There had never been a world where Elias and Jamie won this fight outright.
Elias had accepted this fact two days into their planning. Jamie had, reluctantly, accepted it a day later, after losing a particularly heated argument about the feasibility of trapping an Apex beast in a hole.
They struggled with Awakened beasts—creatures only one stage above them. Fights against those things demanded preparation, precision, and often a measure of luck. Results, regardless of success or failure, often ended with them wounded, exhausted, and grateful to be alive.
Victory was never clean. Never easy.
So what chance did they have against Apex beasts?
Creatures that stood on the same conceptual rung as Saints.
Creatures that were now begining to establish themselves on the world not through clever manipulation, but through sheer authority.
They had neither the strength nor the tools to bridge that gap.
Not yet.
Artificing—true artificing—could have compensated. A properly forged artifact, crafted from Apex materials, could elevate them. Could let them punch above their weight.
However, they were still not proficient enough in artificing to create such a weapon. Besides, they would need the right components for this specific task. They required Apex components
And Apex components required killing Apex beasts.
A loop with no exit.
So they had changed their approach.
After watching the two Apex packs for several days, tracking their movements, their habits, their territories, they had decided: they would not hunt the beasts. They would let the beasts hunt each other.
Luring either one into the other's territory would not work. More often than not, a beast that found itself in unfamiliar ground would back away, unwilling to risk a fight without the advantage of home terrain. The Apex beasts were no exception.So they found something else.
A place that belonged to neither.
A stretch of land where the iron-barked trees thinned into skeletal remains, where the metallic grass had long since died, and the Flow ran shallow and unstable.
A No Man's Land.
That was where they would make it happen. Finding it had taken two days. Preparing it had taken three more.
As for who would lure which beast—
That had been decided by something far less grand.
Rock.
Paper.
Scissors.
Elias had lost.
He lost because, while both parties were Apex, the Ibex was older and physically stronger than the deer. Using the rogue Saint who had attacked them at SK's glade during the winter as a yardstick, Elias recounted how he had managed to kill one of the three creatures that day—with high difficulty, and ended up badly wounded. If not for that, he, Jamie and SK would have died.
Or died sooner in SK's case.
That was besides the point.
The point was that even if he made assumptions and added some variables, he did not think the same Saint pre-injury could take on the Ibex by himself.
Still—
The Diredeer were no easier.
They lacked the Ibex's raw, overwhelming power, but they made up for it with coordination, intelligence, and numbers. Even now, their pack of Awakened still roamed the forest, lingering shadows behind their Apex leaders.
Neither path was easy.
Neither path was safe.
But both led to the same place.
They did make one mistake though.
They assumed the Apex beasts were predictable.
They were not.
And now he was here, bleeding behind a fallen trunk, watching three Apex beasts tear each other apart.
The forest did not simply shake when the three Apex beasts met.
It screamed.
The collision was immediate.
Violent.
Unrestrained. The female Diredeer struck first— her crystalline antlers warping gravity with the charge, creating pockets of crushing pressure and sudden weightlessness that sent the Ibex stumbling.
The Ibex answered with density.
The ground beneath it shattered as it rooted itself in place, the gravitational distortion slamming against it—and breaking.
Not resisting.
Overpowering.
The male Diredeer followed from the flank, jaws snapping toward the Ibex's hind leg, gravity twisting his trajectory unnaturally mid-leap.
The Ibex vanished.
Not speed.
Not movement.
It became light—so light it slipped from the pull entirely, its body flickering out of the warped space before reappearing above them.
And then—
It fell.
Heavy.
Catastrophically heavy.
The impact cratered the earth, a shockwave blasting outward that flattened trees and sent shards of metallic bark screaming through the air like shrapnel.
Elias and Jamie moved instinctively.
They didn't speak. Didn't need to.
They leapt back, a wind bubble carrying them away with the shockwave as the battlefield shifted violently.
"Move!" Jamie snapped, grabbing Elias's sleeve as a tree tore free of the ground and spun past them.
"I see it!" Elias shot back, already redirecting the wind beneath his feet.
They landed on a slanted ridge just as the ground where they had stood collapsed inward.
Below them, the fight escalated.
The Diredeer pack—the Awakened ones—had joined the fray, harrying the Ibex from the edges, darting in to nip at its heels before bounding away. Two of them went down, their bodies crumpling under the Ibex's hooves. That did not stop them though.
The Ibex's hide was streaked with blood—not its own. The smaler pack members had carved a furrow along its flank, and the female Apex had torn a strip of flesh from its shoulder. But the Ibex was not wounded.
It was angered even more.
The female lunged from the treeline, her crystalline antlers refracting the ambient Flow into a distorted haze as gravity twisted around her charge. The ground beneath the Ibex warped, pulled upward as if trying to meet her halfway—
The Ibex responded instantly.
Its density surged.
The distortion collapsed.
Gravity bent—but mass overruled it.
The Ibex slammed into her mid-charge.
The impact detonated the air.
Trees bent outward, their metallic trunks screeching under the force as a shockwave ripped through the clearing. The female was thrown sideways, her body carving through bark and stone alike.
The male followed.
Faster.
Sharper.
His presence pressed against the forest itself, gravity folding inward as he leapt. The air thickened. The ground dipped beneath his landing as if reality itself was being pulled toward him.
He struck the Ibex from above.
Antlers collided with horn.
And for a moment—
The world held its breath.
Then it broke.
Gravity crushed downward.
Density pushed upward.
Two forces clashed, not as techniques—but as laws.
The ground caved.
Stone shattered.
Air screamed.
The male Diredeer was forced back, hoove-like paws skidding as the Ibex drove forward, its mass increasing beyond reason. Every step it took cracked the earth open beneath it, forcing gravity to yield or collapse entirely.
The female dart past her partner andwith a bark he followed her lead. Their gravity manipulation twisted the space around them, creating pockets of increased pull and sudden release. The male leaped, and the earth beneath him seemed to lift, carrying him higher, faster. The female darted left, and the ground behind her collapsed like a rubber band being pulled.
The Ibex countered.
It made itself light—impossibly light—and leapt.
Not over.
Through.
It cut across gravity wells like they weren't there, phasing partially through distortions before slamming back into reality with crushing force.
The female's jaws clamped onto the Ibex's flank—
And gravity spiked.
The Ibex's leg buckled for a fraction of a second.
Enough.
The male surged forward—
Only for the Ibex to shift again.
Heavier.
Denser.
The bite lost purchase.
The female was thrown off as the Ibex twisted violently, its body becoming a weapon of mass rather than motion.
Blood sprayed.
Bright.
Hot.
Alive.
Jamie's eyes widened as they were forced to relocate just as the beast crashed into the spot they were a moment ago. She skidded to a stop behind a shattered trunk Elias rather laning abover her on a branch.
"That's… worse than expected."
Elias didn't respond.
The Ibex stomped.
The ground didn't just crack.
It sank.
Gravity inverted locally as the Diredeer's influence clashed against it. The terrain folded in on itself, trees bending inward before snapping under the pressure.
The male Diredeer roared.
A howl followed—
Deep.
Resonant.
The forest trembled.
Gravity surged outward in a wave, distorting everything in its path. The Ibex met it head-on, increasing its density to anchor itself against the pull.
The air screamed.
Space strained.
And still—they fought.
Relentless.
Elias swallowed.
"We really thought it would be easy to fight these things."
Jamie let out a breathless laugh.
"Speak for yourself."
"Huh? Aren't you the one who suggested we trap them in a hole."
They moved again before Jamie could respond because the fight moved. It didn't stay contained—it dragged itself across the forest, uprooting everything in its path.
Then—
It turned toward them. Just as they were bounding for cover the Ibex saw them and charged.
Straight.
Direct
For them.
Or.
For Elias?
"Huh?"
For a single, frozen moment— they thought they were dead.
Then something blurred.
A streak of crystalline light tore through the air—and punched through the Ibex's leg.
Clean.
Violent.
The limb tore free in a spray of blood and shattered bone, spinning away as the Ibex stumbled, its charge collapsing into a skid.
Elias blinked.
A crystalline bird arced past.
Gone as quickly as it came.
"…w-what—"
The Diredeer struck.
The female lunged—
The Ibex turned—
And this time—
It killed.
Its horn pierced through her torso, exiting through her back in a burst of gore. Flesh tore. Bone snapped. Blood exploded outward in a violent arc as the Ibex lifted her off the ground—
Then slammed her down.
Hard.
The forest went silent for a heartbeat.
The male froze.
Then—
Slowly—
He approached.
He lowered his head.
Sniffed her body.
Once.
Twice.
And then he howled. The pack members who had retreated to the forest howled as well.
The sound was not just sound.
It was force.
Gravity pulsed outward, warping the air, bending the trees, forcing Elias and Jamie to brace themselves as the forest groaned under the weight of it.
Then he charged.
The Ibex met him.
Horn against antlers.
They locked.
Force against force.
Gravity against density.
The ground beneath them shattered into a crater as both pushed—neither yielding.
Elias raised his hand.
"Hey, What are you doing Ellie?"
Elias didn't answer.
Wind gathered.
'What parameter should I use?'
The point began to spiraling inward.
Compressing, becoming more dense till it ignited as a crimson red bullet.
He exhaled—
And fired.
The shot struck the Ibex's hind leg. The already-damaged limb gave and he creature's knee buckled, its weight shifted, its horn tilted.
It collapsed forward and the male Diredeer's antlers snapped upward.
With a violent twist—
The antlers snapped the horn.
A crack like thunder split the air. Fragments of obsidian rained across the glade, glittering in the pale light. The Ibex stood motionless, its crown reduced to a jagged stump, its eyes wide with something that might have been disbelief.
Silence followed.
Then—
The Diredeer howled again.
The Ibex—
Turned.
And ran.
It vanished into the forest, blood trailing behind it.
But not before—
It looked back at the two children with an emotion? behind its eyes.
The male did not pursue. He stood over the female's body, his head bowed, his breath coming in great, heaving gasps. Blood dripped from his wounds. His flank was torn open. His antlers were cracked. he bite Jamie's spear that was planted in the Female's side this whole time and gently pulled it out, throwing it aside. Then he raised its head. His eyes found Elias and Jamie.
He took a step toward them.
Elias tensed. Jamie's grip tightened on her axe.
Then— it paused.
Its gaze lifted.
Crystalline birds lined the branches of a dead tree behind them, watching.
Silent.
Still.
The Diredeer snorted.
Then turned away.
And disappeared into the forest.
Elias collapsed first.
Flat on his back.
Jamie followed seconds later.
"…we're alive," she said.
"Barely."
The sun was rising over the Node, its light filtering through the iron-barked trees in pale gold streams. The No Man's Land was destroyed. The bodies of the fallen—the female Diredeer, the scattered fragments of the Ibex's horn—lay scattered across the cratered earth.
Elias stared at the sky.
"I'm beat."
Jamie groaned.
"Same."
They lay there for a long moment, breathing, not speaking. Then Elias sat up.
"We should go home."
Jamie nodded.
"But first—"
"The hotspring?"
"The hotspring."
They returned to Blackhaven at midday. Their return was anything but quiet.
People gathered.
Eyes widened.
There they were —two children, one carrying an obsidian horn over her shoulder, the other with meat wrapped in metallic leaves strapped to his back.
Clean.
Uninjured.
Impossible. Well, they did have a good bath after geting blodied and dirty ad when Elias regained some of his energy he healed both thier wounds so one could see why the townsfolk would assume that.
Whispers spread.
"…that's them?"
"…no way."
"They were in the Node—"
"Lies—"
"Look at them. They don't even look hurt."
"How is that possible?"
"Did they really kill an Apex?"
"…look at that horn."
"…they killed it?"
"Impossible."
"Quiet. they'll hear you."
"…monsters."
Elias frowned.
"I don't like this."
Jamie grinned.
"I do."
They walked through the crowd, past the awestruck and the skeptical, past the merchants and the servants and the children who stared with wide eyes. The rumors would spread. They always did. But for now, there was only the walk home.
Elara and Alaric were waiting at the keep's entrance.
She did not speak. She simply opened her arms, and Elias and Jamie walked into them. She held them for a long moment, her face buried in their hair, her shoulders trembling.
"Welcome home," she whispered.
"We're back," Jamie said.
Elias said nothing. He just let himself be held.
When Elara finally released them, they turned to Alaric. Jamie presented the horn. Elias presented the leg.
Alaric inspected them both, his expression unreadable.
"The horn is yours," he said, handing it back to Jamie. "The leg—" He gestured to a servant. "Cook it."
The servant bowed and hurried away.
Alaric looked at Elias. Then at Jamie. He smiled, reached out and placed a hand on Elias' crown—a light touch, gentle.
"I'm proud of you."
He did the same to Jamie.
"You too."
Jamie's eyes glistened. She blinked rapidly and looked away.
"Oh—right."
She raised her hand. The copper ring on her thumb flared. Space folded.
The body of the female Diredeer materialized in the courtyard.
Servants screamed. Guards reached for their weapons. Alaric's eyes went wide.
Elias sighed.
"What? You did say it was too heavy to just drag here."
In Alaric's study, Ortis Mellou lay sprawled on the sofa, his eyes closed, his breathing slow. The window was open. Through it, he could see the courtyard below—the chaos, the shouting, the children standing beside the corpse of an Apex. Not that he needed to.
A flock of crystalline birds circled the keep, their bodies gleaming in the afternoon light.
Ortis smiled.