Chapter 165. Battle Bond of Ronir and Astrid

Third-Person POV

Celeste watched in growing alarm from the eastern edge of the Ruby Claw village as chaos erupted around her. Villagers sprinted in every direction, screaming in panic, their voices echoing off the crude wooden stalls and hastily erected tents. Straw and debris scattered with each hurried footstep. In the midst of all this turmoil, a bizarre sight held Celeste’s gaze: a strange she-wolf, ravenous beyond reason, tearing into piles of meat with an almost mechanical frenzy. Yet, if one could even call it eating, for she never once brought flesh to her mouth.

That horrific display belonged to Rebecca of Byron’s Valkyries—the elite warriors of the Dreadmaw pack. The star of their fearsome rank, Rebecca possessed an uncanny ability: she seemed to absorb food through a cluster of gray, writhing tentacles sprouting from her lower back. Each time she wrapped those sinewy appendages around a chunk of raw meat, the flesh vanished as though it were water trick