I am Just an Average Tamer

❖ Scene: Azurean Academy – Midnight

The academy should have been asleep.

But Kai wasn't.

He stood alone in the northern courtyard, cloaked in silence. The air felt... strange. Not cold. Not warm. Just off. The wind didn't move, the stars were hidden behind thick clouds, and even the lanterns lining the walkways flickered as if uncertain whether they should be burning.

He wasn't here by chance.

A letter had appeared in his dorm hours ago. No name. No seal. Just a single line:

"Come alone. Midnight. North courtyard."

He would've ignored it—if it weren't for the symbol etched faintly at the bottom.

A spiral. Split through the center.

The same symbol that had appeared inside the Spiral Mirror.

And the same one he'd seen on the dark figure standing beside the Nightspawn.

Kai stepped into the open, hands casually at his sides but fingers resting near the hilts of his daggers.

"You came," a voice murmured.

It came from nowhere. And everywhere.

Then—movement.

A figure appeared atop the stone railing. Dressed in dark silks, face obscured by a porcelain mask shaped like a smiling child's. It didn't match the body, which was lean, tall, and clearly adult.

Kai said nothing.

The masked figure tilted its head.

"Still so guarded. Good. That means they haven't softened you... yet."

Kai's voice was low. "You're from the Creed."

"I'm many things," the figure said, stepping lightly down. Not a sound as its boots touched stone. "But tonight, I'm merely a messenger. A gift-bearer."

Kai tensed. "I'm not interested."

"You should be."

The masked one raised a hand, and something uncurled in the air. Like smoke—but darker. Not black. Not even a color. A feeling, made visible. It writhed and pulsed like it was alive.

Kai felt the bond with his beasts jolt—shudder, even. Vex stirred from his mental slumber, low growls echoing in Kai's mind.

"That... thing…"

The figure continued, undeterred.

"This is a shard of what lies beneath the mirror. You touched it once. Just a sliver. But your soul... it responded. Didn't it?"

The abyss in his dream. The voice. The pressure in his blood.

Kai didn't reply—but his silence was enough.

The masked figure stepped closer, holding the black shard out like an offering.

"We know who you are, Kai of No House. We know what slumbers in your veins. The Spiral doesn't choose lightly. It chooses those who've already fallen once."

"Take it," they whispered. "Take it... and never be weak again."

For a moment, Kai was frozen.

The shard pulsed.

He saw things. Flickers.

A blade in his hand, dripping with cursed light. A burning field. Beasts with armor fused to flesh. Eyes—countless eyes—watching from the mirror's other side.

Then—

He drew his dagger and slashed through the shard.

With a high-pitched shriek, the shadow dissolved, spinning into the night like fleeing insects.

The figure stared.

Then laughed.

"Good. Very good. The Spiral doesn't want mindless slaves. It wants kings."

Before Kai could move, the figure stepped back—and vanished. No flash. No ripple. Just gone.

But their voice echoed faintly one last time:

"We'll meet again. Before the Solstice."

❖ Scene: Selene's Tower – Moments Later

Selene slammed a palm against the crystal sphere on her desk.

"Where were you?"

❖ Scene: Azurean Academy – Practice Yard, Later That Day

The sun was high, but the tension in the air was thick and cold. Like a storm waiting to break.

Kai stood in the practice yard's shadowed edge, watching.

A group of third-year beast tamers were sparring near the center. Instructors supervised, correcting technique and controlling overzealous attacks. Everything looked normal.

But Kai's instincts were screaming.

Something was off.

"They're watching through the beasts now," Vex said in his mind. "I can smell the rot in two of them."

Kai focused. One of the students—a boy with short blond hair—gave a command to his Direhorn, a muscular rhino-like beast. As it charged, there was a flicker in its movement. A twitch. Then another.

Tiny things, easy to miss.

But Kai saw it.

Too smooth. Too precise.

It wasn't moving like a beast. It was moving like it was being controlled.

"It's happening," Kai muttered.

"You gonna step in?" Vael asked from above, circling high in the sky.

"Not yet."

He needed proof.

❖ Scene: Library Archives – Evening

Kai and Rashira slipped into the old records wing, ducking behind a tapestry as a professor passed by. Once the coast was clear, they made their way to the restricted section.

"We'll get expelled for this," Rashira whispered, anxiety written all over her face.

"Then don't get caught."

"Great pep talk."

They found what they were looking for in the Black Ledger—a thick, dust-caked tome bound in dark leather. No one touched this book anymore. Most didn't even know it existed.

Kai flipped through pages of forgotten reports.

Beasts turning feral during trials.

Beast tamers blacking out—only to awaken miles away with bloodstained clothes and no memory.

A section marked with a torn ribbon caught his eye.

"Spiralborne Incursions — 73 Years Ago"

He read aloud:

"Subjects exposed to Spiral fragments display altered beast behavior within 6 to 13 days. Tamer-beast bonds become unstable. Beast traits shift. Physical mutations begin manifesting, followed by mental deterioration. Final stage: collapse of the soul link and full Spiral corruption."

Rashira paled.

"Wait. You're saying this already happened before? And they buried it?"

Kai nodded grimly. "And now it's happening again."

"How do we stop it?"

"We don't."

He looked her in the eye.

"We survive it."

❖ Scene: Midnight – South Training Grove

He picked the place carefully. Far from the dorms. Quiet. Remote.

Kai crouched in the trees, staring at the blond boy from earlier. He was alone now, feeding his Direhorn near the treeline.

But it wasn't eating.

It was twitching. Seizing. Its skin pulsed with veins that glowed faintly black. Its eye had turned completely silver.

Too late.

The beast let out a strange, mechanical snort—and then snapped its head toward Kai's direction.

It had sensed him.

"Here we go," Kai whispered.

The Direhorn roared, charging into the trees with unnatural speed.

Kai leapt sideways, daggers flashing. He used Ghost Steps to blink out of its path, slicing across its shoulder—but the wound didn't bleed.

It hissed.

Actually hissed.

Like a snake.

Then it split.

The Direhorn's back opened unnaturally, bones cracking, flesh tearing apart to reveal another layer beneath—made of blackened muscle and coiled tendrils. A spiral sigil throbbed in the center of its chest like a glowing core.

"Spiralborn," Kai said grimly. "Fully turned."

"Allow me," Vex growled in his mind.

The Phantom Lynx burst from the shadows, fangs and claws glowing with ghostlight. He slammed into the Spiralborn Direhorn with full force, knocking it off balance.

But the corrupted beast didn't flinch—it retaliated, slamming Vex with a tail now tipped in bone-blades.

Kai's eyes sharpened.

No holding back.

He dashed forward, drawing both daggers in reverse grip. One laced with paralysis venom, the other charged with spectral energy from Vael.

The fight was brutal—claws vs. blades, tendrils vs. ghostly flickers, brute force against surgical precision. Kai ducked, rolled, stabbed, faded into shadows, reappeared, and struck again.

It took three direct hits to its core before the Spiralborn began to crumble—like ash caught in wind.

It didn't scream.

"They'll come for us," he said.

"Then let them."

The image inside shimmered—Shade's cloaked form appearing.

"North courtyard. I was there."

"Then why didn't you intervene?!"

Shade's mask tilted. "Because he didn't need me to."

She blinked.

"He turned it down," he added. "Refused the shard. On his own."

Selene sat back slowly. A breath released.

"So... he's resisting it. For now."

"He's stronger than you think," Shade said. "But he's also being shaped by it, piece by piece."

She stared out the window, expression unreadable.

"Then we need to decide soon."

"About what?"

"Whether to guide him… or kill him."

❖ Scene: Kai's Dorm – Dawn

He sat in the corner, back to the wall, staring at nothing.

The room was quiet except for Vael's occasional chirr from the windowsill. Vex lay curled beside the bed, eyes half-open but alert.

The encounter kept replaying in his mind. The shard. The pull. The feeling of power that had been offered freely—almost lovingly.

It hadn't felt evil. That was the worst part.

It had felt like... coming home.

A soft knock interrupted his thoughts.

He tensed immediately. But the voice that followed was familiar.

"It's me. Rashira."

He opened the door.

She stood there holding a cloth bundle and a frown.

"You didn't come to breakfast. Again."

Kai arched a brow. "Didn't know we were keeping score."

"Well, I am," she said, stepping in. "And you're losing."

She unwrapped the bundle—a buttered roll, a slice of fruit pie, and a small flask of warming tea.

"Also, you look like death."

Kai accepted the food wordlessly.

She sat beside him. "I... had a bad dream last night."

He didn't respond.

"There was a mirror. Cracked. With someone inside it screaming."

His head snapped toward her.

"What?"

She looked confused. "Yeah. Weird, right? I figured it was just nerves. But—"

Kai grabbed her wrist, not hard, but firm.

"Rashira... was it a voice? Did it speak?"

She nodded slowly. "It said... 'Wake him.'"

Silence.

Vael screeched once—sharply—and Vex stood instantly.

Kai felt a chill slide down his spine.

They weren't coming for him anymore.They were coming for those near him.