Chapter 32: Lyndwyrm Alpha

The goats traveled fast. Genuinely fast. Kren found himself wondering whether he could take a few back to Lasthold for breeding stock — not only were they absurdly quick, he could feel the sheer sturdiness of them beneath him. Compared to the horses lost to inner-beast poison during the Ale ambush, these were leagues better mounts. More nimble too, which, given their sheer bulk, said quite a lot.

They reached the ridge quickly, cresting over it to reveal the opening of a valley below.

The valley curved along the base of the mountains, bending around the slope at an angle before vanishing behind the peak in a trail of soft grass and dense vegetation. It looked almost unnaturally beautiful, the kind of landscape that seemed too deliberate to be wild. Not far from the ridge sat an outpost built flush against the mountainside — a cave mouth behind it, fronted by nothing more than a wooden palisade and two modest watchtowers.

As far as defenses went, it was flimsy at best. Kren doubted it would slow the Lyndwyrms down for long — worse, if the beasts angled their glide correctly, they could drop straight into the camp without ever touching the wall. Still, the camp was standing, which meant someone here had found a way to survive this long regardless.

*SCREEEEEEEE!*

A piercing shriek split the air. Kren turned just in time to see a Lyndwyrm plunging straight toward him, and grunted as he flicked his right hand upward without so much as glancing behind him.

[Spirit of the East Wind]

The familiar spinning disc of wind tore free of his hand with a vengeful shriek of its own. The Lyndwyrm recognized the danger a heartbeat too late, banking hard to the side — enough to save its life, but not its wing, which shredded apart as the disc expanded mid-flight and caught two more Lyndwyrms trailing behind it. The air filled with the wet sound of flesh parting and bone grinding, a fine spray of blood and entrails following in its wake.

The first Lyndwyrm crashed down behind them, wingless, its mournful howl rising into the sky. Ruhu twisted around on the back of the goat carrying him toward the outpost, perfectly balanced despite the creature’s full gallop, and pointed back toward the ridge, where another cluster of Lyndwyrms descended low, seconds from clearing the crest.

[Spike Forest]

Aura bloomed off him in waves thick enough to unsettle Kren where he sat. He had to remind himself that Aki, Bernice, and Ruhu had all once stood at the fourth realm of cultivation before the crest’s loss — Beast Manifestation. Ten years had dragged their cultivation back down to mere Beastform, but the raw power beneath that limitation remained, along with every art and spell they’d mastered in their prime. And Ruhu, it seemed, had kept a particularly nasty one.

The earth convulsed violently as massive stone spikes erupted upward in a jagged formation, each one taller than the last. By the time the spell finished running its course, dozens of descending Lyndwyrms hung impaled along the spikes, their bodies raised into the air like some grotesque gallery exhibit. Kren shot Ruhu a raised eyebrow. The Snow Leopard-kin only shrugged, a mischievous grin spreading across his face before he settled calmly back onto his mount.

He was among the first through the outpost gates. Kren and the rest followed close behind, Ruhu’s spell having bought them exactly the window they needed, leaving a field of fallen Lyndwyrms in their wake. Kren’s goat skidded to a stop in front of the cave mouth. Inside the outpost walls, dozens of tents stood scattered and mostly abandoned, their occupants clearly having fled ahead of the current onslaught.

Kren dropped down from the saddle, ignoring the startled looks from Pina and Jomin. It wasn’t only them — most of the outpost had just watched the display he and his party put on coming down the ridge and through the valley.

"Close the gates! Close the gates!" Pina barked the order as she dismounted with practiced ease, leaving Jomin to work out his own landing. Kren raised an eyebrow as she strode toward him, but his attention snapped elsewhere when a powerful screech tore across the sky. He looked up just as a shadow swallowed the entire outpost whole, and felt his eyes narrow to pinpricks at what he saw.

The Lyndwyrm casting that shadow was the true, proper size the legends described — jaw to tail, the beast measured well over thirty feet. Dull grey scales overlapped its massive bulk, somehow drinking in the sunlight and dimming everything around it at once. Two curved horns spiraled off its skull, and a thin trail of noxious green breath leaked from its jaws as it dove, its descent announced by a shrill, falling whistle.

"Retreat into the caves!" Pina shouted, grabbing Kren hard by the arm — an act that immediately twisted Fima’s expression into a scowl, the Margay woman already striding toward them.

"You." Pina said, rounding on Kren directly. "Can you slow it down? Long enough for everyone to clear out? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Slay the beast, win the husband prize?" Kren found himself almost admiring the sheer nerve of the question.

"Well? Mr. King. Get to slaying."

She was already moving away, heading for the cave as people streamed past them in every direction, tents abandoned in the mad scramble to outrun the thing bearing down on them. Kren genuinely didn’t know if they stood a chance against it — but maybe this was exactly the opening he needed. A chance to show these Storm Eagles what he was capable of, and more importantly, a chance to gauge exactly where he stood against something like this. He opened his mouth to start barking orders, only to feel Aki’s arms close around his midsection.

Before Kren could so much as blink, the White Cat had scooped him up in one arm and Fima in the other. Ruhu grabbed Toa, and — somewhat to everyone’s surprise — a startled Jomin, his dog barking furiously the entire way. Kren watched in open disbelief as Aki simply ran past Pina and the rest of the fleeing crowd, carrying them straight into the welcoming dark of the cave. ℴ

Once Aki and Ruhu finally set the younger members of the group down, Kren could only stare at his old mentor in shock. "Aki?"

"If we weren’t standing in front of an audience, I would smack you across the back of the skull. How foolish does a man have to be to throw strategy out the window because some sharp-tongued girl batted her eyes at him? That thing out there is a fully-realized Beast Manifestation Lyndwyrm. Which means Ruhu and I, even at our peak, could not kill it without real planning and proper rest behind us."

"Of course you’ll order us out there to fight. And of course we’ll say no. But this isn’t what I spent years teaching you. You never walk into a fight without an absolute, ironclad guarantee of victory. Facing that thing right now is suicide, plain and simple. Do you understand me?" There was a hard edge to every word. Kren could only nod, grudging as it was — Aki wasn’t wrong.

That was the moment Pina sprinted in, and the ground shook. Hard enough that Kren felt it ripple through his own [True Earth Resonance], the vibration rattling through him with brutal clarity — he, more than anyone present, felt the full, staggering weight of whatever had just touched down outside. The shockwave of the Lyndwyrm’s landing knocked nearly everyone off their feet, sparing only Ruhu, Aki, and Kren, still held upright in Aki’s grip. He glanced sideways to see Fima and Toa already scrambling back to standing before turning his attention to the monster now looming just beyond the cave mouth.

"Help me!"

The voice belonged to one of Jomin’s servants — Kren recognized him instantly. The same man who’d once argued that Jomin should have left them to die to the Lyndwyrms rather than risk outsiders in the storm mountains. Somehow, in the chaos of the retreat, he’d been left behind.

Kren didn’t look away as the Lyndwyrm’s forelimb snapped out, snatched the man clean off the ground, and flung him skyward.

"ARGHHHHHH!"

His scream tore through the air with a clarity sharp enough to settle deep in Kren’s bones. The Lyndwyrm tracked him with eyes far too intelligent for a mere beast, watching him tumble helplessly through the air before dropping, unerring, straight into its waiting jaws. Those massive jaws snapped shut with a single, final crunch.

It chewed. Slowly. The man’s screams cut off mid-breath, swallowed by the wet, grinding crunch of the Lyndwyrm’s bite. Its gaze never left Kren the entire time, even as Pina barked orders to seal the cave entrance behind them, iron gates gleaming faintly under the late-morning light. Then the Lyndwyrm roared — straight at him, the full weight of its bloodline behind the sound, unmistakable and deliberate.

That roar wasn’t simple animal instinct. It was a taunt. A promise. This thing hadn’t descended from its perch out of hunger, and it hadn’t come seeking revenge for its slaughtered kin either. No — it had come down because it had sensed Kren specifically, and now it was playing its own private game. Those bestial eyes carried a clear promise of devouring, of death, and Kren was very clearly meant to be the main course.

Except.

Except

The Black Lions had never bowed to anyone. Not man, not beast. Nothing challenged a lion and walked away without discovering exactly how much it has bitten off more than it could chew. Every hair on Kren’s body stood on end, the white mane at the base of his neck bristling wild and untamed, Aura and his Darkness affinity manifesting together in a single visible wave.

Kren roared back.

ROAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR

The language of beasts, the intent behind it — all of it was his by bloodline, by birthright, to understand completely. That Lyndwyrm should be bowing before a true king, not challenging one, no matter how massive its body or how twisted its draconic heritage ran. If it could make its intent known, then Kren could answer in kind — and the promise riding on the back of his own roar landed just as the cave gates slammed shut between them.

Kren promised it exactly one thing in return.

DEATH.