CHAPTER 51: CHAPTER 51: SHADOWS IN THE BRUSH

The creak of wagon wheels set the pace for the road ahead. The Boro Trading Group kept to themselves at first, merchants muttering over numbers, laborers sprawled lazily on the flatbeds whenever the road smoothed out.

Arden sat at the rear wagon with Nyra, Rael, and Zephyra.

His eyes looked half-lidded, but he was watching everything.

"They’re not exactly the lively with us," Nyra murmured, leaning on the rail.

"They’re not here to chat," Arden said, his tone calm, measured. "They want herbs. We make sure they live long enough to pick them."

Rael gave a small grin. "So we’re the hired muscle?"

"You’re not wrong," Arden replied, gaze sweeping the treeline. "Better than wasting weeks at the ruin. We need the experience."

Hours passed quietly until the road narrowed, pulling them into the wild edges of the second zone. The convoy stopped by a shallow stream to rest, and that was when Zephyra’s head lifted.

Her tail, tipped in faint ember light, swayed once.

Rael noticed first. "What is it?"

The others glanced toward the trees, but Arden didn’t move. His system had already pinged the moment he felt the shift in life energy.

[Shadowfang – C Rank Beast

Affinity: Dark

Description: A predatory feline that moves unseen, fangs laced with paralytic shadow essence. Hunts for hours before striking.

Skills: Nightveil Pounce, Umbral Fang, Veilstep.

Threat: High in low light. Avoid drawn-out fights.]

"Shadowfangs," Arden said quietly. "they surrounded us."

One of Boro’s guards had already spotted movement on their patrol. Arden’s eyes flicked to them, noting how quickly they took control. The leader, a stocky battle mage barked orders.

His team split without hesitation, two battle mages, an elemental mage, and an assassin moving in the shadows.

Zephyra gave a low growl, Rael flexed his hands, but Arden cut them both off. "No. Let them handle it. We’ll prove ourselves when it matters."

The guards moved fast. The assassin vanished into the undergrowth while the elemental mage knelt by the stream, fingers brushing the water. A thin layer of frost spread across the ground where the Shadowfangs emerged, slowing their movements. One battle mage drew his blade, the steel flaring with red heat, and charged in, cutting through the first beast with a single sweeping strike.

Another Shadowfang blinked from shadow to shadow, but the assassin reappeared behind it, his twin daggers flashing.

The leader hurled a compressed orb of earth that exploded on impact, shattering the ground beneath the last two beasts.

The mage pinned them in place, and the assassin finished the job cleanly.

It was quick, and efficient, and they made sure everyone knew it. The leader glanced back at Arden’s wagon with the faintest smirk before turning away.

His team didn’t say a word, but the message was clear enough, This is how it’s done.

Rael leaned back with a faint scoff. "Show-offs."

Arden just smiled thinly. "Good. I’d rather know what they can do before things get serious."

Some merchants and laborers clapped the guards on the back, praising them loud enough for everyone to hear. "We’re in safe hands," one of them said, and the others agreed.

One of the guards, riding the praise, smirked toward the rear wagons. "Didn’t even need the extras," he said, making it clear he meant Arden’s group.

Nyra’s scoff was sharp enough to draw glances. Even Rael’s easy smile faltered.

"They think we’re just kids," Nyra muttered.

"Not just kids," Rael said dryly. "The infamous dual affinity users. Lucky us."

Arden didn’t bother looking their way. "Let them talk," he said, voice even. "We’ll shut them up when it matters."

When they set camp, everyone fell into their own work. The laborers prepared food, Boro and his merchants bent over their maps and coin ledgers, and the guards discussed their night patrols. Arden’s party kept to their tent, eating dry rations, the smell of roasted meat drifting from the laborers’ fire.

Rael’s eyes followed the guards as they posted themselves around camp. "Guess they’re hogging all the glory tonight too."

"Let them," Arden replied. "But stay sharp. Overconfidence kills quicker than any beast."

The night passed without trouble. By dawn the camp was dismantled, wagons loaded, and the road ahead stretched quiet.

The journey kept its steady pace, and every beast they met was cut down by the guards before Arden’s group even had time to rise from their seats. Not like they intended to compete.

Every kill came with a smirk or a glance meant to sting, and it worked on most people. The merchants seemed to believe the guards were worth every coin, and the unspoken thought spread through the group, that Arden’s party was just a waste of resources.

Arden ignored it. Nyra and Rael tried to, though Zephyra’s low growls gave her away.

"It’s still only the second day," Arden reminded them. "The deeper we go, the worse it gets. Patience."

As if the world had been listening, the next evening broke their streak of quiet. They had just finished eating when a shout tore through camp.

"Ambush!" one of the guards on patrol yelled, already giving orders for the group to fall back.

The attack came hard and fast. From the shadows beyond the firelight, snarling shapes burst into view, broad, low-bodied beasts with scaled hides glistening in the dark and jagged tusks curling from their jaws. Their eyes burned a sickly yellow, and the way they moved, quick and low, made them hard to track.

The guards rushed to meet them. Fire flared, wind whipped, steel flashed.

Their formation was tight at first, spells weaving between sword strikes. Two fire lances pierced the first beast’s throat, while another went down under a blast of condensed wind.

But there were too many.

One slipped past the front line, only to be brought down by the assassin’s dagger flashing in and out like lightning. Another crashed straight into the formation, scattering men and wagons.

From the safety of the rear, the labourers shouted over the chaos.

"If you lot were worth the coin, we wouldn’t be fighting for our lives!"

"Just sitting there like ornaments!"

Nyra’s hand tightened around her weapon, but Arden’s calm voice cut through.

"Eyes on the fight, not their mouths."

The guards were holding, but the cracks were showing. Their line bent under the weight of the beasts, coordination slipping with every new wound.

Arden’s party stayed back, close enough to intercept anything that broke through, making sure no one from the trading group died because of the guards’ mistakes. But even Arden could see they wouldn’t last much longer.

Then it happened, one of the tusked beasts surged through a gap, its massive head lowered, its jaw ready to crush the nearest guard.

The man barely had time to raise his weapon.

A flash of silver cut across the firelight, and the beast froze mid-lunge.

Rael stood in its shadow, one hand on his blade, the other catching the creature’s tusk as if it weighed nothing.

"Guess it’s our turn," he said, his grin cold.

The beast snarled, and Rael’s eyes lit with something far sharper than amusement.

A/N:

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