At noon the river threw back the sun like a sheet of glass.
The koi hovered one body-length below the surface, aligning his pulse to the glitter.
He felt Brandon before he saw him—the steady, unflickering will he had touched through mist. No doubt. No tremor. Footsteps on gravel. A shadow leaning in.
Now.
He fired upward.
Air slapped his gills; heat flashed his scales; the world arced white—then arms were there, exactly where the dream had promised. Strong. Certain. Brandon caught him without flinch or fumble, as if he had done it a thousand times in waking life, not once in prophecy.
[Bond Protocol: Initiating]
[Candidate: Brandon — Human Tamer]
[Consent required: Host/Brandon]
[Proceed?]
Yes.
Sense braided tight, two rhythms finding one cadence. Brandon's breath hitched, then steadied.
"So it's you," he said, a quiet conclusion. "The mystical koi."
The koi pressed his spine to the warm crook of Brandon's elbow. He was not mystical; he was hungry, terrified, forged of sharp new vows. But if belief was a tool, he would wield it. If lore was a bridge, he would run across without looking down.
[Bond established]
[Shared growth: open]
[Legendary Task — Objective One complete: Form a bond with a Human Tamer]
"Welcome to the team," Brandon said. He lifted his left arm and whistled.
It brought winter.
A shadow crossed the sun and became a phoenix woven of hoarfrost flame. Its wings tore the air like silk freezing, its breath etched lace of frost into the sky. One beat scattered a storm of shards that hung for a heartbeat before falling as arrows.
"This is Frostwing," Brandon said. "Breathe easy. She won't bite."
The phoenix folded down, eyes like frozen sapphires, discipline radiating from an old, tempered bond.
[Scan: Companion detected — Frostwing (Icy Phoenix)]
[Classification: Tier 2]
[Combat notes: Cryo breath, shard-flurry, aerial lift, glacial field control]
Tier 2. The koi's mind snagged on the label. Careful, thin, he asked: System, what tier am I?
[As stated: Host remains Level -100.]
[Tier system does not recognize negative levels.]
[Therefore: Host is not in the tier system.]
His chest clenched. Not in the system. Not on the ladder. Outside the map everyone else used to measure the world. What am I then?
He let the emptiness burn, then set it down. Labels didn't cut dragons. Work did.
Brandon's thumb brushed the bowl's rim, as if sensing the dip in his will. "You came like the dream said. Then the rest will follow. We go to Emerald Peak. You jump; I catch; we climb."
No sermon. No speech. Just conviction too simple to wobble.
Right, the koi crackled through the bond. We start now. And I won't be a burden.
A grin touched Brandon's mouth. "You won't be."
—
They built a way to move together. Brandon lashed a wide-mouthed bowl to a sling across his chest—lined with felt, freshened every mile. The koi curled inside, Blood Scales humming like buried embers. When terrain turned cruel, Frostwing carried man and bowl in her talons, and the three became a geometry of trust: bird, man, fish, bound in one line.
Training began the first hour. Brandon drilled reflex: count your breaths; feel where your partner wants to move; don't reach—invite. Frostwing strafed a gravel bar with shard-flurry; Brandon set the bowl steady under winter hail; the koi practiced Bounce through crosswinds, skipping as if the air wore invisible stones only he could see. Bite found cords and straps to mend rather than tear.
They moved.
Across salt flats that lied with mirage, Frostwing shaded them with a wing of cold. Through thorn deserts that clawed at skin, Brandon wrapped cloth around the sling and carried the bowl like a shrine. Up canyons where the wind struck with fists, they braced and laughed and kept walking. Over snowfields, Frostwing lifted them above the knife-bright crust, arrowing across silence like a thought refusing to freeze.
Nothing went wrong.
Once, a dune collapse missed them by a heartbeat. Once, hunters fell silent when Frostwing cut the sky, arrows idle as awe. Once, a wind-devil shredded a village, only to veer and break on stone before touching a soul. The world stepped aside as if rehearsed.
The koi felt something he did not trust. It wore hope's clothes, but did not tremble.
[Bond Synergy rising]
[Hidden Trait revealed: LUCK (Dormant → Active)]
[Source: Brandon's unwavering belief amplifies Host fortune within bond radius]
He stared at the words until they blurred. Luck? A toy scribbled in a war ledger.
"…Sounds stupid," he muttered along the bond. "But if it works, it works."
Brandon chuckled. "Exactly."
Frostwing dipped one wing, like laughter in flight.
—
"Rule," Brandon said one night under winter stars. "You don't die. Not until we face what we came for."
"Obvious," the koi answered.
The System cut through their vow.
[Legendary Task — Clause Update]
[If Host dies before first attempt on Bonus Objective (Tier One Emerald Dragon), task is considered failed.]
[Penalty: immediate upon revival. Severity: irreversible.]
His scales prickled. So if I die on the road—
[Fail state: true.]
"Alive, then," the koi said grimly.
"Alive," Brandon echoed, as if it were a plan, not a prayer.
—
Days stacked into a road. Brandon learned the slosh of water that meant left or now. The koi learned Brandon's silences. Frostwing learned how low she could skim rivers before the koi's Sense drowned in noise. They became a three-body problem solved by practice.
And the bond grew teeth.
Sense extended without tearing. Brandon knew when Blood Scales wanted to share its uglier gift. Frostwing learned to freeze the bowl's rim in heat, or to lift at angles that made Bounce turn air into water for a breath.
Everything aligned.
"Not normal," the koi said on the sixth sunset, horizon bleeding clean. "I've never had six days without catastrophe."
"That's because you were alone," Brandon replied simply.
The koi shut his eyes. He reheated that sentence each night, ate it like winter soup. I will not be a burden.
They crested a ridge. The world rose in saw-tooth. Above the rest, a green-black shoulder crowned with cloud: Emerald Peak. At its foot, a scatter of roofs like broken teeth. A village.
The air tightened, as if the world held its breath. Frostwing lowered, Brandon shaded his eyes, and the koi tasted iron in the wind.
"Tomorrow," Brandon said.
"Tomorrow," the koi echoed.
They made camp within sight of the mountain, with luck purring like a tame storm beneath their ribs. The koi drifted in his bowl, stars cutting the dark. Ahead lay the second objective, the lake, and a dragon harder than steel. Ahead the world would stop stepping aside and start shoving back.
Tonight, the road was quiet.
He slept like a blade in its sheath.
Tomorrow, the sheath would open.