As if bored. One by one, the red-fur creatures began walking away from the cliff.

Killian’s left eye twitched. "Excuse me?" He felt strangely insulted.

He stepped forward, preparing to jump down from the roots, and climb back to the cliff.

"Do you not think you are looking for trouble this time? George told you, didn’t he? You can’t defeat them."

"I won’t know until I get to fight them." He jumped down and started his climb on the walls.

If they didn’t want to come to him then he just had to go to them.

Then something lunged to him from his blind spot, moving a little too quickly.

A smaller beast lunged toward him from the side, purple fur blurring through the air while he was mid-climb. His heart nearly stopped.

It came from the exact angle where the tendrils would react the slowest. If he hadn’t caught the movement, its claws would have torn directly through his eyes.

Killian jumped down instantly, but as he was quite high up, it still made him susceptible to an attack as he fell.

"<Stay back!>" The shout burst from his mouth instinctively.

The beast suddenly jerked backward mid-air as if struck by invisible pressure. It crashed roughly onto its hind legs and shook its head violently, disoriented by the sound. Killian landed hard atop a boulder, nearly slipping before catching his balance.

His heartbeat hammered against his chest. ’Fast. Too fast.’ That thing had come out of nowhere.

"Now you see, they aren’t ignoring you," the Void corrected, sounding amused. "They are likely beasts of the Fire, like the hatchling is a beast of the Void. And they smell the Fire on you. To them, you reek of their own kind. You are not prey but a rival they have no interest in challenging."

"So I’m camouflaged?" Killian asked amidst heavy breathing.

"Effectively, yes. But do not get comfortable." The Void’s tone dropped an octave. "The one approaching does not care about scents. It looks like a Hybrid too. And it is hungry."

From the back of the retreating pack, a single beast stopped. It was the one with the darker red fur and was more coordinated than the others.

It turned its head, and where the others had blank black eyes, this one’s pupils glowed with a strange, discordant light. Its eyes were a swirling mix of ash and ember.

And it didn’t walk away. It crouched as if it had found something interesting to watch.

Killian gripped his bat tighter. "I don’t like this feeling."

And the option to still make a run for it was scrapped since the leader of their mini-pack had latched onto him to watch their outcast hybrid brother eat him. He glanced at the beast, pacing confidently from side to side in front of him.

He watched the muscle move under its skin, and the weight of its paw on the earth. Killian could tell it was akin to fighting a tiger from his region. Except these ones might be fire-resistant and could produce fire as well.

<Void Path>

Killian kept it active, just in case it lunged again. He wasn’t confident in matching the speed and agility of a beast since he wasn’t in his top form either.

<Orbs of Scorch>

The beast lunged forward and Killian sidestepped before it got close, and crashed his Void-Bat down just as the beast arrived. The weapon connected to the Beast’s head. "<Down!>"

The pressure forced it down, and Killian slipped through the darkness under him to a nearby tree.

"Tsk."

His body stilled, as he forced his head upwards to look at the dark-red fur-beast lying on its stomach with its head over its upper limbs. He dragged his eyes back to the beast rising up.

’I can’t be hearing things again, right? And if they are beasts like the hatchling then would they be capable of speech. Because I just heard it.’

The hybrid growled low as it rose from the ground, and apart from the dust on its body, there wasn’t a single scratch.

Without any flashy display of attacks, Killian could feel the power difference. Because unlike him, beasts of an element have near-infinite mana to produce the element they were born from. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Being a beast, they had insane agility and combat prowess. This beast had been trapped for likely ages, so it was still gaining its footing. Once it did, his time of death would begin counting down.

"Alright, I really should have left earlier."

"Oh my, if only someone had warned you." The Void replied sarcastically.

Killian planted his feet on the ground, watching the beast march toward him again, never in a hurry and making no sound unless it was close enough to strike.

It moved its balance to the right, crouching slightly before leaping to the air. A large shadow formed on the ground and Killian considered using his skill, but it landed too quickly.

He spun around to dodge the attack, and back-stepped multiple times as it followed him, swiping its claws across his face. His tendrils charged toward it.

Fire crawled from the beast’s skin to its claws, and with one slash it burned the tendrils away. Killian didn’t panic even though he recognized it.

Holy Fire. That was the only thing that could burn his tendrils.

’How great is that! I try to train only the Fire and Sound, then my next rival doesn’t even need me using the Void!’

The beast lunged again, on close range and Killian pushed his Void-Bat over its mouth. He was pinned to the ground, hitting his head hard on a piece of rock.

He groaned, staying under and trying to force the beast’s teeth away from him. Even as it swiped at him, reaching for his face. The weight made his arm tremble but he willed it to stay in place. He forced more of his Corrupted Fire into the weapon as it flared.

The beast jerked away, but not without slashing its claws across his arms. It went back, but recovered quickly as the burnt marks on its jaw and mouth faded. It snarled, glaring back at Killian.

Killian’s eyes were on his injury, burning and bleeding unlike any injury he had ever experienced before...

Yet the dark smoke coming out of it slowly intensified as his skin grew dark red and the blood stopped streaming. His eyes widened as he watched the skin remained torn but blood stopped streaming.

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