The desert had beco quiet again. Too quiet. Blood soaked the sands outside Senkeht while the corpses of the Rock Lions lay scattered everywhere like discarded dolls. Broken bodies. Crushed skulls. Petrified remains.
The sll of blood drifted heavily through the hot air. In the middle of it stood Bahamut and Gabi.
Gabi slowly looked around the battlefield again.
"We overdid it."
Bahamut shrugged casually while rolling his shoulders.
"They attacked first."
"That is not the point."
"You’re becoming soft."
"I petrified three beasts from the inside!"
"And?"
Gabi opened his mouth and closed it again, because sohow... Bahamut genuinely didn’t see the problem.
Up on the walls, Forta and his warriors still remained silent. Several of them looked pale. Others looked disturbed. A few stared at Bahamut as if questioning whether he was even human. Because what kind of Tier 2 physically overpowered beasts that large without properly using elents? What kind of monster ripped apart Rock Lions with bare hands?
Well, he wasn’t a human to begin with, but didn’t have to know that...
Bahamut bent his knees slightly.
BOOOOOM!
The wall trembled violently. Before anyone realized what happened, Bahamut had already launched upward. The movent was explosive. The air cracked behind him while sand erupted below from the sheer force of the jump. He rose rapidly through the air toward the top of the massive wall. His black-red armor glead beneath the sunlight while his golden eagle eyes glowed sharply. It looked less like jumping and more like a missile being launched.
Gabi panicked imdiately.
"Wait for !"
BOOOOM!
He jumped too. It wasn’t nearly as explosive as Bahamut, but still enough to leave a crater where he had stood monts earlier. The warriors atop the walls instinctively stepped backward as both figures ascended rapidly toward them.
THOOM!
Bahamut landed smoothly atop the wall. A mont later... Gabi landed beside him less gracefully, nearly slipping before regaining balance awkwardly.
"I hate jumping," he muttered.
The warriors stared, still speechless. Even Forta’s sharp gaze carried visible shock now, because jumping back up a wall this high without elental propulsion... required monstrous physical strength.
Sel looked at Bahamut blankly. Exildra looked unsurprised. Lily smiled proudly. Alana practically sparkled with excitent. But as usual, Ren gave the comnts.
"Show off." The bunny crossed his fluffy arms dramatically while sitting atop the battlent.
"Could’ve just used the gates like civilized people."
Several warriors blinked slowly, looked toward Ren, and back toward Ren again. The bunny... Spoke.
"Did the rabbit just talk?"
"No."
"I heard it too."
"What in the gods’ nas..."
One warrior even rubbed his eyes. anwhile Ren looked offended.
"The disrespect is crazy."
"I’m clearly more handso and intelligent than half of you."
Nobody answered, mostly because their brains had stopped functioning properly several minutes ago. Bahamut ignored them all. His golden eyes slowly returned to grey as he tied the blindfold back over them calmly.
Then... it happened.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!
The roar exploded across the desert. Everything shook violently. The walls trembled. The air itself compressed. But unlike before, this ti everyone understood it perfectly.
The aning carried within the roar beca horrifyingly clear.
"That was good."
Silence. A cold silence gripped the wall. Forta’s expression changed imdiately. Several warriors paled because that realization was far worse than the roar itself. The beast was intelligent. Not rely intelligent: It was watching, observing, and judging.
And just now... It had praised them.
Bahamut slowly lifted his head toward the distant desert. A grin spread across his face, but this ti even Sel looked uneasy, because the roar had carried emotion. Amusent. The beast was amused.
Gabi swallowed hard.
"It sent those lions just to test us."
"Yes," Sel answered quietly. "And now it knows."
Forta’s fists tightened beneath his robes. Everything suddenly made sense now: the weaker attacks, the organized waves, the pauses, the observation... This was not random beast aggression. Sothing out there was controlling the battlefield itself, playing with them, and studying them. It was preparing for an attack that they could not recover from.
Then another realization struck everyone simultaneously. If those Rock Lions were only a test. Then what would the real attack look like? The danger level of the entire situation skyrocketed instantly.
...
That night, Senkeht was restless. No music played, no laughter echoed through the streets. Even the town center, usually filled with noise after surviving a beast attack, remained subdued. People whispered instead of speaking. Doors stayed shut. Windows remained covered. Fear had settled over the town completely. And the reason was simple... the beast had spoken.
Just rembering the aning hidden within the roar was enough to send chills down the spine. It ant the creature was watching and enjoying itself. That was far worse than mindless destruction.
Inside the residence given to Bahamut’s group, silence also ruled. The candles burned softly. The cool desert wind drifted through the slightly opened windows, carrying sand and tension with it. Bahamut lay on the large bed with Lily curled against his left side while Exildra rested against his right. Alana practically slept on top of him, her head on his chest and her arm wrapped around his waist possessively.
Normally, the warmth would have relaxed him, but tonight... His eyes remained open beneath the darkness, fixed on the ceiling. He was certain now: the beast knew him. The mont the roar echoed earlier, he had felt it clearly. A connection.
It was difficult to explain. The feeling resembled standing before sothing familiar despite never having t it before, as if recognizing a face from a forgotten dream. And the worst part? The connection went both ways. Bahamut was almost certain the beast had felt him, too.
His fingers slowly tightened against the blanket.
What exactly was that thing?
Beside him, Exildra shifted slightly.
"You’re thinking too loudly."
Bahamut blinked before turning slightly toward her. Her golden eye was half-open beneath the dim candlelight, watching him sleepily.
"You can hear thoughts now?" he asked quietly.
"No," she muttered softly. "You just beco very stiff when you’re troubled."
Alana mumbled sothing incoherent in her sleep and tightened her grip around him further. Lily’s tail twitched softly against his leg.
"That beast..." Bahamut finally muttered.
Exildra’s expression sharpened slightly.
"You felt it too?"
That made him pause.
"So it wasn’t only ."
Exildra slowly sat up against the headboard, her golden hair falling over her shoulders.
"The mont it roared earlier, my eyes reacted."
Bahamut frowned.
"Your Seer abilities?"
She nodded slowly.
"I saw fragnts."
"What fragnts?"
Exildra went silent briefly. She looked genuinely disturbed.
"Chains."
Bahamut’s expression darkened.
"Chains?"
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