back into the area, a shimmering river of life energy weaving back through the area as if a damn had been unblocked upstream. The new revelation from her class was more than she had thought would happen. This time when her system reappeared, it lacked the flickering that had plagued it.
{Ding}
{Congratulations, Champion! You have restored balance to the area and discovered more about your class. Wasn't that a fun little mission? Beware: your manipulation of life energy has drawn the attention of more than one god.}
{Hera is clapping in approval, "Good job! Enjoy your reward.}
Lizzy shivered suddenly. She had no idea why. But somewhere deep in her instincts, a warning whispered quietly.
Something had just noticed her.
And it wasn't something that she wanted to gain the attention of.