The Primal Blood Demonic Dragon

The shriek of a malformed hawk-beast split the air, followed by a heavy thud as Jean’s massive arm swatted it out of the sky like a fly. A vine lashed out from her shoulder and speared the stunned creature to a nearby rock.

Mira was already redirecting the river she summoned midair, tendrils of water swirling like serpents, slamming into a swarm of corrupted monkeys that had begun to scale a cliff edge. Ice burst from their flesh as the water flash-froze on contact. They shattered like a plate of clay.

Gin panted heavily, paws dragging slightly across the forest floor as he tried to catch his breath. His silver-blue fur, blood red spots when he first awoke, was darkened further now by streaks of blood some not his but far too much that was. Gashes lined his side and across one flank, a fresh slash still seeping. His breathing came sharp, more ragged than before. The wounds wouldn’t close.

Not yet.

Not like this.

He moved again, forcing his body into another sprint, intercepting a mutated bear as it charged toward Xingning’s blind spot. He slammed into it shoulder-first, jaws catching the creature’s arm and twisting violently. Bones cracked. But the beast was heavier, bulkier corrupted muscles more twisted than they had any right to be. It swung its remaining paw into Gin’s ribs.

He was flung several meters and crashed against the trunk of a thick tree with a sharp yelp.

His vision spun.

Pain bloomed white-hot across his ribs but no time to check. Another beast was already on him. A wolf, like himself but bloated, its fur patchy and twisted by faded veins. Corrupted to the core.

Gin growled and lunged under it, his paw glowing faintly with wood-elemental energy. The forest responded, and from beneath them a root twisted free from the soil and speared through the enemy’s abdomen. The corrupted wolf thrashed, snarled and then went limp. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

He exhaled, hard.

His legs trembled.

Still, he stood.

And he watched.

From his lowered stance, Gin saw Xingning launch herself upward, her body propelled by wind coiled beneath her feet. She spiraled midair, drawing a crescent blade of air that sliced downward into a group of beasts. Her descent was soundless, and she landed in a crouch, eyes narrowed, breath steady.

No panic. No cursing. Just precision.

’You’ve grown’ Gin thought, unable to comprehend how did she improved to such degree.

He turned to Mira-Saira and saw her form a swirling sphere of water in one hand. With a cry, she launched it forward, and the sphere expanded into a crashing wave midair. It engulfed an entire flank of approaching beasts, lifting them, spinning them, tearing them apart. But what truly caught Gin’s eye wasn’t her power but it was the way she flicked her gaze around the field between attacks. Watching. Calculating. She even pivoted and barked at Jean to cover Alice’s flank when a beast detoured behind them.

Mira was like a new chasm to discover for him. He never knew her to be carful, though he still remember that time her roaming nearby while his constitution awakening.

He couldn’t help but wonder how much had changed while he was gone however long that really was.

But Jean, Jean was the wall.

She stood at the forward line, her bark-covered body cracking and groaning under the strain of so many blows. A corrupted ox with molten horns charged her, steam pouring from its flared nostrils. Jean caught it mid-charge, vines slamming down and locking its head. The impact drove her several feet back, gouging the earth beneath her. But she didn’t fall.

With a grunt, she pulled the beast’s head down, stomped on its neck with a heavy, mossy foot, and crushed it.

Her face formed of vines and glowing green energy showed no emotion. But Gin could feel the will. The unwavering spirit. Her role was clear. Shield. Hammer. Frontline.

Gin caught motion his eyes flicked toward the high ridge behind them.

Lucy remained still.

She stood with her hands folded on her bosom, eyes scanning every movement. Not even when a corrupted eagle nearly broke past the front line and veered toward her did she move. Jean had knocked it down mid-flight but Lucy hadn’t even blinked.

Always watching as Gin knew. She sees all of them... like they’re pieces in a puzzle.

Not cold but distant. Analytical.

Alice stood just behind her, closer to the ledge now, and Gin noticed again her eyes never left him. A beast passed near her earlier, wounded and flailing but she hadn’t looked away even then. Her lips moved softly, mouthing his name without speaking.

He didn’t understand her look.

Was it worry? Relief? longing? Something else entirely?

He didn’t know.

And still, the beasts kept coming.

From the sides now detouring, trying to encircle them. Not just head-on assault anymore.

Gin’s ears perked.

He heard it too late.

A cluster of smaller beasts, ferret-like with oversized claws and shrieking calls, had broken through a southern gap in their line. Mira was too far. Jean too occupied. Xingning already airborne again.

They were heading for Lucy and Alice.

Gin moved.

He launched forward, ignoring the pull of torn muscles and the fire in his limbs. He galloped low and fast, his wounded side scraping bark, his paws pounding with desperate urgency. His core energy flared not from a place of calm but of raw instinct.

He got there first.

Just as the lead beast leapt toward Lucy’s unguarded side, Gin threw himself sideways and knocked it out of the air mid-pounce. The two others followed and Gin spun, biting one’s leg and hurling it off the ledge before leaping to body-check the third.

They tumbled down a slope together.

Sharp rocks tore into Gin’s back as they rolled, and the beast clawed at his neck. Gin retaliated with a wood-infused snarl, roots bursting from his paws and wrapping around the attacker’s body like constricting snakes. The vines squeezed—snapping limbs before the corrupted creature finally stilled.

Gin stood, limping, blood running freely down one leg.

He looked up and Alice was standing over the slope now.

"...Gin" she said softly, voice melodious.

He blinked.

And in that moment, several thoughts struck him. None had time to settle. Not before another roar shook the earth.

A big creature emerged from the northern tree line. Towering. Covered in a patchwork of plates and corrupted scales. Its face was feline but with a wolf’s snout and two sets of glowing crimson eyes. Beasts parted before it as it moved, and corrupted essence bled from every pore.

It wasn’t just mutated. It was saturated.

Gin’s heart sank.

So did everyone else’s.

Jean turned to face it fully. Mira repositioned her water as shields. Xingning landed atop a boulder, already preparing a storm of cutting wind.

Gin forced himself upright and rejoined the others.

They fought together this time, not as fragments, but as a unit.

Mira kept water barriers up as the monster lunged, buying Jean time to intercept. Jean struck, fists of vine slamming into its jaw. It roared but retaliated quickly, biting into her arm and tearing off bark and vines.

Gin jumped in, biting its leg. His jaw vibrated with resistance, it was like biting metal.

Xingning’s blades sliced into the creature’s side, drawing gashes but it didn’t slow.

They surrounded it.

Moved in tandem.

Worked as one.

Even with blood in their mouths and fire in their lungs they fought. Toe-toe with each other.

For something Gin still couldn’t name.

It took minutes. Long, agonizing minutes filled with roars, bursts of elemental energy and bone-jarring impacts. But at last with a final coordinated strike Mira froze its limbs, Xingning shattered the ice with wind blades, Jean bound its head in vines and Gin tore through its exposed neck in one last desperate lunge.

It fell.

Heavy. Silent.

And the forest grew quiet again.

Only the ragged sound of breath remained.

Gin collapsed to his belly, exhausted. Bleeding.

And the question burned brighter than ever in his mind.

How long... how long was I really gone?

The others so different. Stronger. Sharper. Hardened.

He didn’t have the words. Not with this wolf-like maw.

But to nature, he wanted to ask.

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To Be Continued.