Free Web NovelChapter 40: Chapter 40: What was that?
"What deal?"
The system peeked out, then waved both tiny hands.
A black bow appeared in the air.
Swanly stared at it.
The bow was beautiful.
Not normal beautiful either.
It was black from end to end, with a faint dark glow under the surface like moonlight trapped in stone. Tiny silver marks ran along the curved body, and the string shimmered faintly when it moved.
A set of arrows appeared beside it.
Swanly’s anger paused.
Only paused.
"What is special about it?"
The system brightened at once.
{Never runs out of arrows.}
Swanly’s eyes moved to the quiver.
{Silent draw.}
Her fingers twitched.
{Auto-guided within short distance.}
She slowly looked at the system.
{Strong against infected beastmen.}
Swanly’s breathing changed.
{If it hits the rot core, the target dies quickly.}
The cave outside her space was forgotten for one long second.
This was not just pretty.
This was survival.
Swanly reached for the bow.
It settled into her hand like it had been waiting for her.
She hated that she liked it.
"Fine."
The system sighed with dramatic relief.
Swanly pointed the bow at it.
"But if I catch you eating my snacks without asking again, I am testing this on you."
The system hugged its own tiny body.
{Host is cruel.}
"Host is hungry."
{System will ask next time.}
"You will ask every time."
{System will consider asking every time.}
Swanly’s eyes narrowed.
The system immediately corrected itself.
{System will ask every time.}
"Good."
Swanly placed the bow and arrows back into her space where she could reach them quickly.
Then she left the space.
The cave came back around her.
Kael’s head lifted immediately.
His ears had already picked up something outside.
The cubs were supposed to be playing, but even they paused because Papa had gone still.
Soren sat near the cave wall, calm and silent.
Too calm.
Swanly noticed that first.
Then the scream came.
It ripped through the night from outside the cave, high and raw, and every beastman in Riverbone seemed to move at once.
Kael was on his feet before the sound finished.
The cubs scrambled behind Swanly.
Swanly’s heart slammed hard.
"What was that?" freewebnoveℓ.com
Another scream answered her.
Then a roar.
Then the horrible wet sound of something tearing flesh.
Swanly ran toward the cave entrance.
Kael caught her arm.
"Stay behind me."
She did not argue.
For once, she knew he was right.
They reached the cave mouth and looked out.
The attack had not reached the inner dens.
Not yet.
It was at the outer refugee line.
That made it worse.
The outer line was where the weakest had slept. New arrivals, hungry families, injured males, females with cubs, and those who had not earned a safer den were packed near the root wall and thorn fences.
Now the night there was breaking open.
People screamed.
Males fought with claws, stone blades, and teeth.
Mothers grabbed cubs and ran toward the inner path.
One infected beastman slammed into a guard and bit into his shoulder before three males dragged it down.
Another infected crawled under a broken thorn fence, its jaw hanging wrong, its eyes white with rot.
Swanly’s blood went cold.
She knew that movement.
She knew that hunger.
She knew that wrong way the body kept moving after pain should have stopped it.
For one breath, she was back in her old world.
Rotten mouths.
Running feet.
Hands grabbing doors.
People screaming that they were fine while their skin turned gray.
"No," she whispered.
Kael’s arm came around her at once.
The cubs pressed against her legs.
Soren moved beside her.
He did not look surprised.
Swanly saw that.
Her head turned slowly.
"You knew."
Soren’s eyes stayed on the outer line.
"I smelled the bite before sunset."
Swanly’s stomach dropped.
"You knew someone was infected?"
"Yes."
"You let them stay there?"
"The inner line is sealed."
Swanly stared at him.
For a second, she could not breathe.
Outside, a female screamed for her cub.
A male shouted for guards.
Someone fell near the thorn wall and did not get up.
Swanly’s hands curled into fists.
"You monster."
Soren finally looked at her.
His face was cold enough to make the night feel warm.
"You can save them, little fox. Or you can watch this world become your old one."
The words hit her harder than his tail ever had.
Her old one.
Her dead world.
Her ruined streets, her infected waves, her final breath, her useless system alarm, and all the people she could not save.
Swanly hated him.
She hated him so much her throat burned.
He had known.
He had waited.
He had let the screams come because he wanted her to see what refusal looked like.
Her eyes stung, but she did not cry.
She had already cried enough in one lifetime.
"Do something," she said.
Soren looked at the outer line again.
"Most of them are already infected."
Swanly’s chest tightened.
"Do something."
"They will not enter the inner wall."
"That is not what I asked." freeweɓnøvel.com
"The outer line will die."
The words were calm.
Too calm.
Swanly stumbled back as if he had struck her.
Kael caught her immediately and pulled her against his chest. His arms locked around her, one hand at the back of her head, the other around her waist.
The cubs crowded against her legs and trembled.
Swanly stared at the burning torches outside, at the running shadows, at the guards holding the inner line, and at the refugees trapped beyond it.
She knew this.
She knew exactly what this was.
The line that could not be saved.
The people already bitten.
The screams that became fewer, then worse.
The infected that would rise from the bodies before dawn.
She had lived this before.
She had died in it.
Her breath shook once.
Only once.
Then it steadied.
Swanly lifted her head from Kael’s chest and looked at Soren.
He had forced this choice in front of her like a blade.
She hated him for it.
At that moment, she truly hated him.
But he was right about one thing.
If the Cleanbirth Seed could slow infection, if it could protect Riverbone, if it could stop even one cub from becoming that screaming thing outside, then she could not pretend she did not understand.
She refused to watch another world die.
"I will go to the Rot Nest," she said.
Kael’s arms tightened around her.
The cubs looked up at her in panic.
Soren’s silver eyes opened fully, cold and bright in the torchlight.
There was no humor in them.
Only hunger, pain, and victory hidden under ice.
Swanly pointed at him.
"Not because you ordered me."
Soren said nothing.
"Not because of your scale."
Still, he said nothing.
"And not because I forgive you."
His tail moved once behind him.
Swanly’s voice became low.
"I am going because I know what happens if no one does."
Soren looked at her for a long moment.
Then the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
It was not a real smile.
It was colder than one.
"We set out at dawn."
