Kai's eagerness to protect Layla had put her in a difficult spot. She had considered leaving him behind and running for her life at first, but she couldn't, not because that be extremely selfish of her, no, Layla was as selfish as possible if it meant escaping with all limbs intact, the reason she couldn't leave Kai behind was because she couldn't help but doubt that she'd be fast enough to outrun a single one of them if even one broke away and chased after her, her best bet was to stay put and hide behind Kai, a smart move, except it was down to numbers and they were outnumbered, Layla couldn't stay put even if she wanted and their opponents knew this.
They wasted no second, leaping into action, three of them. They came at him together without a warning, no hesitation, just a violent blur of claws and killing intent tearing through the space from two opposing angles.
Layla had never believed a day would come where she would witness a rabbit fight a dog, but here she was.
Meanwhile, their attacks were fast enough that most would have panicked.
Kai didn't. He answered.
The instant their shadows crossed into his reach, the air cracked with cold. Ice didn't simply form, it surged, erupting from his palms in jagged, merciless shards that moved with terrifying precision. One of the attackers barely had time to process the shift before frost crawled up his arm mid-strike, locking muscle and bone in place as the sharp, brittle sound of freezing flesh split through the forest.
Kai was already moving.
He pivoted in the same breath, his elbow driving hard into the second rabbit's ribs with brutal efficiency. The impact landed with a sickening crack, folding the man in half and knocking the air and whatever confidence he had clean out of him before he could even scream.
There was no pause. No room for it.
A third slipped in from the side, fast and opportunistic, aiming cleanly for the opening Kai had just created.
Layla knew she had to step in.
Not just with her eyes but with something deeper, something that pulsed through the ground beneath her feet.
She wondered if she could summon those abilities once again, and she guessed right.
The earth obeyed with startling violence. Vines tore free from the soil in a sudden, furious surge, snapping upward like whips given breath and purpose. They coiled around the attacker's legs mid-lunge and yanked him off balance so sharply his strike collapsed into a stagger, and that single moment was all Kai needed.
He turned, ice already gathering again as if it had been waiting for the command, and released it point-blank into the man's chest. The force hurled him backward, his body slamming into a tree with bone-rattling impact as frost bloomed across his torso like something lethal and final.
"Nice," Kai muttered under his breath, almost absentmindedly.
And for the briefest, most fragile second Layla allowed herself to breathe, she realized she made a mistake.
Because while the front burned with chaos and noise, something else had been quietly unfolding beneath it.
Rafe.
He hadn't rushed in like the others. Hadn't wasted movement or emotion on reckless strikes. He watched, cold, patient, calculating, his eyes tracking every shift, every distraction, every tiny fracture in their defense.
And the moment it appeared and he took it.
He moved like something slipping between cracks, silent and precise, cutting through the battlefield as if it had already been mapped out in his mind. His own allies became nothing more than obstacles he stepped past without thought.
His target never changed.
Layla.
"Kai!"
Her voice broke through the clash but it came just a heartbeat too late.
Another attacker lunged from behind her at the exact same moment, claws angled perfectly for her throat, the timing too precise to be coincidence.
A trap.
Kai saw it.
And he didn't think.
There was no hesitation, no calculation only instinct, sharpened by something far deeper than obligation.
He moved.
Fast enough to blur, faster than he had any right to be in that moment.
He reached her just in time to shove her out of the kill line and took the strike meant for her.
Claws tore into his side with brutal force, ripping through flesh like it offered no resistance at all. The sound was wet, sharp, wrong, the kind that settled into the bones and refused to leave.
Blood followed instantly.
Hot.
Unforgiving.
"Kai!"
His name broke from her like something shattered, raw and uncontained.
Inside her, something gave way.
But Rafe wasn't finished, not even close.
He pushed forward through the collapsing fight, stepping over pain, over failure, over his own men as if none of it mattered. His gaze locked onto Layla with something twisted and possessive, a hunger that had long since rotted into cruelty.
A grin spread across his face, familiar, suffocating.
"You always did need someone to save you."
And then he lunged.
Layla tried to move, she did but her body betrayed her, fear and shock tangling her limbs just enough to slow her, just enough to fail.
Kai didn't.
Even bleeding.
Even staggering.
He stepped in again.
Placed himself between her and the world as if that role had already been carved into him.
Rafe's claws struck.
Deeper this time.
There was no deflection, no partial save just impact, clean and brutal.
Kai's body jerked violently as the blow landed, the force driving him down as blood spilled freely now, too much, too fast. His knees hit the ground, strength slipping from him in real time, his body struggling to obey commands it could no longer follow.
And inside Layla, something didn't break, it went silent. Not empty. Not weak.
But still in a way that felt wrong, dangerous—the kind of silence that comes just before something catastrophic tears through.
Then- It snapped.
"ENOUGH!"
Her voice didn't echo, it commanded.
And the forest listened.
The ground split open as though something ancient beneath it had been waiting for permission. Roots tore free with violent force, vines erupting in every direction—thick, relentless, driven by something that felt disturbingly close to fury.
They didn't thrash blindly.
They chose.
One rabbit barely managed to scream before vines coiled around his throat and lifted him clean off the ground, tightening with merciless precision. Another turned to flee, panic overriding training, only to be dragged backward, thorns sinking into flesh as the forest reclaimed him piece by piece.
This wasn't defense.
This was judgment.
"Layla…" Kai's voice came faint, barely holding together.
She was already moving.
Dropping beside him, ignoring the tremor in her hands as she gathered him into her arms, holding him together as if sheer will could keep him from slipping away.
"I've got you," she whispered, her voice low, but beneath it, something far more dangerous simmered. Something raw. Something furious.
The vines responded instantly.
They softened around him, weaving carefully across his wounds, binding, supporting, lifting just enough to take his weight without worsening the damage, as though the forest itself understood he was not the enemy.
Layla ran.
Behind her, the forest transformed into something nightmarish, bodies thrashing, struggling, failing as vines constricted tighter and tighter, crushing breath, snapping resistance, ending everything with slow, deliberate certainty.
Rafe fought harder than the rest.
Desperation carved through his earlier arrogance as his claws tore into the vines restraining him, cutting just enough, fast enough.
He broke free.
For a single moment, across the chaos, his eyes found hers, then he turned and ran.
A coward to the end.
***
She kept running, clutching Kai as the vines carried part of his weight alongside her, shifting with her movements, bending the forest itself into a path that opened only for her.
His blood soaked into her arms and his breathing came shallow. Fragile.
Unsteady.
"Stay with me," she whispered, her voice finally breaking despite everything she held back. "Kai… stay with me."