Eclipse Hunter — Volume 1 The shadow warrior Chapter 1 — The Weakest Hunter

📖 Eclipse Hunter

Arc I — The Abyss Awakens

Chapter 1: The Dungeon That Refused to Die

The stench of blood and stone dust clung to the collapsing cavern.

Kael staggered forward, his breaths ragged, every exhale tasting of iron. The dungeon core had already cracked, its once blinding light now a dim ember flickering between the jagged rocks. Hunters lay scattered—friends, rivals, and strangers alike—reduced to lifeless husks by the dungeon’s final death throes.

Yet Kael alone remained standing. Barely.

A fissure in the air yawned open before him, a slit of writhing blackness. It whispered, voices overlapping like a thousand dying echoes. His instincts screamed to run, yet his feet dragged him closer, as if the abyss itself had coiled chains around his soul.

"Successor…" the whispers crooned. "Heir to the shadows…"

Kael’s vision blurred. His sword clattered from his fingers. He reached toward the darkness without meaning to. And in that moment—

A pulse.

A cold rush spread through his veins, like liquid night itself had invaded his blood. The fissure devoured the dying dungeon, swallowing stone and corpses alike, until only Kael remained at the center of the void.

Then the world snapped back.

When Kael opened his eyes, he was lying on rubble under a pale shaft of moonlight. His body screamed in protest, but his heartbeat was steady. Too steady.

And then he noticed it.

A shadow—small, four-legged, and definitely alive—sat on his chest, staring at him with glowing silver eyes.

“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The creature yipped. A wolf pup. Pitch-black fur, ears too large for its head, and a faint shimmer of abyssal energy curling off its body like smoke.

Kael groaned, pushing himself up. The pup refused to budge and instead barked once, sharp and commanding.

Kael: “Out of all the powers in the abyss, I get… a furball?!”

The pup responded by biting his cloak and tugging, as though trying to drag him upright. Kael glared at it.

Kael: “You’re supposed to be my summon, right? My servant?”

The wolf barked again. Then, with all the seriousness in the world, it turned… and squatted right on a broken sword sticking out of the ground.

Kael pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kael: “Fantastic. My grand destiny begins with a dog that pees on weapons.”

The pup wagged its tail proudly.

Despite his protests, Kael forced himself to stand, his new shadow lingering unnaturally at his feet. Every step felt heavy, yet his wounds had already begun knitting closed. He didn’t understand it—but he wasn’t about to waste the miracle.

He limped toward the dungeon’s ruined exit, the wolf trotting at his side. For a moment, amidst the silence of corpses and rubble, he muttered bitterly:

Kael: “…Guess it’s just you and me now, pup.”

The wolf barked softly, as if in agreement.

Kael didn’t realize it then, but that ridiculous little beast would be the first thing to make him smile in a long, long time.

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