Chapter 78: Cht 78: Wild Tremor
But their reunion didn’t stay peaceful despite the forest had gone quiet.
Too quiet.
Gin crouched in the shadow of a fallen tree, his silver-blue fur matted with dried blood and patches of dirt, the sting of old wounds nagging with every subtle movement. Even without spiritual sense extended, he could feel it. A ripple across the ethereal fabric of the wilderness, like a drumbeat in the roots. Something was coming. And not just one thing.
His ears twitched, instincts honed from countless battles sharpening with each breath. It wasn’t like before. This was different.
"Another wave," Mira-Saira, he corrected himself silently as she murmured with anticipation. She stood calmly, water coiling around her arms like obedient serpents, her eyes sharp and focused.
Wind hummed softly behind her, circling Xingning as her sleeves fluttered from the unseen breeze. She gave no verbal cue, only a subtle tilt of the head. Her lips were sealed, but Gin could read the tension in her shoulders. She felt it too.
And then,
The forest erupted.
From the dense thickets deeper within the wilderness, beasts surged forth like a flood. Dozens at first then hundreds. Gin saw them pouring out from behind gnarled trees and shattered hills, a mixed tide of chaos. Normal beasts mixed with corrupted beasts, all jumbled together in one wave of feral destruction without affecting one another.
The air reeked of blood and rotting essence. Twisted energy radiated from their bodies. Some flickering with remnants of corrupted fire, others twitching unnaturally as if puppeteered.
Jean, still resting lazily on Gin’s back as a small winged lizard, stood up on her hind legs.