CHAPTER 328: NOT RIGHT.

Rachel didn’t tell Penny or Leo where they were going. She insisted on taking the lead.

She didn’t want Leo to know they were heading back to the hospital. The same hospital where he had spent years confined to a bed.

She was concerned.

Ever since the Procession Dungeon, something had changed in him. He had struggled not to smile at the thought of innocent people dying. It wasn’t cruelty. It was something colder. Something distant.

Rachel had seen what happened to Luna. How close she had come to becoming a demon. Penny’s aunt actually had. And now Leo...

She wasn’t going to take any chances.

Something was wrong. She just hoped it wasn’t already too late.

Why had he struggled to not smile when discussing the life and death of innocent people getting caught up in this mess?

Rachel glanced over her shoulder as they ran. Leo had shifted into his beast form again, carrying Penny under one arm like she weighed nothing. Penny looked dazed, lips parted slightly, a line of drool trailing down her cheek.

She looked... happy.

Rachel faced forward again, feet pounding against the pavement. The streets were mostly clear, the quiet around them broken only by their footsteps and the steady rhythm of her breath.

Of course Penny was fine. That girl liked muscles.

She pushed harder, forcing herself to focus on the path ahead.

Still, the image lingered. Leo’s beast form had that same unnatural grace. Like he didn’t have to try. Like he belonged in that power. Regal, calm, in control. And Penny resting against him like it was the most comfortable place in the world.

Rachel exhaled through her nose. Not annoyed. Not really. Just... distracted.

She shook her head and kept running.

It wasn’t important.

What mattered was that something was wrong with him.

She just wished it didn’t feel like she was the only one who still noticed.

The hospital’s roofline crested the edge of the skyline.

Almost there.

Almost.

But their luck was never that good.

They turned the corner.

Rachel’s steps faltered as a noise met her ears. Shouting. Screaming.

A mob surged toward them from the far end of the street, weapons raised, faces twisted in fury. Behind the mob, people drenched in blood stumbled and ran, barely keeping ahead of the chaos.

Rachel’s breath caught.

She didn’t need an ability to sense it. The air was thick with rage. Destruction. A collective desire to break and burn and destroy whatever was in front of them.

She frowned, slowing just slightly. Her heart pounded harder now, not from the run, but from indecision.

She didn’t want Leo anywhere near this.

Something was wrong with him. She didn’t know what would happen if he got involved. But if she did nothing, innocent people would die.

Her lips parted, unsure of what she was about to say.

Too late.

Leo shot past her in a blur of movement, a rush of wind trailing in his wake.

He planted himself between the fleeing survivors and the mob, claws flexed, tail lashing behind him. In that moment, with emerald eyes locked on the mob and his powerful frame still as stone, he looked like a guardian carved from legend.

The crowd slowed.

Weapons trembled slightly in unsure hands. The presence radiating from Leo in that form was something primal. A warning written in every line of his body.

Rachel came to a stop behind him, watching the moment stretch taut.

Penny stirred.

Still a little dazed, she wriggled free from Leo’s grasp, landing with a soft thud and brushing herself off like she had just stepped off a spa table.

She looked up, took in the scene, then popped a hand on her hip.

"Well, Seems we have found some people to stop for our quest."

Rachel didn’t answer. She couldn’t.

Her eyes were locked on Leo’s back. The tension in his shoulders. The flick of his ears. The way his claws hadn’t retracted. Not even a little.

He hadn’t moved since he stepped in front of the crowd.

And neither had they.

The mob hovered just out of reach, as if something in them recognized they weren’t facing just another obstacle.

They were facing a wall.

And Rachel didn’t know how long that wall would stand before it either shattered or struck back.

She stepped forward, slow and cautious.

"Leo..." she called out softly.

"Can’t you smell it?" He asked, his voice bubbling with something other than rage.

His voice wasn’t angry. It was quiet. Measured. But there was something in it that made Rachel’s chest tighten.

She hesitated. "Smell what?"

Leo didn’t look back. His golden eyes were fixed on the mob, pupils thin and sharp. His nose twitched slightly.

"Blood."

The word hung heavy in the air.

"They’ve killed people," he said. "Recently."

Rachel’s breath caught.

Penny, now standing beside her, blinked. "You’re telling me the murder parade smells like murder?" She crossed her arms. "Groundbreaking."

Leo ignored her.

Rachel’s gaze drifted back to the mob. The rage on their faces hadn’t faded, but now she saw the stains on their clothes. The splatters. The crimson smears on hands and weapons. Not from defending themselves. Not from surviving.

From hunting.

From killing.

And Leo could smell it like it was soaked into their skin.

He took a slow step forward.

The mob tensed, their chants faltering.

Rachel reached out, fingers brushing his arm. His muscles were taut beneath her touch, solid and still. Controlled. But not calm.

"Leo. You don’t have to—"

"They won’t stop," he said, voice low. "Not unless someone makes them."

Penny muttered under her breath, "Great. Here comes the part where the pretty boy turns into a public executioner."

Rachel didn’t smile.

Neither did Leo.

He took another step forward, claws flexing as the chains on his arms rattled.

Each person in the mob felt something was off. Though the man had only two women with him, the pressure from the trio was impossible to ignore. That uneasy feeling turned to certainty as the taller woman reached out to the man with a look of worry.

But her attempt was in vain.

In an instant, the man vanished from his spot and reappeared right in front of the mob’s leader.

"Are you the leader?" the man asked with no emotion.

He did not wait for an answer.

His arm moved in a blur.

A scream tore through the air as the man in front of the mob froze, his body rigid and unmoving. Then his head twisted sharply, spinning unnaturally like a top, his jaw pointing straight up toward the sky while the crown of his head faced downward.

The crowd gasped in horror.

Moments later, the man’s body collapsed to the ground with a sickening thud.

Leo had broken his neck with a single brutal punch.