I wasn't used to things bowing to me.
Not after the Fall. Not after the chaos. Beasts didn't bow—they attacked, they hunted, they killed. That was how it worked now. But this… this thing? It was different.
The creature in front of us—part shadow, part insect, and something else entirely—lowered its head in an eerie, almost respectful motion. Its eyes glowed faintly, shimmering beneath the dense mist that seeped from the broken walls of the garage. The air around it buzzed with an unsettling energy, a hum that made my skin crawl and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
[Beast Taming Opportunity Detected.][Would you like to attempt Tame? Y/N]
The system's voice was cold, mechanical, and detached, yet I could feel my heart race at the option. Tame it? This thing? A deep uncertainty pooled in my stomach, but I couldn't deny the pull to try. I glanced at Smoke—rigid beside me, his smoke-formed tail flicking in agitation, ears flat against his skull as he sniffed the air warily.
"Don't know what it is, Smoke," I murmured under my breath, unsure if I was speaking to him or just trying to steady my thoughts. "But it's not attacking. That's something."
Smoke's ears twitched, and he growled low, his sharp gaze fixed on the creature. He wasn't buying it—not yet, anyway. And neither was I. But we didn't have the luxury of being picky anymore.
I slowly took a step forward, fighting the urge to draw my spear, my hand hovering over the hilt. The creature didn't move, its glowing eyes never leaving me, as though it was waiting for me to make the next move.
The system's prompt lingered in my mind, but something about this felt different—this wasn't the usual "attack or tame" choice I was used to. This was something new, something… strange. The sense of danger was still there, but it wasn't the wild, immediate threat I'd been trained to deal with. This was something… deeper.
I hesitated for a fraction of a second. My fingers brushed the hilt of my spear, but the pulse of energy from the system was too strong to ignore.
[Y] Yes.
I wasn't sure why I picked yes. Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was the eerie way this creature had lowered its head to me. Maybe I was simply desperate for an edge in a world that had lost any sense of order. But once I made the choice, the atmosphere around us shifted. The mist thickened, swirling in a sudden gust, and then, like the shift of a great weight, the creature took a single, deliberate step forward.
Smoke's growl grew more intense, but I raised a hand to silence him. I needed to see what happened next.
The creature's limbs moved in jerky, segmented motions—like something twisted between arachnid and insect, but with an unsettling fluidity. Its body was an unnatural fusion of forms—furry, but speckled with patches of hardened chitin, resembling an insect's exoskeleton. The fur was a chaotic blend of black and silver, rippling in strange patterns as its chitinous armor shifted beneath. Its tail, like a twisted scorpion's stinger, flicked erratically, ending in sharp, curved barbs.
It was the kind of creature that made no sense. It was neither fully animal nor insect—it seemed to exist in between worlds. A grotesque hybrid of spider and scorpion, but with a chilling, almost ethereal presence.
As it moved closer, the hairs on my neck stood at full attention. It stopped, just within arm's reach. No aggression. No hostility. It wasn't challenging me—it was simply… waiting.
Smoke's tension only grew. He stayed close, his glowing eyes narrowed, but he didn't attack. He was watching, too, unsure of what this beast would do.
I stood there, locked in the moment, the air thick with the weight of the unknown. There was something both terrifying and mesmerizing about the creature before me. It exuded a quiet power, an unsettling calm in the face of danger.
The mist thickened further, coiling around the creature like a suffocating cloak, and I felt it—something pressing in from all sides, a pull I couldn't resist. The Beast Tamer System hummed to life, the pulse of energy under my skin intensifying.
[Attempting Tame…]
The air around me seemed to shiver, vibrating with the system's attempt to interface with the creature. It was unlike any taming attempt I'd experienced before—there was no battle for control, no back-and-forth tug of war. It felt… like surrender. I gritted my teeth, fighting the impulse to let the connection swallow me whole.
Taming wasn't supposed to feel like this. It wasn't supposed to be so easy. It was supposed to be a struggle, a series of calculations, adapting to the beast's unpredictable behavior. But this? This was different.
I extended my hand, slowly, fingers trembling. The creature's mandibles clicked together, its insectile eyes narrowing as it leaned closer. I swallowed hard. A few inches away now. The scent of damp earth and something metallic filled the air.
And then—
It bowed again.
The creature's body sank further, its limbs folding beneath it in a way that shouldn't have been possible for something so alien. The mist curled around it like a living thing, swirling into patterns that felt almost intentional. It was almost as if it was communicating, but with what? Or whom?
Smoke growled low again, his fur bristling, but I couldn't pull away. I had to see this through. This wasn't like anything I'd ever experienced—not like taming Smoke, or anything I'd read in the system's tutorials. This creature wasn't following the rules.
I reached out, palm open, my heartbeat thundering in my chest.
The creature's head snapped toward me, its eyes flickering with something… almost amused, though its face remained as still as stone. It didn't make a sound. Just waited. A puzzle, a riddle I couldn't solve. Its behavior was bizarre. It wasn't attacking. It wasn't hostile. It was… bowing to me.
[Beast Taming: Success!][New Beast Companion: "Nightmare Cradle"]
The world around me shifted, and the connection locked into place. The creature, once a collection of terror and unpredictability, now stood still, its glowing eyes fixed on me. A new icon flashed in my vision:
[New Beast Taming Slot Unlocked.]
Had it accepted me? How? Why?
I blinked, struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that this thing—this nightmare, this unnatural creature—had bowed to me and become mine. I swallowed hard, trying to steady myself.
"Smoke, what the hell did we just do?" I whispered, the words tasting strange in my mouth.
Smoke didn't answer. His eyes stayed locked on the creature, but there was something different about his posture now—wariness, mixed with an odd respect.
I took a cautious step back, studying the beast more closely now that it was no longer a threat. It had… accepted me, but I wasn't sure what that meant yet. It's too many legs, a segmented body, the shimmering scales—everything about it screamed wrong. A twisted hybrid, something that didn't belong in this world, yet here it was. It shimmered at the edges like a shadow, almost a ghost, caught somewhere between the physical and the ethereal.
[Beast Insight: Nightmare Cradle – Type: Altered Hybrid. Classification: Beast/Parasitic Symbiote. Strength: High. Potential Tame Rank: 1/5. Ability: Shadow Binding.]
I blinked at the text. Shadow Binding? What in the hell did that mean?
The creature's head tilted as though acknowledging my confusion. It was a moment before the system filled in the blanks:
Shadow Binding: The Nightmare Cradle can manipulate shadows to bind and immobilize enemies or prey. It can also displace parts of its body into shadow form to phase through physical barriers, making it an elusive and dangerous opponent.
I felt my stomach tighten at the thought of what I was dealing with—a creature that could control the very darkness around it. But there was more to it than that.
The creature's body shifted again, its legs clicking with the strange fluidity of a spider stalking its prey. Its barbed tail swayed behind it, almost lazily, as though it were contemplating something much more than just being tamed.
The system's voice buzzed softly in my mind, offering no further explanation—just the cryptic promise of potential. What kind of potential? And what exactly had I just done?
Before I could process anything, the ground rumbled beneath my feet. Steel groaned, the creak of the building shuddering in the dark. I spun, my senses on high alert.
A new sound broke the eerie stillness—heavy footsteps, rapid, far too close.
I turned my head toward the shifting fog. Smoke growled at my side.
[Danger-Class Entity Detected: Unknown – Level ???]
Not again. But this time, the system didn't offer a clue. No details. Nothing. The danger class had me on edge, but what was worse, this thing felt different. It felt stronger.
The ground trembled beneath me, the footsteps growing louder.
And as the creature emerged from the dark fog and roared, I realized this was no mere threat. What stood before me was far worse than anything we'd faced before.