We weren't far from Point Argis now.
Sir Bren had said two clicks north, but that was half a day ago, and the land hadn't made it easy. The slope kept changing, up, then down, then a tangle of roots that tried to pull your boots off with every step.
The trees thickened again, taller and older here, their branches arched like ribs over a path that didn't feel natural.
No one said it, but we all felt it.
Claire had stopped commenting. Serena kept her fire closer to her fingers than usual. Carter was quiet, actually quiet. Even Ryan kept glancing over his shoulder like something would be there next time.
And Ronan…
He walked at the back, same as always. Not tense. Not relaxed. Just… steady.
I stayed near the middle, not because anyone told me to—but because I could feel something. It wasn't anything I could name.
Just a rhythm that was off. The wind was wrong. It came in small bursts, sharp and clipped, like it was trying to say something but kept getting cut off.
And the ground… the ground didn't speak at all.
There was no give underfoot, no soft breath of living soil. Just packed silence.
It felt like we were walking on something that didn't want us there.
Sir Bren held up a fist, and the group stopped.
He crouched low, checking something near the treeline. A snapped branch, maybe. Old tracks. I couldn't see.
"Hold position," he said over his shoulder.
We waited.
The wind scraped through the trees with a dry rustle.
That was when I noticed it. No birds. No rustling brush. Just us.
Sir Bren stood again. "We're going to cut through this ravine ahead. It's the fastest way to Argis."
He didn't say be ready, but his voice carried the weight of it.
We adjusted our lines and moved in.
The ravine wasn't deep, just enough to press the path in between two narrow rock faces. Trees leaned close above us, the light dimming as we moved into the natural corridor.
And then everything stopped.
The wind dropped flat. The birds didn't return. Even our steps sounded wrong—muffled, like the earth didn't want to echo.
"Something's not right," I muttered.
Claire turned. "What?"
I opened my mouth to answer.
That's when the flare went up.
A bright, violet flash snapped overhead ,silent, unnatural light blooming against the canopy.
Then came the sound.
A single crack, like stone breaking.
Then another.
Then—
"INCOMING!"
Sir Bren's voice roared through the ravine as the sides of the path exploded in motion.
Shapes launched from the underbrush. Too many limbs. Twisted forms, like the forest hounds, but wrong. Warped.
Fused with chunks of earth and bone. Eyes burned with red light, and magic pulsed around their bodies like cracked glass.
They came down in waves.
Too fast. Too many.
Carter barely got a shot off before one of the creatures slammed into him from the side. He rolled with it, snarling, a blast of thunder erupting from his palm that sent the thing skidding into a rock face.
"Left! I've got left!" he shouted, already on his feet again.
Serena was on the right, fire lighting in quick bursts to ward off a pair of the twisted hounds trying to flank us. Her face was locked in focus, lips moving too fast to be chanting properly, half-breaths of instinct guiding the flames.
"Hold the line!" Claire barked, already pulling Ryan behind her.
She dropped her arm and a shield snapped up, barely in time.
The creature's claws scraped against the barrier like knives against stone. It snarled, pressing forward. Cracks spiderwebbed across the shimmering surface.
"I can't reinforce it while holding this angle!" Claire gritted through clenched teeth.
Ryan didn't answer. His eyes were on her hands, ready to patch her up the second she faltered.
I was a few paces off-center, half-buried behind a jut of stone.
Something lunged at me from the trees. I turned with it, not fast enough to dodge, but just enough to angle the hit wide. The earth told me where to plant my foot, the wind warned me of the next.
I ducked, rolled under the next swipe, and came up with a short burst of motion that pushed my weight into its side.
The creature stumbled, off balance.
Not down, not out.
But open.
A blur of motion swept past me.
Ronan.
His blade didn't sing. It whispered.
The creature collapsed mid-motion, spine severed.
He didn't stop. He pivoted and kept moving, always a step ahead, always quiet. No shouts, no commands. Just clean movements and bodies falling behind him.
I pushed forward, catching another twisted hound as it tried to circle wide. The wind warned me—just a flicker, a breath, and I turned a heartbeat early, driving my elbow into the side of its skull.
It reeled. My foot landed just where the earth told me to place it. I kicked off the angle, pivoted low, and drove it down with all my weight.
"Drey!" Claire called, "One more coming in high!"
I didn't look—I felt it.
The air pressure shifted above me.
I threw myself sideways, tucked my shoulder, and rolled clear as claws slammed into the stone where I'd just been.
When I came up, Serena's fire had already scorched the thing's back. Carter finished it from a distance, a bolt snapping through its chest.
We were holding, but just barely.
More shadows moved in the trees.
They weren't finished yet.
We'd barely caught our breath when the next wave came.
These ones moved differently.
Slower. Coordinated.
They didn't rush all at once, just circled us, stalking in wide arcs.
The forest pulsed with pressure, and the rhythm I'd been feeling all morning fractured. Like the wind had been holding its breath.
"They're not mindless," Claire said quietly, eyes narrowed. "They're probing us."
Sir Bren's tone stayed level. "Adjust formation. Triangle. Carter and Serena break out wide—draw their flanks. Ryan stays center."
Without a word, Carter moved left, Serena to the right, both disappearing between trees and spells.
The rest of us tightened ranks.
Claire shifted her stance in front of Ryan, fingers dancing with light. Her enchantments were starting to flicker, not from damage, but from stretch. She couldn't be everywhere at once, and they knew it.
A shadow blurred toward her. Ronan intercepted it.
He moved with no flair, no flourish. Just a short, fast lunge and a downward slice. The creature dropped without a sound.
Another came in from behind. He didn't look, just stepped aside and let it impale itself on his blade.
It was clinical. Detached. Almost too quiet.
I tracked the edge of the line, pressing my hand to the ground when I felt another shift in pressure.
Three heartbeats early, I whispered, "There."
Claire turned just in time to raise a ward, catching the next attacker on a sudden flash of light.
"Nice," she said, breathless.
I didn't reply, my focus narrowed to that tension in the ground, the way roots shifted underfoot before they sprang loose.
It wasn't perfect.
We were still outnumbered.
Claire's shoulder dipped. The next ward she raised faltered at the edges. She winced but stood her ground.
Ryan shifted behind her, hands glowing soft gold as he channeled a burst of support magic into her legs.
Another pair of beasts tried to flank him. I stepped in fast, too fast.
I caught one, slammed it into a tree with momentum I didn't think I had. But the other was too close, too fast.
And then it was gone, split clean across the chest, blade slicing through fur and sinew.
Ronan again.
He didn't look at me. Just moved on.
We were holding, barely, but the tide wasn't turning.
The creatures kept coming, smarter this time. Pushing our weak points, waiting for spells to fade, cycling around to test the edges.
Sir Bren barked something to Serena across the treeline, but she was already moving, flame roaring in a tight spiral. Carter dropped to one knee nearby, his arm shaking from another spell, jaw tight with effort.
The ground suddenly shook.
It wasn't an earthquake. Just one heavy step. Then another.
Something massive pushed through the brush ahead. Bark cracked. Roots snapped.
It stepped into the clearing, seven feet tall, hunched with muscle, plated in armor-like bone. A tusked mask of a face stared down at us, empty-eyed and steaming.
It didn't charge.
It watched.
And then it moved.
Too fast.
Straight toward Ryan.
He froze.
Claire saw it first and stepped in front of him, her enchantments flaring into a dome, but I knew, everyone knew, that it wouldn't hold.
Not against that.
The beast roared, raised a fist the size of a boulder—
And then Ronan was there.
One flash of movement. One motion, in front of the strike.
"Move!" he barked, not to us, not even looking back, but to the beast.
It didn't listen.
Claire's shield began to crack as Ronan planted his feet and slashed upward with both blades in a perfect arc. The creature shrieked, blood and ichor spraying wide.
Then came the second wave.
Carter's lightning struck it from the side. Serena's fire licked across its back a half-second later. The force of impact hit all at once—
—and took both of them over the ridge.
Time stopped.
One second Ronan was there, anchoring the defense.
The next—he was gone.
Just… gone.
Down into the mist-filled drop below the cliff edge, swallowed whole.
Someone screamed. I didn't know who.
Ryan rushed forward, but Sir Bren caught him by the collar.
"Don't," he snapped. "You go after him, you both die."
Carter staggered back, silent for once.
Serena's flames vanished completely, her hands shaking.
Claire just stood frozen, the remnants of her barrier fizzing out in the air like dying sparks.
I looked at the edge, heart in my throat.
Nothing. No sound. No trace.
The wind blew up from the chasm—cold, sharp, and empty.
We had to move. But none of us said it.