Early dawn in Nerulia haven
Yuto stood at the eastern gate, cloak snapping softly in the wind.
This time, he was not alone.
Behind him stood a compact force, small, but terrifyingly efficient.
Seraphina adjusted her gauntlets, eyes sharp.
Zarek rested a massive blade across his shoulders, grin restrained but eager.
Mimi bounced lightly on her heels, tail swaying,excited, but focused.
Elira checked her staff one last time, glowing arrays already humming beneath her feet,
And Lyra, ready to bid them farewell as she was in charge of the hospital in Nerulia haven, and couldn't leave, but prepared healing spells for Elira.
Five figures.
No army.
No banners.
Yet the air around them carried a pressure that made nearby guards unconsciously straighten.
[ Advisor: "Formation integrity confirmed. You are no longer operating as a solo unit."]
Yuto nodded once. "Good. We hunt smarter now."
The gates opened.
The corrupted lands welcomed them with silence.
---
They didn't go deep.
Not yet.
The first hunting ground lay within a fractured valley, once a trade route, now a corruption sink where beasts gathered unnaturally fast.
Yuto raised a hand.
They stopped instantly.
Seraphina knelt, touching the ground. "Footprints. Heavy. Multiple types."
"Pack behavior," Mimi added, ears twitching. "But… something's forcing coordination."
Zarek snorted. "Great. Smarter monsters."
Yuto's eyes traced the terrain.
"Ven'rael's influence is leaking upward," he said. "Not enough to awaken it, but enough to organize."
[Advisor: "Correct. This is pre-Overlord domain pressure. Primitive, but effective."]
Yuto exhaled slowly.
"So this is what I'm racing against."
He lowered his hand.
"Engage"
...
The valley exploded into motion.
Corrupted beasts surged from the rocks, scaled crawlers, horned wolves, an enormous plated serpent tearing through the earth itself.
Yuto didn't rush ahead.
Instead...
"Seraphina, left flank."
She moved instantly, shield glowing as she intercepted a charging beast, deflecting its impact into the cliffside.
"Mimi, disruption."
"On it!"
Illusions burst into existence, false Yutos, phantom strikes forcing the pack to hesitate.
That hesitation cost them.
Zarek slammed down like a meteor, blade cleaving through corrupted flesh with brutal precision.
Elira's staff flared, glowing pulses and purification waves threading through the battlefield like unseen hands.
Yuto moved through it all.
Not as a berserker.
As a pivot point.
Every time pressure spiked, he was there.
A strike to the spine.
A palm to the core.
Never excessive.
Never wasteful.
[Advisor: "You are subconsciously coordinating mana flow between allies."]
"…I am?"
[ "Yes. Minor. But notable."]
Yuto felt it then, the faint resonance between their movements.
Not domination.
Alignment.....,
Suddenly...
The ground trembled again.
But this time,
It was deliberate.
A massive corrupted beast emerged at the valley's center, a hulking chimera of scaled hide, antlered skull, and burning crimson eyes.
An Alpha.
Not dragonkin.
But close enough to make the air feel heavier.
Seraphina swallowed. "That thing's different."
Zarek grinned, teeth bared. "Good."
The Alpha roared, and the remaining beasts surged in unison.
"Don't break formation!" Yuto snapped.
They didn't.
Mimi darted in and out, disrupting timing.
Seraphina anchored the frontline.
Zarek tore through openings like a siege weapon.
Elira's mana never wavered.
Yuto faced the Alpha directly.
It lunged...,
Too fast for a normal strike.
Yuto stepped forward instead of back.
Spirit Instinct flared, not at full sense, but controlled.
He redirected the impact, twisting the Alpha's momentum and slamming it into the ground.
The earth cracked.
"Now," Yuto said calmly.
Zarek's blade descended.
Seraphina's shield struck.
Mimi's illusion collapsed inward.
Elira's purification surged.
The Alpha screamed...,
And dissolved.
Silence reclaimed the valley...,
No one cheered.
They didn't need to.
They stood amid fading corruption, breathing hard but steady.
Zarek rested his sword. "That was… cleaner than usual."
Mimi blinked. "Yeah. Nobody almost died!"
Elira smiled faintly. "That's improvement."
Seraphina turned to Yuto.
"You weren't just leading," she said quietly. "You were… synchronizing us."
Yuto frowned slightly.
"I wasn't trying to."
[ Advisor: "That is precisely why it worked."]
A faint pulse flickered in Yuto's chest.
Evolution Progress: 78% → 79%
Slow.
Stable.
Earned.
Meanwhile..
---
Far away,
Deep beneath sealed stone,
Ven'rael stirred again.
Not violently.
Not angrily.
With interest.
The corruption streams adjusted, redirecting toward new regions.
New tests.
The hunt had been noticed.
---
Yuto stared deeper into the corrupted lands.
"This was just the outer layer," he said.
Seraphina nodded. "And it already pushed back."
Yuto clenched his fist.
"Good."
He turned to his team.
"We keep hunting. But next time.."
He looked toward the distant mountains, faintly glowing with ancient malice.
"We go where it hurts."
[ Advisor: "Your path is diverging from standard evolution."]
Yuto smirked faintly.
"When was I ever standard?"
The corrupted lands shuddered.
And somewhere beneath them,
A dragon listened.
---