Richard sprinted through the trees with his body low and his mind loud.
Leaves blurred past his eyes. Branches snapped under his talons. Damp earth bounced beneath him, soft enough to swallow sound, yet the forest still thundered.
Because he wasn't the only one running.
Ahead, the black-scaled lizard was a moving shadow: a scaled boulder cutting a path through the night. Around it, the creatures surged like a wave, rabbits bouncing between roots, snakes streaming like living ropes, chickens flapping and hopping with rocks clenched in their talons.
Behind Richard, the wounded were already being led home.
He'd given the command.
The creepy snake would handle it.
His chest tightened as he ran, not from exhaustion, his body had stopped caring about that at some point, but from a familiar anxiety.
And underneath the anxiety…was curiosity.
His Talent had shown him paths.
Dozens of glowing roads of possibility, each road a different way the night could end.
But all of them, led into one inevitable truth: There were no paths where they killed every otherworlder tonight… unless he actively participated.
At first, Richard had accepted it.
He had even planned to let the survivors go.
That was what the "best road" implied.
But then the battle ended.
And the results were… too clean.
Too decisive.
His creatures had thrown rocks like rain. Swarmed like floodwater. Crushed the otherworlders' "formation" like it was a sandcastle.
Even the strongest otherworlder, the one who had killed one of his subordinates before, had been ripped apart.
So why…
Why did his Talent insist it was impossible to finish them off?
Richard ducked under a low branch, comb brushing bark.
His eyes narrowed.
'Is the shimmer around the Novice Village a barrier?'
He'd seen it from afar before, moonlight bending strangely in the distance, like the air was wrapped in glass.
It would make sense.
Novice Villages were usually safe zones, according to the knowledge in his head.
A roar echoed through the forest.
The lizard and the pursuing wave burst through a thinner patch of trees.
And Richard finally saw them.
The survivors.
A handful of otherworlders staggered through the dark, sprinting as if death was a physical thing snapping at their heels. They weren't moving like a squad anymore.
They were moving like prey.
Then suddenly the prey stopped.
Not all of them, just some.
As if a switch had been flipped inside their skulls.
As if someone had poured courage down their throats like hot wine.
They turned.
They decided to fight back.
Richard's comb drooped in disbelief.
The black-scaled lizard however didn't mind the sudden change.
It surged forward.
It didn't hesitate.
It didn't slow.
It simply struck.
One player was caught first, claws hooked around their torso.
A wet crunch.
A flash of light and particles scattered.
Another tried to swerve around a tree, only for a rabbit to tackle their legs with suicidal devotion.
They hit the ground.
A chicken's rock caved their skull in with a dull thunk.
Light burst.
Some even tried to slow the black lizard down by throwing themselves at it.
They wrapped their arms around its legs.
They hung there like barnacles on a ship.
The lizard roared, furious, shaking them off.
One body snapped in half.
Another was dragged through roots until it stopped moving.
Light flashed again.
Richard's mind wavered between disbelief and relief as he watched otherworlders die one by one.
'They have no chances against the pursuing lizard but then why did his talent-'
His thoughts were cut off.
Because the last remaining player, a woman in white robes, burst out of the trees into a moonlit clearing.
Richard saw the shimmer now.
Much closer.
It was an actual boundary.
An invisible wall of something, faintly glowing. The air bent around it like a protective skin around the Novice Village.
Beyond it, the village entrance stood under torchlight.
Richard's pupils tightened.
'So there really is a barrier' But then he shook his head slowly as if realizing something. 'That otherworlder won't make it.'
The lizard lunged.
Claws tore into the woman's back.
She flew forward and hit the ground hard, sliding across grass until she lay still breathing, barely.
Richard's shoulders loosened.
He felt his comb droop with relief.
'So my talent was wrong this time…?'
For one sweet, foolish second, he actually believed it.
Then suddenly.
The world snapped sideways.
A soundless impact.
A blur too fast for even him to track.
And the black-scaled lizard, his strongest subordinate was simply… gone from where it stood.
Not shoved.
Not pushed back but gone.
A heartbeat later, Richard saw it again.
Flying backward.
It crashed through the trees like a cannonball, leaving a trench of shattered trunks and exploded leaves until it finally hit the ground somewhere deep in the forest with a heavy, wet.
THUD.
Richard froze mid-step.
His entire army faltered.
Even the rabbits stopped bouncing.
Silence poured into the clearing like cold water.
Then the creatures hissed, clucked and growled angrily.
At something…
Between the fallen otherworlder and the forest edge stood a woman.
Orange tail.
White-tipped fur swaying lazily left and right.
Pointed ears twitching as if listening to a song only she could hear.
She held up one finger and stared at it with mild dismay, like she'd just spilled tea.
"Ara~" she murmured, voice amused. "Did I flick it too hard? Hopefully it's not dead… I'm just doing my job, you know~"
Richard's gaze contracted.
His throat tightened.
His feathers prickled.
So this…
This was why.
This was why his Talent showed no road to total victory unless he stepped in.
It wasn't the barrier.
It was because of a person.
A creature.
Something so strong it could casually flick the black-scaled lizard away like a toy.
Horror crawled through Richard's stomach.
His mind screamed at him.
'Idiot!'
He should have let the survivors go.
He should have followed the road his talent gave him.
Instead, he'd gotten greedy.
He'd doubted.
He'd wanted to know why.
A bitter urge rose in his chest, he wanted to go back in time and slap himself until even his most beloved hen wouldn't recognize him.
Richard forced his breath to steady.
'Okay. Calm down.'
From her words… she didn't sound like she was here to eradicate them.
She sounded…bored.
Like this was just a slight inconvenience.
Richard's eyes lifted.
And he felt it.
Her gaze.
Even from this distance, it was like pressure wrapped around his neck, pressing his shoulders down like an invisible mountain.
The fox-eared woman looked up from her finger and met his eyes across the clearing.
Richard's heart stuttered.
Sweat tickled down his neck, wetting his feathers.
His body wanted to do one thing, either bow or flee.
Not because he was afraid.
But because the difference between them was so vast that his instincts didn't even register fighting as an option.
Richard's beak tightened.
He forced himself to hold her gaze for one heartbeat longer.
And to his relief she turned her gaze away.
Immediately he turned and clucked a command before his clueless subordinates could do something suicidal.
"Back off!" his loud cluck echoed. "Do not attack!"
Some of the chickens froze mid-hop. Rabbits stopped at the edge of the clearing, ears twitching wildly.
But the effect was immediate.
Even the most blood-drunk creatures visibly shuddered, then began to retreat like children caught stealing.
He didn't waste another second.
He sprinted toward the trail of broken trees where the lizard had flown.
The further he ran, the more destruction he saw.
Trunks snapped in half.
Bark peeled off in strips.
Leaves churned into shredded green rain.
It looked like a meteor had carved its way through the forest.
Richard's talons splashed through mud and blood.
He reached the end of the ruined path.
And found the black-scaled lizard sprawled in a crater of dirt and broken roots.
Blood oozed from every pore of its body.
Not the otherworlders' blood this time.
Its own.
Richard rushed forward, chest tightening.
"Lizard!"
He stepped closer…and paused.
His instinct warned him.
Something was wrong.
The air around the lizard was… heavy, no, ominous.
Like the forest was holding its breath.
Black mist seeped from its wounds like smoke from a furnace.
Its limbs twitched.
Its claws scraped the dirt.
Slowly and unnaturally it began to rise.
Richard's eyes widened.
He felt something from the black lizard he hadn't felt for a long time.
Danger.
"Everyone, back off!" Richard shouted, voice cutting through the stunned silence of the following creatures.
The rabbits froze.
The chickens backed away.
Even the snakes recoiled.
The lizard got to all fours.
Its entire body was painted with blood.
Its golden pupils, once bright with loyal pride shifted.
Deep black bled into them.
Not around the edges but everywhere.
The black spread until both eyes were pools of abyss.
The mist thickened.
The lizard inhaled.
Then unleashed a roar that made Richard's soul vibrate.
It wasn't the usual roar.
Not the triumphant war cry it used when crushing otherworlders.
This roar was primal…agonizing.
Like something being shredded alive from the inside.
Richard's feathers stood on end.
The lizard's head snapped toward him.
And Richard realized, with cold horror, that this wasn't a gaze it used to look at him.
It was looking at him like prey.
…
In the moonlit clearing near the Novice Village, the fox-eared woman crouched beside the fallen otherworlder.
The girl in white robes barely breathed, eyes glassy, blood dark on grass.
The fox-eared woman pinched something between her fingers, something like a tiny berry, faintly glowing.
She popped it into the girl's mouth with casual gentleness.
"Say aaaaa~," she hummed, as if feeding a sick kit.
Then she paused.
Her ears twitched.
Her eyes narrowed, just slightly as roar echoed through the forest.
"Ara~" she said softly, as if remembering a funny story. She wiped nonexistent sweat from her forehead with exaggerated drama. "To think there's a trace of that dangerous beast under my jurisdiction, of all places…what to do what to do~"
Her smile brightened.
Excitement sparked behind her lazy gaze.
"That lizard doesn't look like a Gloomwyrm though?" she murmured. "Is it evolving toward it?"
Her tail swayed.
Not nervous.
Not threatened but entertained.
"To think its bloodline still exists," she continued lightly. "Those old mutts won't be able to stay on their toes if they hear about this…"
She leaned closer to the unconscious girl, voice turning conspiratorial, like they were sharing gossip.
"Well, not that I'll tell them anyway~"
Then she giggled as she poked at Roxana's cheeks.
"It's not my fault those old mutts didn't do their job properly, is it?"
…
The lizard's claws dug into the earth.
Then it lunged.
Fast.
Too fast.
Richard barely came out of shock before the blow slammed into his chest.
Pain detonated.
His body flew backward, feathers exploding outward.
He hit a tree trunk hard enough to crack it.
Richard gasped.
Blood dripped down his chest, staining his once-pristine red feathers black in the moonlight.
His mind lagged for half a second, trying to process what had just happened.
'It actually attacked me?'
Of all creatures under his command, the lizard was one of the last he would expect to look at him with murderous intent.
The lizard roared again and blurred forward, claws raised.
Richard's eyes hardened.
He snapped upright and lifted his talons to block.
"Lizard!" he shouted, voice sharp with command. "Snap out of it!!"
The claws hit his guard.
And to his absolute shock…
He was pushed back.
His talons dug trenches into dirt.
His muscles screamed.
Richard's pupils shrank as he gritted his beak.
"Damn it," he hissed, voice raw. "Do I really need to fight you?"
He was hesitant to fight back.
The lizard had been injured to this extent because of his own mistake.
His curiosity…his greed.
Guilt coiled in his chest like a worm.
What if he accidentally killed it?
What if…
Unfortunately Richard had no time for what-ifs.
As the lizard lunged again.