CHAPTER 173: HELP

A sharp crack split the air, followed by the unmistakable hiss of mana discharging. Blue arcs of lightning burst across her skin, crawling through her veins like molten wire.

Her body seized violently, muscles locking as the jolt rippled through her from head to toe.

She let out a strangled gasp and collapsed, twitching uncontrollably on the ground. The smell of singed fabric and burnt hair filled the tent.

My mouth fell open slightly, not in fear—but in genuine astonishment. I stared for a moment, watching her convulse like a puppet caught in a storm.

"This bitch..." I muttered under my breath, half amused, half incredulous. "Did she just lie to me?"

The crackling energy faded as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving behind a faint shimmer of smoke rising from her arm. She groaned—a mix between a cry and a low whimper—as the pain settled into her limbs.

Her lips moved, her throat strained, yet nothing but a faint rasp escaped. The shock had numbed her nerves, leaving her twitching helplessly on the dirt floor.

I crouched closer, studying the faint arcs of energy still dancing across her skin before they flickered out entirely.

"So," I murmured, almost to myself, "it works even on small lies. Interesting."

A grin crept onto my face. The discovery was... satisfying. This oath wasn’t just a deterrent—it was a leash that could tug at the slightest falsehood. It would make every conversation from now on far more entertaining.

Still, her reaction told me something more important. She truly believed what she’d said—that the chief was more terrifying than I was. Terrifying enough that even under the threat of death, her instinct had been to defend his legend.

Understandable, I supposed. Fear was the easiest loyalty to cultivate. He might be scarier, in the way predators are to prey—but that didn’t mean he was stronger.

That was the real question I should’ve asked. Was he more powerful?

I looked down at Talia again. She was still shaking, trying to steady her breathing, her fingers curling weakly against the cold earth.

Well...it doesn’t matter now.

I pressed my palm against her back, channeling a thin stream of mana until the faint glow of a seal formed beneath my hand. It shimmered for a second before sinking into her skin, leaving no visible mark. Now she was tagged.

With that seal, I could use [Leap] to track her anywhere she tried to run.

I rose and turned toward the unconscious Zivra and the rest of the goblins scattered around the tent. Their small bodies trembled with every breath, fear written plainly across their faces.

What to do with them?

Killing them wouldn’t benefit me; they were too weak, too low-leveled to yield anything useful. Not even enough experience to nudge my stats.

I could bring them into the clan, maybe integrate them, strengthen my numbers. But loyalty? That was something no seal or blade could force. They would need a reason to follow me, something stronger than fear.

I shook my head slowly. No—that wasn’t the priority right now.

First things first, I needed to deal with their chief.

I’d heard about the chief from the others. So much talk that curiosity had begun to gnaw at me.

I wanted to see him for myself.

But for that, I’d have to wait.

He was still out there somewhere, making his way back.

Until then, I was stuck here—with this frightened bunch huddled near the edges of the tent, watching me as if I were death itself.

Their wide, trembling eyes shifted from me to Talia, who was still recovering from her punishment, and the fear on their faces deepened.

I took a slow step toward them.

That was when I felt it—a sudden shift in the air, subtle but undeniable.

A cold ripple crawled across my skin, raising every hair on my body.

And my instincts sharpened instantly.

Danger?

I stopped moving, scanning the tent. The torches flickered slightly, their flames bending as though disturbed by an unseen wind. Nothing moved. No sound, no presence—just that invisible pressure building in the air, thick enough to make my pulse quicken.

The feeling intensified, a low, electric tension that coiled at the base of my spine. My heart began to pound, not from fear, but from the unmistakable awareness that something powerful was closing in.

I turned sharply toward Talia—she had just managed to push herself upright, her breathing still ragged.

Was it Zivra?

I turned.

The young female still lay motionless, her body limp against the ground, which meant it wasn’t her.

My gaze darted across the others, searching for any hint of movement, any shift in mana, but none of them looked capable of causing the dread that was now creeping through me.

I pressed a hand against my chest, feeling the heavy thud of my heartbeat hammering beneath my ribs. The rhythm was erratic, unnaturally fast, like my body was reacting to a threat my mind couldn’t yet see.

"What... is this?" I muttered under my breath.

It wasn’t panic. Not truly. I’d felt fear before—the kind that crawled up your throat and froze your limbs—but this was different.

It was the kind of instinctive terror that didn’t come from the mind.

Then, was it from somewhere else?

A cold shiver rippled down my spine as my eyes swept the tent again. Nothing moved. No sound, no heat signature, no fluctuation in mana that should’ve triggered my danger sense. And yet the feeling grew stronger, pressing down on me like an invisible weight.

I wasn’t imagining it.

Whatever this was, it wasn’t mine.

The terror didn’t feel internal—it felt foreign

, like someone else’s emotions bleeding into me.

My hand tightened over my chest.

Someone else.

And then it hit me—like a sharp pulse behind my eyes.

Ariel.

The ember fox. Something was wrong.

She’d gone to hunt down Ingrid earlier, confident as always, and I’d let her.

Ingrid was dangerous, yes, but I hadn’t thought he’d be a real threat to her.

A cold realization slid down my spine.

Had I underestimated him?

I took a breath to steady myself, but before I could think further, a faint voice brushed against my mind—so weak and distorted that for a second, I thought I’d imagined it.

Help!

I froze.

"What the hell...?" I muttered aloud, eyes darting toward the tent’s entrance.

The voice came again, strained this time, like someone gasping between shallow breaths. Help...

It was Ariel’s voice.

My stomach knotted, and the air around me seemed to thin.

Then came the last thing I expected to hear.

Ueek... the chief... is... here.

My eyes widened.

And in an instant, I activated [Leap].