Whatever it was that had been forced down his throat tasted like a mixture of sewage and sand – putrid, dry, and clinging to his tongue like rot.
"What... was... that?" Jabari croaked, too weak to spit the foul concoction out or even open his eyes. His voice was barely more than a whisper, brittle and strained.
"Medicine," August replied flatly, retrieving his blood-soaked battle axe from the earth with a casual strength that contrasted sharply with the carnage around him.
"The wolf?" Jabari managed to ask, his voice barely audible.
At the sound of August's familiar voice, Jabari's body involuntarily relaxed. The last dregs of adrenaline faded, leaving only pain and exhaustion in their wake. Even speaking now sent shudders of agony through his body. All he could do was cling to the edge of consciousness.
"Dead," August answered without inflection. He turned toward the bisected corpse of the Crystal Wolf and, without hesitation, reached into the belly of its lower half. His hand emerged a moment later, holding a glinting silver crystal no larger than a fingernail – radiant, yet cold.
Jabari said nothing, focused solely on keeping his mind tethered to the present. But when he felt August hoist him over a shoulder, something primal in him sparked, and he weakly resisted, shifting against the hold with what little strength he had.
"My Master…" he murmured.
"I'll take you to him," August said simply, understanding the weight behind the words. He didn't need Jabari to say more. The boy's will burned too fiercely to be mistaken – he would see Aziz, no matter the cost.
"The others?" Jabari asked, words slurred by exhaustion. He could barely piece together a sentence, but August understood.
"Behind us," August replied, glancing back.
"Pick up his weapon," he commanded the two boys still rooted in place as he began walking, carrying Jabari as if he weighed nothing.
All three of them – Malia included – stood frozen, eyes wide as they stared not at Jabari, but at August. Their expressions were haunted. Whatever fear they had once held for the boy from the Owusu Tribe had deepened into something more.
More primal.
More visceral.
They looked at August as if he were a force of nature – a beast in human skin.
"We need to hurry," Malia said sharply, snapping herself out of her trance when she saw that August had no intention of waiting for them.
'Just how far behind them am I?!' she thought, biting the inside of her cheek before rushing forward, the two boys scrambling to follow.
August said nothing, but his thoughts were swirling. Even in the midst of his own battle against the lesser wolves, he had kept one eye on Jabari. What he'd witnessed surpassed even the most generous of expectations.
He had seen the raw, unrefined beginnings of Jabari's fight – jerky, uncertain, desperate. But over the course of that deadly dance with the ordinary wolves and then the Crystal Wolf, those movements had transformed into something else entirely. Composed. Fluid. Deadly. Jabari had moved not like a student who had only just begun formal training this week, but a seasoned warrior.
It was unlike anything August had ever witnessed.
Back in the Owusu Tribe, he had been hailed as a prodigy. But beside Jabari, he felt...
Ordinary.
He had prepared to step in when Jabari first stood against the Crystal Wolf, even as Malia pleaded with him to act. But when he looked into Jabari's eyes, he saw something deeper than resolve. He saw intention – the unshakable desire to see the fight through to the end.
And so, he waited.
He had guessed at several tactics Jabari might try, but never once did he imagine that blinding high-speed manoeuvre. Not even Beast-Warriors attuned to wind at his own level could achieve that kind of burst. It had broken every assumption August held.
'Just how much are you hiding exactly?' August wondered, gaze flicking toward the barely conscious boy on his shoulder.
Jabari, too, was caught in his own storm of thoughts. The crushing fatigue that had him knocking on death's door was lifting. Slowly, steadily, his body was recovering in real-time. The pain was still there, but no longer unbearable. His strength was returning, breath by breath.
'What was that medicine?' he thought, remembering the vile taste of the so-called medicine.
Before he could dwell further, his body jolted as August came to an abrupt halt.
Now feeling far less drained, Jabari forced his eyes open. The world greeted him with the sight of several familiar, albeit bruised and bloodied, faces.
"August?" Danso called out, his voice tinged with pleasant surprise. Meeting another Beast-Warrior in a situation like this was a relief.
Among his group, Danso alone stood unscathed. As a genuine Beast-Warrior fighting against mere wild animals, it was hardly unexpected.
"Aren't you heading to the training hall like everyone else?" he asked, noting that August's group was moving in the opposite direction. His eyes then widened. "Wait, is that…
What happened to Jabari? Isn't he a Beast-Warrior now?"
Seeing Jabari – someone he had assumed had reached the rank of Beast-Warrior – being carried like a casualty sent a jolt of disbelief through the group. All five students with Danso reacted with varying degrees of shock.
All except one.
Gichinga was grinning, joy flickering across his face like a match about to catch flame. But before he could let his laughter escape, his eyes locked with Jabari's.
That single glance extinguished everything.
It felt like he was doused with a bucket of icy water. He froze, completely paralysed by a gaze that was neither hostile nor mocking – merely aware. A gaze that saw him for exactly what he was and deemed him unworthy of a second thought.
"I feel better," Jabari said quietly to August, already dismissing Gichinga from his attention. "You can put me down now,"
'Those eyes. It's those damn eyes,' Gichinga seethed, his fists trembling by his sides. 'I hate those goddamn arrogant eyes!'
This was the first time they had seen each other since the assessment, yet Gichinga hadn't gone a single day without replaying that moment in his mind – Jabari's calm, detached expression staring down at him as though he were nothing more than a speck of dust.
The humiliation festered. But beneath it was fear.
A deep, primal fear, unlike anything he had felt before. Even hearing Jabari's name made his heart pound and sweat bead down his back.
When he saw Jabari wounded and limp, he'd felt vindicated. Empowered. He thought he'd finally put the fear to rest. But that eye contact – just a brief moment – revived it in full force.
His body trembled. His breathing grew shallow. He stared at the ground, trying to anchor himself, but the tremors refused to stop.
The tension in the air was thick enough to choke on. Everyone could feel it. Most eyes bounced between Jabari and Gichinga, waiting for something to snap. Danso, however, looked oddly entertained, as though watching the climax of a well-written play.
August, as ever, remained unfazed. His gaze drifted to the only person present he didn't recognise.
"Who are you?" he asked straightforwardly.
Following August's line of sight, Jabari's attention settled on a teenager roughly his age – but unlike anyone he'd ever seen.
The boy's straight silver hair fell over his face like moonlight woven into strands, and his skin had a smooth, caramel glow. While everyone else wore tattered Academy uniforms, this boy was garbed in an elegant silver suit with black pinstripes, though it was currently caked with dirt and stained from the forest.
Noticing the attention, the teen swept his hair back in a fluid, practiced gesture, revealing large, silver eyes that shimmered beneath the moonlight like twin orbs of polished glass.
"My name's Silver," he said gently, flashing a charming smile that revealed a perfect row of teeth. The combination of his looks, poise, and voice struck like a spell.
Even Malia, ever composed, flushed red. Her gaze lingered on Silver like she was struggling to look away.
"I was fleeing from the animals when I somehow ended up on the Institute's grounds. I was lucky your classmates were nearby – or I'd be animal food right now," he said, his voice calm, soothing. It had a melody to it, as if each word had been chosen not just for meaning but tone.
The group seemed momentarily entranced.
August, unimpressed, merely gave a brief nod before turning back to Jabari, who hadn't stopped staring curiously at Silver.
"Ready to go?"
Jabari blinked, realising he'd been staring a little too long. Silver just responded with an easy, disarming smile.
"Huh, yeah. Let's-" Jabari froze mid-sentence.
He turned his head slightly, frowning.
"Wait! Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Danso asked, following Jabari's gaze with a furrowed brow.
It wasn't just him. The entire group turned to Jabari, confusion etched across their faces. No one else seemed to notice anything out of place.
"I hear something…" Jabari murmured, eyes locked on the distant treeline, his tone too focused to dismiss. "It's coming towards us,"
"I can't hear anything," Danso replied, his frown deepening.
"Me either," Malia added.
"Are you sure the stress isn't just getting to you?" one of Danso's followers chimed in sceptically, clearly not convinced.
"Which direction?" August asked, voice steady, eyes sharp as his grip on his axe subtly tightened.
If there was anyone who believed Jabari without question, it was him. August knew him well enough by now – Jabari wasn't the type to allow panic to get the best of him. If he said he heard something, then he did!
"That way," Jabari replied, pointing toward the direction of the Elder's residence.
Though his bloodline ability remained inaccessible, Jabari's senses were still far beyond the norm. And right now, they were telling him something no one else could yet perceive. A low, rhythmic cacophony echoed faintly in his ears – oohs and ums, the unmistakable sounds of primates – a lot of them.
He stepped over to the two students flanking Malia and took back his glaive, the polished metal glinting as he spun it into a ready stance. A fight was coming, and he intended to meet it head-on.
"I still don't hear anything," Danso said impatiently. "We don't have time to waste. We need to reach the training centre before it's too late."
"Exactly! If they want to stay, let's just-"
"I hear it," August cut in coolly, silencing the group instantly.
Everyone fell quiet, ears straining – and then they heard it. Danso next, then the others. One by one, their eyes constricted as panic grabbed hold of them.
The tremors.
The low rumbles.
The thunderous chest-beating and monstrous belches.
The ground itself was trembling beneath their feet.
A wave of unease swept over the group like a freezing wind.
"What are we going to do?!" Joseph cried, panic breaking through. "We can't face that many creatures alone!"
"Most of us don't even have weapons!" another added, his voice quivering as much as his knees.
"Are you two good to fight?" Jabari asked, glancing at August and Danso, both still calm amid the rising fear.
"Do we have a choice?" Danso replied grimly, rolling his shoulders. August merely grunted.
"Malia," Jabari turned to her, voice clipped and commanding, "take the others and hide in that building over there."
"What about you?" she shot back, shocked. "You can't be serious about facing that many beasts alone. Even if you were all Beast-Warriors, you'd be overrun!"
"As long as there are no magical beasts in the horde, we'll be fine – but only if we don't have to divide our attention protecting you," Jabari snapped back. "Now go!"
Reluctantly, Malia bit her lip and nodded, ushering the others toward the building.
"You sure you're up for this?" August asked once they were gone, glancing at Jabari out of the corner of his eye.
"I feel great," Jabari replied with conviction. "Whatever you gave me, it worked wonders!"
The wound on his shoulder from the Crystal Wolf had scabbed over unnaturally fast, and the crushing fatigue that had nearly killed him had evaporated. His spirit was still recovering, but his body? It felt reborn. Energy coursed through his limbs. He was ready – more than ready.
"Holy shit!" Danso shouted, eyes wide. Jabari and August followed his gaze.
From over two hundred metres away, a massive tide of hulking gorillas was storming through the forest – black-furred, musclebound, and furious. There had to be over a hundred of them.
"Wait!" Danso pointed to a smaller figure darting just ahead of the troop. "Isn't that Azurian?"
"Yeah," Jabari said, narrowing his eyes, "and he's got Chidi on his back."
"At least that's two more Beast-Warriors on our side," Danso said, a flicker of hope in his voice.
"I wouldn't count on Chidi being much help in his state," Jabari muttered. Chidi looked half-dead even from this distance.
Without a word, August broke into a charge, battle axe in hand, heading straight for the oncoming wave.
Jabari grinned.
"I guess that's our cue," he said, before dashing after August with glaive in hand, leaving only the sound of his footfalls and the flash of steel behind him.
Danso let out a battle cry, hoisting his four-foot twin-sided war hammer and following close behind.
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