White Cloak

The clearing was still. Only the wind whispered through the ruins — faint, cautious.
Kai stood a few steps ahead of Rose, the faint crunch of his boots pressing into the soft soil. His gaze swept the skeletons of what once were homes, eyes narrowing at every creak of the forest.

Rose, behind him, tilted her head slightly. “They're here.”

Kai didn’t react. His shoulders tightened.

Then came the sound — a low growl, deep enough to rattle the chest. Another answered from the left.

Two shapes slid between the trees. The first emerged from shadow — a wolf, though far larger than any natural beast. Its fur was dark and bristled, its eyes glowing an unnatural orange. The second circled from behind, paws silent as fog.

Rose didn’t move, though her mana flickered faintly around her hands. The wolves kept their distance from her. She noticed it instantly — their eyes darted toward Kai, not her.
“They’re… avoiding me,” she murmured.

Kai nodded slowly, forcing air into his lungs. “They know what you are.”

The wolves lowered their heads, saliva dripping from jagged teeth. Their bodies tensed — deliberate, intelligent. They weren’t attacking a predator. They were cornering prey.

For a brief second, the sound of panting beasts blurred into another memory — the echo of his mother’s voice behind him, shouting for him to run. The snarl. The crash. The silence after.

Kai’s hands trembled.

But when he turned his head slightly and saw Rose standing behind him, calm yet ready, the fear twisted into something else — something heavier, sharper. He clenched his fists until the tremor steadied.

“Stay back,” he said quietly as orange mana began to coat his body. 

Rose raised a brow. “You don’t have to prove—”

He stepped forward. “I’m not proving anything. I’m finishing it.”

The wolves lunged.

Kai darted sideways, faster than most would see. His mana pulsed faintly through his veins, the earth cracking under his push. He met the first wolf head-on, his arm raised, intercepting its claws with a forearm hardened by mana reinforcement. The impact forced him back half a step, but he held firm.

He struck back — a quick right hook to the jaw. Bone cracked. The wolf stumbled, snarling, but its partner lunged from behind. Kai twisted away, the air cutting past his cheek. His movements weren’t perfect — but they were sharp, practiced.

Rose watched from the edge, her hands hovering. She hadn’t expected this — not from the boy who used to spend hours buried in books.

He’s fast… stronger than I thought.

Kai ducked beneath another swipe, driving his knee into the wolf’s ribs. A burst of mana erupted from his leg, sending the beast sliding across the dirt with a pained growl. The other came immediately, teeth snapping toward his throat.

He slid under it, grabbing its hind legs with his hands. With a small yell, he lifted and spun the beast around before launching it towards the recovering wolf. 

Taking a breath to stabilize his balance, his boots dug deep as he kicked off toward the pair. His scars emitting a faint orange as he came up on the staggered beast.  With a quick spin, he drove his foot in the beasts face. A guttural roar ripped from his throat as it smashed into the side of a nearby building. 

The other one that had been behind it leaped backward.
The wolf howled — a high, desperate cry that echoed through the forest.

Rose’s expression hardened. “That’s a call.”

Kai’s eyes flicked toward her. “Then I’ll finish before they arrive.”

He charged the howling wolf again. It tried to pounce, but its footing slipped — the ground suddenly damp, as if the earth itself had turned slick. Rose had raised a single finger, her mana spreading in a fine shimmer across the soil.

Kai didn’t notice it. However, he took the opening.

His fist, charged with reinforced mana, drove upward beneath the beast’s chin. The blow cracked bone with a heavy snap, lifting the wolf from the ground. It hit the earth with a dull thud and didn’t move again.

The clearing went still — save for the sound of his breathing.

Kai stood over the creature, hand trembling faintly. He looked down at his bloodstained knuckles, the light of the afternoon sun cutting through the trees. For a long moment, nothing moved.

Then, under his breath:
“I’m stronger than before…”

Rose approached slowly, her boots brushing through the leaves. “You did well.” Her tone carried surprise — genuine this time. “I didn’t think you had that kind of power.”

He exhaled. “Neither did I.”

Her gaze softened slightly. “You’ve trained for this, haven’t you?”

Kai shook his head, eyes still on the fallen beasts. “Not for this. I trained… so I’d never run again.”

Silence held between them for a few seconds. Then — a sound.

One howl. Then another. Then several — layered and rising from every direction, echoing through the woods around them.
The color drained slightly from Rose’s face as her mana surged instinctively around her fingers.
“…It must have called the entire pack.”

Kai turned toward the treeline, scanning the dark. Dozens of orange glows blinked faintly between the trunks — eyes, countless and watching. The air thickened with the sound of claws and low growls, closing in.

Rose’s hand lit with white light, threads of mana circling her arm like ribbons. “You’ve had your fun,” she said, voice firm but not unkind. “But you’re not handling the rest alone.”

Kai didn’t argue. He just smiled faintly, cracking his neck once as his mana flared around his legs again.
“Alright, White Cloak,” he said, eyes narrowing toward the trees. “Let’s see how you fight.”

Rose smirked, light brightening like dawn. “Try to keep up, Stabilizer.”

The wind shifted — the forest itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then, the first of the new pack broke from the dark.

And the battle truly began.

The forest pulsed with sound. Dozens of heavy paws padded against damp earth, claws scraped bark, and low snarls rolled like thunder. One wolf lay dead on the soil, its blood steaming in the cold air. The other had been kicked so hard it was half-buried in the splintered remains of a nearby building. But the others had already answered the call.

They came in waves, orange eyes glinting between the trees, circling both of them now instead of just him. Their growls merged into one violent hum that rattled through Kai’s chest.

Rose exhaled softly beside him. Her expression didn’t harden; it sharpened.

“Oh,” she murmured, almost amused. “So now that they have numbers, they think they can face me.”

Her lips curled into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“They’ll regret underestimating me.”

Kai stared at her, that small smile twisting something in his chest. He didn’t recognize her in that moment. The girl who spent late evenings calm beside him over books, the one who used to give him a comforting smile when she saw him hide his ruptures, felt like a stranger now. There was power in her voice. Cold, certain, and distant.

The faint threads of mana that once flickered at her fingertips expanded, wrapping both hands in a shimmering light. It wasn’t bright or dramatic—just focused, vibrating at a pitch too high to hear.

The wolves lunged.

Kai moved on instinct, stepping forward, but stopped when the air itself distorted.

The first wolf never reached them. It was yanked sideways midair, its spine twisting as if an invisible hand had caught it by the ribs. Another slammed headfirst into its companion, both creatures crushed against a tree with a crack that shook loose the snow.

Rose didn’t flinch. She shifted her wrist slightly, and three more wolves were lifted screaming into the air. For a single breath, they hovered, then were ripped apart as if the world around them turned inside out. Blood rained down in a fine mist that hissed when it hit the cold ground.

Kai froze. His mind lagged behind his eyes.

She raised her other hand. Two wolves darted in faster than the rest, but they stopped mid-leap. Their bodies folded inward with a sickening crunch, compacted into pulps of fur and bone that dropped with heavy thuds.

It wasn’t a fight. It was an execution.

The remaining wolves hesitated, their formation breaking. Even beasts knew fear when it reached their lungs. A few turned to flee.

Rose tilted her head slightly, voice calm.

“Leaving so soon?”

The air snapped. The wolves were yanked back into the clearing, slammed to the ground, and crushed until their whimpers faded.

Silence spread through the clearing. The only sound left was the steady drip of blood from the trees.

Rose lowered her hands slowly. The glow around her fingers dimmed. She drew in a quiet breath, steadying herself. Her chest rose and fell a few times, not from exhaustion, but from forcing the dizziness away. It was her first real fight. She still needed to learn how much mana her body could handle before the backlash set in.

“I don’t enjoy being underestimated,” she said softly. “It’s the last mistake they’ll ever make.”

Kai looked at her, the girl who’d moments ago, made it sound like she was only going to assist him. But as the last of blood rain fell, he realized he had never truly seen her before.

For the first time since his mother’s death, he didn’t know whether to be terrified or impressed.