“Blindness of the eyes is a tragedy. Blindness of the mind is death.”

- Sangurian Proverb

My mind whirred into overdrive. The Zengo had its back to me and the rest of the new arrivals, while Lizzy huddled behind Gwyn’s wounded form. The origin of the scream we all heard was clear, namely because I had never heard Gwyn’s voice rise higher than a mild shout.

“What in the hells happened?!” Elio demanded frantically. He looked ready to faint, though from fear or exertion, I couldn’t tell.

“Move!” Azuris screamed, rushing toward our fallen comrades before halting abruptly. The Zengo snarled and nipped at the air where he would’ve been. I raced through various options and strategies, but none were good. My first objective was obvious, though. Nothing else mattered.

“We need to get Gwyn to safety,” I informed my two nearby allies right before I screamed loudly. It was a wild, hilariously foolish howl, but it did what I intended. The Zengo turned, its black orb for an eye narrowing on me and my baggy jacket. I danced forward on the tips of my toes, adrenaline coursing through my veins as I envisioned the three dozens of ways this could go sideways on me in an instant. Behind me, Azuris cursed in his native language but I caught hints of the two of them sprinting to go assist Lizzy and Gwyn.

I shot out a tight beam of pressurized air at the Zengo, garnering its full attention after it got distracted with the other two. It growled, the booming sound enough to rattle my bones and the stones atop the cliff. It swept a paw at me. Too fast. I rolled as it impacted me, curling into myself just enough to avoid its jagged claws. The sheer power behind the blow was enough to shoot me off of my feet, however, and I flew across the rocky clearing.

Someone screamed. Everything sounded hollow and distant as I tried to get up. Stars aglow with red veins danced across my vision. I dug my gauntleted fingers into the stone beneath me, growling. This incessant beast thought it could kill the lot of us.

I would prove it wrong.

Another clawed limb parted the air before me. Instead of dodging to the side, I leaned into the attack. My left hand scraped the edge of its paw, and I slammed the rune atop my knuckle as soon as I felt the momentary contact. Magic slithered from my appendage to the Zengo’s in an instant. Even at a glancing blow, though, the force of the swipe nearly dislocated my shoulder as I once again found myself sprawled out on the uneven ground. I moaned. Pain in my shoulder and the back of my skull warred for attention in my mind.

I shoved it all down. I failed, for the most part, but I tried. I rolled onto my good arm and rose onto my traitorous shaky legs. The Zengo, for its part, was a bit preoccupied with the crystal sculpture my fist was making of its paw. The ascent of the Shardclaw’s poison was slow due to the sheer size of the beast, but it was inexorable now. The beast snarled, the hairs across its sizable back standing on end. I felt a pang of danger right before reality was torn asunder. Something warm slammed into my side right as extended claws ripped into the air where I was just standing.

Elio screamed atop me, his blood mingling with my own. My friend had saved me. He saved me. And I immediately saw the cost of his chivalry. His arm was a mangled mess. The split seconds replayed in my head. It had connected with the Zengo’s portal. Elio, rising pugilist, martial student of the Shadow Lord, just lost all use of his right arm.

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For me.

He hadn’t even hesitated. Guilt and rage overwhelmed my mind. His sacrifice would not be in vain. He just gave up his career as an Orion for me. Two promises had gotten me here: My vow to Kaelin that I would protect our parents, and my own to find him and aid him however I could. I was incapable of accomplishing either, and so I came to the Orion Division to gain strength and to find out what happened to my brother. Nothing else mattered.

Until now.

My eyes shifted from Elio’s tight grimace to Gwyn’s pale face as blood loss threatened to rob her of consciousness. My friends.

I will not fail you, I vowed silently to my team. Three promises, each heavier than the last, but each required one thing of me right then: to slay this foul creature that stood above me.

It sniffed, the Zengo’s massive nostrils inches from my face. Elio’s weight prevented me from easily moving. My eyes met its remaining one, and the hatred I saw there mirrored my own. It had nearly stolen two of my comrades. I would not let it make me an oathbreaker. Not today. Not ever. I wouldn’t give it another chance to hunt us. Today, I was the Hunter.

“I’m an Orion, you smug pup,” I spat through bloodied teeth. It growled back, the faintest spark of comprehension behind the fire that lurked in its gaze. “Go back to the hells where you belong.”

I watched as the thick cords of its neck muscles coiled as it prepared to rip my head off. I waited. One heartbeat. Two. It inhaled, the mighty maw of the Zengo widening to swallow me and my friend whole. Three. It lunged. I raised my right arm right in between the third and fourth heartbeat, too late for it to see my weapon aim directly down its throat. I blasted, all of the charged strike I’d been building since I fell released in a massive torrent of power.

The Zengo lurched over me in an awkward cartwheel, the abhorrent sound of broken bones and choking resonant in my ears as it flew over and past me. I tilted my head back and followed its arc. It scrambled to its feet, but the crystallized front paw made it stumble. It hacked up gallons of blood. Whatever I had shattered, it caused some serious internal damage. I rolled, careful not to disturb Elio’s injury.

My gait slow, I stumbled toward my quarry. I used the hem of my baggy sleeve to wipe the blood that dripped from my nose and onto my teeth. The Zengo raised its snout at me, growling and yipping as pain wracked its lithe form. It tried to open a portal, but it couldn’t move fast enough to enter the gate before it disappeared. This great beast was reduced to a whining animal as its petty vengeance dripped away to blind desperation.

“Thea!” Azuris yelled from somewhere behind me, no doubt to caution my advance. I ignored him. “Thea!” He yelled louder. I crept closer. The Zengo bit toward my throat, but I leaned out of the way.

“Die,” I whispered. Then, with a burst of speed, I dodged another bite and leapt onto the corner of its nose. I used the leverage as it recoiled to spring myself into the air. I entered its limited field of vision right as I landed with one feet on either side of its good eye. I didn’t hesitate. My arm punched through the large organ, and I released one of the final charges I had saved up from my compressed air. It would take a couple of minutes before the enchantment was full again, but that didn’t matter. The beast shuttered as my attack entered its skull and destroyed its brain.

The Zengo fell limp. I leapt off of its prone form and immediately fell to my knees. Exhaustion started to creep up my arms, and the pain along my side and head returned with a fury.

“Well done, rat! Now, I’ll have the pleasure of killing all of you and bagging an Epic-tiered monster.”

No. No, no, no, my mind spun. I whirled on the man who just spoke, and saw something out of my worst nightmare. James, accompanied by five elite warriors, surrounded my friends. Something was off, though. I counted off Elio, Gwyn and Azuris immediately from where I last saw them. But, behind James and his lackeys, Lizzy stood unharmed. And Gwyn’s tomahawks, all still within their holsters on the belt she wore, now lay useless across Lysandra’s shoulders.

Traitor. Lysandra was a traitor.