The occasional clatter of tools or the distant thump of a gate echoed from around the farmhouse as Farmer Donovan and his family moved through the rest of their day. The farmer’s son—barely old enough to reach the latch on the pen—was shooing one of the shaggy blue-furred cows back into its stall with a stick that looked more like a toy than a proper tool. Klarion watched him for a moment, arms folded, noting how normal it all looked. As if a fire-breathing monster hadn’t been preying on this farm every few nights.

  Still, as much as he tried to focus on the reason they both were there at the farm the calm pressed in, and Klarion felt a small part of him loosen. It wouldn’t last, he knew, but he let the moment stretch as long as he could. Birds with colorful wings that seemed to shift in the sunlight flitted between the beams of the barn roof above him. Somewhere out near the field, a dog barked twice and then fell silent again. The sound caused him to think over how Blacksword Manor, for all the new people living there, was still a relatively empty and quiet place. Perhaps he should look into getting a dog after he got back and unlocked his class. He’d always liked them, though he hadn’t had one since he had lived at home with his family back on Earth. His apartment back then hadn’t allowed any.

  When the sun finally touched the horizon and began to bleed orange and red into the sky, Donovan gave a short wave from the porch and ushered his young son inside. Klarion nodded back with a polite, if muted, gesture. The man hadn’t spoken more than a dozen words to them since earlier that morning—just pointed at the fence, gestured toward the barn, and grumbled something about how he expected the job to be done. Klarion didn’t blame him for the bluntness; he likely didn’t want his son to see another burnt carcass in the morning.

  As the door closed behind them and the sounds of the family’s evening chatter faded into muffled quiet, Hatsune sighed loudly, opening her pouch and pulling out some of her dried rations.

  “We could’ve joined them, you know. The farmer did offer,” she muttered, eyeing the distant house with a hint of longing. “I could smell the stew.”

  Klarion smiled at her tone, pulling out his own rations. “And what if the Blaze Lion showed up while we were eating with them, and it got one of the livestock before we could confront it?”

  “I would’ve brought my sword to dinner,” Hatsune gave him a flat look, then continued chewing to then swallow with a grimace. “I think we’d have reacted fast enough, too.”

  When Klarion didn’t argue with her, instead focusing on his own rations, Hatsune simply grumbled under her breath until they were done eating. By that point, the last of the daylight was fading, and the world settled into a deep hush. He could barely even hear the crickets that should have been all around them.

  Shifting position, Klarion moved to sit with his back against the barn wall, his greatsword resting across his lap. Beside him, Hatsune crouched near a corner of the fence, her long ears twitching slightly at every stray sound. A faint wind rolled over the grass of the nearby field, stirring loose hay and rustling dry stalks of grass. The shaggy-furred blue cows had moved in a group to settle down for the night in their massive stall, and somewhere off to the left, a nightbird let out a low trill, only to fall silent moments later.

  It was the kind of quiet that made every small noise feel significant—every creak of the barn, every breath they took, every tiny shift in posture.

  Klarion was sure of it now. This was only the calm before the storm.

  “You alright?” Hatsune’s voice cut through the silence. She had moved to stand near him, her long silver-gray hair shifting gently in the breeze as she scanned the field, alert as he was for the arrival of the Blaze Lion.

  Klarion didn’t answer right away. His gaze swept over the horizon, taking in the tall grass, a distant line of trees, and the faint flicker of the farmhouse windows behind them. Shadows stretched long across the area surrounding the farm, hiding a thousand possibilities. And yet… he wasn’t tense. He wasn’t anxious.

  “I’m good,” Klarion said finally. “Feels like it’s almost time.” He felt it in his bones—a quiet certainty that something was coming their way. But, somewhat to his surprise, there was no flutter of nerves in his gut. Just a calm resolve. He stood up, then rolled his shoulders once and rested his hand on the hilt of his greatsword, the leather grip cool and familiar beneath his fingers. It was strange, he realized—how confident he felt. This wasn’t a sparring match at the Academy. This was real, like the Storm Wolves he had fought before. Though this time the monstrous creature was a fire-wielding predator hunting livestock and a threat to anything in its path. The kind of creature Klarion thought would make many warriors sweat through their armor just imagining it.

  Despite that… Klarion felt ready.

  Klarion didn’t know exactly when the shift had happened, but sometime between the Academy and this quiet farm, something inside him had changed. He wasn’t doubting himself the way he once might have. He was just... waiting for the moment of the fight.

  He glanced sideways at Hatsune, who gave a slight nod without speaking, then resumed her stillness. He felt something thrumming in his chest. Not fear. Not anxiety. Just focus. And anticipation.

  Then came the sound—a low hiss that didn’t belong.

  Klarion’s hand tightened on the hilt of his greatsword, and his eyes narrowed in the direction he thought the sound had come from. It was subtle but unmistakable. Heat riding on air. Wrong. Unnatural in an evening that was starting to cool.

  And then his saw a glow gradually building from the direction he was looking.

  He stepped forward, slowly lifting his greatsword before him. The steel gleamed faintly, and he could feel the hum of power in his limbs—a product of his invested stats and the training he had been subjected to over the past few weeks.

  The tall grass at the edge of the field shimmered, and then, like a nightmare dragged into the waking world, the Blaze Lion emerged.

  It moved like molten steel, each step scorching the earth. Its mane blazed with hungry flame, licking the air like it wanted to devour all that came close to it. Fire coiled and danced along its fur, and every step it took left behind charred earth and shimmering heatwaves. It was a wonder that nothing had caught fire, but as his eyes dipped to look at the tracks the Blaze Lion left, the sparks that followed it along the ground gradually died the further the creature moved from them. Perhaps the clearly magical flames could not be sustained without the presence of the creature itself?

  Klarion looked back up at the Blaze Lion, only to see eyes like burning coals had locked on himself and Hatsune, intelligent and full of malice.

  The Blaze Lion took a single step forward, and the night split with a roar. A wave of heat erupted from its body, rippling out over the field and scorching the earth in a halo of blistering air.

  But Klarion didn’t wait.

  He launched himself forward, charging to meet the beast before it could reach the fence—before it could reach the shaggy blue-furred cows behind it. There was no hesitation, no faltering step. Hatsune called out behind him, but his greatsword was already coming up with practiced ease, the weight of it a familiar comfort even as the air began to grow heated around him.

  The Blaze Lion’s molten eyes widened at his surging advance, and it reared up, flames spilling from its mouth in a torrent of orange and gold. Klarion ducked low beneath the blast, feeling fire graze his shoulder like a slap of pure heat. The edge of his cloak curled and blackened behind him, but he was already moving, momentum carrying him straight into the creature’s path.

  Their clash came like a hammer blow.

  Steel met claw in a shower of sparks and fury. The Blaze Lion’s talons slammed into Klarion’s blade with enough force to send a tremor up his arms. But, like he had hoped, his strength was high enough to face it up close. His boots dug into the soil, carving twin gouges in the scorched earth as he absorbed the blow. Even with his stats, the Blaze Lion’s strength was still monstrous, and the heat radiating from its body was like standing beside one of those forges back in Bastion. Still—he didn’t back up.

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  Klarion twisted his body, redirecting the next strike with a sweeping parry. The lion snarled, snapping at him with jaws wreathed in flame, but he turned his shoulder into the attack, the pauldron of his fieldplate taking the brunt of the darting bite. The metal screamed under the heat, but held firm and did not warp under the blow.

  Before it could back up, Klarion retaliated in kind—his greatsword surged upward in a rising arc, slicing across the Blaze Lion’s shoulder. Sparks flew. Blood that seemed almost to boil burst from the wound, and the beast let out a furious, pained bellow that shook the night.

  Where other creatures might have backed off, it lunged again, faster this time, all blazing fur and fury. Its paw slammed down at him hard, but Klarion sidestepped just in time. The strike smashed into the ground where he’d stood a heartbeat earlier, sending now smoldering dirt and grass flying skyward.

  Even with the faith he had in his stats and how comfortable the greatsword felt in his hands, Klarion realized the Blaze Lion was too strong to exchange blows with for long. Klarion grit his teeth as he pivoted and slashed again—this time aiming for the creature’s flank. The sword bit deep, but the lion twisted, slamming its body into his side. The impact was brutal, but it only caused Klarion to stagger, not fall. He shifted his grip, reset his stance, and locked eyes with the beast once more.

  That is when he heard it.

  A second roar shattered the night—louder, closer, and unmistakably different.

  “Shit,” Klarion cursed, his blood turning to ice despite the furnace-like heat of the Blaze Lion he still faced. A glow was building to his right.“There’s two of them!”

  He snapped his head around just in time to see a second Blaze Lion charging from the far side of the field, its mane lashing like wildfire. He wracked his brains, trying to come up with a way they could deal with the other Blaze Lion, but nothing came to him. If only he had a class. He made to call out another warning to Hatsune, who had remained behind him waiting for an opening up until now.

  But the Leporine was already moving.

  Her silver-gray hair whipped behind her as she pivoted sharply, cutting across the space between them. She skidded to a stop between Klarion and the new threat, eyes narrowing, her stance instantly shifting into something sharp and lethal.

  “I’ve got this one!” she shouted, and though her voice rang out with confidence, Klarion caught the slight tightness in it. Concern. Calculation.

  “No—wait—” he started, stepping toward her, only to stop as the Blaze Lion he faced darted in to swipe its claws at his side. He only barely blocked the blow with the blade of his greatsword, though it still pushed him a step backward.

  “Handle yours!” she barked back, blade flashing in her hands in a smooth, fluid motion. “I’ll be fine!”

  She dashed toward the second lion without hesitation.

  Klarion swore again, his gut twisting. He should never have tempted fate earlier. Of course, there would be two as soon as he believed they could easily handle one. The one he faced was already a nightmare—fast, strong, and cloaked in relentless heat. The second meant potential disaster if he couldn’t kill the beast he was facing quickly. As much as he might wish otherwise, there was no time to sort out a better strategy, no space to hesitate. He would just have to trust in Hatsune.

  The first Blaze Lion lunged at him again, and Klarion spun back into motion. Perhaps emboldened by the arrival of its companion, the beast came at him like an avalanche of fire and fury. Claws raked through the air, blistering close, forcing Klarion to duck and roll beneath the swing. The ground was scorched beneath him, the grass turning to ash in an instant.

  Klarion sprang back to his feet, sword up, lungs burning. He could hear the second Blaze Lion now—the clash of Hatsune’s blades, a grunt, a hiss of steam as fire met steel. His heart thudded painfully, torn between trust and fear. He had fought Hatsune before. He knew how fast she was, how smart she was, she would be able to handle herself.

  He hated how that felt more like a prayer than a certainty.

  The Blaze Lion before him growled, sparks spilling forth from around its fangs like molten rain. Its eyes were locked on him, unblinking, savage. But Klarion was not intimidated.

  And then he remembered the other reason he had picked this Expeditionary Mission.

  He gripped the hilt of his greatsword tight and exhaled slowly. His thoughts shifted—not away from the fight, but into it. Deeper. The memory of the Hall of Bonds, what he had felt when he had faced that cruel ogre, briefly came to him and faded to leave the only thing that mattered. The emotions. The almost clarity. He had hoped that the Blaze Lion was what he needed to fight to get him a step closer to the Essence he wanted to unlock first. He stared at it hard. Heat. Sparks. Fire.

  And to face fire… he needed to be fire.

  He shifted his stance, weight balanced, every muscle coiled and ready, but he didn’t strike. Instead, he watched, trying to center himself at the same time. The lion was aggressive but not reckless—its movements measured, waiting for him to flinch, to overextend. And that was exactly what he needed right now.

  Klarion didn’t move. Not physically.

  Inside, though, he reached for something deeper. Not the ice-steeled fury from before when he faced the ogre—but a smoldering rage that he hoped lived beneath his skin. He thought of the scars. The suffering. The expectations he’d never asked for. The burdens of being a scion of House Blacksword. Of the way the world had forced him day after day to become more and more of a weapon. That constant pressure—to prove himself, to be better, to be stronger. To survive.

  His jaw clenched.

  A feeling rose from deep within him then. But it was too similar to what he had felt before.

  He didn’t want cold rage.

  So he pushed it away and dove deeper.

  He wanted heat. Righteous fury. An inferno that burned through chains.

  And at that moment, without conscious thought, he didn’t resist the heat pressing in from the Blaze Lion—he embraced it. Let it mirror the growing blaze inside him.

  Something flickered in his chest—like a coal catching the wind.

  The Blaze Lion sprinted forward, roaring its hate.

  Klarion’s eyes snapped open, and had Hatsune been looking into them at that moment, she would have said how the same gold-red eyes were glowing faintly.

  Klarion roared as he swung his sword in a brutal arc, intercepting the Blaze Lion mid-pounce. Steel met flame, but this time, the fire didn’t recoil—it seemed almost to dance along the blade. The impact flared with a burst of ember and force, and the lion skidded back with a snarl of confusion. Klarion didn’t stop. He advanced, driving forward with all his stat-enhanced strength. The heat around him didn’t feel oppressive or threatening anymore.

  That was when he heard another roar intermingled with a cry come from Hatsune’s direction. There was something in her cry that wasn’t part of the calm, composed warrior he knew. Frustration. Anger. Pain.

  His heart seized.

  He needed to end this quickly.

  Klarion fully embraced the surge of fury that had ignited in his blood, and with it, he was able to push away the creeping exhaustion clawing at his limbs. Klarion clenched his greatsword tighter, his grip so fierce the leather wrapping strained beneath his hands. The Blaze Lion before him reared back, its jaws opening wide in another fire-breathing roar, a small ripple of flames spilling from its throat. But Klarion didn’t flinch.

  He stepped forward into the fire.

  The heat, which before had felt suffocating and wild, no longer scorched him the same way. His skin still prickled, and sweat still rolled down his back, but it wasn’t unbearable. It felt… manageable. Like standing near a forge’s hearth rather than in an open blaze. The heat was real, but it no longer burned him like it had before. But even as the fire no longer burned him, Klarion knew something was missing. The Essence of Fire within him stirred, yes, but it wasn’t leaping to his call. Not yet. He wasn’t channeling fire—he was merely resisting it. Holding it at bay. He pushed the thought aside, resolving to figure it out later.

  The Blaze Lion lunged once more, its massive form again surging forward with terrifying speed for something so large. Its claws tore through the earth, molten eyes burning with madness at the human resisting it.

  Klarion met the charge head-on.

  He dodged left just enough to avoid the snapping jaws, then pivoted hard on his heel, using the beast’s momentum against it. His greatsword came up in a tight arc—then down in a devasting blow, catching the Blaze Lion’s neck just behind the jawline. There was a sickening crack of bone and a burst of boiling blood as the blade of his weapon sank deep.

  The lion screamed, its body twisting violently, trying to regain its balance. Another, smaller blast of flame burst from its mouth, but the aim was wild. It fought to turn to face its attacker.

  But Klarion didn’t let up.

  With brutal efficiency, he wrenched his sword free, then struck again, this time across the spine, aiming to sever it. The edge bit through flesh and vertebrae alike with a jarring impact that echoed across the field. The lion’s legs buckled, its body shuddering as it collapsed sideways.

  Even that attack wasn’t enough to kill it.

  The Blaze Lion tried to lift itself, dragging its half-paralyzed frame forward in a last attempt to kill Klarion.

  With a cry that carried every ounce of fury, fear, and desperation swelling inside him, Klarion raised the greatsword high and drove it down with both hands. The blade pierced the lion’s skull and pinned it to the scorched earth.

  The Blaze Lion gave a convulsive shudder… then stillness. The fire in its mane flickered, already dying. Smoke coiled upward from the ruined body. The monster’s molten eyes dimmed, leaving only the corpse of a once-majestic beast behind.

  Klarion stood over it, his chest heaving, his breath ragged. Sweat dripped from his brow and mingled with soot and ash. But there was no time to savor the kill.

  Hatsune.

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