Hunter Of The Six Realms

Chapter 6

"I noticed during the fight..." Kaizen said quietly, eyes still fixed on his dagger as he replayed the fight in his memory, "It fought like a human. The way it dodged, its stance, the spacing between its strikes... all of that felt too intentional."

The squad and everyone listening all turned toward him.

"It immediately went after the healer on it’s first attack, a sign that it knew exactly what it was doing."

"And that glitchy movement..." Kaizen continued, glancing up at Stark, "You’ve seen it before, haven’t you?"

Starks eyes widened as he recalled... "Damn how could I miss that....i’ve actually seen it, but it was only once. In a duel against a high-tier Ice realm user. It’s a rare technique, some call it a phase-step or mirror dash. Ice users with full control of mana manipulation can ’blink’ short distances by freezing the moisture around them and breaking movement frames."

"But that thing didn’t use ice," Kira said slowly. "Not even a flicker of elemental energy."

Kaizen nodded. "Exactly. I think... it forgot. Like the mind was gone, but the body still remembered. Or maybe it couldn’t use magic anymore after it had turned beast."

There was a long silence.

"You’re saying it was human?" Lara asked, her tone in disbelief but skeptical.

Kaizen didn’t answer immediately. He pulled the cloth from his belt and wiped his blade again, slow and steady. "Not anymore. But it used to be."

"That’s impossible." Rael leaned against a boulder, still clutching his side. "Humans can’t survive portal conversion. The moment a non-beast gets pulled through the rift, they die. Everyone knows that."