Dawn came red.

  It crept over the treetops like blood seeping through cloth, casting a copper glow across the battered camp. Smoke still drifted from the fire pits, clinging to the ruins of lean-tos. Crows circled above, their cries distant but constant, waiting.

  The camp smelled of ash. And blood.

  Alex moved slowly through the wreckage, hands coated in dried gore. His knife was gone—he wasn’t sure where he’d dropped it in the chaos. His shirt was torn. His shoulder bruised. But he was alive.

  Not everyone was.

  Kevin’s body lay covered beneath a torn tarp near the eastern edge, where Miriam had ordered the fallen to be gathered. Beside him, the woman—who’d screamed as they tore her apart. No one had known her well. A quiet woman with dark hair, always working with the berry gatherers. Her name hadn’t even come to him until Jake said it.

  Lena.

  That was her name.

  And there were more. Eleven others. Faces that had been familiar, if not known. One of the older engineers. A teenager who had just started helping with water filtration. A man Alex only remembered as always being cold, always shivering.

  All gone.

  Miriam stood silently before the line of bodies, arms crossed tight, jaw clenched. Her knife was still bloodstained. No one interrupted her.

  Camila sat on a low stump beside the shattered remains of the south fence, legs stained to the knees with dried blood. She was patching her cloak, methodical, her expression unreadable.

  Jake knelt by the obelisk, writing slowly. A tally.

  Dead: 13

  Wounded: 9

  Goblin casualties: 23

  Hobgoblin: Confirmed slain

  Yusuf leaned over a bucket of water, rinsing blood from his hands, his breathing shallow. He hadn’t spoken since the fight. Not since he’d dropped the hobgoblin with a strike that caved in its ribs.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “You good?” Alex asked quietly.

  Yusuf nodded but didn’t look up. “Used Ren too long. I can barely feel my legs.”

  Alex sank beside him. “Any injuries?”

  Yusuf let out a long breath. “No, just some scratches”

  Ellie sat nearby with Wren and Li, bandaging a gash across Wren’s arm. The three girls were pale, dirt-smudged, but focused. Ellie’s hands trembled only slightly as she tied the cloth.

  “We lost thirteen,” Li said softly. “That’s... too many.”

  “And it won’t be the last time,” Wren added, voice rough. “Unless we get stronger.”

  They all looked toward the Obelisk.

  A few people approached it that morning—quietly, with no ceremony.

  Stan – 21 Points

  Path Chosen: Naruto

  Melissa – 24 Points

  Path Chosen: Bleach

  Grace – 22 Points

  Path Chosen: One Piece

  None had points left for further purchases, but Jake logged the names. The tally was growing. Seventeen now. Though it would take time to develop.

  Camila finally stood, walking toward the center where the hobgoblin’s body lay covered. Its stone axe had been claimed already—set aside under lock by Miriam. The thing had bled black and thick. Flies already buzzed around the cloth.

  “We sacrifice the goblins, burn the people” she said.

  Miriam nodded once. “Tonight.”

  “We’ll need to prepare food too,” Jared added. “There’s meat left from yesterday, and a few squirrels from the snares. We don’t have the energy to go hunting today.”

  “No one’s hunting,” Miriam said. “Today, we fortify.”

  She looked around at the survivors gathered in the clearing—dozens of bruised, bloodied faces.

  “We rebuild the perimeter. We dig trenches if we have to. Reinforce with whatever you can find. No one leaves alone. And if you can fight, you will train.”

  Silence.

  Then slowly, people began to move.

  Alex found Ellie beside one of the fallen shelters, helping re-tie what had once been a support beam.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “But I’m here.”

  Near the fire pit, David was fiddling with his saber, his knuckles raw. Roger sat beside him, silent. Neither said much.

  Yusuf eventually stood and hobbled toward the training area. “If anyone wants to learn Ten, now’s the time.”

  Camila started clearing a new space for hunting gear and weapons, if they were better equipped they may have had more survivors. Plans to spend some points on items rather then just powers started cropping up between people.

  By nightfall, the bodies had been burned.

  Thirteen pyres lit the clearing, their smoke rising high into the forest canopy. No words were said. No ceremony given. Only silence. Perhaps unwise, they could have sacrificed them, but it just didn’t feel right

  Jake watched the flames, his notebook closed for once.

  Seventeen had chosen.

  Eighty-three remained.