Chapter 118 – A Prey That Refuses to Be Caught

  Bound by Shadows

  Kinata’s grip tightened around Seven like a living iron shackle—warm fur, coiled muscle, and the unmistakable pressure of a predator’s dominance. Every breath he drew scraped painfully through his ribs.

  Her breath brushed his ear, low and mocking.

  “You’re still struggling? Humans really never learn.”

  Lyra, towering beside her in her true 90-foot form, flipped a poisoned kunai idly between two fingers, her golden eyes bright with amusement.

  “You’re entertaining, Seven,” she purred. “Most prey freeze. You fight. I like that.”

  Seven ground his teeth. Every word they spoke oozed the casual cruelty of apex hunters who knew nothing could challenge them.

  What made it worse wasn’t the strength pinning him.

  It was the hunger.

  Kinata’s eyes narrowed, her voice soft but edged with the thrill of the hunt.

  “If Lady Lumin hadn’t taken interest in you…”

  She leaned in, her lips almost grazing his cheek.

  “…you’d already be in my stomach.”

  A cold spike ran down Seven’s spine.

  She meant it.

  Every step they’d trailed him. Every moment, she’d watched from the snowfields. Every heartbeat during the chase—

  She was deciding when to devour him.

  Her tail tightened around his waist and thigh, squeezing just hard enough to make his lungs hitch.

  “But don’t worry,” she murmured, golden pupils thinning like a beast ready to pounce.

  “Even if I can’t eat you… you’ll still belong to us.”

  Lyra tapped the flat of her blade against his chin, smirking.

  “And I want to test this ‘wing weapon’ of yours later. Very rare… very interesting.”

  Seven’s pulse hammered.

  He wasn’t a prisoner.

  He wasn’t a hostage.

  He was prey.

  And he refused to die as prey.

  The Struggle — A Hunter’s Last Defiance

  Seven’s thoughts sharpened.

  He had one move.

  One suicidal, body-breaking move.

  He inhaled sharply—and activated Enchanted Combat.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Not the careful 1.25× the Guild drilled into him.

  Not the reckless 2×.

  He went straight to 4×.

  Red glitching sigils tore open across his limbs like jagged lightning. His muscles ballooned with raw force. Pain detonated through him as fibers shredded under the impossible strain.

  Kinata actually paused—her ears perking in surprise.

  “Oh? You’re willing to break yourself?”

  Seven’s voice cracked through clenched teeth:

  “—I’m not… your prey!” The words burst forth defiantly, echoing with a fierce determination that sliced through the tension in the air.

  His bionic arm spasmed from the sudden surge, but he forced mana into it anyway, then cast Minor Healing.

  Green sigils flared beneath the red, barely patching the ruptured tissue before the next tear rippled through him.

  “God—this pain is like nothing I've ever felt before!”

  But it worked.

  For a split second.

  Kinata’s grip loosened—not from fear, but from genuine shock.

  “Interesting,” she murmured.

  Seven twisted violently, his body bulking and condensing in a single explosive motion—

  He slipped free.

  Lyra blinked.

  “What—?!”

  Seven didn’t hesitate.

  He lunged for the Nameless Wing Rifle she’d been examining, ripped it from her belt—

  BOOOOM!

  A vicious mana blast detonated inches from Lyra’s face.

  It didn’t wound her—but the flash blinded her, her head snapping to the side with a hiss.

  “TSK—! You little—!”

  Seven didn’t wait for her to finish.

  He hit the ground hard, rolled, pushed off with every screaming muscle—

  And ran.

  His legs felt like they were tearing apart.

  His lungs burned.

  His arm spasmed violently from corrupted Aether backlash.

  But he ran.

  For the first time since stepping into the facility—

  He was free.

  Behind him, Kinata’s lips curled upward in a slow, savage smile.

  “Oh… So you can run.”

  Her tail lashed once, amusement sparking in her eyes as her predatory instinct surged.

  Lyra wiped the mana-flare from her gaze, snarling.

  “Kinata… he actually slipped away.”

  Kinata’s laugh rumbled through the snow like distant thunder.

  “Mm. Let him run.”

  Her eyes glowed.

  “Prey tastes better when it believes it has a chance.”

  A Desperate Escape

  “Oh no you don’t.”

  Kinata’s voice dropped, low and delighted—

  the sound a predator makes when prey chooses to flee.

  Her colossal frame shifted, muscles rippling beneath snow-dusted fur as she lunged forward. One swipe of her claws tore trenches through the earth, stopping inches from Seven’s heels.

  Seven hurled himself sideways, rolling as the ground behind him erupted.

  “For crying out loud—!"

  He had survived Gorm.

  He had fought Wyverns.

  He had survived starvation and winter.

  But nothing… NOTHING… moved like a fully aware Aku huntress.

  His lungs burned, his vision blurred, but he forced himself forward—toward the thick forest where a titan’s size could become a disadvantage.

  Behind him, Kinata and Lyra moved as if the blizzard obeyed them.

  Every step shook the earth.

  Every breath carried across the valley.

  “You’re fast, Seven,” Lyra called, voice echoing with playful contempt.

  “But let’s see if you can outrun THIS—”

  A black whip of shadow magic lashed from her hand.

  Seven dove behind a snow-laden boulder—

  BOOM

  —ice shattered, trees split, debris rained down.

  “I thought you wanted me alive!!!” he shouted, sprinting again.

  Lyra laughed.

  “We do! Mostly!”

  Seven grimaced as his legs screamed.

  His healing bursts were burning through stamina faster than he anticipated.

  The 4× Enchanted Combat multiplier was tearing his muscles just as quickly as it repaired them.

  He felt like his body was on fire.

  But he ran anyway.

  A Clash of Scale and Strategy

  “You’re only making this harder for yourself!”

  Kinata’s voice boomed behind him, followed by the snapping of trees.

  Seven skidded across the snow, nearly losing his footing.

  Think.

  Running in the open is suicide.

  Use the terrain. Use the forest.

  His eyes flicked toward the densest cluster of trees—massive trunks packed tightly together.

  If he reached that—

  Lyra realized what he was doing.

  “Damn it—he’s heading for the woods!”

  But Kinata…

  …was smiling.

  Seven’s boots dug into the powder as he made his final sprint toward the tree line—

  And froze.

  Kinata was already there.

  Waiting.

  She had predicted the trajectory from the moment he pivoted.

  “Adorable,” she whispered, a playful smile dancing on her lips. “You really believed you could be unpredictable, didn’t you?”

  Seven barely had time to turn before a blur of white skin and black filled his vision.

  Her massive hand swept horizontally—

  CRACK!

  Pain tore through his side as he was launched through the air like a rag doll.

  His ears rang.

  His ribs screamed.

  His vision dimmed.

  He smashed through one tree trunk—

  —and then another—

  —and then another.

  Only Enchanted Combat saved his bones from snapping outright.

  He finally crashed into the snow, rolling violently until everything stopped.

  For a moment, he couldn’t breathe.

  He tasted copper.

  He heard nothing.

  Then—

  “…Still alive,” he wheezed.

  Barely.

  Kinata stepped toward the crater his body had carved into the snow. Even moving lightly, her footfalls shook the frost from branches overhead.

  She crouched, examining the impact.

  A smear of blood.

  A collapsed trail of snow.

  Footprints leading into the shadows of the forest.

  He’d slipped away. Again.

  But not from her.

  Her tail flicked once—amused, excited.

  “You got away, Seven,” she whispered, voice warm with the thrill of the hunt.

  “But only because I let you.”

  Lyra landed beside her, irritation radiating from every movement.

  “Tch… stubborn human.”

  “That’s what makes him interesting.”

  Kinata straightened, her towering silhouette framed by the forest. “Let him run. He won’t reach Novastra before collapsing. And if he does… the barrier will protect him. For now.”

  Lyra smirked. “For now.”

  Kinata glanced back at the unconscious numbered human—Dev—slung over Lyra's shoulder.

  His number glowed weakly.

  “He’ll be useful,” she said. “Lady Lumin will want to see this one.”

  “And Seven?” Lyra asked, licking a shadow-coated fang.

  Kinata’s eyes gleamed.

  “He’ll come back on his own.

  Prey always returns to the path laid for them.”

  With their trophy secured, and their prey wounded but alive, the two Aku titans turned away—

  The hunt unfinished.

  The game far from over.