Chapter 33: The Crimson Sorceress Is Useful. That Doesn’t Mean I Need Her.

The first creature died before it touched the ground.

It launched itself from the ferns, body stretched out, four eyes locked on Raven and a narrow jaw open wide enough to reveal two rows of curved teeth.

Valeria barely moved two fingers.

One of the blood spears floating beside her shoulder shot forward.

No incantation.

No visible preparation.

Just a wet whistle through the air.

The spear punched through the creature’s throat, exited the back of its neck, and continued another ten feet before dissolving into crimson droplets.

The body lost all coordination midair and crashed onto its side, rolling through roots until it stopped at Roland’s feet.

Raven didn’t have time to admire it.

Predator’s Instinct reacted to his left.

The second predator didn’t leap.

It stayed low and ran.

Smart.

It had waited for Raven to look at the first one’s death.

Burst Step.

Mana gathered behind his legs, and Raven vanished from the creature’s path just as its claws tore through the space he’d occupied.

He reappeared six feet away, pivoted on his right foot, and activated Kinetic Acceleration through the hand holding his knife.

His arm didn’t become invisible.

It simply went from human speed to something the monster hadn’t expected.

The blade entered behind the front leg.

Raven felt resistance.

Flesh.

Tendon.

He pulled out before the creature could turn and activated Stonehide over his left forearm as its tail struck.

The impact sounded like wood hitting rock.

It still numbed his arm.

"Tougher than they look," Raven said.

Roland blocked another creature with his sword.

"They’re Dusk Rippers. In a pack, they can kill a young Mirehorn."

Raven looked at the one he’d just injured.

"Any interesting Traits?"

Roland stared at him in the middle of the fight.

"Now?"

"It’s when I have one in front of me."

Valeria laughed as a second blood spear formed behind her.

"I think I’ve learned that question is inevitable. They usually have Night Scent and Serrated Claws. Neither is worth delaying our objective."

Raven drove the knife in again as the Dusk Ripper tried to rise.

"Then we can kill them without preserving much."

"How reassuring."

Valeria rotated her wrist.

Three red threads rose from the corpse she’d killed.

Raven watched them cut through the air like tensioned wires.

They wrapped around the legs of another Dusk Ripper charging one of the guards.

Then tightened.

Flesh opened.

The animal dropped, shrieking.

Valeria closed her fist.

The threads hardened.

The shrieking stopped.

Raven watched her for half a second longer than necessary.

Not because of her face.

Because of the control.

The blood she manipulated didn’t behave like a liquid.

It became blades.

Spears.

Wires.

Needles.

All with a degree of precision that would’ve required entirely different mechanisms on Earth.

Magic didn’t merely replace tools.

It ignored the need for them.

Valeria caught him watching.

"Impressed now?"

Raven turned his head as Predator’s Instinct reacted.

A creature burst from the vegetation behind him.

Raven raised his mineralized arm.

Its jaws closed around Stonehide.

Teeth scraped across stone.

Raven drove the knife beneath its jaw.

"I’m busy."

The creature tried to retreat.

Kinetic Acceleration.

Raven accelerated the knife upward.

The point pierced the roof of its mouth.

The body collapsed.

"That wasn’t a no," Valeria replied.

Raven pushed the corpse away.

"Your magic is useful."

She stared at him.

"What a passionate declaration."

"If you want passion, ask after things stop trying to eat us."

"I’ll make a note of it."

The last creature didn’t attack.

It saw four bodies.

Saw Roland and the other two guards forming a line.

Saw Valeria surrounded by floating blood.

And apparently decided evolution had rewarded caution.

It backed away.

Raven watched.

The animal turned.

Ran.

A blood arrow pierced its rear leg.

It collapsed.

Valeria didn’t finish it.

"Wanted to examine one alive?"

Raven looked at her.

"Not particularly."

"I thought I’d save time. You were going to ask about its organs within thirty seconds."

"You’re learning."

"I’m concerned that counts as a compliment coming from you."

Raven walked toward the wounded Dusk Ripper.

The animal tried to drag itself away.

He killed it with one clean thrust at the base of the skull.

The interface appeared briefly.

«"Compatible defeated organism detected."

Target: Dusk Ripper

Level: 11

Rank: Common

Available Traits:

"Night Scent"

"Serrated Claws"

"Pack Coordination"»

Raven closed the window.

Nothing worth spending his current capacity on.

Valeria had been watching him.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing that’s a priority."

"You said you’re building yourself around what you need."

"You said that."

"And I was right."

"Don’t let it become a habit."

Valeria smiled.

"Too late."

---

The fight had lasted less than two minutes.

The aftermath took considerably longer.

One of the guards had three deep cuts across his thigh.

Another had been bitten in the shoulder. His armor had prevented full penetration, but one of the metal plates had been bent out of shape.

Roland was unharmed.

So was Valeria.

Raven’s forearm hurt, but Stonehide had absorbed the worst of it.

That confirmed something important.

Not every encounter needed to become a battle on the edge of death.

He preferred those.

Roland knelt beside the injured guard and opened a medical pouch.

Raven watched.

Green paste.

Bandage.

A small blue vial.

No direct magic.

"You didn’t bring a healer?" Raven asked.

Valeria wiped away a drop of blood still suspended above one of her gloves.

"Not for an expedition that should last two days. Roland has field training, and we brought enough potions for minor injuries."

Raven looked at the man with the torn thigh.

"That doesn’t look minor."

"It isn’t fatal either."

The wounded guard exhaled.

"I’m glad Lady Valeria has so much confidence."

She looked at him.

"If it were fatal, you’d be screaming more."

The man thought about that.

"That’s reassuring in a strange way."

Raven crouched beside Roland.

"Can I see?"

The guard looked up.

"You know how to treat claw wounds?"

"I know how to treat holes in people."

Roland shifted aside slightly.

"Strangely enough, that should work."

Raven examined the injury.

The cuts were deep, but none had reached an artery.

"He’ll walk."

"That’s what I said," Roland replied.

"He’ll walk worse."

"Also that."

Valeria crossed her arms.

"What an excellent medical team. I feel much safer now."

Raven pointed at the guard.

"He isn’t going to die."

"Your standard for successful medical care seems extremely low."

"It’s binary. Makes reports easier."

Valeria looked at him for a moment.

"You wrote reports about dead people?"

"Sometimes about why there were dead people."

Her smile faded slightly.

Raven went back to examining the bandage.

"Tighter here. If he starts losing sensation in the foot, it’s too tight."

Roland adjusted it.

"Thanks."

Raven stood.

"That wasn’t free."

Valeria raised an eyebrow.

"You’re charging for first aid now?"

"I want information about the creature we just killed."

Roland laughed.

"That sounds more like you."

Valeria shook her head.

"What do you want to know?"

"Pack Coordination."

She looked at him.

"I didn’t think that one interested you."

"I don’t want the Trait. I want to know how it works."

That changed her expression.

Valeria took a moment.

"Dusk Rippers are born with a limited form of resonance between members of the same pack. They can’t read thoughts, but they can sense intent to move, fear, aggression, and a few basic commands. It makes their attacks look more coordinated than their intelligence should allow."

Raven looked at the bodies.

That explained the flanking.

"Range?"

"Short. Maybe fifty yards in strong adults."

"Can it be disrupted?"

"With disruptive mana, yes."

"Magical silence?"

"That too."

Raven memorized it.

Valeria watched him.

"You don’t intend to take the Trait, and you still want to understand it."

"Something trying to kill me might have it someday."

"That must be exhausting."

"You already told me that."

"And you still haven’t proven me wrong."

Raven picked up his backpack.

"Surviving is exhausting too."

Valeria smiled.

"You really don’t know how to have a normal conversation."

"Depends on the definition."

"One that doesn’t eventually turn into tactical analysis."

Raven thought about it.

"Then probably not."

They continued toward the quarry.