Chapter 6
"I noticed during the fight..." Kaizen said quietly, eyes still fixed on his dagger as he replayed the fight in his mory, "It fought like a human. The way it dodged, its stance, the spacing between its strikes... all of that felt too intentional."
The squad and everyone listening all turned toward him.
"It imdiately went after the healer on it’s first attack, a sign that it knew exactly what it was doing."
"And that glitchy movent..." Kaizen continued, glancing up at Stark, "You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?"
Starks eyes widened as he recalled... "Damn how could I miss that....i’ve actually seen it, but it was only once. In a duel against a high-tier Ice realm user. It’s a rare technique, so call it a phase-step or mirror dash. Ice users with full control of mana manipulation can ’blink’ short distances by freezing the moisture around them and breaking movent fras."
"But that thing didn’t use ice," Kira said slowly. "Not even a flicker of elental energy."
Kaizen nodded. "Exactly. I think... it forgot. Like the mind was gone, but the body still rembered. Or maybe it couldn’t use magic anymore after it had turned beast."
There was a long silence.
"You’re saying it was human?" Lara asked, her tone in disbelief but skeptical.
Kaizen didn’t answer imdiately. He pulled the cloth from his belt and wiped his blade again, slow and steady. "Not anymore. But it used to be."
"That’s impossible." Rael leaned against a boulder, still clutching his side. "Humans can’t survive portal conversion. The mont a non-beast gets pulled through the rift, they die. Everyone knows that."
"Unless..." Hawk muttered, narrowing his eyes. "It didn’t get pulled through. It was put here."
Heads turned to him.
"You think soone planted it in the portal?" Stark asked.
"I don’t know," Hawk replied, tone grim. "But we’ve seen D-rank portals. Hundreds of them. You’ve all been on at least a dozen. Beasts don’t fight like that. They don’t have form, or tactics, or techniques."
He turned to Kaizen. "You said it fought like a human?"
"Not just like one," Kaizen replied. "It felt like muscle mory. Like whoever or whatever it was, had trained for years. Ice realm style."
Kira looked down at the dark red gem she’d separated earlier. "What about this thing, then? If it’s from a human-turned-beast... does that an this is..."
"A human core," Hawk finished for her, voice hard. "Or what’s left of one."
Nobody spoke for a mont.
The wind shifted. The faint sound of other squads in the distance echoed through the trees as the tension in their group sank deeper.
"How is that even possible?" Lara asked, quieter now.
"I don’t know," Hawk admitted, then looked toward Cladius and the waiting rescue team. "But we need answers. And we’re not getting them out here."
He gestured for them to move. "You-all can return ho. I need to report this. Now."
—
Back at Crimson Dusk Headquarters
The sky had already started to darken by the ti Hawk stepped into the long stone hallway that led toward the guild Master’s office.
The building buzzed with quiet energy. Other teams moved through the halls, so armored, so in robes, so laughing, so limping. The atmosphere of returning squads was always a mixture of pride and exhaustion.
Hawk wasn’t in the mood for either. He stopped in front of the thick wooden doors and knocked once.
"Enter," ca the deep voice from within.
Hawk stepped inside.
Wraith, real na Darius...stood near the far wall, arms folded, watching sothing through a narrow slit of the window. He didn’t turn around.
"You’re back late," Wraith said. "It was a D rank portal wasn’t it? Shouldn’t take more than two hours to be cleared for a level Six raid team."
"There was a problem," Hawk replied.
That got his attention. Wraith turned, his cloak shifting slightly with the movent. "What kind?"
Hawk placed the gem pouch on the table between them and pulled out the red one Kaizen had warned them about. "We found this inside a D-rank portal. From a beast. But it didn’t fight like one."
Wraith stepped closer, examining the gem. It pulsed faintly.
"Soone from my team said it felt... human," Hawk added. "And he might be right."
"Explain."
Hawk told him everything. From the twitchy movents to Kaizen’s analysis, Stark’s confirmation of the ice technique, and the strange way the creature moved as if it’s body rembered sothing.
When he was done, Wraith didn’t speak for a while. He just stared at the gem.
"I’ve only heard of one case like this," he finally said. "A year ago. A mission was classified. Portal raid, similar situation. The report ntioned beasts that retained fragnts of human skills, but the official line was that it was a mana anomaly."
"So this isn’t new?" Hawk asked.
"No," Wraith said. "But it’s not common either. If what you’re saying is accurate... then we may be dealing with sothing far more dangerous than portal beasts."
"Experints?" Hawk asked. "Or forced conversions?"
"I don’t know yet," Wraith answered. "But I’ll be requesting a direct investigation from the upper board."
He closed the pouch and slid it aside. "You did well reporting this."
Hawk nodded once, then turned to leave.
"Who ca up with this conclusion," Wraith said before he left. "What’s his rank?"
Hawk paused. "Kaizen, E rank. He doesn’t talk much, but... he notices things others don’t."
Wraith’s eyes narrowed slightly, thoughtful. "Interesting."
As Hawk stepped out and closed the door behind him, Wraith turned back to the window.
"Kaizen, E-rank..." He muttered under his breath, "That’s rather.... odd,"
Just then, another knock echoed from outside, interrupting his thoughts
"Co in."
"It’s Serpent," the person who stepped in said in a hurrieldy worried tone. "He... he disappeared in a B-rank portal."
Wraith tensed slightly, but his expression remained unreadable.
"Was the portal cleared?" he asked calmly.
"Yes, sir. It closed as soon as the last hunter stepped out... excluding Serpent."
Portals closing after the hound stone was activated ant the last human left inside had stepped out or been killed, and whatever was left inside....was a Beast.
"Then he’s gone," Wraith said flatly. "Inform his family. Prepare for a funeral."
"But sir," the man said, tone tightening. "This needs to be investigated. The continuous disappearance of hunters is getting excessive. It won’t remain a secret much longer."
Wraith looked at him with a cold, final expression.
"Prepare for the funeral," he repeated.
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