Beast Legacy: Devourer's Reckoning

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Chapter 2 The World Breaks

The ground ripped open like a wound.

I threw myself sideways as sand and stone poured into the fresh chasm. "Move!" I roared at the two slaves still hauling Garrick's body. They dropped him and bolted, eyes wild.

Another tremor slammed through the arena. The roar from below grew louder, vibrating in my teeth. Stone chunks broke loose from the upper tiers and smashed down. One guard on the wall screamed as a slab took him off his feet and dragged him over the edge.

"Get the champions out first!" a captain bellowed from the high gate. "Slaves can rot! Priority on the purebloods!"

Typical. I spat blood and pushed up, chains clanking. My ribs burned where Garrick had landed a lucky kick earlier. Old scars pulled tight across my back. The hybrid patches on my shoulders itched like fire as dust filled the air.

People were running everywhere. Fighters, slaves, even a few arena handlers scrambling for the exits. A big pureblood gladiator named Thorne shoved past a smaller man, knocking him into a collapsing wall. "Out of my way, filth!"

"Thorne, you bastard!" the man yelled after him. "We all die the same down here!"

I ignored them and headed for the nearest gate, dodging falling debris. The floor bucked again. I stumbled, caught myself on a cracked pillar. Pain flared in my left leg, an old break from two seasons back reopening like it never healed right.

"Help! Somebody!" A small voice cut through the chaos. High-pitched. Scared.

I turned. Near the lower stands, a section of seating had come down. A girl, maybe ten or eleven, was trapped under a heavy beam. Dust covered her face, but I saw the telltale dark veins creeping up her neck, Wilds infection. Slow mutation. The kind that marked you as already half-dead to most folks.

"Stay still!" I shouted, changing direction. My bare feet cut on sharp stone as I ran.

A guard leveled his spear at me from the walkway above. "Hybrid! Get to the elite exit or stay and die. We ain't wasting men on trash like her!"

"She's just a kid!" I snarled back, not slowing.

"She's infected! Leave her!" He turned and ran after the paying fighters instead.

I dropped to my knees beside the girl. Up close she looked even smaller. Sharp eyes though, despite the pain. Mira, I thought. I'd seen her around the pens a few times. Quiet one. Always watching.

"It hurts," she whispered, voice cracking. Tears cut clean lines through the dust on her cheeks. "My leg... I can't feel it."

"Hold on," I said, gripping the beam. My muscles strained. The thing was heavy, wedged tight. "I'm pulling it up. When I do, you crawl out fast. Understand?"

She nodded, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "Why are you helping me? Everyone says you're... you're the monster."

"Because I can." I planted my feet, ignored the way my old wounds screamed, and heaved. The beam shifted an inch. "Now!"

Mira dragged herself forward with her arms. Another tremor hit. The ground lurched violently. I lost my grip for a second and the beam slammed back down, catching her ankle. She screamed.

"Damn it!" I grabbed it again, roaring as I lifted. My shoulders burned. Veins stood out on my arms. The beast side inside pushed forward, lending strength I usually kept chained down. "Come on, girl. Move!"

She pulled free, crawling toward me. I dropped the beam and scooped her up. She was lighter than she should be. Fever-hot skin from the infection.

"Thank you," she gasped against my chest. "The others... they ran right past."

"Save your breath." I started toward the outer gate, carrying her. Debris rained harder now. A chunk of masonry smashed down where we'd just been, sending up a cloud of dust.

Shouts echoed from every direction.

"Seal the upper gates!" someone yelled. "Don't let the lowborn through!"

"Wilds surge! It's a full breach!"

The roar from below turned into something constant, like the world itself was growling. The arena floor in the center collapsed entirely, dropping into a black pit. Greenish mist rose from it, carrying the stink of rot and wild magic.

I ran faster, Mira clinging to my neck. My side throbbed where fresh cuts bled. Old wounds on my back reopened fully now, warm blood trickling down.

"Ren!" Mira pointed ahead. "The gate's cracking!"

A massive support pillar near the exit groaned, tilting. Guards were already through it, slamming bars down behind them. One looked back at us and shook his head before locking it.

"They're leaving us," Mira whispered, voice small.

"Not yet they're not." I set her down carefully near the wall. "Stay here."

I charged the gate, slamming my shoulder into it. Metal rattled but held. "Open it, you cowards!" I bellowed up at the watch platform. No answer.

Mira cried out. Another beam had shifted above her, ready to fall. I sprinted back, grabbed her again, and rolled us both clear just as it crashed down. The impact sent a fresh wave of agony through my body.

Then the real collapse hit.

The entire western wall of the arena gave way with a deafening crack. Stone and iron screamed as they fell. I shoved Mira behind a half-standing pillar and covered her with my body.

"Ren…"

A massive pillar broke loose from above, plummeting straight toward us. No time to run. I twisted, trying to take the hit on my back, but it caught me across the side instead. Ribs snapped like dry twigs. Pain exploded white-hot through my chest. I tasted blood, thick and metallic.

I went down hard, Mira tumbling beside me. The floor beneath us heaved violently, then dropped. We slid toward the growing chasm in the center of the arena, stone and bodies and sand all falling together into the Devouring Wilds far below.

My vision blurred. Breathing felt like knives in my lungs. Mira's small hand grabbed my arm, squeezing tight.

"Ren... don't leave me," she pleaded, voice shaking. "Please."

I tried to speak but only coughed blood. The world spun. Darkness crept in at the edges.

Then something stirred inside my chest.

Not pain. Not rage. Something else. Ancient. Golden. Like liquid light unfolding behind my ribs, spreading through veins that suddenly felt too small for it. It whispered without words, images of endless forests, shattered thrones, fury older than the floating peaks themselves.

The fall continued. Wind howled past us as the arena floor vanished completely, dropping us into open sky above the Wilds.

Mira screamed.

My body went limp, but that golden thing inside kept growing, pushing against the darkness, hungry and alive for the first time.

Everything went black.

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