Chapter 23: Blood on the Wind

  On the cliff above, Jake crouched low, fingers brushing the damp soil. The scent of blood was still fresh in the air —metallic, sharp, cutting through the cold night air.

  “They’re close,” a Goliath -clan reckoning scout muttered, his ears twitching nervously.

  Jake’s gaze swept over the wreckage below. Scavenger scouts lay strewn across the battle-scarred terrain, bodies torn apart, faces frozen in terror. Smoke spiraled from the ground, curling into the night.

  The fight had been fast, brutal. Whoever caused it had already vanished into the dark.

  “What do you think?” a masked clansman asked.

  “Phantom Ghost?”

  Jake narrowed his eyes. “Maybe. But whoever it was, they were caught off guard… at first by these scavengers, but as soon as the battle started a third party came out of the bushes,’’ Jake speculated as he gazed around,

  ‘’A third party?…wait don’t tell me a sin family is also after them?!’’ Another exclaimed,

  Nah…this third party was more feral and animalistic…probably a radioactive monster, the scavengers stood no chance before they were ripped apart!! Our target escaped amidst the chaos it seems…’’ he gazed through the bushes and noticed a few strands of white hair..

  ‘’they left us a trail.” He motioned to his squad to move forward.

  “We can’t afford to loose their trail again. We capture them—no matter what!!,” another reckon squad member growled.

  Jake’s jaw tightened. ‘’There must not be any mistakes!!’’ He growled before they all vanished into the night,

  ?

  Back to ash and his group,

  Inside the cave, Ash leaned against the stone wall, his body bruised, skin clammy with sweat. His chest rose and fell in controlled rhythm, but he hadn’t slept. Beside him, Adam lay feverish, his breathing ragged, sweat-drenched hair clinging to his forehead.

  Then came the sound.

  Howls—low, eerie, drawn out—rolled across the trees outside. Radioactive monster?.., maybe. Or worse: scavengers mimicking them, their distant laughter disguised as hunger.

  Ash’s eyes snapped open. His body ached, but his instincts screamed. He rose, movements measured, deliberate. Even weakened, his aura pulsed faintly—a quiet warning to anything that drew too close.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “She’s late…” he muttered, thinking of Luna. She’d gone to hunt, promised she’d return before night. The silence outside clawed at his patience so he went out dagger in hand, ready to kill,

  But when he got outside, he saw nothing but darkness, ash didn’t over react, he calmly waited, heightened his senses to the max and listened!!

  Then a faint cough behind him pulled his gaze, dagger slicing through the darkness but stopped inches away, it was Adam, he had dragged himself upright, a dagger shaking in his hand.

  “Yo…easy there…could’ve separated my head from my shoulders sheesh!!” Adam croaked, masking the strain with his usual carelessness.

  Ash scowled. “Why are you up?”

  “I could ask you the same…” Adam rasped with a thin smile.

  “Go back inside.” Ash ordered.

  “Honestly…” Adam’s voice cracked. “I thought… you’d abandon me too, saw Luna leave…thought it was natural since we didn’t know each other enough to risk our lives together a second time...”

  Ash opened his mouth to reply—but froze. Movement. Shadows slipped from the tree lines behind Adam .

  “Oi, WATCH OUT!!” Ash barked.

  Too late. Scavengers stepped into the clearing, blades glinting, grins stretched too wide. Their laughter scraped like metal on stone.

  One lunged from behind Adam, slamming him against the wall and driving a blade into his stomach.

  “SHIT!” Ash roared, pouncing forward—only to be intercepted by a cleaver that hissed through the air, faintly missing his neck,

  He twisted aside, ribs screaming, and came up with his own blade in hand.

  Scavengers swarmed them, half-mad with hunger.

  Adam gasped. Blood bubbled up his throat—thick, black, and smoking. He coughed it onto the scavenger holding him up on the cave walls.

  The man screams cracked through the rising tension, his own face melting as the black blood Adam vomited ate through skin and bone. His skull sagged into ruin in seconds.

  “What the hell?!” another scavenger shrieked, stumbling back.

  Even Ash was shocked , his eyes narrowing. That wasn’t just blood. The air around Adam burned faintly, acrid and poisonous, stinging Ash’s nostrils for a fleeting second.

  Adam collapsed, trembling, as pulled out the dagger and falling to his knees the dagger slipping from his hand. His eyes were glazed, terrified—he hadn’t meant to do it.

  Ash had no time to process. A cleaver came for his head once more. He pivoted, slammed his knee into the attacker’s ribs, and carved a brutal arc across his throat with his own dagger. Blood sprayed hot and wet across his arms.

  Another scavenger swung. Ash caught the wrist, twisted until bone snapped, then drove his blade through the man’s eye. The crunch echoed in the confined night.

  Two more rushed. Ash dropped low as he instinctively picked up the cleaver, then went on a predator’s crouch, the first slice towards his life skimmed the air where his skull had been, barely missing him. He surged forward, ramming the cleaver he just picked up through one man’s neck, twisting until his flesh ripped off his shoulder and neck bone cracked away from the pressure . He tore the blade free in one brutal motion completely decapitating him,

  then slammed his elbow into the other’s temple, caving his skull between elbow and stone wall.

  The remaining scavengers faltered—not only from Ash, but from Adam. His blood dripped onto the stone, sizzling like acid, smoke curling up in thin tendrils.

  Then the earth rumbled. A growl, so deep it rattled the bones, rolled from the forest.

  Th scavengers turned too late as a radioactive predator bursted through the trees, its grotesque form glowing with a sickly light.

  It tore into the scavengers without hesitation, claws slicing bodies like paper. Flesh and blood sprayed throughout the clearing as it bulldozed through, hunger and fury incarnate.

  Ash seized the moment. He hoisted Adam onto his back, ignoring the stinging burn of the boy’s black blood seeping onto his shoulder, and bolted into the forest. Every step was fire in his legs, every breath laced with iron.

  The forest behind them burned with screams and roars, scavengers dying in droves. Ash didn’t look back.

  ?

  By dawn, they reached a clearing where they ran into Luna who was crouching behind a fallen tree, her body bruised and bloodied, daggers still slick with fresh kills. When she saw them, her eyes widened.

  “You guys!!” she gasped, relief cracking through her voice. “Man, am I glad to see you!!”

  Ash lowered Adam gently to the ground, tearing strips of his shirt to bandage his wounds.

  “What happened to you?” he asked.

  “Accidentally ran into scavengers,” Luna admitted with a weak smirk.

  “You?” she shot back.

  “Scavengers found our cave,” Ash muttered.

  Luna’s gaze shifted to Adam—his skin pale, his blood still faintly black where it oozed through the makeshift bandages. Her expression hardened.

  “This many scavengers… means we’re either in their territory, or they’re scouts,” she said grimly. “Either way, we keep moving.”

  “Yeah…” Luna hesitated. “I know a place. Safe haven. Six-Peaks Mountain. It’s far, but it’ll buy us time.”

  Ash nodded. “Lead the way.” He heaved Adam back onto his shoulders, the boy’s strange blood still smoldering faintly against his skin.

  Above them, the sky bled into red as the Blood-Moon began to rise.

  Ten days remained.

  And the island, alive with predators, waited.