Silence had barely begun to return to the stone forest after the heated confrontation when the night split open with a strange sound… a sound unlike anything humans had ever heard.
The first howl came from a very distant place… deep, heavy, stretched out, like a monster pulling the air from the chest of the sky itself.
Everyone stopped.
The men of the Blood Blade Sect tightened their grips on their blades, and their tattooed red eyes narrowed.
The men of the Bloodied Hands Sect gathered together instinctively, and the bloody circles on their skin began to glow.
Even the old man's group, the weakest among them, turned toward the darkness with pale faces.
As for Ashen…
He didn't even lift his head.
He remained lying on the rock, running his fingers slowly over the small stones, as if the howl was nothing more than background noise not worth his attention.
---
The howl hadn't even faded before another came… much closer.
Then a third…
Then a whole series of howls, dozens of voices mixing together, rising, overlapping, filling the stone forest like a choir of death that had been practicing for thousands of years.
The ground shook under their feet.
The leader of the Blood Blade Sect said sharply:
"This… is a pack of Blood Wolves. But the number… it's not normal."
The leader of the Bloodied Hands Sect replied through clenched teeth:
"And why are they heading straight toward us? Did you drag us into another one of your experiments?"
The old man swallowed hard, and the two leaders understood that he was truly afraid…
A rare thing for someone who had survived fifty years in the wilderness.
But the old man didn't answer.
His eyes were fixed on the darkness… sensing the vibrations coming closer… toward the stone forest…
As if something was pulling the beasts here.
---
Then the first shadow appeared.
It shot out from between the rocks like an arrow, massive, covered in harsh blood-colored fur, its eyes glowing with a hellish light.
Its footsteps alone were enough to shake the stones.
A Blood Wolf.
Then another, and a third…
Then a whole wave.
Dozens of wolves burst into the clearing at once, and screams erupted immediately.
One soldier from the Blood Blade Sect shouted:
"Impossible… impossible… there are too many of them!"
And the worst part?
A heavier… deeper… bigger sound.
Footsteps…
Shaking the soil…
Shaking hearts.
The first giant wolf appeared.
Five meters of muscle and blood-soaked fur.
Its claws glowed with a living blood-red light, as if blood itself was flowing inside them.
Its mouth dripped with a thick red liquid… but it wasn't blood — it was saliva filled with strange energy.
Then the second giant wolf appeared.
Bigger… broader… and its eyes weren't red.
They were black… like an abyss…
Like the eyes of something that had seen death for a hundred years, then returned to chase it in others.
One soldier from the Bloodied Hands whispered, trembling:
"Two pack leaders… at the same time? That's impossible… a pack falls into chaos if two leaders exist!"
But the old man clenched his teeth and said quietly:
"This isn't a normal pack… something is pushing them… forcing them…"
Everyone felt it too…
As if some hidden force was driving the beasts forward… as if they were created to kill tonight.
---
And as the pack approached…
The last thread of silence snapped.
Chaos erupted.
The men of both sects raised their hands at the same time, blood energy igniting around them.
The old man's group formed up behind him — their scorpion tails, their limbs, their auras.
Everyone…
Everyone moved.
Except one person.
Ashen.
Still lying there, one hand behind his head, staring at the sky…
Not like someone ignoring death…
But like someone who stopped caring about it a long time ago.
As if their lives, their screams, their fear, the blood that would soon spill…
All of it was a play he had watched hundreds of times.
---
When the pack was only twenty steps away…
The ground trembled under their numbers.
Small stones jumped out of place.
Dust rose into the air.
The scent of old blood rose from the earth.
The leader of the Blood Blade Sect shouted:
"Prepare yourselves!"
The leader of the Bloodied Hands followed:
"Anyone who retreats… dies!"
And the old man's voice…
It was soft… but deep… carrying a hint of pain:
"Hold on… we haven't faced this in twenty years…"
And as the wolves leaped into the clearing…
The giant wolf ended the silence with one final howl…
A howl that made the sky itself tremble.