The hallway had become a battlefield of extremes: frost clinging to jagged debris, scorched metal curling like melted wax, and chunks of shattered walls littering the floor. Smoke swirled in gray tendrils, thick with the acrid stench of burnt insulation, while shards of frozen water glittered like lethal daggers beneath flickering lights. Every step was a hazard, every breath a risk of inhaling smoke or frost.
Patoa steadied himself, his chest heaving from exhaustion. Blood ran down his side, soaking through his shirt. The explosion marks beneath his hands still glowed faintly, but each attempt to trigger them was disrupted by the unstable ice patches Eleanor had left in the corridor. He clenched his fists and shouted over the chaos.
"Eleanor! Your frost—it's interfering with my detonations!"
She froze for a moment, ice shards cascading from her fingertips. Her sharp eyes met his, glowing faintly blue in the dim light. "I am trying to immobilize it, Patoa. If I take it down from distance, you won't even need to detonate your explosions."
Patoa groaned, pressing his hands against the rubble-strewn floor. "No, your ice is scattering the energy. The detonations can't connect like this!"
Eleanor's lips tightened. "Then we adapt.."
The creature's roar echoed through the corridor, a terrifying mix of crystal and flesh grinding against itself. Its crystalline arm stretched unnaturally, veins glowing brighter than ever. Blue energy pulsed along its chest as it adjusted to the constant barrage of explosions and ice, mutating in response. Its movement was faster now, deliberate and almost intelligent.
Patoa caught sight of its new limbs. Jagged crystalline spikes had erupted along its back, slicing through the air with each twitch. "It's adapting," he muttered. "Every attack we make, it gets stronger."
Eleanor raised her hands, forming a wall of frost in front of the beast. Ice shards rained down from the ceiling as she channeled her mana, forming a lattice of frozen spears to restrict its movement. The creature slammed into it, cracking the lattice with sheer force. Shards flew in every direction, embedding themselves in walls and floor alike.
From the corner of her eye, Eleanor noticed something unsettling: a shimmering presence at the edge of the corridor. A faint vibration in the air, almost imperceptible, yet undeniable.
"What… is that?" she whispered.
Patoa turned, eyes narrowing. "I feel it too. Something… not human. Watch yourself."
The creature hissed, sensing it too. Its crystalline form quivered violently, thrashing as if aware that something else—something predatory—was returning.
Eliel's Slasher instincts stirred within the void. He had not yet fully manifested, but the chaos, pain, and rage were enough to send pulses of raw energy outward. A faint, almost imperceptible distortion bent the air around the creature, tugging at its perception. The monster paused mid-leap, claws twitching as it sensed a predator unlike anything it had faced.
Eleanor's frost attacks faltered. She tilted her head, sensing the shift. "That presence… it's not one of us. It's… waiting."
Patoa braced himself, energy coiling beneath his skin as he attempted another detonation. The ice beneath him scattered some of the energy, causing only a minor explosion. "It's interfering with the marks!" he shouted. "Something else is affecting the battlefield!"
The corridor vibrated as if acknowledging the unseen force. Even the fire flickered, shadows dancing violently against the walls. The boss screeched and twisted, adapting instantly. Its crystalline spikes flared outward, slicing through frost and debris with terrifying speed.
Eleanor leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding one of the spikes. Her eyes flicked toward Patoa. "We can't hold it much longer. We need—"
A sudden tremor rolled through the corridor. The debris shifted, walls cracking further. And then, in a subtle but terrifying display, a shadow moved against the far wall. The air shimmered with barely contained energy. The sensation of raw, instinctive power radiated from it like heat from molten steel.
Patoa's voice dropped, low and tense. "That… that's him."
Eleanor's expression tightened. "The one in the void?"
A pulse of awareness, subtle but deadly, swept across the corridor. Eliel's consciousness brushed against reality, a whisper of presence. Not fully awake, but enough to make the boss uneasy. Its movements became jerky, uncoordinated in brief moments. Even the spikes along its back twitched as though uncertain.
Patoa adjusted his stance, scanning the battlefield. "Something's coming. Whatever it is… it's not human. Not like anything we've faced."
Eleanor gritted her teeth, frost coiling around her hands. "Then we prepare. But we need to survive until it fully manifests."
The boss lunged, claws slashing in a deadly arc. Patoa detonated the nearest mark, producing a controlled explosion that staggered the creature slightly. Ice and fire collided, lighting the corridor in bursts of blue, red, and white. But the creature's crystalline form absorbed the brunt, mutating further. Its veins glowed brighter, energy pulsing faster, showing that it had learned from every attack.
Eleanor leaped forward, striking with a series of frost spikes, each faster than the last. The creature snapped its crystalline arm to the side, intercepting some of the shards. But one grazed its shoulder, leaving a faint shimmer of frost that crackled unnaturally.
Patoa groaned. "That shimmer… it's reacting to something else." He glanced at Eleanor, frustration etched on his face. "It's not just the ice and explosions… something else is influencing it."
Eleanor's eyes widened. "Something… alive."
Eliel's Slasher instincts, still tethered to the void, pulsed again. Rage, trauma, and primal aggression radiated outward. The slightest flicker of movement caught the creature's attention, making it hesitate mid-attack. It twisted violently, claws aimed toward an unseen predator, panic in its crystalline eyes.
The corridor became a battlefield of chaos. Ice shattered and scattered; explosions ricocheted unpredictably; the boss lashed out with lethal precision. But amidst the destruction, the first stirrings of Slasher began manifesting.
It was subtle — a distortion in the air, a twitch of shadow at the far end of the hallway, a pulse of raw energy that neither Patoa nor Eleanor could fully perceive yet.
Patoa clenched his fists. "I don't like this. Something is coming… and we won't be able to stop it if it's fully awake."
Eleanor's frost aura pulsed, energy coiling tightly. "Then we buy time. Hold it… until it arrives. Whatever it is… it will decide this fight."
The creature roared, sensing the unseen presence, lashing out in blind fury. The explosions and ice collided with deadly force, shaking the corridor violently. Dust, frost, and smoke swirled into a choking haze.
And in the chaos, the faint whisper of raw, instinctive power — brutal, violent, and utterly unrestrained — began to pulse.
The corridor held its breath.
The predator was waking.
The Slasher had begun to stir.
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