Chapter 114 – The Missing Shadow.

The wind sweeping across the Plateau of Black Magma Gorges carried a dry heat that made the fabric of Diana's coat snap against her legs.

Diana and Zarek stood perched at the edge of a stone rise, surveying the floor of a shallow crater fifty meters below.

In the center of the dark gravel depression, feeding on the carcass of a giant reptile, was a pack of elite predators from the northern sector: two four-meter-tall Furious Fire Bears (Level 49) and an Obsidian Terrestrial Chimera (Level 51), whose muscular lion's frame bore thick plates of volcanic glass and a barbed iron tail.

The appraisal from [Command Eye] confirmed the central creature's 3,500 hit points.

Diana glanced sideways at the arachnid demon.

Zarek crouched upon a jagged rock, balancing with insectoid ease, his two main hands resting on the hilts of the moon blades across his back while his four secondary arms spread wide into the air, testing wind direction with invisible threads of steel silk attached to his chitinous fingertips.

“The Chimera has thermal resistance across its chest,” Diana instructed in a hushed tone. “I will shatter its foreleg joint using the thermal focus from my horns. You anchor its left flank with your web and decapitate the first bear.”

Zarek spread a broad grin of sharp teeth.

“Leave the show to me, Commander.”

***

The strike began without warning.

Zarek vaulted from the cliff's edge.

His four secondary arms fired cables of moon steel silk that anchored into the stone pillars ringing the crater. Hauling on the threads with the raw Strength of Level 60, he used the cable tension to slingshot through the air like a silver arrow, dropping directly onto the back of the first Level 49 Fire Bear.

ASCENDANT FURY!

Zarek's curved swords blurred in a continuous maelstrom of slashes.

The lunar blades sheared through the bear's dense hide in a six-strike sequence delivered in half a second. Before the beast could lift a paw to mount a counterattack, its neck had already been severed by the crosscut of both swords.

The Level 51 Chimera roared, whipping its leonine body around and lashing its barbed tail at Zarek.

Zarek used the silk to hoist himself two meters up into the air, dodging the barbs by a hair's breadth while his threads snared the tip of the creature's tail to a nearby rock.

Diana landed on the packed earth ten meters away.

Backed by 201 Intelligence, she thrust out her open left hand.

MANA PRISON!

Translucent arcane chains locked around the Chimera's jaws, sealing the boss's flame breath for four seconds.

Diana concentrated mana into the two obsidian horns on her brow.

OBSIDIAN HORNS' IGNEOUS FOCUS!

PZZZZT!

The fine beam of white fire lanced from the tips of the circlet, piercing the obsidian plating on the Chimera's right shoulder joint in a cleanly cauterized puncture.

Zarek descended from the air like lightning, plunging both moon blades straight into the thermal breach carved by Diana's beam, cleaving the Level 51 monster's front leg with a blow of 60 Strength.

The second bear was finished moments later by Diana's [Orb of the Arcane Storm] and [Greed's Flame], while Zarek decapitated the Chimera sprawled on the gravel.

The battle against three Level 49 and 51 monsters concluded in less than four minutes.

***

Tactically, the engagement had been a flawless demonstration of military efficiency.

Zarek possessed more strength, a higher level, and a far more destructive arsenal of weapons than any warrior Diana had ever commanded. He held the frontline without needing detailed instructions, dodged attacks with acrobatic agility, and eliminated targets in seconds.

Yet as she watched the six-armed demon flick the blood from his moon blades with vain flourish, Diana felt a strange, heavy emptiness settle in her chest.

Throughout every second of that fight, her mind had not stopped making subconscious comparisons.

When Zarek shot steel threads through the air with shrill metallic hisses, Diana recalled the absolute silence of Rhea's Phantom Step. The wolf girl didn't need cables tethered to stones. She simply materialized behind the target like silver mist, without kicking up the slightest pebble.

When Zarek cut down a beast and let out a boisterous laugh to make sure Diana had seen the blow, Diana remembered the look in Rhea's eyes.

The wolf girl never sought applause. When a fight was done, Rhea would just wipe her daggers, pad over to Diana, and rest her head against the Commander's shoulder, purring softly to make sure her friend was unhurt, placing the finest cuts of meat straight into her hands with shy tenderness.

Zarek was an extraordinary instrument of war.

But Rhea was her partner. The girl who had held her head when she nearly died in the ravine. The sentinel who had slept by her bedroom door to ensure nothing attacked her in the dark.

Diana looked toward the northern horizon through the plateau's smoke, feeling a deep ache of longing tighten in the pit of her stomach.

She missed the silver ears perking up. She missed the weight of the wolf girl curled in her lap and the gentle sound of Rhea's breathing beside her in bed.

***

Zarek sheathed both swords across his back, walked over to the Chimera's carcass, gathered the heavy coin pouch and the Level 51 core, and placed it all into Diana's hands with a gallant smile:

“Twenty-eight clean silver coins, Commander. What did you think of my cutting performance?”

Diana took the pouch of silver, storing the metal in her belt inventory.

Factoring in the +30% Commander's Loot bonus, the hunt boosted the total balance in the faction vault to an untouched 443 Silver Coins and 50 Bronze (44.35 Gold Coins).

Diana looked at Zarek with a calm, distant expression, devoid of her earlier irritation.

“Your slashes were precise, Zarek,” Diana answered in a quiet tone. “Good containment technique.”

Zarek blinked all six eyes, surprised by the girl's subdued tone, having expected her to fire back with some sharp retort.

He sat down on a flat rock beside her, tilting his head: “You're very quiet today, Diana. Are your ribs hurting again?”

Diana sat on the stone rim of the gorge, pulling her waterskin of fresh water from her belt and taking a slow sip.

She looked toward the dark clouds veiling the cavern ceiling, in the direction of the passages climbing to the Second Circle.

“It isn't physical pain,” Diana said, her voice carrying softly against the plateau wind. “I'm just calculating how many days remain before the winged courier brings the response from the Bastion.”

Zarek looked at Diana's profile, seeing the two obsidian horns and the golden rings of her pupils locked onto the north with profound gravity.

The swordsman of Wrath let out a quiet chuckle, understanding the message without needing further words, and leaned his back against the stone in silence.

Diana fastened the waterskin to her waist, feeling the warmth of her mana burning steady in her chest.

Only two days remained until Maron's return. And until then, every beast on that plateau would serve solely to hasten the path back home.