"Averik~ Snow will come with us, right?" Evelyn asked as pale morning light spread through the front room. Snow had been nosing at the stone near the wall; at her name, she turned and crossed the room, shoulder brushing Evelyn’s leg.
"Of course. She really likes hunting too. I’m not too much worried about her get corrupted, With the Corruption Core she has, only hostile Corruption Essence is dangerous to her. Besides, the Taming Bond gives her a little extra resistance."
Snow gave a pleased huff and crowded the doorway. Averik nudged her shoulder aside long enough to open it. "Come on."
***
Unit 1’s crawler was already noisy with morning work when they arrived. workers carried rope, folded tarps, field packs, and spare power packs between the storehouse and the waiting crawler. They stepped aside readily when the FU members crossed their path, greetings brief and respectful before they returned to work.
The crawler was broader in the rear than the one Averik had ridden before. Its articulated body was familiar, but most of the aft benches had been removed. A deeper cargo floor took their place, with recessed rings along the sides for rope and tarp. Nothing elegant. More room for meat was enough.
Tovan sat half inside the front cab, checking the controls. Caedren had a route board under one arm. Bram was already beside the crawler, looking far too satisfied for a man volunteering to spend his day in a frozen forest.
The last member of the group made Averik slow by half a step. He knew the face, but the hand was what he remembered best. Averik had put a spear straight through it in the training yard.
The young man noticed his glance and flexed those fingers once. They moved cleanly now.
Caedren’s gaze moved from Averik to the young Conductor. "He asked to come."
Averik looked at the junior. "First time outside?"
"Past the gate? Yes." The young man rubbed his thumb over the heel of that same hand, then seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped. "I wanted the field time."
Averik gave the healed hand one last look. "Better reason than curiosity."
Bram snorted as he tightened the strap across his chest. "That’s rich coming from you. He volunteered before he even heard what we were doing."
"And you?" Averik asked.
Bram hooked a thumb under the strap across his chest. "Heard you were coming. Figured the hunt might get interesting."
Averik looked him over. "Maybe... You expect trouble every time I’m nearby?"
"Not every time." Bram’s grin widened. "Enough times."
From the cab, Tovan leaned back far enough to look at them. "Keep talking and the deer can die of old age before we find them."
Caedren slapped the crawler’s side. "Come. We go."
They rolled out through the District 1 gate with Tovan driving and Caedren beside him. Averik and Evelyn took the forward bench in the rear body; Bram sat opposite with the junior. Snow settled on the clear floor beside the side door, leaving the cargo section empty behind them.
The west road ran white beneath a pale sky. Vardel’s wall shrank behind the crawler, then disappeared when the road bent between low ridges and wind-packed snow.
For most of the morning, they found tracks instead of meat.
Caedren stopped them twice for spoor that proved too old to justify following. Snow ranged through scrub near the road, nose low, circling back whenever the scent thinned away. Hoofprints vanished under blown powder. A snapped branch led nowhere. They found a shallow bed pressed into the snow, but whatever had slept there had left hours earlier.
By the time the sun had climbed toward noon, Tovan had taken them roughly halfway toward the first forward camp. The road there cut past thicker growth on the right, where buried service traces and uneven ground had kept the forest from closing completely.
Caedren looked through a gap between two frost-heavy trunks. "Fresh sign goes in there. We can fit through there"
Tovan leaned toward the windshield. Branches narrowed the opening to little more than the crawler’s width. "Barely"
Caedren’s mouth twitched. "Barely is still through."
Tovan snorted. "That’s why you’re not driving." Bram laughed under his breath. Even Evelyn’s mouth curved before Tovan turned the crawler off the road.
Branches scraped over the outer plating. The rear section swung after the cab, broad tracks grinding a shallow path through the snow. Tovan kept the crawler close whenever Caedren or Snow dismounted to check sign, never far enough away that hauling a carcass back would become a second hunt.
Snow found the next trail first. She lowered her muzzle over a half-buried print, inhaled, and moved between two broken trunks.
Caedren checked another mark several paces away, brushed powder from its edge, and nodded toward the same line. "Same direction," he murmured.
Averik stepped down with Evelyn while Bram and the young conductor followed and Tovan set the brake. Snow had gone only a little farther when the deadfall ahead exploded.
Snow was already farther ahead. She paused beside a low drift. Something moved behind the deadfall. The Frost Beast came low and fast, a leopard grown larger than anything ordinary, frost ridged over its shoulders and spine. Blue showed through torn hide along one foreleg. It ignored the humans and launched straight for Snow’s neck.
Snow slipped sideways before its paws reached her. Frost whitened her claws as she turned with the dodge and ripped them across the leopard’s shoulder.
The pounce collapsed. The leopard hit the snow hard, one foreleg folding beneath it, and Averik was already closing the distance. Frost shot over the churned ground, locked around the forelegs, then climbed across the shoulders. The leopard snarled and strained. Snow started forward with her lips peeled back.
Averik watched the leopard. "Leave it." She stopped at once.
He used Beast Tamer. The leopard’s snarl sharpened as it fought him for one violent beat. Then the tension vanished from its body. The bond locked.
::···:::···:::···::
[Target Successfully Tamed]
::···:::···:::···::
He released the frost. The leopard stayed low, breath smoking between its teeth. "Go deeper into the forest."
It rose, tested the injured leg, and disappeared through the trees.
Snow watched until the last flicker of white-black hide vanished. Averik dragged his fingers through the fur between her ears. "Good girl."
Her tail struck his leg.
Bram looked from Snow to the empty trees. "We came out for meat and found that first."
"Keep looking," Caedren said. "I’d still like to bring dinner home."
That took longer than the Frost Beast had.
Snow eventually caught scent where the wind was weaker under the trees, and Caedren picked up the hoof marks crossing a shallow depression. They left the crawler close behind and moved until pale bodies appeared between the trunks.
The deer broke before the group could close completely. Evelyn was already moving. Her spear drove through the nearest animal’s neck as it cut across her lane. Tovan caught another trying to turn downhill and buried his axe behind the skull.
Bram hoisted one deer across his shoulders. Tovan took the other with the young conductor steadying it long enough to clear a low branch. Minutes later both lay beneath tarp in the crawler’s rear compartment, secured well enough that Tovan could drive without turning the cargo into a pile of broken legs and antlers.
Boar spoor appeared not long after.
This time the animals found them first. Brush thrashed to Averik’s left and a heavy body burst through. He shifted out of its line as the boar charged past, close enough that one tusk scraped frost from his coat. Bram met it from the side with a brutal axe stroke behind the shoulder.
The second boar tried the opposite direction. Caedren’s next step shortened strangely across the snow, Space cutting the angle. The animal veered away from him and ran straight into Tovan’s descending axe.
"That was almost insulting," Bram said, planting a boot against his kill to wrench the blade free.
Caedren looked toward the crawler instead of answering. "Load them."
Caedren pulled back the tarp and looked over what they had. His mouth tightened. He checked the sky through the branches, then the fresh spoor running beyond their usual hunting ground. "One more. After that, we turn back."
Tovan scraped blood from his axe with packed snow. "I’ve heard that sentence before."
Caedren watched the tracks. "Not from me today."
Averik looked farther into the forest. Nobody was hurt, the crawler still had room, and fresh spoor continued ahead. "One more." They pushed deeper.
The land changed slowly enough that the snow almost hid it. A broken retaining wall surfaced from one drift. A strip of ground beneath the trees ran too straight to be natural, and an old pipe rose from the snow before disappearing again beneath roots and collapsed stone.
Averik put a gloved hand near the exposed metal as he passed. Nothing. The pipe was as cold as everything around it, crusted white where the wind had stripped the snow away.
Snow found the stag near a squat building half buried beside the old service trace.
It bolted at the first shift in the brush. Caedren was already crossing the escape lane. Space shortened his route, and his sword cut the stag down beside the building before it reached thicker cover.
"There’s your last one," Tovan said.
Caedren wiped his blade. "I remember what I said."
They dragged the stag near the crawler, then paused at the building.
The pump room’s outer doorway stood open beneath a cracked lintel. Old stone around it sat beneath rough patches of newer mortar, and soot stained one section of wall. Inside, thick conduits disappeared through frost-choked masonry, their valves dead and silent.
Across the far wall, an inner door remained with an iron bar laid over it on their side.
Caedren stared at the bar, then toward the carcass waiting outside. "We’re loading beside this. I’d rather know what’s behind it."
Averik nodded. Tovan and the young conductor stayed with the crawler and meat. He entered with Evelyn, Snow, Caedren, and Bram.
The room smelled of cold iron, soot, and old dust. No hum came from the conduits. No warmth touched the frost around the valves.
Bram wrapped one hand around the crossbar and pulled. Metal screamed against the brackets; the bar bent, tore free, and hit the wall with a dull clang.
Caedren glanced at it. "Subtle."
Bram caught the edge of the door. "Door’s open, isn’t it?" He eased it toward himself. A scrape came from the dark beyond, and Averik moved closer as the gap widened.
A human shape launched fast through it. Frost-blue flesh. Torn clothes.
Averik’s fist came up in the same instant. Essence hardened the strike; Frost wrapped his knuckles; Soul power compressed beneath both.
Before his fist hit it.
A translucent ward flashed into existence in front of the Frost Zombie’s face.
BOOM!
The ward bowed inward. ’what the fuck... Warden?’
Averik turned the strike through the ward. The zombie shot across the main room at an angle, tore through the nearest patched outer wall, and struck a tree outside hard enough to break the trunk. The upper half crashed into the snow in a spray of powder, burying the zombie beneath its branches.
Averik looked through the breach. "That one has the Warden Talent."
Bram’s expression lost its humor. He stared at the body beneath the fallen tree. "An Awakened who became a Frost Zombie."
Evelyn’s fingers closed lightly around the sleeve of Averik’s coat. She kept looking through the breach. "Maybe he was one of the people who survived here before?"
Averik gave the patched wall one last glance. "Most likely." He stepped through the breach instead of wasting time squeezing back through the doorway. Evelyn stayed close to his flank. Caedren, Bram, and Snow followed.
Tovan and the junior were already moving from the crawler side. Tovan kept himself between the fallen tree and the cargo. The younger man had gone pale, but he hadn’t backed into the vehicle.
The tree shifted, and the Frost Zombie stood beneath it. One shoulder dragged for a step. By the second, it was already moving better.
It came at Averik again.
A ward snapped over its head and chest. Averik hit the protection instead of chasing the flesh. Frost burst across the translucent surface. Evelyn drove her spear for the open side, Holy radiance flaring along the weapon.
The ward folded toward her attack.
Caedren was there before it finished. His blade opened the zombie’s shoulder. It twisted with impossible speed and swung for him, but Tovan’s Guardian slammed into place between them.
BOOM!
The impact shoved Tovan backward through the snow without breaking his stance. Bram’s Fire followed from the opposite angle, pouring over the wound Caedren had made. Corrupted flesh blackened, then began tightening again beneath fresh frost.
"Persistent bastard," Bram growled.
Snow darted low, tore across the back of one leg with Frost-coated claws, and sprang away before the zombie could catch her.
Another ward snapped into place, then a second on a different angle. Caedren’s blade scraped off one; Bram’s next burst of Fire forced the other across. Each opening lasted barely long enough to use.
The young conductor hovered outside the front line, eyes jumping from Bram’s Fire to a broken conduit jutting from the wall. When another blast exposed more metal, he pointed. "Bram! That line’s open."
Bram saw it. "Can you route through it?"
The junior moved to the broken metal, swallowed once, and set his palm against it. "I can try."
"Do it." Bram drove Fire into the open end. The flame swelled under Resonator, pressure rising hard enough to make the cold metal groan. The junior caught that externalized flow with Conduit.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. His jaw clenched; the conduit shuddered under his palm, and Fire burst from the split section behind the zombie a fraction too late to hit cleanly. The Frost Zombie still reacted. A ward whipped toward the sudden heat. That was enough for Evelyn.
Her spear punched through the protection it had abandoned and buried Holy radiance in its ribs. The zombie convulsed. Caedren cut through the opposite arm before another ward could cover it.
The junior stared at the conduit, breathing harder now. Tovan didn’t look back. "You got one opening. Stay out of reach."
The Frost Zombie threw up another ward in front of Caedren’s blade. Averik stopped feeding strikes into the protection. He reached instead for the Corruption moving through the creature.
His Corruption Authority met something hostile and violent. Averik pushed anyway. The flow inside the zombie buckled. Regeneration that had been knitting the ruined face stuttered, and the next ward formed a fraction off-center.
Averik drove Soul pressure into the same moment. The creature jerked. Its ward flickered, thinned along one edge, and its next step came half a beat late.
Evelyn saw the opening before anyone called it.
Holy light flared down her spear as she ripped the crooked ward wider. Averik froze the zombie’s feet to the ground and stepped through the gap she made.
Frost and Soul compressed around his hand. He drove both through the ruined head and upper spine. The zombie convulsed once. Averik kept the pressure there until the body went slack beneath him.
No ward came back. The blue-cyan flesh stopped knitting itself closed.
Averik could still feel a hostile Corruption residue in the dead tissue. Bram looked down at the corpse. "Give me room. I’ll burn this."
Snow was already giving the corpse space. Evelyn moved with Averik as he stepped away. Tovan kept the outer line while Bram’s Fire took the body where it lay, hot enough to blacken the blue-cyan tissue and collapse what remained of it into charred ruin.
They loaded the stag, pulled the tarp tight over the cargo, and turned toward Vardel.
Afternoon light was thinning as the crawler followed its own tracks through the forest. They had not yet reached the main road when a bear appeared between the trees.
Ordinary beast. Thick winter coat, broad shoulders, and enough confidence to rise on its hind legs when the crawler stopped.
The junior stared through the side opening. "We’re not eating that one too, are we?"
Averik opened the door. "No."
Bram chuckled. "There it is."
The bear roared when Averik approached. It dropped to all fours and charged.
Frost locked around its front paws before it reached him. The bear tore one free and swung. Averik caught the foreleg, forced it down, and brought Beast Tamer against the bear’s resistance.
Its resistance held for several heartbeats before the bond settled. When Averik released the Frost, it didn’t charge again. "Stay in this forest."
The bear dropped back to all fours, held his gaze briefly, then turned and vanished between the trees.
When Averik climbed back into the crawler, Bram was still grinning. "You really don’t like letting them walk away untouched, do you?."
Averik pulled the door shut. "Why would I?"
Bram laughed once. "yeah... I know you"
They reached Vardel in the late afternoon.
Workers were waiting when the crawler rolled into Unit 1’s bay. They moved in only after Tovan shut the crawler down, greeting the returning Frontliners before Caedren sent them toward the rear. The tarp came off. Workers lifted the deer, boar, and stag from the cargo bed and carried them toward processing and storage while Caedren spoke briefly with the receiving crew.
Snow shook herself beside Evelyn and looked toward the courtyard gate.
Averik looked at Evelyn and said, "I’ll go see Garran first."
Evelyn rested a hand briefly against Averik’s arm. "I’ll take her home. Will you be long?"
Averik looked toward Garran’s side of the compound. "Depends."
Her fingers lingered for a moment before she let go. "All right. I’ll wait for you~." Averik touched her waist once before letting her go. Snow followed Evelyn across the courtyard without needing to be called.
He went to Garran’s room instead.
The door stood open. Garran was behind the table with a folded map beneath his hands. He looked up when Averik entered, his gaze catching the soot on Averik’s sleeve before returning to his face. "Hunting?"
Averik stopped opposite the table. "Mostly."
Garran gave the soot another look and didn’t bother asking again. He pulled the map open across the table, flattened one curling corner with his palm, and waited for Averik to come closer.