For three days, the wilds of Midgard were never truly silent. The wilderness became a silent war.
The wind whispered through gnarled trees, night creatures chittered beneath mossy canopies, and unseen predators prowled in the dark. Yet, to Ryujin Jormungandr, the wilderness felt muted; its natural rhythm smothered by something unnatural.
Something hunting him.
For days now, a shadow had stalked him and Nox, moving like venom through his trial. Not a beast, not a wandering scout.
Something colder, calculating. Ryujin had no doubt who it was.
Valtheris.
The Serpent Dominion's master assassin. The silent blade his father unleashed only when total erasure was demanded.
Ryujin had seen him once as a child; just a flicker of a masked figure kneeling at Halveth Jormungandr's feet during a blood ceremony.
He remembered nothing more than a crushing presence, as if death itself had coiled around the chamber, unseen yet suffocating. Now, that same presence slithered through the wilds, every breath Ryujin took tasting faintly of poison.
Ryujin crouched beside a fresh serpent-scout corpse.
Its throat was slit with surgical precision, coiled body stiffening as cold morning mist curled around it. Nox prowled nearby, molten eyes scanning the treeline, shadowflame licking its teeth.
Ryujin's fingers brushed the wound; clean, deliberate. "Not me," he muttered grimly. "Not beasts either. This was Valtheris".
He glanced around, every snapped twig and rustling branch feeling deliberate now. The corpse wasn't just evidence, it was a message.
"This is a hunt," Ryujin whispered. "And he's bleeding me dry before the kill".
Nox rumbled low, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air. Ryujin stroked its scaled neck, murmuring. "We'll move again. Keep low, stay sharp".
Further down the path, traps were waiting.
A wyrm net stretched taut between boulders, its enchanted runes faintly pulsing. Tripwires strung to venom-tipped darts glimmered in hidden sunlight.
The setup was too perfect to be coincidence; Valtheris had studied where Ryujin might rest, where he might pass through, and turned those safe spots into kill zones. Ryujin frowned.
He dismantled one trap carefully, breathing out through clenched teeth. "He's watching," he murmured. "Every step, every move…"
The hunter never showed himself. Instead, he spoke through signs:
A harpoon, freshly driven into an oak, pinning Ryujin's bounty notice deep into its bark. The shaft still trembled when Ryujin found it, a silent promise that even the forest itself couldn't protect him.
Another sign was a pile of ashes from a fire he had built the night before. It was disturbed, yet no footprints nearby.
And then a dagger lodged into a carcass of a serpentling Ryujin had hunted days prior, venom still dripping from the blade.
Each discovery left a cold pit in Ryujin's stomach. Valtheris wasn't chasing him like a blunt predator. No, he was rather toying with him, studying every instinct Ryujin had developed since exile, preparing for the perfect assassination.
That night, sitting beside a dim campfire hidden under thick brush, Ryujin whispered into the darkness.
"I know it's you, Valtheris. My father sent you. This… silence? These signs?" His jaw tightened. "You're telling me I'm already dead".
Nox's head lifted, molten eyes glinting in the faint firelight. It gave a low, guttural growl, shadowflame curling faintly from its throat.
Ryujin rested a hand on the drake's snout.
"I've seen your work before," Ryujin muttered, recalling tales whispered among noble courts. "Beast tamers, even lords, erased without trace. No fight. No sound. Just gone".
He clenched his fist. "But I'm not going down like that. Not this time".
…
Far away, perched high in the boughs of an ancient ironwood tree, Valtheris crouched, serpent mask blending seamlessly into shadow. His wyvern mount clung silently to the trunk below, forked tongue tasting Ryujin's fading scent trials.
Through emerald runes in his mask, Valtheris observed his quarry move through the wilds with growing cunning.
Unlike most targets, Ryujin didn't blunder. He sensed traps, dismantled them, moved unpredictably.
If it was just the Abyssal Drake, one of his traps would have caught it already. If it was just Ryujin, he would have brutally mauled the boy already. But together, they formed a fearsome duo.
"Interesting," Valtheris murmured, voice a low hiss. "The whelp has fangs".
But fangs meant nothing to the serpent's coil.
Valtheris was patient. Like a constrictor, he tightened his hold inch by inch, suffocating prey until escape became illusion.
He watched Ryujin extinguish a fire early, watched how he leaned against his dragon, trusting its instincts.
Even without direct combat, Valtheris learned everything; timing of movement, response to threat, reliance on shadowflame.
Each piece built the perfect execution in his mind.
And then, on the fourth night, Valtheris tested him.
It began with a whisper of steel. A poisoned dart struck a tree inches from Ryujin's shoulder as he packed supplies. Another hissed past his ear, embedding deep into stones, glowing faintly with venomous runes.
'Move!' Ryujin barked mentally.
Nox reacted instantly, lunging forward as Ryujin vaulted onto its back.
The drake's malformed wings beat hard, propelling them into a gliding leap across jagged rocks. Harpoons whistled through moonlight, narrowly missing.
From the shadows above, Valtheris' voice followed like a phantom.
"Run, little wyrmling… It makes the hunt sweeter".
Ryujin gritted his teeth, clutching Nox's scales. "He's flushing us uphill," he muttered as they glided over another ridge. "Forcing me toward open ground…"
They ducked into a ravine, breath ragged, only for another wyrm net to snap taut, nearly snaring Nox's wings mid-leap. The drake roared, tearing free with a burst of shadowflame, landing hard on the other side.
Valtheris didn't press further. Instead, silence returned.
It was worse than pursuit, because it meant Valtheris had let them go.
Ryujin whispered to himself, "He's watching how I escape… preparing to close the coil completely".
…
Two more days passed with no rest.
Ryujin pushed deeper into mountainous terrain, hoping the treacherous cliffs would give him an advantage. Sheer drops and narrow ridges slowed Valtheris' wyvern mounts and serpent scouts.
At least, that's what Ryujin told himself.
Every time he glanced back, he swore he saw faint glimmers; emerald eyes in the distance, a flash of black scales vanishing behind rocks.
By the seventh dawn of this hunt, exhaustion clawed at him.
Supplies dwindled. Sleep became shallow, haunted by the sensation of a serpent's tongue brushing his neck.
Even Nox grew restless, pacing constantly, tail lashing, molten eyes ever fixed on the distance. The drake's growls were no longer warnings… they were promises of coming bloodshed.
By late afternoon, they reached a plateau overlooking a sheer cliff. The wind howled across jagged stone, carrying the stench of dried serpent blood from long-forgotten battles.
Ryujin crouched, scanning the horizon.
Below, broken pillars of rock jutted like spears from the earth. It would make escape near impossible.
"Trap," he muttered, glancing at Nox. "This is where he wants it to end".
Nox's molten eyes glinted, shadowflame curling in anticipation.
And then, Valtheris emerged…