The forest was plunged into a heavy silence, as if nature itself was holding its breath. Keiko felt a tightening in her stomach and a sudden nausea that made her stop, leaning against a moss-covered trunk, damp and cold. The air around them exuded a sweet, yet rotten odor. Like fruit left to rot in the sun for days.
"What is it?" Gareth asked, stopping immediately. The tension in his voice revealed he too sensed something wrong.
"Something... wrong," Keiko replied, taking a deep breath to calm her churning stomach. "The air is heavy. It has a smell..."
Gareth raised his hand, cautiously sniffing the air, and his expression hardened into a grim mask. "Voidlings. Closer than I thought."
The pressure in Keiko's chest increased. An invisible force pulled her attention eastward, as if a thread of anxiety was guiding her. Without conscious thought, she began moving in that direction, with Gareth and Daven at her side, all plunging deeper into the forest while the murmur of the wind seemed to whisper warnings.
Soon, they found three children huddled inside a giant hollow log an ancient tree that had fallen decades ago, its rotted interior creating a perfect hiding cavity. Two boys Tam, eight years old, and Davos, seven and a small girl named Ella, just six. Their faces were pale as if carved from wax, eyes wide with terror, bodies shaking violently.
"Where is Luna?" Gareth asked, his voice deliberately softening at the sight of those innocent, terrified faces.
Tam, the older boy, swallowed hard with visible difficulty. "She... she made us hide here. Said she would distract the thing."
"What thing?" Keiko quickly knelt, looking into the children's frightened eyes, trying to project a safety she didn't feel.
"Something dark," Ella whispered, her trembling voice barely audible. "With glowing red eyes and lots of teeth. It walked funny, like it had too many legs, joints where it shouldn't."
Gareth and Keiko exchanged a look filled with worry and terrible understanding.
"Shadow Grusk," the hunter murmured, the curse leaving his lips like a dark omen.
Daven visibly paled, gripping his spear so hard his knuckles turned white. "Here? But the barriers..."
"Failed," Gareth completed with a hard voice. "They must have failed. There's no other explanation."
He turned to Daven, assuming a tone of absolute command. "Return to the village. Now. Take the children back. Quickly."
"I'm going with you," Keiko said, determination shining in her eyes with an intensity that surprised even herself.
"Absolutely not," Gareth replied immediately, his denial firm and leaving no room for discussion. "This is no longer a search for lost children. It's a hunt for Voidlings. Creatures that hunt Mystics. You would be the primary target."
Keiko involuntarily shrank under the weight of those words, but forced herself to take a step forward. "I understand the danger. But I can help. I feel where she is. It's like a thread pulling my attention, guiding me. I can't explain it better, but I know I can find her."
Gareth hesitated, conflict evident in the tension lining his face. Precious seconds passed as he weighed the options.
"If you come," he finally said, each word laden with weight, "you obey every order without question. No discussion. No hesitation. And if I tell you to run, you run and don't stop until you are inside the village barriers. Understood?"
"Understood," Keiko agreed immediately.
Daven opened his mouth to protest, but Gareth interrupted him with a brusque gesture. "We don't have time for discussions. Warn Aldric. Tell him exactly what is happening. The barriers may have fallen in other places too. The village needs to prepare."
As Daven led the frightened children toward the relative safety of the village, Gareth and Keiko followed her instinct deeper into the forest, tension hanging in the air like a storm about to break.
Their advance was meticulous. Each step tore damp leaves from the ground, the acidic smell of earth mixing with the sweet, rotten stench that permeated the air with growing intensity. Gareth led the way, bow tense in his hand, the eyes of an experienced predator scanning every shadow, every low branch, every potential movement.
Keiko followed close behind, struggling not to trip over the thick roots snaking across the ground like sleeping serpents. The strange thread she felt that inexplicable intuition, that connection she didn't understand pulled her attention toward a fern-covered ravine.
The cold in her gut only grew with each step.
Gareth stopped suddenly, raising his hand in a universal signal for silence. Keiko froze instantly.
Absolute silence. No frog croaks. No rustling of small animals. Nothing.
He gestured for Keiko to crouch. Both slid through the bushes, breaths controlled, barely moving.
And then they saw.
There, among the shadows of a fallen log, was Luna curled into herself, knees against her chest, eyes wide with pure terror. She was voluntarily trapped at the back of a small natural cave formed between rocks, barely illuminated by the light filtering through the foliage.
But something blocked the access.
On the threshold between light and shadow, a Shadow Grusk waited like a living statue from a nightmare.
It was larger than Keiko had imagined from the children's description. Over two meters tall when erect, but its hunched, slender body gave the impression of being even larger, even more threatening. Covered in shiny, almost oily black skin that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Its red eyes peered around with unsettling shrewdness, while its long, sharp teeth, covered by thick tongues, glistened wetly.
But it was the anatomy that made Keiko's stomach churn.
It had six limbs, not four like a common animal. Two main arms, long and muscular. Two smaller, thinner arms emerged from its torso just below the main arms. Additionally, it had two hind legs that crossed at abnormal angles, with extra joints that made every movement seem contorted and wrong.
Its body seemed made of solidified smoke and twisted bones, subtly changing shape with every breath.
Luna kept her hand over her mouth, desperately trying not to sob. The Grusk persistently scratched the rocks partially blocking the cave entrance, forcing its claws through the narrow gap. The opening was too small for its body; it could only push one claw at a time, scratching the air inches from the girl's terrified face.
The fear was almost palpable, a physical pressure that tightened Keiko's chest and made her heart pound painfully.
Gareth signaled to her with precise gestures: Wait. Don't move.
He carefully analyzed the terrain the fallen branches, the creature's position, the possible angles of attack. He knew a single mistake would be fatal. Shadow Grusks were fierce, fast, and intelligent. Especially when they had prey cornered.
He drew his bow with a smooth motion and selected a broad-headed arrow, designed to cause maximum damage. He wanted to end it quickly, but he needed to be absolutely precise.
The moment he aimed, the Grusk turned its head.
The movement was instantaneous, impossible to track. A guttural hiss echoed, a sound that made Keiko's skin crawl completely. The red eyes fixed on Gareth, recognizing the danger, assessing the threat.
With speed that belied its size, the creature leaped over the log, all six limbs moving in disturbing coordination, claws extended aimed directly at the hunter.
Gareth rolled to the side with trained reflexes, feeling the wind from the passing claws cutting the air near his temple. The creature landed where he had been seconds before and, in a movement too fluid for something so large, twisted its body like a serpent, whipping its long legs to trip him.
Gareth retreated, balancing by a miracle. He felt the tips of the claws scratch his left thigh, not deep, but enough. The pain was sharp, burning like ice instead of fire.
He loosed an arrow in motion.
The Grusk dodged, but not completely. The tip tore through the side of its black neck, from which a viscous, purplish liquid smelling of decomposition oozed.
The creature roared. It wasn't a common animal sound, but a cry with layers, as if multiple voices screamed in unison. Its jaw opened absurdly, revealing that it split into four parts and showing not just rows of teeth, but something even worse: a black, forked tongue moving independently.
It attacked again. This time charging with all four front limbs, forcing Gareth to leap back desperately. He tripped over the fallen log, losing his balance.
He fell on his back, struggling to breathe, expelling air in a painful sound.
The creature immediately seized the opportunity, leaping onto him with crushing weight. Gareth used his bow to block the descending jaws, feeling the Grusk's impossible weight pressing down. The teeth bit into the bow's wood, dangerously splintering it. The claws on its four arms sought his face, his neck, any exposed flesh.
Keiko screamed, a sound of pure terror escaping before she could control it, but it distracted the Grusk for a precious half-second.
Gareth, seizing that tiny moment, drew the dagger from his belt with his free hand and stabbed the creature in the chest. It wasn't a mortal blow the angle was wrong, the position inadequate but it was enough to make it recoil, shrieking.
The Grusk howled, and the layered sound echoed through the forest. Blood flowed down its twisted thorax, mixing with something darker pulsing beneath its skin.
Seizing the creature's moment of hesitation, Gareth rolled to the side, grabbed another arrow from the ground where it had fallen during the fight, and in a desperate, brutal movement, used it as an improvised stake.
The creature charged again, jaw open in four parts.
Gareth drove the arrow directly into that open mouth, forcing it through the palate, piercing until he felt the resistance of something solid deeper within.
The Grusk convulsed violently. Its entire body shuddered, limbs thrashing uncontrollably. Gareth quickly rolled away, avoiding the claws that still tried to reach him even as life left the creature.
Finally, with a last guttural sigh, the Grusk lay still. The sound of the sigh sounded painfully like words in an unknown language.
Silence returned. It was heavy, trembling. Only Gareth's ragged breaths broke the quiet.
The hunter knelt for a moment, trying to catch his breath. Blood dripped from multiple cuts on his thigh, scratches on his arms, a shallow cut on his face he hadn't even noticed receiving.
Keiko ran to Luna, kneeling to help the girl out of the hiding spot. Luna was crying convulsively, dirty with earth and tears, trembling uncontrollably.
"It's alright," Keiko whispered, hugging the small child. "You're safe now. Gareth killed the thing. It's dead."
Gareth got up with effort, still on maximum alert despite his exhaustion. His eyes never stopped scanning the surrounding forest. "We need to get out of here. Now. Grusks rarely hunt alone."
From deep within the forest, a roar, loud and deafening, suddenly erupted, shattering the silence that had reigned until then.
It was not like the Grusk's shrieks.
This one was deep. Very, very deep. It resonated through the forest like subterranean thunder, making the ground vibrate under their feet, making birds explode from the trees in absolute panic.
Gareth's blood ran cold.
That sound. He had heard descriptions. In stories told by old hunters. In warnings passed down through generations.
But he never thought he would hear it personally.
"Borak," he whispered, and the word came out like a condemnation. His face was hardened by primitive fear and the terrible understanding of what that meant.
"What is a Borak?" Keiko asked, but she could already see the answer in the absolute terror stamped on the experienced hunter's face.
"Take Luna back to the village. NOW." Gareth ordered, his voice rough and leaving no room for discussion. "Run. Don't look back. Don't stop for anything."
"And you?" Keiko demanded, holding Luna tighter.
Gareth cast one last look at them, a look that carried the weight of an unspoken farewell. "I'll check on the other groups. Warn them. Try to..."
He didn't finish. There were no adequate words.
He turned and ran toward the roar, toward the danger, not away from it.