We were close.
Not close enough to relax—but close enough that the air felt different. Heavier. Like being influenced by barrier.
The academy wasn't visible yet, but we all felt it. Like standing near something massive just out of sight.
Then the jeep engine roared too loud.
I knew it the second it happened.
Kazim eased off the throttle, but it didn't matter. The sound echoed through the trees, rolling outward like an invitation.
And something answered.
A crash tore through the undergrowth behind us. Trees shook. Branches snapped like dry bones.
"Stop," Ren shouted. "Now!"
Kazim slammed the brakes.
We jumped out just as something burst from the forest.
It looked like a house lizard—if a house lizard had grown to the size of a truck. Six legs slammed into the ground, claws digging deep enough to leave trenches in the soil. Its skin was thick and scaled, dark green streaked with scars.
Its eyes glowed.
Not with intelligence.
With hunger.
"It heard us," Aira breathed.
The creature screeched and charged.
"We can't let this get near the academy," I said quickly. "If it keeps chasing—"
"It'll bring worse, our way" Kazim finished.
No one argued.
We split instinctively.
The creature lunged where I'd been standing a second earlier, jaws snapping shut on empty air. I dove behind a tree as its claws raked through bark, shredding it like paper.
Ren shouted. Aira's fire flared—but the creature barely reacted.
"It's not tracking heat!" Aira yelled.
"Then how is it seeing us?" Kazim fired, shots hitting its flank and bouncing uselessly off its hide.
I risked a glance.
The eyes.
They were bright—like sapphire. The creature's head jerked too far left, then too far right. It slammed into a tree, stunned for half a second.
"It can't see properly," I shouted. "Those eyes—they are weak!"
Ren didn't wait.
He moved from cover to cover, spear flashing when the creature overshot him. Aira used short bursts of flame—not to attack, but to distract, forcing it to turn too slowly.
I wrapped the chain tight around my arm.
No power.
Just weight. Timing. Cover.
The creature lunged again.
I stepped out from behind the tree and swung.
The axe didn't hit flesh.
It hit an eye.
The creature screamed—a horrible, tearing sound—and reared back, thrashing wildly. Ren took the opening and drove his spear upward into the second eye.
It collapsed.
Hard. The ground shook as its body went still.
Silence followed.
No one moved for a long second.
Then Aira laughed—short, breathless, almost disbelieving. "We didn't even get scratched."
"We used cover," Ren said. "It was blind. Strong—but blind."
Kazim nodded. "The first time we didn't just survive."
We cut the eyes free quickly—proof of the kill, and maybe something useful later. No one liked touching them. They were warm. Too warm.
We didn't linger.
The academy walls came into view not long after.
Massive. Smooth. Featureless in places, reinforced beyond reason. We slowed to a walk, circling the perimeter, searching for a gate, a weakness—anything.
That's when we heard footsteps.
Human.
A woman stood ahead of us, half-hidden in the shadow of the wall. She wasn't armed openly, but her posture said she didn't need to be.
Her eyes locked onto mine immediately.
"You," she said quietly. "Where did you get those blue stones?"
My chest tightened.
"Did you hunt," she continued. "The lizard."
The world narrowed to that sentence.
And somehow, I knew—
This wasn't a coincidence.