Nautilus was struggling.
The Little Nepenthes before him was unlike any monster he had ever faced.
Its slick, gelatinous body twisted and contorted like a grotesque mass of shifting liquid, while the vine-like tendrils clinging to its form lashed out unpredictably, as if they had a will of their own.
No fixed attack pattern. No wasted movements to read.
No matter how he slashed, he couldn't land a decisive hit.
Gritting his teeth, Nautilus swung his sword with force.
Slash!
But the blade merely skimmed the creature's slimy exterior, leaving behind a shallow, insignificant cut.
There was no sensation of cutting through flesh, no resistance from bone, just the eerie feeling of slicing through a living mass of plant matter.
"Damn it!"
Nautilus hastily retreated the moment the monster screeched, a massive, razor-sharp leaf swinging down like a guillotine toward him.
He barely dodged to the side, feeling the rush of wind as it sliced past his shoulder. A fraction of a second slower, and he would have been cleaved in two.
His heart pounded violently.
"I can't just swing blindly."
Cold sweat trickled down his back. For a fleeting moment, Nautilus felt his grip on the sword tremble.
A part of him wanted to back away. To flee from this battle.
But he couldn't.
Yuna was still out there, being hunted by the other monster. He couldn't abandon her.
He tightened his hold on the hilt, forcing himself to focus on the enemy before him.
And then… he noticed it.
Its attack pattern.
The leaves didn't strike at random. Each time the monster prepared to attack, its body trembled slightly just before the strike.
Nautilus narrowed his eyes.
This time, instead of retreating, he stepped forward.
He waited. Observed. And just as he predicted, the moment before the sharp leaf swung down again, the monster's body gave a slight tremor.
There!
In that instant, Nautilus twisted his body, narrowly dodging as the tip of the leaf brushed past his cheek.
And without hesitation, he struck.
Slash!
A clean, precise cut sliced through the monster's body.
The Little Nepenthes let out a high-pitched screech, its body convulsing violently.
The vine tendrils writhed in a desperate attempt to resist, but the wound was too deep, green monster blood oozed out in heavy globs.
Nautilus exhaled sharply, his heart still hammering inside his chest. But this time, it wasn't out of fear.
It was excitement.
"I can do this."
He steadied his stance, controlled his breathing.
From here on, this wouldn't be a desperate struggle anymore.
But just then.
A flash of light streaked across his vision, so fast that all he felt was a sharp gust of wind grazing his skin before his brain could even register what had happened.
Before he could react, a razor-sharp blade cut clean through the slimy body of the remaining Little Nepenthes.
"What?"
The monster shrieked, its piercing cry echoing through the air. The wound was too deep, its entire body spasmed violently, thick green fluid spraying into the air like an inverted rain shower.
It twisted and thrashed, the vine tendrils trembling furiously in resistance, but it was already too late.
A second strike finished it off.
[You have defeated Little Nepenthes Lv.2.]
The system notification chimed just as the monster shattered into countless fragments of red pixels, scattering across the ground like embers fading after a fire.
Nautilus froze, his body still tense in a battle stance, but his mind completely blank.
He blinked, his vision hazy for a moment, as if his brain was still struggling to process what had just happened.
It took him several seconds to register the figure standing there.
Ren.
His sword was still faintly glowing from the skill activation.
His breathing was slightly heavy, but there were no signs of tension or panic.
Only a cold, unwavering composure in his eyes, an absolute focus. Completely different from the "clumsy teacher" Nautilus had imagined him to be.
"…Are you alright?"
Ren's voice cut through the silence, pulling him back to reality.
Nautilus blinked a few times before letting out a dry chuckle. His eyes flickered down to the sword in his hand, the blade still trembling slightly from his grip.
Then, he looked back at Ren, standing there, calm and composed, as if the intense battle just now had been nothing more than a casual stroll.
"I just fought with everything I had…"
"…and he ended it in mere seconds."
The gap in experience had never felt so stark.
He had thought Ren was just a skilled but awkward guide, a mid-tier player trying to help others without being particularly outstanding.
But now, Nautilus realized just how wrong he had been.
Ren wasn't just strong. There was a certainty in his every movement, an unwavering confidence that only those who had fought countless battles could possess.
This feeling…
The feeling of standing before someone who had stepped into the realm of the truly strong.
But...
Just as the tension of battle faded, something else became glaringly clear.
No more sounds of monsters rustling in the tall grass. No more whispering winds weaving through the treetops.
Even the familiar noises of the forest had vanished, replaced by an eerie silence.
An unsettling, bone-chilling silence.
Neither of them spoke, but both could sense it, something was wrong. Nautilus narrowed his eyes, his grip tightening around the hilt of his sword.
Ren stood motionless, his breath hitching as he noticed the shift in their surroundings.
Just a minute ago, the trees had been sparse, with sunlight filtering through the leaves, casting shimmering patterns on the ground. But now…
That was no longer the case.
The trees had stretched taller, looming like towering pillars blocking their path. The branches drooped lower, nearly brushing the earth.
Roots twisted and coiled, rising from beneath the soil, weaving together like an unseen snare.
The air had grown unnaturally cold, a damp chill seeping through their skin.
And then, the mist began to spread.
Thick…
At first, it was just a thin veil, gently drifting between the trees. But within moments, it thickened at an alarming rate, swallowing everything in a dense, white haze.
Ren immediately turned around, only to find that the path they had come from had vanished.
No signs of the trail ahead or behind. Only an endless ocean of mist, as if every route had been devoured in an instant.
"What the hell…?" Nautilus murmured, a sense of unease creeping up his spine. He glanced at Ren, only to find his expression darkened.
Then, a sudden chill ran down both their spines.
Where was Yuna?
Ren and Nautilus whirled around.
She wasn't there.
Only a vast, empty space amid the cold mist.
The pounding of their hearts echoed in their chests, each beat reverberating through the hollow silence.
Ren clenched his teeth, his eyes scanning the area as if, by sheer focus, he could pierce through the fog and find her familiar figure.
But there was nothing.
No movement. No shadow. No trace that she had ever stood there just moments ago.
"No way."
She was just here.
"She couldn't have disappeared in mere seconds."
Ren's grip tightened on his sword, his knuckles turning white. He swallowed hard, pushing down the rising panic clawing at his throat.
But this silence, it was wrong. It was suffocating.
Ren stepped forward, but this time, Nautilus didn't stop him. He was too tense, too stricken to even utter a warning.
"Yuna!"
"Yuna! Can you hear us?!"
Their voices cut through the empty air, but there was no response. Only the eerie, deafening quiet.
Ren's jaw clenched. The wind rustled through the trees, but instead of offering familiarity, it only thickened the mist.
The fog slithered along the ground, creeping over the tangled roots, weaving into the gaps between the looming trunks. The temperature dropped sharply, not from the weather, but as if something unseen was draining the warmth from the air itself.
Something was very wrong.
It wasn't just the mist.
It was the way it moved.
Unnatural.
Deliberate.
There was no way this was a random weather phenomenon.
Their surroundings had shifted with intent.
Like an unseen hand had reshaped the space around them, little by little, until they realized, too late, that the world was no longer the same.
A shiver ran down Ren's spine.
Was it an illusion? A trap? A status effect?
Or worse…
But...
Nautilus was the one who panicked the most. His chest tightened painfully, as if something more precious than his own life had just slipped through his fingers.
After all, he knew Yuna better than anyone here.
She wasn't born for battle.
She wasn't like them, those who were forced to wield blades, to become familiar with blood, pain, and wounds.
Yuna loved music.
She loved singing. She loved the melodies that touched people's hearts.
Yet now, in this foreign forest, where the mist swallowed everything whole… she was gone.
"No… No way…"
Nautilus clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms hard enough to sting, but he didn't care. Panic clawed at his chest, constricting his breath.
She was afraid of the dark.
She was afraid of being alone.
She wouldn't have just left them. She wouldn't have disappeared without a sound!
'Yuna must be terrified… She must be so scared right now…!'
The image of Yuna clutching her instrument, her voice trembling as she faced a monster for the first time, flashed through Nautilus' mind like a blade carving into his heart. She didn't belong in this place, a world of danger and death.
And now, where was she?
No familiar voice calling out to them.
No small, delicate figure in sight.
Nothing.
Only the endless, ghostly mist stretching into the void, silent and unyielding.
"YUNA!!"
This time, Nautilus' voice was desperate. Without hesitation, he sprinted forward, not even waiting for Ren's reaction.
He couldn't stand still.
He couldn't wait.
He couldn't just watch the mist swallow her without doing anything.
If Yuna was scared… If she was trembling somewhere in the darkness…
If she was calling for them but they couldn't hear her.
If she needed him.
He had to find her.
No matter what.