The word echoed in my head before I could stop it.
"Moderate… beast?" I whispered, disbelief tightening my chest. My grip on the sword stiffened as I leaned slightly toward Vaela. "What do we do now?"
Vaela didn't answer immediately. Her eyes stayed locked on the creature ahead, sharp and calculating. The hound-like beast prowled in a loose circle, muscles coiling beneath its dark hide, horn dipping and lifting as it tested the distance between us. For a heartbeat, Vaela's gaze flicked to the surrounding trees, then back to the beast, as if weighing whether escape was even possible.
Finally, Vaela exhaled, the sound slow and controlled, as if she were steadying not just her breath but her resolve as well.
"Skra-no choice," she said quietly. "We fight."
The words dropped into me like a weight.
This wasn't like the boars. It wasn't even like the rabbit-like beast. The pressure rolling off the hound was different... sharper, denser, carrying the unmistakable focus of a true predator. It felt as though the forest itself had narrowed around us, every instinct in my body screaming that we were standing before something far beyond a simple hunt.
My legs grew heavy, tension locking my joints in place. Sweat gathered in my palms, slick against the hilt of my sword as I tightened my grip and forced myself into a ready stance. I swallowed hard, pushing down the fear clawing at my chest.
The hound noticed us.
Its head snapped in our direction, eyes locking on with chilling precision, and then it was already moving.
There was no warning growl, no hesitation. One moment it stood coiled and watching, the next it launched itself forward. The ground seemed to explode beneath its paws as it crossed the distance in a blur of black hide and rippling muscle, speed far beyond anything I had faced so far. The air screamed as it tore through it, jaws yawning wide enough for me to glimpse rows of slick, jagged teeth glistening with saliva.
My breath caught.
"Move!" Vaela shouted.
She slammed her shoulder into me, driving me hard to the side even as she twisted her own body away. I stumbled, boots scraping against the forest floor, and the hound's jaws snapped shut where we had been standing a heartbeat earlier. The sound was sharp and brutal, teeth clashing together with a violence that made my stomach twist.
Before the beast could even adjust its footing, Vaela was already in motion.
She rolled across the ground, came up on one knee in a single smooth movement, and had an arrow nocked before I could fully catch my balance. The bowstring drew back and released in the same breath.
The arrow flew, cutting through the air with a sharp whistle.
The hound twisted mid-stride, its body bending in an almost unnatural way. Vaela's arrow sliced past its flank, missing by inches before slamming uselessly into the trunk of a nearby tree with a dull thud.
Charlie reacted without hesitation.
Heat surged as he thrust his palm forward, releasing a compact burst of fire that tore through the air toward the beast. The flames clipped the hound's side, scattering sparks as they scraped across its hide. For a split second, scorched fur burned and curled, but the creature barely reacted. It didn't cry out. It didn't slow.
Its skin was too tough, too dense.
The fire left nothing more than a blackened patch, and the hound kept moving, momentum unbroken, eyes locked on us with chilling focus.
Charlie's expression tightened, the calm lines of his face sharpening as the danger became unmistakably clear. Without hesitation, he stepped in front of me, placing himself squarely between me and the hound. His posture was steady and grounded.
"Young master," he said, his voice even despite the tension coiling in the air, "stay behind me."
I pushed myself up, my pulse roaring in my ears, refusing to let his back become my shield alone.
"Charlie," I said, gripping my sword harder, "I'll help. I won't just stand back."
I moved into position just behind him, feet spreading into a guarded stance, blade raised and ready. My eyes darted between the hound's movements, my breath shallow as I searched desperately for even the smallest opening, anything I could use before it struck again.
But the hound didn't give us one.
In the blink of an eye, it vanished behind a cluster of trees, its dark form dissolving into motion so fast it left only a blur in its wake. The forest itself seemed to swallow it. Vaela reacted instantly, loosing arrow after arrow, the bowstring snapping in sharp, rapid bursts as shafts cut clean lines through the air.
But the beast was already moving.
It slipped between tree trunks with terrifying agility, using the terrain as cover, its body twisting and accelerating in ways that felt almost deliberate. Arrows buried themselves into bark and earth where it had been a heartbeat earlier. It wasn't just speed driving its evasion... it was awareness.
Fire and arrows tore through the clearing, chasing the hound from one shadow to the next, but it was clear who controlled the rhythm of the fight.
The beast chose when to appear and when to vanish, using the trees as shields, the uneven ground as leverage. Then without warning, it burst from behind a trunk straight toward Vaela, its claws flashing as it lunged with killing intent.
Vaela reacted on pure instinct. She twisted aside at the last moment, the hound's claws raking through empty air where her throat had been a heartbeat earlier. Even as she moved, her bowstring snapped again, another arrow loosed mid-dodge, her attack never once faltering.
The hound veered away, narrowly avoiding the shot, then changed direction in a blink.
Its jaws snapped open as it redirected toward Charlie and me.
The sudden shift stole the breath from my lungs. I tightened my grip on the sword, feet digging into the earth as the beast closed the distance, its predatory focus locking onto us with terrifying clarity.
We leapt backward just in time, the rush of displaced air brushing past my face as the hound streaked between us. My heart slammed against my ribs.
Vaela never stopped firing, her arrows cutting through the air with relentless precision. Charlie never stopped answering with fire, bursts of heat flashing through the shadows. They pressed it constantly, forcing it to move, to react.
And I—
I couldn't do anything.
Every time I tried to close the distance, every time I searched for an opening, the hound shifted position with infuriating ease. It never stayed still long enough for my blade to matter, never committed long enough for me to strike. I was always a step behind, my reach just short, my timing useless.
Helplessness burned in my chest, hot and bitter, sharper than fear. I gripped my sword until my knuckles ached, hating how small I felt in that moment, how little I could contribute as the fight raged around me.
Charlie's fire struck the hound again and again, flashes of heat slamming into its body, but each impact did little more than scorch its hide and fuel its rage. The beast barely faltered, its movements still sharp, still lethal.
Then finally, Vaela's persistence paid off.
One arrow slipped through the chaos and struck, the shaft burying itself deep into the hound's leg.
The creature snarled, a raw, furious sound that tore through the clearing. Dark blood spilled down its limb, matting its fur and staining the ground beneath it. Its stride faltered, the perfect fluidity of its movement breaking for the first time.
But it wasn't enough.
The hound didn't retreat. It didn't hesitate. Even wounded, it kept dodging through the trees, kept lunging and snapping, its attacks just as vicious, only now driven by pain as well as hunger.
Then it found its opening.
The hound feinted toward Charlie, drawing his attention for a split second, just long enough. Its body twisted mid-motion, muscles coiling and releasing as it pivoted sharply and launched itself at Vaela instead.
She reacted instantly, throwing herself to the side, but this time she was a fraction too slow.
A claw swept past her guard and raked across her forearm. Blood sprayed in a dark arc and splattered against the forest floor.
"Vaela!" I shouted, panic ripping from my chest.
She didn't scream.
She didn't even slow.
Her teeth clenched, her eyes burning with focus as if pain were nothing more than an inconvenience. Even as blood streamed down her arm, she rolled with the momentum, came up hard on one knee and kept fighting.
She kept firing despite it all, jaw clenched tight as blood streamed down her forearm and dripped from her fingertips. Each draw of the bowstring pulled fresh pain through her arm, yet her movements never wavered. Arrows flew one after another, but the hound slipped between them, twisting its body with brutal precision before lunging again.
This time it turned on Charlie again.
The beast sprang with explosive force, jaws snapping shut where Charlie had stood a heartbeat earlier. Charlie hurled himself aside, boots skidding across the dirt as the hound crashed headlong into a fallen tree trunk. The impact thundered through the clearing, bark splintering under the force.
Vaela reached back, already preparing to loose another arrow... and stopped.
Her fingers closed on nothing. For a split second, she stared at her empty quiver.
The hound noticed.
Its head snapped toward her, lips peeling back in a low, vicious snarl. With bloodshot eyes locked onto its wounded prey, it surged forward, charging Vaela with murderous intent.