Ashmaw growled softly at the dawn.
Riku had ordered him placed on the far eastern perimeter, paired with two Emberfront veterans. They'd been reluctant. Understandable — most beasts, even tamed ones, had to be handled with threat collars and constant mana sedation.
Ashmaw needed neither.
By the third night, the hound had already developed a rhythm: patrol the cliff rim, double back, then curl atop the ridge's watchstone — alert, silent, obeying like a soldier born.
But Riku didn't trust symbols.
Not fully.
So he devised a test.
It began the following dusk.
Riku ordered sector 3's patrol rotation reduced, quietly. The eastern cliffs were not usually a high-risk zone, but a cutback could invite movement. Monsters might return. More dangerously, another wandering tribe might pick up the trail.
He posted three watchers in hidden hollows and waited.
Four hours later, just past midnight, they appeared.
Not beasts. Not ferals. Not Blood Moon creatures.
Humanoids.
Low to the ground. Moving fast. Two figures, clad in bark-wrapped boots and loose greybone armor, carrying short hunting bows. Foreign. No markings. Their footwork betrayed trained steps — not scouts, but hunters. Possibly from a nomadic or predator-tribe structure.
They hadn't spotted the Lorian outpost yet.
They were scouting Ashmaw.
He watched them from the trees. One whispered, "That's not a natural beast." The other nodded. "Could be a bonded mutation. Sovereign-class, maybe?"
So they didn't know who owned this place.
Perfect.
Riku watched as Ashmaw stood from his perch. The beast didn't growl. Didn't howl. It stepped down the slope and placed itself directly between the scouts and the cliffside approach — body low, head level, glowing veins dimmed.
It was a challenge.
The scouts hesitated.
Then one raised a signal dart and fired.
Ashmaw didn't dodge.
He disappeared into the earth — no burrow, no dust, just gone — then exploded up directly beneath the firing scout like a geyser of claws and stone.
The man screamed once.
By the time the other tried to flee, Ashmaw was already behind him.
Ten minutes later, Riku inspected the bodies.
One dead. One still breathing, but with a shattered shoulder and torn thigh.
He left the corpse for the soil.
The survivor he bound and gagged, then dragged back to a side cavern.
The scout had no tribe mark, no map, and no clear accent — probably a rogue advance from a migrating splinter group. Not uncommon. With millions of Sovereigns out there, a few were bound to splinter, break, or go feral.
Still, they'd been close.
Too close.
He'd need more patrol coverage soon.
But first, he checked on Ashmaw.
The beast sat calmly by the tree line, licking at his paws like nothing had happened. The injuries he had — shallow gashes and a broken fang — were healing faster than expected.
Riku opened his system.
Ashmaw – Status:
– Combat Exposure Recorded
– Traits Active: Lava Gland / Burrow Step / Heat Shielding
– Loyalty: Stable – Tier 1
Enhancement Traces Detected: Regenerative Feedback Accelerated
Classification Suggestion: Tier-2.5 Candidate – Growth Potential: High
No fold had triggered.
But Ashmaw was growing.
And more importantly — performing without oversight.
By morning, Riku had Juran move the prisoner into the moss-deep cell under the armory.
They didn't ask questions publicly. No one knew the scout was from another Sovereign's ranks. Riku told the guards he was a trespasser caught stealing roots — and no one pushed further.
That secrecy mattered.
Not just to avoid tribal panic — but to keep other Sovereigns ignorant of his location. If word spread that the eastern cliffs were home to an advanced perimeter beast and two defense towers, they would come. Not to talk. To test his strength.
And they wouldn't all be kind.
That night, Riku met with Thalya, Juran, and two Emberwright captains in the central planning hollow.
"Defense rotation expands by one perimeter ring," he said. "Ashmaw becomes point sentinel for both cliffsides. We double silent signal testing. And no scout leaves the forest unescorted."
Juran grunted. "You expect retaliation?"
"Not from those two," Riku said. "But where there are silent steps, there are louder boots not far behind."
They said nothing for a while.
Then Thalya looked to the eastern dark.
"We used to think no one would find us," she said. "But the world isn't as big as it looks from inside the roots."