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The air was thick, heavy with a putrid stench that clawed at my throat. I stepped cautiously into the clearing, my boots crunching against the damp ground. The space was eerily quiet, the type of silence that pressed down on your ears and made your skin crawl.

"Did I find the wrong spot?" I muttered, scratching my chin. My voice sounded strange in the stillness, like it didn't belong here.

Then, without warning, the silence was shattered.

BOOM!

The ground beneath me trembled as a blast echoed through the forest. Bright flashes of lightning erupted in the distance, lighting up the dense canopy like a violent storm tearing through the night.

"Lightning..." I muttered, narrowing my eyes. "Edwin must have reached the target."

The plan was working. Plan A, as I'd called it, wasn't perfect, but it had one goal.

That get Edwin into the thick of things.