Chapter 12 — Shadows Between the Trees
The forest was too quiet.
Not the peaceful kind of quiet — the wrong kind. The kind that hums under your skin like a warning you're too late to hear.
Kael crouched in the undergrowth, eyes scanning the gnarled treeline. Moonlight knifed through the canopy, breaking across his blade in pale streaks. The scent of churned earth and iron reached him. Blood. Fresh.
Side's voice threaded into his mind, calm but edged with alertness.
—Two heat signatures ahead. One dying. One… enjoying themselves.
Kael tilted his head. "Enjoying themselves?"
—You'll see.
He moved like a shadow slipping between shadows, each step silent, measured. The undergrowth whispered against his boots, then fell away into a small clearing.
A noble youth — pale hair, expensive armor — lay half-sprawled, clutching a gash in his side. Towering over him was the beast: not a natural predator, but a chimera of bone plates and sinew, stitched by something that understood cruelty. Its eyes glowed an unnatural green.
Side hummed. —Engineered. Modified dungeon spawn. Someone's idea of fun.
Kael straightened, sword hanging loose in his right hand.
The beast turned. Low growl. Its talons tore grooves into the earth.
For a heartbeat, the world stilled. Then it lunged.
Kael stepped into the attack, pivoting with a snap of his hips. Steel kissed the edge of the creature's claw — sparks bloomed in the dark. The impact jarred up his arm, but he flowed with it, letting the beast's momentum overextend its body.
"Too heavy," Kael murmured. His left hand flicked, and the sword reversed in his grip. He drew an arc, severing the tendon at the back of its foreleg. The thing shrieked, stumbling.
The noble groaned. "H-help—"
"Stay down," Kael said without looking back.
The beast lunged again, this time low. Kael's blade blurred, a silver ribbon in the moonlight. Space folded — not fully, just enough to cut the distance between his strike and the beast's exposed neck. The blade bit deep.
The chimera crashed to the ground, convulsing once before stilling.
Silence.
Kael exhaled, flicked blood from the sword, and sheathed it in one smooth motion.
Side was the first to break it. —You could've ended it three moves earlier.
"I could've," Kael said, crouching by the corpse. "But now I know its weight, speed, and how it's stitched together. This wasn't sent by chance."
His hand pressed against the creature's cooling flesh. Shadows coiled beneath his palm — unseen, unremarked upon. When he rose, the body was gone, hidden deep within his shadow's vault.
The noble was staring, eyes wide. "You… you killed that thing like it was nothing."
Kael's lips twitched. "I trip over harder things in the morning." He offered the youth a hand up, careful to keep his grip firm enough to steady, but not gentle enough to seem like a friend. "Now, let's get you somewhere with less… teeth."
Somewhere in the trees, leaves rustled — not from wind.
Kael didn't look back, but his fingers brushed the hilt of his sword. "We're not alone."
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