The underbrush rustled softly with each careful step.
More than half a dozen men, clad in gray leathers and muted steel, crept through the shadow-laced forest, their eyes darting between trees as though expecting monsters to emerge from behind every trunk.
The sun barely touched this part of the woods, and the deeper they went, the more it felt like the world itself held its breath.
"I don't like this," one of them muttered. "The five border guards who knew the safest route in this forest never came back. It reeks of... anomaly."
"Shut up," hissed the man at the front, a grizzled veteran with a scar across his cheek. "We're not here to play scouts. We find the girl. We bring her back. That's it."
"What if she's dead?"
"Then we drag her corpse."
They pressed on, weaving around gnarled roots and low-hanging branches until the trees began to thin.
A shimmer of silver-blue light glinted through the trunks ahead. It was water—a lake.
"There," one whispered. "She might be by the shore."
"Move."
They broke into a quiet jog, the rhythm of their boots muffled by damp earth, their breaths shallow.
But the moment they stepped past the final curtain of trees—
—They stopped.
The clearing opened like a stage, bathed in shafts of golden light that pierced through the canopy above. The lake glimmered beyond, its surface unnaturally still.
What paused them, however, was the view of a creature that seemed to be out of a myth and a nightmare, standing at the center of the clearing.
He was massive.
His wings were like torn void fabric folded behind him, scales the color of starless midnight, gleaming faintly in the light. His tail coiled idly beside him, claws half-sunken into the mossy ground.
There, beside him—
"...Our target," one of the soldiers whispered, fear crawling up his spine.
Although the sight of the beast scared them, the fact that Lyra was standing right next to it bothered them more.
The bunny-eared girl stood beside the beast, unharmed. Calm. Her gaze locked on them with eyes wide, but not with fear.
They realized that whatever this creature was—a Dragon or a chimera, it didn't matter—it was with the bunny girl.
That meant they were his prey.
A tense silence settled over the clearing like a second skin, oppressive and absolute.
Then—
"You're not from the forest."
—Came the voice. Deep, smooth, and impossibly ancient.
It was Kael.
The dragon's golden eyes flicked lazily toward them, like a predator curious about the insects scuttling near its claws.
"Why are you here?"
Although he already knew, he still wanted to make sure.
None of the men, however, answered.
They couldn't.
Their throats were dry, hearts hammering.
Every muscle screamed to run, but terror held them like shackles. One of them swallowed hard, glancing at the others.
Then his eyes darted to Lyra again.
The girl they were sent to capture.
It wasn't hard for them to realize that the moment they answered the beast, they would be killed.
So, they merely looked around, wondering what they could do.
Kael's gaze, however, narrowed as he observed them.
Understanding dawned in his eyes.
"Ah… I see."
He took a single step forward.
The forest shuddered.
"You have two choices," he said softly, but each word pressed into their skulls like grinding stone. "You turn around. Walk back to your city. Forget this path. Or…"
His eyes gleamed like molten metal.
"You get eaten."
The soldiers tensed.
The pressure from Kael was enough to make them clench their assholes, fearing they might shit, but could they return?
They remembered the City Lord's words. "Bring her back. No matter what."
If they returned empty-handed, there wouldn't be a return.
The City Lord would have them killed.
So, they couldn't go back.
However, that didn't mean they would face the beast head-on. Unlike the city guards from before, they were skilled.
They were hunters who hunted beasts in this dangerous forest.
One of them nodded slowly, forcing a weak smile. "We… we understand. We'll leave."
Another joined in. "Forgive us. We didn't know she was protected."
Step by step, they began to back away.
[The human's words are judged as a lie.]
A voice echoed in Kael's head as he saw the humans turn around.
'More food,' he beamed inwardly.
The humans, on the other hand, exchanged glances, and their fingers twitched.
Their hands slipped into pouches. Four small, rune-etched canisters were palmed in a silent signal.
Mana bombs.
Unregistered, black-market goods. Worth a fortune. Each of those bombs was capable of vaporizing even an A-rank beast.
It was their last resort.
The reason they could confidently walk into this forest, despite still being silver-rank adventurers.
Lyra saw it first. Her ears shot up.
"Kael! They—those are mana bombs—!"
The moment the words left her lips, the soldiers threw.
Four orbs spiraled through the air, humming with raw arcane power, their glow growing ever brighter as they approached their apex—
Yet…
Kael didn't flinch.
In fact, he tilted his head.
Curious.
To him, all of this was way too slow.
He could see the bombs moving toward him with the speed of an ant.
'Can I stop them… without touching?'
The thought slithered through his mind. Not fear. Not anger. Just… curiosity.
[Yes, you can do it.]
His instincts replied the moment that thought appeared in his head.
With a glint passing through his eyes, he raised one clawed hand—not to swat, not to strike—but to command.
The whine of the mana bombs' charge faded to a murmur.
The air thickened.
Then, the bombs stopped.
Four glowing orbs froze mid-flight, suspended like insects caught in amber.
Kael's claws flexed. He could feel them in his grasp even though he wasn't physically holding them.
It was as if the mana itself answered to him.
He blinked once, slowly, eyes narrowing in quiet fascination.
"So fragile," he murmured as he clenched his claws.
The bombs crumpled.
No explosion. No fire. No tremor.
They merely imploded, like collapsing stars, folding into themselves before vanishing into a thin mist of mana that drifted harmlessly away.
The silence that followed was thunderous.
The soldiers stood frozen in place, pale and wide-eyed, unable to believe what they'd just seen.
Kael's smile returned.
"That's good. I was hoping I wouldn't need to hunt today."
Then he moved.
The Earth quaked.
The humans, however, didn't move.
They couldn't.
Because they realized that they had fucked up.
They messed with the wrong beast.
Now, frozen stiff, they watched Kael's jaw descend toward them.
The last thought that passed through their heads was—
'We shouldn't have accepted the City Lord's request...'
But it was already too late, as there was no medicine for regret, especially when facing Kael.
........................
The forest had gone silent again.
Only the soft plop of metal echoed now and then, as Kael casually spat out a small, mangled piece of armor with a metallic ping.
Another followed. It was a twisted steel that may once have been a sword hilt.
The third piece clattered and rolled to a stop near Lyra's foot: a half-melted buckle.
Lyra stared at it. Then at Kael.
He stood in the clearing's center, the moss beneath his claws now stained in more than just shadow and moonlight.
His wings twitched slightly as he worked his jaw, crunching down one final bit of something vaguely… helmet-shaped.
Crunch. Swallow.
Then, there was silence again.
Lyra shivered.
Not from the cold but from realization.
'He didn't even try.'
It was effortless.
Not just the destruction of the mana bombs—which were said to be able to level a guildhall—but the soldiers themselves.
The way he moved.
The way he looked at them.
The way he merely… ended them.
All of them made it seem like he wasn't even bothered, as if he didn't even see them as living beings.
Yet, when she had talked to him earlier about the world and the people who live here, it hadn't felt like this at all.
She hadn't felt threatened. She hadn't felt like prey.
Yes, his voice was scary—no, he was terrifying. But she hadn't felt it while talking.
When they talked, he felt like a newborn child curious to know about everything.
She looked at him again now, as he idly flicked another piece of charred armor into the lake, and a question curled in her heart like frost.
'Why… am I still alive?'
Her ears lowered slightly, and she hugged her arms to her chest.
It was then that Kael turned his head toward her, his eyes back to their soft gold, the slitted pupils less predatory than before.
"Let's go," he said.
Lyra blinked. "Go… where?"
Kael stretched, his wings giving a lazy unfurl like sails catching a breeze.
"To the city," he replied, his tone even. "To tell the human leader not to send anyone into this forest anymore."
She tilted her head, stunned. "You're going… there? Just like that?"
He paused, then nodded. "Yes."
Another pause.
"Also… we'll rescue your siblings on the way."
Lyra gasped. Her heart skipped. "R-Really?! You'll help me?!"
Kael glanced at her with a sideways smirk. "Did I not say I would?"
Lyra beamed, her ears perking high, and her cottonball-like tail twitching with barely contained joy. "You're amazing!"
Kael merely shrugged, stepping to the edge of the clearing. His wings stretched again—this time more intentionally—as he crouched slightly, preparing for flight.
The moment he completely unfurled his wings, the whole surroundings turned dark.
He was that big.
But then—
"Um—Kael? Just a moment… if you don't mind."