Ethan was done.
Exhausted. His limbs were dead weight. His breathing was ragged. His armor hung in strips. But still, he raised his dagger.
The scorpion lunged. He dodged the first pincer, ducked the second, but the tail caught him across the ribs.
[HOST HARMED]
[HP: 13/20]
He gasped, spun and stabbed the dagger into the beast's face. It recoiled, but didn't die. Velina tried to reach him, but staggered too far behind. Ethan slammed his foot into the scorpion's face and rolled aside. The tail stabbed down, missing his head by inches. He grabbed a broken sword fragment from the sand and jammed it upward into the soft underbelly.
The scorpion shrieked.
And finally collapsed.
Ten down.
[DESERT SCORDANA DEFEATED]
[+20EXP GAINED]
[CURRENT EXP: 168/500]
Ethan dropped to one knee.
His whole body trembled.
Then, pain.
Sharp, searing. It tore up his right arm like fire.
He looked down. He removed the right arm of his armor
His Leviathan marking, the abyssal etching that slithered from his forearm to shoulder, was glowing faintly. It pulsed like it had a heartbeat of its own.
Then it spread further.
Up to his right chest.
The burn was unbearable. He clenched his teeth to stop from screaming.
Velina rushed to his side. "Ethan—what's happening? What are these marking on your hands? You're burning up!"
He didn't answer.
He couldn't.
He stared at his arm, watched the black tendrils flare brighter, like ancient runes. For a moment, he heard something…
A voice?
A growl?
Something deep beneath the system's layers.
Then silence.
The pain faded, just enough. He slowly stood, staggering.
Velina steadied him. "Talk to me. What was that?"
Ethan stared into the dunes.
"It's nothing...it's none of your concern" he said coldly
Velina's eyes lingered on his mark. "That thing… it's not normal."
"Like I said, it's none of your concern. Act like you didn't see a thing" Ethan said, this time with more rage
He looked up at the twin suns
Questions churned in his mind like storms.
What is this system inside me?
Why does it hunger?
What am I becoming?
But no answers came.
Only the howling desert wind, and the distant promise of more battles ahead.
The corpses of the ten scorpions lay behind them, beast core extracted, buried partially by the creeping dunes.
Ethan didn't look back.
Velina limped slightly at first, clutching her side where her armor had been sliced during the last ambush. But by the time the sun had shifted a hand's breadth in the sky, her stride evened. She said nothing of the pain. Neither did Ethan.
Their water was gone. Their mouths were dry. But still, they walked. Every step kicked up dust. Every breath stung the throat. The sun above the Drazan Expanse didn't just beat down, it pressed, like an invisible weight that tried to crush spirit and skin alike.
Ethan squinted against the heat waves. "East. Still."
Velina nodded, wiping sweat from her brow. "Are we ever gonna reach"
He tapped his Trial Band.
[Objective: Reach Beacon Tower - Distance: Undisclosed]
[Time Remaining: 58 Hours, 22 Minutes]
---
They found the trail of cracked bones first.
Bleached white, half-buried in sand. A broken helmet sat nearby, half-melted, the insignia of House Korrin scorched by venom.
"Not recent," Velina murmured.
Ethan crouched low. "Not old either."
Then the buzzing began.
It came like a low hum at first, then a high-pitched whine that grew into a scream. They spun toward the north slope of a dune.
Desert Flayers.
Tiny, winged Tartarus Beasts, barely the size of a dagger each, but moving in packs of twenty or more. Each had needle-point legs and dagger-like wings that could slice open unarmored skin.
Velina's hand shot to her sword. "We run or fight?"
Ethan glanced at the terrain. "Open desert. No cover. No choice. You decide"
She drew her blade. "Then we cut them from the sky."
The swarm dove. Velina stepped forward first, swinging wide. Her blade sliced through three, their bodies spraying acidic black mist. She rotated into a spin, parried two more that aimed for her throat, then ducked as a cluster buzzed overhead.
Ethan's dagger blurred. He stabbed upward, pinning one mid-air, then yanked it down and kicked it into the sand, stomping its twitching body with brutal precision. Two more Flayers dove toward his exposed flank. He dropped low, rolled under them, and when they looped back around, he caught them both with a twin-knife throw.
They hit the ground twitching. Velina screamed. One of them had pierced her shoulder plate, and a second had latched to her thigh.
Ethan moved on instinct.
He lunged, tore the Flayer from her leg, crushed it with his boot, then wrenched the second one free with a sickening crunch.
"You good?"
She gasped but nodded. "Keep going."
The remaining five Flayers began to retreat, but Ethan chased them down like a specter. He didn't speak. Didn't yell.
Just struck.
Each movement calculated.
Each kill final.
When the sand finally settled, fifteen broken Flayer corpses dotted the ground.
[×8 DESERT FLAYERS DEFEATED]
[+12EXP GAINED]
[CURRENT EXP: 180/500]
They extracted the beasts cores and kept in their satchel.
Velina panted. "They're getting smarter."
"They're getting desperate," Ethan said. "The longer we survive, the more aggressive the spawns become."
She looked at him. "Then let's keep surviving."
---
Two hours later, the terrain changed.
What was once dunes became jagged stone pathways half-buried in sand, almost like ancient roads carved by forgotten tribes. It was there that they met their next enemy.
Not a swarm.
A single beast.
Tall as a man, shaped like a lizard, but with six legs, black obsidian scales, and a mouth that stretched down to its chest. Inside, rows of rotating teeth buzzed like a bone saw.
[WRATH CHARGE DETECTED]
[TARTARUS BEASTS – CLASS II]
[NAME: SAND MAW LURKER].
Sand Maw Lurker
Class II Desert-Type Tartarus Beast
It hissed low, tail lashing the rocks. The air shimmered with its heat.
"Velina," Ethan said. "Circle wide. Stay behind."
"You think I'll let you—"
"Don't argue. We're drained. If I go down, you run."
She clenched her jaw, but obeyed. She already had fractured ribs, already a handicap.
The Lurker charged.
It moved faster than expected, like a blur of black glass and flame. Ethan rolled left, barely avoiding the first snap of its rotating maw. He sliced upward. His dagger skidded off its hardened scales, leaving only a faint scratch.
Too tough.
The beast spun, tail whipping low. Ethan leapt and tucked midair, landing behind it. His foot slammed into its rear flank to disorient it.
Velina took the cue. The fight just begun