Chapter 57: No ordinary man

Holt’s declaration hung in the stagnant air of the chamber, heavy and cold as stone.

The sound of the Husk Regent’s screech was still reverberating off the concrete walls, setting up a harsh, metallic vibration in the exposed rebar above. Scalding white vapor rolled off the creature’s calcified hide in thick, angry plumes, smelling sharply of ozone and scorched copper. Beneath the steam, the web of black tissue stitching its massive torso together glowed with a deep, furious crimson, pulsing at twice the speed it had moments ago.

Rain wiped a smudge of dark blood from his cheek with the back of his forearm, his blue eyes never leaving the shifting, steaming shape in the center of the pit.

His mind flashed back weeks ago, stripping away the flooded silo and the smell of ozone, replacing them with the narrow, bone-choked tunnels of his very first rift. He remembered the Bone Widow. He remembered standing in the dust while the massive, spider-legged horrors tore through the dark, and he remembered the exact second its main body had ruptured. When the Widow took fatal damage, its movements had ceased to be precise. It had stopped guarding its joints, stopped evaluating threats, and started thrashing blindly, driving its obsidian legs through stone and rock alike in a mindless, overextended frenzy. Nyra had recognized it instantly, shouting for everyone to back off, to let the monster waste its remaining vitality tearing up empty air while they circled just outside its reach.

The Regent was doing the exact same thing right now. The red flush, the frantic venting, the wild, uncalibrated twitching of its elongated limbs, it was the death rattle of a creature whose biological balance had ruptured under sustained damage. It was stronger, faster, and exponentially more violent, but it had completely traded tactical awareness for raw, untamed force.

"Rain," Holt muttered, clutching his injured left shoulder, his notched broadsword dragging through four inches of water as he took a step back. "Did you hear me? Move! We have to pull back to the tunnel entry before it locks onto us!"

"No," Rain said. His voice was quiet, even, and entirely devoid of panic.

Holt swung his head around, his mud-splattered face contorted in disbelief. "Are you deaf? Look at it! It’s in a feral state! A D-rank blade won’t even scratch it if it catches us mid-swing!"

"It isn’t invulnerable," Rain said, stepping forward until he was aligned with Holt’s right shoulder. "It’s thrashing. It lost its structure when its core tissue overheated. Look at the way its knees are locking. It isn’t planning its strikes anymore. It’s just driving forward on raw output."

"That raw output will split you in half!" Fen shouted from ten yards back, his hands pressed hard against his right side as he coughed up a splash of clear water. "We’re out of stamina, kid! My legs are shot!"

"I don’t need you to kill it," Rain said, his blue eyes shifting slightly to lock onto Fen, then back to Holt. "I need you to draw its eyes for ten seconds."

Holt let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. "Ten seconds against a feral boss? That’s a death sentence."

"Not if you don’t fight it head-on," Rain replied quickly, his tone sharpening into something precise and commanding. "When Fen hit it with his dagger earlier, the tissue on its lower back surged forward and wrapped around the blade to absorb the impact. I saw it happen live. That tissue on its lower back isn’t original mass. It’s a recent graft. It’s unstable, and it’s holding the creature’s entire secondary structure together."

Rain pointed a single, muddy finger straight at the glowing, crimson-tinged hump riding the base of the Regent’s spine.

"The graft is holding on by raw tension," Rain continued, his voice steady despite the frantic pounding of his own heart. "If we hit that exact spot with enough concentrated force, the graft will reject. It’ll tear itself free from the original bone, cause massive internal feedback, and stun the entire frame. But I can’t reach the back while it’s looking at me."

Holt stared at the creature, then down at his notched, bent broadsword, then back to Rain. "You’re asking us to stand in front of a feral C-rank boss and play target dummy based on a guess about its back?"

"It’s not a guess," Rain said firmly. "I watched the tissue warp when Fen’s steel hit it. It took Fen’s speed, but it couldn’t blend the mass into its spine. Look at the seam between the pale bone plate and the black fiber. It’s vibrating. The heat from its feral push is loosening the bond right now."

Holt took a long, ragged breath. The grey sheen on his forearms flickered once, faint and thin, like a dying candle, but he didn’t turn away. He looked at Fen, who gave a sullen, tight nod despite clutching his shattered ribs.

"Ten seconds," Holt grunted, shifting his grip on his broadsword, bringing the notched iron up into a defensive low guard. "If you miss the mark, Rain, none of us are walking out of this pit."

"I won’t miss," Rain said.

He reached down into his right hoodie pocket, his fingers wrapping around the cool, smooth glass of his final Minor Mana Recovery Potion. He pulled it out, popped the small wax stopper with his thumb, and downed the bitter, metallic liquid in a single gulp, tossing the empty vial into the muddy water below.

[Minor Mana Recovery Potion Consumed]

[Mana Restored: +5]

[Mana: 11 / 14]

Rain tracked the blue system text as it faded from his vision, doing the quick, cold math in his head. Eleven mana. Flash Step: Zero Drag cost three mana per cast. That gave him exactly three uses with two points of mana left over as a buffer. Three bursts of twelve-foot straight-line acceleration. Three chances to position, strike, and clear out before the creature’s thrashing body flattened him.

"Now!" Rain barked.

Holt let out a guttural, roaring cry, driving his boots into the flooded concrete as he surged straight toward the front of the Husk Regent. The faint grey sheen flared along his arms, straining his exhausted muscle tissue to its absolute limit. He swung his broadsword in a massive, deliberate arc, not aiming to carve through the creature’s chest, but slamming the flat of the heavy blade directly against its lower calcified ribs with a loud, ringing clang.

The Regent’s head snapped down, every lidless red eye on its skull widening in sudden, mindless rage. It ignored everything else, raising both massive, multi-jointed arms into the air, the scalding steam rising off its skin as it prepared to bring four hundred pounds of solid bone down onto Holt’s head.

"Fen! Left side!" Holt yelled, raising his sword horizontally to take the shock.

Fen burst forward from the shadows, his short-burst ability triggering in a brief, distorted blur that carried him three yards across the water. He drove his remaining dagger into the creature’s exposed left thigh, pulling the blade free instantly before the black tissue could seize the metal.

The Regent let out an ear-splitting screech, its massive right arm altering its trajectory mid-fall to sweep sideways, catching Fen across the shoulder. The force of the strike sent Fen tumbling violently through the water, crashing hard against the base of a concrete pillar, his dagger flying from his hand and splashing into the darkness.

Holt took the full weight of the remaining left fist on his broadsword. The iron blade bent at a sharp thirty-degree angle with a sickening metallic groan, and Holt was driven down onto both knees, the grey sheen shattering entirely as blood sprayed from his mouth onto the water’s surface.

"Rain!" Holt choked out, his arms trembling violently as he held the creature’s crushing weight off his neck. "Now!"

Rain was already moving.

’Flash Step.’

[Flash Step: Zero Drag activated]

[Mana: 11 -> 8]