Chapter 105: Hunter’s Proving
---
Suddenly A low growl drifted. Out of the far gloom skulked three Sulphur Jackals, desert canids, hides studded with obsidian shards, amber eyes leaking acid tears. Two star rank, but pack synergy nasty. They’d sniffed spilled aura.
Kai rotated his spear three hundred and sixty degrees. "Fenn, Brask! Tight wedge." Metal clanged.
Jackals prowled closer, tongues sizzling sand. The first lunged at them. Brask’s tower‑shield absorbed but hissed where acid splashed. Kai slipped sideways, skewered its ribs, and popped the beast heart. EXP +30.
The other two converged. Kai duck low, forcing one to leap, then spiked its belly mid‑air. Brask smashed the last with his shield edge, Jun flung a glyph that froze acid mid‑spit. EXP +30, +30.
[Ding! 290/1 000...] Not enough.
He sniffed deeper gloom, larger signatures. He glanced at Mia: she sat motionless, crystal light pulsing into her thorax, aura spiralling upward like a slow comet. Disturbing her now risked aura deviation.
Kai tugged Fenn close. "I’ll sweep the south gallery, solo. Keep the ring sealed. If a bigger beast pushes, retreat behind Jun’s runes."
"Yes, sir."
South gallery descended in corkscrew, slick stone, sulphur stink. Kai felt Miryam’s egg grow warm: unease or enthusiasm? Hard to tell.
Forty metres down the chamber widened into stalactite forest. And there they waited: Obsidian Moles, blind three‑star diggers, eleven of them chewing crystals.