The sun rose early the next morning, it's golden rays spilling magnificently over the lush landscape as it climbed steadily above the horizon. The Horkii rainforest responded with a quiet vibrancy, coming alive under the warm light. Birds, ever the heralds of dawn, burst into energetic songs, greeting the morning with whatever sounds their lungs could manage.
The forest was serene, with trees of various colours swaying in the cool morning breeze and wild life steering from their slumber; ermarks croaked boisterously from beneath shady groves, insects buzzed in mesmeric cadence - particularly striking were the swinkle flies with their wings laced with golden patterns that created a deep resonant hum as they zipped through the air - tcha-tcha monkeys letting out their high-pitched jittery cries in the distant heights, I-plants slowly opening their glistening lids drenched in dew. The dense undergrowth was soaked with the moisture of dawn. Beads of water clung to every blade and branch, slipping quietly down to the mossy soil below... when suddenly, a loud deep, ground-shaking thud tore through the tranquil of the morning. Leaves trembled, droplets were flung from their perches, and the entire atmosphere, so serene just moments ago, shattered with the sudden violence of the sound.
Robert's eyes slowly opened to a deep resonating tremor beneath him—a distant yet unmistakable pounding that shook the stillness of the morning. It was heavy and semi-rhythmic, like the thunderous gallop of a collosal beast... something massive, something alive, stirring the ground with each step. It wasn't close, not yet, but it's presence was undeniable, resonating through the building like a warning drum.
Face scrunched up in drowsy confusion, Robert sat up slowly, pulling the earplugs from his ears and squinting around the dimly lit room, trying to process the sound and vibration. The room around him was eeriely quiet, save for the muted thuds vibrating the walls, growing steadily louder. Cindy and Oliver were already stirring. Their bodies rose from their snow beds groggily, their hair tousled and speckled with snowflakes. Their eyes, still heavy with sleep, flicked toward Robert in silent question. Clearly, they were feeling it too. The room was thick with shared confusion, and though none of them had spoken just yet, the same question filled their three minds:
What in the world was out there, pounding the ground like a giant come to life?!
The light bulbs attached to the walls, exhausted from their overnight duty, had dimmed to a faint glow, leaving only the strands of sunlight slipping through the translucent ice bricks to lit up the space now. Thankfully, the bricks weren't entirely made of Earth, or heads would likely be colliding in the darkness already.
The thudding sound was distinct but it was growing louder with each passing second, and the tremors in the ground was becoming more defined. There was no mistaking it now: whatever was making the noise was moving closer.
Zack, it seemed, was still in the adjacent Earth-walled room. The silence from that direction suggested he remained undisturbed, probably sound asleep and unaware of the commotion.
"Shouldn't we at least check outside to see what's causing the noise?" Cindy asked, looking at Robert.
Robert didn't respond immediately. Instead, he pushed himself from his snow bed and moved towards the wall. He leaned in, squinting through the ice bricks in hopes of spotting something—any clear shape or movement beyond them. But the view was warped. The ice bricks could offer nothing more than a jumbled swirl of deep green, scarlet, blue, and flickers of yellow - shades of the dense vegetation outside, twisted meaninglessly by the bricks.
"See anything?"
Robert shook his head slightly. "Not clearly. The brick's distorting everything."
"We should go outside, then."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Oliver spoke up. His voice was low and relaxed. "Whatever's making that kind of sound... If it's powerful enough to make the ground tremble from so far away, then we're likely dealing with a magic beast of at least level 20. That's not something we can afford to confront without serious backup. Without a Legendary wizard on our side, we'd be doomed if we're to come face to face with whatever it is. We'd be sitting ducks."
"More like Cindy and Zack would be sitting ducks," Robert thought to Oliver. "Oh, wait... Zack does have that jetpack, and he was working on something big last night, so he might have a chance. But your girl?" His eyes flicked to Cindy. "She'd be utterly defenseless."
Oliver's response was a low mental grunt.
No one said anything further aloud. The trio listened silently to the thudding sound, understanding unanimously that venturing outside could be reckless. With no certainty about the source of the thundering footsteps, stepping out of their ice and rock bricked abode could mean walking straight into danger.
And so, the unspoken decision settled over the room like a blanket: stay inside, stay quiet, and hope - hope that whatever large monstrous thing was stomping through the forest would simply pass by without noticing or bothering them.
The thudding sound grew steadily louder and more intense - it was no longer a distant tremor, but a forceful pounding that seemed to press on the wall with each reverberation. Then, without warning, a jarring crack echoed from the side as Zack blasted open a section of the Earth wall separating his room from the others. A little dust and chunks of hardened soil crumbled to the floor as he stepped through the breach.
Zack looked utterly disheveled—his hair tousled wildly, his hands and face stained with grease and oil, and his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. Evidently, he'd been working tirelessly throughout the night. The room behind him was completely empty, save for a few oil smudges and bird bones here and there, suggesting he'd finished whatever he was working on and packed it all into his space ring.
"What the hell could be making that kind of racket?!" Zack exclaimed, his voice hoarse yet edged with urgency as he stepped over the crumbled remains of the wall he just blasted through. Groggily, he took out his sound amplifier—sleek and still looking obese, turned it over, and began studying the data on it's screen, his brows knitted in as much alarm and confusion as a drowsy, sleep-deprived person could express.
Ah, the sound amplifier has got a screen too... Robert and Oliver thought, jaded... but wait a second—why in the world is the screen at the bottom of the damn thing? Who in their right mind puts the screen at the bottom of a handheld device?!
"What in the... the freaking thing is headed straight in our direction!" Apparently, Zack's amplifier wasn't just designed to amplify faint sounds, but was also capable of triangulating a sound's source and tracking it in real-time.
For a fleeting second, Robert's focus wavered. His thoughts spiralled back to the phone call recording from the night before, and a realization struck—just what kind of person was Zack, really? How could someone be so creative and smart yet so stupid?! His amplifier could also trace the origin and direction of a sound! That meant Zack could've easily located whoever had made the mystifying phone call last night. And yet, somehow, that crucial detail had eluded him! How?! It was maddening—utterly absurd!
But Robert could not voice those thoughts to Zack. Not now.
"Did you say straight for us?" Cindy asked in alarmed disbelief. Her body tensed, and in one swift motion, she sprang out of her snow bed. Alarm flared in her wide eyes, betraying the panic rising within. Beside her, Oliver quickly stood as well. His eyes scanned the room intently, his gaze fleeting across the walls and frozen-mud ceiling as though he were mentally accessing their integrity—examining the strength of the walls, the layout of the space, and the stability of their surrounding... just in case whatever it was came crashing in.
Zack gave no response to Cindy. His brows were drawn tightly in concentration as he watched the amplifier's screen. Every trace of his earlier sleepiness had vanished. "You guys really need to see this!" He said, voice sharp with rising urgency. "Whatever it is, it's moving crazy fast. Five minutes ago, it was fifty kilometers away from here, now it's only twenty one! We need to get outta here now! If that thing crashes into this building, we're done for!"
Robert, Oliver and Cindy quickly clustered around Zack to study the amplifier's screen. As they did, their expressions slowly shifted from confused curiosity to alarm. Though they couldn't comprehend the technical readouts, one thing was clear: a bright red dot was advancing steadily toward a second stationary green one in the middle of the screen—the latter clearly representing their location. Numbers beside the moving dot were depreciating rapidly. That told them all they needed to know: whatever was out there wasn't meandering, it had a destination, and that destination was them!
"I have just one question," Cindy's voice sliced through the tension like a blade as she curiously examined the sound amplifier in Zack's hand from different angles. "Why place the screen underneath this device? It's odd. And don't you worry that the screen gets pressed and could be damaged by the amplifier's own weight whenever it's set down?"
"..."
Zack, Robert, and Oliver shared incredulous looks.
There was a creature—possibly highly dangerous— approaching fast, pounding the ground with every step, and yet here was Cindy, more concerned about the ergonomics of a sound amplifier!
Zack drew in a slow breath, clearly restraining himself, before turning to face Cindy and fixing her with a stony glare, placing the amplifier on the now barely-warm grill beside him. "How much do you know about magic technology?" He asked with forced calm and an arched brow.
Cindy's "Not much, but I'm curious to-" was all the answer he needed.
"That settles it, then!" Zack sharply cut her off. "Now, let's get out of here!" On cue, the three boys hastily departed. Cindy blinked, then followed, her voice trailing behind them with yet another question about the amplifier's unconventional design. Just before getting to the exit, she paused, glanced back, realized Zack had left the device behind on the grill, skidded back, grabbed it, and sprinted out of the building through the opening Robert had punched through the wall.
The ground rumbled beneath their feet.
The group of four made their way out of the clearing. They moved rapidly through the foliage, urgency driving their pace, barely registering the thick mist that enveloped the area, or the heavy smell of moss, wet barks, and decay that clung in the air. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the overhead, scattering soft glowing beams that danced through the fog, while the undergrowth squelched beneath their shoes—layered with rotting leaves damp from the morning dew.
They had nearly put a hundred meters between themselves and the rock and ice bricked building when Cindy stopped them.
"Wait, guys, check this out!" She called out. Her tone was sharp with trepidation.
The other three halted.
"What is it?!" Zack growled, turning to her with an irritated scowl. The girl might be cute and all, but he no intention to die with her today!
But Cindy's face was pale, her eyes fixed on the screen of the sound amplifier in her hand. "Your device... That thing—it's still coming... It's still heading directly at us!"
Zack's irritation vanished in an instant. He snatched the sound amplifier from Cindy. As he scanned the screen, his breath hitched. "Oh God, she's right! It's only four hundred meters out... it'll be on top of us in less than thirty seconds!"
Just then, Robert gestured for them to be quiet. "Wait, do you guys hear that?"
A not-so-distant voice suddenly echoed through the air, "Help!!!" it cried, faint but desperate. Almost instantly, the bushes ahead rustled wildly. Leaves flew in all directions, and before anyone could react, a young, dark-brown haired boy, about their age, jumped - or rather, was flung - out from the undergrowth. He hit the ground with a dull thud and tumbled across the soil until his body slammed against the thick root of a nearby tree and came to hard stop.
Robert, Oliver, Zack, and Cindy hastily rushed toward him and quickly gathered around. The boy groaned. He seemed dazed, and his breath came in gasps. He wore a dirt-stained brown-green T-shirt and a pair of scuffed grey shorts. A wornout skin bag hung loosely over one shoulder. His face, square and rugged, carried the kind of raw, youthful handsomeness that seemed almost incomplete... like the kind of face destined for a beard that hadn't yet arrived.
"I'm so sorry," the battered boy gasped out as he clutched his bleeding arm. His entire body bore the marks of a brutal encounter. Scrapes, cuts, and darkening bruises etched across his skin like a violent map. His shirt clung to him, damp with sweat and streaked with grime.
The relentless thudding was getting heavier, each pulse reverberating in the ground and the air, much closer now.
Oliver crouched beside the boy. "Sorry? Exactly what are you sorry for?" he asked. His brows were knotted in an indignant glare.
But before the boy could muster a reply, a thunderous roar tore through the air, silencing everything else. In the next heartbeat, the trees ahead were violently shoved apart, their trunks cracking as a monstrous creature erupted from the foliage and launched into view, leaping straight over their heads with alarming speed and agility.
The creature struck the ground with a crash ten meters away, but its sheer momentum forced it to skid backwards a further twenty meters, tearing up soil and undergrowth as it went. The impact alone sent gusts of wind whipping through the area, sending leaves flying and rattling the branches above.
The group stood frozen, eyes wide in disbelief and terror as they took in the creature's form. It was large—easily the size of a full trailer—it's presence alone enough to make knees weaken. The beast had the powerful, predatory build of a monstrous wolf, it's body covered in coarse, dark, purplish, red fur that bristled with raw energy. It's eyes were a ghostly white, crisscrossed with pulsing red veins, and its snarling jaws revealed multiple fangs like ivory daggers. Long, horrific claws that had a blood-red lustre dug into the soil. The beast's entire form radiated a primal, almost overwhelming ferocity. It's massive form radiating an intensity so thick, it felt like the very air around it had grown heavier; charged with an invisible force that pressed down on everything near it.
It couldn't be mistaken—the aura that surrounded the creature screamed of immense power and volatile danger. A level 17 Magic beast. And it was very, very pissed.
Eyes wide in trepidation, Zack's voice broke the heavy silence, barely more than a breath. "I-is-is that a Basterath wolf?" he stammered, his eyes fixed on the monstrous creature as if tearing his eyes away would invite death. The rest of the group stood frozen, equally stunned, staring in a mix of horror and disbelief.
The beast made no move just yet. It loosed a low, guttural growl as its gaze swept slowly across the group. It was assessing. As though trying to identify something—or someone.
"Yup, it's a real Roaring Blood Basterath wolf, very rare," the battered boy spoke up, exhaling slowly as he staggered to his feet, favoring his injured side. However, he was met with scowls and cold glares from the group. He blinked in confusion at their hostile expressions. "What wrong?"
Oliver stepped towards the boy. "What's wrong? What's wrong?! That beast was chasing you like a rabid demon for who-knows-what reason, and somehow, you kept heading straight for us, even after we moved from our previous location!" He barked.
Cindy folded her arms tightly, visibly annoyed. Robert's jaw was tight, and even Zack had momentarily torn his attention away from the beast to glare at the boy.
The boy's eyes flitted between their faces. "So?"
"So?!" Oliver exploded, eyes bulging in utter disbelief. "Did you seriously just say 'so'?" His voice rose with building fury as he stepped closer to the boy.
"I know," Oliver continued. "I know exactly what this is. You ticked off that creature, ran for your damn life, and somehow, you knew where we were and thought you could lead the beast to us so we could help you fight it off, but..." Before Oliver could suggest a more final solution—namely, to feed the boy and his entire family tree to the beast as an appeasement, the Blood Basterath Wolf let out a vicious, blood-curdling roar that tore through the area like a shockwave. The sound vibrated the surroundings, rustling treetops and sending flocks of birds fleeing into the sky.
Then, with terrifying speed, the creature sprang forward. Its massive jaws were stretched open unnaturally wide, revealing a nightmarish display of curved canines that left no ambiguity about its intentions.
Robert wasted no second.
He swiftly took command. "Everyone, scatter!" He barked, snapping into action, brown magic energy already gathering in his hands. "Oliver, aim for its hind legs—freeze them solid! I'll take the front. Zack, unload everything you've got! Cindy and... wolf-bait boy, don't get killed!"
Robert and Oliver locked eyes—just long enough to exchange a mutual understanding. Transforming into Poison and Xolomon right in front of Cindy and the new guy wasn't an option.
The Roaring Blood Basterath Wolf was a rare and fearsome magic beast, known to dwell deep within remote and uncharted regions of dense jungles like the Horkii Rainforest. Solitary by nature, it typically carved out its lair in dark mountain caves or beneath the protective cover of heavily tangled underbrush, often in places where sunlight barely reached. Areas where these creatures were known to roam were frequently marked with red or black on forest maps—clear signs for travelers and adventurers that it was a place of no return. Unlike its wolf counterparts, Basterath wolves were particularly known for their roar instead of a howl, which sounded more like thunder than a natural animal cry. The Blood Basterath wolf's magical affinity was rooted in blood, granting it not only unnatural durability but also immense raw strength. Though it's bloodline gave it the potential to ascend as high as level 40, progression beyond that point was exceedingly rare and arduous. The Blood wolf the group now faced was a level 17 female—roughly the equivalent of a young adult in human terms, yet there was nothing juvenile about the muscle-bound limbs on this creature and menacing aura it radiated.
The ear-splitting roar of the monstrous wolf resonated through the forest, vibrating through the trees and the very ground beneath them. With discouraging ease, it broke free from Oliver's icy restraints. Robert's Hand of God spell proved no match for the wolf's might, crumbling like dust as it charged forward unchecked.
"Zack! Any time now would be great to use your laser turret or bombs... anything!"