The landing zone fell into heavy silence after the battle ended. Only the barrier's steady hum and Team 3's ragged breathing filled the air.
Kaelen collapsed against a supply crate, his legs finally giving out completely. Around him, his teammates were in similar states of exhaustion. Mateo sat with his bandaged shoulder, breathing carefully. Mira had her wrapped arm cradled against her chest. Sofia sipped water slowly, her throat still tender. Elias looked pale from aether depletion, his hands trembling slightly. Kenji remained in meditation, trying to recover. Nyxara kept one hand pressed to the ground. And Vyne was being Vyne as she could be.
Instructor Davos moved among the D-rank corpses with precision, examining each one carefully. He pulled out specialized equipment from his storage pack and collected samples from their crystalline growths, his expression growing more troubled with each collection.
Kaelen's system chimed softly, multiple notifications waiting for his attention. He'd been ignoring them during the fight. Now seemed like a good time to check.
[Base Level Up]
[Base Level: 10] (970/3200 XP)
[System Level: 8] (2370/2400 XP)
[New Skill Unlocked: Void Rift Lv. 1]
[New Skill Unlocked: Flow Regrowth Lv. 1]
[HP: 380/380]
[A.E.: 390/480]
Kaelen opened the skill descriptions, his mind processing the information despite his exhaustion.
[Void Rift Lv. 1]
Type: Active Skill
Function: Opens 5-meter portals to teleport allies, objects, or redirect projectiles
Range: Anywhere caster has physically been
Cost: 100 A.E. per 50 meters traveled
Mechanism: Creates temporary spatial point between two known locations
[Flow Regrowth Lv. 1]
Type: Passive Skill
Function: Accelerates healing and HP regeneration by 5%
Special Effect: Severed limbs can regrow over days with proper nutrition
Visual: Golden time-threads weave through damaged tissue
Cost: None, passive regeneration
Always Active: Continuous healing enhancement
Two powerful skills. The portal ability alone was worth the level-up, and enhanced regeneration would make him significantly harder to kill in extended combat.
Then another notification appeared, different from the others.
[Warning: Unknown Energy Signature Detected During Combat]
[Anomaly Recorded]
[Source: Unidentified Artifact - Personal Equipment]
Kaelen's hand moved to his chest where the pendant rested beneath his uniform. The metal felt warm, the residual heat fading slowly. During the serpent attack, when he'd been forming the Spatial Lance, he'd felt something pulse from the pendant. He'd been too focused on the fight to register it properly then.
But the System had noticed.
He pulled the pendant out, letting it rest on top of his uniform. The gear-shaped charm looked completely normal, no visible glow or change. But something had happened. The System couldn't scan it normally, and now it was flagging unusual activity during combat.
Another mystery. Another thing he didn't understand about his own equipment.
Kaelen tucked it back under his shirt and turned his attention to Davos, who was walking back toward the team with collected samples secured in specialized containers.
"Unusual aether patterns," Davos said, his gray eyes sharp despite the exhaustion. "The crystalline growths show synchronized resonance frequencies. These creatures weren't operating independently."
He set the containers down and pulled up a holographic display from his wristband. Aether pattern readings appeared, showing wave formations that matched too closely across all five D-rank specimens.
"This kind of synchronization doesn't occur naturally," Davos continued. "Beasts from D-ranks and above are territorial. They compete, they don't cooperate. Especially not with subordinates from multiple different species coordinating simultaneously."
Mateo spoke up, his deep voice carrying confusion. "So what are you saying? Something was controlling them?"
"Not controlling. Influencing them maybe." Davos gestured to the facility in the distance. "Whatever you documented in there, whatever's causing those anomalous readings, it's affecting beast behavior in ways I've never seen."
"The matriarch," Nyxara said quietly, her harmonic voice thoughtful. "She was intelligent. More than a typical D-rank should be. What if the facility's dimensional instability is accelerating their evolution?"
"Or awakening something that shouldn't be awake," Vyne added, her violet eyes serious for once.
Silence settled over the group as the implications sank in. The facility wasn't just abandoned. It was active in some way, changing the Scourged Zone around it.
Kaelen's mind raced through what they'd seen. The nest, the coordinated pack tactics, the intelligence in the matriarch's eyes. And now this mass convergence of different species working together.
"But why now since centuries ago?" Elias said out.
That struck everyone hard. The facility existed a little before the Descent and from what has being happening, it's related to the Descent itself. But why is it active now after centuries of dormancy. Why now?
"We need to report this immediately," Davos said, activating his communication device. "Academy Command, this is Observer Davos. We've encountered unprecedented beast coordination and evidence of external influence on local..."
He paused, his expression changing.
Nyxara's hand pressed harder against the ground, her solid black eyes going wide. "Movement. Single entity. Large signature. Different from the pack."
Kenji's shadows spread out automatically, fragmenting across the terrain. His quiet voice carried sharp alarm. "One entity confirmed. It's coming directly toward us."
Davos's entire demeanor shifted. His exhaustion vanished, replaced by cold focus. "Everyone behind me. Now."
Team 3 moved immediately, forming up inside the barrier. Kaelen's hand went to his gauntlet instinctively.
Then the figure emerged from the vegetation.
It walked on two legs like a human, but everything else was wrong. Dark scales covered its body, interwoven with crystalline protrusions that pulsed with internal light. Its proportions were slightly off, its limbs were too long, the torso was broad, head angular in ways that human anatomy couldn't achieve.
But it was the eyes that made Kaelen's blood run cold. It was as Intelligent as a human's own, looking at them not as prey but as obstacles to be assessed and overcome.
"Tha–that's a Nightvale." Elias said his knees buckling.
"But they are B–ranks and rare to come by," Mateo followed as his breath paused.
Kaelen activated Analytical Scan instinctively at their words.
[Error: Target significantly exceeds current scan capability]
[Rank: ???]
[Classification: Humanoid Beast, Rare Variant]
[Threat Assessment: Above Current Levels.]
[???]
[???]
A B-rank. Two full tier above the D-ranks that had just attacked. Three full tiers above anything his team could handle.
And it was humanoid, which according to every lesson they'd received, made it exponentially more dangerous than a standard beast of the same rank.
Davos stepped through the barrier, and it sealed behind him immediately. He turned back to face the team, his expression carrying absolute authority mixed with genuine concern.
"Stay inside the barrier. Do not interfere no matter what happens." His voice left no room for argument. "Humanoid beasts are rare. They're always stronger than their rank suggests, and they're smart. This isn't like the D-ranks."
He raised his right hand, and green energy began gathering around his palm. The air shimmered with heat, temperature rising noticeably even from behind the barrier.
"My ability is Verdant Annihilation," Davos said, still facing the team. "For those of you wondering, it's a C-rank Mage classification. Generates concentrated heat beams. I'm telling you this because you need to understand what you're about to see."
Then he turned to face the humanoid beast, and his aether presence exploded outward.
The pressure made Kaelen's knees buckle despite the barrier's protection. It was like standing at the base of a mountain that had suddenly decided to assert its existence. Raw cultivation superiority unleashed without restraint.
The humanoid beast didn't flinch. It stood there,it's scales gleaming, watching Davos with those intelligent eyes.
Then it moved.
The speed was impossible to track. One moment it stood thirty meters away. The next it was five meters from Davos, clawed hand already swinging.
Davos dodged with minimal movement, his body shifting just enough for the strike to miss. Green energy erupted from his palm, a concentrated beam of heat that seared through the air where the humanoid had been.
But it wasn't there anymore. It had already repositioned, circling to flank.
The exchange of blows that followed made the earlier D-rank fight look pathetically slow.
Davos unleashed green beam after green beam of condensed heat, each one powerful enough to melt through tungsten. The humanoid beast dodged with unsettling grace, its movements precise and economical. It didn't just react to attacks. It predicted them, countering before Davos's techniques fully formed.
A clawed strike caught Davos across the shoulder. Blood sprayed, but he turned the momentum into a counter-attack, point-blank heat beam that struck the humanoid's chest.
Its sales blackened and cracked. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. But the creature didn't slow down.
It struck again, faster. Davos blocked with an aether shield that shattered under the impact. The force sent him sliding backward, boots carving trenches in the ground.
Team 3 watched in stunned silence from behind the barrier.
"He's losing," Mira whispered, audible horror in her voice.
"No," Mateo said, though his tone carried doubt. "He's Sentinel rank. He can handle this."
Kaelen wasn't so sure. The humanoid beast was too fast, and too precise. Every exchange left Davos with new injuries while the beast seemed to absorb damage without significant effect.
Then Davos planted his feet and raised both hands. He made a decision, knowing well he wasn't winning.
He began quietly "Life that grows unending,
Hear my claim. Root and flame, breath and decay, I call the cycle to my hand. Let heat become judgment, Let growth become restraint, Let every living spark answer my will. By aether bound and will made law,
I establish this ground as mine.
Bloom…And burn. Aether Domain"
Aether Domain Lvl 4.
"Verdant Crucible."
Green energy exploded outward in a sphere thirty meters across. The temperature inside the field rose dramatically, the air itself shimmering with distortion. The barrier protected Team 3 from the worst of it, but they could still feel the heat radiating through.
The humanoid beast's movements slowed. Its crystalline growths began heating to critical levels, glowing brighter as the domain's effect amplified.
Davos didn't waste the opening. He unleashed a sustained beam, both hands channeling power through the domain's amplification. The attack struck the humanoid directly, concentrated heat boring through its chest armor.
Crystal melted. Scales burned away. The beast staggered, molten material dripping from the massive wound.
It fell to one knee, critically injured.
"He did it," Sofia breathed.
Then Nyxara's voice cut through their relief, sharp with alarm. "No. Something else is coming."
Kaelen felt it before Kenji's shadows could confirm. Another massive aether signature approaching rapidly from the opposite direction.
A second humanoid beast emerged from the vegetation. Moving with the same predatory confidence as the first.
Davos's expression showed exhaustion for the first time. His domain flickered, the green energy wavering. Maintaining it while fighting had drained his reserves significantly.
The first humanoid, despite its critical injuries, straightened. It looked at the newcomer, then back at Davos. Some kind of understanding passed between the two beasts.
They were going to attack together.
A sound cut through the tension. The distinctive hum of hover-transport engines.
Kaelen's head snapped toward the sky. An academy transport descended rapidly toward the landing zone, its hull marked with emergency response insignia.
The pilot's voice crackled through their communication devices. "Emergency extraction authorized. All personnel board immediately!"
Davos activated his emergency beacon without looking away from the two humanoid beasts. "Get them out. Now!"
The transport touched down inside the barrier, its rear ramp already lowering.
"Move!" the pilot shouted. "Thirty seconds!"
Team 3 stood frozen, torn between orders and the sight of the instructor facing two B-rank threats alone.
"Kaelen!" Mateo grabbed his arm. "We have to go!"
Kenji's shadows pulled back suddenly. "F-ranks incoming. Dozens. They're being drawn to the combat."
Indeed, movement appeared in the vegetation all around. Scavenger rats, wolves, serpents. The lesser beasts were converging on the massive aether signatures like moths to flame.
A system notification appeared in Kaelen's vision.
[EMERGENCY QUEST TRIGGERED]
[Quest: Sentinel's Shield]
[Objective: Ensure Instructor Davos's survival]
[Reward: +1000 XP (Base & System) | Rare Skill Upgrade Token | ??? Reward]
[Penalty for Failure: –50 Stats | Instructor Death]
[Accept?]
Kaelen accepted without hesitation.
"Everyone board the transport," he said, his voice carrying command he didn't know he possessed. "That's an order."
Vyne's violet eyes widened. "Kaelen, you can't..."
"I'm not leaving him."
The pilot's voice crackled again. "Twenty seconds! I can't risk the transport!"
Team 3 was torn. Mateo physically restrained Mira as she tried to jump off the ramp. Sofia looked between Kaelen and the transport with anguish. Elias started calculating something frantically on his tablet.
Davos, fighting both humanoids now while his domain collapsed, shouted without looking back. "Get them out!"
The first humanoid struck, claws raking across Davos's torso. Deep gashes opened, blood flowing freely. The second attacked from behind, forcing him to divide his attention.
"Ten seconds!" the pilot shouted.
Mateo made the decision. He grabbed Mira bodily and carried her up the ramp. Kenji and Sofia followed reluctantly. Elias hesitated longest, but Nyxara pulled him along.
Vyne was last. She looked at Kaelen with an expression he'd never seen before. Serious. Almost afraid.
"Don't die," she said simply.
Then she was on the transport, and the ramp was closing.
The transport lifted off, engines screaming as it climbed rapidly. Within seconds, it was fifty meters up and accelerating toward the Enclave.
Kaelen activated Flash Step.
[Cost: 19 A.E.]
[A.E.: 371/480]
He appeared beside Davos just as the instructor took a devastating hit. The second humanoid's clawed strike caught him across the ribs, and the force sent him sprawling.
"What are you doing here?!" Davos gasped through pain, blood flowing from multiple wounds.
"Following orders to ensure your survival, sir," Kaelen replied, his gauntleted hand already forming an aether construct.
The two humanoid beasts turned their attention to him simultaneously. Their intelligent eyes assessed this new variable, calculating whether he represented a threat or just another target.
Kaelen's system chimed.
[Skill Synergy Detected: ???]
[Components: Temporal Drag + Spatial Warp + Time/Space Authority synergy]
[Function: Creates rifts in spacetime that redirect attacks through temporal displacement]
[Cost: 250 A.E.]
[Effect: Attacks enter rift and emerge 5 seconds later from different location]
[Skill Synergy Created: Temporal Rift]
Both humanoids attacked simultaneously. The first lunged with clawed hands extended. The second unleashed some kind of crystalline beam from its mouth, concentrated aether formed into cutting force.
Kaelen activated the new synergy without conscious thought, his system guiding the execution.
Temporal Rift formed between him and the attacks. Space itself tore open, revealing swirling void that defied comprehension.
[Cost: 250 A.E.]
[A.E.: 121/480]
The first humanoid's strike entered the rift and vanished. The beam attack followed, disappearing into the spatial tear.
Both beasts paused, confusion evident in their body language. Their attacks had simply... being erased.
Five seconds passed. Kaelen counted them, his Chrono-Perception tracking time with perfect precision.
Then the rift opened behind the humanoids.
The first beast's own strike emerged from the void, catching it across the spine with devastating force. It hadn't expected to be hit by its own attack from its blind spot.
The second humanoid's beam shot out simultaneously, striking it in the shoulder. Its crystalline armor superheated, cracking under thermal stress.
Both creatures recoiled, their coordination shattered by the unexpected reversal.
Kaelen grabbed Davos, supporting the injured instructor's weight. "Can you move?"
"Barely," Davos gasped. Blood soaked through his uniform. "That won't hold them long."
"I know." Kaelen's mind raced. The cave. He'd seen it during their return march, approximately one hundred fifty meters north. Shallow but defensible, hidden among crystal formations.
He'd been there. Which meant Void Rift could reach it.
"Hold on," Kaelen said.
He activated his new skill, visualizing the cave entrance with perfect clarity.
Void Rift opened before them, five meters across, shimmering with spatial distortion.
[Cost: 300 A.E.]
[A.E.: -179/480]
Kaelen spat a handful of blood due to his reserves going negative, the System automatically drew Aether from his Aether Chain to compensate.
[–75 HP]
[HP: 305/380]
He had learned from class that aether exhaustion could cause death but he didn't think it was possible to enter the negatives and substitute his health points for it.
Kaelen physically supported Davos, half-carrying the larger man toward the portal. His legs protested, his body screaming that it had nothing left to give.
Behind them, the humanoid beasts recovered. They saw the portal, understood what it meant, and charged.
Kaelen and Davos stumbled through the rift just as clawed hands reached for them. The portal collapsed the moment they crossed, severing the connection.
They emerged at the cave entrance and immediately collapsed. Kaelen's vision blurred, severe aether exhaustion making the world spin. Davos was unconscious, breathing shallow and ragged.
Kaelen forced himself to move despite every instinct telling him to just lie there. He grabbed Davos under the arms and dragged him deeper into the cave, away from the entrance. The instructor was heavy, and Kaelen's depleted body protested every meter.
Finally, twenty meters inside where the cave widened slightly, Kaelen let Davos down as gently as he could manage.
His hands moved automatically, reaching for the emergency medical supplies in Davos's equipment pack. Bandages, regenerative gel, aether stabilizers. He'd done this in training dozens of times, but his hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold the supplies.
The worst wound was the gash across Davos's torso. Deep, bleeding heavily, potentially fatal without treatment. Kaelen applied pressure first, then packed it with regenerative gel. The substance glowed faintly as it bonded with tissue, working to close the damage from inside.
More bandages around the ribs where the second strike had landed. Gel on the shoulder wound. Stabilizer injection to prevent shock.
The bleeding slowed noticeably. The instructor's breathing stabilized slightly, though he remained unconscious.
Kaelen sat back against the cave wall, his body finally giving out completely. His Flow Regrowth passive activated automatically. Golden time-threads became faintly visible, weaving through his own injuries from the inside
[HP: 321/380]
[A.E.: 0/480]
[Status: Severe Aether Exhaustion]
[Warning: Movement significantly impaired. Rest required.]
His vision blurred at the edges. Every muscle felt like lead. Even breathing took conscious effort.
Distant sounds filtered into the cave. The humanoid beasts had lost their trail, searching elsewhere. F-rank creatures scurried past the cave entrance but didn't detect them, too focused on the larger aether signatures.
Kaelen's hand moved to his wrist, activating his emergency beacon. The device pulsed steadily, transmitting their location to academy rescue teams.
Estimated rescue time: Unknown. Could be hours in the Scourged Zone.
He checked his notifications properly, his mind struggling to focus through the exhaustion.
[Quest Update: Sentinel's Shield]
[Objective: In Progress]
[Current Status: Instructor Davos stabilized, rescue pending]
[Pendant activity logged during Temporal Rift activation]
Kaelen pulled the pendant out from under his shirt, examining it with blurred vision. It looked completely normal. No glow, no visible change. But the System had flagged its activity twice now. During the serpent fight and again just now when he'd opened the rift.
It had done something. Amplified his abilities somehow, or stabilized them. He didn't understand how or why.
Just another mystery to add to the growing list.
He tucked it back under his shirt and let his head fall back against the cave wall. His eyes closed despite his best efforts to stay alert.
First time truly alone in the Scourged Zone. No barrier protection, no team backup, no academy observers except the one currently unconscious beside him.
Responsible for a critically injured Sentinel-rank instructor. Used skills he'd just unlocked without any practice, pure instinct and System guidance carrying him through.
And he'd seen what real power looked like. B-rank humanoid beasts that had pushed Davos to his limits. Creatures that could think, plan, coordinate. Not animals but intelligent predators that understood tactics and strategy.
"B-rank," Kaelen muttered to the empty cave. "And there are things stronger than that."
The thought was terrifying. He was Base Level 10, barely into double digits, and he'd just witnessed combat that would have killed him in seconds. The gap between where he was and where he needed to be felt impossibly vast.
Davos stirred slightly, a groan escaping despite his unconscious state.
"Stupid," Davos muttered, consciousness returning briefly. His eyes opened slightly, unfocused. "Staying behind..."
"You'd have done the same, sir," Kaelen said quietly.
A faint smile crossed Davos's face despite the pain. "Probably. Still stupid."
Then he was unconscious again, but his breathing remained steady. The immediate danger had passed.
Kaelen's eyes fell on the pendant resting against his chest. He picked it up carefully, letting it rest in his palm. His mother had given it to him, insisted he keep it with him always. She'd pressed it into his hand with quiet intensity, like it mattered more than he understood.
And now it was reacting to his abilities, interfering with his temporal skills in ways the System could detect but not analyze.
"What are you?" he whispered to the gear-shaped charm.
No answer, just the steady pulse of his emergency beacon and the distant sounds of the Scourged Zone outside.
Kaelen tucked the pendant back under his shirt and closed his eyes again. He needed to conserve energy, stay alert for any threats. But his body was past its limits.
Dawn began to break over the Scourged Zone, pale light filtering into the cave entrance. The bioluminescent vegetation outside started dimming as natural sunlight took over.
Somewhere overhead, academy rescue teams were searching. His beacon would guide them eventually.
He just had to survive until they arrived.
"Just have to survive," Kaelen muttered, consciousness fading despite his best efforts.
The last thing he saw before exhaustion claimed him was the cave entrance, hidden among crystal formations that refracted the dawn light into rainbow patterns. Beautiful and dangerous, like everything in the Scourged Zone.
Outside, the abandoned facility loomed in the distance, its secrets still locked within.
And somewhere in the vegetation, the two humanoid beasts had begun searching systematically, their intelligent minds working to track the prey that had escaped.
The hunt wasn't over.
It had barely begun.