The battlefield was painted in shadow and dust.
Smoke curled from the shattered torches, the air thick with the metallic scent of blood and burnt soil.
Master Vince stood in the middle of the ruins, his fists still faintly steaming each breath forming a small cyclone that twisted the ashes beneath his feet.
The last of the Voidborn collapsed, its corrupted form dissolving into black mist that the wind carried away.
He turned his head, scanning the trembling villagers behind the barricades.
"Are you all okay?"
No one spoke for a moment until the youngest of the guards, his hands shaking around a cracked spear, whispered,
"Y-yes… you saved us"
The Taishin master nodded once, wiping the sweat from his brow. His knuckles were split open, veins throbbing beneath hardened skin.
But his eyes calm, sharp betrayed no pain.
He took a breath.
And then he felt it.
A vibration beneath the earth.
Not from footsteps from something alive.
