Hye-na reacted with a speed that defied the psychic weight of the room. Before the monster could shatter the shield protecting Luna, she unleashed a Pseudo Epic-grade skill—a power far beyond what her current level should have allowed. It was a gamble that threatened to tear her own Aether circuits apart, but she took the risk without a second thought for her friend.
Her eyes flared with a brilliant, predatory gold. The Solar Flare Spear hummed with an intense, concentrated light, its shaft elongating in a flash of movement. The tip struck the Crypt Stalker with the force of a falling star, piercing straight through its chest and leaving a charred, hollow hole where its ribcage had been.
SQUELCH
The monster let out a shriek that sounded like grinding metal, its long arms flailing as it staggered back from the impact. The golden light from the spear began to burn the edges of the wound, eating away at the dried, bloodless flesh. Hye-na's face went pale instantly, her hands trembling as she held the weapon. Using a skill of that rank was taking a massive toll on her body.
''Kill it! Now!'' Hye-na shouted, her voice tight with strain.
The monster was not dead yet, but the blow had stopped its momentum. Luna finally blinked, the fog clearing from her mind just in time to see the smoking hole in the creature's chest. She scrambled backward, her boots slipping on the leathery floor as the emerald mist rushed to fill the gap left by the golden explosion.
Leo's ears continued to ring with the psychic residue of the wail, but his focus was pinned on the crimson thread of blood trailing from Hye-na's lips. 'She broke her own limits for a single strike,' he thought, his leaden legs protesting as he tried to bridge the gap. 'If we do not end this now, the backlash will kill her before the monsters do.'
His body suddenly locked. A primal surge of Progenitor energy flooded his nervous system. His pupils bled into a jagged crimson, and his canines elongated into sharp, predatory points. Leo gasped, clutching his temples as Crimson Perception forcibly rewrote his reality.
The world became a landscape of heat and pulse. He could hear the thrumming of hearts and the rhythmic rush of blood through arteries. He saw the microscopic tremble of the sweat on Luna's brow. When Noel lunged forward to behead the monster, the movement appeared to Leo as a slow, agonizing crawl. Every muscle fiber and ocular shift was laid bare to his heightened senses.
The sheer volume of information was an assault. Leo gripped his head, the internal ringing reaching a deafening crescendo. 'Control it. I have to control it,' he thought. He crushed a blood crystal in his palm, using the concentrated essence to dampen the fires of his bloodlust.
''Leader, are you with us?'' Noel asked, reaching out to steady him.
''I am fine,'' Leo replied, pulling away with a sharpness that startled his companion.
"Your skin... it is like marble. You look like a ghost,'' Noel whispered, his eyes wide.
Leo turned his face into the shadows of his hood. 'The hunger is constantly growing, and these crystals are becoming mere drops of water in a desert,' he thought, his teeth aching.
''Hye-na, that was reckless!'' Luna scolded, her voice cracking with worry. ''Using an Epic-grade skill at your rank is suicide!''
Hye-na didn't argue. She was busy tilting potion vials into her mouth, her hands shaking. ''I saw the attack. I didn't think... I just moved.''
The respite was short-lived. The thousands of skulls embedded in the walls began to vibrate again, their hollow sockets glowing with a hateful light. ''OMHI HORA. OMHI HORA. OMHI HORA.''
The sonic assault threatened to shatter their minds a second time. Before the wave could hit, Leo spoke a single, frozen command. ''Absolute Domain.''
The cross earring caught the emerald light and refracted it into a bloody mist. A spherical barrier expanded instantly, carving out a hundred-meter pocket of reality. A mirror dimension took hold, severing the connection between the corridor and the team. The psychic wails of the skulls died instantly, unable to penetrate the absolute seal of the dome. Inside this cage of crimson glass, only Leo, his team, and the newly materialized monsters remained.
Leo looked at the figures manifesting in the fog.
[Crypt Stalker] [Rank: E+ (Epic grade - suppressed)]
''Form up!'' Leo commanded. Noel and Ben took the flanks, their weapons leveled. Hye-na and Luna retreated to the center to recover, protected by Elena and the support lords.
''Be alert. This will not be as easy as the last one,'' Leo ordered. His eyes traced the monsters' movements. If not for Luna's protective bracelet and Hye-na's gamble, the first monster would not have been defeated so easily. Even though it was suppressed, an Epic-grade monster was still a higher existence.
Leo vanished. He was a blur of black and crimson, his movements enhanced by the domain's isolated physics.
A Crypt Stalker lunged, its three-pronged claws whistling through the air.
Leo utilized Void Flicker, appearing like a ghost behind the creature's haunches. He drove his dagger toward the base of its skull, aiming for the spinal cord.
The creature's reaction was a subversion of biology. Its neck spun a full 180 degrees with a sickening crack of dry bone. It didn't dodge; it caught the blade of the dagger between its rusted, canine teeth, snapping its jaws shut with the force of a hydraulic press.
'Its reflexes were next level,' Leo thought, his jaw tightening. He abandoned the grip on the weapon immediately.
Before the beast could counter, Leo pivoted, putting the full weight of his Progenitor strength into a direct strike. His fist collided with the monster's forehead with a sound like a sledgehammer hitting a stone.
SLAM.
The impact sent a shockwave traveling up Leo's arm, the force of the blow vibrating through his shoulder. The Crypt Stalker's head snapped back, its neck muscles bulging as it absorbed the momentum, but the bone did not shatter. Instead, a dull, hollow thud echoed through the red-tinted domain.
Leo pulled his hand back, his knuckles stinging. Even with his enhanced strength, the creature's skin felt like striking a block of solid oak. The monster hissed, a sound like dry leaves scraping together, as it regained its balance. It spat out Leo's damaged dagger, its large eyes narrowing with a newfound hatred.
'Ben, find your opening!'' Noel shouted, a sharp smirk cutting across his face as he sprinted toward the pair of Crypt Stalkers. The lead beast lunged, its skeletal, ape-like limbs propelling it through the emerald mist with predatory speed. Its three-pronged claws whistled through the air, missing Noel by a mere inch as he dropped into a low skid directly between the creature's legs.
Before he could regain his footing, the second monster was already in the air, its massive shadow looming over him. It raised its fused-bone arms high, preparing to pulverize the thief into the leathery floor of the crypt.
'What a reckless idiot,' Ben thought, his teeth grinding together as he charged forward to intervene. But his heavy footsteps suddenly skidded to a stop.
Noel didn't look afraid; he looked like he had already won. ''Gotcha,'' he whispered.
Just as the monster's weight crashed down, Noel's body dissolved into a swirl of gray mist. He wasn't there. Instead, a single, flickering talisman was pinned to the floor where his head should have been. The monster's impact triggered the seal instantly. The paper flared with a brilliant, white-hot light, followed by a thunderous explosion that shook the very foundations of the Absolute Domain.
The two Crypt Stalkers were caught at the epicenter, their dried flesh charring as the fire from Noel's talisman tore through the emerald mist.
The dust and smoke began to clear, revealing the two monsters stumbling back. One had lost an arm, and the other's chest was blackened and smoking. They were dazed, their movements slow and clumsy as they tried to recover from the blast.
''Now, Ben!'' Noel's voice rang out from the shadows near the wall. He had reappeared several meters away, leaning against a pillar with a look of pure satisfaction.
Ben didn't need to be told twice. He had been waiting for the signal, his heavy claymore already glowing with a dull, earthy light. He surged forward, his boots cracking the leathery floor with every step. With a roar, he swung the massive blade in a horizontal arc.
The first Stalker, still blinded by the explosion, didn't even have time to raise its claws. The claymore sliced through its waist, the sheer weight of the weapon snapping the petrified spine like a dry twig. The top half of the monster slid off its legs, turning into grey dust before it even hit the ground.
The second monster hissed, trying to lunge at Ben with its remaining arm, but its balance was gone.
''Do not forget about us!'' Eleana shouted from the back. She let loose three arrows in quick succession. They whistled through the air, thudding into the monster's large, stretched eyes. The beast shrieked, clutching its face, leaving its throat wide open.
Leo watched the coordination through his red-tinted vision. 'They are growing,' he thought, a sense of grim pride settling in his chest. 'They are no longer just lords; they are becoming a unit.'
He turned his attention back to the primary Stalker he had punched earlier. The creature was watching its companions die, and for the first time, its large eyes showed something that looked like hesitation.