The Ultimate Hunter: The First Nexarri

After the Ashes

Kelvin stepped beneath the trees and kept walking.

Behind him, Ashvale disappeared little by little, swallowed by the forest the same way fire had swallowed the village. Soon, only faint traces of smoke remained drifting above the treetops.

Even then, he could still smell it.

Burned wood. Ash. Blood.

The scent clung to him no matter how far he moved.

His grip tightened slightly around the sword in his hand.

The forest was quiet. Too quiet. Only the sound of leaves shifting beneath his boots and the distant rustling of branches filled the silence around him.

Every now and then, a gust of wind slipped through the trees, cold against his skin.

Kelvin barely noticed.

His thoughts were elsewhere. Back in Ashvale. Back to that night.

His father’s voice echoed faintly in his mind.

Stay back.

Then the sound of steel striking claws.

Then blood.

Kelvin’s jaw tightened. The images would not stop coming. His mother collapsing.

The vampire’s red eyes. That smile. Without realizing it, his breathing had grown uneven again.

He forced himself to calm down. Getting lost in those memories would not change anything. They were gone.

The thought hit harder than he expected.

Gone.

The word felt strange in his head, almost unreal. Just yesterday morning, they had all been sitting together eating breakfast. His father had been joking with him.

His mother had been smiling at the two of them like she always did.

Now they were buried beneath the ashes of a dead village.

Kelvin lowered his gaze as he walked.

“…Why am I still alive?”

His voice was quiet, almost swallowed by the wind. No answer came.

Only the endless forest ahead of him.

His eyes drifted toward his arm for a moment before he looked away again.

Even now, he could still remember the faint yellow light moving beneath his skin after he woke up. And his eyes. That violet glow.

His silver hair. None of it made sense.

“I died…” he muttered to himself.

He knew he had. He remembered the vampire’s hand piercing straight through his chest. He remembered the cold that followed. The darkness.

So why was he here now?

What had brought him back?

Kelvin ran a hand slowly through his silver hair, still not fully used to the feeling of it.

“…What am I?”

The question lingered heavily in his mind.

Human? Monster? Something else entirely?

He hated not knowing.

The forest stretched endlessly around him as he continued forward, branches swaying gently overhead. Sunlight slipped through the gaps between the leaves, shifting across the ground as the day slowly passed.

At some point, Kelvin began noticing things he normally wouldn’t have.

A bird taking flight somewhere far to his left.

The faint movement of small animals deeper within the trees.

The sound of water. Far away. Kelvin slowed slightly. His brows furrowed.

There was no way he should have been able to hear that from this far.

For a moment, he simply stood there listening. The sound was faint, but clear enough that he could follow its direction without difficulty.

A strange feeling settled in his chest.

Not fear. Unease. His senses really had changed.

The realization only made the confusion in his mind worse.

Kelvin exhaled slowly and continued walking.

Whatever had happened to him, he could not figure it out standing in the middle of the forest.

Right now, there was only one thing he could do. Keep moving forward.

The sound of water grew clearer the farther Kelvin walked.

At first, it had been little more than a faint noise hidden beneath the wind and rustling leaves. Now he could hear it distinctly, steady and flowing somewhere ahead of him.

It still felt unnatural.

Kelvin had spent years hunting with his father around the forests near Ashvale. His hearing had always been good. But not like this.

He could pick apart sounds without even trying. The creaking of branches high above him. Small movements in the undergrowth.

The fluttering wings of birds somewhere in the distance. Too clear.

It made the forest feel different.

Alive in a way it never had before.

After a while, the trees began thinning, revealing a narrow stream cutting through the forest floor. Sunlight reflected across the moving water in scattered flashes.

Kelvin stepped toward it slowly before crouching near the edge.

The moment he dipped his hands into the stream, cold water rushed across his skin. He drank deeply without hesitation.

His throat burned less after the first few mouthfuls.

Only then did he realize how thirsty he had become.

Kelvin wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared down at the water quietly.

His reflection stared back.

Silver hair. Violet eyes.

Even after hours, the sight still felt wrong.

He barely recognized himself anymore.

Kelvin touched the side of his face lightly, almost expecting the reflection to change back somehow.

It didn’t. “…This is real.”

The words came out softer than he intended.

A part of him had still hoped he would wake up somewhere familiar. Back in his room. Back in Ashvale. But reality refused to change.

His stomach tightened suddenly.

Hunger.

Kelvin frowned slightly as he pushed himself back to his feet. He had not eaten since yesterday.

The thought of food almost felt strange after everything that had happened, but his body clearly did not care. A faint rustling sound reached his ears.

Kelvin’s head turned immediately.

Something moved through the bushes several meters away.

His hand instinctively tightened around the sword his father had given him.

For a brief moment, his chest tensed.

Then a small animal burst from the brush.

A forest hare. Fast.

The creature darted across the forest floor in quick bursts of movement, weaving through roots and fallen branches.

Kelvin moved before he fully thought about it. His body reacted on instinct.

The distance between them closed almost instantly.

The sword swung. A clean strike.

The hare collapsed into the grass.

Silence returned just as quickly.

Kelvin froze slightly, staring down at what he had just done.

“…That was too easy.”

Normally, hunting hares required patience, traps, or arrows. Even experienced hunters struggled to catch one cleanly with a blade.

But his body had moved effortlessly.

Almost naturally.

Kelvin looked down at his hand gripping the sword.

His reflexes had changed too.

The realization sent another wave of unease through him.

Still, he crouched and picked up the hare after a moment.

Whatever he had become, he still needed to survive.

The sun had already begun lowering by the time Kelvin found a suitable place to rest beneath a large tree surrounded by uneven rocks. The area offered enough cover from the wind and open enough ground to spot approaching animals.

At least, that was what his father had taught him.

The memory tightened something painfully inside his chest again.

Kelvin looked away and focused on his hands instead.

It took several attempts before he managed to start a fire using dry branches and flint from the small pouch attached to his belt.

Once the flames finally caught, he let out a quiet breath and sat back slightly. The smell of roasting meat slowly filled the air.

For the first time since leaving Ashvale, Kelvin allowed himself to sit still. The fire crackled softly in front of him while shadows stretched between the trees.

Night was coming.

And for some reason, that thought made the forest feel far more dangerous.

Darkness settled over the forest slowly.

By the time Kelvin finished eating, the only light left came from the small fire burning in front of him and the pale glow of the moon above the trees.

The air had grown colder.

Kelvin adjusted his cloak around himself before leaning back against the rough trunk behind him. Exhaustion weighed heavily on his body now that he had finally stopped moving. But sleep did not come easily.

Every time he closed his eyes, he saw them again.

His father falling.

His mother’s lifeless body collapsing onto the floor.

That vampire smiling as if taking lives meant nothing.

Kelvin’s jaw tightened.

His fingers curled unconsciously around the handle of the sword resting beside him.

Hatred burned quietly in his chest.

Not wild. Not uncontrolled. Steady.

The kind that stayed. His eyes drifted toward the fire.

“…I’ll kill them.”

The words left him quietly.

Not just the vampire. All of them.

The creatures that had turned his home into ashes.

For a moment, the faint violet tint in his eyes brightened slightly before dimming again.

Kelvin noticed it this time.

He frowned.

That strange glow always seemed connected to his emotions somehow.

Anger. Pain. Grief.

Whenever those feelings surged strongly enough, his eyes reacted. Another thing that made no sense.

Kelvin leaned his head back against the tree and stared upward through the branches above him.

“What are you…?”

He did not even know who he was speaking to anymore.

The thing that brought him back?

Himself?

Whatever power now existed inside his body? Silence answered him.

The forest remained still around him.

After a while, Kelvin closed his eyes again, trying to rest despite the endless thoughts running through his mind.

At some point during the night, a sound snapped him awake instantly.

His eyes opened sharply. Something moved nearby.

Kelvin sat upright immediately, his hand already gripping the sword before he fully realized it.

The fire had burned lower while he slept, leaving only dim orange embers glowing faintly in the darkness.

The forest around him looked different at night. Darker. Unfamiliar.

For a moment, Kelvin listened carefully.

Then he heard it again. Movement. Far to his right. Slow. Careful.

His breathing steadied as he focused.

Strangely enough, the darkness no longer affected him the way it should have. He could still make out the shapes of trees and rocks clearly enough to track movement between them.

That realization unsettled him almost as much as the sound itself.

A faint growl echoed somewhere deeper in the forest. Low. Heavy.

Kelvin slowly rose to his feet.

Every instinct in his body suddenly screamed at him to stay alert.

The feeling was overwhelming. Like prey sensing a predator nearby. Then he saw them. Tracks.

Large pawprints pressed deep into the soil near the edge of the trees. Kelvin’s eyes narrowed slightly.

They were far too large to belong to a normal wolf.

The marks looked fresh. Very fresh.

Another growl rolled through the darkness.

Closer this time.

Kelvin tightened his grip on the sword.

Something was out there. And whatever it was, it was watching him.

The forest had gone silent.

Not normal silence. Wrong silence.

The insects had stopped. The distant movements of smaller animals had vanished completely. Even the wind seemed quieter now, as though the entire forest had pulled back from something unseen.

Kelvin stood still beside the dying fire, his sword lowered slightly at his side.

His heartbeat had begun to quicken.

Another growl echoed through the darkness. Closer.

This time, Kelvin felt it more than heard it. A deep vibration rolling between the trees.

His eyes scanned the forest carefully.

Nothing moved.

But the feeling remained. Watching. Waiting. Kelvin swallowed slowly.

Every instinct in his body screamed that he was in danger.

Then something shifted between the trees.

Fast.

Kelvin turned sharply just in time to catch a massive shadow moving through the darkness before it disappeared again.

His grip tightened immediately.

“That’s not normal…” he muttered under his breath. No wolf should have been that large.

A cold feeling crept down his spine.

The pawprints. The growl.

Whatever this creature was, it was far bigger than anything he had ever hunted with his father.

A branch snapped somewhere behind him.

Kelvin spun around instantly.

Two glowing eyes stared back at him from the darkness.

Golden. Sharp. Predatory.

For a brief moment, neither of them moved.

Kelvin could finally make out its shape now.

A wolf. But monstrous.

Its body was nearly the size of a horse, covered in thick dark fur that blended into the night itself. Powerful muscles shifted beneath its skin as it stepped slowly from between the trees.

Its jaws parted slightly, revealing long fangs capable of tearing straight through flesh and bone.

Kelvin’s breathing slowed.

“A direwolf…”

The words barely left his mouth.

He had heard stories about magical beasts before. Most people in Ashvale treated them like distant legends, creatures that lived far from ordinary villages and roads.

But this thing standing in front of him was very real. And dangerous.

The direwolf growled again, lowering its body slightly.

Kelvin immediately raised his sword.

His hands felt tighter now. Sweaty.

Even without understanding why, he could feel the difference between them.

This creature was stronger than him.

Far stronger.

For a moment, neither moved. Then the direwolf took a slow step forward.

Kelvin’s body tensed instantly.

Another step.

Its glowing eyes never left him.

The pressure in the air felt suffocating.

Kelvin could hear his own heartbeat clearly now.

Then the direwolf suddenly stopped.

Its ears twitched sharply toward the forest behind it.

A second later, the beast backed away slightly, never taking its eyes off Kelvin.

Slowly, it disappeared into the darkness between the trees. Just like that.

Kelvin remained frozen for several seconds after it vanished.

His breathing stayed uneven as he stared into the forest.

“…Why did it leave?”

The question lingered in his mind uneasily.

That creature could have attacked.

So why hadn’t it?

A faint breeze passed through the trees, causing the dying embers behind him to flicker softly.

Kelvin lowered the sword slightly, but the tension in his body remained.

The direwolf was still nearby.

He could feel it, Watching. Waiting.

And somehow, Kelvin knew this would not be the last time he saw it.