They pushed deeper into the twisted jungle, the oppressive humidity making every breath feel like drowning. The bioluminescent fungi that had cast everything in sickly green light were starting to dim, their glow fading as the gate's internal cycle shifted.
"How long have we been in here?" one of the D-ranks asked nervously.
"Two hours, maybe three," Marcus replied, his earth sense keeping him oriented. "Time moves differently in gates. Hard to track."
They encountered another pack of lizardmen—four scouts this time, probing their formation. Angela's commands were sharper now, more confident as she adapted her business leadership instincts to combat situations.
"David, barrier left! Lin, sweep right flank! Marcus, containment!"
The fight was brief and efficient. Ash called out weak points as his Eyes of the Dead showed him the vulnerabilities a damaged shoulder joint here, a cracked scale there. The team executed perfectly, and the lizardmen fell within minutes.
"Your coordination is improving," Helen observed, making notes. "Response time is decreasing with each engagement."
They continued forward, the jungle growing darker with each passing minute. The breathing trees seemed to slow their rhythm, their trunks contracting as if preparing for sleep. Strange sounds faded, replaced by an unsettling quiet.
"It's getting dark," Sarah said, her healing magic manifesting as soft white light around her hands. "Is that normal for gates?"
"Some gates have day-night cycles," Thomas replied, his enhanced sight struggling to pierce the deepening gloom. "But this feels... wrong. Too fast."
A red flare burst through the canopy in the distance, bright against the darkening sky. Jake's signal.
"There!" Marcus pointed. "Convergence point. Maybe half a mile northeast."
"Let's move before full dark," Helen decided. "Standard march formation, double-time pace."
They pushed toward the flare's location, moving faster now. The jungle sounds changed as darkness fell the ambient clicks and hisses fading into heavy, waiting silence.
"I don't like this," Lin muttered, her enhanced reflexes on high alert. "Something's watching us."
She was right.
They burst from the undergrowth without warning lizardmen, but far more than before. Fifteen, maybe twenty, a coordinated assault from multiple directions. Scouts mixed with larger variants, some carrying actual forged weapons instead of crude clubs.
"Defensive circle!" Angela commanded, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Marcus, barriers! David, support! Everyone else, hold the line!"
The lizardmen hit like a wave. Marcus raised stone walls, but the creatures were already climbing over them, adapting their tactics. Lin's blades flashed in the dimming light, her enhanced reflexes barely keeping her ahead of multiple attackers.
Ash's vision shifted.
His eyes turned black, his rectina green as always. The world transformed skeletal structures became visible through flesh, mana cores flickering like dim flames in their chests, weak points glowing bright in his enhanced sight.
"Lin, spinal joint, third vertebrae!" Ash called out, his voice unnaturally calm. "Marcus, left leg! Angela, mana core exposed, center mass!"
Helen's head snapped toward him, her tablet momentarily forgotten. His eyes they weren't normal anymore.
The team executed his callouts with devastating precision. Lin's blade severed a spine at exactly the right point. Marcus's stone spike shattered a weakened leg bone. Angela's dagger, aged to impossible sharpness, pierced straight through to a mana core.
The first lizardman fell under Lin's strike, collapsing near Ash's position.
That's when he saw it.
A dark blue orb rose from the corpse, floating above it like a will-o'-wisp. Pulsing with energy that felt cold and alien but somehow right. Ash's eyes still black and green from Eyes of the Dead tracked it as it hovered there.
He glanced around quickly. No one else seemed to see it. They were too focused on the fight, on survival. Even Helen was watching the tactical situation, not the dead lizardman at Ash's feet.
Ash reached out and touched the orb.
The effect was immediate. The orb shot into his hand like it was being pulled by invisible strings, and an icy surge flooded through his body. Cold, alien, but intoxicating.
[SOUL EXTRACTION ACTIVE]
[VITALITY ABSORBED]
[STRENGTH +3]
His eyes returned to normal the black and green fading as Eyes of the Dead deactivated. But the power remained, settling into his muscles, making them denser, stronger.
Another lizardman fell. Another blue orb appeared. Ash reached out, touching it while pretending to brace against a nearby tree.
[VITALITY ABSORBED:]
[ENDURANCE +3]
The fight continued, brutal and desperate. Angela's time manipulation kept the team from being overwhelmed, but they were taking hits. David's barrier cracked under a war hammer's blow. One of the D-ranks took a spear graze across his arm.
"Thomas, count!" Angela shouted.
Ash's eyes flared black and green again as he activated Eyes of the Dead, scanning for weak points. "Angela, neck joint on the big one! Lin, right knee on your three! Marcus, ribcage crack, left side!"
Helen was staring at him now, tablet recording. Every time he called out weak points, his eyes changed. Black sclera, green veins of light. Then back to normal. What kind of ability did that?
Three more lizardmen fell. Three more blue orbs appeared. Ash absorbed them quickly, feeling the power accumulate.
The remaining lizardmen broke off suddenly, retreating into the darkness with unsettling coordination. Not fleeing, executing a tactical withdrawal.
Silence fell over the clearing, broken only by heavy breathing.
Angela stood in the center of the defensive formation, her white hair disheveled, her daggers still glowing faintly with time manipulation. She was about to give orders when she felt it.
A change in the mana around them. Subtle but distinct, like the atmosphere itself had shifted. A flow of energy that hadn't been there before, concentrated around—
She turned to look at Ash.
He stood near several lizardman corpses, his expression neutral, but something felt different about him. The mana in the air had moved, been drawn somewhere, and her brother was at the center of it.
"Everyone alright?" Angela asked, forcing herself to focus on immediate concerns. "Sound off."
The team reported in. Minor injuries, exhaustion, but no serious casualties.
They pushed toward Jake's flare, moving quickly through the deepening darkness. The jungle felt different now, more hostile, like they'd crossed some invisible threshold.
They reached the clearing fifteen minutes later. Jake's team had set up a defensive perimeter, portable lights casting harsh white glows that pushed back the darkness. Ten hunters, most looking as exhausted as Angela's team.
Jake saw them approaching and waved. "Team Angela! Good timing. Was starting to think you'd decided to camp out there."
"Just ran into some complications," Angela replied. "Heavy ambush. Coordinated attack."
"Same here." Jake's usual grin was strained. "These things are way smarter than C-rank classification suggests. We need to talk strategy."
As both teams converged, setting up camp, Helen pulled Angela aside to have a conversation.
"Ash," Helen said quietly but firmly. "He might've awakened another ability or maybe part of his powers. Visual confirmation his eyes change when he identifies weak points. And there was a mana disturbance during that fight. Significant energy movement."
Angela glanced at Ash, who was helping set up the perimeter lights, seemingly unaware of what was going on.
They locked eyes
Ash raised his hands in a placating gesture when Angela caught his eye across the firelight. "Your tent. We need to talk."
Angela studied him for a moment, then nodded once before disappearing into her shelter.
The camp had quieted, most hunters already asleep or maintaining silent watch at the perimeter. Ash made his way to Angela's tent at the edge of their defensive circle, the portable lights casting long shadows across the trampled ground.
She'd left the flap partially open. He ducked inside.
Angela sat cross-legged on her bedroll, her time-manipulation daggers laid carefully beside her. She looked up as he entered, her expression caught between concern and suspicion. "Helen said there was a mana disturbance during the fight. Around you."
Ash lowered himself to sit across from her, the small space feeling even smaller with the weight of what he needed to explain. "I know. I felt it too."
"Ash..." Her voice softened slightly. "You're my brother. My loving, annoying, secretive brother. So I need you to tell me the truth. Did you awaken again?"
He met her eyes, seeing the worry there beneath the tactical assessment. "I think so. It's complicated, Angie. What I can do now, it's—"
"Show me."
Beyond the tent, beyond the harsh glare of the portable lights, something moved in the darkness at the jungle's edge.
A pair of eyes appeared, larger than the scouts they'd fought earlier. Vertical slits that caught and reflected the distant firelight in an amber gleam, intelligent and calculating. They watched the camp with patient hunger, focused on the tent where the siblings spoke in hushed, urgent tones.
The eyes narrowed slowly, then disappeared back into the shadows.