The creature finished emerging from among the trees with a heavy drag that deformed the terrain in its path. The artificial star’s weak light barely managed to outline its silhouette, but the nearby campfire’s fire revealed details difficult to assimilate in a single glance.

Its body didn’t respond to a single structure. Several tissue layers overlapped as if they had been assembled without following a coherent pattern. Some zones resembled hardened skin, segmented into thick plates that shifted slightly over each other with each movement. Other parts were softer, with a wet texture reflecting light irregularly. Between those layers, dark lines opened that breathed, expanding and contracting as if the whole ensemble had its own pulse.

Limbs were born from different points on the torso, without symmetry. Two of them were long and thin, with unnatural flexibility, capable of bending at impossible angles before digging into the ground to support their weight. Others were shorter and more robust, ending in dense structures, similar to living maces, that left deep marks each time they touched earth.

Its advance wasn’t fluid. Each step involved a correction, a readjustment of its parts. Plates shifted, muscles changed shape, limbs sought support in different places. Even so, it advanced with decision.

The head... if it could be called that... didn’t have a fixed form. A central mass opened in several directions, separating into sections that exposed rows of irregular teeth. They weren’t aligned. They grew in different directions, some curved inward, others outward, as if they hadn’t finished forming. Between them, a deeper darkness vibrated, as if hiding something that didn’t finish showing itself.

A grave sound came from its interior. It wasn’t a roar. It was closer to a vibration, as if several voices tried emitting a single sound without managing to synchronize.

The group needed no more.

"Back!" Gerald ordered immediately.

He moved to the center, raising the staff.

"Closed formation! Don’t separate!"

Invocations appeared around him in opaque light bursts. Armed goblins deployed in front line, shields raised. Behind, archers tensed their weapons. Two trolls emerged on the sides, hitting the ground as they took position.

"Concentrated fire on the joints!" he added, pointing precisely. "Don’t attack the center!"

The creature advanced one more step.

Ground gave slightly under its weight.

Then it attacked.

One of its long limbs launched forward with a speed that broke its heavy appearance. It struck the ground where seconds before a student had been, raising a cloud of dirt and leaves.

"Move!" Marlon shouted, pushing a boy out of the trajectory. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Kenji reacted from the flank, trying to cut the limb when it retracted, but his weapon barely left a superficial mark.

"Doesn’t penetrate," he murmured.

"Don’t seek direct damage!" Gerald responded. "Attrition!"

Goblin arrows impacted several body zones. Some bounced. Others embedded in softer parts, sinking a few centimeters before being expelled by an internal contraction.

The creature didn’t retreat.

Bīng Xuě entered action with a firm step. His foot struck the ground, and an ice layer extended rapidly toward the beast, covering terrain under its limbs.

"Let’s see if this makes you move less."

The surface became slippery. One of the legs lost stability, tilting the creature’s body for an instant.

"Now!" Gerald shouted.

Trolls advanced, hitting that zone forcefully. Impact generated a crack in one of the plates, exposing softer tissue.

Lyria took advantage of the opening. Her spear embedded precisely, penetrating deeper than previous attacks.

A sharper sound came from the monster. It wasn’t pain. It was reaction.

The nearest limb moved in a wide arc.

It struck.

Lyria barely had time to withdraw. Impact raised dirt beside her, forcing her to retreat several steps.

"Don’t stay still!" Gerald ordered.

Noelia had already advanced. Her hands moved in a quick gesture, and terrain under the creature changed again. This time, the surface became rough, irregular, hindering its limbs’ support.

"I can’t stop it completely," she said, without looking away. "But I can slow it down."

Bīng Xuě clicked his tongue.

"Enough."

His hands moved with more decision. Ice didn’t just cover the ground. It extended through the nearest limbs, trying to fix them.

The creature reacted.

Its body’s plates opened slightly, releasing a kind of dark vapor that melted part of the ice on contact.

"...Interesting," Bīng Xuě murmured.

Gerald didn’t stop moving.

"Don’t lower the pace! Keep pressing!"

His goblins maintained the line, but began falling. One was crushed by one of the heavy limbs. Another disappeared being trapped by a central body contraction.

Gerald gripped the staff.

"I’m going to summon something bigger..."

He raised his hand, preparing.

At that moment, the creature moved.

Not toward the group.

Toward him.

One of its long limbs crossed space in a straight line.

Too fast.

Impact was direct.

Gerald was thrown several meters, his staff rolling on the ground before stopping.

"Gerald!" Lyria shouted.

The boy didn’t get up.

Bīng Xuě frowned.

"...Okay, I don’t like that."

Combat pressure increased.

Without Gerald’s orders, formation began losing cohesion.

Invoked creatures disorganized.

Noelia retreated a step, adjusting her position.

"We have to..."

She stopped.

Aku had taken a step forward.

His gaze was fixed on the creature.

"[Nyargoohl]."

The word wasn’t loud. But air changed upon pronouncing it.

A dark mass began extending from his feet. It wasn’t smoke. It wasn’t shadow. It was something denser, heavier, like a living substance dragging over the ground.

It rose.

It formed an amorphous structure, with edges that didn’t stay still. They moved, reorganized, as if seeking a form they didn’t finish defining.

Bīng Xuě looked at it sideways.

"Ah... this sounds familiar."

Aku didn’t look away from the target.

"Haven’t used it in a while."

The mass reacted to his will. It launched toward the creature like a dark wave, extending in several directions at once.

It enveloped it.

Not completely. But enough.

It adhered to its limbs, slipped between plates, tensed like living chains closing around the body.

The creature stopped for the first time.

It tried moving.

The mass resisted.

"Now!" Aku said.

Lyria reacted instantly, launching toward the opening created before. Her spear penetrated deeper this time.

Noelia hardened terrain under the monster, fixing its position.

Bīng Xuě concentrated ice at points where darkness held, reinforcing the blockage.

"Okay... this I like."

Attacks impacted more effectively. Plates cracked. Internal tissue was exposed.

The creature reacted violently.

Its body contracted.

Plates closed forcefully.

Darkness mass tensed to the limit.

And then...

Damage began disappearing.

Opened zones closed. Tissue regenerated at visible speed, covering wounds as if they had never existed.

Ice broke.

Hardened earth cracked.

Pressure increased.

Bīng Xuě stopped smiling.

"...That I really don’t like."

Aku maintained connection with Nyargoohl, reinforcing pressure.

But the creature kept regenerating.

Slow.

Constant.

Unstoppable.

Combat balance tilted again.

And this time...

Not in their favor.