The scream tore through the silence like a knife.

Viktor spun around.

Bella had collapsed to her knees, both hands clamped over her ears, her entire body trembling violently. Her cat ears were pinned flat against her skull, and her tail thrashed wildly behind her.

Her face was twisted in pain—eyes squeezed shut, teeth clenched so hard her jaw looked ready to shatter.

"Bella!" Viktor lunged toward her, dropping to one knee beside her. His hands hovered over her shoulders, unsure whether to touch her. "What happened?"

She didn't answer. Couldn't answer.

Her whole body convulsed, shaking like she was being electrocuted. Her claws—when had they extended?—dug into the sides of her head hard enough to draw blood.

Thin red lines trickled down from beneath her palms, staining her silver hair.

"We—we need to—" Her voice came out choked, strangled. "Run. We need to—"

Kaida arrived a second later, her sword already half-drawn. "What the hell happened to her?"

"I don't know!" Viktor's hands finally gripped Bella's shoulders, trying to steady her. Her skin was burning hot beneath his fingers. "Bella! Talk to me! What happened?"

"Something—" Bella gasped, her eyes snapping open. They were wide, pupils blown so large the golden irises were almost invisible. Pure animal terror stared back at him. "Something is coming. We need to—'run'—"

Kaida's expression shifted from annoyance to wariness. "Why are you overreacting like this?"

But Viktor wasn't listening to Kaida anymore.

His gaze swept the surroundings—the narrow canyon walls, the skeletal trees jutting from cracks in the stone, the shadows that seemed too deep, too dark.

Nothing moved.

No sound.

No sign of danger.

But his instincts—honed through eleven years of war and survival—were screaming at him.

'Beast-kin.'

The thought clicked into place like a puzzle piece.

Bella was beast-kin. Her senses weren't just sharper than a human's—they were fundamentally 'different'.

She could smell things they couldn't, hear frequencies beyond their range, sense vibrations in the earth that would be invisible to them.

And more than that—she had survival instincts.

The kind that kept prey animals alive in a world full of predators.

The kind that made rabbits freeze before a fox appeared, made deer bolt seconds before an arrow flew.

Instinct that bypassed conscious thought and spoke directly to the body: 'danger'.

Viktor's eyes narrowed as he stared at Bella's trembling form.

She wasn't panicking randomly.

She wasn't overreacting.

Her body 'knew' something was wrong before her mind could process it.

And if her instincts were screaming this loud—loud enough to drop her to her knees, loud enough to make her 'beg' them to run—

His blood ran cold.

'She's been marked.'

The realization hit him like a punch to the gut.

He'd seen it before, in his previous timeline. Certain predators—demons, corrupted beasts, apex hunters—had abilities that let them mark their prey. A scent. A sound. A pulse of energy that latched onto a target and paralyzed them temporarily, making them easier to hunt.

Bella's survival instincts were trying to make her flee.

But the mark was overriding that, locking her muscles, forcing her to stay in place like a rabbit caught in a snare.

'Shit.'

Viktor didn't hesitate.

He grabbed Bella and lifted her—one arm under her knees, the other behind her back. She was light, too light, her petite frame weighing almost nothing despite her struggles.

"Kaida!" Viktor's voice cracked like a whip. "Run! 'Now'!"

"What?" Kaida's hand tightened on her sword hilt. "What are you—"

And then she heard it.

A sound.

Low. Deep. Rumbling.

Like thunder rolling across distant mountains.

Except it wasn't thunder.

It was a growl.

'"ROOOOARRR!"'

The roar exploded through the canyon, so loud it made the stone walls shake. Dust and loose pebbles rained down from above.

Kaida's eyes went wide. Her face, usually set in a scowl or smirk, went pale.

Because that sound wasn't just loud.

It was 'wrong'.

It vibrated in her bones, made her teeth ache, set every nerve in her body on fire with a single message: 'prey'.

Viktor was already moving.

He turned and ran, Bella clutched against his chest, his boots pounding against the rocky ground.

"MOVE!" he roared over his shoulder.

Kaida didn't need to be told twice.

She spun and bolted after him, her legs pumping, her breath coming in sharp gasps.

Behind them, the sound came again—closer this time.

'Thud. Thud. Thud.'

Footsteps.

Heavy. Deliberate.

Each one shook the ground like a hammer striking stone.

Viktor's mind raced as he ran, his Cavalry Master stamina kicking in, letting him maintain a full sprint without losing speed.

Bella was limp in his arms now, her body still trembling but no longer fighting. Her cat ears twitched with each thunderous footstep behind them, tracking the predator even as her conscious mind shut down.

"What the fuck is that?!" Kaida shouted, her voice raw with fear.

Viktor didn't answer.

He didn't know.

'W-wait—aren't we in a village location with people? Why no-one warned us for this?', While running, Victor casually thought that given the village was nearby, they would have known if there were really a beast like this.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he tried to halt himself. Realizing this, he glared towards Kaida, who was swiftly hurdling his neck, and said, "It's a trap!"

"MOVE!" Viktor roared, his boots skidding against loose gravel as he tried to halt his momentum.

But it was too late.

Kaida had already spun around, her sword half-drawn, her red eyes scanning the path behind them for whatever was making those thunderous footsteps.

And that's when she saw it.

Not a beast.

A log.

A massive fucking log—thick as three men standing side by side, easily twenty feet long—hurtling through the air like a battering ram.

It came from the front.

From the direction they'd been running toward.

Her eyes went wide. "What the—"

WHOOOOSH.

The log flew past her face, so close she felt the wind displacement ruffle her hair.

Viktor saw it a split second later.

His body moved on instinct—Cavalry Master reflexes kicking in faster than conscious thought.

He twisted mid-stride, turning his back toward the incoming projectile, clutching Bella tighter against his chest with both arms. His shoulders hunched forward, creating a shield with his own body.

'This is going to hurt.'

CRACK.

The log slammed into his back with the force of a siege weapon.

Pain exploded through his spine, his ribs, his shoulders. The impact drove the air from his lungs in a violent wheeze. His vision went white for half a second.

But he didn't let go of Bella.

His arms locked around her like iron bands, protecting her fragile body even as his own took the full brunt of the blow.

The force of the impact launched him forward—no, not forward. 'Sideways' The angle was wrong, the trajectory unnatural.

He collided with Kaida.

Hard.

His shoulder slammed into her chest, knocking her off her feet. She let out a startled yelp as all three of them—Viktor, Bella, Kaida—became a tangle of limbs and momentum.

They flew through the air like rag dolls.

The world spun—sky, ground, stone walls, trees, all blurring together in a chaotic whirl.

Viktor's back hit something solid.

CRACK.

Wood splintered. Bark shattered.

They'd struck a tree—a massive dead oak jutting from the canyon wall at an angle, its trunk hollowed out by rot and time.

The impact punched through the brittle outer shell like paper.

And then—

Nothing beneath them.

Viktor's stomach lurched as gravity took hold.

"SHIT!" Kaida screamed.

They were falling.

The hollowed tree trunk had concealed a passage—a vertical shaft carved into the mountain itself, hidden behind the rotted bark like a secret door.

Wind rushed past Viktor's ears as they plummeted into darkness.

His mind raced, trying to process, trying to plan, but there was no time—

Bella's scream pierced the air, high and terrified.

Kaida's voice joined hers, raw with panic.

Viktor didn't scream.

He just held Bella tighter and braced for impact.

The fall lasted three seconds.

It felt like three hours.

And then—

SPLASH.

They hit water.

Cold. Freezing. Shockingly deep.

The impact drove what little air Viktor had left from his lungs. His back—already screaming in agony from the log strike—flared with fresh pain as he struck the surface.

Water engulfed them, pulling them down into murky darkness.

Viktor's grip on Bella loosened involuntarily as his body went into shock from the cold. His limbs felt sluggish, heavy, unresponsive.

'N-no...'

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