Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 470

Chapter 470: Blonde Nomad

Somewhere in the Southern Cardinal, a group of hunters sat around a fire passing food between them.

“I’m just saying, that Razorwing had no business being that far south.” Kael wiped grease from his mouth, his twin blades leaning against the log beside him. The weapons still hummed slightly from earlier. Level 4s did that after a kill, needed time to cool down.

“Everything’s moving weird lately.” Amara had a spherical device in her lap, turning it over in her hands. To most people it looked like scrap metal, but the flame-conduits running through it marked it as a Level 3 thermal projector. “Six years hunting and I’ve never seen migration patterns this fucked.”

Dyson grunted, cleaning his rifle. The energy coils glowed faint blue in the firelight. Level 4 military-grade, probably cost him a year’s worth of cores. “Command doesn’t pay us to ask why. Just to bring back what we kill.”

“Three Category 3s this week though.” Jiro’s axe lay across his knees, way too big for his frame. The kinetic amplifiers built into the blade caught the light. Another Level 4. “Credits are actually good for once.”

“Would be better if all five of us actually worked.” Petra flexed her hands. The gauntlets she wore had reinforced plating along the knuckles. Level 3s, solid enough to crack a an armoured vehicle if you hit right. “Instead of one sleeping through everything.”

“I can hear you.” The voice from the tent was flat.

Petra rolled her eyes. “Good. Maybe get up and help sometime.”

“Maybe shut up and let me sleep.”

Dyson leaned closer to the fire, lowering his voice. “Remind me why she’s here?”

“Faction vouched for her,” Amara said quietly. “Been rotating through teams for months. They call her the Blonde Nomad or something. Supposed to be good when things go bad.”

“Things haven’t gone bad yet.”

“Then I guess we’ll see.”

They fell quiet after that, just the sound of eating and the fire crackling. The forest around them was still. Normal still, the kind you got used to on hunts.

Kael finished his meal first, stretching. “I’ll take first watch. Rest of you should sleep while you can. Want to cover more ground tomorrow before—”

Dyson’s scanner beeped.

Once. Twice. Then it didn’t stop.

“What the hell?” Dyson pulled the device up, frowning at the display. “I’m getting signatures. Multiple. Category 2 and 3.”

“How many?” Jiro asked.

“Eight. No, ten. Twelve?” Dyson’s face went pale. “They’re not moving. Just… there.”

“Twelve dead beasts?” Amara stood up, her thermal projector already in hand. “What could kill that many?”

“We need to call this in.” Kael grabbed his blades. “Right now. Whatever did that is way beyond—”

A sound cut through the night. Wet. Heavy. Something being torn apart.

They moved without talking, weapons ready, heading toward the noise. Kael’s heart hammered in his chest. Twelve Category 2s and 3s dead in one area. That wasn’t normal. That wasn’t anything he’d seen before.

The trees opened up into a clearing.

Bodies everywhere. A Thornback slumped against a tree, chest ripped open. A Razorwing with its wings torn off. More corpses scattered around, each one killed fast and brutal.

But what made Kael’s stomach drop were the cores.

Beast cores in a neat pile at the center. Crystalline and valuable. Someone had extracted every single one and just… left them there.

“What the fuck,” Petra breathed.

Dyson’s scanner went crazy. “There’s something else here. The signature is wrong, it’s not reading like—”

Movement at the far end of the clearing.

Something stood over a fresh kill. A Category 3 Ironhide that could have torn through all of them. Eight feet tall, hunched over the corpse. As they watched, it drove one hand straight through the beast’s chest.

The sound of breaking ribs echoed across the clearing. The thing pulled its hand out holding the core. It looked at the crystal for a moment, then walked over and added it to the pile with the others.

Then it straightened to full height.

Grey skin. Arms too long. Fingers that ended in points. A tail moving behind it like a snake.

And on its forehead, two horns.

“HARBINGER!” Petra’s scream split the air.

The thing turned its head toward them. Its face was almost human but the eyes were too big, too dark. When it saw them, it smiled.

“Oh fuck.” Dyson raised his rifle with shaking hands. “Command, this is Hunter Team in Southern Cardinal, we have a Harbinger, repeat, HARBINGER—”

It moved.

The ground exploded where it had been standing. A crater six feet wide just appeared as the thing launched itself forward.

Jiro’s axe came up. The kinetic amplifiers screamed as he swung. The blade hit the Harbinger’s hand with enough force to split a Steel clean through.

The Harbinger caught the axe with one hand.

Jiro had time to look confused before the thing’s other hand punched through his chest. Blood sprayed. The body dropped.

“NO!” Amara triggered her projector. Fire erupted from the device, a stream of flame hot enough to melt steel. The temperature spiked so high Kael felt his skin blister.

The Harbinger stood in the fire. Just stood there. When the flames died down, Amara gasping from the effort, it took a step forward.

“Insufficient,” it said. Its voice sounded wrong. Too smooth.

Dyson opened fire. Energy bolts tore into the Harbinger’s chest. One shot. Five. Ten. Blue light lit up the clearing.

The Harbinger walked through them. Walked through shots that could punch holes in beast armor like they were nothing.

Petra charged, her gauntlets glowing. She’d killed a Thornback which was a cat 4 with one punch wearing those. Her fist connected with the Harbinger’s torso.

It didn’t even stumble.

Its tail whipped around. Caught Petra in the ribs. Kael heard bones snap. She flew backward, crashed through a tree, didn’t get back up.

“Fall back!” Kael screamed. “FALL BACK!”

Dyson was still firing, backing away, yelling into his radio. “COMMAND, RESPOND! WE NEED EDF SUPPORT NOW! HARBINGER CONFIRMED—”

The Harbinger’s fist shot forward. Not at Dyson. At the air next to him.

The shockwave hit him like a wall. His chest caved in. Blood poured from his nose, his ears. He collapsed, the radio still clutched in his broken hand.

Kael and Amara stood alone.

“Run,” Kael whispered. “Amara, run.”

“I can’t. I can’t move. I—”

The Harbinger took one step. The ground cracked under its foot.

Kael raised his swords. Six years of hunting. This was how it ended.

The thing moved again.

Kael saw the fist coming. He crossed both blades up to block.

The impact drove him into the ground. His swords held but his knees buckled. The earth beneath him cratered from the force.

The Harbinger’s other hand came around. Kael threw himself sideways. Where he’d been standing, the ground just ceased to exist. A perfect crater three feet deep.

One missed punch did that.

Amara screamed, fire pouring from her projector in a constant stream. The trees around them started to burn. The flames were hot enough to turn sand to glass.

The Harbinger raised one hand. The fire split around it. Never touched its skin. It walked through the inferno like it was taking a stroll.

When it reached her, its hand shot out. Amara’s fire stopped. She made a small sound and fell.

Kael lunged. Both blades found the thing’s back, actually cut in a few inches.

The Harbinger turned. Kael watched the wounds close. Grey flesh knitting back together like nothing happened.

“Oh fuck!!”

The tail came around. Kael dodged but the wind from it knocked him down. He hit hard, tasted blood, tried to stand—

The Harbinger loomed over him. It knelt down, bringing that face close.

“Your weapons are designed for lesser prey,” it said.

Kael spat blood at it.

The thing tilted its head. Then it stood, raising one foot over Kael’s chest.

This was it.

A sound like breaking glass filled the air.

Suddenly the Harbinger jerked sideways.

Not stumbled but moved. Like something grabbed it and threw it. Its body sailed through three trees and kept going.

Kael tried to turn his head. Tried to see what—

A figure walked out from the trees. Hooded. Moving smooth and quiet. Human-shaped but something about the way they moved felt off. Felt dangerous.

The Harbinger was already getting up from the wreckage. It looked at the hooded figure, then at its own arm. The limb was bent wrong. Compressed. Like something had squeezed the bones together.

Grey flesh started healing it but slow. Way slower than the cuts from Kael’s swords.

“Interesting,” the Harbinger said. “You affect—”

It didn’t finish.

The hooded figure raised one hand. Made a pulling motion.

The Harbinger shot backward like it was yanked by a chain. It crashed through more trees, hit the ground hard enough to shake the earth.

“Stay down,” a woman’s voice said. Not to the Harbinger. To Kael. “This won’t take long.”

The Harbinger charged. Each step left craters in the ground. Its speed was insane, covering the distance in seconds.

Five feet away, it threw a punch. The same kind that had killed Dyson through shockwave alone.

The woman raised her hand.

The Harbinger’s fist stopped. Just stopped. Frozen six inches from her palm. No shockwave. No impact. Nothing.

The thing strained. Kael could see its muscles bunch, see the ground crack beneath it from the pressure it was putting behind that punch.

The fist didn’t move forward at all.

“Fascinating,” the Harbinger said. “You manipulate—”

The woman’s fingers curled.

The Harbinger’s arm compressed. Folded in on itself. Grey flesh tore. Dark fluid sprayed. The thing actually screamed.

It lashed out with its tail. The same strike that killed Petra. Fast enough that Kael couldn’t even see it move.

The tail stopped mid-swing.

Then it started bending backward.

The woman’s other hand came up. The tail wrapped around the Harbinger’s own throat, tightening. The thing choked, clawing at its own tail.

But then something changed. The woman’s stance shifted slightly. Her breathing got heavier.

The Harbinger noticed. “You struggle,” it said through the choking. “Your power… requires focus…”

Its legs tensed. It started to rise despite the tail around its throat.

The woman’s jaw clenched. Sweat beaded on what little Kael could see of her face under the hood. Her hands trembled slightly.

She was holding it but barely. The Harbinger’s strength was fighting back against whatever she was doing. Its healing factor kept trying to fix the damage she caused.

The thing’s good arm shot out toward her face.

The woman made a sharp downward motion with both hands.

Every part of the Harbinger slammed into the ground at once. The earth buckled. A crater formed beneath it easily ten feet across. But it was still moving. Still trying to get up.

“Typical, ” the woman muttered.

She looked around the clearing. Her eyes landed on Dyson’s rifle.

The weapon flew through the air into her hand. She looked at it for a second, then dropped it. Not powerful enough.

Her gaze shifted. Landed on Jiro’s axe.

The Level 4 kinetic weapon ripped itself from where it lay near his body. It spun through the air and stopped beside her, floating.

The Harbinger was pushing itself up now. Fighting against her hold. Its muscles bulged. The ground beneath it cracked further.

The woman grabbed the axe out of the air with both hands. The kinetic amplifiers activated, screaming with power.

She raised it high.

The Harbinger looked up. For the first time, something like fear crossed its face.

The woman brought the axe down with every ounce of strength she had plus whatever her power could add.

The blade went through the Harbinger’s skull like it was nothing. Punched through bone and brain and out the other side, burying itself two feet into the ground beneath.

The thing spasmed once. Twice. Then went still.

Silence.

The woman stood there, breathing hard. Her hands still gripped the axe handle. After a moment, she let go and stepped back.

The woman wiped her face with her sleeve. Dark fluid smeared across the fabric. She looked at it with mild annoyance.

Then she turned and started walking toward the trees.

“Wait,” Kael managed to croak. “Who—”

The woman stopped. Didn’t turn around.

In the distance, Kael could hear engines. EDF transports. Someone must have heard Dyson’s transmission.

The woman reached up and pulled her hood back.

Blonde hair spilled out, streaked with dark dye. Her face was young but her eyes looked old. Tired. Like she’d seen too much.

She glanced back at him. Just for a second.

Then she pulled the hood back up and disappeared into the darkness.

Kael lay there staring at the stars. His whole body hurt. Around him, the clearing was full of bodies and fire and blood.

The EDF transports got louder.

He closed his eyes.