Earlier, while the hunting party tracked the wounded beast, Kaylah and Eris found their usual grounds eerily silent. As usual, they were geared from head to toe. The hunt for small mercies had turned cold hours ago. Game had vanished near the safer zones, driven deeper into the wasteland by the night's alarms.
Kaylah crouched beside a collapsed rail beam, eyes scanning the empty brush.
"The kids will have no food tonight," she murmured, frustration hardening her voice.
Eris stood beside her, jaw tight, eyes distant. The phantom thrum in his wrist pulsed again—low, constant, like a buried current. A buried voice.
"We have to cross the line," he said flatly.
Driven by hunger, by pride, and by the elders' constant disapproval, they crossed the cracked bridge that marked the border of their permitted hunting range. The far slope loomed ahead—twisted brambles, warped trees, and the lip of the gorge.
They kept low, ducking beneath thorny creepers, hoping to flush out stray prey. But as they descended, the sun vanished behind thick haze. The rain began to pour down. It felt cold against their exposed skin, yet it didn't burn. A stifling stench of rotten eggs clung to the air, a grim reminder of the nearby volcano's ongoing emissions and the corrosive rain it spawned. The deeper they went, the heavier the rain became; damp earth turned slippery, tinged with something off. Something sharp and animalistic. Not just the river.
Kaylah suddenly stiffened, tapping Eris's shoulder. "Movement," she whispered.
Near the riverbank, a clutch of frost-heaved boulders stood in unnatural silence—usually a perfect hiding spot for hunters. But now, something stirred within. A low snarl rose, too guttural for scavengers. It was followed by the harsh clang of metal, a spear haft against stone, a panicked scramble.
Eris froze. That hum in his wrist flared into something stronger, sharper. This wasn't just misfortune. This was a convergence.
Another growl echoed, then a human scream; pure, unfiltered terror.
"Big blades," Kaylah muttered, grim. She didn't need to say their names. No one else came this deep, not after the last time.
"That must be the glass-back from last night," she added, already drawing her knife.
Eris nodded, his eyes dark with recognition. The trail was clear. Their mercy hunt was over. This was something else entirely.
They moved fast. No more stealth. Just urgency and instinct.
Over the next rise, the signs became unmistakable; smashed brush, torn vines, blood soaked into pale dust. A discarded spear haft. A sliver of hide armor. And nearby, a crude bolt-launcher, half-buried in the dirt. A jagged fang was lodged in its side.
Kaylah knelt beside it. "It bit the launcher," she muttered, amazed and horrified.
She flipped it, working quickly. A pebble had jammed the piston. She popped it loose. The weapon clicked, alive again.
Meanwhile, Eris had found the hunters. They were half-hidden, entrenched in the gorge wall, rimmed in shadows. The silver in his blood screamed now. This was the place. The beast wasn't retreating. It waited for the hunters and now they are its prey.
Kaylah caught his gaze and signed from her perch: "We can't fight it head-on."
Eris's voice was barely a breath. "It's in the cave. It's waiting for them to die."
They crept closer. Kaylah climbing to higher ground, Eris slipping between rusted slabs and broken concrete. They moved like they belonged to the ruin. Shadows in its bones.
From above the ravine, they heard the chaos unfold: spears clashing, stone grinding, shouts and screams. One of them clearly wounded.
Kaylah tensed beside him, her eyes met Ari's. No words. The ruin gave no time for plans.
Eris's hand clenched his bow. He was still a boy, still afraid, but when he saw Renzo sprawled on the ground, leg twisted unnaturally, and Joeren cowering behind rubble with terror overtaking his usual bravado; fear became fuel.
Eris's pulse surged. Silver flickered in his veins. He didn't know if it was power or instinct, but he knew this: if they did nothing, no one would make it out alive. He drew his bow. It's old, scavenged, and barely holding together. The arrow he notched was just as battered, its fletching a frayed strip of leather. He released it without much thought. He relied, not on instinct, but on his silver vein. He commanded and directed.
Twang ! The released arrow whooshing and hit the monster's neck. Thud!
He notched another arrow, this time, Eris didn't aim for the beast. He aimed for a narrow rock formation—just above the mouth of the cave—where water had long dripped, unseen and unimportant.
He fired. Thud!
The second arrow struck true. The rock cracked with a sharp echo. A hidden reservoir burst. It's a jet of hot water pouring from the fractured stone. It struck the cave mouth with a hiss, blasting steam into the gorge.
The air filled with thick, choking fog. A curtain of heat and white mist. The battlefield changed.
From the edge, Eris and Kaylah watched as the silhouette of the beast faltered, blinded and disoriented. For the first time, it looked unsure.
Now, they had a chance.
***