The fire was burning quietly in front of the wooden cabin, while Kentro sat staring blankly at the flames.
The rain had finally stopped, but the dragon’s words did not stop echoing inside his head.
“This is not our first meeting.”
He gripped his dagger tightly.
“What does he mean by that…?”
He raised his gaze toward the black book placed beside him.
It was still… but in some way, it made him feel that it was alive.
Ever since he found it, he could not ignore it.
Whenever he moved away from it… he felt as if something hidden was pulling him back to it.
He slowly extended his hand and grasped the black cover.
And the moment he touched it…
He felt a faint pulse course through his arm.
His eyes widened.
“Again…”
He opened the first page, and the strange symbols still filled the pages as if they were letters from another world.
But this time…
Something different happened.
One of the symbols began to glow with a faint golden light.
Kentro quickly stepped back.
“Huh?!”
The light disappeared after seconds, as if nothing had happened.
He approached again cautiously, and whispered:
“Is it… reacting to me?”
He sat on the ground, and began turning the pages slowly.
The drawings inside the book gave off a strange feeling of fear.
Black circles.
Huge distorted creatures.
And twisted letters that seemed to move across the paper.
Then he stopped at a certain page.
A drawing of a person standing in endless darkness, while black threads emerged from his body like smoke.
Kentro froze for a moment.
For a reason he did not understand… he felt that the drawing resembled him.
He closed the book immediately.
“This place… and this book… and that dragon…”
He raised his head toward the cabin’s crumbling ceiling.
“What exactly is happening around me?”
Silence fell.
But suddenly…
“Shhhhh…”
A sound of movement came from outside the cabin.
Kentro jumped immediately and grabbed his dagger.
After years in the forest, his senses had become as sharp as a predator’s.
Any simple sound was enough to make him ready to kill or flee.
He approached the door slowly…
Then opened it quickly.
But…
There was nothing there.
Only the darkness… and the cold wind.
He stepped outside the cabin, his eyes moving between the trees.
Then he spotted something.
A small shadow hiding behind a tree trunk.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Who’s there?”
No reply.
He moved closer.
And suddenly, a small creature emerged quickly and jumped onto a nearby rock.
Kentro’s eyes widened in surprise.
It was a small girl.
Her ears were slightly long, and her silver hair flowed down to her waist.
She wore torn green clothes, and her blue eyes watched him with fear and caution. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Kentro whispered:
“A fairy…?”
The girl stepped back as soon as she heard the word, and raised a small dagger toward him.
She said quickly:
“Don’t come closer!”
Kentro raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“I don’t intend to hurt you.”
She looked at him suspiciously, then said:
“You’re a demon.”
Silence fell for a moment…
Then Kentro laughed a light laugh for the first time in a long while.
“It seems my appearance is still frightening.”
The girl’s confusion increased.
She had expected a bloody monster… but she found a thin young man carrying an old dagger and living inside a broken cabin.
She asked cautiously:
“What is a demon doing here?”
He answered calmly:
“I live.”
Silence fell between them again.
The girl kept staring at his face, as if trying to understand him.
But suddenly…
“GRAAAAAH!”
A beast’s roar echoed violently nearby.
The girl’s face changed immediately.
“Damn… it found me!”
“GRAAAAAH!”
The trees shook with the roar, and a massive black wolf emerged from the darkness like a living mass of death.
It had one eye glowing with madness, and its long claws dug into the earth with every step.
The girl stepped back in fear, screaming:
“Run!
This is not an ordinary beast!”
But the wolf did not give her time.
It lunged toward her with terrifying speed.
And at that same moment…
Kentro moved.
“DOOM!”
He lunged with his body at lightning speed and pushed the girl away, but the wolf’s claws pierced the side of his abdomen before he could move away.
“SHHHH!”
The girl’s eyes widened in shock.
Kentro fell to his knee for a moment, and blood began to flow over his torn clothes.
“You… you’ve been fatally wounded!”
But…
Something strange happened.
Kentro smiled.
A small smile… but a terrifying one.
He slowly raised his head toward the wolf, while strands of his wet hair covered part of his face, and his crimson eyes gleamed menacingly.
A short, broken laugh escaped him.
“Hah…”
Then he said in a low voice:
“This pain…”
He rose slowly, pressing on his bleeding wound.
“I sometimes missed it.”
The girl froze in place.
Even the wolf itself seemed confused for a moment.
Then…
The beast charged again.
But this time, Kentro did not retreat. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
“BOOM!”
He struck the ground with his foot and lunged toward it with tremendous speed.
The wolf’s eyes widened.
“TAK!
TAK!
TAK!”
Kentro began dodging its claws with insane speed, moving between the strikes as if dancing in the midst of death.
A punch.
An elbow strike.
A quick stab with the dagger.
A leap over the beast’s head.
Everything happened so fast that the girl could not fully follow his movements.
She shouted in amazement:
“He’s so fast!”
The wolf roared violently and turned its massive body, then struck Kentro directly with its tail.
“DAAAAM!”
Kentro flew between the trees and crashed into a massive trunk, cracking the wood behind him.
He coughed blood…
But he laughed again.
“Stronger than the armored boar…”
He wiped the blood from his mouth and stood again.
“This is wonderful.”
The wolf charged toward him madly.
But this time, Kentro moved directly into its attack range.
He dodged the fangs by a hair’s breadth, then delivered a series of rapid punches toward the beast’s face.
“DUDUDUDUM!”
The wolf retreated two steps under the barrage of blows.
Kentro immediately leaped and drove his dagger into the wolf’s shoulder, but the wolf grabbed him with its claws and slammed him to the ground violently.
The earth shook beneath his body.
The girl gasped:
“He’s going to die…!”
But Kentro grabbed the beast’s arm with his bare hand and prevented it from crushing him completely.
The muscles in his arm bulged visibly, and faint black veins appeared around his neck from the pressure.
He screamed as he pushed the beast away:
“I… will… not fall!”
Then he delivered a powerful kick to the wolf’s jaw, sending it several meters away.
Silence fell for a moment.
The beast was panting in rage.
And Kentro…
Was bleeding heavily.
But the girl noticed something that made her breath stop.
His wound…
Was slowly healing.
Not at full speed… but the skin was gradually closing before her eyes.
She whispered in shock:
“Impossible…”
As for Kentro, he did not even notice.
All his focus was on the fight.
He slowly raised his dagger, and his insane smile was still on his face.
“Come on…”
Then he lunged again toward the beast like a storm.
To be continued…
Author’s Note:
I sincerely apologize for the delay in posting Chapter 8 yesterday due to an unexpected commitment.
As compensation, I will be uploading two chapters today instead of one.
Thank you for your patience and understanding—I hope you enjoy the upcoming events.