The vibration of the black-feathered arrow echoed in the dead silence of the clearing. For a fraction of a second, nobody breathed. The bright pink water-lily tucked behind Tao Zi’s ear suddenly felt completely absurd against the backdrop of sudden danger.

Hóng Yè was the first to break the paralysis.

"GET DOWN!" the seventeen-year-old roared, his voice cracking with a mixture of teenage panic and protectiveness.

He lunged forward, throwing his lean body over Zhēn and Tao Zi, tackling them into the dirt just as a second black-feathered arrow sliced through the exact airspace where Tao Zi’s chest had been.

"Intruders!" A-Li shouted, his panther instincts taking over as he pushed Xiao Hei and Miao Miao behind the thick roots of the iron-wood tree.

Ruì Xuě, completely abandoning his buffering state, grabbed Yòu Lín by the collar and dragged the fox kit into the ferns. "Stay low! Papa said always stay low!"

Glimmer, the dragon, let out a high-pitched, furious screech, her green scales flashing.

From the dense, humid shadows of the jungle canopy, the attackers materialized. They didn’t make a sound. They didn’t snap a single twig. They simply dropped from the branches, landing in a perfect, deadly perimeter around the cubs.

There were six of them. They were in half-beast form, their bodies covered in sleek, rosetted fur that shifted with a sickly, magical camouflage, blending into the jungle foliage. Their claws were elongated, dripping with a strange, dark liquid, and their eyes were cold, dead, and utterly merciless.

Jaguars.

But not like Tao Zi. These were grown, hardened assassins.

"Well, well," the leader hissed, his voice like grinding stones. He was a massive brute with a jagged scar running across his snout, wielding a pair of curved bone-daggers. "The little rat has gathered a pathetic little squeaking army."

Tao Zi trembled beneath Hóng Yè’s arm. The five-year-old’s deep-water eyes blew wide with terror. He knew that voice. He remembered the smell of blood and burning leaves from five years ago.

"Don’t move," Hóng Yè whispered fiercely to the cubs, drawing his bone dagger. His red panda tail puffed up, his amber eyes locked on the assassins. He was outnumbered, outmatched, and entirely terrified, but he didn’t take a single step backward. "You have to go through me, you overgrown housecats."

The scarred jaguar laughed, a wet, ugly sound. "A red panda? What are you going to do, boy? Bore us to death with a lecture? Kill him."

Two of the jaguar assassins lunged forward, moving with blinding speed.

Hóng Yè braced himself, raising his dagger, fully prepared to die for his siblings.

BOOOOOOM!

The ground beneath the assassins literally exploded.

A massive, concussive wave of Alpha power slammed into the clearing. The two lunging jaguars were caught mid-air, blasted backward by a shockwave of crushing air pressure. They hit the iron-wood tree with a sickening crunch and slumped to the dirt, completely unconscious.

The scarred leader whipped around, his jaw dropping.

Stepping out of the billowing cloud of dust were their fathers.

Han Shān led the charge. The Snow Leopard Alpha’s icy blue eyes were glowing with a murderous, freezing light. With every step he took, the lush green grass beneath his boots instantly frosted over, snapping and dying under the weight of his dropping temperature.

To his right, Mo Xiao rolled his massive shoulders. The Panther Alpha didn’t even bother with a weapon. His amber eyes were locked onto the jaguars, his fangs bared in a snarl.

To Han Shān’s left, Zhāo Yàn sauntered forward. The Fox Lord looked flawlessly elegant, but his nine crimson tails were lashing furiously behind him, weaving dangerous, hypnotic illusions of licking flames and shifting shadows.

And bringing up the rear, adjusting his slightly crooked glasses, was Yàn Shū.

"You," Han Shān rumbled. "You dared to shoot an arrow at my daughter."

"Papa!" Ruì Xuě cheered from the bushes.

"Uncle Mo Xiao! Uncle Zhāo Yàn! Papa Yàn Shū!" Yòu Lín shrieked happily. "They have arrows! Beat them up!"

The scarred jaguar leader took a step back, his bravado faltering as the sheer, suffocating pressure of three furious Beastman Lords bore down on him. "This does not concern you, lowlanders!" he spat, raising his daggers.

"You stepped into our territory," Mo Xiao growled, his muscles bulging as he shifted half his face into his panther form. "You aimed at my cubs. It concerns me intimately."

"Kill them!" the jaguar leader shrieked to his remaining assassins.

A jaguar assassin darted toward Zhāo Yàn, aiming a poisoned strike at the Fox Lord’s chest. Zhāo Yàn didn’t even blink. He gracefully sidestepped, his tails whipping out like steel cables. They wrapped around the assassin’s wrists, yanking him completely off balance.

"Too slow, darling," Zhāo Yàn smirked, before delivering a devastating, spinning roundhouse kick directly to the assassin’s jaw. The jaguar went flying into the river with a massive splash.

Mo Xiao simply caught the next attacker by the throat mid-lunge. The Panther Alpha didn’t even break a sweat. He lifted the fully grown assassin off the ground with one hand, gave him a disappointed, fatherly shake, and hurled him into a boulder.

Han Shān was the most brutal. An assassin tried to flank him, but the Snow Leopard didn’t even turn around. He slammed his boot into the earth. A jagged, razor-sharp spike of solid ice erupted from the dirt, impaling the assassin’s tunic and pinning him helplessly against a tree trunk, leaving him dangling in mid-air.

"Is that all?" Han Shān asked flatly, dusting a stray leaf off his shoulder.

Hóng Yè, still shielding the cubs, let out a shaky breath of relief. "Show-offs," the teenager muttered, though his amber eyes were shining with admiration. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Only the scarred leader remained. He was panting heavily, realizing he had severely underestimated the "mud-dwellers." He backed away, his eyes darting frantically toward Tao Zi.

"Wait! Halt!" the scarred leader shouted, dropping his bone daggers into the grass and raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.

Mo Xiao cracked his knuckles, taking a slow step forward. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t snap your neck for trespassing."

"We are not here for your blood!" the leader gasped, his chest heaving. He pointed a trembling finger at the five-year-old jaguar cub, who was currently clutching Zhēn’s hand. "We are here for him. We are here for Tao Zi."