The candlelight flickered weakly across Sara Monteri's desk, illuminating the dark circles beneath her eyes. Parchments lay scattered like fallen leaves—tax reports from the eastern villages, complaints from merchant guilds, requests for border reinforcements. Each document carried the weight of countless lives depending on her decisions.
She dipped her quill absentmindedly, the ink dripping onto an unfinished letter.
'When did we become like this?'
Her husband's face flashed in her mind—Oliver's once-warm crimson eyes now cold as frozen blood, his rare smiles replaced by permanent scowls. Their sons had inherited that same chill: Dan with his arrogant cruelty, Floyd with his quiet despair.
A drop of ink bled across the page like a wound.
'He used to kiss my hands after court sessions. Now he barely looks at me.'
She smiles bitterly.
'He acts distant for reasons he wouldn't tell.'
*Sigh*
Her fingers trembled as she reached for the next report—then froze.
Leior Forest. Beast Tide Alert.
The words struck her like a physical blow.
'No... Not now. Not when—'
"Wait... FLOYD!"
The scream tore from her throat before she could stop it. The snapped quill fell forgotten as she surged to her feet, silk robes billowing behind her. Servants scattered like startled birds as she raced down the corridors, her slippers slipping on polished marble.
The patriarch's study doors exploded open under her frantic hands.
Oliver didn't even look up from his blueprints.
"Leior Forest is under attack. Our son is right there. We must send reinforcements."
Blood dripped from Floyd's chin as he forced down another bite of raw rabbit. The coppery taste made his stomach churn, but hunger outweighed disgust.
'Eight liters. Two short.'
His claws absentmindedly traced the grooves in the tree bark beside him—five parallel lines, tally marks from three days of hunting. The forest hummed with unnatural quiet, as if holding its breath.
A distant scream shattered the silence.
Floyd moved before conscious thought, muscles screaming in protest as he scaled the cliffside. Bark tore at his palms, leaving smears of crimson on the stone.
Scouting the area he saw it.
Beyond the forest lies Nightshade estate and the nearest village to the border wasn't just under attack—it was being consumed.
Thousands of creatures moved like a living tsunami. Greater hounds the size of wagons crushed houses beneath their paws. Scorpion-class beasts dragged screaming villagers into the earth with barbed tails. A swarm of mutant spiders blanketed the sky in webs thick as ship ropes.
'One... no, it might take them two days to reach here.'
His survival instinct roared to flee. But he remained calm.
'Hundreds... no thousands of them are here. It will take someone with crimson-blooded rank to kill at least one of them. Me remaining here is out of question.'
A wet crunch echoed from below the cliff. Floyd's breath hitched as he glimpsed two patrollers—no, pieces of patrollers—being tossed between greater hounds like ragdolls. Their blood painted the ferns in wide arcs.
The realization should have terrified him. Instead, a numb clarity settled over his mind.
'Setting trap to get blood from scorpion class monster takes days. So getting it will be out of question for now. I will retreat tonight.'
Few minutes earlier....
"—absolute horseshit assignment!"
Morgan grumbled, kicking a pebble off the trail.
"Three years guarding this piss-stain border, and what do I get? Rotting pay and boots full of blisters."
Liam snorted.
"Should've married that miller's daughter when you had the chance."
"Shut your—"
The ground trembled.
Both men froze mid-squabble.
Then the ground exploded.
Trees erupted like kindling as a greater hound burst through the treeline, its matted fur caked with gore. Behind it, the forest moved—a writhing mass of fangs and claws stretching to the horizon.
Liam's sword clattered to the ground.
"Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck—"
Morgan didn't think. He moved, dragging his partner backward by the collar. Their boots skidded on loose stones as they fled, lungs burning.
"Fucking idiot, this is not the time to take fighting stance."
A shrill whistle cut through the chaos—the outpost alarm. But it was too late.
Something warm and wet splattered Morgan's cheek. He turned just in time to see Liam's torso vanish into a scorpion beast's maw, his legs still running for two stumbling steps before collapsing.
'I'm going to die here.'
The thought was oddly calm. Morgan fumbled for his sword with nerveless fingers.
"COME ON YOU UGLY FUCKS! I WASN'T PAID ENOUGH FOR THIS SHIT. SHOULD HAVE MARRIED THAT COUNTYSIDE GIRL. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"