Like a hunter waiting for their prey, Kai crouched in some dense bushes, covered in mud to mask his scent. He kept his breath steady as he strengthened his senses with magic and extended them into the forest.
Moonlight blanketed the world around him.
As still as a barn mouse, he waited for Shade's return.
The forest was silent, the usual hum of nocturnal creatures absent.
'I know this quiet all too well.'
Kai grew accustomed to such silences. Back home, animals avoided him instinctively, sensing the unnatural energy that lingered around him. Here, though, the animals of the first didn't fear him. They feared the things twisted by mana. The arcane creatures. The ones that hunted everything else.
The smell of metal reached Kai's nose, carried by the warm summer breeze through the forest. Something different from the dew on the leaves and the damp ground.
Fresh blood.
