Cold.Not winter-cold. Not mountain-night cold.This was the kind of cold that came from absence — the emptiness of a place where warmth had never been born.
Karn's eyes snapped open.
He was lying on a shore made of black glassy sand, grains shimmering faintly like powdered obsidian under a bruised, violet sky. Lightning cracked far above, jagged and crimson, but never reached the ground — as if even it feared to touch this place.
The sand was warm. Too warm. A slow, pulse-like heat seeped into his palms as he pushed himself up. It felt alive.
The air burned in his lungs. Salty. Metallic. Heavy. Like breathing in rust.
And then… he felt it.A heartbeat that was not his own.
He turned his head.
The intruder — the half-burned man — was already standing, his ragged cloak curling unnaturally in a wind Karn could not feel. His eyes glowed brighter here, amber light reflecting off the black sand.
"Welcome to the Black Shore," the man said, his voice carrying through the stillness like it belonged here. "The last place your kind should ever set foot."
Karn's gaze swept the horizon. Instead of an ocean, the shore bled into a sprawling plain of jagged, coral-like structures that jutted from the ground like the ribs of some colossal, long-dead beast. They glistened as if wet, and in the distance, some of them… moved.
The deeper he listened, the more his senses stretched — and the more he wished they hadn't.
Dozens of heartbeats.Some slow, like predators conserving energy. Others erratic, as if waiting to explode into motion. All of them felt wrong, like they weren't tied to flesh but to something else entirely.
The intruder's smirk deepened.
"You hear them, don't you? The ones who've been waiting for the Sun's heir to step onto their hunting ground."
Karn didn't answer. His instincts told him something — the air here was too clear. Sounds cut sharper, smells layered like woven threads. It was intoxicating, heightening every sense he possessed… and it whispered of danger.
The man chuckled.
"Careful, boy. The Sun's curse will make you sharper here. But it will also make you hungry. This place eats men like you."
The ground split with a sound like a scream underwater.
A column of black mist erupted upward, twisting violently before scattering into the air. From the fissure rose something long and jointed, its limbs plated in slick, wet armor that reflected the violet sky. Bone-like spines jutted from its head, forming a jagged crown.
Its heartbeat was painfully slow. Almost lazy. But when it moved — it blurred.
Karn's stance lowered, one foot sliding back into the sand. The creature circled, each step leaving tiny fractures in the shore as if it were heavier than its size allowed.
The intruder stepped aside, folding his arms.
"Let's see if the little heir can survive without his mother's whispers."
The creature lunged.
It wasn't speed Karn saw — it was the gap between beats.He moved before it did.
One hand caught its forelimb, twisting with precision, forcing the beast to slam sideways into the sand. The impact made the shore shiver. Black dust rose in a thick cloud, but Karn was already shifting, his other hand pulling a shard of jagged coral from the ground.
The shard pulsed once in his grip. Alive. Hungry.
He met the creature's hollow gaze, the violet light catching in his own eyes now, burning faintly gold at the edges.
"You picked the wrong hunt," he said quietly.
Far off, other heartbeats quickened. The Black Shore was waking.
And Karn Kael……was ready to hunt back.