Chapter 6 The Nullbeast
The Nullbeast hit the ground hard enough to crack the stone beneath its claws.
Rin braced herself as the shockwave rippled through the Scarlet Market, rattling lanterns and sending dust cascading from the steel rafters. Elias shoved her aside just in time as the creature lunged, its plated skull smashing through the tent where she’d stood seconds before.
The Oracle threw her staff down, creating a pulse of red energy that clashed with the Nullbeast’s aura. The creature screeched an awful, hollow sound, as if its throat were made of scraping metal.
Elias grabbed Rin’s arm. “Don’t let it focus on you! Move!”
Rin sprinted across the broken market floor, weaving between shattered stalls. The Nullbeast’s presence drained the fire from her veins with every step she took closer to it. The air around it felt wrong cold and collapsing inward, like a vacuum for magic itself.
Rin reached for her flames instinctively.
They flickered, sputtered, resisted.
It was suffocating.
The Nullbeast twisted its head toward her, empty sigil-lit sockets locking onto her aura. The blue runes across its skull flared.
And then it charged.
“Rin!” Elias planted himself between her and the monster, blade glowing crimson. He swung in a wide arc, but the Nullbeast barely flinched. Its armored hide absorbed the blow with a jarring clang.
Elias’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even scratch it”
The Nullbeast slammed its arm into him, sending him skidding across the floor into a collapsed table. He coughed, trying to rise.
“Elias!” Rin started toward him.
The Oracle’s voice cracked like a whip. “No! If you get too close, it will drain your fire entirely!”
“But”
“He is not its target,” the Oracle snapped. “You are.”
The Nullbeast shifted its stance, claws digging trenches in the stone as it angled itself toward Rin again. She felt the pull instantly her fire responded to the creature like prey sensing a predator.
Its hunger was palpable.
The Oracle slammed her staff down. Red sigils burst from the metal tips, forming a barrier between Rin and the incoming monster. The Nullbeast hit the shield with earthshaking force, cracks spiderwebbing across the magical wall.
The Oracle grimaced. “This won’t hold!”
“What do I do?” Rin cried.
“Distance!” the Oracle yelled. “Your fire cannot overpower a Nullbeast while you are within its drain radius!”
Rin backed up quickly, but the creature kept advancing, consuming the shield, draining the Oracle’s spell like it was drinking it.
Rin’s lungs burned not from running, but from the instinctive panic of her fire being suppressed.
She had never felt so exposed.
So powerless.
She stumbled over a toppled crate and hit the ground. Her hands shook uncontrollably as she pushed herself up.
“Rin!” Elias yelled hoarsely from across the collapsed stalls. “Get up! Move!”
She tried.
But the Nullbeast’s aura spread like a suffocating shadow, leeching the warmth from her core. Her flames dimmed to faint embers.
“No… no, no, no…” Rin whispered, panic rising.
The Oracle staggered, her barrier collapsing in shards of red light. “Rin, listen to me! A Nullbeast devours uncontrolled magic. But if you shape your fire if you direct it there’s a way to wound it!”
Rin clenched her fists. “I don’t know how yet!”
“You don’t have time to learn,” the Oracle snapped. “You must remember.”
Rin’s breath caught.
Remember?
Remember what?
She closed her eyes for one second
long enough to hear the echo deep inside her,
low and ancient and steady:
You are not prey.
Her fire flickered.
Fought back.
A spark, small but defiant, surged through her veins.
Rin rose.
The Nullbeast screeched and charged again, its plated limbs tearing through the last of the tents. Rin didn’t run this time. She stood her ground, planting her feet.
“Come on,” she whispered. “Come and try it.”
The Oracle sucked in a breath. “Rin!”
The Nullbeast leapt, jaws opening wide, void energy spiraling toward her.
Rin exhaled.
And instead of pushing her flames outward she pulled them inward.
Her entire aura tightened, condensed, focused into a core so hot it stopped responding to the Nullbeast’s drain.
For the first time, the creature hesitated.
Rin thrust her hand forward.
A single, razor-thin line of fire shot out.
Controlled.
Pressurized.
Focused like a blade.
It sliced across the Nullbeast’s skull plate in a glowing arc.
The creature shrieked, stumbling. Blue sigils along its forehead flickered violently.
Elias shouted across the market, voice cracking with disbelief. “You hurt it!”
The Oracle grinned. “Well done, dragonborn!”
Rin didn’t feel triumphant.
She felt terrified.
The Nullbeast’s attention was now fully, violently locked onto her. It lunged again not mindlessly, but with sudden precision.
Rin dodged barely. Its claws grazed her shoulder, sending a flare of pain through her arm. She staggered, clutching the wound as heat poured from it.
The creature reared back and slammed the ground, sending shockwaves through the market. Cracks split open, wood splintered, and metal scaffolding groaned overhead.
Rin vaulted over a broken railing. “How do I kill it?”
“You don’t!” the Oracle shouted. “You escape it!”
Elias limped toward her. “Rin, we have to get out now!”
The Nullbeast snarled, crouching low. The sigils across its body pulsed rapidly.
Elias’s face paled. “It’s charging a devour burst MOVE!”
Rin bolted left, Elias right. The Oracle slammed her staff into the ground and vanished in a burst of red smoke.
The Nullbeast released its attack.
A wave of void tore through the Scarlet Market—collapsing stalls, ripping banners apart, and extinguishing every magical light in its path.
Rin dove behind a stone pillar. The wave smashed into it, erasing the top half instantly. Dust and fragments rained down on her.
Her heart pounded.
Her flames shuddered.
But she was alive.
Barely.
Elias slid beside her, panting heavily. “You good?”
“No,” she gasped. “You?”
He coughed. “Also no.”
Another roar echoed closer this time.
The Nullbeast was coming for her again.
Rin grabbed Elias’s forearm. “We can’t keep running everything we do just makes it angrier.”
“Good,” Elias said through clenched teeth. “Angry creatures make mistakes.”
Rin stared at him. “So do desperate people.”
He looked her directly in the eyes. “Not you.”
Before she could answer, the Oracle reappeared beside them, leaning heavily on her staff. “The Market is collapsing. The Hunters will arrive any second. We must leave.”
“Through where?” Elias demanded. “The exits are blocked.”
The Oracle pressed her bloodied palm to the ground. A red sigil ignited beneath them.
Stone shifted.
Floorboards groaned.
A section of the market cracked open, revealing a hidden staircase spiraling into darkness below.
Rin blinked. “What is that?”
The Oracle met her gaze. “A path. One only the marked may walk.”
Elias grabbed Rin’s hand. “Move!”
The three of them descended quickly as the Nullbeast smashed through another wall, roaring in fury.
They reached the bottom steps just as the Oracle raised her staff toward the ceiling.
The Nullbeast’s shadow loomed above.
“Close it!” Rin cried.
The Oracle slammed her staff down.
The stone sealed shut overhead
and the Nullbeast’s impact hit the other side an instant later, shaking dust from the ceiling like falling ash.
Silence settled.
Dark.
Thick.
Chilling.
Rin clutched her shoulder, breath shallow. “Did we lose it?”
“For now,” the Oracle said. “But Nullbeasts track aura, not scent. If you flare your fire again, it will find you.”
Rin swallowed. “So what now?”
The Oracle lifted her head, blindfold shimmering faintly. “Now, dragonborn… we go deeper.”
Elias frowned. “Deeper where?”
The Oracle gave a thin, sharp smile.
“To the place where your power began and where the truth waits to meet you.”
Rin’s pulse quickened.
The Oracle turned and started down the tunnel.
“Welcome,” she said softly, “to the forgotten sanctum of the last dragons.”