Chapter 91: The Shadow Under the Wagon Was Alive

The soldiers at the checkpoint took almost five minutes to accept that Raven genuinely intended to use the closed road.

The problem wasn’t his mercenary badge or the fact that he had just become Awakened.

It was Valeria.

They recognized her surname, assumed that must make her the reasonable person in the group, and directed every attempt to convince them toward her instead.

Valeria listened until they finished.

Then she pointed at Raven.

"He already decided."

One of the soldiers frowned.

"Lady von Nacht, seventeen people died up ahead."

"I know."

"We still don’t know what killed them."

"I know that too."

The man seemed to expect something more.

Valeria sighed.

"I’m not saying I like the decision. I’m saying I’ve traveled with him long enough to know that repeating the warning a fifth time won’t improve it."

Raven adjusted the strap of his pack.

"That almost sounded understanding."

"Don’t confuse resignation with support."

Roland looked at the chain blocking the road.

"We can still turn around."

Raven looked at him.

"You can also wait here."

"That was a surprisingly kind offer."

"It was logistics."

"There’s the Raven I know."

The soldiers finally removed the chain after recording their names and warning them that any rescue attempt could take hours.

Raven didn’t expect to need one.

He wasn’t relying on it either.

The road narrowed as they left the checkpoint behind. The trees grew close to the path, but the forest was nothing like Sablewood. There were no plants trying to poison them every twenty steps and no giant insects moving through the branches.

By Veyr’s standards, it was an ordinary forest.

That made it worse.

Something had destroyed an entire caravan in a place where nothing particularly dangerous was supposed to exist.

Raven dismounted roughly six miles later.

Valeria followed.

"Why are we stopping?"

Raven pointed at the mud beside the road.

"Tracks."

There were plenty.

Horse hooves.

Wagon wheels.

Boots.

Nothing unusual at first.

Then the marks began to overlap.

One horse had left the road and run toward the trees. Its hoofprints were deep and widely spaced, as if it had bolted without control.

Several yards farther ahead, there was a dark stain on the ground.

Raven crouched.

Dried blood.

Roland looked ahead.

"So we’re close."

"Yes."

Raven didn’t mount again.

They continued on foot, leading the horses by the reins.

Predator’s Instinct remained quiet.

He didn’t like that.

A creature dangerous enough to destroy an entire caravan should have left signs.

Scent.

Droppings.

Damaged vegetation.

Territorial markings.

Something.

They found the first body two hundred yards later.

A man sat slumped against a tree beside the road.

He didn’t look like he had tried to hide.

He had simply made it that far before dying.

Raven approached while Valeria held the horses.

The man wore escort leathers, and a short sword remained sheathed at his side. One hand rested over his chest.

There was no blood around him.

Raven pulled the clothing aside slightly.

A black stain covered part of the man’s torso.

Valeria approached.

"Burn?"

"No."

Raven touched the surrounding area through his glove.

The skin was intact.

No blisters.

No thermal contraction.

No smell of burned flesh.

Predation analyzed the corpse.

[Species: Human]

[Level: 14]

[Existence Rank: Awakened]

[Status: Deceased]

[Primary Cause of Death: Severe Mana-System Collapse / Systemic Biological Failure]

[External Thermal Damage: NONE]

[Residual Foreign Mana Detected.]

Raven looked at the stain again.

"It wasn’t fire."

Valeria crouched beside him.

"What was it?"

"Something damaged his mana system. Predation detects residue, but it can’t identify it yet."

Roland looked at the sheathed sword.

"He never even drew it."

That mattered.

Raven examined the man’s hands.

No defensive wounds.

No dirt beneath the nails.

He had probably died before understanding what was happening.

"We continue."

The second corpse had managed to draw his sword.

The third no longer had a hand.

They found him beside one of the wagons.

By then, the road looked like a battlefield.

Except the battle was missing.

Three wagons had overturned.

One had a shattered wheel.

Another had crashed into a tree.

Two horses were still harnessed, dead on the ground. A third lay almost twenty yards farther ahead with its legs rigid.

Bodies were everywhere.

Raven counted twelve from where he stood.

None had been eaten.

No bite marks.

No claw wounds.

No arrows.

Not enough damage to the trees to suggest a prolonged fight.

Some people had died with weapons in hand.

Others appeared to have tried to run.

Several had simply fallen.

Raven handed the reins to Roland.

"Don’t touch anything yet."

Valeria was already studying the scene.

"This doesn’t look like a beast attack."

"No."

"Bandits either."

"Too much cargo."

One of the wagons had been opened.

Inside were broken crates, rolls of cloth, tools, sacks of grain, and three small metal chests still sitting untouched.

An extremely incompetent thief might have left all of that.

Seventeen dead made that possibility less convincing.

Raven walked slowly around the scene.

He didn’t study the bodies first.

He studied the ground.

Directions.

Distances.

Positions.

Two escorts had tried to form a line beside the lead wagon.

They had died less than ten feet apart.

Another group had run toward the forest.

Three bodies marked the end of that route.

One had been decapitated.

The other two had no visible injuries.

"There was more than one type of attack," Raven said.

Roland looked at the dead.

"More than one creature?"

"Or one attacker with multiple capabilities."

Valeria pointed toward a corpse beside the central wagon.

"That one has cuts."

Raven approached.

Three wounds had sliced through the armor.

Clean.

Too clean for claws.

One had cut through metal, leather, and flesh with almost equal ease.

Predation couldn’t identify the weapon.

Raven straightened.

"This was intelligent."

"Why?" Roland asked.

"The first attacks eliminated escorts before they could form a defense. After that, someone or something hunted down the people who tried to scatter. There’s no sign that a beast attacked for food."

Valeria looked over the wagons.

"Then maybe it was an execution."

"Possibly."

Something else was wrong.

It took Raven several seconds to identify it.

The light.

Sunlight filtered through the branches from the west. The trees’ shadows should have stretched in the opposite direction.

Most of them did.

One didn’t.

Beneath the central wagon was a patch of darkness that was too deep.

Raven changed position.

The shadow didn’t move correctly with him.

"Valeria."

She followed his gaze.

Her expression turned serious.

"That shouldn’t look like that."

Roland pulled a mana lamp from his pack.

He activated it.