A freezing shiver ran down his spine. Yahiko didn''t even think. He bolted.


    Mata reacted instantly, following his friend without a word. In a flash, everything came rushing back—the oppressive presence, the chilling fear that had paralyzed them near the village. It was her. And they knew it.


    Against that thing, they were nothing. Just prey. If she caught up to them…


    Their flight was immediate. Instinctive. Don''t look back. Don''t slow down. The cold air tore at their lungs, but their legs refused to stop.


    Branches scratched their faces, the snow swallowed their steps, but they felt nothing anymore. Only urgency. Only fear.


    Yahiko stumbled over a root hidden beneath the powdery snow, swaying dangerously. Mata caught him with a sharp motion, nearly falling himself. Falling meant losing time… and getting closer to certain death.


    They had to find shelter, regain control. The village. They had to reach the village.


    Their bodies protested with every stride. Despite a few hours of sleep and a makeshift meal that morning, they clearly hadn''t had time to recover. Every movement reminded them how the fight against the bear had drained their strength. They were weakened, and this chase had come at the worst possible moment.


    Yahiko''s thoughts raced, colliding in panicked chaos. How long had they been tracked? Since they left the village? Or had that thing only noticed them after the battle with the bear?


    His heart pounded wildly as a chilling memory resurfaced. That monster… it had to be him. The one who had slaughtered a polar bear and dragged its corpse into the heart of its own territory… and walked out alive.


    A creature strong enough to survive in their domain and make it out unharmed. Yahiko shivered violently, a cold far worse than the snow creeping into his bones.


    The only thought that brought a sliver of comfort—however small—was that they had erased their trail. No footprints left at their initial path, they had veered off through the bushes, taking a parallel route. No distinct human scent, masked by the pine needle infusion. If that thing relied on those signs to track them, then maybe… maybe they had a chance to lose it.


    Only the crunch of snow beneath their feet broke the stifling silence. Yahiko glanced behind: nothing. Not a shadow.


    They kept running. One minute. Two. Five. Still nothing.Silence reigned. No snapping branches behind them, no heavy breathing at their backs. Just the muffled crunch of snow beneath their steps.


    After what felt like an eternity—or maybe an hour—their pace began to slow. Mata glanced over his shoulder. Still nothing. His heart was still pounding in his chest, but a faint glimmer of hope began to rise.


    "I think… we lost her," he murmured, more to himself than to his friend.


    Yahiko didn''t answer right away, still caught in the grip of anxiety tightening around his chest.Mata, on the other hand, spoke aloud, as if everything was finally clicking into place in his mind.


    "Yahiko… now that we know what it is, the real danger… the fear of a fight to the death against a polar bear…"


    He took a breath, searching for the right words.


    "What we felt the other day, near the forest… it was worse. A level above."


    His gaze hardened, and he continued, more quietly:


    "Polar bears are supposed to be the ultimate predators in this region. Even the most seasoned hunters rarely come back unscathed… and yet, we killed it. At a cost, sure, but we did it."


    He paused, breathing heavily, then looked at Yahiko with a new kind of intensity.


    "But that thing… From what you told me, it slaughtered an adult bear. Alone. Then dragged its corpse right into the heart of their territory… and walked out alive."


    His fingers tensed involuntarily. He shook his head, shivering at the thought.


    "And that footprint… it''s nothing like an animal''s. Not human, either."


    He swallowed hard, and his voice dropped a notch, as heavy as the sentence he was delivering:


    "That thing… it''s a Yoka?."


    His expression left no room for doubt.


    "I''m sure of it."


    A heavy silence settled between them.


    Yahiko didn''t say anything, but the thought drove itself into his mind like a cold blade.


    They kept walking, their steps still quick but more measured. The urgency remained, but a faint hope was beginning to grow.


    The village wasn''t far now. Just one more valley, then the frozen lake… and they''d be there.


    Mata exhaled, a weight slowly lifting from his chest.


    "We''re almost there…" he whispered.


    Beside him, Yahiko nodded, his breathing still heavy.


    "Yeah… We—"


    A strange sensation froze him.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Like a cold current rushing through his body. A shiver, a sense of dread… then warmth. A warmth that wasn''t supposed to be there.


    Yahiko slowly looked down.


    A hand. A small, clawed hand piercing through his side.His mind took a fraction of a second to understand.Then the pain exploded.His breath caught. His legs buckled. A metallic taste filled his mouth.He tried to speak, but all that came out was a trickle of blood.


    Mata, puzzled by his friend''s sudden stop, turned his head.What he saw froze the blood in his veins.


    A small, grayish, clawed hand was sticking out of his stomach, trembling slightly, as if excited by the sensation of pierced flesh.A wave of dizziness crushed him. His legs gave out, and he collapsed to his knees, breathless. His body refused to obey, paralyzed between pain and incomprehension.


    Mata didn''t even have time to think.


    His body reacted before his mind.


    A roar of rage escaped him as he dropped the poisoned spikes he had been carrying, catching one mid-air.


    Without thinking, he lunged at the figure that had appeared behind them.


    A monster. Small, twisted, but relentless.His improvised weapon sliced through the air, aiming straight for the creature''s heart.It didn''t even need to look at him.


    The thing simply raised a hand.With a swift motion, its claws shattered the poisoned spike into a rain of fragments.Mata didn''t even have time to be surprised.


    The monster grabbed him violently by the throat and, in one fluid move, drove a kick straight into his chest.The impact was a brutal shock.


    Mata''s breath caught instantly as a sickening crack echoed through his ribcage.His body was thrown backward, flying several meters before violently crashing onto the frozen ground of the valley.The sound of his body slamming against a tree trunk was the last thing he heard before darkness consumed him.


    Yahiko gasped, his eyes widening under the sheer pain that seared through his side.The clawed hand was still there, its icy skin a stark contrast to his burning blood.With a trembling breath, he turned his head.


    In the distance, Mata lay motionless, his body barely visible in the thick snow.A shiver of horror ran through him.Where did we go wrong? How did it find our trail so easily?


    In a desperate surge of survival, he tore himself from the monster''s grip and dove forward, worsening the gaping wound.A wave of agony exploded in his abdomen as he crashed into the snow.He crawled instinctively, leaving behind a crimson trail, each movement feeling endless.


    Then, in one final effort, he rolled onto his back.


    And he saw it.


    It was small, barely taller than an eight-year-old child, but its very presence chilled the blood.Its parchment-like skin, a sickly gray, seemed stretched too tightly over its sharp bones, as if hastily stitched onto a body it didn''t belong to.Its arms were disproportionately long, ending in black, curved claws, each as sharp as a blade.Its thin, knotted legs looked built for speed, and its feet, oddly arched, sank slightly into the ground as if designed to adapt to any terrain.


    But it was its face that froze Yahiko in terror.


    A mouth far too wide, split to the ears, revealed a row of uneven teeth—some too long, others broken or sharpened to points.Its jaw snapped several times, producing a dry click that echoed through the icy valley walls, amplified by the surroundings like a grim warning.


    Its eyes, entirely black, shone with a ravenous gleam.They weren''t just inhuman. They were empty.As if nothing human or comprehensible lived behind them.


    Yahiko trembled violently, but it wasn''t just from pain or fear.


    There was something else.


    An overwhelming weight crashed down on him.


    An invisible, oppressive pressure twisted his insides and crushed him into the snow.A sickening force emanated from the creature—an indescribable energy that crept over him, seeping into his very flesh.Yahiko couldn''t see it, but he felt it—a suffocating presence, as if something invisible was trying to swallow him whole.It was as though the air itself was tainted by its presence.


    He wanted to scream, but his throat stayed clenched shut.


    His primal instinct was screaming.


    Run. Now.


    And yet, he couldn''t.His body refused to move.Yahiko felt his mind tilt under the weight of the oppression.


    Then...


    A brutal shock slammed into his skull.His vision burst into black and red blotches. The next instant, searing pain tore through his side, dragging a strangled gasp from his throat.


    He was being dragged.


    Lying on his back, he felt the icy snow scraping beneath him, frost slicing into his skin, stones and branches battering his already broken body.Each jolt reignited the agony in his open wound, as if something was digging through raw flesh.


    His breath grew erratic.


    As he was hauled mercilessly across the ground, he passed by his friend… and his heart stopped.


    Mata lay there, motionless.


    Abandoned.


    The monster didn''t care.


    It had left him there like a discarded piece of trash.


    A wave of terror exploded in Yahiko''s gut.


    He could now feel the cold, unrelenting grip around his ankle—the Yoka?''s gnarled, dry fingers dragging him effortlessly.An even deeper wave of panic surged through him.


    No.No, no, NO!


    In a desperate reflex, he grabbed the curved blade at his belt, gripped it so tightly his knuckles turned white, then swung it in a sharp motion.He brought it down on the creature''s fingers.


    A sharp crack.


    His own hand trembled from the impact.The Yoka?''s skin hadn''t even been scratched.


    Yahiko''s eyes widened in horror.He struck again. Once, twice, three times.


    Nothing.


    The monster didn''t even slow down.


    His breathing quickened. His stomach twisted.


    He couldn''t escape… nor harm this thing.


    So what now?


    He struggled, thrashed like a trapped animal, but the monster''s grip reigned supreme, crushing his ankle.Each strike of his blade bounced off its skin, the shockwaves shooting up his arm.


    His fingers tightened around his weapon.


    No… It wasn''t supposed to end like this.


    A jolt, followed by a sudden burst of speed from the monster, tore a groan from his lips.The snow around him blurred past, absorbing the thin stream of blood still trickling from his wound.


    Then, suddenly, the demon stopped.


    Yahiko felt the grip on his ankle loosen.He froze, heart pounding against his ribs like a war drum.


    Silence fell again, heavy and omnipresent.


    He blinked, trying to understand where he was.


    The Yoka? had dragged him to a depression along the hillside—a small rocky clearing hidden by twisted trees.A natural trap, isolated, out of sight.


    The creature''s foul stench burned his nostrils.


    Then a dreadful sound tore through the frozen silence.


    A shrill cry rose, slicing through the air like an invisible blade.The monster''s howl echoed across the valley, vibrating with pure savagery.


    It was a cry of preparation.


    Of exaltation.


    He was going to devour him.


    Panting, Yahiko slowly raised his eyes to the creature. Only one thought crossed his mind—raw, implacable.


    "I refuse to die like this."


    He clenched his teeth, pain radiating through his body like burning poison. His trembling hand pressed against his gaping wound, but he ignored it.


    "Not now. Not like this."


    He dropped to one knee, fighting the dizziness, and slowly rose. Hot blood ran down his side, but he tightened his grip on the curved blade. His fingers clenched around the handle, his breath short and ragged, but his gaze…His gaze blazed with a wild light—unstable, untamed.


    The monster stared at him for a moment, then burst into a guttural laugh—a distorted, grotesque sound that echoed among the rocks. A cruel laugh. A laugh of utter contempt.


    An insect refusing to die.


    In response, a bitter smile stretched across Yahiko''s bloodstained lips. A fierce light flickered in his eyes, making him, for a fleeting moment, resemble a demon himself.


    He had nothing left to lose.It was him or me.


    He knew his chances of survival were close to zero. Normally, if the odds were too low, he would never engage in such a fight. But this time, he had no choice...


    And as long as he could breathe… anything was still possible.


    But if I have to die… I swear I''ll take it down with me.


    His foot sank slightly into the snow.


    There was no more hesitation. No more fear.


    Only one last choice to make.


    Live or die.


    Then he moved.