The air is cold as the light snowfall mixes with the dirt making the path ahead gelid and muddy, yet, something feels off to you… A scent that does not quite belong to such humid and freezing scenery faintly finds its way into your nostrils: The warm scent of burning wood.

-        Don’t stray from the road and keep your eyes open for any track. The Beast shouldn’t be far away…

  Lord Édouard’s words help your mind stay anchored to the task at hand. Save for your and your comrades’ footsteps, the silence is nearly suffocating, easily mixing with the high demand for focus wearing your mind down, as well as opening the floodgates of random thoughts inside it:

-        “It’s so quiet in here, shouldn’t there be at least some cicadas singing or the blowing of the wind?”

-        “Wind… Hmm, is it me or the air seems to be getting warmer. Cou-Could I be falling feveri-”

  But soon enough, such thoughts are interrupted by the echo of a stick being crushed under something’s – or someone’s – weight from about fifteen metres down the road. Shots are fired whilst all – including yourself, as delayed as you have been – dash after the Beast that appears to atypically run in fear.

  Your brain can barely process the flashing view of the fields where you, Lord Édouard and Sigmundo were attacked the other day due to how quickly they become part of the horizon behind. Your legs already scream fatigued just to be quickly overwhelmed by frustration as the Beast’s speed keeps increasing along with the distance from you and the others, so much so that the few shots that actually brush against its hide or even manage to pierce its flesh seem to barely cause any effect at all. Sure, you could blame yours and your companion’s poor aim but, the truth is, the Beast’s abilities challenge even reality itself, to the point that – before you may even finish your line of thoughts – it jumps over the rapids bordering the road, in a manner that one could only describe as magnificent if its appearance were not so dreadful.

-        Deixa comigo!

  Thaís shouts in her mother tongue, sliding to her knees and assuming a stable aiming stance gracefully. In an almost surreal manner, three shots are fired sequentially, landing precisely on the Beast’s left-hind leg and lower torso, ruining its landing. However, before an even more precise fourth shot may be fired, the Beast – that now growls in agony – nimbly alters its course and “dives” into the woods, disappearing between the shadows before even getting back on all four limbs.

-        Over here!

  Lord Édouard is pointing at a bridge to your next right, at the end of the road. You, Jorge and Him immediately cross that way, having Thaís just a few steps behind and already catching up to you – the last of the “line” – as the whole party soon passes by the spot where the Beast landed and immediately make a sharp tun to the right.

  You enter the forest exactly through the same clearing the dreadful being did and are all quick to carefully follow the trail of blood drops on the floor as well as smudges on the trees. However, Lord Édouard – who is leading the party from ahead – is jumped at by the Beast, falling to the ground whilst instinctively using his rifle as a bar to prevent the Beast’s sharp teeth from digging into his skull. Not wanting to shoot the lord by mistake, Jorge instead plants his foot at the right shoulder of the Beast, nearly launching it a few metres away, immediately preceding then to take aim but, in a fraction of a second, the dreadful being jumps far from his sight and closer to you.

  Though still having his back pressed against the unmoving ground, Lord Édouard is quick to intervene as the Beast is mid-flight by firing at its belly, causing an apparently dying wicked body to instead drag you down along its uncontrolled fall.

  Its weigh spreads a crushing pain all over your body, practically paralysing it as the Beast shows signs of life again, by snaping open its mouth to rip a chunk of your flesh off. Fortunately Thaís hits the butt of her rifle directly at the left temple of it, who ricochets off of you and flees to the deeper part of the woods terrified, as shots fly from Jorge’s and the lord’s guns. Yet, before you may even get back on your feet, the men cease their firing as the wicked being retains enough of its supernatural agility to doge all incoming shots.

  Adrenaline-driven, Lord Édouard pursues it without a second of delay, prompting all remaining three of you to keep up, but as soon as the chase reaches an oddly better illuminated area – free now from the thick undergrowth –, desperate howls echo towards the stars-rich sky unlike the ones from a rabid wolf, no… Rather, as the ones of a far more “innocent” beast.

  That’s when, you finally leave the shadows from the trees and come face to face with a view that explains both the light and heat:

-        Meu Deus… What in the Nine Hells is this?!

  Thaís’ words act as a catalyst to everyone’s feelings resultant from the view of a literal wall of flames stretching from beyond the eyes can see and into the Cœur D'Argent fief: Trees and undergrowth are now but a dreadful collection of carbonised spears and dusty soil; orange flames dance at the border with damp mud and gelid foliage almost as if challenging reality itself; the heat that irradiates from it is so intense that even you – the one amongst the whole party standing the farthest away from such macabre spectacle – sweat uncomfortably.

  Though the howls stopped as soon as you and the others came closer, it is only now, with a cacophonic bark giving space to a defensive growling that the Beast’s presence is revealed. The fire shining brightly behind the dreadful being seems to almost parade all of its wounds in accusation: Blood running ceaselessly from the bullet holes all over its body; A faint twitching of swollen eyelids obfuscating an already opaque left eye; Foam-like drool running down the brownish-red fur surrounding its canine mouth and, finally, a noticeably quivering whenever it tries to take a step to sustain its defensive stance against you and the others.

  Truth be told, you almost feel pity for the Beast, seeing it in such poor conditions. However, charged with vengeance and sorrow, Lord Édouard’s orders echo without hesitation:

-        Vite! Surround the Beast, we must not let it escape.

  Performing as told – even if reluctantly –, Thaís, Jorge and you take aim at the cornered being and, along with your lord, pressure it against the wall of flames. In the middle of all of this, something that almost escapes your perception is how the other two – whilst still advancing , also – keep alternating looks between the flames and the lord, as if something even more concerning than the Beast requires tending to… Urgently!

  You however, realising that your legs no longer respond the commands of your brain, simply watches the Beast with equal measures of fear and pity. Then, reducing his pace a little, Lord Édouard informs:

-        On my signal, open fire.

  With each step the other three advance, the Beast retreats one and, though it continues to growl, it does not seem as willing to attack as earlier. Instead, it simply stares back at all of you in fear, letting out minute – barely audible – whimpers and cries as the flames behind burn its almost old copper-shaded fur, and boil the skin beneath. Then…

  A single shot is fired without warning – or better yet, as a warning – and soon it escalates into a barrage from an execution: The Beast “bounces” between the flames behind and the bullets raining ahead, crying uncontrollably; blood gushes from one side of its body whilst the other is speedily dissolved by the sundering plasma; All of you – especially the Lord Édouard – fire at the quickest your fingers can pull the triggers, causing empty clicks to soon echo after mere seconds that felt – contradictory – like an agonising eternity. Eventually, even those clicks cease and all that is left are disturbingly soft whimpers accompanied by an empty gaze… Darting your way from the Beast, almost as if it wished to say:

-        Hel-help… m-me…”

  The distinct hiccup that often comes before a fit of cry escapes your mouth as an unconscious reflex of your brain trying to understand what just happened. The others, however, seem to no have heard it and with a good reason: Thaís and Jorge trade embarrassed looks in morbid silence, as if instead of feeling happy for eliminating a threat to many innocent lives, they feel dirty, like they had just killed one of those and, the Lord Édouard indifferently removes the empty cartridge from his weapon but his posture fails to completely conceal his emotions, quickly permitting you to notice the deep melancholy emanating from his heart.

  Such minute, yet intense tone of emotion causes your attentions to face inwards again… More precisely the strange shadow of a feeling of achievement… Of vengeance.

-        “… Ven-Vengeance?”

  Goosebumps climb your spine with the sound of such a word. But in the next fraction of a second, the sound of dried leaves being cautiously stepped on causes you to look back, only to be immediately pushed into the ground by a shining white silhouette as someone screams:

-        ORION!!!

  Everything that follows after mixes into a confusion of senses: The whistling of bullets flying over you; your body being crushed between something massively heavy and the damp ground; a liquid warmth spreading from the back of your head and an extreme chaos of shouts, growls and cries fading along with the undiscernible images of the world around you.