Not all roars are heard.
Some… are felt.On the skin.In the bones.In the soul.
And when Ura'Nek emerged from the mist, the world seemed to hold its breath.
There was no growl.No charge.Only a suffocating silence, as if even nature itself refused to betray its presence.
But we knew.
We had felt that silence before.In another life.In another death.
—Matías —I murmured, without turning my head—. Shields up. It's Ura'Nek.
My brother didn't answer. He didn't have to.Light began to radiate from his body, soft as dawn, wrapping us in a protective halo.
Ahead of us, through the creeping black mist, the beast took shape.
Two and a half meters of muscle and black scale.Paws that crushed stone like ash.Golden, vertical eyes that showed no rage… only calculation.And from its back, like living branches, three snake heads rose with a hiss that made the air vibrate.
Ura'Nek, the Silent.
A Level 3 threat, yes…but what made it deadly wasn't brute strength.It was its precision.
In our past life, we had underestimated it.This time… we wouldn't make the same mistake.
—Start with a light burst —I ordered.
Matías stepped forward. With an open palm, he launched a flash of radiant energy directly at the beast's face.
The flare lit up the mist for an instant.
Ura'Nek didn't flinch.It simply closed its eyes… and moved.
One of the snake heads fired a spike of spiritual venom.Matías barely got his shield up. The impact knocked him back several paces.
—Don't let them switch patterns! They rotate flanks!
I knew.I remembered.The first head distracted. The second struck. The third finished.
And that third one… hadn't moved yet.
I lunged forward.
Excalibur in hand.Light at my back.Mist at my flanks.
The first head turned toward me—bite incoming.
Horizontal slash:head severed.
Hiss.
The second lunged from below, trying to constrict.
Backstep. Spin.Thrust to the neck.
Second down.
But the third…
didn't attack.
It didn't move.
Its eyes locked onto mine.
And then the beast roared.
Not a sound.A spiritual roar.
My mind… shook.A crushing weight fell on my thoughts.A pressure like the world itself was pushing me down.
"Fall," it whispered."You are not worthy.""Die… and remember your place."
For a moment, I went blind.
But in that darkness…a burst of light erupted.
Matías.My brother.
A solar explosion tore through the air.It purified the pressure.Shattered the illusion.
—It's not your mind that commands! —he shouted—. It's your soul, brother!
And then I saw.
The third head…was the real one.
The others were its shadows.
Vertical slash.Excalibur blazed.
A cut that split body, soul, and curse.
And with one final hiss…Ura'Nek fell.
The mist thinned.Sound returned to the air.The echoes of battle resumed.
I looked at Matías.
—Well done.
—Only if you don't die yet —he replied, smiling through the exhaustion.
I allowed myself to breathe.
The first threat was down.
But we knew…two more remained.
And the war had only just begun.