The Primal Blood Demonic Dragon

By dawn, the forest was awake long before the sun.

Mist clung to the undergrowth in delicate tendrils. Birds cawed overhead in tones too guttural and strange for any normal woods. Here, deep within the Verdant Fang region, the forest was alive in ways most mortals feared to learn. This was not the outer ring they’d grown accustomed to this was the more deeper layer, where power stirred in roots more than Basic Tier. Yet Lucy and Alice, tow non-fighters came so far just to search for one person.

The group moved in tight formation.

Saira walked at the front, her senses tuned to every shift in air pressure and every whisper of moisture. Her robes flowed behind her like a stream, trailing faint glints of water energy. Just behind her floated Xingning, barely touching the forest floor. Her long braid swayed with the winds she summoned around her, a silent buffer that scattered pollen and spores before they reached the group.

Jean was the group’s shield, her massive wooden form trailing vines that brushed against bark and moss as they passed. The Lightning Wolf padded to the left flank normally alert, ears perked and fur sparking faintly. But now and then, it slowed slightly, its head tilting toward distant rustles in the underbrush, or paused to sniff the air a little longer than usual.

Lucy and Alice remained near the rear, following at a cautious but steady pace. They didn’t talk much now. This part of the forest demanded silence. Even Lucy, whose usual default was commentary and planning, kept her mouth shut. Her hands hovered near the emergency whistle she wore around her neck, and Alice had already marked their routes with wooden sigils on nearby trees.

They were no longer playing at hunting. They were here because they had to be.

"Three ahead," Xingning murmured, her voice barely above a breath.

"Four," Saira corrected, eyes narrowing.

Jean paused mid-step, her vines already twitching with tension.

Then they came blurring figures bursting from the canopy, coated in black-blue fur and streaked with jagged patterns that looked like lightning bolts scorched into their hides. Beastmarks. Elite predators.

The air thickened immediately with oppressive elemental energy. One of the beasts howled, a sharp keening note that made Lucy wince and clutch her ears.

Jean surged forward.

Her massive arms slammed down on the first beast, vines whipping out like chains. The creature roared, dodged, slashed yet Jean was too large, too enduring. Her wooden hide shrugged off claws like paper. Still, the beast was fast, unnaturally so.

Saira shifted, her hands moving in elegant loops. The mist around her condensed rapidly into icy needles. With a gesture, she flung them forward. They struck truly piercing one of the beasts in mid-leap, sending it crashing to the ground in a slick trail of crimson and frost.

Xingning spun midair, a small cyclone forming beneath her.

"Stay grounded!" she shouted and unleashed a downward burst.

The blast sent dirt, leaves, and two beasts flying outward like toys. They slammed into trees with a crunch and crumpled but not entirely dead. These ones were tougher, faster, more intelligent. One was already rising, its eyes locked onto Alice in the back.

The Lightning Wolf blurred.

It vanished in a streak of violet light, reappeared with jaws clamped onto the beast’s throat, and twisted with a surge of voltage. The beast spasmed once, then went limp.

Alice gave a small nod, almost solemn. "Thanks."

But the Wolf didn’t respond.

It stared into the trees beyond them, ears low, fur bristling not with aggression, but confusion. Something unseen tugged at its attention. A pulse. A whisper. A call.

Then the next wave hit.

These beasts were armored scaly hides and reinforced skulls, claws that sparked against rock and tore through bark with ease. One came crashing through the trees straight toward Saira. She sidestepped, barely, a sheen of water trailing behind her like a curtain. The beast passed through it and immediately its momentum slowed. It was as though it were trying to run through a swamp.

Xingning capitalized.

She flipped, twisted in midair and dropped a pressure spike of wind into its back, folding it in half with a sickening crunch.

Jean roared and charged into another, body glowing with the soft emerald of wood element. Vines erupted in every direction, turning the terrain into a living trap. The beasts struggled, clawing at bindings, howling in rage but for every one that fell, two more came.

"They’re gathering." Saira muttered, hurling another blast of water that carved a trench through the soil. "This isn’t normal."

"They’re being driven" Jean rumbled. "guided."

Lightning Wolf bolted again leaping high and landing on a thick branch, its eyes scanning the forest. But again it paused. The world around it spun. For just a second, its legs trembled. Sparks fizzled out of its paws as its vision went white.

It shook its head, growled lowly, then forced itself back into motion.

Another beast a six-legged, tusked monstrosity charged from the group’s rear. Lucy shouted, backing up instinctively.

Saira turned mid-motion, water rising into a wall between them. But the beast was too strong. It punched through the wall with brute force.

The Lightning Wolf slammed into it from the side, pushing it off course.

The tusks scraped the Wolf’s flank, drawing blood but the beast went down.

The Wolf stood again fur crackling, blood dripping, eyes dimmer now. It tried to growl, but the sound caught in its throat.

Nobody noticed.

Jean and Xingning were battling a trio of camouflaged stalkers. Their hides shifted between colors, blending into the trees. But Jean’s vines moved like they had eyes of their own. Each time one of the beasts tried to ambush from behind, a root surged up and snared it.

Xingning’s winds had turned jagged now less graceful and more slicing. She spun like a dancer in war, cutting down anything that moved toward her.

Saira fought beside Alice now, both women working in tandem. Saira controlled the battlefield with walls, spikes, and traps of water and ice. Lucy pointed and marked threats, calling positions, feeding awareness to the front lines even without being able to fight.

They were holding the line but barely.

Yet still more came.

The Lightning Wolf growled and leapt again. But halfway through the motion, its vision blurred again. The air around it fizzled. Its body felt heavier, slower. It landed off-center, skidding across the dirt. A beast caught it with a clawed swipe across the shoulder. The wound sparked violently but didn’t stop it.

It struck back but now its movements were half a second too slow.

And still no one noticed for its odd angle.

They were too focused on surviving. Too overwhelmed.

Then finally Saira swept a wave of freezing water across the battlefield, slowing the final wave of attackers. Xingning rose into the air and released a wide-area burst of wind and scattered them.

Jean grabbed the largest surviving beast and slammed it into the dirt, vines pinning its throat.

The forest went quiet again.

The group stood breathing hard, clothes torn, blood trickling from small wounds. Jean stood guard. Saira walked a perimeter. Xingning landed near Lucy and Alice, her expression serious.

"Something’s pushing them," Xingning said. "There’s no way this was random."

"It’s not," Jean agreed. "These beasts were corrupted. All of them."

They began examining the fallen enemies, collecting cores, leaving marks on trees, trying to assess what might have drawn such a horde together.

The Lightning Wolf limped toward the group, panting. Sparks no longer danced from its fur. It paused halfway across the clearing, looked around and found no one watching.

It staggered slightly.

Its legs trembled again. The wind whispered. The light faded.

And then, for the first time since it had joined them

it collapsed.

No one saw.

No one heard the soft sound of a body hitting leaves.

No one noticed the way its eyes flickered shut, its breathing shallow, its energy dimming for just a moment as something deep inside it pulled away.

The forest creaked. The canopy rustled.

The others moved on, still gathering, still speaking.

The Lightning Wolf lay still.

Unconscious.

Alone

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To Be Continued.