Author's Preface
By the time the night reached its deepest point, the forest had grown unnaturally quiet, as if everything within it had retreated into silence.
It was well past midnight, deep into the hour when even the forest seemed to fall into uneasy silence. Eklavya was not asleep. Seated cross-legged, his eyes closed, he cultivated quietly, his breathing slow and controlled, his awareness turned inward.
The world around him gradually faded into the background as his focus deepened, his senses turning inward with steady control. Yet, after a while, something disrupted that stillness. A presence, it was sharp and heavy, began to make itself known.
Eklavya’s awareness caught it almost immediately. A powerful, deliberate aura was moving through the forest in their direction. Its presence was calm yet imposing, carrying a quiet but unmistakable sense of danger.
He slowly opened his eyes, the calm in his expression giving way to quiet alertness. ‘How could any beast sense us?’ he thought. Zeliang set up a formation around the clearing.
Magha’s voice echoed within him, steady and certain. ‘You’re mistaken. Some beasts can still sense you—either those with rare traits below the fifth tier, or any beast above the fourth tier.’
Eklavya’s gaze sharpened slightly. ‘So you’re saying… It’s either a special species or something above the fourth tier?’
A brief pause followed.
“Yeah, anything is possible. We’re in the middle region of the forest,” Magha replied calmly.
“Let’s see if we’re just being overcautious or if it really sensed us,”
Eklavya said as he stood up, his movements steady but alert. He extended his senses outward, focusing on the presence he had felt earlier.
Something had been approaching them, moving with intent, but then it suddenly halted.
“I think we’re being overcautious,” he muttered, a faint sense of relief settling in.
But the next moment, a loud roar echoed through the forest, powerful enough to shake the stillness and jolt everyone in the clearing awake.
Zeliang stirred awake and quickly noticed Eklavya already standing. His gaze was fixed toward the direction from which the roar had come.
Sensing something was wrong, he rose without delay and walked over to him. “What was that just now?” he asked, his voice low but alert.
Eklavya glanced back briefly. The others were waking as well, confusion and caution spreading across their faces.
“Seems like some beast has sensed our presence,” he replied calmly to Zeliang.
Almost at once, they felt multiple auras converging from every direction. They were closing in with alarming speed. The air seemed to tighten around them, heavily with intent.
“Well… then it has to be something powerful,” Chandra said, his voice tense as his gaze swept across the dark forest. “If it can sense us even with the formation in place…”
“What else could it be?” Zeliang replied as he stepped closer to the group, his tone firm, though his eyes remained sharp with caution.
“Okay, everyone, listen. You all will take care of the remaining beasts that are coming to play with us. We will take care of the big one,” Zeliang said in a friendly tone, as if the situation carried little weight.
A few of them stretched lazily, stifling yawns, while others rolled their shoulders to loosen the stiffness from sleep. The tension in the air didn’t fully disappear, but their relaxed reactions made it seem almost routine.
One by one, they nodded, their expressions settling into quiet readiness as they prepared themselves for what was coming.
Eklavya smiled inwardly as he moved toward Chandra, his gaze briefly sweeping over the others as they readied themselves. “I have to say, ever since I’ve seen them, they haven’t feared the beasts,” he remarked, watching their calm, almost casual preparation.
Chandra replied, his tone calm but assured. “They are elites. They don’t fear beasts. They are confident enough to take down three-tier and even low-level fourth-tier ones. And if something appears that they can’t handle…” he glanced briefly toward Zeliang, “…they trust him completely. He’s made them that confident—they believe anything beyond them, he’ll take care of.”
“Yeah, I can see they trust him a lot,” Eklavya said, his gaze lingering briefly on the group. “Maybe it’s because of his personality.”
“Yeah… that could be it,” Chandra replied, nodding lightly in agreement.
The horde of beasts crashed against the formation with brute force. The barrier trembled under the impact. A second strike followed immediately, heavier than the first, sending ripples across its surface.
By then, everyone was already in position, their focus sharpened and bodies poised for the clash.
“Okay, I’m going to withdraw the formation when I say three. Get ready,” Zeliang said as he moved toward Eklavya and Chandra.
The group tightened their formation around them, stepping into position with practiced coordination as the count began.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Before the syllable had fully faded, the protective barrier dissolved. Zeliang withdrew the formation into his ring, leaving the group suddenly vulnerable.
Without that shimmering veil, the clearing felt raw and exposed, the humid forest air rushing in to replace the artificial calm with a cold, mounting dread.
As the beasts surged forward, the shadows of the forest seemed to bleed into the clearing. The pale moonlight stripped away their anonymity, revealing corded muscle and eyes that burned with an eerie, internal light. Their bared fangs mirrored the silver sky, flashing with a calculated, lethal hunger.
Their numbers weren’t overwhelming, only around twenty to thirty, but they still outnumbered the group. And among them, three stood apart—low—level fourth-tier beasts, their presence felt heavier and more dangerous than the rest.
Claws tore through the soil as the horde surged forward. Eklavya’s unit answered in perfect unison, a wall of steel and intent colliding with the advancing beasts. The air hummed with the coming slaughter.
But before the first exchange could fully unfold, a shadow swept across them.
From above, a massive shadow tore through the night, descending with terrifying speed. Its wings spread wide, cutting across the moonlight like dark blades, each beat sending violent gusts through the clearing.
As it dropped lower, its form became clear. It was like a colossal tiger, its body wrapped in deep violet stripes that shimmered faintly under the pale glow.
Two heads moved in perfect, predatory sync, both sets of eyes burning with a cold and feral light. Their jaws parted slightly, revealing rows of gleaming fangs, breath misting faintly in the cool night air. Its wings was vast and powerful. It carried a leathery texture, stretched taut as they slowed its descent, scattering dust and leaves in all directions.
When it landed, the ground shuddered beneath its weight. Its muscles coiled beneath its thick hide, every movement radiating raw strength. The twin heads lifted, scanning the clearing with unsettling awareness, their presence dominating everything beneath the moon.
A half-step fifth-tier beast. The two-headed winged purple tiger.