Chapter 923: Glassmaws (1)

Liam stopped moving the moment Celia’s voice came through the insignia.

The forest around him remained still enough to pretend nothing had changed, but his focus narrowed instantly. One hand lowered toward the dagger at his side, while his gaze swept the trees ahead and the roots near his boots. Panic would have been useless. Motion without information would have been worse.

Asher’s voice came through a heartbeat later, much more awake than before. "Finally. Something worth doing."

"Do not rush," Liam said.

"I did not say I was rushing."

"You sounded flammable."

"I am flammable."

Celia’s voice cut back in, controlled despite the strain beneath it. "I am keeping distance. Raven has not moved in. The signature is faint but consistent, and whatever is below keeps circling the same area."

Liam started moving toward her position, fast but careful, using the map they had agreed on and Raven’s position above the trees as his guide. "How many?"

"I cannot confirm all of them. At least one visible."

"At least?"

"The movement pattern suggests more. Raven keeps reacting to the edges, not the center."

Asher’s breath came sharper over the link as he adjusted direction. "Size?"

"Larger than a wolf. Low to the ground. Fast when it shifts. The visible one has a distorted outline, almost glass-like around the head."

Liam’s eyes narrowed. "Glassmaws."

There was a brief pause from Celia. "Likely."

"Has it noticed you?"

"Not directly. It reacts when Raven dips lower, but it has not broken its circle."

"Anchor visible?"

"Partially. Old stone marker near the center of the clearing. Something academy-made is embedded into it or attached behind the roots. I cannot see the full form from above."

"Can Raven stay above it safely?"

"For now," Celia answered. "If she drops too low, the visible one tracks her. The others—if there are others—are still along the edges."

"Stay high enough to avoid a leap. Do not activate anything until we arrive."

"I was not planning to."

Asher’s voice came through with open anticipation. "I am close."

"Do not enter the clearing first," Liam said.

"You say that like it is not the obvious fun option."

"It is the obvious trap option."

"Those overlap."

"Not today."

Asher clicked his tongue, but he did not argue further.

Liam cut through a narrow passage between two dense trees, vaulted a fallen trunk, and slowed as the terrain ahead opened. The forest changed before the clearing itself appeared. The air thinned slightly, and the ground flattened into a shallow bowl ringed by twisted roots and broken stone. Dim morning light slipped through the canopy in fractured patches, touching leaves, moss, and stone in uneven strips. That kind of broken shade was perfect for creatures that bent light badly enough to vanish in pieces.

He saw the visible Glassmaw first.

It crouched near the far side of the clearing, its body long and sinewy, hide semi-translucent in places where the forest light seemed to pass through it and return wrong. Its head was the worst part. The jaws looked like shards of glass fused into a living hinge, serrated plates catching light in jagged flashes whenever it moved. The creature did not stand still. It paced in a slow arc around the stone marker near the center, body low, tail dragging soundlessly through leaf rot. Every few steps, its outline broke against the shade and returned a fraction away from where the eye expected it to be.

Above, Raven circled low beyond the treetops with Celia braced on her back, both tense and ready.

The anchor sat near the center exactly as Celia had described, half-hidden by roots curling around an old stone marker. A small academy device had been fixed into the stone, its edges dull and waiting. Reachable. Too reachable. The clearing looked open enough to tempt a student into running straight for it.

That confirmed the trap.

Asher arrived on the opposite side of the clearing, blue eyes bright. He saw the visible Glassmaw and immediately shifted his stance, one hand already filling with controlled flame.

"Do not chase it," Liam said through the insignia and low enough that the forest swallowed the words.

"I know."

"You wanted to."

"I still want to. I am choosing not to."

"That’s progress."

"Insult me after we kill them."

Liam activated Shadow Sight.

The clearing sharpened into depth and tension. The visible Glassmaw remained obvious, but the outer edges changed. Shadows bent strangely in two places where the light did not settle correctly. One distortion moved near a cluster of roots to Liam’s left. Another slid along the right edge behind a fallen stone slab, its outline barely present even through Shadow Sight. Three total. One bait. Two cutters.

"Three," Liam said. "Visible one is bait. One left root cluster. One right stone slab. Asher, control center and do not let the visible one pull you outward. Use heat distortion. Expose the others."

Asher grinned. "Now you are speaking sense."

"Celia, stay above and watch the anchor. Tell us if its pulse changes."

"I will," she said.

Raven growled low, the sound slipping through the link like distant thunder.

Asher moved first, stepping into the clearing with enough aggression to make the visible Glassmaw react but not enough commitment to be dragged away. Blue flame coiled around his forearm and along the edge of his blade in a tight, contained burn. The visible creature snapped its glass-like jaws open, reflecting the flame in broken fragments, then darted sideways as if inviting pursuit.

Asher did not take the bait.

He cut a short burst of heat across the open ground instead, not aimed to burn the forest, but to warp the air above the clearing. The sudden shimmer rolled outward in a controlled wave. For an instant, the hidden outlines at the edges became easier to see, their translucent hides bending the distortion in the wrong direction.

"There," Asher said, satisfaction rough in his voice.

The Glassmaw near the root cluster sprang.

Liam met it before it reached the open ground.

A short fire burst from his heel shifted him out of its line, and his left dagger cut across the underside of its jaw as it passed. The blade scraped against something hard and glassy, sparks of pale reflection jumping from the edge. Not deep enough. He adjusted mid-step, let shadow harden across his forearm, and drove his second dagger into the softer seam behind the jaw hinge. The creature twisted with startling speed, jaws snapping shut where his wrist had been a breath before.

He withdrew instead of forcing the kill.

No wasted struggle.

The hidden Glassmaw on the right moved as Asher’s attention turned. Asher caught it from the corner of his eye, slammed a blue-flame pulse into the ground in front of it, and forced it to veer wide. The heat did not explode. It licked low and sharp, enough to distort the air and reveal the creature’s outline as it tried to circle behind him.