Ash's boots crunched over the frozen ground. Hundreds of crystals glimmered under the crimson sky, each one pulsing faintly, as if alive.
He moved forward and bent down, picking one up. The core throbbed in his palm, cold seeping through his bare skin, freezing his blood.
His luck warned him, causing him to drop it.
Jessie shouted from afar. "Ash—drop it."
Before he could react and retreat, the crystal shuddered and cracked apart in front of him.
Shards shot outward like glass shrapnel, digging into his skin, painting the ground red with his blood. From the fragments, a small beast emerged—a crystalline wolf, jagged and translucent, with glowing veins of frost for blood.
"Another wolf fight," Ash barely muttered, controlling his cry of pain.
The ground trembled.
