The Guild's bells tolled at dawn, their deep clangs echoing across Driath's mist-shrouded streets.
Haruki pulled his cloak tighter around himself as he stood in the training yard, the stone still slick with dew.
The memory of last night's ambush lingered like a wound, but today brought no rest.
Dozens of Hunters gathered, their ranks forming neat lines before the Guildmaster. The air buzzed with tension; eyes slid toward Haruki and then away, as though even a glance might stain them.
Guildmaster Renshiro stood at the front, his presence cutting through the chill morning air. His voice carried, commanding and final.
"Last night's betrayal revealed cracks within our walls. We cannot waste time hunting shadows when Bantings still roam unchecked."
His gaze swept across the crowd, pausing briefly on Haruki before moving on. "Today, we strike back. An A-Class Banting has appeared near the ruins of Hozai. It must be eradicated before it devours the surrounding settlements."
Murmurs rippled through the Hunters. An A-Class this close to the city was rare and dangerous.
Renshiro continued. "I am assigning a strike team of twelve. Rai. Kana. Kuro. And…" His eyes hardened as they locked on Haruki. "You."
Gasps broke out. One Hunter muttered, "Putting the leash on the frontlines?" Another hissed, "He'll doom the mission."
Haruki's chest tightened, but he stepped forward anyway. "Understood."
Renshiro's expression betrayed nothing. "You are to operate under strict watch.
Any deviation, any surge, and the order is immediate execution."
Kuro smirked from across the yard, voice dripping with mockery. "Guess we're babysitting the leash."
Haruki ignored him, though his fists clenched inside his cloak.
Rai approached quietly, speaking low. "An A-Class this early… they're testing you."
"Or setting me up to fail," Haruki muttered.
Kana joined them, slipping a small herb pouch into his hand. "For stamina. Don't die before I can heal you." Her grin was forced, but her eyes betrayed real worry.
The Guild's banners flapped above them, crimson against the gray sky.
The Silent Hunt had begun.
The strike team set out at first light, boots crunching against frost-hardened dirt as the city gates closed behind them.
Twelve Hunters marched in formation, their armor gleaming, weapons strapped and ready. The atmosphere was heavy too heavy for simple camaraderie.
Haruki walked near the rear, cloak drawn, every step weighed down by the eyes at his back. Whispers traveled through the formation like smoke.
"Why's he even here?"
"Because the Guild wants to see him burn."
"If he loses control, we strike first."
He ignored them, though the words cut. His gauntlets shifted faintly with his emotions, runes flickering beneath the metal.
Kana broke formation just enough to walk beside him. "They talk big because they're scared. An A-Class Banting terrifies them more than you ever could."
Haruki gave her a sidelong glance. "I'm not sure that's true anymore."
Ahead, Rai walked silently, blades at his hips, his eyes scanning the tree line as though expecting an ambush at every bend.
Kuro, on the other hand, strolled with infuriating ease, hands tucked into his sleeves, a grin plastered on his face.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Kuro said suddenly, loud enough for the whole squad to hear. "The ruins ahead… they reek of death. Perfect place for a leash to snap."
Several Hunters chuckled darkly, though their grips tightened on their weapons.
Rai's voice came sharp. "Shut your mouth, Kuro."
"Oh?" Kuro tilted his head, feigning innocence. "Did I hit a nerve, or are you just afraid your little leash-pet will bite?"
Haruki said nothing, but the runes on his gauntlets glowed faintly, betraying the anger building inside.
He forced himself to exhale, to stay calm. Not now. Not in front of them.
The trees thinned as they approached Hozai's outer rim. What had once been a bustling town now stood in ruin broken walls, collapsed roofs, and blackened stone scarred with claw marks too large to belong to any ordinary creature.
The air itself was heavier here, thick with miasma. Even the birds had fled.
A Hunter at the front gagged. "By the gods…"
Kana's expression hardened. "The Banting is close. Its aura is saturating everything."
Haruki felt it too. A pulse, like a heartbeat beneath the earth. Hungry. Watching.
The ruins of Hozai weren't abandoned.
They were a trap waiting to be sprung.
The ruins of Hozai stretched like a graveyard. Crumbled walls leaned at unnatural angles, the streets littered with broken carts and skeletal remains of houses.
Mist coiled low to the ground, swallowing sound, turning every step into an echo.
Haruki's senses tingled with every breath. The miasma wasn't just air it pressed against his skin like a living thing, testing him, prodding him.
His gauntlets vibrated faintly, the runes pulsing in rhythm with the unseen heartbeat beneath the ruins.
"Stay sharp," Rai murmured from the front, his hand resting on his blades.
The squad fanned out, their eyes sweeping corners, weapons raised. Kana muttered a soft incantation, faint green light swirling at her fingertips, enough to push the mist back just a little.
Then silence. Utter silence.
Even the sound of the wind died.
A Hunter near the edge of formation stiffened. "Wait… where's Torin?"
Everyone froze. The man who had been walking at the rear left flank was gone. His footprints ended abruptly in the dust. No struggle, no blood. Just absence.
"Shit," another Hunter cursed, spinning with his spear raised. "He was right there."
System Zero's voice buzzed in Haruki's mind, sharp and rapid:
[ALERT: Entity proximity confirmed. Distortion detected. Recommend: Look up.]
Haruki's head snapped skyward.
The mist parted, and for a split second, he saw it an enormous, skeletal shape clinging to the shattered rooftops above.
A spider-like silhouette with too many limbs and a maw filled with rows of jagged teeth. Its body flickered, phasing in and out of sight like a broken reflection.
Then it dropped.
The ground cracked under its weight as it slammed down into the center of the squad. Hunters scattered, shouting.
Two were caught instantly, dragged screaming into the mist by bladed legs that moved too fast to follow.
"Formation!" Rai roared, drawing his blades and launching forward with crackling lightning. His strike sparked against the creature's chitin but barely left a mark.
Kana raised her staff high, casting barriers to protect the retreating Hunters. "It's shifting between planes I can't hold it for long!"
Haruki felt his pulse surge, the red glow threatening to rise in his vision again. The chains whispered inside him, rattling like they were eager to break.
The Banting's many eyes swiveled and fixed on him. Its maw split wider, as if it recognized him.
Haruki raised his gauntlets, voice steady despite the storm inside. "So it's me you want? Then come and get me."
The A-Class Banting screeched, and the Silent Hunt truly began.
The Banting lunged. Its bladed limbs tore through stone and steel alike, cutting apart the ruined plaza in a frenzy of motion.
Hunters shouted, their formation shattering as they scrambled for footing.
Rai darted in with lightning speed, his twin blades flashing arcs of blue. Sparks flew as he met the creature's chitin head-on, his strikes leaving shallow grooves.
Not enough.
The Banting screeched, swatting him aside with a single limb that sent him crashing into a crumbled wall.
"Rai!" Kana screamed, erecting a barrier just in time to shield him from the follow-up strike.
The impact rattled her to her bones, cracks splintering across the shimmering ward.
Two Hunters tried to flank, launching chains tipped with hooked spears. The Banting's body flickered and the chains passed straight through it.
A moment later, the beast reappeared behind them, jaws snapping shut with a wet crunch. Blood mist sprayed the cobblestones.
Panic spread like fire.
"It's untouchable!" one Hunter shouted, stumbling backward.
"Fall back!" another cried.
"No one retreats!" the squad leader barked, rallying what little courage he could. "Hold the line!"
The Banting answered by ripping him in half.
Haruki's breath came ragged, his gauntlets trembling with restrained energy.
The chains coiling around his arms pulsed like they recognized the beast.
He felt the urge no, the hunger to let go, to unleash everything. But the memory of Kana's frightened voice in the alley still lingered.
If I lose control here… I won't just kill it. I'll kill them.
System Zero's voice cut in, unnervingly calm:
[Strategic Note: Current strike team survival probability—9%. Correction: 7%. Recommend: controlled release of "You-know-what."]
Haruki grit his teeth. If I do that, the Guild will execute me before the Banting even falls.
[Better executed alive than eaten in chunks. Your choice.]
The Banting's many eyes locked onto him again. It knew. It sensed the power rattling inside him. It ignored the other Hunters, its limbs curling inward like a predator savoring the hunt.
Kuro, standing casually at the edge of the chaos, finally chuckled. "Looks like it wants you, leash-boy. Well? Prove you're not just a monster waiting to crawl out of its skin."
Haruki wanted to snap back, but another Hunter screamed as the Banting's claws skewered him. Kana's barrier flickered under strain, Rai staggered from the rubble coughing blood, and the squad's numbers dwindled by the second.
They weren't holding the line. They were being erased.
Haruki clenched his fists. The chains rattled louder, echoing in his ears like war drums.
If he didn't act now… everyone here would die.
The Banting roared again, a distorted sound that made the earth quake. Shards of stone rained down from broken towers as the creature slashed through another Hunter. His scream was short, cut off by the sickening crunch of jaws.
Kana's barrier shattered completely, sparks dispersing as she collapsed to one knee. Sweat ran down her pale face. "I ..I can't keep this up…"
Rai forced himself upright, blood trickling from his mouth. "Tch… Damn thing's not even winded." He dragged one blade along the ground to steady himself, sparks scattering with each labored step.
The survivors the handful still alive clustered together, trembling and pale. They weren't Hunters anymore. They were prey waiting to be picked apart.
Haruki's gauntlets throbbed. The chains binding his arms rattled like restless serpents.
He felt the power inside coil tighter, hungrier, begging to be unleashed. A black pressure built in his chest, seeping into his veins like liquid fire.
System Zero's voice whispered into his mind:
[Warning: Subject's emotional threshold at 92%. Restraint protocol… failing.]
Haruki's breath hitched. He clamped his fists tighter, nails digging into his palms. No. Not yet. If I let it out… if I become that thing again…
"Haruki!" Kana's voice cracked. She was trying to get up, but the Banting loomed above her, shadow stretching long across the plaza. Its eyes glowed, a hundred hateful stars focusing on her fragile body.
Haruki's heart stopped.
The creature raised a bladed limb, ready to split her in two.
Something inside Haruki broke.
The rattling of the chains surged into a deafening roar. Black light seeped through the cracks in his gauntlets, jagged veins racing up his arms.
His pupils dilated, his vision sharpening until every detail of the monster burned with clarity.
The air grew heavy. Even the Banting hesitated, its attack pausing as if instinct warned it of the storm about to be unleashed.
System Zero chuckled darkly:
[Finally. About time you stopped playing nice.]
"Shut up," Haruki growled through clenched teeth. His voice vibrated with a resonance not entirely his own.
Kuro smirked from the edge of the battlefield, eyes glittering. "There it is. The monster behind the leash."
The chains cracked apart, fragments shattering into sparks of black flame. Haruki's gauntlets warped, lengthening into jagged claws that shimmered with abyssal light.
Power poured out of him in waves, distorting the air, rattling the ruins, and forcing everyone nearby to stumble back in terror.
The Banting reared, shrieking as if challenged for the first time.
Kana's wide eyes locked onto Haruki. There was no relief there only fear.
"Haruki…" she whispered.
Her trembling voice pierced deeper than the chains ever had.
Because for the first time since arriving in Driath, Haruki wondered
Was he still himself?