The battlefield had gone silent after his words. No one moved.

  The old bear said, “You look like a native of the Nightmare Realm. Surrender, and I’ll spare your life. Hahah.” He laughed in his hoarse voice.

  “Marry my grandson. You are a beautiful girl,” he tried to coax her.

  Kira glanced at the arrogant boy sitting atop the hound. A feeling of disgust crept into her heart. Her instincts screamed. Something was not right.

  Kira stood frozen, her mind racing yet empty at the same time. A thought flashed through her mind—he was stalling for time. As realization struck her, she understood his plan: delay the battle until she suffered backlash. He was a Rank Three native Nightborne and obviously knew the side effects of using multiple bloodline abilities.

  Realizing this, she understood there was no clean way out.

  She met his gaze. He was sure of his victory. Even in his bear form, a faint smile curved his muzzle.

  Kael and Jim looked worse. Kael was almost admiring these monsters, yet at the same time he felt hopeless in this situation—even father isn’t as strong as her, he thought. Jim was simply holding his dagger, but even he knew it was a useless action. Zuko had completely given up—his legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

  Drayen felt the color drain from his face. He was useless here—too weak to interfere, too weak to matter. Even Instructor Miller could barely fight or interfere in the battle. Compared to him, he was nothing.

  After all he was just a handicap hacker in his past life. What could he do?

  His thoughts storming constantly. There should be a way out. What is it? What is it? Grandson…

  As he thought, he realized he had finished absorbing the core. His mind grasped a new ability.

  Wing reminded him:

  [Butterfly Walk ability learned.]

  He cursed the timing. What would he do with it?

  “Kill them,” the young man ordered casually from atop the Strength Paw Hound. The Rank One guards were about to attack.

  Drayen looked up. His eyes locked onto him. Something clicked. A laugh escaped his lips—raw, sharp, and completely out of place. Yes. That was the way out. Hit the weakness first. The first thing he learned when he was disabled, and when he fought that organization, was to hit the weakness first.

  “Ignore the old bear, Kira,” Drayen said sharply, pointing at the young man. “We kill that one. Even if we die doing it.”

  The bear stared blankly for a fraction of a second. Then panic tore through him.

  “NO!” he roared, spinning around. “What do you think you’re doing?!” He abandoned his position and lunged toward his grandson.

  Kira vanished into shadow. With the transformation and using every speed ability she had, she reached him in an instant.

  Her poison-laced claws carved through the battlefield. The guards tried their best, but against Rank Three battle power, they were nothing but dust.

  The boy screamed as he fell. “Attack her!” he ordered the hound. Kira’s claws swung toward it. His face was filled with terror as he saw her claws bent on tearing him apart. Why did I come here? I could have trained manipulating hounds another time. Why did I choose this time? Grandpa was correct. Training is not the battlefield. His mind flooded with fear.

  The bear halted mid-motion.

  “Haaa,” it rumbled, shock finally breaking through its composure. Its aura exploded outward.

  “Touch him—and I’ll kill every one of you.” It abandoned Kira and lunged straight for Drayen.

  Drayen’s heart pounded. Was it instinct, luck, or something else? He activated Butterfly Walk.

  His body slipped aside at the last instant.

  The bear howled in fury and redirected its attack toward Kael, swinging its giant paws.

  Miller moved without thinking, throwing himself in front of Kael. The blow crushed him. His body was flung into a tree, blood spraying as the trunk cracked. Bones shattered.

  “Enough!” Drayen roared. “Your grandson is still alive.”

  The battlefield fell silent. The guards lay broken. The Strength Paw Hound had collapsed, its corpse blackened by poison.

  The bear turned—and saw his grandson. Dark veins crawled across the boy’s skin. His breathing was shallow.

  “Leave him alone!” the bear bellowed.

  Drayen’s smile was thin and merciless. “He won’t survive another day if you delay his treatment.”

  Rage shook the bear’s body. In the end, he chose to back down. This had been a political fight for profit—but what use was profit if he had no grandson?

  He snatched his grandson from Kira’s grasp, eyes burning red as he glared at Drayen. “…Boy.”

  He would have won—if not for Drayen. He had planned to stall until the backlash crippled her. Then he would have slaughtered them all.

  But Drayen had ruined everything. And worse—

  He had touched his grandson.

  The boy cried in pain in his massive bear hands. “I shouldn’t have brought you,” the bear muttered hoarsely.

  The battle ended. Kira maintained her form, wary of the old man’s return, as they rushed toward Instructor Miller. His body was severely damaged. Kael knelt beside him, his hands shaking as he tried to wake him.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Instructor…”

  There was no response.

  “Teacher.”

  Still, there was only silence in the air. Jim placed Miller’s head on his lap, tapping his cheek, trying to wake him.

  Kael stared blankly, emotions surging in his heart. His eyes were only a moment away from tears. Jim’s tears were already flowing. Zuko covered his eyes, unable to look at the crushed body.

  Drayen and Kira didn’t know what to say. Instructor Miller had been completely loyal to Kael, not just as a guard but as a teacher. If he wanted, he could have abandoned the students and saved his own life when the hounds attacked them in the beginning. He didn’t.

  Kael couldn’t process what was happening. He felt something hard in his pocket—a core. He took it out, and the tears he had held back until now finally fell. Guilt crept into his heart.

  I am the one who brought this disaster to everyone. I am the one who caused your death, Teacher.

  He wanted to ask for forgiveness, but the words stuck in his mouth. He couldn’t say them.

  This man had defended him every time. He had guarded him and taught him. Now he lay motionless, having protected him one last time.

  Kael lifted his hand, about to throw the core away.

  Drayen didn’t know why Kael was doing it. Judging by its size, it seemed to be a high-ranked core. He guessed it was related to what the old man had mentioned about robbery—but he still stopped Kael’s hand.

  “Leave,” Kael growled.

  Drayen’s grip tightened. “You can’t throw this.”

  Drayen felt Kael’s grief. It echoed too closely to his previous life. But this was not the time for emotions.

  Kael’s claw opened, ready to tear him apart.

  Kira intervened. “Drayen is right. This is a very precarious situation. You can’t throw it away.”

  Kael’s strength finally gave out. He dropped the core into Drayen’s hands and as he fell down. Watery eyes he was barely holding his emotions. There were sobbing voice from his throat.

  “Take this.”

  Zuko was crying as well. Even with his back injured, Miller had fought and protected him. Yes, he had made mistakes. Yes, he had been careless. But none of that mattered now.

  The cause of this incident was not him. He was definitely capable of protecting Zuko and Lara—if not for Houndswell.

  Kira’s form finally collapsed. She coughed blood, and her body fell.

  “Kira.” Drayen helped her up, his arm tightening around her instinctively. Her body trembled uncontrollably in his hold. It was the first time he had ever seen her like this—weak, unsteady, barely holding herself together. Her face had gone pale, almost bloodless, as if all strength had been drained from her.

  She coughed blood, her weight sagging against his arm.

  Kira lifted her gaze to his eyes—and froze.

  This was the first time she had seen fear there. Not calculation. Not restraint.

  Fear.

  Ever since the awakening incident, when she had playfully chased him, she hadn’t seen fear in his eyes. He had hidden it perfectly every time, burying it beneath calm expressions and measured actions.

  But now she understood. The pressure, the choices, the near-death moment—it had finally surfaced.

  His hand was shaking. He couldn’t hide it anymore.

  His heartbeat was still fast.

  Drayen drew a slow breath, forcing air into his lungs, matching it beat by beat. Even now, his hands trembled despite his effort to control them—but he forced them still.

  The words lodged painfully in his throat. Let me heal you.

  He couldn’t. He didn’t have enough nightmare essence left to even attempt it.

  Jim stepped forward, wiping his tears with the back of his sleeve, his face still red and wet. He had the Toxic Scorpion bloodline and a simple healing ability.

  “Let me help,” he said, his voice unsteady but sincere.

  Kira stopped his hand before he could act.

  “Don’t waste your breath,” she said quietly, though every word seemed to cost her strength. “This isn’t something normal skills can heal. We move. Now.”

  She knew it—if the Houndswell guards returned this time, with reinforcements, none of them would survive.

  Drayen nodded without hesitation. He carefully shifted her onto his back, adjusting his grip so she wouldn’t fall, and started moving forward through the forest.

  There was no time to mourn.

  They started moving as the forest brightened around them. The trees began to glow faintly, and flowers slowly illuminated the forest. The daylight didn’t erase their misery. The quiet, serene peace only made it feel heavier.

  Shadow hounds rarely attacked during the day, but this forest was home to many other hounds. They traveled cautiously.

  Drayen hadn’t fought in the main battle, yet exhaustion weighed on him all the same. He had been rushed here from the middle of a hunt, and now—after the hounds’ attack, the fight with Houndswell guards, and the constant tension—his body felt hollowed out.

  Zuko, who had done almost no real training, struggled badly to keep up. More than once, Jim and Kael had to support him, dragging him forward whenever his legs threatened to give out. Other than that, they took some small rests here and there.

  From time to time, Kira activated her scouting abilities to sense danger ahead. Each time she did, her body reacted violently, the backlash tearing through her as blood stained her lips once more. To heal from this condition, she needed rest. But if she chose rest, they would die in the forest before ever finding safety.

  Fortunately, Kael had recovered some of his essence and was using it regularly. His scouting ability was good enough to travel safely in territory of Rank One tainteds.

  The terrain slowly started to change. The leaves, which were mostly emitting purple or blackish-purple light, began to turn gray. The trees started to change—their branches were gray. There were only a few patches of grass, and they too were gray. The terrain gradually became steeper.

  Before any of them fully realized how far they had traveled, two to three days had already passed, and they reached the foot of Rock Apple Mountain. Occasionally they saw some of the trees were broken, and even though the terrain was mostly rock, there were large foot prints everywhere.

  Kael knelt to check the marks. “It seems we are quite far from Houndswell.”

  “This is Rock—cough, cough—Apple Mountain,” Kira said, her voice having grown weaker.

  Kira wasn’t a native of Houndswell. She was a wanderer. She knew many places. This was one of the places she knew well.

  “Stay alert for Rockskin Boars. Although Rank One, they’re stronger than paw hounds,” Kira warned. Her voice was weaker now.

  Zuko’s body silently shook, remembering the fear he had experienced.

  She continued, “Our destination is deep in there.”

  She guided the way for the group. Kira used her scouting abilities nonstop. This wasn’t Houndswell, and their destination lay between Rank Two Iron-skin Boars and Rank One Rockskin Boars. If they came across an Iron-skin Boar, they would not see another day in their current state.

  Her vision blurred. “Drayen, take right.”

  There was a rock wall. It was a dead end. They had hit the rock.

  “Use this.” She handed him a badge as she finally drifted unconscious on his back.

  He didn’t hear her clearly. “Use it… on what?”

  Kira had already faded out, her chin resting against his shoulder. Her breathing was slow, shallow, but steady.

  Drayen frowned and looked ahead.

  The rock wall in front of them looked ordinary at first glance—solid stone, gray and weathered. But on closer inspection, gray moss clung to the surface, and thick vines hung down from above, their color almost black.

  He turned to Kael.

  Kael nodded once. “Give me a second.”

  “Dog’s breath,” Kael murmured slowly. His breathing changed. His nose twitched, bones shifting subtly, his features blurring for just a moment into something between human and beast. He lowered himself and sniffed the ground.

  “There aren’t any Rockskin Boars nearby,” he said quietly. He sniffed again, frowning.

  “…It smells like humans.”

  Kael followed the scent straight to the rock wall. He pressed his palm against it and knocked.

  The sound was wrong. Hollow.

  “This isn’t solid,” Kael said. “There’s space behind it. Might be a cave.”

  Drayen felt a flicker of relief—and confusion. “How do we open it?” he asked.

  His gaze drifted back to Kira’s face. He didn’t want to wake her again.

  They searched the wall carefully. That was when Jim noticed one of the hanging vines wasn’t a vine at all.

  It was hollow. A small opening sat at its end—smooth, circular, deliberate.

  Drayen pulled the badge from his palm. The shape matched perfectly.

  As soon as he pressed it into place, the stone reacted. There was no shifting or grinding noise.

  The wall simply moved.

  Stone slid apart soundlessly, revealing a dark opening beyond. Cold air rushed out, carrying the scent of damp earth and something unfamiliar.

  Inside, faint shapes shifted.

  Drayen tightened his grip on Kira and stepped forward.

  There were people inside.

  This officially marks the end of the first arc.

  I do want to upload daily, but I value writing quality and literary growth more than rushing chapters—especially at this stage.

  Thanks for sticking with me. See you guys.