After partaking of the sweet ar from a flower, a loterfly gracefully takes flight, s into a nearby tree. Its wings, adorned with colors that seamlessly blend with the foliage, ceal it within the branches.

  Suddenly, the unfiving ws of nature bore its fangs and the i creature unwittingly fell prey to a silky prison—a perfectly woven spider web.

  Zephyr let out a tented yawn, fortably sprawled out on his stoma the lush grass. In addition to the e’s reassuring presehe Beastfolk unity, overjoyed by the survival of Rexar, Elena, and Milo, exuded a renewed sense of enthusiasm and fidence.

  Temporarily forsaking their mound-like dwellings, they embraced the beauty of nature within the embrace of the barrier. As children frolicked in py, the adults were busy using ingredients that Daisuke left behind to make a celebratory feast in preparation for the heroes’ return from the mountain.

  While her people reveled in the absence of fear, Timartha shifted her attention to the lounging wolf pup with little faith. However, it was Sylvia who voiced her s.

  “Is it really wise to entrust our lives to this wolf?” she muttered anxiously as the e pyfully rolled over, exposing its furry underbelly. “It’s obviously an infant.”

  Feng, Timartha, awo female aides were visibly perturbed by the question.

  “Why do you think Haxks and the others went to the mountain?” asked Mia.

  “…To put a stop to the demons ond for all,” responded Aldric as he joihe se.

  “But to what end?” Mia tinued.

  “To protect the vilge,” one of Timartha’s aides replied.

  “I’ve known Haxks since we were kids,” admitted Mia, reminisg. “But now that I think about it, he never behaved like a child—he was always calm and calg, like an adult. It was his leadership that ensured a lot of children could eat.”

  Mia shifted her gaze from the eager group to the sunbathing pup. “Exterminating the demons would be pointless if the vilge is destroyed in the process. Haxks knows this, which is why I’m sure Zephyr may be some sort of secret on.”

  “For your sake, child… and all of ours,” Timartha began as the pup chased his tail, “I really hope that you’re right.”

  “Will Big Brother and the others really be okay?” April asked in a mencholie, looking toward the distant mountain.

  “I’m sure they’ll be fine,” reassured Feng with a smile. “After what they went through in the dungeon, it’s clear that they’re leagues above your average adventurer.”

  April turned her gaze toward Mia questioningly, and the girl nodded in agreement. “He’s right—I’m sure Brother is more than capable of handling a bunch of demons,” she said while stroking the girl’s hair.

  All of a sudden, Zephyr pushed to his feet with an urgency that caught everyone’s attention. Raising his nose skyward, the e she air with a grunt, his fur bristling as he he stench of something sinister and fast approag.

  “Ruff!” the pup barked, a warning that needed no transtion.

  Without hesitation, Feng sprioward the adults, vigorously waving his arms. “It’s the demons!” he roared. “Get back to your houses! Hurry!”

  Sylvia and Mia hastily herded the kids back to their families who were relut to retreat otherwise. Then they hurried baartha and her aides who were frozen in pce.

  “Grandma!” Sylvia called breathlessly, clutg the woman’s arm. “What’re you doing? We o get away!”

  “Do you all have a death wish?!” Feng snapped. “We don’t have much time! We o get back to the mound!”

  “To what ely?” Timartha protested. “If the demons mao raid again, Elmridge is finished.”

  Sharing her ses, the few men who remained following the multiple waves of invasions in the past, arrived on the se. They were all firmly gripping their age-old farming equipment.

  “We have to offer support to the wolf in whatever way we ,” Timartha urged, rallying the vilgers. “If he falls, the entire vilge goes along with him!”

  “My boy was on the brink of death until Milo healed him,” one man began, waving his pitchfork. “I’ll be damned before I let him get hurt again!”

  “My daughter is all I have left,” another man murmured angrily. “I won’t… I ’t afford to lose her too.”

  As tensions boiled among the vilgers, Zephyr sed his surroundings with faculties that people couldn’t even begin to fathom. A howl ced with the Antagonize skill had the demons stopping iracks.

  Instead of surrounding the vilge and seeping through the cealment barrier from all dires, they all gushed into the vilge like a virus from a malignant wound, stampeding toward the source of the infuriating howl.

  The vilge folk flinched ba trepidation. Memories of the demons’ fiendish deeds and the grief they caused painted a foe in the hearts of the people that was more horrendous than it really was.

  Creatures a few ialler than goblins charged into the vilge in droves. The horns on their heads enpassed the space where eye sockets should have been.

  A hard exoskeleton carved sharp teeth in the gaping hole that was their mouths, and their gnarled and emaciated bodies had indest veins running through them like the magma of a volo.

  Timartha fell to her knees.

  “Th-There’s too many of them,” a man stuttered.

  “We’re sorely outnumbered,” another muttered.

  April g to Mia in fright, and Aldric stood defensively in front of them. Sylvia ced her fingers and began to pray while Feng grounded his teeth in frustration as he clutched a worn-out sword that had seeer days.

  Zephyr held his ground as the creatures drew heir eerie screeches and menag cws did little to deter the e. His hackles became more erect as he took a deep breath, then from his snout, a sea of fmes unfurled like a tidal wave, mercilessly ing the demons like flint ting fire.

  The vilgers looked on in abject shock, even more so when Zephyr zily sprawled out on his belly in the grass again.

  “H-He really was able to defeat them all on his own,” murmured Timartha in a dumbfouone.

  Noting the telling vibrations rippling through its web, a monstrous spider slowly began encroag uporuggling butterfly, only to be ensnared and devoured by a creature resembling a praying mantis.

  ***

  Hundreds of thoughts surged through Rexar’s mind—traitor isn’t one he particurly wao sider. But the uling notion of betrayal cwed its way to the forefront of his mind as the assassin’s bde traced a deadly path toward his face. The lingering hum of pain from Daisuke’s boot in his back served as a haunting remihat his impending demise was an oute of his friend’s intervention. However, just before his head lit in twain—

  PUOK-PUOK-PUOK!

  Three darts, smeared in a suspicious purple liquid, flew over his head and embedded themselves in the far side of the wall. Elena and Milo were caught in a whirlwind of astonishment while Rexar awkwardly colpsed on his face like a discarded rug.

  With hands casually tucked in his pockets, Daisuke leisurely lowered his leg. “The assassin was just an illusion.”

  “Shifting attention away from the gehreat,” Milo crified in arm as his gaze darted to the other side of the wall that now revealed a series of holes that haded moments before. “While the intruder fixates on the illusion, they’re fatally wounded by the physical ons cealed in the walls.”

  “And by the looks of it,” Elena observed with a frown, watg a droplet of the ominous liquid fall from the metallic dart to the ground. “It’s obvious that the projectiles are coated in poison.”

  Rexar raised his head, spitting out the dirt that had gotten into his mouth. Then with a rueful expression, he looked up at Daisuke who was now crouched down in front of him.

  “…Sorry, I messed up.”

  Daisuke flicked his forehead. “No o hurt this time, but we may not be as luext time. Follow my lead and try not to be led astray.”

  Rexar hung his head dejectedly, but he nodded in uanding before casting Elena and Milo a repentant gaze. But instead of an acg expression, the duo smiled supportively, which brought back a tinge of color to Rexar’s face.