Zhao didn’t hesitate, the moment of surprise was all he needed.
“Keep them safe!” he ordered the auxiliary with the calcium-plated snail, just as he launched himself toward the group of attackers.
The other three auxiliaries followed his lead, each moving with practiced coordination. Their beasts manifested fully.
The wind lynx bearer moved like a gust toward the enemy on the left, his claws gleaming in the darkness. The beast’s speed made him almost invisible to the untrained eye.
The boar bearer charged against the fire wielder, his defensive plates shimmering against the first corrupt flames. Each step was measured, calculated to close the distance while minimizing exposure.
The third auxiliary, his bronze hawk manifesting in copper patterns across his skin, intercepted another enemy on the left.
Zhao faced the remaining four, including the leader. His silver feathers danced between his fingers, each one humming with power.
The black figures finally dropped their hoods, revealing the true abominations beneath… forms of the abyssals. Their skin shared that disturbing purple tone that marked their chaotic species from the depths. Each one was a unique nightmare made flesh.
The first had tentacles emerging from its back, each moving with its own will, its purple skin pulsing with darker veins that seemed to writhe beneath the surface. The appendages twisted and coiled like living ropes.
The second appeared to be a grotesque fusion of giant salamander and crocodile, its slimy skin gleaming wetly in the moonlight. Scales and smooth flesh merged in weird patterns.
The third maintained a vaguely humanoid form, but parts of its body melted and reformed constantly, like molten purple wax dancing to some alien rhythm. Its shape was never quite the same from one moment to the next.
The leader was a nightmare given form, an arachnid creature whose face split into three distinct mouths, one central and two on the sides of the jaw. Five purple eyes moved unnaturally, studying Zhao’s every movement with predatory intelligence.
“The famous Hunter of Yano,” it smiled, its multiple mouths moving in unsettling unison. “How long have you been hunting us without truly understanding what you face?”
Zhao’s feathers danced between his fingers with deadly grace. “Long enough to know where to strike.”
The attack was instantaneous. Silver feathers became streaks of light as they sought vital points. The tentacled one used its appendages to deflect them, but two found flesh, drawing purple ichor.
The giant salamander spat purple acid that melted both feathers and earth where the Hunter had been a second before, while the purple wax being suffered no damage as it tried to flank him. Its mostly fluid form made conventional attacks nearly useless.
The arachnid leader observed with its five brilliant eyes, its three mouths moving in a disturbing smile while coordinating the attack.
Behind them, Ren struggled with the Bark Stalker core. The frequency it emitted made the medusas hesitate, but they kept approaching, their controller’s hold over them too strong to break completely just like that.
Around them, the auxiliaries kept their opponents occupied.
The lynx bearer matched his enemy’s speed, his precise attacks seeking weak points in their defense. The boar absorbed the corrupt flames with his plates while advancing relentlessly. The hawk demonstrated why it was feared even among Bronze beasts, its strikes leaving purple wounds that refused to close.
“It was a mistake to leave the children alone, Hunter!” the leader’s three mouths moved in unison. Its spider legs propelled it in an attack that Zhao barely managed to dodge. “I can sense the pathetic attempt to imitate a male stalker!”
Zhao blocked a tentacle with his feathers while evading another acid stream. The wax being had split into three masses attempting to surround him, each one moving with lethal purpose.
“You think you can outmaneuver us in controlling this swarm?” the leader continued while pressing its attack. “We eliminated their male and made the entire swarm watch while we dominated them with my illusion! A simple frequency isn’t enough to…”
It stopped abruptly. Above the hole, a figure rose, a Shadow Stalker male, its presence making the entire swarm halt. The massive creature’s silhouette dominated the night sky.
The medusas began dispersing, their coordinated attack breaking as the abyssal’s control vanished in the face of what appeared to be their true leader.
“How…?” the leader’s three mouths twisted in confusion, its confidence cracking for the first time.
Zhao smiled while his feathers found purple flesh. “It seems trusting my ‘least promising’ student wasn’t a mistake after all.”
“Damned cheater!” The abyssal leader’s roar cut short in a choked cry as Zhao’s feathers found their mark.
The distraction was perfect, while the five purple eyes were fixed on the “illusion” above the hole, the Hunter attacked without mercy.
It wasn’t a real male glowing in the night… Ren had combined the natural reflection of mirror mantis plates with the dead medusa’s body, using his mushrooms’ white glow to create an image that, combined with the frequency, fooled the entire swarm.
“Silent Flight,” Zhao whispered. His mist owl responded immediately, its presence vanishing like morning fog, leaving the abyssals in momentary confusion.
The salamander turned frantically, its bifurcated tongue tasting the air for the Hunter. A silver flash was its only warning before three feathers pierced its purple flesh.
The tentacled being thrashed wildly, trying to create a defensive zone, but Zhao was no longer there. He appeared like a ghost behind the wax abyssal, his feathers finding the right consistency to cause real damage to its fluid form.
“Find him!” the leader ordered, purple blood dripping from its wounds while its spider legs moved erratically. “He can’t…!”
More silver feathers emerged from nowhere, some finding flesh, others forcing the abyssals to move as Zhao wanted. The Hunter of Yano was in his element, the night was his domain, and his mist owl allowed him to move like a specter between shadows.
A tentacle found empty air. An acid stream hit lifeless earth. Purple wax masses split and reformed without purpose. The leader’s five eyes spun frantically, trying to track the invisible predator slowly bleeding them dry.
Only the whisper of feathers and choked cries of pain marked Zhao’s presence, appearing and disappearing like the mist itself, each attack precise and lethal.
The battle had become a hunt.
The hunter was a nocturnal bird of prey.