From the now-empty spike-launching pores along its plated hide, the Needleback Badger released a foul mist of toxin gas.
It was the same paralytic agent that coated its needle spikes—potent enough that even a scratch could paralyse an Intermediate-rank human within a minute.
But a direct inhalation of this concentrated vapour?
Udara didn’t plan to find out.
Her figure blurred and vanished, reappearing from the shadow of a tree just beyond the range of the spreading fume.
Fen snarled, taking initiative.
A burst of freezing wind roared from his maw, instantly crystallising the toxic cloud into jagged ice particles and revealing the Badger’s silhouette once more.
Alex narrowed his eyes. That creeping sense of urgency hadn’t left him—not since the Badger began its strange behaviour.
Time to bring out the heavy hitters.
A clawed hand of condensed shadow formed mid-air, wreathed in crackling sparks of black lightning—Alex’s Netherspark affinity made manifest. The phantom hand seized the Badger by its midsection, electrocuting it and leaving spasms across its body before hurling the beast towards Udara.
She was already ready.
With both short swords drawn, Udara became a streak of darkness, slicing through the air and through the beast in one smooth motion. A faint trail of blood splattered behind her.
She clicked her tongue as her form reappeared on the other side. Something was off.
The Badger had twisted into a barrel roll mid-air, and its upper neck armour had caught the brunt of her attack. Instead of a clean decapitation, her blade barely broke past its shell.
She prepared to rush in again before it could recover and land on its feet.
But someone beat her to it.
Jagged lances of ice burst from the ground below just as the Badger was about to crash down. One pierced its underbelly—soft compared to its armoured back—driving through its organs and straight into the heart.
The creature convulsed once, then went still.
Udara blinked. She hadn’t expected Fen’s usual Ice Spike to be that thick, much less strong enough to pierce clean through the hide of a battle-hardened Needleback Badger.
Her gaze snapped toward the wolf—only to spot Alex with his palm resting gently on Fen’s fur.
She understood immediately.
[Spell Interception].
Alex had hijacked the Ice Spike spell mid-cast, strengthened and reshaped it with his own mana. It explained the unnatural precision—and the killing power.
But even with the Badger dead, Alex didn’t lower his guard.
"It’s not over!" His voice echoed in Udara’s mind through their link.
A high-pitched screech erupted from the Badger’s corpse.
It wasn’t a sound meant for ears. It bypassed flesh and bone, slamming directly into their minds.
Alex, Fen, and Udara staggered as it assaulted their senses.
Udara took the brunt of it, being closest to the corpse. Fen howled in pain, but Alex, fortified by his unusually resilient Spiritual Force, gritted his teeth and endured.
Through blurry vision, he saw something unnatural rising out of the Badger’s remains—translucent, almost ethereal.
His expression hardened.
"A Wendigo," Alex muttered.
[A three-metre-tall humanoid creature with elongated limbs, dark grey skin like petrified wood, and antler-like growths made of crystallised Spiritual energy.]
[A Wendigo is a spiritual predator, much like a Wraith, feeding upon the mind and spiritual essence of its victims to develop its own unique Spiritual Core. However, unlike a Wraith, the Wendigo is a corporeal creature—flesh and blood.]
[A Wendigo is a master of mental manipulation, especially among creatures with weak Spiritual Force.]
[Individuals with low Spiritual Force are advised to flee immediately upon suspicion. Those with strong Spiritual Force should proceed with extreme caution.]
[Threat Level: Highly Dangerous!]
’No wonder I felt something was off.’
The moment Alex saw the creature’s silhouette, everything clicked into place.
Back when they encountered the Needleback Badger, something had already felt... wrong. Sure, the badger was known to be a territorial menace that picked fights without provocation, but even then—it shouldn’t have been able to track them.
That was the first anomaly.
They had intentionally veiled their movements, laying false trails and masking their scents. Yet the badger found them anyway—across tens of kilometres of dense forest.
Even if they hadn’t bothered masking their trail, a typical Needleback wouldn’t possess that kind of tracking ability. It simply wasn’t built for it.
At the time, Alex’s subconscious had flared a silent alarm. A buried instinct had whispered that something was wrong, but he’d been too focused on the upcoming battle to truly notice.
It was during the actual fight that the truth began to break through.
The Badger didn’t behave like a typical Needleback.
These creatures were infamous for their menacing nature. They relished in taunting and intimidating their targets.
But this one? It didn’t jeer. It didn’t mock. It simply fought—relentlessly. Like it was carrying out some divine mission.
Its attacks were uncharacteristically reckless. It launched a pre-emptive spike barrage—something no sane Needleback would waste unless cornered.
These spikes required time to regrow, and the paralytic mist they exuded took months to replenish through specific dietary needs. Losing both rendered a badger far less dangerous for an extended period.
Yet this one burned through both resources right at the start.
It didn’t just take risks. It had no regard for its own post-battle condition. It didn’t fight like a creature with instinctual self-preservation. It fought like a weapon wielded by another.
Even in combat, its movements betrayed unnatural sharpness.
Yes, the badger was experienced, but its experience should’ve been limited to quadrupedal beasts. Few humanoids ever dared fight Needlebacks directly, and bipedals fought in a completely different rhythm. Yet this one adapted too smoothly.
Its movements weren’t instinctive. They were calculated.
Each desperate lunge, each precise dodge—it all screamed of something else.
Not the jerky, rigid movements of a mindless puppet—but something deeper.
It hadn’t been moving for itself.
It had been driven. Controled. Pushed to extremes no beast would willingly embrace.
And in this part of the Dankrot Forest, only one type of creature was known for such spiritual invasions—