The connection blazed so brightly in my mind that I could hear the sound of the beast clawing at the gates.

Even as shadows rose up like a devouring swarm to consume me whole within their maw, I smiled savagely and raised my head to release a howl.

Darkness overcame the moonlight, and my vision faded away.

"Wuulf!"

Black talons shredded black curtains, creating a gleam of white in between. The negative lines tore the wave into strips that splashed against the ground and my body. My cloak absorbed the brunt of the freezing chill, and I accepted the rest as it invaded my muscles and sparked against my bones.

The world distorted, vibrating hard enough to send me to my knees as the bulging limbs holding me released their grip.

"No! Nooo!" NOOUGGHH!"

Each rejection rose in pitch, losing the smooth baritone from before. My ears rang, and my vision swam.

I raised my arm and scrunched my eyes.

Fire, burn, and blaze. Create the heat. Push the void away!

“Ek kalla heiðarloga.”

Power surged, and I let it engulf my arm until the last of the bandages burned away. The flames pooled until they formed a blazing sphere that warmed my face. When it shot out, it whistled.

The creature released me fully, the shadows pulled away, and before my flames could come in contact, it zipped across the ground like a bullet, pulling away the blanket of black. When the surrounding forest started reappearing, I saw the flash of a red cloak flap against the breeze, then spin around following the swing of an iron axe.

"Cain! Duck!"

I dropped to the ground and watched as Alice lunged. A choked scream cut off, and blood splattered the ground. It sizzled and popped, releasing a cloyingly sweet scent that turned sharply putrid.

Corrupted!

I kicked up and rolled, turning around to see what looked like one of the three-eyed deer. Unlike the peaceful fauna that snacked on flowers, this creature had massive antlers that jutted at odd angles, some bending around to pierce its own skull. Dried black blood crusted the punctures, and when it blinked, each eye vibrated.

My one arm was nothing more than an unresponsive piece of charcoal. As it smashed its head against a trunk and then lowered to skewer Alice from behind, I leaped and found myself soaring through the air.

It happened too fast, and I barely brought my axe down. I managed, just in time, before I impaled myself. The air left my chest, and I brought the thick beast down with me as I fell to the earth. It released a haunting screech and kicked with its legs. One hoof cut a line across my pants, the razor-sharp edge of its foot drawing blood.

It released another cry, and a hoof came for my face, but then my wolf rose from my shadow and crunched down, pulling the leg away. Shadows blinded me, but I raised my axe anyway and swung downward.

Iron met rough fur and thick muscle, so I swung again and again until the beast shuddered and its legs stopped moving.

Once the corpse began to generously coat me in a shower of corrupted blood, I rolled away and got to my feet. My wolf followed, standing in front with its tail pressed against my pants, its head rotating on a swivel.

I looked around, ready for another fight, but Alice stood nearby, her axe resting on the ground as she leaned on the shaft.

Her eyebrow raised, she stared down at my arm. "What happened?"

My eye twitched.

That's what I should be asking you!

"I got trapped by the sealed creature in some nightmare realm. You?" I asked.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Awakened by Devon and then attacked by a small mob of corrupted beasts," she replied.

I looked around, truly taking in the changes to our small campsite. Firstly, two trees lay uprooted on the forest floor, their trunks shattered. Nearby, a deer corpse protruded from a bush, and close by, three wolves, each with scorpion-like tails, lay with their heads cleanly severed.

Behind Alice was what I could only describe as a giant bunny with a massive horn jutting from the center of its forehead. Its paws had sharpened claws longer than my hand, and two elongated fangs stuck out beneath its lips. The pale red eyes stared lifelessly into the sky, and its head rested on the ground with a massive chunk missing from its neck.

It's nearly the size of my wolf, holy hell.

"Devon?" I asked. "Where did he go?"

She twisted, popping her back, and swiped hair out of her face, smearing blood from her hand across the blonde strands, but she didn't show any concern. "When your illusion faded away, something zipped through the trees, and Devon gave chase."

"So, wait here or head back to the church again?"

She shrugged and bent down to examine the dead rabbit. With ease, she flipped it over onto its back and pulled out a knife attached to her leg. Expertly, she made an incision beneath the paw and circled around before sliding it down the hind leg. She connected it to the belly before repeating it on the other leg, then cut up towards the neck and repeated the process again for the front legs.

The sound was highly unpleasant, but her knife glided through the connective tissue as she worked the pelt off the beast. By the time she finished, a disturbingly skinned animal corpse stared at me with dead eyes, which Alice ignored in favor of rolling up the hide and bundling it with some string from her satchel.

"I thought we don't touch corrupted animals. Devon never showed any interest," I commented, securing my hood to block out the horrific sight.

"The meat is toxic to most humans; even most forest animals know to avoid these corpses. But the pelt is safe, probably enhanced from the mana to be sturdier."

I stared down at the deer corpse, noticing the wild slashes cut deep into its hide.

Yeah, don't think this one is worth saving.

"You going to do the wolves or bear?"

She shook her head. "Bears roll around in carrion, and the wolves have poison on their fur. Look at the yellow tint that connects from their tails."

I followed her finger and noticed what she meant. It was hard to tell with the rich brown of their fur, but I saw a drop of yellow move from one hair to another, the surface of the coat looking oily enough for the drop to continue until the dirt soaked it up.

Snorting, I lowered my head and met my summon's gaze. The swirling black eyes greeted mine, and I accepted the press of its cold tongue against my cheek.

"Hey. Thanks for saving me. Would have been a goner without you."

"Wulf!"

I wrapped my arm around the wolf's belly and gave it a firm squeeze before standing up and joining Alice in sniffing the air. It smelled familiar, and we were not surprised when Devon came crashing through the brush.

He examined the surroundings, lingering on the skinned rabbit and the pelt in Alice's arms before focusing on my toasted limb hanging at my side.

"You met with the creature?"

I let out a mirthless chuckle. "Yeah. It pretended to be you. I didn't notice at first and went to relieve myself. When I got back, I almost went to bed, but then I noticed how silent the forest was."

"And how it shouldn't be," he stated.

I nodded. "Yeah. Then Alice was gone, and it pretended to be you, keeping your body, clothes, and hair but no face. Just a bright white smile."

"Then?"

"Well… It kept trying to ask me to betray you two. Told me I wasn't a Grimm, not like you. And it even tried to get me to swear to the system."

Devon's eyes narrowed. "And?"

I flipped him off. He blinked, staring at the finger before shifting back to my face. "What do you take me for, Devon? I played along and told it to piss off. My wolf came in, tore through whatever it was doing to keep me separated from you two, and then it fled."

"That's it?"

"Yes. That's it."

He sat on the bear's corpse, and blood oozed out as his weight pressed down. "I tried to give chase, but it was too fast, even when shifted. It led me around in circles and got away."

"So, we're back where we started," Alice said. "We'll have to wait for another attack or kidnapping."

"If we have something belonging to it, I could set up a ritual to bind it, but without that, we'll have to wait for another chance," Devon replied.

"And I'm to play bait again? Because I doubt it'll try the same tactic twice, not now, when I've already made it clear it couldn't tempt me to its side," I said.

"What did it offer?" he asked coolly.

That sounds more like a command than a question, but fine.

“A way home. Something about there being enough of a spark for it to create a pathway through the nexus.”

Devon said nothing, and a tense silence filled the campsite.

Of course, Alice, being Alice, possessed zero social hesitation and cut through the tension with the question I knew Devon wanted to ask as he stared in my direction. “And you didn’t take it?”

“No,” I growled. “No, I didn’t take the shady deal from the ancient sealed monster.”

She simply nodded and turned to Devon, who looked up blankly.

He stood up and wiped his pants down. “Let’s go. Nothing for us here, and you’ll be hungry soon.”

All the tension in my body fell away, and I barely contained my sigh.

Yeah, just another day on the hunt. So fun.

Of course, just as I got ready to move, a tug at the connection between me and my summon drew my eyes towards the wolf, who had turned to stare up into mine. Another tug followed, and then it opened its jaw wide before spitting out a piece of what looked like swirling shadows. The shadows moved and shifted away from the brighter beam of light shining down.

I raised my head and smiled at Devon. “Looks like my wolf did your job for you.”