CHAPTER 13: REUNION
Thomas realized he was alone the moment the gate vanished.
Not lost — abandoned.
The fog here was thinner, but the land fell away sharply into a ravine. Broken stone pillars jutted from the slope like jagged spears, half‑buried ruins scattered among them. The architecture was old — not Covenant‑made. Something ancient, gnawed apart and repurposed by time and worse things.
He tightened his grip on his staff, forcing his breath steady. The silence pressed in, heavy, unnatural.
Then he heard it.
A sound like wet stone grinding against itself. Slow. Rhythmic. Wrong.
Thomas crouched instinctively, sliding behind a shattered pillar. His eyes scanned the mist.
It emerged from the ruins.
The creature was hunched, its spine arched unnaturally, arms dragging long and heavy. Fingers fused into crude clubs of bone and flesh. Its skin was gray, cracked like dried clay, and its jaw hung slack, teeth jagged and uneven.
It sniffed the air.
Thomas's bracelet pulsed faintly, crimson runes flickering. THREAT CLASS: LOW.
The monster turned toward him.
Thomas's heart hammered. He raised his staff, whispering a word he barely remembered from training. Light sparked at the tip — weak, trembling.
The creature shrieked and charged.
Thomas stumbled back, thrusting his staff forward. The light flared, striking the monster square in the chest. It reeled, flesh sizzling, but did not fall.
It lunged again.
Thomas swung desperately, the staff cracking against its jaw. Bone splintered. The creature staggered, snarling, and Thomas struck again, this time with the light surging brighter.
The blast tore through its skull.
The monster collapsed, convulsing once before dissolving into the soil, leaving only a dark stain.
Silence returned.
Thomas stood trembling, staff shaking in his grip. His bracelet chimed coldly:
SCORE UPDATED: 1
ELIMINATION CONFIRMED — RAVINE HUNGER.
He exhaled, chest heaving. Alone. But alive.
The fog shifted again. More movement. More shapes.
Thomas swallowed hard, lifting his staff once more.
The proving ground was not finished with him. Just as he was preparing to fight, he heard a voice.
"Thomas."
Relief washed over him.
He turned sharply.
Thalia stood a few steps behind him, calm as ever, eyes already mapping the terrain. Beside her, the twins — Lucian and Orion — moved with an unsettling ease, backs to one another, blades half-drawn, watching the fog like predators waiting for prey.
"You're shaking," Orion observed casually.
Thomas swallowed. "I— I thought—"
"That we were blood thirsty monsters?" Lucian finished. "Reasonable assumption."
Thalia shot them a look. "Focus."
The bracelet on Thomas's wrist pulsed.
THREAT DETECTED
The sound came next — stone scraping stone.
From the ravine below, something climbed.
It wasn't large. That was the problem.
A hunched creature dragged itself upward using clawed limbs tipped with obsidian-like growths. Its body was narrow, skeletal, but its eyes glowed faintly yellow — awareness without intelligence—pure instinct sharpened by hunger.
"One point," Lucian murmured.
The twins moved first.
They didn't rush.
They split.
Lucian distracted it with a thrown blade that buried itself into the creature's shoulder. Orion flanked silently, blade flashing once, twice — severing tendons, collapsing its movement.
Thomas froze.
Thalia didn't.
"Finish it," she said sharply.
Thomas blinked. "What?"
"Now," she repeated.
The creature writhed, screeching.
Thomas stepped forward, hands shaking, staff trembling as he raised it.
Instead of striking the head, he brought the staff down across its spine — crushing vertebrae, silencing it instantly.
The bracelet chimed.
+1
Thomas sagged — then laughed weakly.
"That point should have been yours."
Lucian nodded once. "Meh, we can always get more."
Orion grinned. "You need it more."
Thalia watched Thomas closely.
Something had shifted.
Not strength.
Determination.
***
The forest parted unnaturally around Malric.
Trees leaned away from him, bark cracking as if repelled by his presence. The air felt heavier here, saturated with dormant magic — not hostile, but watchful.
Elowen fluttered down beside him, wings folding nervously.
"This place doesn't like you," she said softly.
Malric didn't respond.
His scarlet eyes tracked movement between the trees.
Two beasts emerged — massive quadrupeds with plated hides and blunt, crushing jaws. No magic shimmer. Just overwhelming physical mass.
"Not awakened," Elowen whispered. "One point each."
Malric stepped forward.
The beasts charged.
He didn't dodge.
He caught the first by the skull.
Stone cracked.
The creature collapsed mid-stride, head smashed with brutal efficiency.
+1
The second leapt.
Malric met it in the air, driving his spear through its ribcage and stabbing something that had once been a heart.
+1
Blood steamed on the ground.
Elowen stared.
"You could've… been more clean."
Malric wiped his hand clean on the corpse's hide. "Why?"
She hesitated. "Because… well...forget it."
He looked at her then.
Not cruel.
Not angry.
Just coldly honest.
"let's move, we need to find the others."
The ground trembled.
Something larger stirred deeper within the forest.
Elowen's wings flexed.
Malric turned toward the sound.
***
The forest embraced him.
Like he always belonged.
Roots were attracted to his steps. Moss grew where he passed. The land recognized him as something of its own— not because of magic, but because of intent.
Sylas welcomed it.
His bracelet pulsed once.
He ignored it.
The first creature came quietly — a crawler with no magic, all muscle and hunger. Its body was low to the ground, plated with chitin dull as rotting bark.
Sylas did not have a weapon.
The vines around his arms uncoiled, sharp as glass, moving with purpose rather than instinct. They pierced, constricted, crushed.
The creature didn't even scream.
+1
The bracelet chimed.
Sylas felt nothing.
He moved on.
The next kill was slower.
A group of children had backed themselves into a clearing — three humans, shaking, blood already staining their clothes. Something stalked them from the undergrowth — larger, pulsing faintly with green light.
Awakened.
High risk, high reward.
They didn't see Sylas until the vines moved.
The creature lunged.
The screams were brief.
The creature fed.
Then, as it was distracted, Sylas attacked.
Vines lanced through flesh and magic alike, draining both. The monster convulsed as its glow dimmed, then went dark.
+4
The bracelet chimed again.
The surviving child stared at Sylas in horror.
"You— you could've saved them."
Sylas looked at him without emotion.
"And why should I," he said quietly. "They were humans, and they don't deserve my compassion."
The child ran.
Sylas did not stop him.
The land began to change the further he went.
Trees twisted unnaturally, bark split by veins of glowing sap. Creatures with magic lurked here — drawn to the corruption, feeding on it.
Sylas welcomed them too.
He did not hunt recklessly.
He baited.
Let them smell blood.
Let them believe he was weak.
Then he took them apart piece by piece, methodical, efficient, merciless.
+3
+5
The bracelet chimed so often it became background noise.
Eventually, the forest fell silent.
Too silent.
Sylas felt it then — a convergence.
Not monsters.
Familiar.
His vines twitched.
He turned toward the sensation, moving without haste.
Toward John.
Toward the others.
Not because he missed them.
But because whatever was coming next would require all there strength.
And Sylas intended to survive it — even if no one else did.
***
Liora moved without sound.
She didn't run.
Didn't rush.
She listened.
Her bracelet glowed faintly, flickering between warnings — too many signals overlapping, canceling one another out. This area was dense. Dangerous.
A mistake here wouldn't be loud.
It would be final.
She sensed the creature before she saw it — magic rippling faintly through the air like heat haze. A serpent-like thing coiled around the ruins ahead, scales etched with glowing sigils, eyes sharp with unnatural intelligence.
Mid threat.
Worth more.
Liora drew her rapier.
Then stopped.
She waited.
Minutes passed.
The serpent struck first — lunging from the shadows.
Liora stepped aside at the last instant, blade flashing, stabbing not flesh but sigil. The magic destabilized instantly, the creature screeching as its own power unraveled.
She finished it cleanly.
+6
Her bracelet chimed.
Liora didn't smile.
She looked toward the horizon instead. And started moving.
***
They found each other by accident.
Nico nearly impaled John with a thrown knife before Amara tackled him sideways, snarling.
"Idiot!"
"Oh come on," Nico wheezed, grinning. "I thought he was a monster."
John pulled them both upright, relief flashing across his face for just a second before it vanished.
"You guys okay?" he asked.
"Barely," Amara said. "Which I assume is the goal."
A roar cut through the fog.
Not close.
But coming.
They turned together.
Three silhouettes moved toward them — shapes too tall, too coordinated to be mindless.
"Magic?" Nico asked.
John nodded. "More than one.
Nico cracked his knuckles. "Good. I was getting bored."
Amara scoffed, "says the guy who was screaming for dear life earlier."
***
Nyara hummed softly as she walked.
The others didn't like that.
She had bumped into Kaelen's group and was tagging along.
Kaelen shot her a wary look. "You're not even a little wary?"
"Why should i?" she said. "I am kind of enjoying this."
A creature burst from the canopy — winged, shrieking, magic flaring wildly.
Kaelen raised his shield.
Nyara raised her fist, her gauntlet glowing. And shot a punch.
The creature froze mid-air — not stopped, not bound.
Confused.
Then it fell.
+4
Kaelen stared.
"You didn't even touch it."
Nyara smiled faintly. "Exactly how I like it."
***
Daren laughed as the creature screamed.
He didn't kill it immediately.
He never did.
Around him, his squad moved efficiently — driving monsters toward weaker children, cutting off escape routes, herding panic like livestock.
A boy tripped.
Daren stepped on his back.
"Run faster," he said pleasantly — then drove his spear through the monster and the boy beneath it.
The bracelet chimed twice.
+12
Daren inhaled deeply.
"This is easy," he said.
Somewhere else, Bill watched silently. Satisfied.
Back to john
The fight ended with silence and steam.
John drove his blade through the last creature's throat, twisting to sever whatever passed for a spine. The body collapsed at his feet, dissolving slowly into ash streaked with faint blue light — magic residue bleeding back into the ground.
+5
The bracelet on his wrist chimed softly.
Nico leaned on his knees, panting. "Okay. Official ruling. I hate forests."
Amara wiped blood from her steel claws, ears twitching as she scanned the treeline. "You missed its flank."
"I was distracting it," Nico said defensively. "With my personality."
John was about to respond when he felt it.
A presence. Not hostile. Not frantic.
Controlled.
"Lower your weapons," he said quietly.
Amara hesitated — then obeyed.
A shape stepped out from between two leaning stone slabs.
Liora.
She looked unchanged at first glance — same calm posture, same measured breath — but there was something sharper in her eyes now, something honed. Dried blood stained the edge of her blade. Not much. Clean work.
John exhaled without realizing he'd been holding his breath. "You're alive."
Her gaze flicked briefly to Nico, then Amara, then settled back on John. "So are you. Barely."
Nico straightened. "Wow. She noticed."
Amara crossed her arms. "You were alone?"
"Yes," Liora said. "The terrain favors separation. But paths converge."
John nodded once. "Then we move together."
She studied him for a second longer — assessing, measuring — then inclined her head. "Agreed."
They didn't celebrate.
They moved.
***
The ruins gave way to marshland.
Every step threatened to pull them under.
Thomas's boots were soaked through, his breath shallow as he struggled to keep pace. The fog here clung low, coiling around ankles like living things.
Lucian held up a hand.
They froze.
Something moved beneath the surface of the water — long, sinuous, wrong.
Thalia closed her eyes briefly. "It hunts by vibration. Don't move."
Too late.
A scream tore through the fog to their right.
Another group.
The marsh exploded.
A creature burst upward — all teeth and slick hide, magic pulsing faintly beneath translucent skin.
Lucian swore. "Awakened."
"Dangerous," Orion added grimly.
The thing lunged.
Thomas didn't think.
He slammed his staff into the water — not at the creature, but near it — creating a shockwave that disrupted the surface tension, confusing its senses.
Thalia reacted instantly. "Now."
Lucian and Orion struck in perfect tandem — blades crossing, severing head from body in a clean X-shaped arc.
The creature thrashed once, then stilled.
+4
Thomas staggered back, heart pounding.
Lucian looked at him with new interest. "That was clever."
Thomas swallowed. "I just… remembered something from intelligence class. About these monsters."
Thalia watched him closely.
"Either way, you did well," she said.
The fog thinned ahead.
Through it, silhouettes approached.
Multiple.
Familiar.
***
The ground trembled again.
Elowen's wings snapped open. "That's not normal."
Malric didn't respond. He turned toward the disturbance, muscles tensing — then stopped.
Figures emerged from the mist.
Lucian.
Orion.
Thalia.
Thomas.
Alive.
Elowen let out a breath she'd been holding too long. "You guys are alive!"
Lucian smirked. "You say that like we were already dead."
Malric nodded once in acknowledgment.
Thalia's gaze flicked between them. "Did you find others?"
"No," Elowen said softly.
Malric added nothing.
They didn't linger.
The marsh was already shifting again.
***
Nyara felt it before she saw them — minds converging, intent aligning.
"Left," she said suddenly.
Kaelen hesitated. "We were heading—"
"Left," she repeated, firmer now.
They turned.
Moments later, a massive magical construct surged from the right — a golem of bone and sigil-fire, slow but devastating.
Kaelen stared. "That would've killed us."
Nyara smiled faintly. "Yes."
They crested a low ridge.
Below them, movement.
Multiple squads converging.
John's group.
Thalia's.
Malric's.
And sylias.
Nyara tilted her head. "Ah. There they are."
It happened without ceremony.
No cheers.
No relief loud enough to tempt fate.
They saw each other across the broken terrain — silhouettes resolving into faces, weapons lowering just enough to breathe.
Nico was the first to break the tension.
"Oh, thank the heavens," he said loudly. "More people. I was getting bored of the company here. Bunch of fun killers"
Amara snorted.
John stepped forward, eyes sweeping over the others — counting heads, checking wounds, noting who walked differently now.
Everyone important was here.
For now.
Liora took position beside him naturally, blade still loose in her grip.
Thomas stood a little straighter.
Malric stood apart, as always, presence heavy and immovable.
Nyara hummed softly, pleased.
And deeper within the proving ground, something shifted — drawn not by fear, but by numbers gathering in one place.
Something hungry and ready to feast.