ShadowBound: The Need For Power-Chapter 605: Threat From Beneath

After putting a fair distance between himself and the group, Liam found himself crouched atop a thick branch high up in one of the towering trees surrounding the clearing. His body was perfectly balanced, weight distributed with practiced ease as his sharp eyes swept across the forest below, never lingering too long in one place.

From that elevated perch, he expanded his awareness outward, pushing his senses as far as they would allow. Nearly everything within a four-hundred-meter radius fell into his perception—subtle shifts in air, distant movements, faint disturbances in Myst. At the same time, he remained connected to Smoke, who prowled two hundred meters beyond the edge of that radius, acting as an extended warning net.

Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

’Everything here seems fine,’ Liam thought, his eyes narrowing slightly as he remained crouched. ’But I don’t like it. Especially not with how I’m barely able to share Smoke’s senses.’

Because of the restriction Sir Kaelen had placed on them, Liam couldn’t make full use of Smoke the way he once had. Back in Tynoon, when he and Galen had swept the entire zone in search of Gaia hybrids, he’d been able to fully synchronize with his shadow, sharing every sensation without effort. Now, with only fifty percent of his Myst output permitted, that connection was crippled.

He could still receive danger alerts from Smoke—sharp warnings when something clearly hostile appeared—but that was all. He couldn’t see through Smoke’s eyes, couldn’t hear what it heard, couldn’t feel vibrations through its paws or catch scents through its nose. And that limitation meant something dangerous could slip through unnoticed, simply because Smoke didn’t recognize it as an immediate threat.

That was precisely why Liam hated staying in one place for too long.

All it took was one unseen presence, one delayed reaction, and the entire group could be caught off guard by a threat neither he nor Smoke picked up in time. The fact that nothing had ambushed Smoke so far felt less like skill and more like luck—and Liam didn’t trust luck.

’Then again,’ he admitted to himself with a quiet breath, ’this is on me.’

He clenched his fingers slightly against the bark beneath him.

’I should’ve trained more with my shadow creatures. If I had, I could’ve strengthened the connection enough to reduce the Myst cost.’ His jaw tightened faintly. ’Then I wouldn’t be this restricted.’

Letting that thought settle, Liam glanced downward and straightened from his crouch, standing tall atop the branch for a brief moment.

"Pretty sure those twenty minutes are up," he muttered under his breath.

The next instant, he stepped forward and let himself fall.

His descent was silent, controlled. He caught branches on the way down, redirected his momentum, and landed on the forest floor without so much as a crunch of leaves before moving swiftly back toward the clearing.

By the time Liam returned to where the others had been resting, he found them already on their feet, just as he’d expected. The brief rest period had ended, and everyone seemed ready—or at least resigned—to move again.

"You’ve arrived just on time," Edith said when she noticed him. "We were about to resume our journey."

"Alright, let’s g—"

Liam stopped abruptly.

Something brushed against his senses. His ears caught a faint, irregular sound beneath the forest’s usual quiet, and at the same time, his nose picked up an unfamiliar scent—dry, earthen, and wrong. His gaze immediately dropped to the ground beneath his feet, his body going still.

Edith frowned at his sudden pause. "Hey, are you—"

Liam lifted a finger to his lips, cutting her off without a word. His eyes met hers briefly, expression sharp and serious as he silently mouthed, shh. Then, slowly, deliberately, he pointed down at the ground between them.

"Nobody move," he whispered, the words barely leaving his mouth.

They didn’t need to hear him clearly. Between reading his lips and their Myst-enhanced senses, everyone understood immediately.

No one argued or questioned him.

Even Yuriel, who normally bristled at being ordered around, had gone tense, his eyes fixed on the ground as well. He could sense it now too—something subtle and deep beneath the soil.

’I can’t believe I didn’t catch this sooner,’ Liam thought, his gaze locked downward. ’And for someone with earth affinity... how did he not feel it either?’

His eyes flicked briefly to Yuriel before returning to the ground.

’Doesn’t matter right now,’ he decided. ’If anyone moves even slightly, we’ll have to deal with them head-on.’ A pause. ’Or it. Might just be one if its an adult.’

The ground felt wrong beneath his feet—not unstable, but expectant. Vibrations were faint and barely noticeable, yet unmistakable now that he was aware of them.

Liam steadied his breathing, his mind racing as he searched for a way to avoid turning this into a disaster for the entire group.

’If it reacts to vibrations... then this should work.’

He looked up at the others and began to move his lips slowly, carefully, making sure they could read every word.

"When I reach five," he mouthed, "I’ll run. You stay completely still until it surfaces. Then we attack. Understood?"

Edith’s eyes sharpened as understanding dawned on her. She realized exactly what kind of threat they were dealing with—and just how badly things could go if even one mistake was made.

After a brief moment, she nodded.

Lily and Linda looked terrified, their faces pale as fear crept into their eyes, while Yuriel stood rigid, forcing composure through sheer will.

Liam took it all in and ignored it. Fear and uncertainty wouldn’t change what needed to be done.

He raised his hand.

Five.

Four. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Three.

Two.

One.

The moment his last finger curled down, Liam exploded into motion, bolting in the direction he’d come from earlier. He didn’t look back as his feet struck the ground hard and fast.

Almost immediately, the faint tremors beneath him intensified. The vibrations grew stronger, heavier, closing the distance as the earth itself seemed to stir in response to his movement.

Just as Liam continued running, the ground beneath his feet split apart without warning. A sharp crack echoed through the forest, and before he could take another step, the earth violently erupted. From below, the head of a massive, grotesque creature burst upward, spraying dirt and shattered roots in every direction. Its body remained buried, but its head alone was enormous, crowned by a broad, wedge-shaped maw that split unnaturally both vertically and horizontally. As its mouth opened wider, rows upon rows of teeth were revealed—long, jagged, and bent backward like cruel hooks—designed to ensure that once something entered, it would never escape.

The creature lunged upward in a single, savage motion, its gaping jaws closing in with the clear intent of crushing Liam whole.

Hovering just above the yawning mouth, Liam did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second. Fire Myst surged through his body, heat rippling through the air as his form blurred and vanished from sight. In the very next instant, the creature’s massive jaws snapped shut with a thunderous crack, teeth colliding where Liam had been only moments before.

The ground shuddered from the impact.

Almost immediately, Liam reappeared several meters away, skidding across the dirt as his feet tore shallow grooves through the soil before he came to a controlled stop. He straightened and lifted his head, crimson eyes locking onto the monstrous animal as it writhed beneath the surface, its presence unmistakable even without seeing its full body.

"We’re definitely getting slowed down by this bastard," Liam muttered under his breath, irritation seeping into his otherwise calm tone. "After all, Burrowmaws don’t let intruders go that easily."