They met Maerin at dawn.
Korvan's longhouse smelled of cedar smoke and steel. Maps were unrolled across the table, corners pinned by old knife pommels. Maerin traced a finger along a charcoal-marked route that cut through forest gullies and up a ridge of black pines.
"Ignivar Rex," she said. "The Crimson Tyrant. He's been burning the canopy and driving game toward the village traps. No civilians in the hunting grounds today—scouts cleared them at first light. You four take it." Her eyes flicked to each of them in turn. "Come back in one piece."
Hunnt clasped forearms with her. "We'll report straight back."
They left before the sun cleared the ridge. The forest took them in with a hush of dew and soot. Charred bark flaked beneath their boots; ferns glistened where last night's ashfall had melted into silver droplets. A pair of crows leapt from a scorched limb, wingbeats like cards being shuffled.
Kael walked point, bowgun slung low, gaze sweeping. "Tracks ahead," he murmured.
They crouched together at the edge of a clearing where the ground had been hammered by talons the size of dinner plates. A ring of trees was scorched waist-high, blackened in a circle. Alder knelt, running a gloved hand across the churned soil. "Fresh. Heavy. He launched from here."
Seren angled her shield to catch the light. "He's roosting somewhere with height. Eastern rise?"
Kael's eyes unfocused for a heartbeat—Observation Haki opening like a second sight. Heat signatures bled through the terrain in his mind: small lizards under rocks, a boar dozing in a cool hollow, and—there—a slow-breathing blaze above the treeline. He pointed. "Ridge spine. Two hundred, maybe three."
Hunnt nodded once. "Roles hold. Kael calls shots. Seren keeps us anchored. Alder takes windows. I pull the beast where we want him."
They moved as one.
Beneath the pines the world was a cathedral of shadow and ember. When wind pushed through the crowns, ash drifted down like pale rain. The climb steepened; roots became ladders and the ground smelled of pitch. Kael lifted a fist—halt. Above, through a break in the canopy, a tail like a serrated banner curled and uncurled against the sky.
The Tyrant stood on a jut of stone like a throne.
Ignivar Rex turned, scales ember-red and iron-black, the horned crest smoking with each exhale. His eyes were the color of molten coin. When he roared, the sound shoved birds from their nests and sent a ribbon of dust sliding from the cliff face.
Alder drew the Heartflare from his back, the blade's volcanic seams dim under morning light. Hunnt rolled his shoulders; Veilrend Gauntlets thrummed as his will coated them—Armament Haki deepening the metal to a hungry black. Seren set her feet, shield half-angled, lance tip steady. Kael slid a flash round into the breech and breathed out.
"On me," Kael said. "Seren, forward guard. Hunnt, pull him left. Alder, wait for my mark."
They broke cover.
The wyvern snapped its head toward the motion and belched a fireburst that ripped across the ridge. Hunnt blurred—Soru—a single blink-step that placed him inside the flame cone. Anchor Step set his stance an instant later, both fists crossing to split the gust around him. Heat sheeted off in a V, sighing into the trees.
"Left!" Kael barked.
Hunnt gave it a target—Redirect, a slanting parry against the monster's snapping maw that turned bite into passing surge. Ignivar's head carved through empty air; Hunnt slammed a Pulse Drive into the exposed jaw hinge. The shock rippled up the skull; the wyvern staggered and beat its wings, rage rising.
Seren crashed in, shield-first, catching the first tail sweep on the rim. The impact rang through the forest—her boots gouged furrows, Tekkai knitting her stance iron-hard for that heartbeat. "I've got you," she grunted, rolling her shoulder to bleed the force away—Kami-e softness layered over steel.
Kael's flash round cracked. Light detonated over the Tyrant's crown. It recoiled, blinking hard, wings flaring for balance.
"Window!" Kael snapped.
Alder surged, Armament flowing to his arms, the great sword coming down like a verdict. The edge bit—not deep, but enough to scrape sparks and stagger the beast to the cliff's lip. Ignivar snapped blindly, shredding a pine into splinters, then launched straight up in a gust that flattened the underbrush.
"Air!" Kael warned. "Scatter!"
They scattered. The Tyrant wheeled above, ember flecks trailing from its wingtips. Three fireballs spat downward in a fan; Alder slipped one with Soru and shouldered through the next with Tekkai, fire breaking around him like a wave on stone. Seren raised her shield; the blast hammered her back to a knee but did not break her line. Hunnt ran into the heat, Observation humming—he read the rhythm of wingbeats, the hitch before a dive, the tense lash in the tail before a poison rake.
"Kael, watch the crest," Hunnt called. "Two-count before breath. Alder—Geppo up and bait the turn."
Alder kicked at air and climbed it—two, three steps up invisible rungs—Geppo lifting him to meet the king mid-swoop. Ignivar twisted to scythe him with a horn; Alder dropped one step, the horn grazing his pauldron, then rose and cleaved along the neck seam. The blow skittered across thick scale, scoring it. Not enough.
Kael slid under a falling ember limb, Kami-e light, and snapped two piercing shots into the membrane of the right wing. They hit. The Tyrant faltered, drop-stepping to keep level.
Seren was there to punish the descent. She braced into a thrust; the lance drove into the joint where wing met body. A bellow ripped the clearing apart. Flame sprayed low and wide—Kael was already moving, calling lines.
"Hard left burn—Hunnt, pull him! Seren, hold two beats then roll!"
Hunnt took the lane and the hate, gauntlets black and bright at once. Ignivar's head struck like a falling tree; Hunnt met it half a step aside, Redirecting again, this time slipping his forearm under the jaw and shoving the angle through—not an equal force, but a clever one. The wyvern stumbled, shoulder crashing into stone. Hunnt slammed a second Pulse Drive into the throat seam. Heat burst under his knuckles.
"Minor fissure," Kael said, eyes narrow. "Neck vent's warming—Alder, again!"
Alder came out of a Geppo drop with his blade already high. He drove it down—metal screamed against scale, shaving plate. The Tyrant's tail whipped; Alder saw it a blink too late. Seren did not. She threw herself into the arc, shield catching the blow with a sound like a bell in a storm. She slid six feet and stayed upright.
"Thanks," Alder panted.
"Don't make me do that twice," she shot back, breath thin but steady.
Ignivar Rex beat for altitude again, shadow rolling over them, but this time the rise was uneven—the right wing dragged. It wheeled wide and began a long, hateful circle, fire gathering along its tongue.
"No civilians," Kael said, mainly to himself. "Good. Then we stop hiding."
He drew in a long breath. Observation widened—webs of intent, pressure lines, heat currents—until he saw the dive before it began. "Here it comes. Seren, bait center. Hunnt, cut its ankle on my mark. Alder, when he checks his turn—put that edge into the vent."
Hunnt grinned without humor. "Mark it."
The Tyrant knifed down.
Seren planted, every muscle singing—Tekkai hardening bone and will. The fireburst arrived first; she angled the shield, riding the wave, skin prickling under the heat. The jaws followed; she pivoted an inch—a Kami-e slip—and the bite clashed on steel instead of her throat.
"Now!" Kael shouted.
Hunnt was already there—Soru to the inside of the foreleg, Armament humming at his knuckles as he punched the tendon cluster with a short, cruel strike. The Tyrant's balance wobbled; the dive's arc bent.
Alder took two steps up the air and fell like judgment. The great sword howled as it cut, edge angling into the warmed seam at the neck. The plate split. Not fully—but blood and fire hissed together in the wound.
The Tyrant went mad.
It wrenched free with a ragged, wounded roar, wings thrashing, tail scything in a flat spin that tore three trunks in half. Heat climbed. The canopy brightened. The king of the forest took the sky a second time—and this time the ash rose with it, spiraling into a storm.
"Rage phase," Kael said, voice calm in the chaos. "Hold formation. We've drawn blood."
Hunnt shook fire from his gauntlets and looked up through the roaring cinders. "Good. Let him scream."
Ignivar banked, mouth opening—three firebursts in a scatter pattern, then a sudden stall into a plummeting hammer-dive meant to break the hill itself. The ground trembled in anticipation.
"Brace!" Seren called, setting her shield, eyes bright. Alder rolled his shoulders and lifted the blade. Kael slid fresh rounds home in one smooth motion, stance loose, breath steady. Hunnt lowered into the heat, heartbeat slow, Observation tasting the moment before it came apart.
The sky turned crimson. The Tyrant fell.
And the hunt truly began.