The morning mist clung to the sanctuary walls like damp cloth, heavy with the smell of smoke and old blood. The faint shimmer of the barrier pulsed quietly, like the heartbeat of something alive. Inside, the group stood gathered in uneasy silence.
"We're wasting time," Marcus growled, hefting his hammer. "If the beasts mutate in hours, every second counts."
Ethan met his glare, jaw tight. "Agreed. But we're not rushing blind. Everyone who goes today has to come back stronger." His gaze swept over the group. "That means Caleb. Lena. And yes—" his eyes softened on the youngest of them, "—Jamie too."
Tina flinched. "No. Not him. He's a child—"
"He's part of this world now," Marcus interrupted, voice hard. "Better he learns while we're here to cover him than die when we're not."
Jamie's knuckles whitened around the short blade Marcus had given him. He was pale, trembling, but his chin was set with a determination beyond his years. "I'll go," he whispered.
Tina's lips pressed tight. She bent down, kissed his forehead, and whispered something only he heard.
"I'll stay with him," Maya offered quickly, voice thin. "If you're forcing him out there, then—"
"No," Ethan cut in. "You and Tina hold the sanctuary. If something slips through the barrier or survivors show up, you'll keep this place standing. You're our second line."
Maya looked stung but nodded. Tina said nothing, only hugged Jamie fiercely before letting him go.
Ethan's silver threads itched under his skin. He looked at the eight who would leave: Marcus, Kira, Keith with his lion and tiger, Ellie with her two dogs, Caleb clutching a scavenged spear, Lena with a fire axe, and Jamie, barely taller than the blade he carried.
"All right," Ethan said at last. "Let's hunt."
---
They moved through ruined streets, glass crunching underfoot, the silence broken only by distant groans of wandering mutants. Their eyes darted constantly toward shadows, nerves taut as bowstrings.
It didn't take long.
A lone mutant staggered from a gutted shopfront, its flesh sagging in patches, eyes glowing faintly with pale hunger.
Marcus slammed forward, hammer swinging, and sent it sprawling onto broken asphalt. Before it could rise, Ethan's silver threads lashed out, pinning its limbs to the ground.
Jamie froze.
"This one's yours," Marcus barked.
Jamie's eyes widened. "Me?"
"Yes, you," Marcus snapped. "Do it now, or next time one tears your throat out."
Jamie's breath came in ragged bursts. Ethan knelt beside him, gripping his shoulder firmly. "You can do this. We're right here. It won't touch you again."
Jamie raised the blade with trembling hands, shut his eyes, and drove it down into the mutant's chest. The creature shuddered, hissed — then dissolved into ash.
For a heartbeat, silence hung heavy. Then a faint shimmer rippled across Jamie's vision.
[Level Up.]
Jamie gasped, lowering the blade with shaking hands. "I… I did it."
Marcus grunted approval. Ethan ruffled the boy's hair gently. "Good. That's one. There'll be more."
---
Further down the street, they found three more mutants prowling near an overturned bus.
Keith gestured to his lion, which pounced, slamming one mutant down in a snarl of claws and teeth. His tiger swept another aside. Marcus crushed the last one's legs with a swing of his hammer.
Ethan's threads coiled tight around them, holding the creatures in place. "Now," he ordered. "Caleb. Lena. Your turn."
Caleb's knuckles whitened around his spear. "I—I can't—"
"Yes you can!" Marcus roared, shoving him forward.
The mutant snarled, straining against Ethan's threads. Caleb's hands shook violently, but at the last second he thrust the spear forward, jabbing it through the creature's chest. It wailed and fell still, turning to ash beneath him.
A shimmer crossed his eyes. [Level Up.]
Lena stepped up without hesitation. Raising the fire axe, she swung down hard, cleaving into the second mutant's skull. Blood spattered across her cheek, but her gaze was steady.
[Level Up.]
Her breath came ragged but determined. "I'll do it again."
Caleb, pale and sweating, stared at his hands. "It… it only counts if we finish them. The system doesn't reward damage. Just the kill."
"Then you'd better get used to it," Marcus growled.
---
The pattern repeated as they moved deeper into the city. Mutants were stalked, disabled, and held down while the weaker members delivered final blows. Marcus dragged bodies into reach, Keith's beasts tore legs from under them, Ellie's husky and Alsatian guarded her flanks with low, wary growls.
Caleb began muttering even through the fear. "If it's about kill credit, then efficiency isn't in wounding. It's in restraint. Immobilize, exhaust essence sparingly, then—"
"Shut up," Marcus barked, swinging his hammer. "Less theory, more stabbing."
But Ethan filed the observation away. Caleb was right. If the system only rewarded the last strike, their strategy had to change.
---
They reached a collapsed shopping district, the air thick with rot. Glass littered the pavement, reflecting the glow of their barrier lamps.
That's when the shadows moved.
Mutants poured from broken doorways, clawing over rubble, a dozen at least. Too many.
"Circle!" Ethan shouted.
Marcus braced in the front, hammer swinging in brutal arcs. Keith's lion and tiger roared, tearing into the first wave with teeth and claws. Ellie's husky lunged low, biting and dragging one creature off balance, while the Alsatian held the line beside her, snarling fiercely.
Kira blurred, vanishing and reappearing like smoke, blades flashing as she cut through necks and tendons.
Ethan's threads lashed outward, binding two at once. Essence burned from his veins, his vision dimming with the strain. When Keith's lion took a gash along its flank, Ethan snapped a thread free and healed it mid-battle, gasping as his essence bar plummeted further.
"Caleb! Lena! Now!" Ethan barked.
The two rushed forward, weapons trembling. Caleb thrust his spear into the chest of a restrained mutant, crying out as blood splattered across him. Lena hacked viciously into another's neck, panting hard as it collapsed into ash.
Jamie screamed as a mutant lunged for him — only for Marcus to intercept, slamming his hammer down and holding it fast. "Kill it!" he bellowed.
The boy, pale as bone, drove his blade forward again and again until the creature stilled. [Level Up.] shimmered in his vision once more.
By the time the last mutant fell, they were heaving for breath, the street littered with corpses dissolving into essence ash.
---
As the largest of the mutants crumbled, something clattered to the ground. A pair of curved daggers, sleek and black, their edges shimmering faintly with a dark glow.
Kira's eyes snapped to them. Slowly, she picked them up.
[Specter's Fang – Bound Twin Daggers.]
Essence-linked weapons. Wielded together, they enhance speed and create lingering afterimages. Compatible with Phantom-class abilities.
She twirled them experimentally. They blurred, leaving faint silver shadows trailing in the air. A smile ghosted across her lips — the first genuine one since the nightmare began.
"Looks like the system likes me," she murmured.
Marcus grunted. "Or you just got lucky."
Caleb was already taking notes. "So loot drops are real… unique items, class-linked… this changes everything—"
"Shut it," Kira said, but there was no venom in her voice. She slid the daggers into her belt, eyes gleaming faintly.
---
Ellie stood apart, breathing hard. Her dogs pressed close to her legs, their bodies trembling — not from fear, but from something else.
The system's hum brushed against her mind.
[Ellie – Evolution Path Unlocked: Beast Elemental]
The bond between tamer and beast deepens beyond instinct.
Your bonded beasts evolve with you, attuning to elements that reflect their nature — or your will.
Her pulse raced as she read the glowing words.
The husky's eyes gleamed faint blue, mist curling from its muzzle. Water shimmered beneath its paws — rippling, freezing, melting again.
The Alsatian rumbled, fur bristling as a faint green haze coiled around its frame, venomous and alive.
"Choose," the voice whispered.
Ellie knelt, placing her hands on both their heads. "Ice for you," she whispered to the husky. "Poison for you."
Light erupted.
The husky's fur turned silvery-white, each breath forming a frost mist that sparkled in the air. The Alsatian's body pulsed faintly with deep jade veins, the air around it shimmering with a toxic heat-haze. Silver and green light flared across Ellie's arms, threading into markings that pulsed with her heartbeat.
Her voice trembled, awed. "They're stronger… and still mine."
Keith's lion gave a low rumble, and even he nodded in respect. "That's not mastery," he said softly. "That's kinship."
Ethan smiled faintly, exhausted but proud. "And it suits her."
---
The group slumped against the rubble, catching their breath. Caleb and Lena stared at their hands, both trembling but alive. Jamie sat quietly, blade in his lap, his face pale but his eyes fierce.
Ethan swallowed hard, watching them all. They were bloodied, exhausted, but undeniably stronger than they had been when they left.
Then the system's voice rolled across their vision.
[Global Countdown: 2 hours remaining until beast mutation.]
The words chilled Ethan to his bones.
Keith, standing at the edge of the group, stared toward the dark silhouette of the zoo in the distance. His eyes burned with a feral light.
"They're still in there," he said quietly. "My animals. If we're going to save them, now's the only chance."
Ethan's silver threads pulsed faintly. He met Keith's gaze, and nodded once.
"Then we make it count."