Lunar Legacy: Rise Of The Beastlord

The faint shimmer of stardust was already fading from the clearing, but Jayden's golden eyes flared, Dragon's Eye igniting. His aura-sense picked it up... thin streaks of blue energy, faint trails that cut across the air like veins of lightning.

"Got you," he muttered, crouching low.

With a sharp kick against the ground, he leapt, vaulting into the trees. His body moved with instinct, claws retracting as he used his hands and feet to propel himself from branch to branch. Bark splintered under his boots, leaves whipped past his face, and still he kept his focus locked on the glimmer of blue.

The trail stretched deeper into the forest, glowing faintly in his vision. And as Jayden followed, he began to notice something that sent a shiver through him.

Corpses.

Many of them. All of beasts that had seemingly encountered with the blue light.

The first was a hulking Direbear, its massive chest hollowed clean through, a ragged hole where its beast crystal should've been. Then came a pair of Tremor Gators, sprawled across the riverbank like discarded dolls, their scales split open with surgical precision. Further ahead.. Howlers, Strikers, even a Serpenthis coiled lifeless in the dirt, its venom still dripping from limp fangs.

Every single one of them had the same wound. A gaping cavity in their chest region. With their crystals gone.

Jayden landed silently beside the Serpenthis, crouching to examine it. He dragged a claw gently across the torn flesh. The wound wasn't jagged.. it was smooth, almost burned through, like something had pierced straight into its chest with pure energy.

His lips curved upward. "It's not feeding... just collecting crystals."

The realization made his heart thrum with excitement. Whoever.. or whatever this was, it wasn't hunting for sport. It was harvesting.

That narrowed it down.

This was either a beast that had gone through a massive evolution... or a human with a terrifying level of speed, using advanced tech or armor to further amplify their stats.

Jayden's claws flexed. The idea of a human moving this fast was... absurd. But still, his instincts whispered danger.

Pushing forward, he climbed higher, scaling a towering pine until he perched near its tip. His chest rose and fell steadily as he scanned the vast ocean of forest below.

And then he saw it.

Far beneath him, weaving effortlessly through the trees, was the light. A ribbon of radiant blue, cutting a path of death through the wilderness. It flickered, darted, curved, like lightning itself had been given sentience. Wherever it passed, beasts fell. Jayden's Dragon's Eye caught the blur tearing through packs of Howlers, piercing each one in turn before their bodies even hit the ground.

Then he noticed something.

Whatever this thing was... It wasn't just fast. It was accelerating.

At first, he thought his vision was playing tricks on him, but no.. the light was growing sharper, harder to track. The afterimages multiplied, splitting into streaks that made it look like it was in five places at once. Then ten. Then more. Each kill seemed to fuel it, sharpen it, make it faster than before.

Jayden narrowed his eyes, his hunter's mind racing.

This wasn't normal.

An evolved human with speed abilities couldn't move like this. Not even with enhancements, not even with top-tier armor. That kind of speed... It was suicide for any human body.

His lips pressed into a thin line. This was definitely not a person. It was either a Beast... or something worse.

Then a thought flickered in his mind.. dangerous and tantalizing.

If it was a beast, and he managed to catch and kill it.. then that ability, that speed, it could be his. The idea made his blood run hot, adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Moving at speed that was invisible to the naked eye would make him unstoppable.

But still.. how was he going to do that? Catching a beast that was moving at a speed of at least ten thousand kilometers per hour was practically impossible. And to even think of killing it was madness.

Absolute madness.

But yet, even as his mind told him it was impossible, Jayden's body was already shifting forward, planning, strategizing. His claws tapped against the bark beneath him, his eyes gleaming with feral ambition.

He had a plan. A reckless one.

But a plan nonetheless.

...

Jayden crouched on the treetop, his golden eyes watching the blue blur carve deeper into the forest. It hadn't reached the northern ridge yet... a stretch of woods still untouched, silent, and crawling with lesser beasts. The light was moving closer, faster with every kill, but that part of the forest was still pristine.

"That's my window," he muttered.

If he could set a trap there, funnel it into a choke point, he might stand a chance. But speed like that... how do you stop something that doesn't stop moving?

You corrupt and immobilize from the inside. And Jayden had the perfect agent for that.

His claws flexed, venom seeping faintly from the tips, glowing a faint green in the dark.

But then a sudden realization hit him. His venom was dangerous, deadly even.. but raw. He couldn't coat weapons with it. He couldn't lace traps with it. Not yet. It was tied to his body alone.

He tutted. But then his eyes widened in realization. "Unless..."

His gaze snapped downward, back along the trail he'd followed.

The Serpenthis.

The corpse still lay where the light had dropped it, its massive coils limp across the dirt.

Jayden leapt. Branch to branch, tree to tree, until he landed with a heavy thud beside the serpent's body.

The corpse stank of damp musk and blood, already attracting flies. Its jaw hung slack, two fangs as long as swords jutting out, still glistening faintly. Jayden narrowed his eyes and pressed a claw against the gum line, tracing downward until he found it... the venom sac. A swollen gland, still heavy, still alive with poison.

"Perfect."

He didn't hesitate. His claws slashed open the sac, a gush of dark green fluid spilling out. It hissed against the dirt, eating into the soil with a faint smoke. Jayden's lips curled into a feral grin.

Venom this potent wasn't just toxic. It was corrosive. If the light-creature so much as brushed against it, its body would scream in rebellion.

Jayden glanced around, grabbed a thick branch from the ground, and snapped it against his knee. Then another. And another. He shaped five jagged stakes, each one uneven, cruel, and perfect for piercing flesh.

He dragged each one through the ruptured sac, coating them in the serpent's venom. The wood hissed, sizzling as the poison bit into it, but it held. The bark darkened to black, veins of green venom glistening along the jagged tips. They looked ugly. Savage. Perfect.

Jayden's mind spun as he worked.

He would drive these into the ground at angles... hidden along a narrow choke path where speed would betray the creature. It wouldn't have time to react. Not at that velocity. A single nick, a scratch on its hide, and the venom would sink in.

It wasn't elegant. It wasn't perfect.

But it was a trap born of instinct, born of desperation. And it would work.

Jayden rose to his full height, claws curling at his sides. His heart hammered with anticipation, but his smirk was steady, sharp.

"You can run as fast as you want," he whispered into the night. "But every predator bleeds when they're cut."

With that, he vanished back into the trees, carrying his venom stakes like a hunter preparing for war.