Mutant 2

The air remained heavy even after the beasts vanished. I didn't move. Neither did Damon. We both knew it—we had just been watched.

Damon wiped blood off his sword. "That wasn't just some random bastard, was it?"

"No," I muttered. My grip on my dagger tightened. "That person… they controlled those beasts."

Damon frowned. "Varian?"

I shook my head. "No. If it were him, he would've attacked. That was someone else."

Damon cursed under his breath. "Great. More freaks to deal with."

I wasn't in the mood for jokes. Whoever that figure was, they were powerful. Too powerful. I had felt it—the suffocating presence, the way the mutant beasts listened without hesitation.

I didn't like it.

But right now, Varian was still our priority.

I looked at the faint tracks on the forest floor. Even with the distraction, Varian's trail was still fresh. "Let's move before we lose him completely."

Damon nodded. "Yeah. Let's end this."

---

We tracked Varian for another hour.

The deeper we went into the forest, the more unnatural it became. The air was too still. The trees loomed like silent sentinels, their branches curling unnaturally. It was like we had stepped into a different world.

Then, the system chimed.

[DING!]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

▶ [Warning! Spatial Distortion Detected]

▶ Source: High-Rank Magic]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I stopped in my tracks. "Shit."

Damon frowned. "Now what?"

I pointed ahead. "This place—it's been altered. Varian must have set up some kind of magical field."

Damon scowled. "A barrier?"

"Not just a barrier. A trap."

Varian was buying time. The distortion wasn't just random—it was designed to confuse and mislead.

Damon groaned. "You're telling me we're walking in circles?"

"Not yet. But if we go further without a plan, we will be."

I exhaled slowly. Damn it. Varian wasn't just running—he was leading us somewhere.

And that meant one thing.

He wasn't done with us yet.