Echoes of a Lost Bond (Pt. I)

The night was eerily silent.
Too silent.

A cold wind passing the trees, carrying the chill of the night deep into the skin. The sky above was sparked with stars, yet there were no sounds of crickets, no calls of nocturnal animals.
This quietness was unnatural, and Ikuro could feel it distinctly.

Leaning against the trunk of a tree, Ikuro slowly opened his eyes. His sharp gaze swept the surroundings, searching for anything out of place.

"Something's off," he muttered softly before standing up.

Sarah, sitting not far from him, immediately followed his movements.
"Is something around us?" she asked, her voice cautious.

Ikuro nodded slightly, his eyes still fixed on the forest across the road.
"I’m sensing an enormous mana… way bigger than usual. It’s coming from over there."

He turned to Sarah, his tone serious.
"Stay here and watch over Garel. I'll go check it out."

Sarah hesitated for a moment, clearly wanting to argue, but eventually nodded obediently.
Even if she wanted to follow, she knew Ikuro had far more experience dealing with situations like this.

Without wasting another moment, Ikuro strode toward the source of the overwhelming mana.
The darkness of the night wrapped around the forest, severely limiting his visibility.
Without hesitation, he lifted his hand and chanted a spell.

"Light."

A small orb of light materialized in his palm, illuminating the path ahead. Shadows of the surrounding trees danced ominously under the glow of the spell.

But it wasn’t the trees that caught his attention.

It was the figure standing alone deep within the woods.

An undead creature.

Half of its body still retained flesh and organs, while the other half had rotted away, exposing sickly bones. Its eyes glowed a deep, menacing red, fixed directly on Ikuro.

"Huh? The huge mana source… it's a Doom?"
Ikuro narrowed his eyes, sensing the anomaly.
He had faced Dooms before, but this one was... different.
The mana it radiated was much denser, much more overwhelming.

"Why does its aura feel this strong...? This isn’t like any Doom I’ve encountered before," he muttered in his mind.

Suddenly…
WHOOSH!

The creature lunged at him with terrifying speed!

Ikuro's instincts kicked in immediately. He raised his sword just in time to block the attack coming from his right.
The impact was so powerful that the ground beneath his feet cracked from the pressure.

"So fast...!"

The Doom didn’t stop. It spun around and slashed at him with razor-sharp claws.
Ikuro leaped back, dodging the strike by a hair’s breadth.

"Its movements... they're trained?!"

Shock flickered across Ikuro’s usually composed expression.
The Dooms he fought in the past relied solely on brute force. But this one, this creature moved with precision and battle instincts, like a seasoned warrior.

Another barrage of attacks came. Ikuro parried the blows, but each time he thought he had found a rhythm to the creature’s strikes, it would suddenly shift tactics, throwing him off balance.

These techniques… This wasn’t how monsters fought.

A terrible thought crossed his mind.

"Could this really be... a Doom?"

He jumped back to create distance, gripping his sword tighter, his breathing measured.
He stared down the creature carefully.

"This Doom... it's too skilled. But is this the tier S monster I was tasked to hunt?"

The monster stood motionless for a moment, staring back with an indecipherable expression in its glowing eyes.

And for a fleeting instant...
Ikuro felt it.

Something familiar about this presence.
Something that weighed heavy on his chest.

"...Who are you?" he asked quietly.

But the Doom said nothing.
Instead, it began to advance again, slowly, purposefully, ready to strike.

Ikuro raised his sword, preparing himself.
No matter what, he would have to defeat this creature.

And perhaps, through this battle...
he would uncover the truth he had been seeking all along.