The obsidian stinger didn't just pierce Shad Darc's arm—it shattered the cold silence of the valley.
The white crocodile tossed him aside like a discarded doll, sending him flying several meters through the air.
Shad crashed onto the flower-covered ground, his ruined left elbow bleeding heavily. He rolled once before slamming against the trunk of a dark-blue tree.
For a moment, the world seemed to slow down.
The primal fear that had seized his body was still there, crawling beneath his skin. But as he wiped the cold sweat and blood from his eyes, he noticed something important.
The white crocodile wasn't looking at him anymore.
After throwing him aside like a nuisance, its pale, eagle-like eyes had locked entirely onto Fray.
And Fray was staring back.
Shad had never seen that expression on him before.
It wasn't the frantic hunger of a beast fighting for survival.
It was hatred.
Pure, unfiltered, burning hatred.
The white crocodile slowly opened its enormous, shark-toothed mouth.
But no roar came.
Instead, it produced a deliberate clicking sound—a complex, rhythmic vibration that echoed across the valley.
It sounded almost like a taunt.
A message meant specifically for Fray.
There was something menacing and eerie about it, something that made the sound feel far more deliberate than an ordinary animal call.
Fray answered with a low, vibrating growl.
The sound was so deep that Shad felt it through the ground beneath him.
And then Fray's mouth curled upward.
It almost looked like a smile.
A strange, unnatural smile that would have sent a cold chill down the spine of anyone who witnessed it.
Anyone except the white crocodile.
The pale monster seemed to feel something entirely different.
Joy.
And anticipation.
Shad pressed his back against the tree and used his good right hand to force his Flow into his shattered elbow. The energy dulled the worst of the pain, just enough to keep his mind sharp.
He watched as the two massive creatures began circling one another among the sky-blue and purple flowers.
Something about their movements bothered him.
They weren't behaving like two strange creatures encountering each other for the first time.
Fray anticipated the crocodile's tail sweeps before they came.
The crocodile casually exposed its flanks, as if it already knew that Fray's current strength wasn't enough to break through its defenses.
They knew each other's movements.
Their habits. Their limits. Their instincts.
Shad's eyes narrowed.
They have history.
He watched them for another moment.
No... it's deeper than that.
One of the voices within his mind seemed to agree.
Almost immediately, the two creatures moved.
Fray lunged first.
He didn't attack blindly.
He had anticipated the crocodile's movement and aimed directly for its throat.
The oversized cat-beast's claws tore through the air as he poured every ounce of his strength into the strike.
CLANG!
The impact rang out like metal striking metal.
The white crocodile hadn't even tried to dodge.
It simply shifted its weight and allowed its dense, chalky scales to absorb the blow.
Sparks scattered across the flower bed.
But the attack barely left a scratch.
The white monster produced another clicking sound.
Its eagle-like eyes narrowed, almost forming a cruel, mocking sneer.
Then it opened its jaws wider.
For a split second, a strange, distorted pulse of energy rippled around its throat.
Shad's breath caught.
"That energy..."
He recognized it.
Energy Flow.
But something about it was wrong.
He couldn't understand how the white monster was making it pulse in such a strange way.
"Dammit..."
His face tightened as another wave of pain shot through his ruined elbow.
"There are just so many things I don't know."
But there was something else.
The frequency of the pulse was jagged and dark.
And it was eerily similar to the Energy Flow that surrounded Fray.
The moment Fray saw it, he froze.
Recognition flashed through his eyes.
Then his anger intensified.
Shad noticed immediately.
Fray knew that energy.
More than that—
He recognized it as his own.
That is mine.
Shad's confusion deepened.
Then another thought surfaced.
The white monster had used the same kind of fear attack Fray had used against him.
Except the crocodile's version had been far more powerful.
And more natural.
Could that be a coincidence?
Shad's eyes narrowed.
Or is it something more?
Fray didn't have time to answer the question.
The sight of that stolen Energy Flow dragged something buried deep within him to the surface.
A memory.
A betrayal.
The white bastard had once been part of Fray's pack.
And it had betrayed them.
It had turned against its own companions when their trust was at its highest, striking when they least expected it.
Then it had taken a piece of their Energy Flow.
Their power.
Their strength.
That stolen energy was the reason the white crocodile's defenses were so absurdly powerful.
And it was the reason Fray was far weaker than he should have been.
The realization reignited the hatred that had been burning inside him since the moment he saw the creature.
Fray roared.
The sound carried the agony of a betrayal that had cost him everything—and nearly cost him his life.
Driven by the memory of his fallen companions and the stolen power still humming inside the crocodile's throat, Fray lunged again.
The obsidian stinger whipped toward his side.
Fray didn't stop.
He accepted the glancing blow.
The stinger tore through his dark hide, but he continued forward until his jaws locked around the crocodile's neck.
CRACK!
His wolf-like fangs sank into the pale scales.
For the first time, the white monster bled.
Dark, tainted blood seeped from its neck, carrying the foul scent of something ancient and rotten.
The crocodile's mocking expression disappeared.
Its massive body suddenly twisted with violent force.
Its scorpion-like tail swung around.
The obsidian tip aligned directly with Fray's skull.
It was going to finish him.
Fray was pinned beneath the creature's enormous body, his jaws still locked around its neck.
He couldn't dodge.
Shad saw the incoming strike.
His eyes narrowed.
He couldn't use his left arm.
His body was already running on adrenaline and Flow.
But he wasn't going to stand there and watch Fray get killed by a traitor.
"Not today, you backstabbing lizard," Shad muttered through gritted teeth.
He pushed himself away from the tree.
Pain exploded through his ruined elbow.
He ignored it.
His right hand tightened around the crude bone dagger.
Then he sprinted.
He didn't aim for the crocodile's scales.
Those were too hard.
Instead, he targeted the tiny opening where Fray's teeth had already cracked through the monster's otherwise impenetrable hide.
If he couldn't overpower the creature—
He would strike where it was already vulnerable.