The statue launched off the wall like a cannonball, its jaws wide open and its crimson eyes blazing with an unnatural hunger.

Helen moved before it covered half the distance.

Her rapier came up in a sharp blue arc, meeting the statue’s open maw head-on with a clash that rang across the ruins like a struck bell. The impact drove her boots backward through the tiles, her arms vibrating from the sheer weight of the thing, but she held.

’It’s so heavy,’ she thought, gritting her teeth as the statue pressed forward, its limbs digging into the ground for leverage. ’Way heavier than it looks.’

She twisted her blade, deflecting the jaw to one side, then planted her foot and kicked the creature square in the chest. The statue flew backward, tumbling across the tiles before righting itself on all fours like a hunting dog preparing for another charge.

It did not wait.

The runes under its paws flared, and the air around it distorted, the statue blurring forward at a speed that had no business coming from something made of stone.

Helen barely got her blade up in time.

The second collision hit harder than the first, a shockwave rippling out from the point of impact and cracking the ground beneath her boots.

Her rapier bent under the pressure, the metal groaning as the statue’s jaw clamped down on the flat of the blade.

’This thing is fast,’ she thought, her arms burning as she forced the blade sideways, trying to throw the creature off. ’And it hits like a wall.’

The statue released its grip and snapped at her throat, the movement so quick she barely managed to lean back. One of its claws slashed across her forearm, the sharp edge cutting through her leather bracer and drawing a thin line of red.

She hissed, spinning away to put distance between them.

’Seems my current level won’t enough,’ she realized, her breathing already getting heavier than it should be. ’This thing is way above that range.’

The statue circled her, its paws clicking against the tiles with a rhythm that sounded almost like laughter. Its eyes stayed locked on her, tracking every shift in her stance with an intelligence that made her skin crawl.

It was not a mindless beast. It was watching her, learning her patterns.

’Fine then,’ she thought, her jaw tightening. ’Let’s stop playing around.’

Her mana surged.

The air around her thickened, the dry heat suddenly giving way to a dense, heavy pressure that made the nearby sand vibrate. Her four shards flickered, spun faster, then shattered apart in a burst of blue light before reforming into five new crystals that orbited her wrist in a tight, aggressive spiral.

The ground beneath her cracked, making the statue pause, its head tilting as it registered the shift but she did not give it time to adjust.

She shot forward, her body moving at a speed that left faint blue afterimages trailing behind her. She closed the distance in a fraction of a second, her rapier already tracing a horizontal arc aimed at the creature’s neck.

The statue raised a paw to block, but she was faster.

She dropped low, sliding under the swinging limb while her blade carved a deep gash across its front leg. Stone chips flew, black blood spraying from the wound as the creature stumbled sideways and she did not waste that chance.

She pivoted on her knee, spinning upward while driving her heel into the same wound. The impact sent a crack racing up the statue’s leg, the stone fracturing under the concentrated force.

The creature shrieked, a sound like grinding rock, and kicked her away with its uninjured leg. The blow caught her in the side, lifting her off the ground and throwing her across the ruins.

She twisted mid-air, her rapier cutting an arc as she used the momentum to flip herself back onto her feet. Her boots skidded across the tiles, carving two shallow furrows before she stopped.

Blood ran from a new cut above her eye, warm and sticky, dripping down her cheek. She wiped it away with the back of her hand without taking her eyes off the statue.

’Tough bastard,’ she thought, resetting her stance.

The statue limped toward her, its damaged leg already beginning to repair itself, the cracks sealing as crimson mana pulsed through the stone.

’That regeneration is a problem,’ she noted, watching the wound close. ’If I keep going for limbs it will just heal them. I need to go for the core.’

Across the ruins, the Captain dropped to one knee and pressed his palm flat against a tile. He pushed mana into the stone, feeling it spread through the surface and into the empty space beneath.

’Mana resonance,’ he thought, closing his eyes and letting his awareness sink deeper. ’Hajin was aiming for something under the ground, that means he must have found the anchor point feeding the barrier.’

His fingers brushed against something hollow.

He opened his eyes, pulling his hand back and drawing his claymore. He flipped the blade and drove the pommel straight down into the tile, shattering the cracked stone and exposing a narrow shaft that dropped into darkness.

’Found it.’

A pulse of crimson light flared from inside the shaft, confirming his suspicion. Something down there was radiating mana, the same dense energy that powered the barrier around the statue.

Before he could reach in, the statue’s head snapped toward him.

It abandoned its pursuit of Helen entirely, its eyes locking onto the Captain with a sudden, vicious intensity. It launched itself across the ruins, covering the distance in a single bound, its jaws open and aimed straight at his neck.

"Helen!" the Captain yelled, not moving from his position.

She intercepted the statue mid-leap, her body colliding with its side in a blur of blue light. The impact sent both of them crashing through a crumbling pillar, stone exploding around them as they tumbled across the ground.

Helen hit the ground first, her back slamming into a slab of tiles. The statue landed on top of her, its jaws snapping down toward her face.

She brought her rapier up, the blade jamming between the teeth and holding the jaw open by inches. Her arms shook, her muscles screaming as the creature’s weight pressed down on her.

’Shit,’ she thought, the strain burning through her shoulders. ’It is trying to crush me.’

The statue’s jaw tightened, the blade bending under the pressure. She could feel the metal starting to give, the edge warping as the teeth ground against it.

She kicked it in the chest, pushing it back just enough to slip out from underneath. She rolled sideways, the jaw snapping shut on empty air where her head had been a second ago.

She came up on one knee, breathing hard, her rapier still intact but visibly bent.

’tch, I need more,’ she thought, her mana surging again.

The air screamed around her as she forced more power through her core. Her five shards shattered and reformed, six crystals now spinning in a tighter, faster orbit that threw sparks of blue light across the ruins.