Chapter 11: A Feast for Wolves
The world exploded into a storm of sound and violence.
The alpha Ridgeback slammed into Sergeant Korin not as a beast of flesh and bone, but as a battering ram. The snapping of its jaws cracked through the air like a breaking tree branch. Korin, a veteran of a dozen border skirmishes, met the charge with a grunt of pure effort. He didn't try to stop the momentum; that would be suicide. Instead, he angled his spear, a heavy, ironwood pole tipped with Tetsu-forged steel.
With a master's precision, he deflected the lunge. The spearhead scraped against the Ridgeback's hardened bone crest, sending a shower of sparks into the air with a shriek of tortured metal. The force of the impact still sent Korin staggering back three steps, his boots digging furrows in the dirt. The sheer, brutal strength of the beast was immense.
Before anyone could react, the rest of the pack hit their formation like a wave crashing against a stone wall.
"Hold!" Korin roared, his voice straining as he fought to regain his footing.
But the line broke. The other four Ridgebacks were not a mindless mob. They were a coordinated killing machine. Two of them feinted at the guard on the left, then, with terrifying speed, changed direction and slammed into the guard on the right.
The man screamed, a high, thin sound that was abruptly cut off. His spear was knocked wide, and a set of razor-sharp claws shredded through his leather armor and the flesh beneath. He went down in a spray of crimson, his body disappearing under the thrashing forms of the two beasts.
"Torven is down!" another guard yelled, his voice cracking with panic. "By the Founder, they're too fast!"
Liana screamed, a pure, piercing sound of terror, and tried to pull Kairo back. "Kairo, get back! Get behind me!"
But Kairo didn't move. In the midst of the chaos, he was an island of absolute, chilling calm. The battle wasn't a terrifying swirl of violence to him. It was a problem to be solved, a ledger of assets and liabilities.
His Aether-Sense pulsed, painting the scene in stark, golden wireframes against the black void of his blindness.
Asset: Four guards. Proficient, but standard training. AET levels are low C-Class.
Asset: Sergeant Korin. High C-Class. Experienced. The anchor of the defense.
Liability: Lady Liana. Panicked. A ward to be protected, drawing focus.
Threat: Five Ridgebacks. High C-Class. Pack tactics are flawless. Alpha is borderline B-Class in pure physical stats.
The numbers didn't lie. His guards wouldn't last five minutes.
The remaining three guards and Korin formed a desperate semi-circle, their backs to the children, their spears a bristling, inadequate hedge. Another Ridgeback broke through the line, its claws raking across a guard's shield. The man grunted in pain, his shield arm buckling under the force. He was still standing, but he was now a weak point.
Kairo's objective wasn't for his guards to win. His objective was chaos. And in that chaos, he needed an opportunity. His gaze, guided by his mental map, flickered between the beasts. He wasn't looking at the massive, scarred alpha that was locked in a deadly dance with Korin. He was looking for the weakest link.
He found it. The last Ridgeback in the pack. It was slightly smaller than the others, its movements a fraction less certain. Its bone crest was clean, unscarred. The omega. Young, hungry, and easily lured by a simpler prize. That was his target.
He needed to separate it from the pack. No one would do it for him. He had to create the opportunity himself. He had to become the bait.
He took a slow, deliberate breath. This was the point of no return. A single miscalculation, a moment of hesitation, and he would die. A real death this time. No second chances.
"Kairo, what are you doing?!" Liana shrieked as he pulled his hand from her grasp.
He took a step away from the fragile safety of the formation. Then another. He let a look of pure, slack-jawed terror spread across his face. It wasn't entirely an act. The savage reality of the beasts, the smell of blood in the air, the roar of the alpha—it was a visceral, primal fear that his body felt even if his mind didn't.
He "tripped."
It was a perfect, practiced stumble. He sprawled onto the ground, away from the guards, his small body painfully exposed on the open grass. He let out a loud, convincing cry of pain.
The effect was instantaneous.
The battle was a whirlwind of focused aggression. The guards were defending. The Ridgebacks were attacking their primary target, the alpha leading the assault on Korin. But Kairo's sudden fall and cry created a new, irresistible stimulus.
A weak thing. An injured thing. Easy prey. Separate from the pack.
The smallest Ridgeback, the omega, which had been circling the flank of the formation, looking for an opening, suddenly froze. Its head snapped towards Kairo. Its predatory eyes, burning with a hungry, yellow light, locked onto the small, helpless form on the ground.
The complex calculus of pack tactics vanished from its mind, replaced by a simple, overriding instinct.
Food.
The guards were preoccupied. Korin was desperately holding off the alpha. The other two beasts were savaging the wounded guard. No one was watching the omega. No one except Kairo.
Through his Aether-Sense, he saw the wireframe of the omega detach from the main battle. It lowered its head, its powerful muscles coiling. It had forgotten the armored warriors. It had forgotten the pack. It had found a meal.
A low, guttural growl rumbled in the omega's chest. It took a single step towards him, then another. It was breaking formation. It was taking the bait.
With a theatrical sob, Kairo scrambled to his feet and began to run. He didn't run towards the guards. He ran away, a panicked child fleeing into the open plains.
The Ridgeback's instincts took over completely. A chase. The hunt was on.
With a sharp bark that was lost in the din of the larger battle, the omega abandoned its post and launched itself after him. Its powerful legs tore up the turf, closing the distance with a speed that was utterly terrifying. Kairo could hear the pounding of its claws on the earth behind him, a rhythmic, deadly drumbeat getting closer and closer. He was alone, blind, and being hunted by a monster.
"KAIRO!"
Liana's scream was a raw, agonized sound, torn from her throat. For a split second, the battle faltered. Sergeant Korin's head snapped around, his eyes widening in horror as he saw the small boy fleeing and the sleek, grey predator in hot pursuit.
"No! Stay in formation!" he roared at his men, but his own instincts warred with his training. He shoved the alpha Ridgeback back with a desperate surge of strength. "Brandt, after the boy! Go now!"
One of the remaining two guards, a younger man named Brandt, hesitated for only a second before breaking from the line, his spear held ready as he charged after Kairo and the beast.
The formation was now shattered beyond recovery.
Kairo didn't look back. He couldn't. His world was the flickering golden map in his head, a map that was draining his Aether pool with ruinous speed.
AET: 32 -> 30 -> 28...
He could hear the Ridgeback's panting now, a hot, wet, hungry sound just a few yards behind him. Its musky scent filled the air. His small legs burned, his newly enhanced Durability the only thing keeping him from collapsing.
He had led the beast away from the main fight, just as planned. But now came the second, more difficult part of the strategy. He wasn't luring it to a trap. He was the trap.
He veered sharply to the right, heading for a small, shallow ravine he had noted on their way in. It was a simple dip in the terrain, no more than ten feet deep, with a cluster of sharp, jutting rocks at the bottom.
The Ridgeback, locked onto its prey, followed without a thought, its powerful form easily keeping pace.
Just as he reached the edge of the ravine, Kairo did something that went against every instinct of survival. He stopped. He spun around, his face a mask of terror, and threw his arms up as if to ward off the inevitable.
He was cornered. A perfect, helpless victim.
The Ridgeback, seeing the chase suddenly end, skidded to a halt a few feet away. It lowered its head, a low, triumphant growl rumbling in its chest. Its lips peeled back, revealing rows of sharp, white teeth. It savored the moment, the simple, brutal pleasure of the successful hunt. It tensed its muscles, preparing for the final, pouncing leap.
And in that split second of predatory pride, Kairo acted.
He dropped his arms, the terror on his face vanishing. It was replaced by a look of cold, absolute focus. He took one step back, his heel landing on the very lip of the ravine.
And then he fell.
He didn't just fall. He threw himself backward, into the empty air, into the ten-foot drop. It was a suicidal, insane move. And it was exactly what the Ridgeback's simple, predatory brain could not process.
The beast lunged, its jaws snapping shut on empty air. Its forward momentum was too great. Its front paws, expecting to land on the soft turf where its prey had been, found nothing but empty space.
A yelp of surprise and fear replaced its triumphant growl. For a terrifying, weightless moment, the Ridgeback hung in the air. Then, its own weight and momentum betrayed it, and it tumbled, end over end, into the ravine.
It landed with a sickening crunch of breaking bone and a shriek of pure agony.
Kairo, meanwhile, had not simply fallen. The moment he'd thrown himself back, he had reached into his satchel. His fingers closed around the object he had prepared: a thick, knotted rope he'd taken from the stables, with a heavy, three-pronged grappling hook tied to one end.
As he fell, he swung the hook. It sailed through the air and, guided by the precise map in his mind, latched perfectly onto the thick root of an old, gnarled tree growing on the ravine's edge.
The rope went taut with a violent jerk that nearly tore his arms from their sockets. The impact sent a wave of fire through his shoulders and chest. His bandaged hand, the one bitten by the Thorn-Rattler, screamed in protest as the rope burned against his raw skin. He held on, his jaw clenched, his body swinging like a pendulum before slamming hard into the rocky wall of the ravine.
Pain exploded in his side. He grunted, ignoring the flare of agony as he found his footing on a narrow ledge just a few feet down. He was bruised, battered, and bleeding.
But he was alive.
And his prey was broken.
Below him, the Ridgeback lay in a twisted heap among the sharp rocks. One of its hind legs was bent at an unnatural, impossible angle. The shriek of pain had subsided into a series of pathetic, agonized whimpers. It tried to push itself up, but its shattered leg collapsed under its weight.
It was crippled. Immobilized. Exactly as he had planned.
Footsteps thundered above him. "Lord Kairo!" It was the guard, Brandt, his voice breathless with panic and disbelief. He peered over the edge, his eyes wide. "Are you alright? By the Founder... the beast... how?"
Kairo didn't answer. He had no time. He let go of the rope and dropped the final few feet to the bottom of the ravine, landing in a crouch beside the whimpering animal.
The Ridgeback turned its head, its eyes, now filled with fear instead of hunger, locking onto him. It snapped its jaws weakly, a final, futile gesture of defiance.
Kairo's face was a mask of cold, surgical indifference. He reached into his satchel one last time. He did not pull out a weapon. He pulled out a small, heavy leather pouch.
He opened it, and the contents spilled into his hand. A dozen smooth, palm-sized river stones he had gathered from the gardens of the Spire.
He pulsed his Aether-Sense, his vision focusing on the injured beast. He could see its wireframe outline, but he focused deeper, feeling the flow of its powerful Aether, the strong, steady beat of its heart.
Then, he channeled his own Aether. Not into a weapon. Not into a shield. He channeled it into the stone in his hand. He focused his will, his impossibly high Control stat allowing him to do something that most trained Conduits would find impossible.
He imbued the stone with a single, simple concept from his Covenant of Force.
Weight.
The simple river stone in his hand, which weighed no more than a pound, suddenly felt as heavy as an anvil. The Aether drain was immense, a full five points for a single, momentary application, but the effect was undeniable.
The whimpering Ridgeback watched him, its eyes clouded with pain and confusion. It saw the small boy raise a simple stone.
Kairo took a step forward and, with a grunt of effort, brought the Aether-weighted stone down on the Ridgeback's skull.
There was no glorious explosion of power. There was just a dull, wet, final thud.
The beast's head cracked like a clay pot. Its body went limp. The whimpering stopped.
Silence.
Kairo stood over the dead beast, his small chest heaving, the heavy stone still clutched in his hand. The adrenaline began to fade, leaving behind a deep, bone-deep exhaustion and a constellation of throbbing pains.
"Lord... Lord Kairo?"
Brandt's voice from the edge of the ravine was a choked whisper. He stared down at the scene, his mind unable to reconcile what he had just witnessed. The
frail, seven-year-old boy, standing over the corpse of a C-Class predator that he had seemingly killed with a rock.
Kairo let the Aether drain from the stone, which immediately returned to its normal weight. He dropped it to the ground, the clatter loud in the sudden silence. He spared the dead beast one last, final glance.
Then, with the cold precision of a butcher, he knelt, drew the sharpened obsidian shard he still carried, and began to cut into the beast's chest. He had a heart to collect.
He was personally invited to the feast.