The fire was just embers when Clara shook Ethan awake.
Her voice was low, urgent. "Get up. Something's moving out there."
Ethan blinked the sleep from his eyes and sat up, the night air cold against his skin. Around the dying fire, the others were already stirring—Marcus rolling his shoulders, Ryan stringing his bow in practiced silence, Selene drawing faint symbols into the dirt that glimmered briefly before fading.
"What is it?" Ethan whispered.
Ryan's gaze didn't leave the tree line. "Sounds like a lone scout. Dark spawn."
The word dark sent a shiver down Ethan's spine. He remembered Ryan's earlier warning and the distant roar from the night before.
Marcus stood, cracking his knuckles. "Better we deal with it before it calls friends."
Clara looked to Ethan. "Stay behind me. If it gets past, run."
Her tone was matter-of-fact, not cruel, but it still stung. He clenched his jaw and nodded.
The forest beyond the camp seemed thicker at night, every tree a looming shadow, every rustle of leaves a whisper of movement. The moonlight was thin, barely enough to paint the outlines of trunks and branches.
They moved as one, Marcus and Clara at the front, Ryan slightly to the side, Selene muttering under her breath as faint arcs of light curled between her fingers. Lily stayed just behind Ethan, her hand resting lightly on his arm as if ready to pull him back.
The sound came again—low, wet, like something dragging itself across the ground.
Then he saw it.
It stepped into the thin strip of moonlight, and Ethan's stomach tightened. The creature was the height of a man, but its limbs were too long, bending at unnatural angles. Its skin was mottled gray, stretched tight over jutting bones, and its head… its head was little more than a split jaw lined with needle teeth, no eyes in sight.
Ryan's bow creaked as he drew. "Target sighted."
Before the words finished leaving his mouth, the thing lunged.
The fight happened fast. Clara stepped into its path, her sword flashing in an arc of steel, but the creature twisted unnaturally, her blade only slicing across its shoulder. Black blood hissed against the dirt.
Marcus was already there, his fist slamming into its chest with a sound like cracking timber. The thing staggered but didn't fall.
Selene's voice rose, and a bolt of pale lightning leapt from her hand, striking the creature square in the side. It shrieked—a sound like metal grinding on glass—and turned toward her.
Ethan didn't think. He snatched a fallen branch from the ground and swung with all his weight. The blow landed across the creature's back, but it was like hitting stone. The thing didn't even flinch.
It spun toward him.
The sudden, gnashing maw filled his vision, and he stumbled backward. Before it could reach him, Clara's shield slammed into its side, knocking it off-balance.
Marcus seized the moment, both fists driving into its torso with brutal force. Bone cracked.
Ryan's arrow took it through the throat a heartbeat later, and the creature collapsed into the dirt, twitching once before lying still.
Ethan's chest heaved, his knuckles scraped raw from gripping the branch so tightly.
Marcus exhaled, shaking out his hands. "Ugly bastard."
Selene's eyes flicked to the body. "That was weaker than what's been sighted near the ridges. If they're pushing this close…" She let the sentence die.
Lily stepped to Ethan's side, checking him over. "No wounds?"
"I'm fine," he said, though his pulse was still racing.
Then it came—the chime, clear and unmistakable in his mind.
[Eligible battle completed. Calculating amplification…]
[Result: ×24]
[EXP available: claim now?]
Ethan's breath caught. Twenty-four times the normal gain…
He glanced at the others. Marcus and Clara were already dragging the body away from camp. Ryan was retrieving his arrow. Lily had her back turned.
This was his moment.
Claim it, he thought.
[EXP claimed. Processing…]
Warmth surged through him—not like heat, but like the air itself thickened and wrapped around his limbs. His muscles tingled, his vision sharpened. It was over in seconds, but he could feel the difference, subtle yet undeniable.
He let out a slow breath.
The voice didn't speak again.
When they returned to camp, no one asked why he seemed a little steadier on his feet. And he didn't offer to tell them.
Because the system's warning still echoed, cold and final:
[Revealing this system will result in immediate Host termination.]
Lying down by the fire again, Ethan stared into the dark treeline. He'd survived his first fight. Barely.
But this was just one creature. Somewhere out there were things stronger—things he wasn't sure he could face even with the system.
And he had a feeling he'd be meeting them sooner rather than later.