Chapter 20: Found You
There was an end to this tunnel. A way out that wasn't back through the monster's jaws.
He focused on that.
One step. Then another. Myra at his side. Nellie at his other. The roar of stone and beast and storm behind them.
They squeezed through the bottleneck—half-stumbling, half-shoved. The teeth there were close enough that he could have touched both walls with an outstretched hand. One of the stones bore fresh cracks from the monster's pressure, lines running through it like veins of dark glass.
Then the hollow widened suddenly.
The ceiling lifted. The walls pulled back slightly. The air ahead tasted… different. Still damp. Still cold. But with a hint of living green underneath the stone and dust.
"The forest," Nellie breathed. "We're close."
"Not close enough," Myra muttered.
The hollow wasn't done breaking.
A sound like a thunderclap boomed behind them.
Aiden turned just in time to see a section of the roof near the entrance fully give way. A jagged hole tore open, dumping daylight-gray and fresh fog into the corridor. Through it, for a heartbeat, he saw too much:
The monster's upper body forcing itself through the breach.
Limbs coiling like monstrous roots.
Jaws opening wide enough to swallow three carts end to end.
The fog-entity slammed into it from behind with a crash of light.
Fog-lances drove into the monster's shoulders, anchoring it against the teeth. The pressure of their clash blew air down the passage in a wave that knocked Aiden's hair back and sent smaller stones skittering along the floor.
The monster thrashed.
One of its limbs swung wildly.
It came down—not behind them. Not at the entrance.
Ahead.
The clawed limb punched through the ceiling further along the hollow, crashing down into the path only a short distance in front of the fleeing caravan.
The impact threw up a wall of mud and shattered stone.
The route ahead vanished in a choking cloud.
People stumbled to a halt. The line bunched again, nearly crushing those at the front.
"NO!" Garrik roared. "We are not dying in a dead end! There's a gap—there's always a gap!"
He shoved forward into the dust, disappearing for a moment.
Aiden coughed hard enough that his chest hurt. Grit scraped his throat. The world swam.
He felt the monster's attention snap from the fog-entity to that new breach. It hadn't planned to block their path there—but it noticed the result.
Those molten eyes turned toward them.
Heat pressed against his skin, even from this distance.
The storm inside him reacted.
[Predatory Focus: Centered on You.]
[Resonance Thread: Monster ⇄ Cub ⇄ Aiden.]
[Instinct Override: FIGHT or BE MARKED.]
"I really," Aiden muttered through clenched teeth, "hate being interesting to monsters."
Myra shot him a tight, humorless smile. "Better than being invisible to them and still eaten."
"Not helping."
"I know."
The monster's limb twitched, claws flexing.
Fog whipped in to meet it as the entity shifted its attack, but the thing was already in motion, dragging its clawed arm back for another strike—this time aiming fully at the center of the hollow, where the caravan clustered.
"Down!" someone screamed. "Everybody down!"
There was nowhere to go.
Nellie threw herself against Aiden, trying to push him aside even though he was twice her size. Myra half-shoved, half-tackled them both, dragging them toward the wall.
The pup howled.
Lightning answered.
It didn't come from the sky.
It came from Aiden.
The storm he'd been trying not to drown in surged upward, no longer content to flicker in his bones. It roared to the surface, tearing through his nervous system like a tidal wave through dry brush.
His vision went pure blue-white.
The world stilled in that instant—not slowing, not stopping, but sharpening. Every crack in the teeth-stones. Every line of fear on every face. Every spark in the pup's fur. Every flicker of fog around the figure. Every glint of murderous hunger in the monster's eyes.
He could see the path of the incoming blow as clearly as a glowing line—
where it would land,
who it would crush,
how many it would kill.
He couldn't stop all of it.
But he could move it.
"Not," he heard himself say, voice layered with something that wasn't entirely his, "them."
Lightning exploded out of him.
It wasn't a single bolt.
It was a flood.
Arcs blasted from his chest and hands, branching into a web that snapped upward to meet the descending claw. The air turned to fire and glass. The smell of ozone hit like a physical slap.
The lightning struck the limb.
The monster jerked.
The blow went wild.
Instead of smashing into the center of the caravan, the claw slammed into the hollow wall to the right, tearing a gaping wound through stone. Teeth shattered. Roots ripped. Daylight speared through the breach in a blinding beam.
The monster shrieked—wounded, furious.
The fog-entity seized the opening.
Fog surged into the new gap, not to block it, but to hold it open—bracing the fractured stone, shoring up an impossible doorway for a heartbeat longer than it should have stood.
Garrik stared at the sudden shaft of light and didn't waste a second.
"There!" he bellowed. "OUT! THROUGH THERE! RUN!"
The caravan didn't hesitate.
They poured toward the breach—a tide of bodies desperate for any path that didn't end in teeth. Hunters dragged injured along. Parents lifted children and ran. Carts were abandoned where they stuck; no one had time to save wood when flesh was still an option.
Myra had Aiden half by the arm, half by sheer force of will.
"On your feet!" she snarled. "You did your storm thing, now we leave before the ceiling thanks you with a rock to the head!"
Nellie clung to his other side, panting. "Please don't die," she whispered. "I just decided I like you."
"That's… good timing," he managed.
The pup barreled down the slope toward them.
It launched itself straight at his chest.
He almost fell again under the impact, but some instinct—not entirely his—kept his arms up enough to catch it.
Lightning jolted through him on contact, sharp but not hostile. The pup buried its head against him, trembling, sparks prickling his skin.
[Bond Thread Strengthened.]
[Provisional Bond: Stabilizing.]
[Shared Instinct: Flee.]
"For once," Aiden muttered, "I agree."
They ran.
The breach gaped ahead—ragged, uneven, sharp-edged. It wasn't a proper exit. It was a wound in the hollow's side that opened into tangled roots and rising ground.
The first of the caravan burst through into a tangle of trees and damp air that smelled overwhelmingly of leaves and loam and something like freedom.
Myra hauled Aiden toward the opening.
The fog-entity held it, arms spread, fog-limbs braced against invisible pressure.
For half a breath, as they passed under the broken stone, Aiden's gaze locked with where its face should have been.
Something looked back.
Not eyes. Not a mouth.
Awareness.
He felt it touch the storm in him, not intruding, but acknowledging—as if recognizing a mark it hadn't expected to find.
Words flickered in his mind, not System text, not spoken sound.
Found you.
Then they were through.
The world lurched from stone and fog to trees and open air.
They stumbled onto uneven forest ground, roots and fallen leaves and damp earth giving underfoot. The sky above was still gray, but it was a sky, not a strip of bruised color between teeth.
Behind them, the hollow screamed one last time.
Stone tore.
Fog roared.
The monster howled.
Something huge crashed down.
A shockwave hit them like a giant's hand, flinging people forward. Aiden went to his knees, skidding through leaves and mud, Myra landing half on top of him, Nellie tumbling against his side.
The pup yelped and clung to his cloak.
He rolled onto his back, lungs burning, chest heaving.
Through the broken gap, he saw only swirling fog and falling stone.
No monster.
No figure.
Just the Hollow of Broken Teeth collapsing in on itself, sealing whatever war raged inside.
The last stone fell.
Silence rushed in, huge and hollow and unreal.
Leaves rustled. Someone sobbed. Somewhere, a child began to cry in hiccuping gasps.
Aiden stared up at the canopy, at branches clawing at the dull morning sky.
He felt the storm inside him settle—
not vanish,
not sleep,
but curl up like a beast that had finally found a place to rest.
The System flickered one last time.
[Area Left: Hollow of Broken Teeth]
[Status: Unstable / Collapsed]
[Survival: Confirmed]
[New Objective: Reach the Academy.]
The words blurred as his vision swam.
Myra's face appeared over him, hair wild, cheeks streaked, eyes bright.
"You still with us?" she demanded.
He let out a ragged breath that might have been a laugh.
"Yeah," he said. "I think so."
Nellie sagged in relief, wiping at her eyes with dusty hands. "Good. Because I am not going through all that just to drag a corpse the rest of the way to the Academy."
The pup snorted softly, sparks flickering along its fur as it burrowed closer against his chest.
Aiden lifted one shaking hand and scratched behind its ear.
"We're not there yet," he murmured.
Somewhere far behind the fallen stone, something old and hungry and furious roared again.
Muffled.
Distant.
Trapped—for now.
Myra followed his gaze toward the sealed hollow.
Her jaw tightened. "Then we'd better start walking," she said. "Before whatever's left of that decides it wants round two."
Aiden pushed himself up, legs screaming, storm still echoing in his bones.
He didn't know what that thing in the fog was.
He didn't know why the monster cared about him.
He didn't know what the System had just turned him into.
But he knew one thing.
The road to the Academy wasn't just dangerous.
It had teeth.
And now, something on the other side of the storm knew his name.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Alright, real talk for a second.
WebNovel rejected Reborn with the Beastbinder System.
Yeah. They said it "wouldn't make money."
So now it's up to us to prove them wrong.
If you're enjoying the story even a little—Aiden, the lightning pup, the worldbuilding, the fights—
then please help this book climb:
⭐ Power Stones → they matter way more than people realize
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Right now, every push tells the system,
"Hey, this story actually can compete."
If you want to support the journey even more (never required), my Patreon is here:
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(Early chapters, and it helps me keep writing.)
Thank you for reading.
Seriously.
Let's show them what this story can do.