A sharp crack split the air.
The "small" corpse detonated.
Chunks of the Moon-Mirrored Blacktail Cat blasted outward in every direction—dozens, hundreds, thousands of fragments. Each piece was only a few centimeters across, but the original body had still been massive even in its compressed assassin form.
Adrian Vale's kagune lifted like a sea of dark red blades, swaying with predatory patience.
Raven Shaw tightened her grip on her Tang blade, shoulders set.
She struck first.
A clean, full-power slash—bright, straight through the blast zone.
And then—
Adrian flicked a single kagune strand.
The slash shattered midair.
Not blocked—broken, as if the blade-light itself had been stirred apart and scattered.
Raven froze, eyes wide.
"That was… my strongest cut."
She looked at him like she'd just discovered a new species.
Adrian didn't even glance at her. His gaze stayed on the fragments.
"Don't rush," he said, voice calm. "Let's see what they become."
He wasn't being reckless—he was indulging curiosity from a position of certainty. Whatever evolved from those pieces, he believed he could erase it.
Raven, however, felt a different storm building behind her eyes.
So the gap is really this big now…
Her chest tightened.
Adrian's tone sharpened a fraction.
"Hey. Focus. Don't drift at a time like this."
Raven snapped back, irritation flaring—because irritation was easier than admitting shock.
"Can you stop calling me 'old woman' and just use my name for once?"
Adrian's mouth twitched, but he didn't bite. He simply watched.
The fragments landed.
Then—quietly—they anchored.
Each piece pressed flat against the ground like a leech, trembling as it "rooted" into the soil.
Raven stared.
"That's… the evolution? It's over already?"
The livestream immediately turned it into a joke.
"They're doing a jumping-brick cosplay!"
"This is the funniest Divine Domain creature evolution I've ever seen."
"Only Dragon Nation can turn nightmare monsters into comedy."
But Adrian's expression sharpened.
Faint green lines began flowing through the earth—like veins lighting up—feeding into the fragments.
"They're siphoning life from the ground," Adrian said. "So this forest isn't just scenery. It's a supply line."
Raven lowered her blade tip and nudged one fragment up.
Instantly, it went limp—dead.
At the contact point where it had been drinking from the earth, a thin thread of green blood dripped down.
Adrian exhaled, annoyed.
"Why'd you lift it? Now there'll be one less."
Raven didn't even blink.
"To understand them," she said. "If we don't know what that ground-link does, we're the ones who get ambushed. I'd rather reduce the number than gamble."
For once, Adrian didn't argue.
A crisp click came from the remaining pieces.
One fragment pulsed—then filled with swirling green fluid, like a vial being poured from the inside.
It swelled.
Stretched.
Shaped itself into something new.
A small goblin-like creature stood up—skin sickly green, teeth sharp, eyes locking onto Adrian and Raven with raw hatred, like it remembered dying.
Adrian sounded almost entertained.
"They retain memory. Or at least the emotion. That hate is too targeted."
Raven lowered her stance, blade angled forward.
"We don't know what they can do. Don't underestimate them."
Adrian glanced at her—quick, slight.
Almost approving.
More fragments transformed.
One after another, dozens of green goblin-things popped up, bouncing in place, making ugly noises—
"Heh-heh…"
"Kekekeke…"
They stared at Adrian and Raven with hunger and spite.
Then Raven's eyes narrowed.
Because the gaze—especially toward her—wasn't just hatred.
It was filthy.
Disgust crawled up her spine like ice.
Adrian sighed, half amused, half tired.
"They're really asking to die."
Raven drew her Tang blade with a harsh metallic whisper.
"Good," she said. "Let them."
The chat lost its mind.
"They're doing 'selective appreciation' 😭"
"Can't even recognize Eat-Stream Adrian Vale—trash monsters."
"Boss Raven is genuinely top-tier though."
"Yeah but staring like that is suicide."
The goblins' ribs bulged.
Green blood split outward, hardening into shape—forming crude spiked clubs from their own bodies.
Weapons. Instantly.
They screamed and flexed, ready to rush—
And then…
They stopped.
Confusion crossed their faces.
Their clubs dissolved back into green blood.
Their eyes widened—not at Adrian.
Not at Raven.
At something behind them.
They turned and ran.
All of them.
Sprinting into the fog, shrieking like prey animals.
The livestream laughter died instantly.
"Why are they running?"
"That's fear. Real fear."
"Something's here."
The forest answered.
The ancient trees around Adrian and Raven began to change.
Bark darkened from lush green into a heavy black-brown.
Branches rose—too fast, too straight—like bones being pulled upward.
Wind swept through, but it didn't feel like weather.
It felt like breathing.
Adrian's smile returned—thin, excited.
"Finally," he murmured. "Something worth showing up for."
Then his expression shifted.
Because he could feel it now:
A new pulse.
Not one tree—all of them.
A living network.
The trees weren't separate anymore.
They were connected—like nerves, like muscle fibers, like a single organism tightening around prey.
In an instant, the forest felt like a cage.
Not because the path was blocked—
but because the world itself was deciding they weren't leaving.
The broadcast snapped into rapid close-ups of transforming trunks.
Dragon Nation viewers went quiet, shock settling in.
Elsewhere, the Blue Star Deathmatch was nearing its end—weak nations' contestants eliminated, only the strongest still standing.
But in the Dreamlike Forest, that didn't matter.
Because the Divine Domain had escalated.
And whatever was coming…
was the reason the goblins ran.
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