Long-press a paragraph to send danmaku
"Don't move."
Liv's voice came from behind me, low and sharp. I froze halfway through tying the strip of cloth around my arm. Blood still dripped from the gash the beast left, warm and sticky.
"I'm not—"
"I said don't move." She stepped around to face me, knife in hand. My knife. The one I gave her thirty seconds ago. "That thing in your pocket. It's glowing."
I looked down. The shard was pulsing red through the torn fabric of my jeans, brighter than before. The progress bar hung in the air between us, solid as glass.
**Quest Complete: Survive First Blood. Reward Available. Confirm to Level Up.**
"What is that?" Liv pointed the knife at the floating text. Her hand didn't shake. "What language?"
"You can see it?"
"Answer me."
"I don't know what it is." I kept my hands where she could see them. "It showed up when I touched the stone. Your stone."
"Our stone doesn't do that."
"Well it does now."
She moved closer, eyes locked on the progress bar. The tip of the knife stayed level with my throat. "Read it."
"It says I leveled up."
"Leveled up." She repeated the words like they tasted wrong. "What does that mean?"
"In a game it means you get stronger. Learn new skills."
"This isn't a game."
"No shit."
The shard pulsed again, hotter now. I could feel it through the denim, like holding a phone that's been charging too long. The progress bar started flashing.
**Warning: Reward window closing in 60 seconds. Confirm or forfeit.**
"It's giving me a countdown," I said. "One minute."
"To do what?"
"I don't know. Accept the reward or lose it, I guess."
"Then lose it." Liv grabbed my wrist, yanked the shard out of my pocket. It burned her palm immediately. She hissed and dropped it. "What did you do to it?"
"I didn't do anything. It bonded to me. You saw it."
"Unbond."
"I don't know how."
She kicked the shard toward me. It rolled to a stop against my boot, still glowing. "Pick it up."
I picked it up. The heat didn't hurt me. The progress bar expanded, showing a skill tree now. One node lit up.
**New Skill Available: Predator Sense. Detect hostile intent within 15 meters. Cost: 1 Skill Point. Accept Yes/No.**
"What does it say now?" Liv asked.
"It's offering me a skill. Predator Sense. Lets me know when something wants to kill me."
"Useful."
"Except you're standing right here, so I already know."
Her mouth twitched. Not quite a smile. "Take it."
"What?"
"Take the skill. If we're walking out of here, I need to know what's hunting us before it jumps."
"And if I don't?"
"Then I leave you here and take the stone when you're too weak to stop me."
I looked at the countdown. Thirty seconds.
"If I take it, does something happen? Like, I don't know, an explosion?"
"How would I know?"
"It's your sacred relic."
"It was a dead rock for two hundred years. You're the one who woke it up."
Twenty seconds.
The gash on my arm throbbed. My legs felt like water. I'd been awake in this nightmare for less than a day and I'd already almost died twice. No food. No water. No idea where I was.
Liv watched me. The knife stayed in her hand. "Decide."
"If this gets us both killed—"
"Then we die. Better than staying here."
Ten seconds.
I pressed **Yes**.
The shard exploded with light.
Not an explosion. Worse. A beam. A column of red light ripped straight up through the canopy, so bright I had to close my eyes. I felt the heat of it on my face, tasted copper in the back of my throat. The sound was like a turbine spooling up, high and sharp and wrong.
"What did you do?" Liv grabbed my shoulder, shook me. "What did you do?"
"I don't know!"
The light cut off. The forest went silent. Even the wind stopped.
I opened my eyes. The progress bar was gone. New text floated in its place.
**Level 2. Predator Sense: Active. Warning: Level-up beacon transmitted. Hostile entities alerted to your position.**
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."
"What? What does it say?"
"It says everyone knows where we are now."
Liv stepped back, looked up at the canopy. The trees were scorched black in a perfect circle above us, branches still smoking. "Everyone?"
"Everyone."
"How far?"
"I don't know. Far."
She turned in a slow circle, scanning the tree line. Her grip on the knife shifted. "Then we move. Now."
"Which way?"
"Away from here." She started walking, fast, not looking back to see if I followed. "And you're going to tell me everything that stone shows you. Every word."
"Sure. Great. Love the teamwork energy."
"Shut up and move."
I shoved the shard back in my pocket and ran after her. My arm screamed. My lungs burned. The new skill hummed in the back of my head like a migraine, feeding me information I didn't want.
Something was already moving toward us. Multiple somethings. Fast.
"Liv."
"I know."
"How do you know?"
"Birds stopped singing."
I listened. She was right. The forest had gone dead quiet.
"How long do we have?" she asked.
"The skill says fifteen meters. Nothing yet."
"Then we run faster."
We ran.
The trees blurred past. My boots caught on roots, rocks, something that might have been bones. Liv moved like she'd been born in these woods, barely making a sound. I sounded like a garbage truck.
The skill pinged. A cold spike of pressure behind my eyes.
"Something's here," I said.
"How many?"
"I don't know. It doesn't give me numbers. Just direction."
"Where?"
"Left. No, wait. Left and behind."
Liv changed direction without slowing, angling right. "Stay close."
Another ping. Stronger this time.
"More coming. Ahead of us."
"They're boxing us in."
"Who's they?"
"Does it matter?"
We broke through into a clearing. A stream cut across the middle, water black and fast. On the other side, three figures stepped out of the trees.
Not warriors. Worse.
They wore bone masks. White and smooth, carved to look like human faces but wrong, too long, too many teeth. Rough cloth robes, stitched with symbols I didn't recognize. Each one carried a staff, topped with bundles of feathers and blackened metal.
Liv stopped so fast I almost ran into her. "Bonewalkers."
"Friends of yours?"
"Priests. Fanatics." She backed up a step, pulling me with her. "They want the stone."
The one in the center raised his staff. He spoke, voice muffled behind the mask, words I couldn't understand. Old words. Harsh.
Liv answered in the same language, short and sharp. She sounded angry.
The priest tilted his head. Then he laughed.
"What did he say?" I asked.
"He said the First Holder has woken. He said I should step aside."
"What did you say?"
"I told him to try and take it."
The priest raised his staff higher. The other two moved to flank him, spreading out along the stream bank.
My new skill screamed. All three of them lit up in my head like flares, hostile intent so thick I could taste it.
"Liv, we need to move."
"Can't. Two more behind us."
I looked back. She was right. Two more bone masks, stepping out of the trees we'd just come through. We were surrounded.
The center priest spoke again. This time I caught one word. **Aiden.**
My name.
"How does he know my name?" I whispered.
"The stone told him." Liv's voice stayed flat, but I saw her hand tighten on the knife. "It knows you. Now they all do."
The priest pointed his staff at me. The feathers caught fire, blue and cold.
"Liv."
"I know."
"What do we do?"
"You run. I hold them."
"That's a terrible plan."
"You have a better one?"
The skill pinged again. Not from the priests. From somewhere else. Something farther away, moving fast, closing in on the clearing.
Something big.
I grabbed Liv's arm. "Something else is coming."
"What?"
"I don't know. But it's worse than them."
The priest lowered his staff. He turned, slowly, looking past us into the trees. The other four did the same. They felt it too.
The forest went silent again.
Then the ground shook.
Something stepped into the clearing behind the priests. Something that made the Bonewalkers look small.
It stood on two legs, but it wasn't human. Gray skin, thick as armor plating. Arms too long, tipped with claws that dragged the ground. No eyes. Just a smooth expanse of bone where a face should be, split down the middle by a mouth full of teeth.
A Remnant.
The priests scattered.
The Remnant roared.
Liv grabbed my hand. "Run."
We ran.
Behind us, the screaming started.
The skill lit up like a firework, hostile intent in every direction. The Remnant. The priests. Something else in the water. Something else in the trees.
"This was your level-up reward?" Liv shouted.
"I didn't know!"
"Next time don't press yes!"
"You told me to press yes!"
She yanked me left, down along the stream bank. Water sprayed up, ice-cold. My boots slipped on wet stone. I went down hard, caught myself on my bad arm, bit back a scream.
Liv pulled me up. "Move."
I moved.
The Remnant crashed through the trees behind us. Branches snapped. Something heavy hit the ground. One of the priests, maybe. I didn't look back.
The skill pinged.
Ahead. Close.
I pulled Liv to a stop. "Wait."
"What?"
"Something's in front of us."
"The Remnant's behind us."
"I know, but—"
A figure stepped into our path.
Another bone mask. Taller than the others. His staff was different, topped with a shard of black glass that pulsed with the same red light as mine.
A second shard.
He spoke. One word.
"Aiden."
The skill didn't just ping. It screamed.
Liv stepped in front of me. "Bonewalker."
The tall priest tilted his head. He looked at her. Then at me. Then he smiled behind the mask. I could hear it in his voice.
"First Holder," he said in broken English. "You wake. Good."
He raised his staff.
The second shard flared bright.
And somewhere far to the north, in a stone temple buried in ice, Vald Bonewalker opened his eyes.
His shard burned in his palm, hot enough to scar.
He looked at the light. He looked at the direction it pointed.
And he smiled.
"First Holder's awake," he said.
Behind him, twelve priests knelt in the dark.
"Find him."