As Zay Yuso, Naomi, and Rei Alvor reached the rusted metal gate, a sharp, bitter stench still in their senses. It was metallic, like blood mixed with rusted iron left to rot in stagnant water. The gate groaned faintly in the wind, half-buried in snow. The wall behind it stood barely four feet tall, crumbling at the corners, coated in flakes of frost and peeling paint.
They exchanged glances, then climbed over the gate with ease.
"That... was very short," Rei muttered, glancing around. "What the hell was this place trying to keep in? Or out? I can't tell."
The cold struck harder as a blizzard picked up around them. Snow whirled violently, slicing through the air like glass dust. Rei squinted and frowned. The world ahead faded into an indistinct blur—he could barely see two feet in front of him.
Then came the sound.
A high-pitched screech, raw and guttural, echoed from the distance. It wasn't just loud—it vibrated through their bones, as if something massive was clawing its way through the blizzard just to reach them.
Suddenly, the snow in front of them exploded.
A massive impact slammed into the ground, sending snow flying in all directions. Zay stepped forward instinctively, eyes narrowing, trying to focus. Through the veil of white, he could just make out a shape—no, a motion.
Then he saw it.
A long, jagged claw whipped toward them through the storm.
"DODGE!" Zay shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos. All three leapt aside just in time. The claw ripped through the space they had stood in moments before, catching the edge of Rei's sleeve. Blood splattered across the snow as the claw snapped back into the swirling shadows and vanished.
Rei landed hard, clutching his arm. "I GOT SCRAPED A BIT!" he shouted over the wind, his voice nearly drowned by another shriek that split the sky.
Before anyone could speak, a low thrumming began above them. The sound of wings—thick, leathery wings—flapping against the blizzard. Snow twisted upward in spirals as something massive descended from the sky.
They looked up.
Dark green streaks spiraled downward, and with them came heat. Suffocating, dry heat that clashed violently with the cold around them. The wings unfurled, stretching wider than any they had seen before. The creature hovered in the air, outlined by the storm as its body shimmered with a sickly, glowing green.
It was a wyvern—but warped. A grotesque fusion of flesh and monstrosity.
Its body was covered in ragged fur and slick scales that oozed steam where the snow touched them. A long scorpion's tail curled upward, twitching erratically, dripping with venom that sizzled as it landed in the snow. Its wings flapped like rotting sheets of wet leather, trailing a trail of heat behind each movement.
Then they saw its face.
It should have been draconic, but it wasn't. It bore the twisted remnants of something human—sunken crimson eyes too far apart, a misshapen jaw that hung slightly open, twitching with every breath. Half of its face was covered in hardened scales, the other with patches of fur and rotting skin. Its teeth were jagged and uneven, some curling outward like thorns.
It opened its gaping maw and unleashed a screech.
A wave of dark green flame erupted from its mouth. It carved through the snow like acid, melting everything it touched instantly. Trees, stone, and ice vanished beneath the heat, turning into ash and steam in seconds.
Rei shielded his face and shouted, "It's a sort flame! A powerful one!"
Several streaks of pale green light crackled above them. They twisted and converged, coalescing into jagged rows of floating daggers. Each one shimmered unnaturally, radiating heat. As they formed, the snowfall around them began to vanish, melted away by the increasing intensity.
The visibility improved—but only just enough for them to see the horror that hovered in front of them.
The wyvern let out a shrill, bone-rattling screech before soaring higher into the storm. Its slick green body shimmered faintly, then vanished from sight as the blizzard thickened around them—swallowed by white winds and swirling frost.
Above, the pale green daggers began to spin in a tight clockwise spiral. Heat surged from them in waves, the air distorting with pressure. They pulsed once—then with a piercing screech, they launched downward like meteor shards, hurtling toward the group.
Zay's violet aura burst forth in a radiant flare, forming a protective shield around him as he finally drew Evershade. Midnight-blue energy surged across the terrain, warping the world around them into a sphere of defensive aura shielding both him, and Naomi as they were close to each other at the time.
At the same time, dark pink energy pulsed from Naomi, her body enveloped in a smooth, seamless shield of aura.
Rei didn't move at first. He stood beneath the storm, eyes fixed on the falling blades. His grip tightened around his sword, breath slow and controlled.
"Rivers," he muttered.
In one smooth motion, he dropped into a stance, flames roaring across his blade. As the first dagger descended, he slashed upward to meet it.
Steel collided with steel, and the explosion of force cracked the air like thunder. The dagger wasn't just hot—it was heavy, pulsing with a compressed heat that defied its size. Rei grunted in surprise, sweat instantly forming across his brow as the impact rattled his arms. The flames along his sword flared violently as he fought to keep control.
A searing pain tore through his body. Gritting his teeth, he let out a strained shout, refusing to yield as blood from the cut in his arm began to open further. With a final roar, he twisted his stance and redirected the dagger's path, flinging it off to the side.
It struck the snow with a hiss, carving a crater and melting everything around it. The snow evaporated instantly, revealing scorched, steaming dirt beneath—already beginning to blacken from the residual heat.
Rei dropped to one knee, breath heavy, chest rising and falling as he stared at the glowing dagger embedded in the ground.
'If I...' he began before taking another breath, 'If I hadn't deflected that…' he thought grimly, eyes locked on the crater.
The rest of the daggers crashed down in a tight wave against the midnight-blue barrier conjured by Evershade. The aura shuddered, then pulsed outward with a hum. The moment each dagger touched the surface, it vanished into motes of dim light—erased entirely by the overwhelming density of Evershade's aura.
The wyvern flew overhead, its body shimmering back into view as a sickly, glowing green began to radiate from every inch of the creature's body. It began circling them high in the sky, and as it moved, a dark green trail of flame followed in its wake.
It completed a perfect loop before the trailing flames abruptly halted, hanging in the air like a ring of cursed fire. The beast soared into the center of the circle, hovering as the flames crackled and hissed, distorting the air around them with rising heat.
The wyvern hovered silently, its crimson eyes locked onto the group below. The circle of flames began to rotate counter-clockwise, slowly at first, but with a growing rhythm.
"What the hell is it doing?" Rei asked, narrowing his eyes at the spinning ring above. The flames spun seamlessly, melting the snow beneath them and pulsing with a deliberate, unnatural grace.
Flames erupted from the creature's eyes, casting streaks of fire into the wind. It tilted its head to the sky and beat its wings hard and fast, intensifying the spinning flames. The heat from the ring grew unbearable, now beginning to descend, falling toward the ground in a slow, suffocating wave.
Zay saw this and immediately sheathed Evershade. He turned and shouted, "Hurry up!" before bolting away through the snow.
Naomi spun around, dark pink aura bursting from her legs, and raced after him without hesitation.
Azure aura flared from Rei Alvor's legs, and he gripped his flaming katana tighter before charging after them, his boots kicking up snow with each stride.
After several seconds of running, Rei heard Zay's voice. He stopped and turned toward the sound, spotting a ruined stone house nearby. Zay's violet aura flared faintly at its entrance before fading, and Rei's own azure aura dimmed as the flames on his blade extinguished.
"I'm still not sure what that thing is trying to do," Rei said, approaching the ruined structure. His eyes scanned the crumbled walls and the descending curtain of green flame. The wyvern hovered motionless above, its wings still flapped, and its gaze fixed upward as crimson fire continued to burn from its eyes.
Zay sat against the inner wall of the ruined house, breathing hard. "It's a curse," he said flatly.
Rei stepped closer but could barely make out Zay's figure through the storm. Snow hammered down in thick waves, the wind howling loud enough to drown out footsteps.
"I know that much!" Rei shouted through the wind.
"Yeah, whatever! Just listen," Zay snapped back. "It's a special technique related to the Miles scorpion species. It's called Scraped. It's a final move—burns all the beast's remaining aura to flood the area with poison. Covers several hundred feet. But this one... this one's using flames instead. I'm guessing that's because of the wyvern fused into it."
Rei's brow furrowed. "That makes sense, but what about the green flames? Aren't wyvern flames usually red?"
"They are," Zay replied. He paused, frowning. "I think the human side of this thing had some kind of flame Seal or contract that changed the color. Maybe that's where the green comes from."
"So it's... a sort of hybrid curse?" Rei muttered, watching the sky.