The air had weight.
A heavy, crushing pressure that rolled over the valley like a slow tide. It was still dark, just before the dawn. But the land itself knew. The trees along the ridges creaked uneasily. The chickens in the coop refused to stir. Even the spirit crops trembled—not from wind, but from instinct.
Ikenna stood fully awake, having meditated through the night beneath a canopy of warding leaves. His scroll hovered before him, glowing faintly in the pre-dawn gloom. Each leaf shimmered as if in prayer.
System Alert:
🚨 Beast Wave Detected
Approximate Numbers: 34
Composition:
• 18 Ironhide Boars (Stage 1 Peak)
• 6 Embertail Hounds (Stage 2 Mid)
• 8 Vine-Fanged Apes (Stage 2 Early)
• 2 Unknown Signature (Stage ?)
His jaw clenched. Thirty-four was far more than he'd expected.
Amara emerged from the eastern trench, wiping soot from her hands. "The Scorch Path traps are armed."
Professor landed beside them with a flutter, small scrolls attached to his wings like war banners.
"They're coming from three sides," he rasped. "North ridge. Southern road. Western gulch."
Ikenna activated the Spirit Map in his scroll, and glowing red dots bloomed across the field, matching Professor's report. Jalun, the Crescent Wood disciple, scrambled up the observation post, telescope in hand.
"North ridge first!" he called. "Ironhide Boars—charging like a damn stampede!"
The boars were huge.
Each nearly the size of a wagon, plated in dense, moss-covered hide. Their eyes glowed faint green, and they trampled the hillside like battering rams.
"Hold!" Ikenna shouted, voice calm but firm. He tapped a series of sigils embedded into the paddies.
[Command: Detonate Seed Burst Line Beta]
Three rows of Seed Burst Traps activated in sequence. Small pods hidden beneath the soil exploded in controlled flashes of light and qi, sending shards of hardened seed casing upward like shrapnel.
The boars screamed—two went down immediately, pierced beneath their armor. Another staggered and slammed into a warding root wall, triggering a blast of repelled force that knocked it unconscious.
But the rest didn't stop.
"Flame Beans, now!" Amara roared.
Ikenna nodded and activated Scorch Path Alpha.
The moment the front row of boars reached the pressure markers, the hidden bamboo traps sprang open, exposing Flame Beans that had been soaked in spiritual oil. A heartbeat later, they ignited in violent bursts, sending fire plumes several meters high.
Five more boars dropped—some from burns, others simply overwhelmed by the blast force. The soil beneath them blackened, smoke rising like incense from the battlefield.
But there was no time to celebrate.
From the west, a pack of Embertail Hounds appeared like phantoms in flame. Sleek, fast, and unnaturally silent, their tails emitted trails of fire, leaving scorched earth behind them.
"Too fast," Jalun hissed. "The traps won't catch them!"
"They don't need to," Ikenna said grimly. "They're being herded."
He extended his hand, and the scroll's pages flipped to Formation Tactics. He activated a pre-set sigil that caused the terrain in the western trench to shift, tilting downward. It funneled the hounds into a narrow path lined with Stun Bulbs.
As the first hound crossed the threshold, blue pollen erupted from the pods, forming a mist.
Yelps echoed through the valley. One hound collapsed mid-run. Another slammed into a tree. The pollen cloud grew denser, and by the time the last of them had entered the corridor, only two remained upright—barely.
Amara took aim with a short spear and finished one off. Jalun followed with a fire talisman to dispatch the other.
"That's... twelve down?" he asked, panting.
"Fourteen," Ikenna corrected. "Eighteen more incoming... and then the unknowns."
He barely finished his sentence when a deep howl tore through the sky.
It wasn't beastly. It was wrong.
The kind of sound that vibrated the bone. The kind that made spirit roots curl deeper into the earth.
Even Amara took a step back. "What was that?"
Ikenna's scroll shimmered in alarm:
New Signature Detected: Stage 3 – Variant Type
Description: Spine-Tongue Wraith Wolf
Classification: Rare Mutation
Special Traits: Shadow Meld, Bone Needle Spit, Qi Drain
Weakness: Unknown
"Oh... wonderful," Jalun muttered from the tower. "Just when I thought we had a chance."
A shape leapt from the shadows of the southern trees—long and sleek like a jaguar, with skin that flickered between physical form and mist. It didn't run like the others. It flowed.
It landed just beyond the trenches, sniffed once, and vanished.
Literally.
Ikenna's eyes widened. "Shadow meld—it's already inside the ward!"
He raced back to the inner ring, triggering every spiritual sense he had. He felt the soil's pulse—strong, panicked—and found a faint cold spot near the Golden Rice paddies.
[Command: Nutrient Siphon – Golden Rice]
[Redirected Qi to Inner Ward Lines]
A surge of warm golden light erupted across the paddies, forming a dome over the inner field. The moment it appeared, the wolf howled in pain, its form flickering as it tried to phase out.
Amara didn't hesitate—she dove in, blades drawn, slicing the air where the creature materialized. She missed, but the distraction gave Ikenna time.
He slammed both palms into the earth.
[Command: Terrain Bind – Root Grip Field Gamma]
The soil exploded with vines.
Massive spiritual roots surged upward and wrapped around the wolf, pinning it to the ground. It snarled, its form phasing in and out, but the roots pulsed with siphoned qi—it couldn't escape.
"Ikenna! Now!" Amara shouted.
He grabbed the last Flame Bean cluster, fused it with a talisman, and hurled it.
It exploded in a sphere of golden flame, engulfing the beast.
Silence followed.
Then ash.
System Notification:
✅ Beast Wave Phase One Repelled
Remaining Hostiles: 4
Inner Farm Damage: 3%
Defensive Readiness: Reset in 3 Hours
Special Drop Acquired: Wraith Wolf Fang (Qi Drain Variant)
Unlock Progress: Scroll Tier 3 – 85%
Ikenna slumped onto his knees.
They'd done it.
They repelled the first wave.
He looked around at the smoking fields, the faint glow of the sigils, the battered traps and torn roots... and still, the crops lived.
They had survived their first war—not just as cultivators, but as defenders of a legacy.
And this was only the beginning.