The climb over the east wall was nothing like the Guild's official gate crossings.No guards, no inspection lines, no stamping of papers — just cold stone under Kael's fingers and the heavy silence of the outer wilds beyond.
The moonlight painted the jagged rocks and swaying grasses in pale silver. The air smelled cleaner here, sharper, with the faint tang of ozone that always lingered where higher-ranked beasts roamed.
Ryn crouched low beside him as they dropped into the tall grass on the other side. Her movements were precise, practiced — no wasted motion. She carried herself like someone who'd been living on the wrong side of the wall for years.
"Stay close," she murmured, eyes scanning the darkness. "We follow the blood scent first. If we're lucky, it'll lead us to whoever's been playing games in the hunting zones."
Kael smirked faintly under his hood. "And if we're not lucky?"
Her lips curved in a humorless smile. "Then we find the games they've been playing on us."
They moved north, away from the patrol paths, their boots muffled in the dew-soaked grass.
The further they went, the heavier the air became. The silence was wrong here — no chirp of night insects, no rustle of small game. It was the kind of silence predators left in their wake.
Kael's senses prickled. The Stonehide from his breakthrough made him feel heavier, more grounded, but also… calmer. The usual edge of fear when stepping into high-risk zones was dulled, replaced by a steady readiness.
"Blood," Ryn whispered suddenly.
Kael followed her gaze. Ahead, the grass was bent and darkened. A faint metallic tang hit his nose. They crouched to examine the trail — splashes and smears, some fresh enough to glisten.
Ryn dipped a finger into one of the droplets, bringing it to her lips. Her eyes narrowed. "Fire-aligned. High GP density. This came from something D-Rank or better."
"Another rhino?" Kael asked.
She shook her head. "No. This is lighter, faster. Maybe a Fireclaw Stalker."
Kael had heard of them — lean, wolf-like beasts with burning talons and a cruel hunting style. Dangerous, but solitary. If one had bled here, it meant a fight had already happened.
They followed the trail deeper into the tall grass until it opened into a small clearing. The sight that greeted them made Kael's gut tighten.
The Fireclaw Stalker lay on its side, chest still twitching faintly. Its fur was scorched in patches, claws cracked. But the worst part —
Its throat had been slit cleanly. Not torn, not bitten. Cut.
Beside the wound, the fur was damp with drying blood — but not nearly enough. Whoever had killed it had drained most of it on the spot.
Ryn crouched over the carcass, running a hand along the clean edges of the wound. "Blade work. Fast. This wasn't a hunter on a legal kill — no marks, no tags."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Like us."
"Exactly like us."
A faint rustle from the far treeline snapped both their heads up.
Shapes emerged — slow, deliberate, stepping into the moonlight.
Three beasts, their bodies long and low, fur bristling like black fire. Their eyes glowed faint orange, the kind of hue that marked a beast touched by a Fire element but warped by something else.
Kael's stomach sank. Their movements were wrong — too stiff, too in sync.
Ryn hissed. "Those are Ashfang Hounds. C-Rank, but… they're moving like a pack. They don't do that."
"They do," Kael murmured, "if someone's controlling them."
The hounds fanned out, cutting off the tree line behind Kael and Ryn. Their growls rose, low and rumbling, vibrating in Kael's chest.
Ryn's crossbow came up in a fluid motion. "Left?" she asked.
"Right," Kael said.
The hounds lunged.
Kael met the first with a sidestep and a brutal shove, his Stonehide letting him absorb the impact without flinching. The beast snarled as Kael's knife punched into its flank, hot blood spraying across his arm.
He didn't stop to bottle it — there wasn't time — but the rush of proximity alone let his strange gift drink in stray drops.
[C-Rank (Low) | GP: 95+ 15 = 110]
The whisper was almost drowned out by the beast's yelp as Kael ripped the blade free.
Ryn's shot cracked through the night — a bolt punching into another hound's eye, dropping it mid-leap. She reloaded with terrifying speed, the second bolt catching a lunging beast in the shoulder.
Kael ducked under a snapping jaw, rolling to his feet and driving his knife up under the ribcage. The hound convulsed, then went limp.
Two down. One limped away, growling. But instead of fleeing into the trees, it backed toward the Fireclaw's corpse… and then stopped dead, eyes locking on something behind it.
From the shadows beyond the clearing, a figure emerged.
Hooded, cloaked in something darker than the night around them. In one hand, they held a long, curved blade that still dripped with blood.
Kael's pulse spiked. That blade could have made the cut on the Fireclaw.
The hound slunk to the figure's side, tail low, its glowing eyes dimming as though in submission.
"You shouldn't be here," the figure said — voice distorted, genderless. "You draw attention. That makes you dangerous."
Ryn's crossbow rose. "You're the one moving beasts out of their zones."
The figure tilted their head. "Not moving. Shaping. The wild bends to the strongest blood. And right now, that's mine."
Kael stepped forward, Stonehide hardening in his skin. "You're framing us."
A chuckle. "No. I'm freeing you from your illusions. You think you're special? You're just animals who learned to drink differently. But you'll never shape the wild like I can."
The last word was barely out before the hound lunged — faster than before, teeth aimed for Kael's throat.
Kael twisted aside, grabbing its neck and using its momentum to slam it into the ground. The Stonehide let him hold it there long enough to drive his knife home.
When he looked up, the figure was already retreating into the trees, moving like smoke between the trunks.
Ryn cursed, lowering her crossbow. "Too fast. We can't follow them blind."
Kael knelt beside the last hound, drawing another vial. This time, he didn't hesitate — the blood was hot and thick, carrying a faint burn of Fire that he could feel even without swallowing.
He drank.
The rush was sharp, electric — more volatile than the rhino's, coiling in his muscles like a spring.
[C-Rank Partial Integration Possible: Fire Talons (Body)]
Not yet, he thought. He'd save that slot for later. But the GP was his now, tucked away where no one could take it.
They searched the clearing, but found no tracks other than the hounds' and the single figure's — and even those seemed to blur unnaturally at the edges, fading into nothing a few steps into the trees.
Ryn crouched by the Fireclaw's corpse. "This shaping they talked about… it's not just control. That beast bled too clean. No panic in the wound pattern. Like it wanted to give it."
Kael wiped his knife on the grass. "If they can do that, they could build an army. Beasts from every zone, working together."
Ryn's eyes were grim. "And if they're framing us for every kill along the way, the Guild will do their work for them — by putting our heads on spikes."
They started back toward the wall, moving fast and silent. The further they got from the clearing, the more the normal night sounds returned — the chirp of insects, the rustle of leaves. But Kael couldn't shake the image of the cloaked figure's blade, the way the hound had bowed its head in submission.
The power in that kind of control was worth more than any number of GP stones.
And if this "shaping" was another kind of gift — like his and Ryn's, but different — then the game had just changed again.
By the time they reached the base of the east wall, the first pale hint of dawn was touching the horizon.
Kael hauled himself up the stones, pausing at the top to glance back over the wilds. Somewhere out there, the figure was moving more beasts, bending the wild to their will.
Ryn joined him on the ledge, her expression unreadable. "We tell no one in the city. Not yet. The Guild hears even a whisper of this, and they'll double the patrols, lock down the zones, and hang the first two suspects they have — us."
Kael nodded slowly. "So we hunt them ourselves."
Her smirk was sharp. "Exactly."
They dropped back into the city's shadowed streets. The world on this side of the wall hadn't changed — yet. But Kael knew it was only a matter of time before the chaos beyond bled through.
And when it did, he planned to be ready.