Chapter 24: Running and Retribution

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Running and Retribution

"Coal... do you also get the feeling that we were just a tiny bit too arrogant last night?!"

*Caw!*

At that exact moment, Eric and Coal were sprinting for their absolute lives across the open grasslands, kicking up frantic clouds of dirt and shredded brush as an uninjured, four-meter-tall Level 8 Gorgefiend thundered relentlessly behind them.

When they had first spotted the solitary behemoth lumbering across the sunlit plains an hour earlier, Eric had felt invincible. With Coal reaching Level 5, unlocking a D-rank skill, and Eric breaking through to Level 3 Mortal Stage overnight, they had figured their synchronized tag-team coordination could cleanly bring down a single titan from full health.

Holy hell, had they miscalculated.

The uninjured titan’s calcified armor plating was vastly thicker than the mangled, half-dead specimens from their previous scavenge. Their opening burst had barely chipped its left shoulder, and the enraged titan had instantly locked its bloodshot yellow eyes onto them, roaring with enough concussive force to level the surrounding brush.

*Caww!* Coal trilled anxiously across the mental link from fifty feet above.

"Oh, now you think we should have focused on cultivation first before tackling peak-Mortal monsters?!" Eric wheezed, his boots tearing across the turf as he ducked beneath an overhanging ironwood bough. "Where do you think your mana stones come from if we don’t hunt big game, you ungrateful bird?!"

*CAW!*

"What?! I’m the stupid one now?!" Eric shouted back, diving sideways as the behemoth ripped a half-ton limestone boulder from the earth and hurled it like a cannonball.

*BOOM!*

The massive stone smashed into a tree trunk where Eric had been running a split second prior, spraying splinters and dirt everywhere.

"Says the bird who’s effortlessly gliding on the breeze while I am the prime target of a walking siege engine!"

After twenty grueling, lung-burning minutes of weaving through dense ironwood groves, jagged gullies, and narrow rock fissures where the titan’s massive bulk couldn’t easily squeeze through, they finally broke line of sight and lost the beast’s trail.

Eric collapsed against a moss-covered boulder, clutching his trembling knees as he wheezed for air, drenched in cold sweat from head to toe.

"Whew... okay..." Eric wiped a smear of mud and sweat from his jaw, looking up at the crow perching on a low branch above. "Maybe... maybe we should stick to Fleshcrawlers for a while, huh buddy?"

*Caww.* Coal bobbed his head in profound, solemn agreement.

"Go find some then."

*Caaw caaw caaw!*

Coal ruffled his black feathers irritably, letting out a series of annoyed, clicking squawks.

Eric narrowed his eyes, pointing his extraction knife upward. "What? I’m overworking you? Who’s the one who inhales every harvested mana stone when we secure kills? Maybe I should just liquidate the next batch at the Association counter for hard cash instead."

*Cawa!*

Coal didn’t waste another second. He kicked off the branch and shot straight into the sky, knowing full well he had lost that argument.

Within ten minutes, a clean, sharp mental ping vibrated across the soul bond. Coal had spotted an isolated target lurking in a shallow sinkhole four hundred meters north.

Eric jogged over, keeping his breathing controlled, and dropped into a low crouch behind a cluster of tall shrubs overlooking the depression.

In the center of the pit, an aberrant Fleshcrawler scuttled across the dirt, its pale muscle fibers twitching beneath translucent mucus as its scythe-like legs clicked rhythmically against the loose shale.

Eric focused his intent through his enhanced talent.

*Appraisal.*

│ Race: Fleshcrawler

│ Rank: E

│ Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 5

*A Level 5 Fleshcrawler,* Eric calculated, feeling Coal hovering silently in the updraft above the canopy. *Same level as Coal. Perfect target.*

*What do you say, buddy?* Eric asked through the mental link, leaning back against the brush. *Want to take this one solo?*

*Caw!* Coal’s dark eyes flashed with fierce, predatory ambition.

*Show me what Level 5 can do.*

Coal tucked his obsidian wings and plummeted like a dark comet.

*WHOOSH.*

Mid-descent, Coal’s body blurred as a dense wave of smoky Shadow mana erupted from his feathers. In a fraction of a second, the single bird split into six identical silhouettes, the true Coal flanked by five pitch-black Shadow Clones.

*SKRRRRAAAK!*

The Fleshcrawler snapped its head upward, its mandibles clicking wildly in panic as six identical obsidian crows swarmed down simultaneously from every angle of its blind spot.

The abomination whipped its front scythes through the air in a blind frenzy.

*POOF! POOF!*

Two shadow clones shattered into wisps of dark smoke upon contact, but the real Coal had already ducked beneath the creature’s guard.

*Rank-D Flight!*

With speed and aerial agility far surpassing his previous baseline, Coal executed a razor-sharp mid-air loop. While the remaining three illusions pecked relentlessly at the monster’s sensory antennae to lock its aggro, Coal dropped directly behind the monster’s exposed neck joint.

*Rank-E Shadow Talons!*

Shadow elemental mana coiled around Coal’s ivory claws, elongating them into pitch-black blades of compressed energy.

*SHRED!*

Coal drove both talons straight into the central nerve cluster at the base of the monster’s skull. The Shadow mana tore through the rubbery tissue like wet parchment, severing the spinal column in one clean, devastating rake.

The Fleshcrawler’s dozens of legs buckled instantly. It let out a choked hiss as its massive body collapsed onto the dirt, completely lifeless.

The remaining shadow clones dissolved into thin air.

Coal landed gracefully atop the slain monster’s head, puffed out his broad chest, and let out a smug, echoing *CAW*.

Eric stepped out from the bushes, clapping his hands with a wide grin.

"Flawless execution, Coal," Eric chuckled, walking over with his shortsword to carve open the chest cavity. "Clean, lethal, and zero counter-damage. You’re officially strong enough to solo a Level 5 Fleshcrawler."