Zay crouched down, gently setting Lyra down and against the wall before removing his coat and draping it over her.
He cracked his neck, then walked over to Lily. In one swift motion, he extended his hand in a knife-like strike and slammed it into the back of her neck before she even had time to react. He carefully lowered Lily to the ground.
"Renzo. Listen to me," Zay said, his body now glowing with a mix of midnight blue and violet. "Do not tell anybody about this. I'm trusting you."
Renzo, though watching the entire exchange, couldn't keep up with the fluidity of Zay's movements at all.
Renzo nodded, his mind racing. 'W-what the hell was that speed? I've never seen him move like that... Has he been holding back this entire time?'
Zay's voice broke through his thoughts. "I'll be honest, I don't have enough aura to do this... but I'm willing to force myself into it." He inhaled slowly, then exhaled.
"I said before I started this that I wouldn't limit myself to principles and rules — yet here I am, doing exactly that this whole time." His long black hair whipped around as the pressure of his aura built.
"There's still a part of me... that wishes to uphold these morals, these principles, and the rules of this world..."
"I'm already pissed off at how long this damn Sequence Level One is taking. So be good pups—and lay dead already."
Zay exhaled, his aura flaring as a passive activated.
[Midnight: Razor]
His aura exploded into a mesmerizing mix of midnight blue and violet, forming a blade from his hand. The small, sharp blades of Midnight Fangs grew longer, gleaming in the dim light. The wolves howled in unison before charging at him.
Renzo's heart pounded in his chest as he watched, but everything seemed to slow down for him. The wolves' movements were erratic, but Zay's speed — 'unbelievable'.
The moment the wolves closed the distance, his other passive activated.
[Predator's Hunting Grounds]
Zay moved like a serpent — slipping through jaws, claws, and snapping teeth with unnatural ease. Renzo couldn't track his movements fast enough. Then, Zay's aura blade flickered — one swift motion — and four wolves dropped dead around him, their bodies crumpling to the floor in a pile.
Renzo's head spun. 'What the hell... how did he do that?'
The remaining wolves howled, enraged, and rushed back in, but Zay's gaze sharpened. His eyes flickered with a calculating gaze. As if he were reading their every move before it even happened.
He didn't dodge this time — he attacked. Striking before the wolves could strike at him.
In the span of seconds, the remaining wolves were nothing more than lifeless bodies sprawled across the ground, their fur now stained with blood, piled on top of each other.
Zay exhaled slowly, his aura flickering as his passives deactivated. The fight was over.
Renzo blinked, staring at the blood around them. 'What... just happened?'
He could barely process the sheer speed and fluidity of his younger brother's strikes. It was as if Zay was everywhere at once within his eyes, Zay looked as if he was unstoppable, like a force that was formed out of nature itself to kill these wolves for disobeying the laws of the world.
Zay staggered, breath labored, his chest heaving. "I'm suffering from... aura overuse," he said slowly, his voice strained. "It'll be a while before I can do anything. Protect us, won't you? I'm entrusting this to you. My brother."
Before Renzo could react, Zay collapsed, his body sinking onto the pile of wolves as his eyes fluttered closed.
Renzo stood there, stunned, his mind still trying to catch up with the chaos he had just witnessed. 'What the actual hell just happened?'
Renzo took a few minutes to calm down and catch his breath.
"I'll just ask him about it... later, I guess?" he muttered aloud, stepping past the corpses of the wolves before bending down. With a grunt, he lifted Zay into his arms, his aura flaring around him as he walked over to where Zay had placed Lyra. Gently, he set Zay down beside her.
Then he moved over to Lily, picked her up, and placed her next to Zay. He paused again, taking another moment to breathe.
"I knew he was strong..." Renzo whispered, barely audible, his gaze drifting to the wolves' corpses arranged in a perfect circle. Blood was splattered across the ground as he exhaled slowly.
Suddenly, a loud howl echoed through the chamber. The ground trembled slightly, and the distant sound of liquid dripping grew steadily louder.
"What the hell?" Renzo muttered, scanning the area. His eyes locked onto a large opening at the far end of the pathway. He focused his senses in that direction as the noises intensified.
Moments later, he saw the massive paw of a white wolf step into view. It let out a thunderous roar, its burning orange eyes landing on Renzo. They flicked toward the slain wolves, then snapped back to him with piercing intensity.
"...I promise it wasn't me?" Renzo said, biting his bottom lip and swallowing hard. He glanced around the massive room, searching desperately for anything that could be used as a weapon. Finding nothing, he braced himself.
The wolf howled so loud that the ground beneath him cracked in a spiderweb pattern.
"So... no conversation?" Renzo said with a nervous laugh, just before the wolf raised one of its paws and slammed it down.
Renzo jumped to his right, avoiding the paw as it shattered the ground, forming a crater. The wolf howled again, its fur spiking upward as steam began to rise into the air.
"H-how the hell can I beat this thing?" Renzo asked himself under his breath, eyes wide as the steam condensed into spikes and launched toward him, coated in orange aura. He kept dodging, barely keeping ahead of them.
Renzo locked his gaze on the wolf's legs, then sighed and bit his bottom lip. 'I think the—' A spike flew at him mid-thought. He ducked under it and lunged left to avoid another. '-The only way I can do this is if I can remove its legs... make it weaker that way?' He thought, still scanning the room before glancing up. The ceiling was filled with jagged, rocky spikes.
"I have an idea," Renzo muttered under his breath, chuckling to himself. 'Can't believe I'm thinking of doing this.'
Red aura flared around Renzo's body, enveloping him in a thin but intense layer. Steam hissed from his skin, the heat radiating off him as his irises mixed his hazel eyes with a deep, fiery red—matching the color of his blood.
[Scorched Eruption]
He exhaled slowly, his breath steadying, before launching himself at the beast. His movements were fluid—left, right, a quick duck under a spiraling spike of orange aura, then a leap over another. He weaved through the onslaught of fiery projectiles using everything Zay had taught him about projectiles and took advantage of it.
His fist clenched tightly, the sensation of heat building as he approached. In a fluid motion, he drove his fist into the wolf's front right leg. The impact was like hitting a furnace—fire surged through the beast's body, burning it from the inside out. The wolf let out a pained whine as the internal flames spread, searing its flesh, but it did not relent.
The wolf's fur bristled with fury. It raised its massive tail high, the muscles rippling beneath its sleek white coat, the tail slamming into the ground before swinging it violently toward Renzo. Breaking the ground apart
Renzo lunged to his left, narrowly dodging the tail's vicious swing. His gaze snapped upward. The wolf's stomach was exposed, not wanting to risk any chances of the wolf collapsing on him, Renzo sprinted toward the nearest wall, his boots pounding against the cracked stone floor. He reached the wall and, in one powerful motion, slammed his fist into it.
The impact was deafening, sending vibrations through the wall. The ceiling above trembled, and a deep rumble reverberated in the air as pressure began to build within the structure. Heat surged through the wall, reaching the ceiling as the spikes above began to shake.
Suddenly, the wolf winced in pain before lifting its front right leg and biting down on it. Without hesitation, it crunched its fangs around the leg and ripped it off.
The severed limb fell to the ground with a heavy thud, causing a slight tremor in the earth. Steam began to swirl around the wound as a new leg formed, reinforced with orange aura. The wolf leapt into the air and landed with surprising grace, standing upright as if it had never lost a leg. Blood dripped from the large wound, staining the ground beneath it.
'It's on a timer... but I can only assume it did that to remove the flames, right?' Renzo thought to himself, his mind racing. Suddenly, two spikes dropped from the ceiling, embedding themselves deep into the wolf's flesh. It howled in agony, the room vibrating with the force of its pain as more spikes followed, each one sinking into its body. Renzo felt his aura beginning to empty out.
"Fuck it!" he shouted, making a reckless decision, betting everything on this one final move.
With the wolf distracted by the spikes impaling its flesh, Renzo surged forward. His aura died around his body, but a fresh surge of energy blasted from his legs, propelling him into the air. His body twisted mid-flight, and he kicked upward with all his strength, connecting with the wolf's chin. The moment his foot made contact, flames ignited within its mouth, spreading rapidly to its brain. Within seconds, the wolf's brain was reduced to ash, consumed by the inferno.
Renzo landed heavily on the ground, the impact causing a loud crack beneath him. He looked up, wiping sweat from his brow, breathing heavily. Spikes began to crash around him, forcing his eyes wide in alarm.
"Oh shit," he muttered, his gaze snapping to his siblings and Lyra.
His mind flashed to the danger of overusing his aura. With no time to waste, he bolted toward them, picking up Zay and throwing him onto his back before scooping Lily into his arms. He exhaled deeply, forcing his aura to flare around him, but as he did, sharp pain coiled through his veins. His vision blurred, but he kept pushing. He ran toward the large opening where the white wolf had come from, throwing them both down as gently as he could, knowing he had no time to spare.
'Damn it... even if I don't like her, It would be wrong of me to just leaver her to die to spikes.' Renzo sighed as he rushed back into the room, his footsteps pounding against the stone floor. He quickly lifted Zay's coat off Lyra and hoisted her into his arms, then sprinted back toward the opening. Spikes continued to fall, crashing into the ground behind him, his aura began to flicker but he didn't look back. He continued forward.
The ceiling above began to shake violently, but Renzo kept his eyes forward, blocking out the tremors, pushing himself harder. Finally, he reached the large opening. He threw Lyra over first, and her body landed on top of Zay. His aura flickered again and faded as his body locked up from overexertion. In a final burst of effort, Renzo collapsed to the hard ground, his body crashing down onto Zay's coat in his arms. Dust swirled around him as his consciousness slipped away, and within seconds, he was unconscious.
[+1 Sacred Relic]