Kade's stomach dropped.
"So what now?" he asked, voice lower.
Ren's jaw tightened. "Now? We get ready."
---
It started with silence. That thick, electric kind that wraps around you before something breaks. The team moved like they knew the drill, and maybe they did—muscle memory in a war that never ended.
Ava was already packing supplies, hands trembling slightly but face steady. Lila stood off to the side, lightning buzzing faintly under her skin, like her veins were arguing with the air around them. Nico leaned against the wall, staring at a coin he kept flipping, catching it without looking, again and again. Just waiting.
Kade stood there, unsure if he should move or not. He wasn't part of this rhythm yet. Not really. He was the variable, the one the others still didn't know how to place.
But he knew one thing—Ren's tone had changed. Whatever they were "getting ready" for, it wasn't practice.
"What's happening?" Kade asked.
Ren didn't answer right away. Instead, he pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and dropped it on the table. The edges were torn, stained like it had been soaked in blood and smoke and everything else that stank of bad memories.
A sigil was sketched on it. Sharp lines, crude, but deliberate.
"It showed up in Sector Nine," Ren said. "Just like before."
"Another breach?" Ava asked quietly.
Ren nodded. "Same pattern. Same symbol. But this time it didn't stay quiet."
Kade stepped closer. "What do you mean?"
"It killed three people," Ren said, voice flat. "No hesitation. One of them was a kid."
The words hit harder than Kade expected. He clenched his jaw.
"Was it one of the ones you showed me in the notebook?" Kade asked. "A Skiver?"
Ren shook his head. "Worse. We think it's a Class Four."
Lila swore under her breath.
Kade looked at the others. Their reactions weren't panic. Not fear either. It was something worse—recognition. Like they'd seen this shit before and knew exactly what it meant.
"What's a Class Four?" Kade asked.
Nico answered, still flipping his coin. "They don't hunt. They command."
Kade frowned. "Command what?"
"Other Hollowborn," Ava said. "They're like generals. Gatekeepers. Whatever's controlling the Hollowborn from the other side... Class Fours are its hands."
Kade swallowed hard.
"So what do we do?" he asked.
"We contain it," Ren said. "Or we die trying."
No dramatic speeches. No false hope. Just facts.
The team loaded up quickly. Ava handed Kade a sheathed blade—not fancy, not glowing, just steel. Heavy. Cold.
"I thought I was training," Kade muttered.
"You were," Ren said, sliding a reinforced jacket over his shirt. "Now you're fighting."
They moved out under the cover of night. Rain started halfway there, a slow drizzle that turned the city into a smudged painting. Buildings became silhouettes. Streets, hollow echoes. Even the neon signs looked tired.
Sector Nine was a wreck. An abandoned construction site that had never been finished—rebar sticking out like broken bones, concrete walls crumbling under graffiti and rot. The sigil Ren showed them earlier was burned into the side of a collapsed shipping container. Black scorch marks spread from it in long, claw-like streaks.
Kade's grip on the blade tightened.
"This place smells like death," Lila muttered.
Ava knelt near the symbol, hand hovering just above it. Her expression shifted—pained, distant. "It's still here," she whispered. "Watching."
Then everything went quiet.
Even the rain seemed to pause.
A sound split the air—high-pitched, guttural. Like metal screaming as it was dragged across bone. Kade jerked toward it. A shadow moved, fast.
And then it stepped out.
Tall. Twisted. Humanoid only in the cruelest, vaguest way. Limbs too long. A face that wasn't a face—just a swirling pit of eyes, teeth, and smoke. It opened its mouth—or maybe it didn't. Maybe it was a mouth.
The name came from Ren's lips like venom.
"Bizon."
Kade froze. That name—it echoed, like it belonged to something ancient and wrong. It felt familiar in a way that made his blood turn cold.
"That's him?" he asked.
Ren nodded, drawing his blade.
"That's the one pulling the strings."
Bizon raised one clawed hand and pointed straight at Kade.
It didn't speak. It didn't need to.
Kade felt the mark on his wrist burn. Not pain—pressure. Like it was reacting. Responding.
And for a second, Bizon smiled.
"Move!" Ren barked.
Everything exploded.
Lila launched forward, lightning arcing from her palms like wild serpents. Nico vanished into smoke, illusions spinning off in every direction. Ava ducked behind cover, her aura pulsing as she tracked everyone's pain like a living radar.
Kade stood frozen—for just a second—before something clicked.
This thing—this monster—wanted him.
And that meant he had to be the one to stop it.
He ran.
The world narrowed into chaos. Sparks. Shouts. Screams. Clashes of steel on bone. Kade's blade met something hard—claws. Sparks flew. He barely ducked as a swipe nearly took his head clean off.
He moved on instinct. No style. No technique. Just survival.
Bizon twisted, too fast, too strong. But Kade didn't back down.
He thought of that kid Ren mentioned.
He thought of the alley.
He thought of every moment he could've died already.
And something inside him snapped.
His fear burned off.
In its place: fury.
Not rage. Not blind anger.
Something deeper. Something bound to him now.
He struck again, teeth clenched, mark on his wrist glowing faintly. This time, when the blade hit, Bizon recoiled.
Just slightly. But it was enough.
The others saw it too.
"Kade!" Ren shouted. "Keep him locked!"
Lila surged forward, lightning blazing. Nico's illusions danced around Bizon's legs, disorienting it just long enough for Ava to drag an injured Ren back.
Kade didn't know if they were winning.
But they were fighting.
Together.
And for the first time…
He felt like one of them.
Bizon let out a roar that shook the entire structure, and the team braced for another wave. But they didn't run.
They didn't flinch.
They moved.
Five of them.
Bound not by fate.
But by choice.
By fury.
By fire.
By war.
Wrathbound.
---
To be continued...