Kaelith spotted a girl hovering at the edge of the group, hands trembling around her staff, eyes darting like a cornered rabbit. Nobody called to her. Nobody even looked.
"You," Kaelith pointed, grin reckless and bright. "You're with us."
The girl flinched. For a heartbeat it seemed like she might protest but then her shoulders sagged, relief and fear mingling in equal measure. She shuffled closer, silent, eyes flicking warily toward Riel. His smile hadn't faded.
He felt their gaze—the unease radiating from his classmates. It didn't matter. For once, the air wasn't thick with whispers only he could hear. For once, the monsters weren't clawing at the edges of his sight. The wasteland was barren, cracked stone beneath a dead sky, but to him…it was freedom.
"I don't think I've seen you in class. What's your name?" Kaelith asked.
Her shoulders drooped lower, as if insulted they didn't already know. After all, they'd shared the same room for years.
"Elaine," she muttered, bitterness creeping into her voice.
"Kaelith. And Riel," he said, jerking his thumb toward his friend.
"I know who you are," she grumbled.
"Of course you do," Kaelith replied easily. "But if you introduced yourself, it's only polite we do too." His grin widened, as insufferable as ever.
Riel said nothing. That smile of his—stretched too wide, too unnatural—still clung to his face, frightening in a way even he didn't care to hide.
"Now that pleasantries are over," Kaelith said, "let's move."
The three set off, Kaelith striding ahead with confidence, Riel trailing with a strange, almost morbid excitement, and Elaine lagging behind, bow trembling in her unsteady grip as if it might slip from her hands at any moment.
Kaelith suddenly lifted a hand, halting them.
Shadows began to pool ahead. At first, they seemed like nothing more than stains bleeding across the stone but then they swelled, thickening, folding upward into jagged, three-dimensional shapes, as if something were clawing its way out of a canvas.
The first claw emerged; jagged and enormous, each talon gleaming like obsidian. Muscles of shadow rippled as the creatures dragged themselves free. The head followed: a cracked skull, jaw grinding open and shut, teeth clashing together with a hungry rhythm.
Bonegnashers. Doglike demons that prowled in packs. The wasteland was theirs and now, so were the three of them.
They fell into stances. Riel's smile faded into something tighter, his breathing steadying as the ferocity radiating from the beasts quenched his earlier excitement.
"They're three of them," Kaelith barked, his voice sharp with command. "I'll take the frontline. Riel, slip in and out, support where needed. Elaine, pressure them with arrows, don't stop moving."
Both nodded without hesitation.
Kaelith didn't wait for confirmation. With a reckless roar, he surged forward, claymore raised high. He brought it down with all his weight, the steel cleaving toward the demon's skull.
Clang.
The Bonegnasher's maw snapped shut around the blade, catching it clean between grinding fangs. Sparks spat as iron screamed against bone. Kaelith snarled, straining to wrench the weapon free but the demon's jaw was unyielding, its skull creaking as it bore down harder.
Riel moved before thought caught up. His chain hissed through the air, whistling once before coiling around the beast's hind legs. With a savage pull, he yanked, dragging the monster off balance. It crashed to the stone, jaws snapping open just enough for Kaelith to rip his claymore free.
The skull cracked slightly where the blade had lodged. Black mist hissed from the fracture like blood, the stench of rot flooding the air.
The other two Bonegnashers, sensing their kin falter, lunged forward as one. Kaelith was forced to retreat, his claymore raised defensively against the snapping maws.
Elaine's hands moved faster than her fear, thwip, thwip, thwip.
Three arrows in quick succession streaked across the air, driving the demons back just enough to halt their advance.
Riel didn't hesitate. He rushed in, chain whipping upward before crashing down on the nearest beast. With his free hand he tore out a talisman; its light flared, feeding the runes etched into the chain. They ignited in brilliant searing lines, branding into the shadow-flesh. Smoke hissed, the beast shrieking as strips of darkness peeled away. Riel's grin widened, feral, his eyes alight with frenzy as the monster staggered back under the burning binds.
Elaine loosed two more arrows, her pressure unrelenting, giving Kaelith the chance to rejoin. His claymore burned with lunar fire, silver flames licking the steel. With a roar he cleaved downward—this time the blade split the Bonegnasher clean in two. The shadow that made up its body convulsed, then melted back into the wasteland, nothing left but fading mist.
One down. Riel's smile twitched wider. Two to go.
The remaining beasts shook off Elaine's arrows, fury surging through their forms. Their grinding jaws snapped like war drums as they charged.
Not at Kaelith, not at Riel, but straight for Elaine. Take out the weak link, even the field.
Riel moved first. His chain lashed out, coiling around one of the beasts mid-leap. The runes burned bright, carving into its shadowy hide. It writhed and wailed, the sound splitting the air, a death-cry that made Riel's pulse quicken. His grin turned manic as he pulled tighter, the searing light consuming the monster piece by piece until it disintegrated into nothing but black dust scattered by the wasteland's wind.
Elaine's hands shook. But only for a heartbeat.
She whispered a prayer, and her bow flared with enchantment, glowing like a crescent moon. No arrow touched the string.
Moonlight itself gathered, solidifying into a radiant shaft of shadow and silver. She loosed.
The spectral arrow streaked across the battlefield, piercing straight through the last Bonegnasher's chest. For a breath, its body froze mid-charge—then ruptured, shadowy limbs flung across the barren stone, dissolving into mist before they even hit the ground.
Silence. Only their harsh breathing and the crackling remnants of moonlight remained.
Three Bonegnashers slain. Their first battle in the Veil was over.