Simon grips the steam piston in his palm, the familiar weight grounding him as he studies the worn-down compound ahead.
Cracked concrete walls lean inward, rusted iron gates hang crooked on broken hinges, and the smell of damp earth and rot hangs in the air under the full moon.
He glances sideways.
"Captain Cassandra Frostwyn," he asks, voice low, "are you sure Linda and Charlie are here?"
Cassandra Frostwyn narrows her pale eyes, silver light faintly glinting within them.
"My spell led me here," she replies calmly. "So yes. They are here."
She lowers her hand, frost still clinging to her fingertips.
The trace spell she cast earlier lingers in her senses, threads of invisible residue stretching through space like faint echoes only she can perceive.
It captures traces no ordinary human could ever sense.
Its failure rate is less than ten per cent.
And it only fails when the target's level exceeds her own.
Linda and Charlie are not stronger than her.
Cassandra is a Fifth-Tier Alchemist Apprentice.
She turns slightly, surveying the people behind her.
Five knight apprentices stand alert, hands resting near their weapons.
Behind them stands Kade, an official knight, middle-aged and stoic, his presence alone radiating quiet pressure.
"Kade," Cassandra says evenly, "start the operation."
Kade nods once.
He raises his hand and signals his team forward.
They move in practised silence.
Kade strides toward the gate, his right hand beginning to glow with a dull yellow hue.
Earth-attributed fighting energy gathers around his fist, dense and heavy.
He punches.
The gate explodes inward, hinges snapping as the metal door tears free and slams onto the concrete floor with a thunderous crash.
Dust and debris scatter.
Kade steps inside without hesitation.
The five knight apprentices follow.
Simon, Bell, and Cassandra move in behind them.
Inside the compound, three large buildings loom in the moonlight, their windows dark and lifeless.
Smaller structures cluster around them like decaying limbs.
Cassandra closes her eyes and casts the trace spell again.
The world sharpens in her perception.
Faint currents twist and overlap.
After a few seconds, she opens her eyes and points.
"There."
They move.
Their boots echo softly along the concrete path under the night sky.
The full moon bathes everything in pale silver.
Then they hear it.
A bark.
Sharp.
Hostile.
Another joins it.
Then many.
Footsteps pound against stone and dirt as the barking grows closer, louder, more frantic.
Kade raises his arm.
The knights halt instantly.
From between the buildings, shapes burst into view.
Dogs.
But not dogs as Simon knows them.
They have no fur.
Their skin is crimson, raw and slick, stretched tight over sinew and bone.
Black eyes gleam without reflection.
Canines jut from their jaws, at least two inches long, serrated and wet with saliva.
Their claws scrape against the ground, three inches long, sharp enough to spark against stone.
And behind them runs one larger beast.
It is twice the size of the others.
Its limbs are thicker.
Its claws are longer.
Its canines nearly double in length.
Every part of it is exaggerated, as if something took an already twisted creature and pushed it further.
The dogs charge.
"Formation," Kade snaps.
The knights snap into an arrow formation, Kade at the point, shield raised.
Behind them, Cassandra, Simon, and Bell fall into the protected centre without hesitation.
Cassandra raises both hands.
Her spirit life stirs.
She is a nature alchemist, but her water spirit life has been refined into ice.
Three arrays glow faintly within her spirit space.
Water Array.
Cold Array.
Solid Array.
Together, they form an ice elemental attribute.
She inhales once and chants softly.
"Ice Beam."
A lance of pale blue energy erupts from her palm and slams into the street ahead.
Ice spreads instantly across the concrete, racing outward like a living thing.
The smaller dogs hit the frozen surface at full speed.
They slip.
Limbs flail.
Bodies crash into each other with wet, cracking sounds.
Only the largest dog keeps its footing, claws gouging deep into the ice as it powers forward.
Kade roars and charges.
Earth energy surges through his legs, cracking the ground beneath each step.
He meets the large dog head-on.
Claw meets shield.
Impact shakes the air.
The knights break formation and surge forward, swords flashing as they descend upon the fallen smaller dogs.
Steel bites into crimson flesh.
The creatures shriek.
Cassandra lowers her hands and turns sharply.
"You two," she snaps, "get out of the way."
Simon does not argue.
He is from a prominent noble family.
He knows this world.
He knows what knights and alchemists can do.
Bell, though from a common family, has seen knights on the battlefield during the war.
But this—
This is his first time seeing alchemy and monsters colliding in real time.
Neither of them is foolish enough to stay close.
They sprint backwards and take cover behind a broken wall, crouching low as stone chips scatter around them.
From their position, Simon and Bell watch the fight unfold in brutal clarity.
The knight apprentices collide with the smaller dogs almost immediately.
There are too many of the creatures.
They surge forward in uneven waves, claws scraping against ice and concrete, jaws snapping with feral fury.
Individually, the dogs are slightly weaker than the knight apprentices.
But numbers matter.
Two dogs leap at one knight at once, forcing him to retreat, his blade flashing defensively as he struggles to keep balance on the frozen ground.
Another knight is knocked backwards, rolling across the ice before regaining his footing.
Cassandra raises her hand again.
"Ice Mist."
A pale fog spreads low across the ground, chilling the air and slowing movement.
The dogs snarl in confusion as their muscles stiffen, paws slipping, momentum breaking.
A knight seizes the opening and drives his sword through a dog's throat.
Blood sprays and instantly steams against the cold.
The battle fractures into dozens of close-range clashes.
Steel against claw.
Ice against flesh.
Cassandra's spells punctuate the chaos.
An Ice Arrow takes one dog through the skull, pinning it to the ground.
Another arrow misses, freezing the ground beneath a charging beast and sending it crashing into its packmates.
The knight apprentices move with discipline, covering one another, pulling injured comrades back while others step forward.
They are strained.
Breathing hard.
Sweat and blood streak their armour.
But they are holding.
At the centre of the compound, Kade and the large dog circle each other.
The creature is terrifying up close.
Its muscles ripple unnaturally beneath crimson skin, black eyes locked on Kade with predatory focus.
It moves faster than the smaller dogs, lunging with explosive bursts of speed, claws tearing gouges into the ground.
Kade meets each attack with precision.
He does not rush.
He reads the beast.
When it lunges high, he shifts low.
When it snaps for his throat, he twists aside and counters with a crushing shield bash.
Earth-attributed fighting energy surges with each strike, dense and heavy, cracking bone and forcing the creature back.
The dog recovers unnaturally fast.
Wounds knit partially.
Muscles tense again within seconds.
But it thinks only in instinct.
Kade thinks.
He feints.
The dog bites.
Kade pivots and drives his sword across its flank, drawing a deep gash.
The creature howls and retreats, then charges again without hesitation.
Minutes pass.
The smaller dogs begin to fall.
One knight loses his footing and nearly goes down, saved only when Cassandra freezes the ground beneath the attacking dogs, locking their legs in ice long enough for another knight to strike.
Simon and Bell watch, hearts pounding.
They know they should not interfere.
They are ordinary men.
But they also know they cannot just watch.
Simon steadies his breathing and raises his pistol.
Bell follows.
They aim for the edges of the fight.
The first shots crack through the night.
Steam pistons recoil.
Bullets strike crimson flesh.
They do not kill.
They do not even seriously wound.
But the dogs flinch.
Some stagger.
Others freeze for a split second, startled by pain and sound.
That split second is enough.
A knight's blade comes down.
A spell lands cleanly.
A dog collapses.
Bell fires again.
His bullet grazes a dog's shoulder.
The creature yelps and turns its head.
An Ice Arrow pierces its eye.
Simon reloads and fires into a cluster of dogs pressing a knight back.
One bullet hits a creature square in the chest.
There is a sharp crack.
The dog convulses and drops instantly.
The bullet has struck something vital.
The core.
Simon's eyes widen.
"It can work," he mutters.
They keep firing.
Carefully.
Deliberately.
They aim not to kill outright, but to disrupt, to stagger, to create openings.
Minute by minute, the balance shifts.
The knight apprentices gain ground.
Their formation tightens.
Their strikes grow more confident.
Dogs fall one after another, bodies piling on ice-streaked concrete.
Cassandra's breathing grows heavier as she cycles spell after spell, managing her reserves with practised restraint.
She switches to Small Healing Spell twice, restoring shallow cuts and easing muscle strain on two knights without breaking the rhythm of the fight.
At the centre, Kade roars and drives forward.
The large dog leaps again.
Kade meets it head-on, shield slamming into its chest, earth energy exploding outward.
The creature is thrown backwards, skidding across the ground.
Before it can rise, Kade closes the distance.
He does not aim for the head.
He aims for joints.
One strike to the knee.
Another to the shoulder.
The dog shrieks, movement faltering.
It lashes out blindly.
Kade takes a glancing blow, claws tearing into his armour, drawing blood.
He grunts but does not retreat.
He steps inside the creature's reach and thrusts his sword deep into its chest.
The blade sinks in.
The creature convulses violently.
Black fluid pours from the wound.
The dog's body twitches, then goes still.
Silence spreads slowly across the compound.
The last small dog collapses under a knight's blade, its body skidding across the ice.
No more movement.
Only the sound of laboured breathing remains.
Kade plants his sword into the ground and leans on it briefly.
Cassandra lowers her hands, frost fading from her fingers.
Simon and Bell step out from behind the wall, pistols lowered but still warm.
Bell swallows hard.
"By the Crown," he mutters.
Cassandra turns toward the largest building.
"The trace is stronger now," she says quietly. "They are close."
The battle is over.
But the hunt has only just begun.