The old railway bridge felt different in daylight.
The rusted beams no longer looked like a jagged mouth waiting to swallow the unwary—they gleamed faintly under the pale afternoon sun, their flaking paint catching flashes of gold where the light touched. The river below murmured in lazy swirls, a far cry from the dark roar it had given the night before. Even the shadows beneath the bridge felt… softer.
Ryan leaned against the railing, palms flat against the cool steel, watching the water glint and break between the beams. It would have been peaceful if not for the weight pressing in behind his ribs.
He was early. Too early.
The system had chimed twice since breakfast, each time with the same polite but insistent reminder:
[Side Quest: Aria's Alliance — Time Remaining: 4 hours, 12 minutes.]
It wasn't like he'd forgotten. If anything, the notification gnawed at him worse than the ache in his shoulder from yesterday's fight. He just didn't know what kind of conversation this was supposed to be.
What did you say to someone who'd stepped into your life mid-chaos and decided not to run?
The bridge still smelled faintly of Shadowspawn blood, that metallic tang that clung to memory more than air. He couldn't stop hearing its snarls, couldn't stop seeing the way its eyes—yellow, wild, starving—had fixed on Aria like she was the prize. And behind that memory, always, was Vaelrion. Crimson eyes in the dark, watching. Measuring. Waiting.
A shift in the air pulled him back to the present.
He heard her before he saw her—her footsteps light, deliberate, but not the kind that tried to hide. There was no need for pretense here. Aria emerged from the far end of the bridge, hair wind-tossed from the walk, a dark green jacket zipped halfway up against the breeze. The messenger bag from yesterday was gone, replaced by a sheathed blade strapped across her back.
"You're early," she said, closing the last few steps between them.
Ryan managed a faint smirk. "Could say the same about you."
They stood there for a beat, wind tugging at their clothes, the river whispering beneath their feet.
"You didn't tell me you were a perfect shot," Aria said finally, her gaze flicking toward him with something almost like amusement.
Ryan frowned. "You were at the archery field."
She shrugged. "I keep track of the people I work with."
"Work with?" He raised a brow. "You haven't exactly told me what that means yet."
Her eyes drifted back to the water, where sunlight shattered into a thousand bright shards. "It means I've seen what Vaelrion can do. I've seen what happens when people stand alone against him." Her voice softened, though it didn't lose its edge. "And I don't want to see that happen to you."
Ryan studied her face, searching for the hook, the catch—some angle where this would all turn into another trap. But all he found was quiet conviction.
"That's not exactly the kind of thing people say on a first…" He trailed off, gesturing vaguely between them. "Whatever this is."
A faint smile touched her lips. "Not everything needs a label."
The tension eased for a moment. The sunlight was warm, the breeze was steady, and for just a breath, Ryan let himself imagine they were two ordinary students wasting time on an old bridge.
Then his mark burned—sharp and sudden—under his sleeve.
Aria stiffened. "We're not alone."
The river's surface rippled unnaturally, as though something massive had disturbed it far upstream. Ryan's claws prickled beneath his skin.
"Move," he said, just as the first shape burst from the water.
It was not a Shadowspawn. It was bigger—its body plated in slick, chitin-like armor, its jaw wide enough to crush bone with a single bite. Water streamed from its shoulders as it hauled itself onto the bridge. Two more followed, dragging themselves forward with wet, scraping sounds that made the steel groan under their weight.
Aria's blade cleared its sheath before Ryan even shifted his stance. "You take left," she said, already moving.
He didn't argue.
The fight was chaos in motion. The creatures attacked with brutal precision, one forcing Ryan toward the railing while another tried to flank Aria. He slammed his shoulder into the nearest one, claws raking through its armor until the shell split and a burst of black ichor sprayed across the planks.
Aria moved like water—low, fast, always a breath ahead of the strike. Her blade flashed in tight arcs, slicing through tendon and joint. When one of the beasts lunged at her blind side, Ryan was there, grabbing it by the throat and hurling it hard enough to dent the steel railing.
The third creature roared, a sound too deep to be entirely natural, and charged. Ryan ducked under its swing, driving his claws up under its jaw, while Aria's blade found the seam in its armor. They fought back to back, step for step, until the last of the creatures lay twitching in a spreading pool of ichor.
Silence returned in ragged gasps. Ryan straightened, claws retracting, though the burn in his mark still pulsed like a warning.
"That wasn't random," Aria said, wiping her blade clean.
"No," Ryan agreed. He could feel it—the faint echo of Vaelrion's presence, deliberate and taunting.
A voice rolled across the bridge, smooth and deep.
"Impressive."
They turned as one.
Vaelrion stood at the far end of the bridge, framed by the fading sun. His coat shifted faintly in the breeze, but he looked untouched, as if distance and effort were irrelevant to him.
"Two against three," Vaelrion said. "And you didn't die. I'll admit, I expected more screaming."
Ryan stepped forward, claws prickling again. "You keep sending things to kill me. Why not do it yourself?"
Vaelrion's smile was slow, predatory. "Because I want you to last until the Blood Moon. Breaking something too early… well, it spoils the fun." His gaze slid to Aria, and the air sharpened. "And you… you should know better than to interfere."
Aria didn't flinch. "I don't take orders from you."
For a heartbeat, the air between them felt like it might shatter. Then Vaelrion turned away, his voice drifting back.
"Seventeen days, little moon. Don't waste them."
Mist curled over the water, and when it thinned, he was gone.
Ryan let out a slow breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Aria's grip on her blade hadn't loosened.
"You okay?" he asked.
She nodded once, eyes still fixed on the spot where Vaelrion had stood. "We're running out of time."
The system chimed.
[Main Quest Update: Vaelrion has acknowledged your alliance.][Warning: Enemy tactics will escalate.]
Ryan looked at her—the set of her jaw, the wind catching strands of her hair—and felt the truth settle in his bones.
"Then we don't waste any of it," he said.
They left the bridge together, boots echoing on the steel, and Ryan knew the weight of what had just happened would follow them both—into the shadows, into the hunt, and straight toward the Blood Moon.