The forest trembled.
Riven staggered back to his feet, teeth clenched as blood soaked through the cloth wrapped around his severed arm. His vision blurred—but the system flickered before his eyes.
[system: Passive Ability Activated — Gradual Regeneration
Warning: External interference detected
Healing speed reduced]
A dull heat spread from his shoulder down the empty space where his hand once was. Flesh slowly began to knit itself together—not fast enough to save him in the moment, but enough to keep him from bleeding out.
The beast screeched.
It stood nearly thirteen feet tall, towering over them on jointed legs that bent like broken spears. Its emerald exoskeleton reflected the dim forest light, scarred and cracked from old battles. Its scythe-like arms twitched constantly, slicing the air without sound.
The pressure it gave off was wrong.
Every breath felt heavier.
"Something's slowing the healing," Riven muttered, electricity crackling weakly around his gauntlet.
The mantid tilted its head.
Then it vanished.
A blur ripped through the air.
Harkel barely reacted in time, twisting as his sword met the invisible strike. The impact sent him skidding backward, boots carving trenches into the dirt.
"This thing's fast!" Leo growled.
The werewolf lunged.
Leo's massive greatsword came down in a brutal arc, slamming into the mantid's torso. Sparks exploded—but the blade didn't bite as deep as it should have. The beast shrieked and retaliated, a scythe-arm carving across Leo's chest and sending him flying through two trees.
He hit the ground hard.
Still breathing.
"Leo!" Joey shouted.
Joey didn't hesitate.
Sword in hand, he rushed forward—pure strength, no technique wasted. His blade slammed into one of the mantid's legs, cracking armor through sheer force. Light flickered faintly around him, restrained, controlled.
The mantid retaliated instantly.
A backhand strike sent Joey crashing into a boulder. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he slid down—but he forced himself upright, sword still in hand.
Harkel stepped forward, eyes sharp.
The air shifted.
For a split second, the mantid's movement faltered—its leap disrupted by a sudden pressure change.
This is Harkel's ability—control of air itself.
"Now!" Harkel shouted.
Jordan moved.
Ink spilled from his hands, hardening midair into dozens of small daggers. They shot forward like a storm, embedding into the mantid's joints and eyes. Jordan followed immediately, real daggers flashing as he struck from below, carving into exposed gaps.
The beast roared and slammed the ground.
Jordan was launched backward, hitting a tree hard enough to crack it.
Unconscious—but alive.
Luka fired.
Arrows streaked toward the mantid's head—
—and shattered.
They bounced off its armored skull like splinters.
"Damn it!" Luka gasped.
The mantid turned on him.
Riven reacted instantly.
Electricity surged through his gauntlet as he teleported forward, slamming a charged punch into the beast's side. Lightning exploded outward, cracking armor and forcing it back a step.
Pain screamed through Riven's arm.
The regeneration slowed even more.
But then—
The mantid released a pulse.
A soundless vibration rippled outward.
Everyone felt it.
Healing stalled completely.
Riven's eyes widened.
"Toxin—no… something worse."
But his body didn't collapse.
Toxin resistance is still working.
Barely.
Harkel rushed in beside him, sword glowing faintly as compressed air wrapped around the blade. His strike landed clean, slicing deeper than any before and ripping a chunk of armor free.
The mantid shrieked violently.
It struck back.
Harkel was slammed into the ground, coughing blood.
Luka was clipped by a scythe and sent spinning, landing hard and unmoving.
Only Joey was still standing.
Barely.
Breathing heavy.
Blood dripping from his armor.
He looked at the beast.
Then at Riven.
"I've got… one shot," Joey said quietly.
Light flared.
Not gently.
Not controlled.
Joey raised his sword and poured everything into it.
A beam of blinding radiance exploded forward, slamming into the mantid's chest and blowing it backward in a storm of shattered armor and scorched chitin. The beast screamed as it crashed into the cave wall, collapsing into the stone.
The forest went silent.
Joey dropped to his knees.
Then fell forward.
Unconscious.
The mantid twitched.
Alive.
Broken.
Bleeding.
Riven stood there, shaking, electricity flickering weakly as his hand continued to reform—slowly, painfully.
Around him, his team lay wounded.
Bleeding.
Broken.
But alive.
And the Level Four Mantid still breathed.
The mantid twitched against the shattered stone, its bladed limbs scraping weakly as green blood pooled beneath it. Its chest rose and fell in jagged motions, each breath forcing out a low, grinding hiss.
Alive.
Still alive.
Riven stood at the center of the clearing, barely aware of the rain of ash and splintered bark drifting down around him. His vision swam. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Jordan lay motionless near a broken tree.
Joey was face-down in the dirt, sword fallen from his hand, light completely extinguished.
Leo's werewolf form was slumped against a shattered trunk, chest rising shallowly.
Harkel hadn't moved.
Luka wasn't screaming—which meant he was still alive.
Barely.
Something inside Riven snapped.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Stress.
Pure, crushing pressure that folded inward until there was no room left to breathe.
His system erupted.
[system: Extreme stress threshold surpassed
Warning: Feymir bloodline destabilizing
Evolution condition met]
The world slowed.
Riven dropped to one knee, clutching his arm as pain lanced through his body—then abruptly vanished. Heat replaced it. Not the gentle warmth of healing, but a violent pull, as if the forest itself had reached out and wrapped invisible hands around him.
The ground beneath him darkened.
Roots trembled.
Leaves withered.
[system: Awakening Level Increased
Awakening: One → Two
Level Boost Applied: +5 Levels]
Energy flooded him.
Not his own.
The Red Rock Forest screamed.
Life drained outward from the soil, from the trees, from every living thing that wasn't protected by a system barrier—and poured into Riven's body in a violent surge.
[system: Racial Effect Activated — Feymir Life Drain
Status: TEMPORARY
Absorbing ambient vitality]
Riven gasped.
His severed arm burned.
Then—
Flesh exploded outward.
Bone reformed with a sharp crack, knitting together perfectly. Muscle wrapped around it, dense and powerful. Veins threaded themselves cleanly into place as skin sealed over it in one smooth motion.
Riven stared at his hand.
It wasn't just healed.
It was better.
Longer fingers. Sharper reflex response. Strength coiled beneath the skin like a drawn bow.
Jordan stirred.
His eyes fluttered open just in time to see Riven rise.
"R… Riven…?" he whispered.
Jordan's breath caught.
Riven didn't look human anymore.
Green-gold light traced faint lines beneath his skin. His eyes glowed softly, pupils elongated just slightly, like something wild had stepped closer to the surface. The air bent toward him, leaves and debris dragging across the ground as if pulled by gravity itself.
[system: Stat Surge Applied
All stats +10
Additional Feymir Amplification: +20
Warning: Buff is TEMPORARY]
Riven felt it immediately.
Too much power.
It burned.
His stats spiked violently:
Strength surged past what his muscles should have held. Speed compressed the world around him. Durability hardened his bones like reinforced steel. Energy overflowed his system cap, flooding pathways never meant to carry that much force.
He could feel the timer ticking.
This wasn't permanent.
This was borrowed.
And borrowed power always demanded payment.
The mantid screeched.
Despite its injuries, it forced itself upright, scythe-arms scraping together as it focused on Riven alone. The air around it distorted again—another silent cut forming.
Riven stepped forward.
The blade missed.
Not because it was slow.
Because Riven wasn't there anymore.
He reappeared mid-step, gauntlet already buried in the mantid's chest. Lightning detonated outward, ripping armor apart from the inside as life drain surged again, ripping vitality directly from the beast itself.
The mantid shrieked, slashing wildly.
One blade tore across Riven's side.
Blood sprayed.
But the wound sealed before it could finish bleeding.
Temporary.
Overpowered.
Dangerous.
"Jordan," Riven said without looking back.
Jordan forced himself upright, pain screaming through every nerve. He watched in disbelief as the forest itself seemed to bend around Riven.
"This isn't just evolution…" Jordan realized. "He's burning something."
Riven grabbed the mantid's arm and ripped it off.
Green blood exploded across the clearing.
The beast stumbled back, roaring in pain—but still alive. Still fighting. It lunged, slamming Riven into the ground hard enough to crater the earth beneath them.
Trees collapsed inward.
The mantid raised its remaining blade.
Riven caught it.
Bare-handed.
Electricity and green light erupted together as he crushed the blade between his fingers, snapping it like brittle glass.
He stood.
"This ends now," Riven said quietly.
He didn't look at the beast.
He looked at Joey.
At Jordan.
At his team, broken and bleeding because he hadn't been strong enough before.
The life drain intensified.
The forest around him died in a widening circle.
[system: WARNING — Feymir Life Drain exceeding safe threshold
Buff collapse imminent]
Riven pulled everything inward.
Not outward.
Condensed.
Focused.
Lightning wrapped his gauntlet so tightly it screamed.
He stepped once.
Then drove his fist straight through the mantid's core.
There was no explosion this time.
Just a sharp, final crack.
The mantid froze.
Its body stiffened.
Then collapsed, legs folding beneath it as its head slammed into the dirt.
Silence.
The glow around Riven flickered.
Faded.
He staggered.
Jordan lunged forward, catching him before he could fall.
The forest exhaled.
Riven's stats crashed downward, power draining away as violently as it had arrived. Pain flooded back in. Exhaustion followed.
But his hand remained.
Whole.
Perfect.
Better than before.
The buff was gone.
system: quest complete completed
As Riven stood there, he could feel the soothing, satisfying buff leave, replaced by an agonizing pain—one that forced him to drop to his knees.
"Damnit…" Harkel said, trying his hardest to stand up, but he couldn't.
When he looked up at the beast, he could see something like a reflection of light in front of it.
"Hm? Oh, can you see?" a voice said confidently, almost smugly.
It was as if a man appeared out of nowhere.
"Oh, well," the man said, like a child who had just gotten in trouble but knew they were going to get away with it anyway.
The man reached into the beast's heart, grabbing the beast gemstone from within.
Harkel didn't know who this man was, but he knew what the man belonged to by the insignia on his uniform.
A black, crescent-shaped dagger encircled by a broken silver ring, its tip dripping a single crimson drop—symbolizing a kill made without witnesses.
The insignia that represented someone who was part of the assassin guild.
This caused Harkel's fear to grow sharp.
"Dammit… what the hell is an assassin doing here?" Harkel thought.
No. You knew where the first beast hunt would take place—only the participants and the leader of this planet knew that. All portals and space stations leading to and from this planet had been closed off for the day because of the Games.
So why the hell was he here?
He must've arrived a day or two early.
Harkel already knew why the man was here—to assassinate someone.
"Who…?" Harkel whispered weakly.
But he was cut off.
"Tch, tch," the man clicked his tongue. "By your face, I can tell you know who I am. You know what I'm a part of. And obviously, you know I can't tell you exactly who hired me."
The man's lips curled slightly.
"But you do know this will be your death. I don't know how you managed to store your beast gemstones wherever you hid them, but I'll get them soon enough—after I kill all of you—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
Riven was standing.
Blood poured from his body. Whatever buff he had used earlier—if he tried it again, he would most certainly die. Still, the green-and-black-haired boy walked forward, his fists clenched tightly.
When he got close enough, Riven threw a punch with his gauntlets.
The man sidestepped it effortlessly and kicked Riven to the ground.
"Really?" he said flatly. "Did you honestly think you could do something?"
He looked down at Riven with clear disinterest.
"Your body is heavily damaged. And the way your gauntlets look now, you're going to need a new pair soon. But you won't get the chance."
Harkel's mind was racing.
Who…? he thought. Who hired an assassin?
He knew one of them wanted to be the next leader—yes—but he never thought they would go this far. Never thought they would actually send an assassin after them.
Harkel's heart began to crack.
With every passing second, his thoughts turned to his family—the Voss Clan.
He loved them.
But there were things that had always been wrong. The way women were treated. The obsession with power. The brutal methods used to train the younger generation. It was wrong—unjust—borderline psychotic.
Still, he had always believed he had his brothers and cousins. They had all endured the same upbringing. Why wouldn't they stick together?
But now there was an assassin.
That meant one of his cousins—or even his brothers—had ordered someone's death.
Harkel forced himself to stand.
"Are you going to try something too?" the man said lazily, turning his back on Harkel as he admired a level-four gemstone in his hand. "Come on."
I could always break the agreement, the man thought. Just take this for myself.
Suddenly, his neck tightened.
Air vanished from his throat.
"Damn it—just a joke—" he thought as the sensation worsened.
A binding contract.
Every assassin carried one. If they failed their mission—or tried to betray it—the contract would activate instantly. Suffocation. A snapped neck. Death.
The man felt the air shift.
He turned.
Harkel.
Then pain exploded in his chest.
Looking down, he saw Harkel's sword buried deep inside him.
The man collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Riven—still conscious—stared in shock.
He couldn't believe how quickly Harkel had made the decision to kill.
Harkel stepped closer to the body, his eyes cold. A blue aura surrounded him as he pried the level-four gemstone from the assassin's stiffening fingers.
He turned and walked toward the cave.
After a minute inside, he emerged again and lifted Riven onto his shoulder, carrying him back. Once inside, he gently set Riven down before going to retrieve the others.
Harkel's mindset had changed.
This entire event had been a revelation.
From now on, the only thing he would concern himself with were the beasts—
And anyone else who tried to take his life.