Kael stood at the edge of the village with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on the chaos unfolding before him.
The village was burning. The market was gone. Bodies lay in the streets, and the monsters moved through the smoke like shadows that had somehow learned to kill.
Moldclaws tore through the stalls with their glowing green fungus pulsing in the darkness, and Needletooths darted between the legs of the fleeing villagers, their long needle-like teeth sinking into flesh again and again.
The screams never stopped. They rose and fell and rose again, a chorus of terror that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
He didn't smile. He didn't flinch. He just watched, his shadow stretching long against the firelight.
Behind him, deeper in the jungle where the trees grew thick and the light never reached the ground, something was changing.
He turned and looked toward the source of the disturbance.
