The Sky Reaper screamed.
The sound tore across the highland forest like ripping metal, vibrating through bone and breath alike. Dust cascaded from nearby rock faces as its wings spread fully—vast, jagged, blotting out the pale afternoon light.
Priya felt the fear claw up her spine.
It wasn't charging.
It was claiming.
"This thing isn't hunting," Kiran muttered. "It's asserting territory."
The Sky Reaper's talons dug into the stone perch beneath it, amber eyes flicking between them, lingering on Akshay's broken form with unmistakable interest.
Bhavna tightened her grip on Akshay's shoulder. "We can't move him fast enough."
Priya's mind raced. Think. Think like a leader.
Retreat wasn't possible. Fighting head-on would be suicide.
Then the forest to the east erupted.
Not with a roar—but with motion.
Branches burst apart as figures sprinted into the clearing, mana signatures flaring wildly. The Sky Reaper's head snapped toward the disturbance, pupils narrowing.
Fire flared.
Lightning cracked.
And Avdhoot Autade stepped into the clearing.
He moved fast, cloak snapping behind him, eyes locked instantly onto the massive beast perched above Priya's team. Veer burst out beside him, electricity dancing across his arms, while Tara and Meira fanned out with practiced precision.
Avdhoot took in the scene in a heartbeat—Akshay bleeding, Priya's group cornered, the Sky Reaper looming like a god of slaughter.
His jaw tightened.
"So that's what you're dealing with," Veer muttered. "That's… unfair."
The Sky Reaper roared again, wings flexing, attention now fully divided.
Good, Avdhoot thought. Look at me.
"Priya!" Avdhoot shouted. "Can you move your injured?"
"Not quickly!" she shouted back. "Leg fracture, internal bleeding suspected!"
The Sky Reaper leapt.
Not into the air—but forward.
Avdhoot reacted instantly.
Fire erupted from his feet as he launched upward, fractured mana surging violently through his veins. It wasn't smooth or elegant—it was raw, unstable, but overwhelming.
A blazing arc of fire slammed into the beast mid-leap.
The impact thundered through the clearing.
The Sky Reaper shrieked, crashing sideways into a cluster of boulders, stone exploding outward. It rolled once, twice—then sprang back up, wings flaring defensively.
The silence that followed was stunned.
Priya stared. "You… stopped it."
"Temporary," Avdhoot said, landing hard, knees bending to absorb the shock. Fire leaked from his clenched fists, the air around him shimmering. "It's tougher than anything I've faced."
Veer grinned despite the danger. "Still counts."
The Sky Reaper didn't retreat.
Instead, it studied Avdhoot.
Its head tilted, nostrils flaring as it tasted the air.
Then it screeched—lower, sharper.
Recognition.
Tara's voice cut through the tension. "It senses his mana. That thing isn't just territorial—it's curious."
"Great," Veer muttered. "We've become entertainment."
The beast charged again.
This time, coordinated chaos exploded.
Veer surged forward, lightning ripping across the ground and arcing upward, striking the Sky Reaper's wing joint. The beast howled as its movement faltered, wing spasming violently.
Tara followed instantly—wind compressed into invisible blades, slashing across exposed joints and eyes. The strikes didn't penetrate deeply, but they forced the creature to recoil.
Meira moved to Akshay, reinforcing Bhavna's healing with stabilizing water magic, her face tight with concentration. "He'll live," she said, voice strained. "But we can't fight long."
Avdhoot stepped forward again.
This time, he didn't suppress the fracture.
Mana surged wildly through him—fire bleeding into the air, cracking stone beneath his boots. The heat warped the clearing itself.
The Sky Reaper felt it.
And for the first time—
It hesitated.
Avdhoot raised his hand, fire spiraling outward in unstable waves. Pain lanced through his chest, but he pushed through it, eyes burning with resolve.
"You want a fight?" he growled. "Come."
The Sky Reaper screamed back and lunged.
Fire and storm collided.
The clearing became a battlefield—lightning flashing, wind screaming, fire roaring. Avdhoot met the beast head-on, fractured mana exploding outward in brutal bursts. Each strike shook the earth, each exchange carving scars into stone and bark alike.
But it was costing him.
Veer saw it immediately. "He can't keep that up!"
Priya clenched her fists. "Then we don't let him fight alone."
She turned to Kiran. "Distraction patterns. Keep it grounded."
To Bhavna: "Stay with Akshay. Prepare to move."
They moved as one.
Priya hurled controlled bursts of fire toward the beast's flank—not to damage, but to force repositioning. Kiran used earth magic to destabilize footing, cracks spiderwebbing beneath the Sky Reaper's claws.
The beast retaliated violently.
A wing slammed down, sending Priya skidding across the ground. Veer barely intercepted a descending talon, lightning barely holding it back.
Avdhoot screamed—not in fear, but in fury.
Fire surged outward uncontrollably, a shockwave blasting the Sky Reaper backward once more.
For a brief moment—
The beast faltered.
Tara seized the opening. "Now! We disengage!"
"No," Avdhoot said hoarsely. "It won't let us."
As if confirming his words, the Sky Reaper rose to its full height again, wings spreading wide, preparing to take to the air.
If it did—
They wouldn't outrun it.
Priya met Avdhoot's eyes across the chaos.
A silent understanding passed between them.
This wasn't about winning.
It was about surviving.
Avdhoot nodded once.
"I'll hold it," he said. "You get everyone out."
Priya shook her head fiercely. "We don't leave you."
"You don't have a choice."
The Sky Reaper screamed again, wings beating—
—and the ground beneath it suddenly collapsed.
The earth dropped away beneath the beast's talons, stone and soil giving way into darkness. The Sky Reaper shrieked in fury as it stumbled, wings beating violently to regain balance.
Avdhoot stared.
Veer's eyes widened. "Uh… that wasn't you, right?"
The opening yawned wider—a tunnel forming beneath the battlefield, raw and unstable.
Something—or someone—had intervened.
And the only question left was whether they'd survive what came next.
[End of Chapter 12]