<div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    <div>


    The lemur was looking at me. This one was smaller than the king, with copper colored fur and piercing amber eyes. The knives it was resting lightly on the ground were wickedly curved and jagged along the inner hook of the blade, with the outside sharpened to a razor’s edge. The most absurd thing, though, was that I was pretty sure this thing could fucking SEE me. Somehow.


    “Human,” said the lemur in a high pitched, scratchy voice. “I sense your presence. Come out.”


    I blinked. His eyes seemed fixed on me, but moving slightly from one side to the other, I realized that he was mostly just looking in my general direction. He couldn’t see me, he was detecting me some other way, he’d just gotten lucky with his initial eye positioning. Still, being able to detect me at all was impressive, and even more unbelievably-


    “Holy shit, it can TALK?” I gasped to Daysia. I immediately felt terrible about the comment, but luckily it didn’t seem to be able to hear me. Whatever it was using to detect my presence was very general and didn’t include sound or other senses I was scrubbing.


    Daysia, despite the danger we were in, giggled at my shock. “Yes, many enlightened beasts can talk. This one must be near the peak of D-rank, though. D-rank is usually a transitionary stage for beasts, between being just very clever animals and having humanoid intelligence. Like your companion, he’ll most likely gain the ability to speak once he’s progressed further.”


    “He’s also a baby,” I conceded. “Archie hatched less than two months ago. Still, I’m going to let him see me. You stay back, I’ll keep you under stealth.” Making sure Mornax and Sammael were stacked, I allowed myself to become visible, simply stopping my domain from erasing me, one moment to the next. As I did, I split off a parallel, allowing it to access Rhythm of the Wild, attempting to make contact with the Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree.


    As I appeared, the lemur tensed, eyes snapping to my face. “Human,” he said again. “You come to this place for the fruit? My father has bid me capture it for his glorious ascension. If you plan to interfere, I, the Moment Chopping Lemur Prince, will make sure you never leave this wood alive.”


    “Kind of an arrogant name,” I said mildly. “But good for you, being so confident in yourself. Not that it’ll help. Your chances of beating me are slim to none.”


    While my main brain distracted the lemur, my parallel made contact with the tree, consulting it about becoming my staff. The current Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree was basically just a long stuck with some leaves at the top. It was barely enough wood to make a staff as it was, and I’d most likely end up having to uproot the whole thing to take it with me. Given the Primordial Tree Spirit’s attitude, I was sure I’d need the tree’s permission, or at the very least, its lack of objection if it wasn’t sentient.


    Except this tree WAS sentient. Very low level sentience, sure, but I could sense that it had emotions if not actual wisdom. And it was very slow to react to any of my prompting.


    I turned my focus back on the lemur. The little beast was looking upset, but also cautious. I think his instincts were good enough to realize I was a danger, but he seemed convinced he was pretty much unbeatable at D-rank. I was less sure.


    “Human, don’t try my patience. You’ve interrupted my harvest, but I can still allow you to leave. Remove yourself before I remove your head, I will not ask again.” He gestured to the corpses. “The weasels in this place were slain by me for their sin of shedding the blood of my kin. I have no desire to take your life, but I will do so in the pursuit of my mission.”


    I was annoyed. I didn’t have a staff, which was bad. Because my moves were part of a staff art, and could exert about a fifth of their power without a weapon. Granted, that was a lot for most enemies, but this guy wasn’t most enemies. I could feel a sense of danger emanating from him. I was sure that THIS was the trial I needed to pass, not the C-rankers.


    But I had to admit…I didn’t really think I could lose. A random D-rank beast on a B-rank planet? My standards were much higher than they had been before. I might not be able to keep up with peak D-rank geniuses from the five factions, but I didn’t think I’d lose here.


    “Enough talking,” I said as I got into a fighting stance. I wasn’t exactly a master of the fist, but I was big and wearing armor, plus my techniques could be used through other mediums without much effort, even if using my forms without a staff would be unwieldy. “I’m taking that fruit.” I specifically didn’t mention the tree, because I was worried he might threaten the tree itself to get me to leave him the fruit if he knew what I wanted.


    I continued my conversation with the plant, but it was taking longer than I had thought, so I’d need to stall the only way I knew how. Violently.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Still, I wasn’t planning to actually kill the little guy. He was being pretty considerate, given his orders, and he was kind of adorable in a bloodthirsty way. As long as he didn’t attack Daysia, I was confident I wouldn’t need to- I stumbled to the side, a knife pommel slamming into my temple from seemingly nowhere.


    “What the fuck?” I blurted as I saw him lowering one of the knives. My head was fine, I was heavily armored in Mornax, especially with Sammael’s amplification. But the key point was that I hadn’t seen how he did that. Inside Murmur, my Perception of events reached an absurd level, but that attack had hit me out of nowhere. Almost like it…


    I groaned. “Moment Chopping Lemur,” I said flatly. “It isn’t a title. It’s your species. Moment Chop is your ability.”


    Between the name and the strange effect, it was the only thing that made sense. The lemur cocked its head. “You realized so quickly? Truly an impressive foe. Sadly, I cannot desist. I must have the fruit, and soon. Your defenses are substantial, but these knives are C-rank treasures, and will pierce through eventually. Give up, for knowledge of my power will not save you.”


    I cracked my neck, rubbing at my head. He was right, I could feel the Impact from that hit. A C-rank weapon should nominally be able to punch through my defenses, but a weapon’s effectiveness somewhat depended on who was using it. His attacks were D-rank, which meant they would have trouble getting through, even if they would eventually manage. Otherwise my defensive form would be counterable just by having a slightly more expensive weapon.


    The issue wasn’t his weapon though. It was his ability. “Moment Chop,” I said contemplatively. “It’s time manipulation, isn’t it. You’re literally cutting through moments, with your attacks landing seconds before you even launch them.”


    “Indeed,” he said with a nod. “So you see, there is no victory for you. Your hard shell is powerful, but it will fall eventually, and you have no hope of preventing my blows. Regardless of your understanding, you are destined to fall here. Retreat, or I will cease using the pommel of my weapons, and you will die here.”


    I stared at him intensely. “That,” I said as I let Murmur drop. “Is one of the most frightening natural abilities I’ve ever even heard of. And I met a girl whose power was literally good luck, and regularly travel with a vampire. You’re absolutely terrifying. I think there’s probably not many Ascendants at our level who could possibly counter you.” I watched him, letting another domain slide over me, my first domain, and seconds later, my fist smashed out, channeling Extinction Event through my punch.


    As Limbo showed me all the possible futures, I picked out the one he was attacking from, and my punch exploded with dark energy as the C-ranked knife skittered off my C-rank armor. The lemur stumbled back in shock, staring at me with wide, confused eyes.


    I grinned at him, resetting my stance. “Not many,” I repeated. “But some. And unfortunately for you, I’m one of them.”


    Limbo allowed me to destroy possible futures until I could box my enemies in, and it happened to overlap perfectly with his time based attacking ability. Without my staff I was weakened, but I was pretty sure his ability was Perception based, and despite being peak D-rank, he wasn’t overwhelmingly strong.


    More than that, I was pretty sure this lemur had never met anything his own rank that could match him. Being able to cut through time WAS stupidly overpowered, and I couldn’t imagine anyone before now being able to even react to that ability, much less counter it. The intimidation factor of meeting someone who could break that kind of ability must be huge, and I was betting he was feeling real fear for maybe the first time.


    But to his credit, he didn’t let that sway him. “You are a powerful warrior,” he admitted, raising both blades. “And I can no longer guarantee your safety. I had hoped not to end your life, but your skills are too terrifying. What happens after this, human, is of your own making.”


    He blurred forward, and I felt a hundred attacks rain down on me, a thousand, all coming from different possible futures. Growling, my fists burst, Extinction Events shattering the torrent of attacks one by one, but I couldn’t keep up. His knives pinged off my torso, then my arms, with a few cuts slipping through to hit my neck and face. Then a few more, then finally enough of them landed on one spot that they actually cut through the skin of my neck, a small trickle of blood flowing.


    My eyes widened as I was pushed back. I activated Gluttony and Abomination Engine, the attacks feeding me power, my stats growing under the onslaught, but the extra Might just let me destroy a few more of the possible futures, it wasn’t enough to really stem the tide.


    Moment Chop was overpowered, but even more than a single attack, the deluge of temporal anomalies was more than even I could handle in my current state. At least…without a weapon.


    But I wasn’t without a weapon anymore. Under the tide of attacks, my parallel finally convinced the Nine Lives Reincarnation Tree that I was showing my worth, that I could really go the the distance, and its consciousness began to wake up, shifting out of whatever dreamlike haze it had been in to really watch me fight.


    More than watching, it wanted to join in, was eager to, in fact. The tree, currently C-ranked in its own right, communicated its desire to travel with me, to become my companion.


    I couldn’t forge it or enchant it or whatever the process was, but I could wield it. I triggered Double Trouble, the lemurs attacks landing on my illusion as I appeared behind him, vanishing in a burst of black flame, my hand closing around the trunk of the sticklike tree.


    With a single pull, the tree relinquished its hold on the ground, roots letting it go as the leaves, branches, and bark simply…fell off. I was confused about the mechanism for a second, but in the background I heard Daysia raising her voice in song, and realized she’d used her Tree Singing Skill to help the tree shed its trappings.


    I could sense power and potential in the wood, unique and perfect for my purposes, but now wasn’t the time to explore it. For now I didn’t need potential, I just needed a partner, and as I spun, staff whirling, and swept away a torrent of temporal attacks, driving the lemur prince back, I knew I’d found one. My search was over. Now it was time to show my enemy what I could really do.