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The bunny girl’s jaw clenched, Her voice barely escaped: "Savage clan..."
Kai’s fingers brushed the haft of his spear. "We’re not prey. Step aside."
The scarred doe only smiled wider, head tilting slightly as if savoring his confidence. She spoke in thick accent again.
"Where is the pool? We sll it on your breath. Tell Now."
A flicker of heat snapped down Kai’s spine. Before he could speak, the clouds above cracked, lightning split the sky, a single fork arcing from the spiral eye of the cyclone.
The blast hit a nearby stone ledge, illuminating everything in a blinding flash.
Savage Clan rabbits. Weapons drawn, lean muscles tense. Kai’s team. Smaller. Focused. Ready. And the dried pool basin now just stone, glead like a mirror to another world.
Silence, save for the thunder’s aftershock.
Then the scarred doe growled, licking her teeth. "Lie again... I will feed on your at."
Kai stepped forward, spear-point glinting. "Try ."
Another growl rose. The Savage rabbits tensed... But sothing in Kai’s stance made even the bravest hesitate.
His aura flared,not fully Ant... Sothing more. A monarch’s aura.
The scarred doe narrowed her eye. Her instincts scread caution. A thread of predatory intuition held her back.
"Clan-leader scent... not prey," she muttered. Then she spit at the ground and whirled away. "We will kill and feast on you."
Only the silent ruins remained.
Lightning stitched the sky again as the savage rabbit clan leader commanded, "Tear them!" Black-furred rabbits lunged all at once, claws flashing silver.
Kai t the rush head-on. He charged at the savage rabbit leader. She was a five star rank. The strongest of them all.
His spear whirled, haft cracking skull and rib; Shadeclaw blurred past him in a streak of glassy claws, severing a raider’s wrist in a single sweep; Skyweaver vaulted overhead, scattering illusion dust that birthed phantom duplicates, buying heartbeats of confusion.
Stone Ram lowered his huge head and ramd, tusks punching a pair of bucks clear off the ledge. Iron Rampant braced beside him, tusks crossing to cage the sled where Luna knelt with Miryam clutched tight.
But the rabbits fought like they were insane. Their blades curved inward to catch flesh and tear.
Tunnel Crown slamd rune-stakes into the rock, triggering a stinglet grid that erupted in a ring of crimson sparks. Three rabbits fell twitching, but others vaulted the line, so crazed by hunger they never felt the burn.
Heart Mason hurled gel vials; detonations of dull green smoke choked the closest attackers. For a breath the onslaught slowed.
Then everything shook. A roar like mountains shearing in half rolled up from the basin.
All eyes turned.
A stone monolith split; molten essence spurted, and from that wound the guardian rose: a six-star nightmare of fused beasts, wolf skulls, serpent coils, hawk talons, its body swirling with trapped souls that wailed in overlapping voices.
Far below, twin flares, green and silver split the gloom. Dawn-Blade and Shadow-Talon poked out the guardian. Now they fled along the cliff shadows, tiny sparks against the enormity of the thing they’d unleashed.
The guardian’s first gaze locked on Kai’s ledge, drawn by the still warm scent of stolen essence.
The Savage rabbits leader saw an opportunity.
"Finish the hatchling! That one gives a chill." the scarred doe shrieked, voice cracking with sudden zeal.
A four star rank female rabbit hurled a bone spear directly at Luna.
Stone Ram blocked it but the blow snapped his tusk at the root. He bellowed, staggered. In that instant a rabbit blade slashed his hamstring; he dropped, still shielding Luna and Miryam with his bulk.
Iron Rampant roared and stepped over his twin, tusks glittering, but three black rabbits leapt onto his back. Blades flashed. Blood hissed. The big boar slamd one attacker into stone, yet another plunged a dirk into the gap behind his ear-plate. Iron Rampant shuddered, then fell beside his brother.
Luna scread; Miryam cried out in her sleep, tiny runes flaring, too weak to save her guardians. She felt everything.
Tunnel Crown charged, mandibles wide. He tore one two star rank rabbit in half but the guardian’s shadow fell across him. A claw of molten bone lashed down, pinning him like an insect. His eyes t Kai’s for a heartbeat then the claw pressed. The stone cracked. Tunnel Crown was gone.
Heart Mason sprinted for Miryam with one last vial in hand, a surge-dampener ant for the wyrmling but a four star rank rabbit threw a hooked chain. It looped his neck, yanked him backward into three waiting blades. The vial shattered uselessly on the ground.
Kai’s squad, a family forged in siege and storm, was dying around him.
Shadeclaw bled from three slashes across his flank but fought on, fending off two rabbits that tried to reach Miryam. Skyweaver’s illusions flickered, wings torn, but she dove again and again, claws raking eyes, dust blurring lines.
Kai’s heart beca iron.
He turned to Luna. "Run up to the Vein Gate shaft. Skyweaver will cover. Shadeclaw, guard them."
"But—" Luna choked, tears tracking silver on her cheeks.
"Go!"
She clutched Miryam, bolted up the ridge. Skyweaver swooped after, scattering dust that made three rabbits swing at phantom foes. Shadeclaw fell in beside them, blood painting his chitin, but his eyes blazed.
The guardian shifted, many faces turning. It sensed the hatchling’s power, devourer scent. It reared, gathering an orb of liquid essence in its central maw.
The scarred doe shrieked triumph. "Yes! Feast, leave their scraps for us!" She and her remaining clan surged to flank the beast, ready to salvage whatever remained.
Kai stepped forward alone.
His squad was broken. His loyal subordinates Stone Ram, Iron Rampant, Tunnel Crown, Heart Mason, lay still on the ground.
The guardian’s essence orb swelled, crackling violet arc-lines, aid squarely at the fleeing trio, Miryam its true lure.
Sothing inside Kai split. Not fear. Sothing hotter.
His Monarch aura erupted, crimson threads spiraling into a storm around his fra. The air shimred, runes flared, spear blade keened. Even the savage rabbits paused mid-charge, hackles rising at the sudden pressure.
The guardian fired.
Kai moved.
One step, soundless. Two, faster than thought. Crimson light carved the dust underfoot, his rage fueling the Devourer Brand to a pitch he had never risked.
He swung his spear.
The world turned white.
Lightning t crimson steel.
Thunder slamd the basin.
The essence bolt split around him, shearing cliffs, vaporizing three rabbits where they stood but Miryam, Luna, Skyweaver, and Shadeclaw were untouched.
Smoke cleared.
Kai stood unmoved, spear smoking, eyes burning like twin red suns. The guardian drew back, it was confused, a three star rank showing hunger greater than its own.
Rabbits wavered, sensing the tide turn.
Kai spoke, each word an iron verdict: "You took my boars. My mason. My crown digger. You threatened my daughter."
He raised his spear, aura thrumming like a heart too big for flesh. "I am the Devourer Monarch. Now, feel my hunger."
The storm overhead rumbled, lightning spider-webbing into a sigil that mirrored the crimson crown he had seen in his vision. Beside it on the right side was the titan plate and on the left side the void mandible crowns. The crimson crown was in the middle. Three of the crowns started to rge into sothing sinister, sothing that could destroy the world. Suddenly, a voice inside his head.
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