The Fate Hunter landed so silently that the ground didn't even echo.
Leafless branches bowed outward as if recoiling from its presence. Its metal frame was slimmer than the others — humanoid, sleek, almost elegant. Its joints emitted a soft hum, not the harsh grinding of the lower-tier Hunters.
Its single blue eye-core glowed brighter when it fixed on Rafe.
"Anomaly identified."
Selene stepped in front of the children, her staff raised despite the cracks spiderwebbing through it.
"Mara, Lyn — behind me!"
Mara stayed by Rafe's side.
Lyn grabbed his sleeve.
Rafe barely registered either of them.
Because the Hunter's presence wasn't just hostile.
It was…focused on him.
Its core pulsed in the same rhythm as the Ruins of Arath'Sei.
Selene recognized it too.
"Oh no," she whispered. "…Class-Seven Pursuer."
Mara's head snapped toward her.
"CLASS WHAT?!"
"A Pursuer," Selene repeated through clenched teeth."A Hunter engineered to chase one target until eradication."
Lyn trembled. "C-Can we run?"
"No," Selene said. "Its tracking range is kilometers. And it won't stop."
The Pursuer tilted its head, analyzing Rafe's aura.
Rafe felt something inside him shift — instinct, warning, resonance.
The Primordial fragment stirred.
A soft hum ran down his spine.
Not a voice.Not an order.
A reaction.
Rafe swallowed hard.
Mara. Lyn. Selene.He couldn't let it near them.
He stepped forward.
"Rafe!" Selene hissed. "Stay behind—"
He didn't.
The Pursuer's core flared.
"Evolution acknowledged.""Threat level updated."
Then it vanished.
A blur.
A streak of blue.
Impossible speed.
Rafe's body moved on instinct — or maybe something deeper.
He raised his left arm.
Light mana erupted, forming a shield-like burst of white-gold.
CRASH!
The Pursuer's strike collided with the light barrier and threw Rafe back several meters. He crashed onto the grass, rolling twice before stopping.
"Rafe!" Mara sprinted toward him.
"I'm fine!" he yelled, pushing himself up.He wasn't fine.His arm shook from the impact.
Selene swore.
"It's adapting faster than expected!"
The Pursuer darted toward him again—
But Lyn screamed:
"Rafe—LOOK OUT!"
He twisted at the last second.
The blade-like arm cut the air where his neck had been.
Rafe ducked, rolled, and slammed his palm into the ground. Shadow mana surged upward, pulling darkness like mist.
He swung it like a whip.
The shadow tendril cracked against the Pursuer's torso.
THUD.
It staggered.
Just a little.
Rafe exhaled sharply.
It worked.
Mara blinked. "Since when can you do that?!"
"Since five minutes ago!" Rafe shouted back.
The Pursuer recalculated.
"Shadow affinity detected.""Light affinity detected.""Classification: Impossible."
Rafe grinned weakly.
"Yeah, join the club."
The Pursuer moved.
Rafe reacted.
Light in his left hand.Shadow in his right.
They didn't clash.They didn't explode.They didn't fight him.
They followed.
His left fist glowed bright — a flash of gold-white.His right fist bled smoke — cold shadow swirling tightly.
He met the Hunter head-on.
CRACK!
His left punch hit its arm — Light bursting like a small explosion.His right punch followed — Shadow slipping between plates of metal and detonating inside.
The Hunter's chest plate dented.
Selene's eyes widened.
"It's working! Rafe, keep it off-balance!"
Rafe didn't need the encouragement.
He slammed another strike.Then another.
Shadow warped the Hunter's footing.Light forced it back.
His movements weren't perfect.Not polished.Not trained.
But instinct drove them, raw and sharp.
And the Primordial imprint deep inside him—
It loved the rhythm of the fight.
He felt it hum through his bones.
Not controlling him.Not influencing him.
Echoing him.
The Pursuer reeled.
Its core flickered.
"Threat level reassessment required."
Mara whooped."Hell yeah! Rafe, you're actually beating—"
The Pursuer's core flashed red.
It bent backward in an inhuman arc.
Selene's face drained.
"No—! It's entering Overclock Mode!"
The Pursuer's limbs extended.Its joints flared with blue fire.Its eye-core split into three segments, rotating independently.
Lyn whimpered.
"R-Rafe…"
The Pursuer vanished.
FLASH.
Rafe barely crossed his arms before—
BOOM!
The strike sent him flying into the ravine wall.
His lungs emptied.Rocks cracked behind him.
He slid down, vision shaking.
Mara screamed his name.Selene tried to cast a barrier — her staff cracked worse.
Lyn ran toward him, tears streaming.
But Rafe pushed himself up.
Slowly.Painfully.
He exhaled.
"…That hurt."
The Pursuer's eye glowed cold blue.
It spoke directly to him:
"Obstacle: insufficient."
Rafe wiped blood from his lip.
"You talk too much."
He stepped forward.
The Primordial fragment hummed again.
Soft.Quiet.But present.
Not controlling him.But responding.
Rafe clenched his fists.
Light, he called inside himself.
Left arm flared.
Shadow.
Right arm bled smoke.
The energies didn't clash.Didn't explode.
They aligned.
Rafe's heartbeat steadied.
His breathing deepened.
He felt — for the first time — balanced.
The Pursuer lunged.
Rafe moved.
He didn't dodge the first strike — he redirected it with his wrist, Light reinforcing his bones.He didn't sidestep the second strike — Shadow bent around him, letting the attack pass through without impact.Then he struck back—
Light for force.Shadow for fracture.
His fist hit the Hunter's core.
CRACK.
The blue light flickered violently.
The Pursuer staggered, sparks shooting from its torso.It recalculated again.
"Reassessment failed."
Rafe raised his fist.
"No more reassessments."
He slammed the combined strike directly into its core.
BOOM.
Light and Shadow exploded outward, tearing the Pursuer's chest open. Its body convulsed, collapsing into twitching metal.
The blue core dimmed—
Then went out.
Silence fell across the ravine.
Mara stared.
Lyn's mouth hung open.
Selene lowered her staff slowly.
And Rafe…
He swayed.
A wave of exhaustion hit him like a tidal force.
He fell to one knee, chest heaving.
Mara ran to him first, gripping his shoulders.
"HEY! Don't you dare pass out—!"
Lyn hugged him from the side, sobbing.
"You're hurt—you're hurt—you're hurt—!"
Selene knelt in front of him.
Her voice shook.
"Rafe… do you understand what you just did?"
Rafe panted.
"Be…at… a thing?"
Selene shook her head.
"No. You didn't beat a thing. You beat a Class-Seven Pursuer — something most adult mages can't handle."
Rafe blinked slowly.
"Oh."
He fell forward a little.
Mara steadied him.
Selene's expression softened — and for the first time, she touched his cheek with the gentleness of someone terrified for a child they weren't supposed to care about.
"We need to leave now," she whispered. "Before something stronger follows."
Rafe nodded weakly.
"Yeah… okay…"
But before they could move—
A pulse of blue light burst from the dead Pursuer's core.
Selene froze.
"NO—DON'T TOUCH—"
The pulse hit Rafe in the chest.
His body jerked.
His vision went white.
And then—
He heard a voice inside his mind.
Not the Primordial.Not the Ruins.Not a Hunter.
A woman's voice.
Cold.Sharp.Human.
"So this is the anomaly."
Rafe's eyes snapped open.
And the world changed again.