"Demon Manifestation… Release."
The air writhed and roiled, curling around Julius in a living tempest. A feral burst of mana pressure ravaged the air, trembling the earth and causing a shiver of icy fear to scurry up Yulli's spine.
And then the marks showed up—jagged, ink-black veins that crept across the right side of his face.
Yulli's breath caught.
"That scar… Mother had the same!" His voice shook, a somber fear taking up residence in his chest. "But why do I get the feeling this is… different?"
Remi, still holding onto her transmission link, raised her eyebrows. One drop of sweat traced the perimeter of her temple as she struggled to make out the unusual presence surrounding Julius.
"This is strange… I'm reading two mana signatures." She shuddered. "One is obviously Julius, but the other… it's emanating from his sword."
She gulped. Whatever was in the sword wasn't just powerful—it was hungry.
The monster, unfazed by the abrupt turn in the battlefield, charged forward, claws outstretched to tear Julius to shreds. But rather than take action.
Julius simply stood there.
His mouth curved in a deliberate, menacing grin, his gold eyes glinting as if a hunter watches prey.
Then, it occurred.
The beast's right claw vanished. Not cut. Not burned. Vanished.
A wet, squelching crunch rang out on the field.
Something had eaten it.
"HUH?!" Yulli recoiled, his stomach tying itself up in knots. "Where in hell did that come from?!"
A snake slithered beneath Julius's feet, pouring out of the fissures in the ground like a living shadow. Teeth. Eyes. Clawed hands reaching out from a crevice.
Remi's hands darted to her mouth. "What. is that?"
The thing at Julius's feet writhed and twisted, lapping the spilled blood of the beast with an unpleasant relish. It was not magic. It was not a summoned creature.
It was a part of him.
Julius shrugged his shoulders, the dark black aura denser around him. "Heh. that expression on your faces. You children haven't witnessed a genuine Hunter fight, have you?"
The beast staggered backward, its instincts screaming warning. It was no longer fighting one enemy. It was fighting something else, something worse.
The beast, bruised and bloody, would not give up. It pulled itself to its feet, its body trembling, eyes blazing with an otherworldly anger. **Then it opened its mouth—**but instead of a roar, something else poured out.
Voices.
Familiar. Human.
"HELP ME!!"
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!"
"MOTHER!!"
Yulli and Remi froze.
Their blood ran cold as the screams of the dead cadets broke out, their pleas desperate as they echoed across the battlefield. The cries of those whom the beast had consumed.
"That's… crazy." Remi's hands trembled, her breath hitching in her throat. "The beast… it can mimic the voices of the dead?"
Yulli swallowed hard, his knees trembling. It was not an illusion—it was real. Like those individuals were really stuck in there, shrieking for salvation that would never arrive.
And then they heard her.
A weak, broken voice—soft, yet unmistakable.
"Yulli… please… help me…"
Yulli breathed in sharply. His chest thudded within his ribcage. That voice—it belonged to Charlotte.
"No… no, no, no, NO!" He covered his head and staggered away. His eyes went fuzzy, past and present crashing together. "S- She's dead! I saw her die—this isn't real!"
The beast lunged.
A black shadow flickered.
And suddenly, Julius was right there.
His trademark cocky grin was not there. It had been replaced by a vicious-looking grimace.
"Man… you guys really know how to piss me off." His voice fell into a low, guttural growl.
Then, with a snap of his fingers, he whispered:
"Kabandha… finished it."
The earth below the monster is torn apart.
A huge, monstrous form burst out of the darkness. It was unlike anything Yulli had ever witnessed—a curling, multi-eyed horror, mouths upon mouths stacked one atop the other, its form flowing and shifting as if reality itself would not grant it shape.
The creature lunged.
And the beast vanished in a flash.
No struggle. No resistance. It had been swallowed whole.
Silence.
The battlefield, which had echoed with cries of war and agony, was eerily still.
Yulli and Remi were only able to watch.
"No way…" Yulli's breath escaped in not more than a whisper. He stared at where the beast had stood. "It took five of us to hardly injure that creature… and you—you slew it in a matter of seconds?"
His legs gave out.
"The gap… between us… is too far apart."
Darkness enveloped her, and Yulli fell.
--------------------------------------------
Yulli's eyelids fluttered open, his body pinning him down like he was buried beneath a mountain. The ceiling overhead was foreign, but the antiseptic smell of medicine and dried blood informed him precisely where he was.
The medical bay.
Before he could notice anything else, a face suddenly materialized in his field of vision.
"Well, hello, kiddo!"
It was Rio, grinning down at him with her trademark over-the-top enthusiasm.
Yulli grimaced, hardly managing to sit up. Everything hurt. His ribs, his arms, his legs—his pride. He reclined against the wall, his head against the chill surface.
"Still hurts…" he groaned, ".but I feel better now."
"Good!" Rio trilled, setting hands on hips. "So, how was your first practical?"
Yulli bristled.
The recollection crashed back—the glowing eyes of the beast, the struggle for survival, the cries of the dead, Julius ripping through it as if it were nothing. His gut wrenched. He closed his fists, looking at his palms as if they would suddenly vanish.
".It was bad," he admitted, voice hollow. "Our strength… it wasn't strong enough to kill one beast. Not even close."
Rio's grin fell slightly. ".I see."
Yulli gulped, forcing himself to speak, even though each word felt like lead.
"Julius did it so easily," he whispered. "One step, and it was gone. As if it was never there at all. And I?" His hands shook. "I… I couldn't do anything. I was useless."
Rio observed him closely, but she did not interrupt.
Yulli breathed heavily. All the feelings he had attempted to seal off from himself since the fight were now let out.
"I was scared."
The confession hung in the air.
Yulli's fists tightened, his fingernails biting into his palms. "I was dying, and I didn't want to die. I—" His breath caught. "The beast. its eyes. I couldn't move. The only thing I knew to do was fight, but I couldn't even—I was so scared!"
His voice cracked.
"I couldn't stop thinking—if only I were stronger. If only I had mana. Maybe then I would've been able to do something. Maybe then we wouldn't have almost died. But I don't. I don't." His eyes misted. "I'm nothing. I have no Mark. I have no power. I'm just dead weight."
Reality bore down on him, and for the first time since the Hunt had started—
Yulli broke.
Tears rolled down his face, silently at first, then increasingly, until he was weeping.
"I don't fit in here." His voice hardly escaped. "I'm weak. I'll always be weak. So why bother.?"
His whole life, he'd taken it for granted that hard work was enough. That if he worked hard enough, pushed hard enough—he could keep up with them.
But the truth?
He was weak.
Powerless.
And no degree of determination could alter that.
There was a silent despair palpable, the sole sound the uneven breath of Yulli. His shoulders heaved, his fists still clenched and tight as his world collapsed around him.
Then—
Rio released a deep, dramatic sigh.
"Ugh. I didn't leave my house to hear you cry," she told him, standing up and yawning, as if Yulli's entire meltdown was just an ordinary Tuesday.
Yulli flinched, shooting her a questioning look.
She spun around, her arms folded, and looked at him with a half-amused, half-annoyed gaze.
"Hear me, Yulli," she started, her voice firm. "This is life as a Hunter. Our lives are brief. Some of us will never see morning again. Others are worse, living only to be killed before they have any impact. The world isn't fair. Never was, never will be. We struggle with no purpose given, dying as no one would ever hear their names."
Yulli gulped, his parched throat.
"But at least," Rio went on, her voice strengthening, "we die on our own terms. For something bigger than ourselves. For the greater good."
She walked to the window, where late afternoon sunlight poured in. The sun's golden rays played on her face, highlighting her sharp, resolute expression—a world away from Yulli's shattered face.
And yet, somehow, something in her—something in the stance she assumed, unbreakable, in a world that could offer only pain—was like hope.
She turned to face him.
"Stand up, Hunter."
Yulli stopped breathing.
"Chin up. Head held high. Whatever befalls us, we fight to the last drop of our blood shed on the battlefield."
Her mouth curved into a self-satisfied smile.
"Because we are Hunters."
She gently caressed his forehead with two fingers.
"Be stronger than the you from yesterday."
Yulli just sat, watching her. The heaviness in his chest didn't dissipate. The not knowing, the fear, the hurt—it was all still there.
However…
Something in what she said remained.
He wasn't strong. He wasn't ready.
Yet perhaps, just perhaps—
Yulli took a deep breath. The weight in his chest was still there, pressing down upon him like a stone—but now there was something underneath it.
Something small.
Something faint.
Hope.
His mother's voice in his mind, gentle and ephemeral.
"Live."
Her final words, the last request she made of him before she was gone.
He gulped, his hand clutching the blanket more firmly.
.Right, he grumbled. "Sorry, I was just. overwhelmed. But I'll be better.".
Rio nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Fine. We'll go over where you went wrong and what can be corrected, alright?
Yulli nodded, straightening his position a bit—
BANG.
The door was flung open so hard it nearly came off the hinges.
"YULLI, YOU'RE ALIVE!"
A wild tangle of arms and shrieks hurtled at him like a swarm of rabid wolves.
"Wait—WAIT—"
Too late.
Bruce, Lawlet, and Remi assailed him in a choking hold, strangling his very being.
"He's awake! He's awake!" Remi half-sobbed, half-laughed, clinging to him for dear life.
"Agh, we thought we lost you!" Bruce pounded Yulli's back so hard that his soul almost departed from his body.
Lawlet wiped at his imaginary tear. "I had my speech prepared and all that. You were going to wake up all dramatic, saying something poetic, and then you just look like a drowned rat. Disappointing."
"You guys are KILLING ME ALL OVER AGAIN!" Yulli gasped, trying to get them off.
Shut up, you nearly died!" Remi exclaimed, embracing him even tighter.
Rio snorted, resting against the wall with a satisfied smile. "Man, I'm half-tempted to sympathize with you, kid. But honestly, this is a heck of a lot more enjoyable."
Yulli groaned beneath their combined weight. "Okay, okay! I get it! You're glad I'm alive, now GET OFF OF ME!"
Bruce then proceeded, but not before he slaps Yulli's shoulder once more. "Damn, you're so weak, dude. You couldn't even defeat one giant monster?"
"One huge monster!!" Yulli exclaimed. "We were tossed around like dolls! We nearly got killed!"
Lawlet shrugged. "Yeah, but, like… we didn't. So, victory?"
Yulli groaned again.
"We didn't because Julius came along and one-shot that thing like it was nothing. If he hadn't, we'd all be dead!"
Bruce rubbed his chin. "Huh. So essentially, we were awful."
"Yes, we sucked."
Remi sighed and sat next to him on the bed. "At least we learned something."
"Aww, yeah," Yulli grumbled. "We're weak as hell."
Bruce folded his arms, grinning. "Damn straight. So, clearly, we just need to get stronger."
Rio clicked her fingers. "Okay, now that you've had your existential crisis, let's do some work."
Yulli blinked. "Wait, what? Bruce cracked his knuckles. "Oh, we're so training after this." "Training?!" Yulli recoiled. "I'm still injured, for real!"
"Eh, details." Bruce dismissed him. Lawlet scoffed.
"Besides, if you don't train, you'll get yourself killed next time." Yulli opened his mouth—then closed it. Damn it. He hated that they were correct. Yulli let out a dramatic sigh and lay back in bed, staring at the ceiling.
"Great. I survived death only to suffer again." Rio patted him on the head like a disappointed puppy. "Welcome to Hunter life, kid."