It was a good thing most Mirehowlers didn't know magic. Just twisted flesh, claws, and brute strength. They were monsters, yes, but simple ones.
The alpha wasn't.
Mira faced it head-on, her boots skidding in the dirt as she braced herself. Her heart pounded loud in her ears. That thing wasn't just strong. It was thinking.
The creature opened its jaws, and the air twisted. A black sphere of abyssal energy swirled between its teeth, drawing in power from the very shadows.
"Oh no you don't," Mira hissed through gritted teeth.
She thrust her hand forward.
Fireball!
The flame ignited mid-air and exploded right into the creature's open mouth. The alpha staggered, screeching, its face lit with orange light and dripping smoke.
Its gaze snapped to her.
She froze.
"Guys!" she yelled, already starting another incantation. "I need cover!"
The rest of the battlefield was chaos.
Marcus fought like a man possessed, his blade flashing in tight arcs as he parried and slashed. Three Mirehowlers pressed in around him, flanking from both sides. His form was clean, refined—but they were relentless, and even his confidence was starting to crack.
"Back off!" he barked, more to himself than the beasts.
Kai came barreling in, his greataxe cleaving one of the creatures clean through the skull. Blood sprayed, but before he could move to help Marcus, two more lunged at him from the side.
"Every damn time!" Kai growled, swinging again, barely holding them back. "I get one good hit and the rest come running."
Lydia was a blur in the shadows. Her daggers flashed like silver fangs as she ducked and weaved between Mirehowlers, always moving, always striking. She wasn't fighting to kill—she was dancing to survive, keeping their attention off the others.
"I could use less company," she hissed under her breath.
And then there was Lucien.
A single Mirehowler broke off and came at him fast, claws raised.
This one was stronger. A Deep Beast, not just shallow tier.
Lucien didn't flinch.
The creature lunged, claws outstretched in a brutal swipe meant to tear flesh from bone.
Lucien moved. One step to the left. Weight low. Controlled breath.
The claws tore through empty air.
In the same motion, his sword slipped free and drove upward, piercing clean through the Mirehowler's eye socket.
The blade sank deep with a wet crunch. Straight into the brain.
The beast spasmed once. A shrill, broken screech. Then silence.
Lucien pulled his blade free, not wasting a second. Blood steamed off the edge in the cool air.
This body was smaller. Slower. Not built for power.
But that didn't matter.
Skill made up the difference.
He had honed his swordsmanship in royal duels, battlefield massacres, and assassin ambushes.
His hands remembered even if the muscles had changed.
This body couldn't show everything he was.
But it showed enough.
The Voice of Void whispered in Lucien's mind, smooth and cold.
[You have slain: Mirehowler – Deep Beast.]
[You have obtained: 3 Abyssal Essence.]
His first kill in this life.
The sensation that followed was oddly refreshing. Faint warmth pulsed through his chest as the essence flowed in—tainted, raw energy drawn from the Mirehowler's corpse.
That was the rule of this world. Kill an abyssal creature—or anyone who had absorbed abyssal energy—and you took a piece of it for yourself.
The stronger they were, the more you got.
The more they suffered to reach that power, the richer their essence.
Lucien let out a breath and lowered his sword, already scanning the field again.
Behind him, a voice rang out.
"He killed it! In one damn move!" Lydia's shout cut through the clash of steel and screeches. She had seen it between her dodges, a flicker of motion and then a Mirehowler dropping like a stone.
Heads turned. Eyes widened.
Even mid-fight, they couldn't help but stare. The body lay there, twitching once before going still, a sword buried to the hilt in its skull.
Lucien stood over it, unreadable.
They had been struggling just to kill three, even with four people focusing them down.
And now the quiet, awkward guy carrying their bags had felled one alone.
A strange silence fell. Then, slowly, it shifted.
Grins. Raised eyebrows. A spark of fire in tired eyes.
Hope.
"See?" Marcus called out, breaking into a huge smile. "Told you! My guy Kael's no joke! I've known since the start, really. Get over here, brother, come help us clear these last ones so we can back Mira up!"
Lucien tilted his head slightly but didn't answer.
Alex, crouched near a fallen tree, loosing arrows toward the alpha, lowered his bow for a second. His expression shifted—guilt, then something closer to embarrassment.
"I… damn. I really didn't see it, did I? I'm sorry, Kael. I thought you were just… never mind. That was clean."
He gave a short nod and turned back to the fight, his tone quieter.
"Glad you're with us."
Kai, mid-swing, let out a booming laugh. "Hiding talent, huh? Respect. You had us fooled."
He cracked the haft of his axe against a Mirehowler's skull and grinned at Lucien.
"Smart lad. Real smart."
Lucien smiled.
It was small. Almost polite. But something about it made the air feel colder.
Not the kind of smile you give a friend.
It was the kind of smile you see right before the knife goes in.
The others didn't notice at first. Too focused on the fight. The alpha Mirehowler had drawn their full attention — a towering mass of claws and abyssal energy — and the plan was clear. Kill the weaker beasts, then take it down together.
That was what they all assumed.
That he would join in.
Why wouldn't he?
It was the logical thing to do.
But logic meant nothing now.
Because they didn't know who stood beside them.
Not Kael. Not some bronze-ranked nobody from a forge.
They didn't know the boy with the sword and the quiet eyes was something else entirely.
An exile.
A monster.
A prince of a dead empire who once burned cities just to feel alive again.
The Mad Prince was here.
Lucien took a step forward, blade still slick with the blood of his first kill. His coat shifted in the breeze. His voice, when it came, was calm.
Unshaken.
"Actually," he said, looking past them at the writhing alpha, "I'm not interested in helping you."
The words fell like a stone into a still pond.
Ripples of silence spread.
Marcus turned, disbelief twisting his features. "What… what did you say?"