NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 43: Twelve Teeth
Location: Surface Ruin Expanse, Near Zone-7 Time: July 17th, 9:10 AM
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The sky above was clear for once. No red storms. No spiral clouds. Just a washed-out blue stretching endlessly over a scarred world. The calm after madness.
Kael stood alone on the crumbling asphalt, daggers drawn, mask clipped at his waist. The others had scattered to scavenge, rest, or think—but he stayed behind. Not because he needed solitude. Because something was coming.
The Soulbound Mimic hovered behind him in a skeletal silhouette. Its shape had matured, less monstrous now, more defined—closer to Kael in posture, if not in purpose. It didn't speak.
Yet Kael felt it twitch.
> "Something hunts," it said at last. Inside his mind. Always there now, like breath or shadow.
Kael narrowed his eyes.
Twelve shadows appeared across the plain. Long, low, fast. Raptors—mutated, echo-touched. Their scales shimmered with bone growths and red-threaded tumors. Their claws scraped against the fractured earth with unnatural sharpness.
He didn't call the others. He didn't run. He just crouched.
> "Twelve." "Too many."
Kael smirked beneath his breath. "Not enough."
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9:13 AM – Marking the Pack
He surveyed:
One had a shattered jaw and limped.
One had a crusted-over eye but moved erratically—an unpredictable threat.
One towered over the rest: the alpha. Thick scars across its ribs.
Three hung back, likely scouts or flankers.
He wasn't facing twelve at once. He was dissecting chaos into control.
Kael activated [Ghost Veil]. The world blurred slightly. His steps became silent as wind over glass. He knelt beside a decayed support beam, eyes scanning. Nearby, an abandoned bus—windows shattered, interior gutted. Perfect terrain.
> "Control the field."
He stepped into the ruins.
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9:16 AM – Opening Moves
Kael triggered [Routine Serge]. His muscles lit up. Time crawled. His mind split into quadrants:
> Escape. Ambush. Funnel. Kill.
He let the limping raptor come first. One leap. One slash. Kael ducked, slit its throat, and vanished behind the bus frame before the pack noticed.
A raptor screamed. Wrong move.
The alpha barked orders with guttural roars. The others charged, flanking in patterns. They were smart—but Kael was patient.
He tossed a mimic-enhanced dagger into a rusted car's exposed fuel line. One spark.
> BOOM.
Three raptors went up in flames. One staggered away shrieking, its skin melting into tar.
Kael didn't stop. He lunged under the next attacker's bite, slid between its legs, and sliced deep across the tendon.
[Injury Heal] flashed. A claw had torn his arm. He sealed it without breaking stride.
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9:21 AM – The Environment Fights Back
Kael dove through the hollow remains of a small clinic. Broken floorboards. Collapsing ceiling. He used it.
> Kicked a file cabinet into the hallway to block pursuit. Tripped a raptor with surgical cables. Lured one through a tight corridor and crushed it with a falling support beam.
The Mimic flickered beside him, now partially mimicking Kael's silhouette. It whispered warnings:
> "Left. High. Two claws."
Kael obeyed instantly, ducked low, slashed up—tore through a charging raptor's neck.
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9:27 AM – The Alpha Remains
Four raptors dead. Three more crippled. Five circled, cautious now.
Kael stood in the center of the battleground—bloodied, but calm.
The alpha hissed and charged. Kael blocked with a slab of mimic bone the soulbound formed mid-air. The Mimic absorbed the brunt of the attack.
> "They test your endurance," it said. "They don't yet know fear."
Kael whispered, "Then let's teach them."
He activated Ghost Veil again. He disappeared from the alpha's sight for half a second.
That was enough.
Kael reappeared behind it. Both daggers plunged into its sides. He twisted, then leapt back as its thrash shattered a bench.
Two flankers charged.
Kael ducked under one, jumped off its back, landed on the second and slit its eye open.
Then he ran.
Back toward the overpass.
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9:33 AM – The Collapse
He had marked it before. A rusted girder held by two failing bolts. As the alpha gave chase, Kael triggered Divine Echo—instantly resetting his Routine Serge.
He leapt up, slashed the girder.
> CRASH.
The metal beam fell. Crushed the alpha. Two more trapped under rubble.
Only one remained. It froze, eye to eye with Kael. Blood on its teeth. Panic in its breath.
Kael tossed his last dagger up, caught it backward, and walked.
> "Leave."
The raptor blinked, then ran.
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9:36 AM – Still Standing
Kael exhaled slowly. He rolled his shoulder, healed a deep cut, wiped his blade clean.
The Mimic appeared beside him. No words. Just presence.
Twelve raptors. Eleven fallen. One spared.
Kael whispered, "Still learning. Still enough."
The sun rose higher, casting long shadows over broken teeth and torn earth.
He looked toward the ridge. The others would return soon. They'd ask if he needed help. He'd say no.
He always did.
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TO BE CONTINUED...