The trees screamed beneath the monster's leaps. It moved from branch to branch with inhuman speed, its claws slicing through bark, its red eyes glowing in the night like lanterns of nightmare.
Every crack above them was a warning. Every falling leaf, a sign of death.
"I… I can't feel him anymore…" Lior gasped, kneeling, exhausted. "He left the ground… We're screwed…"
He lifted his head, empty eyes stained with dried blood. His body trembled. Every breath was a scream—his broken ribs stabbing with every inhale—but he refused to fall.
Dean stood only by sheer will. His chest was torn open by a deep claw mark, his breathing ragged, pain hammering against his temples like a war drum.
Silence. A moment suspended.
Then—CRACK.
A branch shattered above them.
The monster fell from the sky.
A mass of muscle and black fur, a demon over three meters tall, its fist raised like a living guillotine. Dean shouted and threw a barrier of shadow around Lior.
The impact was monstrous.
The fist crushed the ground, the shadow barely absorbing the force. Lior was flung back several meters, blood spraying from his mouth, ribs shattered. Dean was lifted by the shockwave and slammed against a tree, bouncing like a ragdoll before collapsing in a heap of broken bones.
The monster smiled. A deranged grin, wide, twisted, and sick. It had taken control.
Then it struck again.
A swipe tore Dean's chest open. He screamed, raising his arms in vain. The monster turned to Lior, still on the ground, and kicked him in the ribs.
Lior was sent flying into the trees, bouncing off the trunks, blood flying with each impact. He was a broken doll, a pile of shattered flesh.
Another cry—a victorious roar. The monster raised its arms, celebrating its triumph.
That's when Dean's system reappeared.
> Active Quest: Survive.
Current Condition: Imminent Failure.
Suggestion: Abandon the burden. Run.
A long silence in his mind.
Then he saw Lior, unconscious, body shaking, mouth half open. He remembered.
The blood. The sacrifice. The blindness. The trust.
"If he dies… then I die too."
Dean gritted his teeth. He stood. Trembling. Swaying. He placed himself between Lior and the monster.
"You're not touching him again."
Meanwhile, Lior's fingers twitched. His consciousness drifted between life and death. But he understood. The earth… the earth still spoke to him.
He knew exactly where the monster was.
So he raised his arm, fist clenched, and whispered weakly:
"I'll bury it… alive."
He manipulated the ground. A first hole opened under the monster's right leg, then a second. The creature staggered. Lior pushed further, digging a sudden deep pit beneath it, trapping its legs.
Rocky spikes surged upward. The monster screamed, wounded, trapped.
But it wasn't dead.
Lior spat blood. His body shook violently. His system screamed:
> Mana depleted. Critical physical deterioration.
Veins burst across his skin, his nose bled, his muscles tore from the strain of summoning the earth.
The monster, though wounded, dug its claws into the ground and, with one final effort, pulled itself out of the trap.
It wasn't smiling anymore. Its eyes were wild. It understood now: as long as it stayed on the ground, it would be vulnerable.
Then, slowly… it backed away. And leapt.
It climbed back into the trees.
Dean and Lior, broken, froze.
"I can't see it anymore…"