The creature's growl settled into the earth like shifting stone. Even the wind forgot how to move. Orin felt the sound travel up his legs, through his ribs, into the back of his skull. The Vrexus stepped farther into the open, each movement sharp and angled, like a shadow cutting itself free from the forest.
Six-star.This wasn't supposed to be six-star.
But the Fangs didn't panic. They didn't even breathe wrong.
Sonny shifted his stance. Lisa lowered her center of gravity, whip coils humming. Vice's serpent senses sharpened into a razor. Vince rolled his shoulders, already calculating angles.
Orin tightened his grip on his dual cleavers.
Sonny spoke low, steady."Everyone hold formation."
Vince muttered, "That thing is too big to have moved that quietly."
Vice replied, "Would you like to ask it politely how?"
"Not particularly."
The Vrexus bared its fangs, long enough to pierce bone. Its eyes darted over them, studying the formation the way a strategist studies a war board.
Then it moved.
It was not fast.
It was gone.
A blur of black muscle and claw streaked between Vince and Vice—too quick to track with the naked eye. Orin barely registered movement before trees exploded from the force of the Vrexus's leap. Bark split, fragments flying like shrapnel.
"LEFT!" Sonny roared.
They responded instantly.
Lisa's whip snapped in a metallic arc, pulled by her magnetism and propelled by years of precision. It wrapped around a tree trunk, and she yanked herself clear just as the Vrexus swept past her.
Vice dove, rolling under a claw swipe that gouged a trench in the earth.
Vince leapt upward, using a broken branch as leverage to redirect his body mid-air like a spider monkey—his Blood Hunter lineage on full display. He came down with a kick that hit the Vrexus's shoulder with a thud like striking a boulder.
The beast barely noticed.
"VICE!" Sonny barked.
Vice reacted instantly, slamming his foot into the ground. A shock vibration rippled outward, disrupting the Vrexus's balance for a half-second. It was barely a stumble—
—but enough for Sonny.
He surged forward, flames flickering along his arms, not in wild bursts but as subtle veins of light. He struck the Vrexus across the jaw with a burning fist, searing fur and forcing its head sideways.
The Vrexus snarled and spun, slashing at Sonny with a curved, bone-white claw.
He blocked with the back of his bracer. Sparks erupted.
Orin felt his heart slam.
This was danger.Real.Immediate.Alive.
The Vrexus roared, and the sound nearly buckled Orin's knees.
"ORIN!" Sonny shouted suddenly.
Orin didn't think—he moved.
His cleaver swept upward, blocking a swipe that would've cut through Sonny's side. The impact sent a jolt up Orin's arm, vibrating bone, rattling teeth. But he held firm.
The Vrexus recoiled.
It stared at Orin now.
Really stared.
As if surprised.
Orin's chest tightened, but he didn't break eye contact.
Sonny shifted sideways, forming a barrier between Orin and the beast. "Don't overextend," he warned. "Stay disciplined."
"I'm here," Orin said. "I won't rush."
The Vrexus lunged again, this time angling toward Lisa.
"MOVE!" Vice yelled.
Lisa didn't need the warning. Her whip flew, metal shards slicing through the air. The magnetism pulled the whip into unnatural shapes mid-strike—wrapping, bending, snapping with deadly precision. She aimed for the Vrexus's eyes, but it jerked its head away at the last instant, claws swiping.
Lisa twisted under the slash, boots skidding across torn earth.
Vice was there in a blink—literally sliding under the Vrexus's legs, sweeping its ankle with a low, powerful kick.
Vince dropped from a tree branch above—where he had silently repositioned during the chaos—and slammed both heels into the beast's spine.
This time, the Vrexus felt it.
It stumbled, snarling, spitting a thick glob of dark saliva.
Sonny commanded, "Spread it out! Don't let it pick a target!"
Orin followed the formation while keeping his cleavers angled outward.
But the Vrexus changed tactics.
Its body tensed—muscles coiling like springs.
"GET READY!" Sonny barked.
Then—
It vanished.
A rush of air swept past Orin, so strong it nearly dragged his feet out from under him.
Lisa whipped around. "It's circling!"
Vice pointed. "High right—no, left—no—"
Vince yelled, "It's too fast!"
The Vrexus shot out of the treeline like a launched spear.
Straight toward Orin.
Sonny's heart skipped. "ORIN, DOWN!"
Orin didn't duck.
He stepped into the attack.
It wasn't bravery.It was instinct—sharp, loud, wrong or right, he didn't know. His cleavers raised on their own, crossing in front of him just as the Vrexus reached him.
CLANG!
The impact rang through the forest like a metal bell struck by a hammer. The Vrexus's claws scraped against Orin's crossed blades, sparks flaring wildly.
Orin slid backward across the dirt, boots carving twin lines in the earth, breath punched from his lungs.
But he was still standing.
Vince stared. "Did… did he just… block that!?"
Vice shook his head. "Not possible. But also… apparently possible."
The Vrexus lunged again, angry now—more animal than predator, insulted that prey had resisted.
Orin braced his cleavers and moved precisely how Sonny had taught him—guard up, knees bent, elbows close. He deflected one swipe, then another, every hit shaking his arms.
"ORIN! FALL BACK!" Sonny shouted.
"I can—"
"NOW!"
Orin exhaled sharply and pushed off the ground, tumbling back into position behind Sonny's right shoulder.
The Vrexus's claws ripped through the space Orin had been standing in a half-second earlier.
Lisa darted in, whipping a metal coil into the beast's exposed side. Vince struck from the front, Vice from the rear.
Sonny surged in from the flank, fire igniting up his arm in a disciplined, controlled burn.
For a moment—just a moment—they had the Vrexus surrounded.
They struck.
Lisa's whip cracked its ribs.Vice swept its leg.Vince slammed a palm strike into its jaw.Sonny landed a burning punch that lit its fur.
The Vrexus screeched and staggered back.
Orin stepped forward, holding his blades level.
The beast met his gaze again—longer this time.
Like it saw something different in him.
Something it recognized.
Orin didn't flinch.
Sonny extended an arm to keep Orin behind him but didn't break eye contact with the Vrexus.
Vice whispered, "It's thinking."
Lisa tightened her grip. "That's not good."
Vince muttered, "I hate when animals think."
The Vrexus let out a low, guttural growl—then turned.
It didn't flee.
It repositioned.
A predator's reset.
Sonny's voice dropped to a warning tone. "Everyone prepare for second engagement."
Orin tightened his grip on his cleavers. His heart pounded. His breath steadied. Every nerve in his body felt alive, open, waiting.
And when the Vrexus crouched low, ready to spring—
Orin stepped half a pace forward.
Not foolishly.Not arrogantly.Just ready.
He wasn't the child who watched from the window anymore.
He wasn't waiting at the inn.He wasn't watching others fight.
He was standing with them now—
the Fangs,
his family.
And the Vrexus was coming.