Monsters, Demons, Beastkind and Fiends

The next morning, Genie escorted Kairo to the stadium on the island.

"This library is the stadium?" Kairo scratched his head, looking confused as he followed Genie across the playing grounds.

"Stadium?"

"This place."

"This is the Arena of Trials. The Mage Library is connected to here."

Kairo nodded as he followed him through the tunnels to the preparation areas. Rather than enter one of the rooms, they headed for the end wall.

Genie used magic to reveal an opening, which they passed through.

Kairo's mind spun with disbelief and wonder as he stepped into a lush, overgrown jungle. But these were plants he'd never seen before; some were gigantic and multicolored. He approached a man-sized daisy with a red floral disc and black petal blades.

Genie cursed and yanked him away before a petal blade could detach and slash his neck.

"Wh—at?" Kairo panted with fear.

"A perenis. They're carnivores. Don't get too close to one." Genie prompted him to keep walking.

"Dangerous plant life, got it. Remind me not to be a vegan in this world."

Genie kept them on a specific dirt track.

Kairo was nearly snatched a few times by efickets. These green-yellow sparrows with bat wings had swooped low with claws out for him. They made eficket noises every time they tried to grab his head and were knocked back by his hockey stick.

One attack led to another.

A bear creature with long hook-claws and saber teeth rushed for Kairo to mow him down. Using its formidable height and solid weight to make heavy strides.

"Lapyrean monsters. Slow and dumb most times, but when hunting, they can easily sniff out weak prey, like you, and smash them to a pulp with one paw."

Genie effortlessly dodged the monster's swipe attacks and killed it with an agile, midair crossbow shot to its glowing diamond mark on its forehead.

Kairo stared at him awestruck like a fanboy. It was the first time he saw him in combat and, damn, he made it look so effortless.

"Is that your weapon?" He gawked at the silver handheld cross-bow Genie held out, examining the thin blueish crystal base where a bolt should go.

"Where do the bolts go?"

Genie demonstrated a firebolt shot to an overhead green vine. The fire made it squeal with pain.

"The crystal draws upon my magic to form a bolt. The bow's sight sets the elemental properties for the target. Snakevine monsters are weak to fire."

Kairo gulped when a flaming length of vine became an ash shower over him. He sneezed and wiped off the soot.

As their walk went deeper into the jungle, Genie shared more knowledge about monsters, beastkind, demons, and fiends.

Monsters were limited intelligent creatures.

"Would shriekers be a monster?" Kairo asked.

Genie chuckled. "Yep. They have scarier cousins called the Kracken. Not wise to mess with those."

Beastkind were like Lady Bluesteed who was part of the centurion race, which evolved from the equus monster. The other three kinds were the malkins evolved from felines, anubians evolved from wolves and ophidians evolved from snakes.

"Then there's us, the demons. I guess you can say, we're the humans of Lux. "

They entered a more unruly part of the jungle, where palm leaves grew as large as a roof. Kairo's mind kept circling on the missing information.

"You didn't talk about fiends."

Genie looked blasé as he led them along safer trails. "Fiends? Oh, well, we avoid talking about them. Sorry, it was an instinctual habit."

"Really?"

Genie stopped to face Kairo. "How should I put it? I guess, you can say, the fiends of our world are the demons of yours." His eyes narrowed when he added, "Better if they didn't exist at all."

Kairo gulped. They continued the trek in silence.