Chapter 24: Search

"Alex is that you?" Rael asked this weird question knowing how can this be possible.

The Frost Dire Wolf nodded.

The motion was slow and deliberate, a single dip of that massive white head. Rael felt the ground tilt under him. Two explanations flashed through his mind, neither of them comforting. Either the Summoner could force a false story into a beast’s actions, or Alex had somehow become this creature. Before he could speak again the wolf’s body seized.

It began to shake.

The tremors started in the shoulders and raced down the spine. White fur rippled in violent waves. The red eyes rolled, then locked, then rolled again. A low, broken sound tore from its throat—half roar, half something closer to a human groan of pain. The great head swung from side to side as if trying to throw off an invisible weight. Claws gouged deep furrows in the frozen earth. Frost exploded outward in jagged sheets each time a paw slammed down.

"Alex—Alex, listen to me." Rael kept his voice steady even though every instinct screamed to step back. "How can I help you? How do I turn you back?"

The wolf forced its jaws open. Only a thin, strangled roar escaped. The red eyes found Rael’s for a single clear second. In that second the message was plain: the Summoner’s will was crushing whatever remained of Alex. The wolf’s head jerked east, once, hard. Then the last of its resistance broke. It spun and bolted in the opposite direction, crashing through the trees with a sound like a falling landslide, leaving only swirling mist and the lingering cold.

Rael turned to Nathia. "We go east."

"Ok..." Her voice was tight.

They ran.

The forest blurred past. Branches whipped at their arms and faces. Distant howls rose ahead of them, first one, then many, weaving together into a constant, low chorus. An image of a mountain began to take shape through the trees—dark stone rising higher with every stride, its upper slopes lost in cloud. The closer they came, the larger it grew, until it filled half the night sky. The howls thickened. Roars joined them. The whole mountain sounded alive with monsters.

They slowed.

Rushing in blind would get them killed. Rael raised a hand and they moved at a careful walk, eyes sweeping every shadow. A tree to their left shook hard enough to drop a rain of dead leaves. There was no wind. Rael turned. Nothing. Another branch trembled farther back, then went still. Something was traveling through the canopy, light and patient, waiting for an opening.

"Be careful," he said quietly. "Something’s wrong here."

Then every sound stopped.

The distant howls cut off as if a door had closed. The soft rustle of leaves vanished. Even the insects that should have been singing in the dark fell silent. Rael could hear only his own breathing and the faint thud of Nathia’s heart when she stepped close enough. The air pressed in, thick and watching.

A shape dropped from the trees directly in front of him.

He threw himself sideways. Claws the color of old iron tore through the space where his chest had been a heartbeat earlier.

[Monster Detected]

Species: Ironhide Gorilla

Level: 23

Tier: Savage

A second gorilla landed behind them with a heavy, wet sound. Rael and Nathia spun until their backs touched. The two beasts circled, white eyes empty and milky, jaws that looked forged from metal rather than bone. The lower fangs curved upward like shears. If either creature closed those jaws on an arm or leg, the limb would simply come away. Even their nails gleamed like hammered iron. The smell that rolled off them was the same thick, rotten sweetness Rael had noticed on every high-level beast since the beginning—the smell of things that should already be dead.

His mind raced. Suzy could not have unlimited numbers of these. The Frost Dire Wolf and these gorillas might be the last of her stronger pieces. Somehow she had forced Savage-tier creatures into the First Realm, something that should have been impossible for a new awakener. Every one of them had carried that corpse reek. He still did not understand how. The only way to learn was to copy her class, and for that he needed to get close enough to touch her.

The gorilla in front bounced once on its knuckles, then launched.

Nathia stepped into its path. "Water Wall!"

A thick sheet of water rose between them and the charging beast. The gorilla smashed through it without slowing. Rael yanked Nathia aside. Iron nails raked across her upper arm, opening three long, shallow cuts. She hissed but stayed on her feet.

Both gorillas were in front of them now. Rael pulled Nathia behind him and set his feet. He could feel her shaking against his back. The white eyes watched without hunger or anger—only the flat attention of things following orders. The rotten smell thickened until it coated the inside of his mouth.

He needed a plan. Standing and trading blows would get them both killed. The mountain loomed above, full of more howls waiting to start again. Somewhere on those slopes Lila was still alive—or already past saving. And somewhere in the dark the Summoner who wore Suzy’s face was watching.

Rael tightened his grip on the goblin blade and waited for the next charge.

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