The Rising Hero

The Everfree Forest is an unforgiving place that would make even the most experienced adventurers stay clear of the forest altogether. Most would make it to the entrance before turning away or the arrogant and the foolish would wander in thinking that they would be able to transverse the forest without any problems. They were quickly killed.

Those who wished to see the forest at least once would find it difficult due to the forest that separated the human villages to the forest with the higher kill count than most bandit groups. This Forest was known as the Forest Of Daemons where daemons of all kinds called it home. It was a place of danger and death, but those who survived said that there was a female daemon who was kind and would help them escape. No one knows why the daemons rarely venture away from the forest to terrorize the residents of Morning Bloom that rests at the edge of the forest. The people stayed there after the fall of Ponyville which began right after the previous generation of Elements of Harmony. The Everfree began to grow at a rapid rate which was when the Forest Of Daemons grew at astonishing rates to prevent the growth of the genocidal forest. Unfortunately, this unnatural phenomenon caused daemons to migrate to the forest as if they were trying to study it. Many people nicknamed it the Double-Edged Forest because it acted as a classic double edge sword. Helped stop the immediate danger and brought a longer, yet less dangerous, threat to the residents of Morning Bloom.

However, despite the obvious danger that both forests possessed; three children transversed the thick foliage of the Everfree to escape the daemons in the Forest Of Daemons. Only two were currently awake as the third was unconscious while being carried on the shoulders of the two. The left side of his body was barely hanging on by flesh and what little mussel remained from an earlier fight. Behind the trio was a long blood trail that went on for miles and eventually faded into the darkness that surrounded the children. Each step was accompanied by the crunch of a dead branch or leaving. To survive any encounter against a strong foe, they erected a strong magic field around themselves for protection; even if it was draining their mana faster than they could recover it.

Eventually, they found a cave that was large enough for a feral dragon to sleep in and not disturb anyone. The indentation in the floor showed signs of battle and/or erosion from the deposits dripping water into that one spot for who knows how long. A strong, foul smell assaulted their nostrils that didn’t seem to rouse the sleeping child, but most certainly caused the two conscious ones to cover their noses and gag from the horrendous aroma. The inside was dark and dank, with what the two hopped was moss hanging from the walls and not newly formed mold. The ground was somewhat damp and had an oddly alluring glow to it that reflected the light inside the newly discovered cave that led much deeper into the very earth itself. They didn’t care about the scenery of the cave despite the alluring call to observe everything in that general vicinity.

The two remaining, conscious humans got to work and etched or carved ruins into the dirt or stone to make a magic field surrounding the cave; not knowing that there was something inside with them. Unfortunately, writing the ruins to protect them took more magic then they expected, so neither one of them could heal the young boy who was currently bleeding to death. What made things worse was that the magical exhaustion prevented them from moving or they would risk an even more elongated, painful recovery on their end. Luckily they could still speak.

“Faust... what are we gonna do?” Aranea said with desperation as she feared that they couldn’t save him. She felt powerless in her position and refused to move because of her body was completely sore from the complete depletion of her mana.

“I... I don’t know?” She responded while seeing how helpless she was to save the one she saved not to long ago. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she saw the closest thing she had to a friend about to die in front of her.

Suddenly, the something was preparing to attack the downed human with hunger. Each step it took was deliberate and precise to the point you could tell it did it a bunch of times. A faint sound of rumbling caught the two magically exhausted humans' attention as the new creature slowly exited the shadows to show them what it was. Its mouth was watering from the sight of the nearly dead human that this new creature didn’t know was still alive. That came to it as the downed human coughing up blood and wake up.

“W-w-what h-happened?” The previous teen asked as the creature took a step back. It could eat anything dead, but the fact it was still alive surprised it since the would he had would, and should, be fatal to any normal human; Equestrian or Not. However, the Balancer soon passed out as the new creature was trying to decide what to do. It was still indecisive about it and it was still trying to thank about its decision.

This creature didn’t know what to do as it looked on with intrigue while slowly inching forward. It took a look at the grievous would on the human’s body that went from his left shoulder to his left hip. It placed its nose on the place where the wound was most closed; where the blade just stopped short of almost killing him. It began to glow and the wound slowly closed as the creature slowly pulled its nose to the shoulder with the only sign being a long scar where it once was. The creature placed its ear on the unconscious child’s chest to try and find a heartbeat.

It waited and waited to no avail as it seemed to have died during the healing process, much to the ire of its wishes. It drooped its head in sadness as it prepared to take it outside to bury it out of respect.

It paused, however, as the creature smelled a pungent odor filled the room which caused it to turn back to the child in fear since that smell was universal for animals. The smell of a daemon. It looked at the child while the two still seemed oblivious to the current actions of the creature. The previously thought dead human began to twitch as the red and black magical aura appeared once more and burst from the hip without restraint. His body began to change rapidly as his ears became elongated along with his canine teeth and nails, but the tail has yet to appear signifying his incomplete transformation. He shot up gasping for air as if he struggled to get a good intake of air.

He looked in all directions to try and find anyone or anything remotely similar to his previous surroundings. He reached behind his waist and pulled a sharp knife from behind him and glared at his surroundings before his eyes landed on the creature that saved him. It began to back away in fear at the half bread human while the human’s jaw dropped from the previous mythical creature in front of him.

He took a deep breath and begrudgingly sheathed his knife and held his hands up in a gesture to calm it. The two temporarily paralyzed girls watched on in amazement as the boy was unknowingly in his demonic form or a more controllable form. What shocked them was the wild animal that seemingly snuck past their defenses.

“I’m not gonna hurt you.” The creature stopped as the admittedly kind and gentle tone the boy had as it held genuine care for the creature that planned to eat him. It crept forward while remaining cautious from the previous teen since it was still emitting that pungent order; even if it was much less identifiable than it originally was. “See, I don’t mean any harm.” The boy slowly reached an arm out which the wild animal sniffed to find any smell of deceit. Finding none, it nuzzled the hand lovingly before it felt its body be picked up by the male.

Noctis cradled the creature like he would his past pets in his previous life. He loving scratched behind the ear of the creature with a content smile on his face while the creature just relaxed in his arms. The creature wasn’t struggling much to the shock of the onlookers as one was trying to figure out what this creature was and the other confused on how this extremely rare, and cynical, the creature was doing what it would normally never do.

The creature, despite being in pure bliss, scanned the child to see what he was and no matter what his race was, it would stay by his side. However, it secretly hoped for a Mage so it could become a Summon, or familiar for anyone who wasn’t familiar with the term. It blinked in confusion before scanning the child once more but receiving the same results as the last. It couldn’t believe what it was getting as feedback from the scan. There was daemon magic in the child, but there was also the magic of what it never thought to meet: a Balancer. It lifted a paw and touched the head of the boy and forced a mental pact with the child in a place where the seal could never be found.

“What the hell was that?” Noctis mumbled while trying to figure out what actually happened.

The other two were amazed as Aranea was fascinated with the actions of the boy as he seemed to hold a soft spot for animals. Faust was impressed by the fact that the creature created a pact with this kid who wasn't originally from that world. In other words, they were watching the impossible become possible in front of their eyes.

"This is adequate for us to communicate with one another." The fox said in a female childlike tone which surprised the group. Noctis was not surprised after what he experienced in this world; he wasn't surprised to find something like this.

"This is... AMAZING!!!" Aranea said as her age was catching up with her from the 'reincarnation' around a year and a half ago. She was finally acting her visual age after how long she was wandering the world around them.

Noctis stood up and took things slowly to make sure he could understand everything that was happening. He wasn't the brightest, he didn't need anyone to tell him that, but he was most certainly not an idiot... Sometimes. Despite all that happened in the past few hours, all he could remember was that he saw the golem about to kill them; however, there was another truth that none of them considered.

"Mom's going to kill me." He said as the two girls immediately tensed up. They too have parents in different towns of Equestria and them being gone for days on end would get them killed. Aranea had family in Trottingham and Faust had family in Canterlot, but neither of them was allowed to go to Noctis and absolutely not into the Everfree.

"We're all dead," Aranea said as she shivered while Noctis just pet the fluffy nine-tailed fox. The two looked at him in shock about how calm he was about this and not freaking out. Faust just had to, as people in Noctis's old-world would say, suck it up and deal with it.

"What are we doing here... In the Everfree I mean?" He said as he scratched the fox's ears making it purr. The fox had taken a liking to lie in his lap despite being about to double his height... Faust's and Aranea's exhaustion made it easy to sneak up on the kid.

"Umm... We're here to get a weapon known as a Harmony Arm, much like the Royal Arms your familiar within Final Fantasy fifteen." Faust said as Aranea understood how he could know so much about her world. Aranea chucked as she attempted to pet the fox which growled at her attempt.

"It's okay my little fox. She's a friend and rescued me from dying earlier today." She fox sighed internally and let the girl pet it. The fox didn't want to admit it, but it felt nice to be pet by the girl. She nuzzled deeper into Noctis as a response. "Actually what is your name?" He asked the fox.

"Chizuru Yuri." It said through the link as Noctis had to suppress an urge to say something.

(First Person — Noctis)

Yuri, depending on who you ask, it could mean two different things. If you ask a Call of Duty fan, then it's the name of a character in Modern Warfare 3, but if you ask an anime fan, then they'd say it's a term for gay female characters. The temptation to say it was strong and hard to combat, but I believe I was able to suppress it.

'You know I can hear that right?'

Damn it.

"Alright, let's set up for the night here and we'll continue tomorrow," I said noticing the dwindling light in the cave. "Now that I have a grasp on my magic, I should be able to use it now, so I'll go get us some food." Yuri perked up at the word 'food' as she began to drool at the mere thought of food. "I'll get a little extra for you foxy," I said as I managed to walk through the barrier, which surprised the two others and went on a hunting trip.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm terrified, but I'm currently the only one that can actually get us food. The other two are exhausted and Yuri would most likely eat anything she killed. So with that mindset, I threw my knife into the nearest tree and warped onto its branches. I began to leap from branch to branch, tree to tree to hopefully a source of food.

Maybe I should explain, Terrains have more capabilities than just brute force, our natural affinity for the earth itself makes us experts at navigation on land. Our bodies will also react before we do allow for things such as unconscious dodging or leaping from tree to tree without knowing how too possible. Unfortunately, this is limited to sight whereas everything else is just a feeling. A good example of this is Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense, but that's on a whole new level of awareness that almost made her a Draconequus. Yup, beings like Discord can be made if they have that type of awareness. Unfortunately, she was killed after her fight with Tirek.

I shook my head of that thought knowing that no one could be listening to my thoughts. That would be insane... Right?

Anyways, I did eventually find what I was looking for in the form a Manticore pack which was surprisingly spread apart; almost as if separated into different families. I was about to go try and find another pack before I fell directly in the center of them all. All turned to me as I wiped myself off of the dirt and grass. Thank God I didn't land in shit of that would be a very long way back.

I stopped caring when I was nudged by one of them; it almost caused me to fall again as I stumbled forward. I eventually caught my balance as I placed my hand on my knife. I faced the manticore and... It didn't attack? Is this Fluttershy Ex Machina stuff because I'm not complaining.

"I need food," I said as I stared at the one that nudged me. "I have a group of four: me, two others and a nine-tailed fox... I need food for us." They seemed to think before one came up and pawed at the ground, seemingly writing something.

The writing was a stretch since it was a stick figure holding something and a lion with wings next to each other. It then etched two arrows coming from both and pointing at the other. I was very confused by this before I got the vaguest idea of what they wanted. I put a vs there and it nodded before I facepalmed.

"Look, I just escaped death after nearly getting my entire left side lobbed off after facing a golem. Also... I'm one." I said as it looked at me practically saying that if I wanted food I'd have to fight. "Fine... I'll do my best!"

Without warning, it charged me at full speed and I was just able to dodge out the way before it slapped me with a paw. I hit the ground hard, but roles into a kneeling position before dodging out the way of another attack. Then it jumped above my, it's paws outstretched as it was just above me. I had nowhere to dodge out the way, but I remembered one of Noctis's abilities which allow him to phase through an enemy's attack.

I didn't have many options before I closed my eyes and imagined just sliding threw the attack. It didn't work as it landed directly on me and rolled to on my stomach. I huffed before shakily getting up on my feet after having almost five hundred pounds dropped on me. I was in excruciating pain, but I had to ignore it. It attacked again and if I wanted a chance to win, I needed to learn that phase dodge ability.

I closed my eyes and searched for the power I used when I used the warp ability earlier. I didn't have time as I lifted my arms to block the manticore's strike; however, it sent me through the air, hitting the ground hard before bouncing off it and into a thick tree. My body cracked the outside of the tree and causing it to collapse on me almost pinning me. The beast attacked once again as it's paw was a yard away from my face, it's maw emitting a mighty roar and it's teeth bared.

At that moment, my Terrain instincts acted as my body felt weightless as I went through the attack and the tree. An image filled my head of a balloon just passing through a ceiling before my feet touched the ground. That image of weightlessness was all I needed to activate it as my pure instincts forced the thought to the forefront of my mind. It was Deus Ex Machina as hell, but I like to live.

I didn't want to kill it, but I had to fight. I needed to delve deeper into that magic and find that Terrain strength I desperately needed. I pushed the tree, trying to make the end of it snap completely off the trunk and role it on the manticore. It moved completely over and eventually snapped off causing it to fall on... Air. It was alright out the way and charging. I phased through the attack and punched it and it did absolutely fucking nothing.

"Shit," I said simply before it swatted me away again, but I pulled out my knife and chucked it at a random tree. I wrapped it to it before falling back to the ground and sheathing it. I don't know the biology of a manticore so I can't determinate where it's weak points are unlike other bipedal creatures like the golem.

I held up the knife in front of me with a fist, both of the hand's shaking, and me being totally uncertain that I'd make it out of this fight alive. I don't have any strength to fight it, I don't have proper weapons to fight it, and I know none of its weaknesses to win. I'm at a serious disadvantage now that I think of it. I have no way to win unless I... Wear it down.

I couldn't help but smile as my hands continued to shake. I charged it and swiped at it with my knife, but it dodges and hits me with its tail. I slid across the clearing and made a small ditch before rolling backward and phasing through its attack. I jumped over its tail and threw my knife at it and it stick inside it; causing it to roar in pain began I warped to it and cut open it's back. I leaped off as its tail just barely missed me and stick its self with its tail.

I landed as it huffed like I was as we stared at each other. Its energy will be distributed to accommodate it's wound making it easier to attack and defend against a stronger enemy. I stand a chance against it before I ran at it before throwing the knife into the air and warped to it before throwing the knife back into the same spot. It roared in even more pain before I came down and kicked the knife deeper into it. It only let out a whimper as it fell to the ground; its wounds taking most – if not all – of his energy to even process the pain now. I stood on its back and removed the knife before walking to its head.

"A deal's a deal." It groaned before letting out a low roar as a large animal I was unfamiliar with. Many were sad, but I took what I needed and that was just a leg of it before I covered with my shirt.

I jumped from tree to tree again as I begin to properly process the fight as I warped so it would be faster. I landed and walked back through the barrier as the three girls looked at me with a smile. I smiled back and lowered the leg on the floor and showed them.

"You have no idea what pain I went through to get this," I said before Aranea cut up the meat and began to cook it.

"What did you do?" Faust said as Yuri crawled on my lap and lied down to allow me to get her. I scratched her ear as I smiled.

"Fought and won against a manticore alpha." Their jaws dropped so far that I thought that they would be more impressed, but I guess this works too.

"You did what?!" Aranea, Faust, and Yuri yelled as I laughed.

"I really hope we get this done sooner, but I guess a little bit of camping can't hurt," I said as I lied down to sleep off the wounds the manticore gave me.