The forest was plunged into a heavy silence, as if nature itself was holding its breath. Keiko felt a tightening in her stomach and a sudden nausea that made her stop, leaning against a moss covered trunk that was damp and cold. The air around them exuded a sweet but rotten odor. Like fruit left to rot in the sun for days.
"What is it?" Gareth asked, stopping immediately. The tension in his voice revealed that he too sensed something wrong.
"Something... wrong," Keiko answered, taking a deep breath to calm her churning stomach. "The air is heavy. There's a strange smell beyond this rotten one."
Gareth stretched out his hand, sniffing the air cautiously, and his expression closed into a hard mask. "Abyssals. They're closer than I thought."
Keiko stopped in the middle of the path, one hand instinctively rising to her chest. A sudden, oppressive pressure had settled there, like a weight that hadn't existed moments before. It wasn't pain, but an attraction, an almost magnetic pull that seemed to emanate from the east, from the dense forest beyond the last houses.
"Keiko?" Gareth's voice came suddenly beside her. He had noticed her abrupt stop, her pale face. "What is it?"
She could barely articulate. Her fingers tightened on the fabric of her tunic over her sternum. "Something... something is there." Her eyes, glazed, fixed on the tree line. "I don't know what it is. I feel like something is calling me."
Daven approached from the other side, his warrior's gaze immediately alert, sweeping the forest. "Calling you? You mean, like an Abyssal?"
"No... it's not hostile." She tried to find the words to describe something that wasn't sound or sight, but just an insistent presence, like a thread of lost melody that only she could hear. "It's as if something important is there, a feeling of fear and terror, like a cry for help."
Gareth and Daven exchanged a quick, loaded glance. Rationality dictated they ignore a vague feeling. However, this was a world where only a hunch or an omen could save lives, and Keiko was a mystic. Dismissing her instincts could be as grave an error as running blindly into danger.
"Describe the sensation," Gareth ordered, his voice low and urgent.
"It's cold. And urgent. I think it's a request, or maybe an alert." Her gaze remained fixed on the forest, and her body was already slightly leaning in that direction, as if she were a compass finding north.
Daven let out a low, thoughtful sound. "The forest is too quiet. Not even the birds are singing." He was right. The usual bustle of wildlife had ceased, leaving only the unsettling whisper of wind in the leaves, which sounded less like a breeze and more like a dragged out warning.
Gareth made the decision. "We'll check. But with extreme caution." He fixed Keiko with a severe look. "You stay behind us. At the slightest sensation of danger, of hostility, we turn back. Immediately. Understood?"
She nodded, relieved they hadn't simply dismissed her intuition. The pressure in her chest pulsed, insistent, guiding her.
Without another word, the three entered the tree line. Gareth went first, with his bow already drawn taut in his hands, eyes and ears attuned to any threat. Daven flanked to the left, a spear visible in his hand. Keiko remained in the center; her heart beat in unison with the mysterious call that led her deeper into the dark and silent forest, where the only sound was the whisper of the wind and the silent alarms screaming in their minds.
The pressure in Keiko's chest transformed into a thread of tension, growing thinner and more direct, pulling her without hesitation along an almost invisible path between the trees. For ten, twenty, thirty steps they advanced, the darkness of the canopy swallowing the afternoon light.
It was Gareth who stopped first, raising a closed fist. His eyes had fixed on something ahead not a movement, but an irregularity in the pattern of fallen logs.
There, partially hidden by ferns and twisted roots, was a giant hollow log, an ancient tree that seemed to have fallen decades ago, its rotten interior creating a dark, deep cavity.
From that darkness came a sound. Not a loud cry, but the contained noise of panting breaths and muffled squeaks the sound of terror trying not to be heard.
With a look at Daven, who nodded in understanding and covered his flank, Gareth approached silently, Keiko a step behind, the attraction in her chest now a sharp stab of certainty.
And then they saw.
Huddled in the back of the cavity, like creatures cornered in a den, were three children. Two boys, Tam, eight years old, and Davos, seven, and a little girl named Ella, only six. Their faces were pale as if carved from wax, eyes too wide, bodies trembling violently. Little Ella held a piece of cloth against her mouth, stifling sobs that threatened to erupt.
Gareth crouched before the opening, his posture broad and his face deliberately soft. "Are you all okay?" he asked, his voice a deliberately calm version of his usual tone.
Tam's eyes locked onto the bow on his back. "Luna..." the boy's voice failed and he swallowed hard. "She made us hide here. Said she would distract the thing. Made us promise not to come out."
Keiko knelt beside Gareth. "What thing, Tam?"
Davos was the one who answered, his gaze lost in a distant point of the log, as if reliving the terror. "A monster. Dark. With lots... of teeth."
Ella lowered the cloth, her face shining with tears. "And the eyes," she whispered, her voice a broken thread. "They were red. And shiny. Like embers. And it walked... crooked."
The last word came out in a sigh. "Like it had too many legs."
Gareth and Daven exchanged a look full of worry and terrible understanding.
"Shadow Grusk," the hunter murmured, the curse leaving his lips like a dark omen.
Daven visibly paled, gripping his spear with a force that turned his knuckles white. "Here? But the barriers..."
"Failed," Gareth completed in a hard voice. "They must have failed. There's no other explanation."
He turned to Daven, adopting a tone of absolute command. "Go back to the village. Now. Take the children back. Fast."
"I'm going with you," Keiko said, determination blazing in her eyes with an intensity that surprised even herself.
"Absolutely not," Gareth answered immediately, the denial firm and leaving no room for discussion. "This is no longer a search for lost children. It's an Abyssal hunt. Creatures that hunt Mystics. You would be the primary target."
Keiko flinched involuntarily under the weight of those words, but forced herself to take a step forward. "I understand the danger. But I can help. I feel where she is. It's like a thread pulling my attention, guiding me. I don't know how to explain it better, but I know I can find her."
Gareth hesitated, conflict evident in every tense line of his face. Precious seconds passed as he weighed the options.
"If you come," he finally said, each word loaded with weight, "you obey every order without question. No discussion. No hesitation. And if I tell you to run, you run and don't stop until you're inside the village barriers. Understood?"
"Understood," Keiko agreed immediately.
Daven opened his mouth to protest, but Gareth interrupted him with a brusque gesture. "We don't have time for debates. Warn Aldric. Tell him exactly what's happening. The barriers may have fallen in other points too. The village needs to prepare."
While Daven led the frightened children toward the relative safety of the village, Gareth and Keiko followed her instinct deeper into the forest, the tension hanging in the air like a storm about to break.
Their advance was meticulous. Each step tore damp leaves from the ground, the acidic smell of earth mixing with the sweet, rotten stench that saturated the air with growing intensity. Gareth went ahead, bow taut in his hand, the eyes of an experienced predator scanning every shadow, every low branch, every potential movement.
Keiko followed close behind, fighting not to trip over the thick roots that snaked across the ground like sleeping snakes. The strange thread she felt that inexplicable intuition, that connection she didn't understand pulled her attention toward a gorge covered by ancient ferns.
The cold in her belly only grew with each step.
Gareth stopped suddenly, raising his hand in the universal signal for silence. Keiko froze instantly.
Absolute silence. No frog croaks. No rustling of small animals. Nothing.
He gestured for Keiko to crouch. Both slid through the bushes, breaths controlled, barely moving.
And then they saw.
There, among the shadows of a fallen trunk, was Luna curled in on herself, knees to her chest, eyes wide with pure terror. She was voluntarily trapped at the back of a small natural cavern formed between rocks, barely lit by the light escaping through the foliage.
But something blocked the access.
On the threshold between light and shadow, a Shadow Grusk waited like a living statue of nightmare.
It was larger than Keiko had imagined from the children's description. Over two meters tall when erect, but the hunched, slender body gave the impression of being even larger, even more threatening. Covered in shiny, almost oily black skin that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. The red eyes peered out with unsettling cunning, while the long, sharp teeth, covered by thick tongues, gleamed wetly.
But it was the anatomy that made Keiko's stomach churn.
It had six limbs, not four like a common animal. Two main arms, long and muscular. Two smaller, thinner arms emerged from its torso just below the main arms. In addition, it had two hind legs that crossed at unnatural angles, with extra joints that made every movement seem twisted and wrong.
The body seemed made of solidified smoke and twisted bones, subtly changing shape with each breath.
Luna kept her hand over her mouth, desperately trying not to sob. The Grusk scratched persistently at the rocks that partially blocked the cave entrance, forcing its claws through the narrow crack. The opening was too small for its body; it could only push one claw through at a time, clawing the air mere inches from the terrified girl's face.
The fear was almost palpable, a physical pressure that tightened Keiko's chest and made her heart hammer painfully.
Gareth signaled to her with precise gestures: Wait. Don't move.
He analyzed the terrain carefully the fallen branches, the creature's position, the possible angles of attack. He knew a single mistake would be fatal. Shadow Grusks were fierce, fast, and intelligent. Especially when they had prey cornered.
He drew his bow with a smooth movement and chose an arrow with a broad head, designed to cause maximum possible damage. He wanted to finish it quickly, but he needed to be absolutely precise.
The moment he aimed, the Grusk turned its head.
The movement was instantaneous, impossible to track. A guttural hiss echoed, a sound that made Keiko's skin crawl completely. The red eyes fixed on Gareth, recognizing the danger, assessing the threat.
With a speed that contradicted its size, the creature leaped over the log, all six limbs moving in disturbing coordination, claws extended aiming directly at the hunter.
Gareth rolled to the side with trained reflexes, feeling the wind of the claws' passage cutting the air near his temple. The creature landed where he had been seconds before and, in a motion too fluid for something so large, twisted its body like a serpent, whipping its long legs to trip him.
Gareth retreated, balancing himself by a miracle. He felt the tips of the claws scratch his left thigh, not deep, but enough. The pain was sharp, burning like ice instead of fire.
He fired an arrow on the move.
The Grusk dodged, but not completely. The point tore through the side of its black neck, from which a viscous, purplish liquid smelling of decomposition oozed.
The creature roared. It wasn't a common animal sound, but a cry with layers, as if several voices were screaming in unison. Its jaw opened absurdly, revealing it split into four parts and showing not just rows of teeth, but something even worse: a black, forked tongue moving independently.
It attacked again. This time charging with all four front limbs, forcing Gareth to jump back desperately. He stumbled over the fallen log, losing his balance.
He fell on his back, struggling to breathe and expelling air in a painful sound.
The creature immediately took advantage, jumping on him with crushing weight. Gareth used the bow to block the descending jaws, feeling the impossible weight of the Grusk pressing down. The teeth bit into the bow's wood, chipping it dangerously. The claws of the four arms sought his face, his neck, any exposed flesh.
Keiko screamed, a sound of pure terror that escaped before she could control it, but it distracted the Grusk for a precious half second.
Gareth, seizing that tiny moment, drew the dagger from his belt with his free hand and plunged it into the creature's chest. It wasn't a mortal strike, the angle was wrong, the position poor but it was enough to make it recoil, shrieking.
The Grusk howled, and the layered sound echoed through the forest. Blood ran down its twisted torso, mixing with something darker that pulsed beneath its skin.
Seizing the creature's moment of hesitation, Gareth rolled to the side, grabbed another arrow from the ground where it had fallen during the fight, and in a desperate, brutal move, used it as an improvised stake.
The creature charged again, jaw open in four parts.
Gareth drove the arrow directly into that open mouth, forcing it through the palate, piercing until he felt the resistance of something solid deeper.
The Grusk shuddered violently. Its entire body convulsed, limbs thrashing uncontrollably. Gareth rolled away quickly, avoiding the claws that still tried to reach him even as life left the creature.
Finally, with a last guttural sigh, the Grusk went still. The sound of the sigh sounded painfully like words in an unknown language.
The silence returned. It was heavy, trembling. Only Gareth's ragged breaths broke the quiet.
The hunter remained on his knees for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Blood dripped from multiple cuts on his thigh, scratches on his arms, a shallow cut on his face that he hadn't even noticed receiving.
Keiko ran to Luna, kneeling to help the girl out of the hiding place. Luna was crying convulsively, dirty with earth and tears, trembling uncontrollably.
"It's okay," Keiko whispered, hugging the small child. "You're safe now. Gareth killed the thing. It's dead."
Gareth got up with effort, still in a state of maximum alert despite his exhaustion. His eyes never stopped sweeping the surrounding forest. "We need to get out of here. Now. Grusks rarely hunt alone."
From deep within the forest, a roar, loud and deafening, suddenly arose, breaking the silence that had reigned until then.
It wasn't like the Grusk's shrieks.
This one was deep. Very, very deep. It resonated through the forest like subterranean thunder, making the ground vibrate under their feet, making birds explode from the trees in absolute panic.
Gareth's blood ran cold.
That sound. He had heard descriptions. In stories told by old hunters. In warnings passed down through generations.
But he never thought he'd hear it in person.
"Borak," he whispered, and the word came out like a condemnation. His face was hardened by primitive fear and the terrible understanding of what that meant.
"What is a Borak?" Keiko asked, but she could already see the answer in the absolute terror stamped on the experienced hunter's face.
"Take Luna back to the village. NOW." Gareth ordered, his voice rough and leaving no room for discussion. "Run. Don't look back. Don't stop for anything."
"And you?" Keiko demanded, holding Luna tighter.
Gareth cast one last look at them, a look that carried the weight of an unspoken farewell. "I'll check the other groups. Warn them. Try to..."
He didn't finish. There were no adequate words.
He turned and ran toward the roar, toward the danger, not away from it.