More vines burst from the ground as Rune moved, forcing him to keep shifting his footing.
"I'm not waiting for you to reach me."
Shadow wrapped around him, and he vanished, reappearing directly behind one of the charging orange sentinels in its shadow.
The moment he materialized, a low humming reached his ears.
The orange core beneath the shifting bark plates grew unstable, the sound deepening just before it detonated.
The blast threw Rune across the moss covered floor. His body skidded, dust motes scattering into the air as he rolled to a stop.
He pushed himself up with a grunt and wiped blood from his lip.
Where the orange sentinel had stood, only scorched bark and drifting ash remained. Its core lay exposed on the ground, still warm.
Rune stared at it for a moment.
"So the green ones heal," he paused. "And the orange ones explode."
He nodded once.
"Good to know."
The ground began to rumble beneath Rune's feet. With no time left to think it through, he jumped clear as vines burst upward where he had been standing.
"Alright then. Let's do this."
He hurled both axes forward, light flaring along their blades just as it had when he fought the ranged spiders. His aim was precise, straight for the sentinel's chest where the core lay hidden.
Light detonated on impact, colliding directly with the core and flooding it with energy.
The reaction was immediate. The power inside the core destabilized, pushed far past its limit, until it detonated outward in a violent blast.
Shadow tethers snapped from Rune's hands, latching onto the axe handles and yanking them back toward him. He caught them with a sharp grunt, as he absorbed the pull.
Rune let out a short laugh.
"So light doesn't just heal them, It forces whatever they do to happen stronger."
His grin widened slightly.
"And that means the orange ones explode, whether they want to or not."
Rune noticed the ground had gone still. The shaking had stopped. Vines no longer reached for him.
He turned, searching for the green sentinel that had been trying to restrain him earlier.
He found it, standing still, not moving.
The sentinel held two cores. One glowed green, the core from the first sentinel Rune had killed. The other orange, taken from the one he had detonated at range.
"What are you doing with those, buddy?"
The sentinel answered without words. It pressed both cores fully into its body. They sank beneath shifting bark plates, disappearing from view as orange and green light churned beneath the surface.
The creature's form changed.
Heavy bark plates peeled away and fell to the ground, replaced by lighter, more flexible layers. Its silhouette grew sleeker, its stance lower, more ready.
When it finished, the sentinel tilted its head toward Rune.
As if responding to his question. As if to say it had adapted again.
"I can already tell you're going to be a problem."
Rune and the sentinel charged at each other.
This one even ran like him, its movements refined, adaptive, mirroring Rune's own rhythm as it closed the distance.
The sentinel struck first.
Its arm swung in fast. Rune brought his own up to block, bracing at the last moment. The instant they connected, orange light burst outward, the blast staggering him and sending pain ripping through his body.
The sentinel's arm recoiled and restored itself almost immediately, bark and structure twisting as it reformed.
This thing could detonate and repair itself after.
His arm burned fiercely. The bone felt wrong, likely fractured. He didn't wait to confirm it.
Rune used Shadow Step, appearing behind the creature. He struck several times with shadow laced blows, axes leaving the bark smoking with element that started to break it down.
Then he heard it. The low, familiar hum.
Rune reacted instantly, using Shadow Step again to appear behind a massive mushroom nearly twenty feet away.
A moment later, the sentinel detonated completely.
Heat and force washed through the chamber, scattering debris and shaking the growth around it.
"I'm not going to be stupid enough to say something like 'is it over' or 'did I kill it.'"
He watched as the sentinel's twisted, torn, and scorched body began to pull itself back together. Bark reformed. Structure returned. Green light pulsed beneath the surface as it restored itself once more.
'Let's try something I haven't used since I learned it.'
Before the sentinel could move again, Rune leapt upward and twisted in the air, invoking Turning of the Sky. Instead of releasing one of each element, he sent out two arcs of shadow.
He already knew better.
Feeding this thing light would only mean the shadow tearing at its armor would be restored almost instantly.
The creature reacted quickly, crossing its arms over its chest to shield the core as the twin slashes closed in.
They struck one after the other.
Shadow carved deep into its bark plating, cutting a single long line that started at its shoulder and ripped downward to its knee, blackened edges peeling back where the strike had landed.
The sentinel launched itself at Rune, closing the distance and landing two more exploding strikes against his arms, burning flesh on impact.
The fight devolved into a brutal battle of attrition. Coming down to whose body would break first.
Rune continued to land shadow infused strikes, hacking away at bark and joints, while the sentinel answered each exchange with detonating blows.
Bone cracked. Bark blackened and turned brittle, fragments breaking away. Both of them began to slow.
Rune's limbs grew heavier as more bones fractured and muscles tore, movement becoming harder with every exchange.
At the same time, the sentinel stiffened, its motions less fluid as shadow drained the life from its frame.
Then something shifted.
[Perseverance activating]
Rune's body steadied. Movement returned all at once, pain fading into nothing, leaving only clarity and motion as he pushed forward.
"This is like some kind of cheat."
Without thinking about what would come after, Rune let himself run wild.
With the sentinel slowed, he began to dodge most of its strikes outright. When he couldn't, he moved and Shadow Stepped behind it, keeping himself just out of reach.
After a brutal exchange of strikes, an opening appeared. Bark crumbled away, exposing the core.
Rune swung both axes in a downward, sweeping motion and carved the triple core free from the sentinel's body.
The creature's head twisted, turning to face him one last time, before its form collapsed and sank into the living floor of the chamber.
The chamber fell silent.
[Perseverance deactivating]
Rune collapsed to the ground.
All the pain that had been held at bay came crashing back at once. Every broken bone screamed in protest, agony flooding through his body in a single overwhelming wave.
[Physical Power increasing… +11]
"Heh," Rune breathed through clenched teeth. "That's a big jump. Guess I really put everything into that one."
As if the pain alone wasn't enough, the power increase took hold immediately. His muscles tightened and reshaped, fibers reforging themselves as they grew denser and stronger, the sensation adding another layer of strain to a body already pushed past its limits.
Rune twisted on the ground as pain took hold of him. When he finally managed to steady himself, he tried to stand.
He collapsed immediately. Too many bones were broken for him to even support his own weight.
With a shaking hand, he reached into his pouch and pulled out one of the remaining red vials.
"This cheap stuff burns when I pour it on," he muttered. "With this many broken bones… I'm going to have to drink it."
He gulped.
"This is going to hurt."
Rune tilted his head back and downed the potion in one go, bracing himself.
A second later, he screamed.
Fire ripped through his body from the inside out, every nerve lighting up as bones ground back into place and reformed in crude, painful alignment.
The sensation was overwhelming, far worse than any wound he had suffered so far.
The first true scream Rune had let out since arriving in this world was not born from battle.
It came from healing.