Chapter 27: The Boy the Beast Saw
For a moment, no one understood what was happening.
The corrupted beast had been surrounded by the strongest warriors on the field. Kalen Owase stood ready to strike again, Tarek Mensah's iron storm hovered in the air, and Elder Nasha had already begun drawing strength from the ground for another binding.
Yet the monster ignored all of them.
Its burning red eyes were locked on a single figure.
Aren.
The beast lowered its massive head and charged.
The earth shook under its weight.
Dust and sparks burst into the air as it crashed through the broken remains of a wooden fence, moving with terrifying speed.
"Aren!" someone shouted.
The students scattered instinctively.
Amara grabbed Bram by the sleeve and yanked him backward. Niko and Kala Kwofie dove aside as the monster thundered past them.
But Aren didn't move.
For a heartbeat, his body simply refused.
The whispers in his mind had exploded into a storm.
They weren't quiet murmurs anymore.
They were loud.
Overlapping.
Urgent.
Not words exactly.
More like fragments of meaning pushing against his thoughts.
Danger.
Wrong.
Broken spirit.
Aren's chest tightened as he stared at the charging beast.
He could see it clearly now.
Not just the massive horns.
Not just the glowing red eyes.
But the darkness beneath its skin.
Something inside the creature twisted and pulsed like a parasite clinging to its soul.
That was what the whispers were reacting to.
That was what they hated.
The beast roared again, raising one claw high as it closed the distance.
"Aren, move!" Jaro shouted.
Still Aren stood frozen.
Not out of courage.
Not out of bravery.
Out of confusion.
Because the whispers suddenly shifted.
Instead of warning him—
They pulled him forward.
The feeling was strange.
Like invisible hands guiding his thoughts.
Aren lifted his arm slightly without realizing it.
The moment felt stretched, fragile.
Then something moved between them.
A black shape slammed into the corrupted beast from the side.
Kalen Owase.
The enormous wolf crashed into the creature with brutal force, knocking its attack off course. The two monsters rolled violently across the dirt, tearing up chunks of earth as they struggled.
The claw meant for Aren instead ripped through a wooden cart, shattering it into splinters.
"Aren!" Amara grabbed his shoulder and pulled him backward.
"What were you doing?!" she demanded.
Aren blinked, his mind still spinning.
"I… I don't know."
Nearby, Kairo had already forced himself back into his feet.
His ribs screamed in protest, but he ignored the pain.
Seeing the beast charge toward Aren had sent something hot and furious through his chest.
He shifted again, fur spreading across his arms as his body partially transformed.
"You don't get to walk into my fight," he growled.
With a burst of speed, Kairo launched himself back toward the battlefield.
Meanwhile the corrupted beast shoved Kalen away with a powerful swing of its horns.
The black wolf slid across the ground but quickly regained his stance.
This time, Kalen's eyes narrowed.
He had seen it.
The moment the beast chose its target.
"…Why that boy?" he muttered.
The creature snarled again, trying to push past him toward the students.
But now the other warriors had closed in.
Tarek Mensah lowered both hands sharply.
The iron storm fell.
Metal shards struck the monster's legs, forcing it to slow.
At the same moment, Elder Nasha slammed her staff into the ground again.
This time the earth erupted more violently.
Thick roots burst upward and wrapped tightly around the beast's limbs, dragging it partially to the ground.
The creature roared in fury.
Kalen didn't hesitate.
The massive wolf lunged forward one final time, his jaws clamping down at the base of the beast's neck.
The bite was brutal.
Powerful.
This time, something inside the corrupted creature finally broke.
The monster collapsed heavily into the dirt.
Its roars faded into ragged, dying breaths.
For a moment, the battlefield went silent.
The remaining smaller beasts scattered quickly, fleeing back into the dark savannah now that their leader had fallen.
Smoke drifted slowly through the ruined village.
Crackling fires were the only sound left.
Kalen stepped back from the corpse and shifted out of his beast form.
His human shape returned slowly, leaving him standing shirtless in the firelight, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath.
Tarek Mensah approached the fallen monster cautiously.
He crouched beside its massive body.
"…Look at this," he said.
Several of the warriors gathered around.
Dark veins spread across the beast's skin, pulsing faintly even in death.
Tarek carefully pressed his hand against the creature's chest.
His fingers stopped.
Something hard was embedded there beneath the flesh.
With a controlled motion, he bent a small blade of metal from the ground and sliced the skin open.
Inside the wound—
A jagged black crystal fragment rested near the beast's heart.
The warriors stared at it in uneasy silence.
Elder Nasha's voice was barely a whisper.
"That… shouldn't exist anymore."
Master Ilyara's expression had grown very still.
Far behind them, Aren watched from the edge of the battlefield.
The whispers in his mind had finally quieted.
But the feeling they left behind remained.
A deep, uneasy certainty.
Whatever had driven that beast tonight…
It wasn't finished.
And somewhere beyond the darkness of the savannah—
Something had noticed him.