The clearing shrank with every passing breath. The torchlight guttered low, paling against the tide of night, and the darkness seemed to crawl inward, alive, deliberate. At the edge of sight, pairs of golden eyes kindled one by one until they ringed the camp like a crown of embers.
The forest had gone silent. No insects stirred, no leaves rustled. Even the wind seemed to flee.
A growl rolled through the ground itself, so deep it trembled in the marrow of their bones. Another answered, and with it came the whisper of padded feet scraping against fallen leaves, circling, always circling.
"Circle up!" Sofia's command cracked through the stillness like a whip.
The guards moved with trained urgency, dragging carts into a rough barricade, horses pressed into the center, their eyes rolling white with panic. Spears angled outward, steel whispering as blades were drawn. The ring of light and steel formed, fragile against the endless dark.
Leo found himself set at the rear flank beside Owen, Evelyn, and the boy. The wood of a borrowed spear grew slick in his sweating palms. The shard in his chest throbbed like another heart, not his own, but vast, insistent, burning.
They are prey, it whispered, curling around his thoughts like smoke. You are fire. One breath, one thought, and they will be ash.
His vision swam at the edges, torchlight brightening into unbearable halos. Every sound stretched thin, each pant of the horses, each rattle of armor, each drop of sweat sliding from his temple, until the world was a drum beating inside his skull.
Then the beasts broke the silence.
A howl rose like a blade drawn across heaven, and the treeline erupted.
They came in a blur of fur and muscle, limbs too long, bodies twisted as though born of shadow itself. Their maws split wide, jaws unhinging beyond any wolf, lined with teeth slick and red. Claws carved sparks as they struck stone and steel.
The first slammed onto a spearpoint, shrieking as it writhed. Another vaulted high, clearing the cart in a spray of dirt. Guards shouted, steel clashed, horses screamed and kicked, and the night became chaos.
Leo froze. One beast lunged for him, its breath rank with rot and hot against his face, jaws yawning wide enough to engulf his head.
Strike, the shard hissed. Claim.
His arms moved before thought returned. The spear thrust forward, biting through throat. Hot blood sprayed across his cheek, copper stinging his tongue. The creature thrashed, clawing at empty air, then collapsed in a twitching heap. Its eyes dulled like candles snuffed.
Leo staggered, chest heaving, staring at what he had done. The shard purred in satisfaction, its heat pulsing through him, caressing his veins like fire. See how easy it is? More. Take more.
Sofia fought like a storm given flesh. Her blade was silver lightning, every strike a clean, merciless arc. She moved without hesitation, cutting down one beast, then another, each motion born of years carved in blood. "Hold the line!" she roared, her voice dragging courage from despair.
Owen ducked beneath a swipe of claws, jamming his reinforced rod into the beast's muzzle with a crack that split teeth. His face was pale, sweat streaming, but his stance never faltered. Evelyn knelt beside a bleeding guard, dragging him out of snapping jaws even as her hands pressed to the wound, glowing faint with strained healing. Her tears mingled with blood and dirt, her jaw clenched in fury at her own limits.
The boy clung to Leo's cloak, silent, eyes wide but unyielding. Not a cry, not a scream, just unblinking defiance as the world tore around him.
"Leo!" Owen's shout ripped through the haze.
Leo turned just as another beast hurtled from the dark, claws raised, eyes alight. His spear met its chest, snapping against bone. Without thought, his sword came free, blade hacking again and again, each strike heavier than the last until the beast fell twitching at his feet.
Blood dripped down his arm. His breath came in tearing gasps, heat rushing through him like wildfire.
Minutes blurred into an eternity. The clearing was a storm of snarls, steel, and screams. One guard went down beneath a flurry of claws, his cry ending in a wet silence. Supplies spilled from shattered carts as another beast leapt high, before Sofia split its skull with a brutal downward cleave.
Leo lost count of how many fell beneath his hand. Each strike seemed to blur into the next, each kill weaving a strange intoxication. The shard coiled tighter with every heartbeat, sharpening his senses, numbing his pain, filling him with strength that was not his.
More, it whispered, fervent, hungry. You were made for this.
And then, as suddenly as it began, silence.
The last beast twitched on the ground, throat pierced, its golden eyes flickering dim. The forest returned to stillness, broken only by the drip of blood soaking into soil.
The survivors stood panting, bodies streaked with gore, eyes hollowed by exhaustion. Around them lay ruin, broken carts, dead men, twisted beasts.
Sofia leaned on her blade, helm dented, armor scored with claw marks. She counted the fallen with her gaze, her jaw set in iron grief.
Evelyn knelt over a dying guard, her hands glowing faint, but the light faltered, fading. Tears streaked lines through the grime on her cheeks as she pressed harder, desperate, unwilling to let go.
Leo looked at his hands, slick with blood not his own. His chest burned, the shard pulsing with heat like a living thing that had burrowed into him, claiming him. He wanted to vomit. He wanted to scream. Yet beneath it all, he wanted to strike again.
A tug at his sleeve broke him from the trance.
The boy's small hand, shaking but steady. His voice soft, fragile yet unwavering:
"You saved me. Twice now."
Leo's throat closed. He looked into the boy's wide, fearless eyes, then down at the corpses strewn about. His hands trembled.
The shard whispered, almost tender, almost loving:
And this is only the beginning.