The roar echoed through the Black Grove long after the sound faded. Rick and Luna stood frozen in the middle of the corrupted village, listening as the trees trembled one by one. The villagers trembled with them. Shadows shifted between the fungal trunks. The mist thickened, sticking to their skin like cold breath.Luna gripped Rick’s sleeve tightly. “Teacher, something is moving in the forest. Something big.”Rick’s eyes stayed fixed on the darkness beyond the houses. “Yes. But it is not coming yet. It is circling. Watching.”Luna swallowed. “Watching us?”Rick nodded slowly. “It feels our Qi. It senses disruption in its territory. And it is curious.”Luna lowered her voice. “Teacher, this plague, what is it doing to these people?”Rick walked to a cluster of villagers sitting against a cracked wall. They were coughing weakly, dark mist spilling from their mouths. Their eyes were unfocused and flickered like dying candles.Rick placed two fingers on a woman’s wrist. At the moment of

The night settled over the Black Grove like a heavy blanket. Dark mist drifted between the twisted trees, and every breath tasted like damp soil mixed with iron. The village huts glowed faintly with lantern light. Low moans and tremors spread through the air as the infected villagers struggled against the plague growing inside them.Rick worked endlessly through the night, checking the boy they had saved and adjusting the weak purification fields he had set around the largest hut. But Luna was restless. She paced outside the doorway, her jaw tight, her hands shaking with frustration.“Teacher,” she said suddenly, her voice quiet but sharp. “We cannot stay here and only treat one person at a time. There are dozens suffering. And more coming.”Rick did not look up from the boy’s pulse. “We will help them. But we cannot rush blind.”Luna stepped closer. “Blind? Teacher, you saw the beasts last night. They are gathering. They are killing the villagers before we can even reach them.”Ric

The entire hut shook as the shadow filled the doorway. Dust rained from the ceiling. Luna, still weak and pale on the mat, looked up with trembling eyes. Rick stood in front of her, one hand lifted, Qi coiling slowly around his fingers like a faint golden thread.“Teacher,” Luna whispered weakly. “What is that thing?”Rick did not blink. His voice was cold and low. “It is the source. Or at least part of it.”Outside, something breathed loudly. It sounded like wind being dragged through broken bones. The shadow shifted, and two glowing red eyes appeared through the dark mist.Rick whispered, “Stay down. Do not move. Your Qi is unstable.”Luna’s voice cracked. “Teacher, you cannot fight that alone.”“I am not fighting,” he murmured. “I am distracting.”A massive hoof stepped into the doorway, crushing the wooden frame. Fungal bark splintered under its weight. The creature’s shape emerged slowly: an enormous beast shaped like a deer but swollen from corruption. Black veins pulsed acro

Rick hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. Dirt filled his mouth. His ears rang. For a moment he did not know up from down. The forest spun around him like a giant wheel. Every breath hurt. His ribs screamed with every inhale.But he forced his eyes open because he heard Luna calling his name. “Teacher! Teacher, please get up!”Her voice was panicked, trembling, thin. It cut through the haze in his mind like a knife.Rick pushed himself up slowly. The world blurred, then sharpened again. He tasted blood. His hands shook badly. He could barely stay on his knees.The deer-beast stood several meters away, roaring in pain and fury. Its chest glowed with a sick light where Rick had cut into it. Black veins bulged across its ribs. Its breath poured from its mouth like smoke.Rick muttered, “It is wounded. Good. But not enough.”Luna dragged herself forward on her elbow, her face pale. “Teacher, do not move. You cannot take another hit like that. You will die.”Rick w

The first thing Rick felt was cold. Not the natural cold of wind or night, but a deeper cold, one that came from inside his bones. He tried to breathe, but his breath came out thin and shaky, as if the air around him had turned heavy. He opened his eyes slowly, and the world above him looked gray and blurry, like a distant sky seen through fog.He realized he was lying on his back. He realized he could not move his right arm.The memory of the exploding core hit him slowly, like sinking stones falling into a quiet lake.He tried to turn his head. Pain sliced through his neck. He groaned softly.“Do not move,” Luna whispered beside him.Her voice was close, gentle, but trembling at the edges. Rick forced his eyes toward the sound.Luna knelt next to him, her body wrapped in bandages, her face covered in dirt, ash, and dried tears. She held a small bowl of water in her one remaining hand.She dipped a cloth into it and touched his forehead gently. “You are awake, thank the sky.”Rick