Four Winds, One Cut
Chapter 24 – Four Winds, One Cut
Part 2: No Sky, No Escape
The first came from above.
Not a howl. Not a warning. Just motion.
A blur of gray fur and silver claws sliced through the air in complete silence, descending like a blade dropped from the heavens.
Kael was already moving.
He blinked—not backward, but sideways, into the ridge wall's shadow. The wolf slammed down where he'd crouched seconds ago, claws shearing rock.
By the time it turned, Kael was behind it.
Steel whispered once.
The head rolled clean before the beast's paws could fully settle on the ground.
One.
The second struck from behind—a streak of rushing wind across the narrow bluff.
But Kael wasn't standing where he'd been.
The baited trap cloth had already triggered.
The beast's leap hit a shallow pit laced with bone anchors and laced wires—silent, buried, stitched with soldier's precision.
It hit the wires.
Momentum folded.
Kael dropped like a guillotine, blade arcing downward through fur, flesh, and spine.
Two.
A shriek from the left.
Not fear.
Anger.
The third wolf came in lower—faster, flanking wide, trying to use Kael's follow-through against him.
Wrong.
Kael didn't overextend.
He pivoted mid-kneel, slashing upward across the beast's front limb as it landed—severing tendon, destabilizing the attack angle.
As it stumbled, he blinked behind it mid-air.
Shadow Carve activated.
A flash of violet pulsed behind its shoulder.Kael's sword found the rhythm.
One cut.
Straight through.
Three.
The last came silent.
Alpha.
Larger. Heavier. Its fur gleamed silver-blue in the fading sun, streaked with bone-etched markings. Its eyes locked with his across the canyon floor as it paced.
No rage.
Just recognition.
Then it charged.
Kael didn't move. He exhaled.
Flowing Shadow surged around his legs.
He blinked forward as the wolf lunged.
Mid-air.
Their paths crossed.
Kael drew the blade from below.
An upper arc. Silent. Measured. Clean.
The wolf didn't scream.
Its body landed twenty feet behind him.
Split clean through the ribcage.
Four.
Dust settled in the canyon's breathless stillness.
Kael stood, sword dark and dripping.
Wind returned slowly, rustling dry grass and dragging blood into dust.
He looked down at the corpses.
Then turned away.
The system pulsed with cold precision:
[Elite Kill Confirmed – Wind Wolf Pack: Tier-3 x4]✔ 4 / 10 Elite-Class Enemies Eliminated✔ Efficiency Rating: 97.6%✔ Shadow Mark Earned: 1
"The pack never saw the predator."
Kael cleaned his blade with a torn piece of cloak from one of the bodies.
No burn in his chest. No heavy breathing.
Just silence.
He didn't take trophies.
He didn't need proof.
The clerk would know.
Everyone would know.
By the time he returned to Almaarad's gate, night had fully claimed the sky.
No wolves followed.
Only wind.