Yuto pointed with his sword mid-parry.

"Lure yours to that body. Don’t kill it, Just move it there."

Shiny tilted his head, then immediately nodded. Okay master! I will do as you say!"

He surged forward without hesitation, pressure building into every step as he drove the injured Blackmaw back toward the broken mass of its fallen counterpart.

Each strike, each advance, forced it to yield ground, its movements growing tighter and more constrained as it was funneled toward the corpse behind it.

Yuto broke off cleanly.

He disengaged mid-exchange, turning his retreat into motion, boots carving a wide path across fractured stone as he sprinted outward. Dust trailed behind him as he expanded the distance, deliberately shaping the battlefield.

The second Blackmaw followed.

Drawn into the motion, it was pulled into a long arc away from the center, its path stretched thin as it committed to the pursuit across unstable terrain.

It followed.

Of course it did.

There was no hesitation in it, no pause to reconsider the widening distance or the shifting ground, only instinct pulling it forward into pursuit.

Both Blackmaws were too aggressive to abandon momentum, too committed to pressure to allow separation to stand unchallenged.

Yuto’s breathing steadied as he ran, each inhale measured, each exhale controlled despite the strain building through his legs and shoulders.

"Come on," he muttered under his breath. "Follow me."

He measured each step with precision, maintaining just enough distance to deny a clean strike while never fully breaking engagement. Every turn, every angled retreat, was deliberate, shaping the chase rather than escaping it, guiding the creature’s momentum back toward the center without allowing it to sense the pattern forming beneath its pursuit.

Shiny mirrored the intent on the opposite flank.

He baited in sharp, controlled bursts, stepping in just long enough to provoke an attack before slipping away again, drawing his opponent after him like a thread pulled taut. Each withdrawal carved a subtle arc through the battlefield, tightening the path, steering it closer to the corpse without ever revealing the shape of the trap being drawn around it.

The two Blackmaws began closing distance toward each other again, pulled inward by the narrowing space and the forced convergence of their pursuit.

"Now!" he shouted.

Yuto pivoted sharply mid-step, turning the motion of his retreat into attack. His blade drove into the stronger Blackmaw’s foreleg joint, not with force meant to kill, but with exact placement, slipping into the narrow seam where armor plates failed to fully align. The strike landed at a precise angle, targeting the structural weakness buried beneath its reinforced plating.

The creature’s balance faltered for the briefest instant, a subtle break in its controlled motion that rippled through its stance.

That moment, barely more than a heartbeat, was all that was needed.

Its footing gave way.

The massive frame lurched forward, momentum turning against it as it stumbled uncontrollably.

And it crashed straight into the other Blackmaw.

The impact was immediate and violent, a brutal convergence of mass and momentum that tore the air with the sound of collapsing force.

Both creatures snapped toward each other on instinct, snarls ripping out as coordination dissolved into raw aggression. Claws met hide, limbs tangled, bodies locking in a chaotic grind where neither yielded ground and neither gained control.

He did not hesitate.

Yuto slammed his foot down onto a fractured stone plate beneath him, the impact carrying through his entire body like a controlled detonation of force.

The surface buckled under the pressure, stone flexing inward before giving way with a hollow, resonant crack that echoed through the broken terrain far deeper than the strike itself.

The ground shifted beneath him, unstable layers adjusting and sliding as the structure of the earth began to fail.

A jagged fracture line tore outward in an instant, racing through the unstable terrain like a sudden wound splitting open.

The earth gave way.

One Blackmaw dropped partially into the widening crack, claws scraping desperately against collapsing rock. The other lost footing on the shifting surface, forced into an unstable angle where its movements became sluggish and compromised.

"Shiny!"

No words needed.

Shiny was already moving.

Both of them struck at the same time.

Yuto moved first, blade driving into the exposed joints of the trapped Blackmaw, finding the weakened seams where armor and anatomy failed to meet cleanly. Metal bit deep, forcing resistance to buckle in short, violent increments.

Shiny hit from the opposite angle, the impact snapping through its balance and dragging its posture further out of alignment, turning stability into strain.

The second Blackmaw attempted to recover, limbs shifting for purchase, but the ground beneath it had already begun to betray its weight, soil and fractured stone collapsing in uneven waves.

Above them, the leaning spire groaned, a deep, grinding sound of stressed stone and failing foundations.

Cracks spread through its base, branching outward in jagged lines that widened with each passing second.

Yuto glanced up. Come on, come on..

The spire collapsed, its immense frame breaking apart in a cascading roar of stone and ruin.

It came down like judgment, absolute and unstoppable, swallowing the air in a deep, concussive wave that pressed against everything at once.

The first Blackmaw was lost beneath the descending mass, crushed into silence as jagged stone tore through it and buried it without hesitation. The second was caught a heartbeat later as the ground split open beneath it, a widening fracture of dust and shattered earth dragging it down into its depths, sealing it under layers of collapsing debris that roared shut like a closing wound.

The world shuddered once, a violent tremor rippling through soil and air alike, bending the space between stillness and destruction.

Then it settled, leaving only dust drifting through the aftermath.

Dust drifted across the broken battlefield.

[Blackmaw Slain.]

[+1 soul core]

[Paragon Slain.]

[+15 soul cores]

[Dreadlord Slain.]

[+10 soul cores]

[Blackmaw Slain.]

[+1 soul core]

[Paragon Slain.]

[+15 soul cores]

[Dreadlord Slain.]

[+10 soul cores]

Yuto stood still for a moment, sword lowered, breathing steady but heavy.