'What the hell?' Vivian's eyes darted around the battlefield.
Asmit and Subha should have been here, locked in combat with the three grizzles. But the place was empty.
Silent. Not even a trace of blood or broken earth remained.
'Where are they?' His gut twisted.
With his enhanced senses, still raw from the early stages of his intuition, he should have been able to catch even the faintest sign.
Yet there was nothing.
He shut his eyes, forcing himself to focus. Every nerve stretched thin, straining for the faintest ripple of life.
But the void pressed back.
"I can't find them…" he muttered, the words heavy in the eerie silence.
Even the grizzles' presence had vanished.
From his senses, Vivian reached a grim conclusion: neither Asmit nor Subha had been killed by the grizzles, nor had they slain the beasts themselves.
There were no signs of struggle, no blood, no broken ground, nothing.
It wasn't possible. They weren't so weak that the grizzles could have wiped them out without leaving a single trace.
And the reverse was true as well, Asmit and Subha were not so strong that they could kill all three grizzles and simply vanish.
That was what unsettled him most. Their disappearance defied reason.
"Asmit! Subha! Can you hear me?" His voice echoed into the silence, unanswered.
He pressed forward. The further he walked, the heavier the stillness became.
No monsters, no humans, only the dimly glowing path stretching endlessly before him, as if it were guiding him toward something he wasn't sure he wanted to find.
As he walked on, focusing every fiber of his senses, something flickered at the edge of his perception, a faint presence.
No, not just one. Several.
His heart quickened. Without hesitation, he followed.
At first, the sensation was distant, fragile, almost illusory.
But the closer he ran, the stronger it became, each step sharpening the presences pressing against his intuition.
'Are they monsters?' he guessed, uncertainty gnawing at him.
His pace quickened into a full sprint.
Anxiety burned in his chest, his newly made friends had vanished without a trace, and no matter how hard he tried earlier, he hadn't been able to sense them.
"Please be alright," he muttered under his breath, breath ragged, as he pushed harder.
The presence grew heavier, clearer, until at last he felt himself closing in on it.
Vivian finally arrived, panting heavily after running for quite a while.
The presences he'd been chasing were close, coming from the right.
ROAR!
His head snapped toward the sound, and his stomach sank. To his disappointment—and dread—it wasn't Asmit or Subha.
A pack of grizzles stood there, circling like predators. Several of them were hunched low, munching on something.
'Munching?'
The sight froze his blood. A chill raced down his spine, and without a second thought he launched himself forward.
Boom!
He landed in front of the group, blade flashing before his mind even caught up with his body.
The unlucky grizzle that had roared at him tried to recoil, eyes widening with sudden fear.
'Too late.'
Chiikkkk!
Steel cleaved through flesh and bone, the beast's head severed cleanly in one stroke.
ROARRRR!
The others bellowed in rage, bloodshot eyes blazing as they charged at him, driven mad by the slaughter of their kin.
In response, Vivian unleashed his bloodlust, his glare cutting through the pack like a blade.
For a brief moment, the grizzles faltered, their steps hesitant.
ROARRR!
But within seconds, a trembling roar erupted from their throats, and they charged again.
Vivian's time was short.
Whatever they were devouring, he couldn't yet see, and to find out, he would have to cut them down.
Deep inside, a silent prayer echoed. 'Please… don't let it be Asmit and Subha.'
Grrrrrr! The pack lunged.
Jaws snapped, claws tore through the air, and some even swung their heavy legs to kick at him.
At least ten grizzles came at once, a storm of muscle and teeth.
To any ordinary person, the onslaught would have been overwhelming, enough to break spirit and body alike.
But Vivian did not flinch. His breathing steadied, his eyes sharpened, focused.
The grizzle to his right lashed out with a vicious kick. Vivian shifted.
Swish!
With a fluid, horizontal swing, his blade cut clean through.
The beast's leg was severed in an instant, blood spraying across the dirt as it collapsed with a thunderous screech.
As the clash dragged on, Vivian's mind flashed back to his father's voice, the lessons drilled into him since childhood: "When you're outnumbered, find the leader. Kill the head, and the body will crumble."
Recalling those words, his gaze swept the chaos until it locked onto the center of the pack.
There, just as he expected.
The largest grizzle stood at the core, bellowing commands, its guttural roars keeping the others coordinated.
Vivian's decision was instant. He stomped the ground and surged forward, blade flashing toward the leader.
But the pack was no fool. The moment they sensed his intent, several grizzles lunged to intercept, throwing themselves in his path.
Vivian anticipated it. His lips curled into the ghost of a grim smile.
He leapt.
Air rushed past as he soared above the snarling wall of bodies. Raising his sword overhead, he twisted midair and came crashing down like a missile.
BOOM!
The blade drove straight into the leader's eye with brutal force, sinking deep into bone and brain.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The creature's roar was deafening, a hideous, guttural scream, like a bear's last wail twisted into pure agony.
Thud!
The leader of the pack hit the ground with a heavy crash.
Vivian landed beside it with practiced grace, his sword sliding smoothly from its sheath.
He took a slow, calculating breath as his gaze swept over the remaining grizzles.
Frozen. Their eyes locked on their fallen leader, disbelief and fear mirrored in their bloodied faces.
ROARRRR!
They bellowed in grief, but the roar faltered, trembling into silence as Vivian let his bloodlust radiate outward. The raw, merciless aura of the killer before them made even the boldest hesitate.
Instinctively, the grizzles shrank back, their stance faltering.
Without their leader, without a chance to challenge this human drenched in fury, they were powerless.
"Leave… if you don't want to die like your leader," Vivian commanded, sheathing his sword and striding toward the area where they had been feasting.
The pack dared not attack.
They melted into the shadows, scattering in every direction. Within moments, they had vanished entirely, leaving the battlefield eerily silent once more.
Sensing the grizzles had gone, Vivian stepped forward, his boots crunching softly on the blood-stained ground. At last, he saw what they had been feasting on.
"Haaa…" A breath of relief slipped from his lips. The torn flesh scattered across the earth wasn't human, it looked like the remains of some wild beast.
"Haa…" He exhaled again, shoulders easing slightly. At least it wasn't Asmit or Subha. But the relief was fleeting. 'If it wasn't them… then where are they?'
"Where did they vanish, just like that?" he muttered, scanning the area as he moved toward the edge of the clearing.
"Are they playing a pran—" He stopped mid-thought.
His body froze. A cluster of presences flared against his senses, sudden, heavy, unmistakable.
'Grizzles? No.' The feeling was different. Human… yet overwhelming. The sheer pressure of it pressed against his instincts like a weight.
"Humans… but why is the presence so… overwhelming?"