The siren's wail was a desperate scream. A futile attempt to impose order on pure chaos.
For a single, surreal moment, the arena was frozen. The jeers and laughter died. A profound silence fell, more deafening than the alarm.
Then the panic hit. A tidal wave of primal fear.
The crowd became a single, stampeding organism. Its only instinct was to flee. Nobles shoved commoners. Students trampled each other. The air filled with a cacophony of terrified screams.
The shimmering tear in the sky vomited forth its first passenger.
It wasn't a horde of goblins. It wasn't a pack of wolves.
It was a single, colossal entity. A being of such monstrous scale, it blotted out the sun.
It crashed into the center of the arena with the force of a meteor. The impact shook the coliseum's foundations. Marble cracked. Dust and sand exploded upwards. A shockwave blasted through the stands.
When the dust settled, it revealed the creature.
A quadrupedal beast, the size of three elephants. Its hide was a thick carapace of jagged, obsidian-like plates. A row of wicked, bony spines ran down its back. Its long, whip-like tail ended in a scythe-like blade of bone.
Its head was a massive, armored skull. A single, curved horn the size of a battering ram protruded from its snout. Its mouth was a cavernous maw filled with rows of serrated, shark-like teeth.
A Riftfang Behemoth.
The system vision flashed a blood-red warning in Edward's mind.
[Threat Level: A-Rank.]
[Highly aggressive.]
[Carapace resistant to most attacks.]
[Flee on sight.]
The Behemoth roared. Not a sound of flesh and blood. A deafening, metallic shriek that resonated with the breach itself.
The sound slammed into the stadium's defensive barriers. The magical wards flickered. They glowed blue. Then they shattered like glass.
The monster was loose.
"Instructors, to me! Elite students, form a defensive perimeter!" the Headmaster's voice, now strained with panic, boomed over the amplifiers.
A dozen figures leaped into the arena. The academy's combat instructors. Seasoned hunters. Veterans. Their weapons glowed with magical energy.
From the stands, the elite students followed.
Chris was at the forefront. His pristine armor was now scuffed. His expression was a mixture of fear and an arrogant need to prove his S-Rank worth.
"For the glory of Sunstone!" he yelled. He raised his hand. A spear of pure, golden light formed above him. "Divine Lance!"
He threw the spear at the Behemoth. A powerful, flashy attack. A textbook S-Rank skill.
It struck the beast squarely in its flank.
The result was pathetic.
The spear of light shattered against the monster's obsidian carapace. A disappointing tink. It did no more damage than a thrown rock.
The Behemoth didn't even notice.
It swatted its massive tail. A casual, dismissive gesture. The scythe-like blade moved with impossible speed.
It caught three instructors mid-charge.
A sickening, wet crunch. The veteran hunters were simply… gone. Not thrown. Not wounded. Obliterated. Their bodies and armor torn apart.
The reality of the situation crashed down.
This wasn't a test. This wasn't a dungeon boss. This was a force of nature. An engine of pure destruction.
They were hopelessly, laughably outmatched. Their flashy, academy-honed skills were useless.
The Behemoth ignored them. Its massive head swiveled. Its glowing, malevolent eyes scanned the panicked crowd. It saw the fighters as little more than annoying insects.
Its true interest was the buffet of helpless civilians.
It lowered its head. Its battering-ram horn aimed at the section of the stands where the chaos was thickest.
It pawed the ground once. Twice.
Then it charged.
A terrifying, ground-shaking stampede. An unstoppable force on a collision course with a thousand defenseless people.
And in the middle of that section, trapped under a piece of fallen marble, was a small, familiar figure.
A girl. Sarah.
Edward's world narrowed.
The roaring crowd, the screaming siren, the arrogant shouts of the heroes all of it faded into a dull, irrelevant hum.
The cold, pragmatic survivor in his mind was silent. That other, deeper part of him, the innate protector, was now in complete control.
He looked at the scene with a strange, chilling detachment.
He saw Chris, his face pale, try to intercept the charge. He saw the Behemoth contemptuously blast the S-Rank prodigy aside. He saw Chris land in a heap, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. His pride and his bones shattered.
He saw the Behemoth lower its head. Its horn aimed directly at the trapped students. He saw Sarah, her face white with terror, trying to pull her leg free.
And he saw his own body, covered in filth, moving.
He wasn't consciously running. His legs just moved. Propelled by a simple, absolute certainty.
He would not, could not, stand by and watch that little girl die.
The world seemed to slow down. The chaos became a series of stark, clear scene.
He saw the faces in the crowd, their mouths open in silent screams. He saw the terror in Sarah's eyes. He saw the tip of the Behemoth's horn, scarred and stained, inches from its target.
He was moving faster than he ever had before. His newly enhanced Dexterity. The levels earned in blood and terror. All of it came together in a single, explosive burst.
He was a blur. A dark, filth-covered shape nobody noticed in the chaos.
He reached the monster just as its horn was about to strike.
He didn't have a plan. He didn't have a weapon capable of scratching its hide. He had only his small, insignificant body and a single, primitive tool of bone.
He leaped.
He used the side of the fallen marble slab as a launchpad. His jump carried him up towards the Behemoth's massive, armored head.
For a split-second, he was airborne. A tiny, insignificant gnat flying at a titan.
He brought the Bone Dagger up. He held it in a reverse grip.
With every ounce of strength in his body, with the full, desperate force of his momentum, he slammed the crude, sharpened point of bone directly into the Behemoth's left eye.