Ryden aborted the chase, letting his familiar press forward hot on the beast's trail. He anchored himself in place, hoarding his remaining strength for Erus' command rather than burning energy on a battle he couldn't win.
Erus materialized within minutes, his eyes burning a vivid crimson. Despite witnessing the transformation multiple times, Ryden still recoiled from the bone-chilling intensity radiating off the man. The raw pressure of Erus' aura rattled his bones.
"You made the right call," Erus barked. "I'll handle it from here. Keep your familiar moving—we need it as a decoy."
Ryden nodded. Before his chin could even drop, Erus vanished, leaving nothing but a displaced gust of wind in his wake.
Erus abandoned the shadow wolf's path entirely. He cut a brutal detour through the rough terrain, letting Ryden's twin familiar ride within his shadow to feed him the prey's exact coordinates. Having such a tool offered incredible convenience—a luxury Erus lacked.
Meanwhile, the Teumessian fox sprinted at full throttle toward the deepest abyss of the mountain, torn between two desperate choices. Fleeing meant abandoning its den and leaving its treasured hoard of gems open to thieves. But luring the hunters into the mountain's most treacherous depths invited a lethal gamble. That territory spared no one; it swallowed every living thing within its reach.
Yet, the fox's obsession with high-value, glittering gems overruled its caution. It chose the gamble. Total confidence in its legendary speed fueled its arrogance; no hunter had ever laid a finger on it, and it refused to serve as anyone's familiar. No mortal would trick, capture, or slaughter it the way humans had wiped out its ancestors. Trusting humanity had caused their extinction, and it would not repeat their mistake. A single misstep now would seal its doom in this frozen wasteland, but it merely tracked the footprints of the beast behind, oblivious to the true trap ahead.
The Teumessian fox bared its teeth in a wicked grin. Stripping a mortal of their familiar didn't just hurt—it ripped away half their very soul. It would crush the master and destroy the beast in a single, devastating stroke.
Or so it thought.
A sharp glint of aura flashed in the distance. Positioned directly in the creature's path, Erus locked onto the signal instantly—the prey had arrived. Even at its frantic, blinding speed, the fox stood no match against him. His own velocity now rivaled the movement of light, though the origin of this broken skill remained a blur.
Had Cana done something to him back then in the kitchen? The energy she had shared felt entirely different from the blue flame, but he hadn't possessed the presence of mind to analyze it then. That power had flooded his veins, soothing and intoxicating him so completely that he hadn't even dared to question it.
"That woman sure has a lot of tricks," he mumbled. A dark smirk tugged at his lips as he measured Cana's potential—she was definitely no ordinary human.
Somehow.
He forced his mind back to the hunt; letting Cana occupy his thoughts right now would be a fatal mistake.
A golden light ignited across the ground, forming a lethal perimeter the exact second the Teumessian fox crossed the boundary. Fear flashed in its eyes, but it refused to halt, driving forward with everything it had. The far edge of the perimeter lay just ahead. Its legs kicked with desperate force, eager to breach the array before it closed. Suddenly, bursts of writhing, black vine-like entities erupted from the dirt, crawling like striking snakes as they pursued the beast.
Yet, running offered no salvation. The escape route didn't even exist on the other side of the boundary. Instead, a lean, towering shadow loomed directly ahead, waiting. Sitting silently beside the figure was another shadow wolf.
The fox skidded to a halt, eyes locked onto the figure.
The aura choking the air ahead didn't belong to the pathetic mortal it had encountered moments ago. This pressure reeked of absolute death. Yet, why did this monster possess the exact same familiar?
Then, the golden dragon mask materialized from the fog, its crimson eyes burning through the mist.
The fox's soul screamed in pure, unadulterated terror, but its paws refused to move. The black vines had already caught up, wrapping around its legs and constricting its body like a vice. Trapped, its eyes locked onto the terrifying mortal who had caught it.
First was the beautiful lady in the market, who hid a suppressed, world-ending aura beneath a gentle exterior. Now, this monster stood before it, possessing eyes that held not a single shred of hesitation to kill.
"You smell familiar," Erus snarled. He had just forced himself to stop thinking about Cana, but the beast's disgusting scent—the exact same odor left on her palm—instantly dragged her back into his mind. His brain almost short-circuited. "So it was you!"
Pinned by the suffocating grip of the black vines, the fox lacked the strength to defend itself. It couldn't even bother to comprehend the masked mortal's words; it had no recollection of ever offending such a powerful being. All it cared about was finding a single, desperate chance to escape.
Questions raced through Erus' mind. He needed to track down Cana and demand answers. How had she managed to cross paths with a mythical beast that evaded the kingdom's best hunters? And those skewers—she had undoubtedly fed them to the creature. Had she enchanted the beast? Or was she the one pulling its strings?
Remembering how she had casually dismissed the legendary creature as a mere beggar—and the fact that he had actually believed her—made his brow furrow in deep irritation.
Yet, his mind remained torn between slaughtering the beast or honoring Cana's apparent kindness toward it. If she learned he had killed it, how would she look at him? He refused to jeopardize whatever stood between them. Bound by their contract, turning on each other would prove fatal—and Cana was the absolute last person he ever wanted to fight.
After minutes of staring at the desperate fox, Erus flicked a single pill into its open maw with a sharp snap of his fingers—a potent sedative capable of knocking out any creature for a full day.
Choking on the pill, the fox instinctively gulped it down. It knew the substance spelled danger, but its current predicament left no room for choice. Within seconds, the drug seized its system. The rough terrain blurred rapidly in the fox's vision before total darkness claimed it.
Erus remained in place, staring down at the unconscious fox.
It emitted no malicious aura, yet history claimed this creature was a dangerous curse. Aside from its tremendous speed, it looked like nothing more than a helpless, ordinary beast.
And hadn't mortals branded it, just as they had branded him?
Sighing, Erus brushed the comparison aside. History held records of how this species had plagued the kingdom and its people in the past. It was unlike him to feel pity just because Cana had shown the creature some kindness. A mission was a mission. Whatever happened next would be left entirely to the gods' discretion.
Later, Ryden caught up with him. Though he had expected nothing less, he was still amazed to see the Teumessian fox captured with such effortless ease. Erus truly was an absolute master of the hunt.
"Hand it over to Nick. Our party will have no interaction with this beast, nor will we claim we caught it," Erus ordered, his deep voice carrying its usual authoritative weight.
Ryden nodded, grasping Erus' point, though not entirely. He knew their Captain despised unnecessary attention, and capturing a beast so feared in history would bring far too much unwanted glory. But what about the reward? Were they supposed to just abandon that too?
More importantly, Ryden sensed an unusual trace of hesitation in Erus. The Captain hadn't even badly wounded the Teumessian fox—a massive departure from his brutal handling of beasts in the past.
Tossing a net imbued with sealing magic over the fox, Ryden remained wary of whether the beast's curse would trigger the moment it was touched. History offered no detailed explanation of the exact affliction it bestowed upon an unlucky mortal; he could only pray it wouldn't leave its imprint on either of them.
After the mission on the deadly mountain, their journey back to the city was unnervingly quiet. Erus had ultimately secured the unconscious fox inside his personal dimension, if only to stop Ryden from spiraling into paranoid overthinking.
Beside them, the carriage driver didn't dare question their business on that peak. Even from afar, the mountain radiated a suffocating, deadly aura, a forsaken place that had been abandoned for over a century. But he kept his mouth shut. He knew exactly who Erus and Ryden were; as the most elite and renowned hunting party in the entire kingdom, their lethal errands were not to be questioned.
It was past midnight when they finally arrived at the guild. Only a few late-night hunters who preferred drinking over sleep remained in the hall. All eyes instantly locked onto the two members of the Grand Abyss as they walked through the doors. Everyone present knew that an arrival at this ungodly hour meant a top-tier mission had just been cleared, though none of them had the slightest clue what the objective had been.
Erus and Ryden bypassed the pub entirely and headed straight for Nick's office. They barged in without knocking, expecting to find the man asleep, but the interior of the room resembled the suffocating peak they had just left behind. Heavy smoke from Nick's thick tobacco rolled across the space, and the overflowing ashtray beside him proved he had gone through dozens of them.
"Hey, you're back!" Nick exclaimed the moment he saw them. His eyes were heavily bloodshot, mimicking the deadly crimson of Erus's own gaze, but entirely hollow and devoid of life—a grueling consequence of forcing himself to stay awake until he received even a single shred of information regarding the Grand Abyss's mission.
Wasting no time, Erus materialized the unconscious fox and tossed it directly onto Nick's desk. The older man was so startled he instinctively bolted from his chair, his sleep-deprived senses instantly jolting awake at the young man's impatient demeanor.
Even Ryden was surprised by the blunt display. Erus seemed genuinely annoyed.
"Our party won't take credit for the capture, but the guild can. Do whatever you want with the beast, just leave our names out of it," Erus stated coldly. He had no intention of letting his squad become the talk of the town over a creature whose historical infamy might just be a fabrication. History could lie, after all—especially when recorded by royal historians.
Nick gulped, his throat feeling remarkably dry, though he couldn't tell if it was from the tobacco or pure nerves. Not understanding why Erus was so pissed off, the Grandmaster simply nodded. As the captain of the Grand Abyss, the young lad held the absolute authority to decide for his own squad, and Erus had never made a choice that put his people at a disadvantage.
Still, Nick couldn't help but wonder what exactly had ruined the man's mood on that peak. Was it the sheer complexity grade of capturing a mythical Teumessian fox? Or had the beast somehow managed to offend Erus before it was subdued?
"But how about the reward?" Nick managed to ask, his voice cutting through the thick smoke.
"If it's of any actual use to my squad, we'll claim it," Erus replied, not even turning around. "If it isn't, just leave it be."
Nick's forehead creased. The rewards the kingdom offered for threats of this caliber were rarely just coin; they were almost always high-value artifacts. Erus personally had no interest in the latter, but he knew such items would be invaluable to the members of his squad.
"Okay then. Your call," Nick conceded, nervously tapping the ash of his tobacco into the overflowing tray. "How about we go for a drink—"
"I'm heading home, so I'll pass," Erus cut in, declining the invitation without a second thought.
Nick glanced at Ryden, who had remained entirely quiet, and then back to the fox sprawling across his desk.
"How about this thing? If it wakes up, isn't it dangerous?"
"There was no such detail in the records," Erus answered flatly. "I'm leaving." He turned a cold gaze toward his subordinate. "You staying?"
"Yeah," Ryden replied with a nod. "I'll be crashing in the quarters, and I'm definitely not drinking," he added, aiming a pointed look at Nick, whose face had briefly lit up. "Go to sleep, old man. Drinking too much at your age will only speed up the wrinkles."
Erus scoffed under his breath before walking out of the office. Ryden followed him out into the corridor shortly after.
Left alone with the unconscious beast, Nick pouted. "Young people nowadays have absolutely no manners toward their elders," he grumbled, his eyes fixed on the Teumessian fox as if he were talking directly to it.
It was exactly the creature described by the palace historians. The actual beast before him bore a flawless, terrifying resemblance to the illustrations preserved in the archives. But why its aura wasn't radiating the same danger the books claimed was a complete mystery.
Was it because Erus had subdued it? Did he use a secret skill on it?