Free Web NovelChapter 11: Buillied
After skinning the wolf and extracting the core, Ethan stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist before storing everything in the ring. freewebnσvel.cøm
He took a moment with it before moving on.
Even among tier 9 beasts the differences were there if you knew where to look. Not in size or aggression, those varied by individual, but in the finer qualities that only became apparent during a fight. The way the wolf had moved. The particular density of its hide around the shoulders compared to the flanks. The element running through it, dark and quick, different in texture from the bear’s raw physical presence.
Species and elemental affinity. Two variables that shifted everything about an engagement, and both of them invisible until you were already inside the fight.
It was part of why the cores held such value. The power didn’t dissipate when the beast died. It compressed, settled into the sphere, and waited. Magic held still inside a shell. What was locked in there depended entirely on what the beast had been.
Ethan stored the last of it and straightened up.
He walked to the nearest tree and lowered himself against the base of it, letting his back rest against the bark. The exhaustion settled in the moment he stopped moving, pressing down across his shoulders and into his legs. He let it. Fighting it wouldn’t accomplish anything.
He sat there and let his gaze drift out toward the horizon where the light was still pale and thin between the trees.
Time passed without him tracking it closely.
Then something moved at the edge of his vision.
A figure cut through the forest at speed, and where they moved the air around them burned. Flames trailed behind each step, bright against the muted greens and greys of the undergrowth, the kind of brightness that didn’t belong out here.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
"The hell?"
The speed was real. Whoever it was could move. But moving that fast while burning that visibly in a forest full of people hunting for any advantage they could find was not a decision. It was a signal.
He shifted his gaze past her.
"Oh."
Behind her, a group of young men pushed through the trees in pursuit, their expressions carrying the specific quality of people who had already decided the outcome and were simply closing the distance.
Ethan stood up and dusted off his clothes.
He didn’t know her. Whatever arrangement had gone wrong between her and the group behind her, it wasn’t his problem. He had been cut loose from the Algar clan since he was born. The internal politics, the family grudges, the endless jostling between branches of a clan that couldn’t agree on what it was, none of it had anything to offer him.
He turned and walked the other way, choosing a path that curved wide around the direction she was running from.
The forest moved around him. He kept his pace steady, not hurried, just deliberate. A man going somewhere else entirely.
Except the burning figure kept appearing in his peripheral vision.
He adjusted his angle. She adjusted hers.
He cut left through a low depression in the ground, moving between two stone outcroppings. She appeared on the other side of the trees ahead.
He stopped.
’She’s following me.’
The realization arrived flat and certain.
"Damn it."
He started moving faster, weaving through the undergrowth, pushing through gaps between trees and ducking under low branches. His feet found the uneven ground without slowing. He changed direction twice, cutting back on himself before pushing forward again.
She stayed behind him like something tied to a string.
Ethan reached into his coat and pulled out the spell the High Regent had placed in the ring.
He activated it without stopping.
"White Transit."
The white light engulfed him instantly, swallowing his outline completely, and then he was moving, not running but crossing distance in a single straight line, the spell carrying him forward like an arrow released from a bow. The trees blurred. The ground dropped away from his awareness entirely.
He came out of it crashing into a stack of dense bushes at the far end of the transit line.
He was already moving before the light faded, rolling sideways and activating the camouflage spell in the same motion. His presence blurred into the surrounding colours, his breathing slowed, and he crawled forward through the undergrowth, low and quiet, leaving no line in the soil that a distracted eye would catch.
The White Transit left no trail. Used correctly it was as close to disappearing as he had found.
He emerged from the brush near a shallow stream. The water ran clear and quiet over a flat bed of stones, no deeper than his knee at the center. He stood up, deactivated the camouflage, and exhaled.
"That was close."
He crouched at the bank and scooped water with both hands, washing his face and running it across his arms. If she had been tracking by scent at any point the water would break whatever trace he had left behind.
He was still thinking through the next move when hooves hit the ground behind him.
He turned.
The flame archor stood at the edge of the stream, its body radiating heat that reached him even across the water. On its back sat the girl, her expression already arranged into something loud and certain.
Ethan’s mind went blank for a half second.
"I saw you hunt down that tier 9 wolf." She raised her voice, sharp and clear, pitched to carry toward the sound of movement closing in through the trees behind him. "Hand it over to brother Jacob so we can all live."
Without pausing she reached into her coat and threw something at his feet.
A core. Or the shape of one.
Then the archor turned and bolted, disappearing between the trees before the echo of her voice had finished settling.
’That bitch. This is a hot potato.’
The thought hit him clean and immediate.
He looked at what was on the ground. He looked at the shapes emerging from the treeline, spreading to cover his angles, weapons already drawn and pointing in his direction.
"She’s trying to frame me." Ethan raised both hands slowly, keeping his voice level. "I don’t even care about whatever is on the ground. You can take it."
He meant it without reservation. He had his own core stored safely. Whatever she had thrown at his feet was not worth a fight he hadn’t chosen.
"I’m not stupid." Jacob rode forward on his bull, his eyes moving over Ethan with the particular look of someone doing a calculation. "I know what’s on the ground isn’t a real core."
His gaze didn’t move.
"But I did notice you hunting that tier 9 wolf."
The lance came up, its white light catching the morning air between them.
"Hand it over." Jacob’s voice dropped into something quieter, which was worse. "And I might let you live."
