The forest didn't just smell of pine and rot; it smelled of old blood.
Rowan Vale crouched in the mud, running a gloved hand over the depression in the earth. The track was massive—three times the size of a wolf's paw, but the claws were uneven, jagged, as if the fingers had been broken and reset at wrong angles.
"That's not natural," Caren whispered, crouching beside him. She shifted her weight, the leather of her armor creaking softly. "Look at the gait, Rowan. It's limping. Or maybe... dragging something."
Rowan looked at her. Caren had been his partner for five years since they were trainees with wooden swords. He knew her nervous ticks. Right now, her thumb was tapping a rhythmic beat against the shaft of her spear. She was scared.
"If it's dragging something, it's not hunting anymore. It's nesting," Rowan murmured, standing up. "We should fall back. Tell Captain Voss we need a Warden squad."
"And let the trail go cold?" Lethan sneered from behind them. The older hunter was confident, loud, and holding his torch too high. "It's probably just a feral dire-bear. Good coin in the pelt."
Rowan exchanged a look with Caren. Idiot.
"Keep your voice down, Lethan," Caren snapped, her voice low but sharp. "The Hinterwilds are quiet tonight. Too quiet."
She was right. The usual sounds of the forest—the crickets, the owls, the wind—were gone. It was a vacuum of sound, as if the world was holding its breath.
They pressed forward. The trees began to twist, their bark turning black and oily. The ground dipped into a sunken clearing where ancient stone pillars jutted from the earth like the ribs of a buried giant.
The Ruins of Black Hollow.
Rowan felt a pressure build behind his eyes. A low hum vibrated in his teeth.
"I hate this place," Caren muttered, stepping closer to him. "It feels like we're being watched."
"Stay close," Rowan said, nocking an arrow. "Formation. Now."
They entered the ruins. In the center, half-swallowed by moss and mud, lay a stone disc. It was cracked, revealing a faint, pulsing red light beneath the surface.
Lethan whistled. "Now that... that looks like treasure."
He stepped forward.
"Lethan, don't!" Rowan shouted.
The warning came too late.
The silence broke—not with a roar, but with a wet, tearing sound.
From the shadows behind a fallen pillar, the Black Maw emerged. It was a nightmare of anatomy—a wolf-like chassis, but covered in bone plates that looked like they had erupted from the inside out. Its jaw was unhinged, hanging loose, revealing rows of teeth like broken glass.
It didn't growl. It just moved. A blur of black fur and white bone.
Lethan died before he hit the ground, his chest caviting under a single swipe.
"Formation!" Caren screamed, driving her spear forward.
Tomas and Elwen panicked. They turned to run, breaking the line. The Maw was on them instantly. It moved with a terrifying, fluid grace, snapping Elwen's spine with a flick of its tail and tearing Tomas's throat out in the same motion.
It was a slaughter.
Rowan loosed an arrow. It struck the beast's shoulder and shattered on impact. "Run!" he yelled at Caren. "Go!"
"Not without you!" she shouted back. She slammed the butt of her spear into the beast's snout, buying them a second.
The Maw recoiled, then lunged at her.
"Caren!"
Rowan threw his bow aside and drew his dagger, sprinting toward her. He wasn't fast enough. The Maw slammed into her, pinning her against a crumbling wall. The sound of the impact—armor crunching against stone—made Rowan sick.
She screamed his name.
Rowan didn't think. He threw himself at the beast, driving his dagger into its flank. It was like stabbing a stone wall. The blade snapped.
The Maw turned its head. Its eyes were burning cinders, intelligent and cruel. It backhanded Rowan with a massive claw.
Rowan flew backward. The air left his lungs. He crashed into the center of the ruin, landing hard on the exposed stone disc.
His blood dripped onto the cracks.
The red light flared.
A vibration seized his body, paralyzing him. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't move. He could only watch as the Maw turned back to Caren, who was slumped against the wall, struggling to lift her spear.
Get up, Rowan screamed internally. Get up!
The stone beneath him grew hot. White hot.
> [Vessel Detected.]> [Status: Broken.]> [Initiating Forced Evolution.]