Zylus was useless.
The word burned through his skull even before the Skivven's claws did.
Its scythe-like talons tore across his chest, slicing cloth, skin, and soul. Blood sprayed sideways in a geyser of red. Zylus staggered, arms limp at his sides, mouth opening in a silent scream.
His muscles trembled. His knees buckled.
CRUNCH!
His back hit a jagged root with a sickening crack. Ribs cracked. The air was ripped from his lungs.
And then-
The world dimmed.
Colours drained from the forest like water slipping through fingers. The Skivven… That nightmare of tendrils and teeth flowed like smoke. Vanishing into his shadow.
Zylus gasped.
Cold. Crushed. Helpless. The weight of the world was pressing down on him. Something inside screamed.
Too late.
The Amora within him… The light, the fire… Was being devoured.
SSSK-SSSK-SSSK…
Wet. Slurping. Like a straw at the end of a drink.
It was drinking his soul.
"No…" Zylus whispered. His voice cracked. "Stop…"
His veins lit up, but not with light. With a void.
Darkness.
It coiled through him, turning his blood cold. His fingers curled against the dirt. His chest flickered. His light was dying.
Then-
"Enough!"
WHOOOOOOOM!
A torrent of wind exploded through the clearing. The Skivven screeched, ripped from Zylus in a blink.
Ren landed like a meteor, hair wild, palm thrust forward.
"Amora Control: Hurricane Cradle!" Ren roared, his voice cracking with desperation and power.
The air stilled.
Then it shuddered.
Zylus rolled away, grasping, coughing blood. His left arm dangled, bone jutting from the elbow. His ankle bent in the wrong way. Vision swam.
Wind spiralled into a cocoon around Zylus, lifting him gently away. WOOSH! Shadow tendrils reached out, but were batted back.
Wind wrapped around Zylus like arms, lifting him gently from the bloody dirt. Invisible hands swirled beneath him, cushioning each inch of his mangled body with precise, surgeon-like care. Even the falling blood was caught mid-air and pushed away.
The Skivven lunged again, tendrils reaching through the shadow.
FWOOSH!
The wind sang a high, whistling harmony. And the tendrils were snapped back, shredded into threads by invisible blades of air.
Inside the Hurricane Cradle, it was warm. Calm. Safe. A womb of Amora, shielded from shadow.
Zylus grasped. He could feel it. Ren's heartbeat. His fear. His hope. His rage. All channelled through the wind that surrounded him.
The Cradle wasn't just a shield.
It was a message…
"You are not alone."
And then… It broke.
The wind shuddered. The cocoon shimmered… then cracked like glass under pressure.
Ren's legs gave out.
The spiralling air stuttered once, then collapsed in on itself with a soft whumpf, vanishing into nothing.
Ren dropped beside him, gripping his shoulders. "Zylus! I'm so sorry! I couldn't get here faster. That form takes focus. But you're okay now, you're safe-. Zylus?!"
But Zylus wasn't listening.
He was staring at the monster.
Still alive.
Still grinning.
It had tasted his soul.
And he had just lain there.
Again.
Like with his father. Like with the crowd.
Like always.
Zylus blinked. His chest heaved. He looked at his own hands. Trembling… Useless.
"I-I couldn't do anything…" He choked. "It just took it… All of it. My Amora, my strength. Like none of it even mattered."
"Zylus, no-" Ren shook his head. "It's a Skivven. They drain Amora. It's not your fault-"
"Don't. Say. That." Zylus growled, shoving his hand away. "I just keep getting saved. Over and over again."
Ren froze.
And then his face changed. His lips trembled. His fists clenched at his sides.
"I didn't save you because I think you're weak," Ren said quietly. "I saved you because I care. Because we're friends. Because seeing you hurt, it… It feels like I'm the one bleeding. And I couldn't bear losing you, not when I just found you."
Zylus stood. Shaky. Bleeding. One leg trembling. One arm limp. Eyes burning.
"I'm not a kid, you know," Zylus growled, rising to his feet. One leg shaking uncontrollably, blood streaming down his brow and back. His knuckles clenched.
The Skivven hissed from the treeline, its body weaving back into the shadow canopy like a snake tasting the air. One eye gleamed. Hungry.
Zylus turned toward it.
No weapons.
No Amora.
Just his fists.
"I'll fight it. Alone."
Ren grabbed his wrist. "Zylus, don't be stupid-!
"I am stupid. Reckless. Stubborn. Weak. But I'm mine. And I will never run."
His voice cracked with fury, eyes locked on the Skivven like flint on steel.
"But… What if you die, Zylus!? I-I can't… do another form…" He whispered. "That was everything… I can't save you anymore if you go in there by yourself."
"I don't care if I die-! I need to know if I can stand. That I can fight."
The wind stilled.
The trees stopped whispering.
"But Zylus! Just stop!" We're in this together!"
"I'm tired of people looking down on me. I'll save myself. I don't need others saving me. Even when I'm bleeding down a mountain, I'll climb it… Stand on top of its peak."
The Skivven's pupils expanded. Its tendrils slithered.
It liked this.
It leapt.
Zylus didn't hesitate. He charged, but not blindly.
"ZYLUS!" Ren screamed in worry.
Zylus ran low, shoulder first, then veered sharply. The Skivven swiped where his head had been, but Zylus dove into a roll, scooping up a rock mid-motion.
Adapt. Breathe. Move.
The forest floor was uneven. Roots, dirt and his shadow.
The Skivven twisted back, snarling, tendrils flaring like angry whips.
Zylus threw the rock, not at the Skivven, but at the base of a branch overhead.
CRACK!
It snapped, falling in a sharp arc. The Skivven flinched. That hesitation was all Zylus needed.
He grabbed a jagged stick from the ground and sprinted around a mossy tree, vanishing behind it just as the creature lunged again.
Thump.
It landed, but its claws sliced only bark. Zylus feigned the direction the Skivven thought he was coming from.
From behind, Zylus jumped onto its back, screaming from the pain he had endured. He jammed the stick into one of its tendrils, pinning it to the dirt. The Skivven shrieked, twisting violently. One tendril sliced open his shoulder.
But he didn't let go.
Not this time.
He reached up, yanked a vine from the tree, and wrapped it around the creature's snout as it turned to bite.
"Go back to the shadow you crawled out of!" Zylus roared, pulling with every ounce of strength he had left.
The vine strained.
The Skivven struggled. Trapped and momentarily blinded.
SLAM!
Zylus clenched his fist and slammed it into the creature's face, again and again, even as blood streamed down his arm and pain lanced through his side.
He screamed the pain away, grabbed the creature by the neck, lifted, and threw it into a tree.
KRRAAACK!
His knuckles split. But the Skivven wasn't done.
The creature bounced, rebounded, and pounced.
SKREEEEEEEE!
It tackled him, shadow blades digging into his ribs.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Zylus fell.
Twitching. Bleeding.
Finished.
"ZYLUS!!" Ren screamed.
Ren ran forward, tears burning trails down his cheeks, heart racing. "No, no no no. Not like this!" He cried. He didn't know what to do. His hands hovered helplessly over Zylus's shredded torso, blood soaking into the earth. He couldn't do anything. He had already used up all the concentrated energy he had in the first attack. But he couldn't let it end like this.
His friend. His friend was dying.
"Don't you dare leave me!" Ren shouted, voice cracking. Wind stirred violently around him, unbidden, born from panic. "Not when I just started believing in something again!"
Zylus blinked through the blur. He felt cold. So cold.
So this is it, huh? I honestly forgot what it was like to have others around me. But I knew I would've learned it from you... Ren.
The Skivven raised one claw, curved and dripping.
For the kill.
Then-
"Tch. Showoff."
FWIP!-TINGGGG!!
A card. An actual playing card whirled through the air like a blade.
JOKER
Cards surrounded the Skivven. A swift placement of engraving a seal in the earth was made. It pulsed once or twice-
Each card played a swift role in the circulation concealment.
The Skivven screamed as it was yanked into the center of the seal and slammed into the earth. Then, all cards faced down surrounding the creature and created a pressure of mystical illisutions covered by strong wind.
Smoke curled.
Silence.
And then…
A slow clap.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow. Amused. Dangerous.
A silhouette stepped through the haze.
"Training hasn't even started," said a voice above the haze. "And you've already pissed yourself on the battlefield."
Zylus blinked up through the blur.
A figure stood over him.
The coat was torn at the edges. A trail of playing cards floating behind like feathers. One between his fingers.
Medrus.
He tossed the card in the air, and it stuck to his tongue. He chewed it like gum. "Don't worry, kid," he said with a wicked grin. "Your turn's coming."
And then he turned to the Skivven, who was still twitching, still trying to slither back into shadow.
Medrus blew a kiss.
A ring of cards encircled the monster in mid-air.
Each card is lit with a blue eye.
"Wild Card Technique: House Of Pain."
The forest flickered. Shadows folded in strange ways.
The Skivven charged straight into a wall that hadn't been there.
Wind spun like a cyclone.
It looked up… And ten Medruses looked back.
One Medrus stepped forward. The real one.
His card glowed in the windlight, sharp and final.
The Skiven lunged.
Medrus whispered, "Fold."
The card flashed.
Shadow evaporated. Screams vanished. Only silence remained.
Medrus looked down at Zylus.
"So," he said. "Still feel useless?"
Zylus coughed, blood on his lips. But this time, he grinned.
"Less than before."
Medrus snorted.
"Good answer."
Ren dropped beside him, wiping blood from Zylus's cheek. He looked at Medrus, eyes still wide, voice thick with emotion.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Medrus winked. "Don't thank me yet, windboy. You two are just getting started.
Ren turned back to Zylus, cradling his head gently. "I thought I lost you," he murmured, tears still welling in his eyes. "I was so scared… I couldn't breathe, I-I thought you were gone."
Zylus gave a faint smile, bloodied but alive. "Sorry… For scaring you."
Ren shook his head. "Don't apologize. Just… Don't do that again. Not like that. We fight together. Always."
Their fingers brushed.
Even in the aftermath, even through the pain-
The bond between them shone brighter than the darkness that tried to swallow them.
And somewhere behind them, Medrus just grinned.
The real training had only just begun.