They packed in haste, hands moving with sharp, practiced urgency. No one wasted breath on unnecessary words at first.

A heavy pressure settled over them as they moved, thick and suffocating, the kind of tension that tightened the throat and made every step feel measured. Ahead of them waited something they had already seen too many times in their minds, and that knowledge dragged behind each of them like an unseen weight.

As they left camp and followed the winding path toward the cliff, the air grew hotter, carrying the faint damp bite of stone and distant water. Fine grit and scattered pebbles brushed against their arms and legs, shifting and scraping with each step, while the ground gradually shifted from packed earth to uneven rock.

Tami finally broke the silence, his voice low and rough with unease.

"I just hope it’s gone," he muttered.

Yuto didn’t respond right away. His gaze stayed forward, locked on the narrowing path.

Maya walked without looking sideways, her expression set and unreadable, eyes fixed ahead as if acknowledging the possibility too closely might make it real.

After a few steps, Tami spoke again, filling the silence he couldn’t stand.

"And if it’s not gone," he added, hesitating briefly, "maybe it’s still asleep and we can slip past it."

Yuto let out a slow breath through his nose. The idea lingered in his mind, fragile and appealing in its simplicity.

Slipping past it.

He glanced toward the cliff ahead, where the ground dropped away into the basin.

It sounded clean in theory, almost reasonable.

But something deep in him resisted the comfort of it. Things like that rarely stayed simple. Rarely stayed kind.

He said nothing, letting the thought sink and fade on its own.

When they finally reached the edge, the air changed.

It felt denser there, colder in a way that had nothing to do with temperature. The wind moved differently, circling instead of flowing, as though reluctant to cross into the space below.

The basin stretched out beneath them like a vast wound carved into the earth, its depths tangled with shadow, broken rock, and jagged mineral ridges that clung to everything they touched.

And there it was.

The colossal vine beast.

Still present.

Still submerged in that unnatural stillness.

For a brief moment, hope flickered across all three of them, thin and uncertain, like light struggling through fog.

Yuto narrowed his eyes, studying the motionless form below.

"Let’s see if we can slip past it," he said quietly.

They began to move.

Carefully at first, then slower, each step tested before committed. They descended the rocky slope in controlled increments, boots scraping softly against stone, hands brushing rough surfaces for balance. Every sound seemed amplified in the hollow, every breath too loud.

For a few seconds, it worked.

The beast did not stir.

No shift in mass. No tremor of life.

Only that suffocating stillness, unchanged and absolute.

Then the ground shuddered.

A deep vibration rolled through the basin, low and resonant, like something massive exhaling after a long sleep.

The silence broke apart.

The beast’s eyes opened.

The shift was immediate, violent in its finality.

A roar tore through the air, not just sound but impact, slamming into them with physical force that rattled bone and breath alike. Birds scattered from the cliffs above in a panicked burst of wings.

The ground fractured as it rose, massive vine-laced limbs uncoiling and whipping outward with brutal speed, shedding dust and broken rock in violent cascades.

"Fall back!" Yuto shouted.

They scattered at once.

Instinct took over, bodies splitting in different directions across unstable stone.

Yuto thrust his hand forward, summoning Beetle. The steel-plated summon erupted into existence beside him with a heavy metallic presence, its armored form grinding against the ground as it landed.

Tami followed suit, calling forth his panther. It emerged low and tense, muscles already coiled, eyes locked onto the shifting mass ahead.

Maya raised her arm next, and her eagle manifested above her in a rush of wings and piercing air.

Yuto’s focus shifted briefly.

The eagle had changed.

It was larger now, noticeably so, its wings spanning wider, its body more substantial. Where it once barely reached her knees, it now stood nearly level with her hips, feathers thickened and eyes sharper with a more predatory intensity.

Tami blinked once.

"Woah," he said. "When did it get that big?"

Maya didn’t turn to him.

"We can talk later," she said sharply. "Right now, we have bigger fish to fry."

Another roar split the basin.

The beast moved.

Everything happened at once.

Seven forces surged forward into chaos, Yuto, Maya, Tami, Shinny, Beetle, Eagle, and Panther, converging on the towering mass.

Beetle struck first, slamming into the beast’s lower structure with crushing force, sending vibrations through the ground and forcing its enormous frame to shift off balance.

The panther darted in immediately after, weaving between swinging limbs, claws raking at exposed gaps between thick, hardened rock-like armor.

Above, the eagle dove in repeated sharp descents, striking toward the beast’s head and eyes, forcing its movements to hesitate and tilt.

Shinny pressed along its flank with relentless precision, never allowing one side to stabilize, cutting into rhythm and control.

Yuto and Maya held mid-range positions, striking in timed bursts whenever openings revealed themselves, their movements coordinated without words, reacting almost instinctively to each other’s timing.

But the beast adapted.

Wounds closed almost as soon as they appeared.

Vines knotted and reformed, mineralized flesh sealing gaps with unnatural speed, erasing damage as if it had never existed.

With every failed strike, its responses grew faster.

Sharper.

More deliberate.

Its counterattacks escalated, heavier impacts crashing through the basin floor, shaking loose stone and splintering rock.

Then its rhythm changed.

A sudden, violent twist of its massive frame.

A sweeping lash of hardened vine-limbs cutting across the battlefield.

Tami didn’t register it in time.

Maya moved instantly.

She surged forward, raising her guard to intercept what was aimed at him.

But the beast shifted again mid-motion, unnatural speed bending its trajectory.

A second strike snapped toward her instead.

Faster than expected.

Cleaner than it should have been.

She braced, but the timing was already wrong.

Yuto broke formation.

"No—!"

He launched himself forward without hesitation, throwing his body directly into the path of the blow.

Impact detonated through him.

The force carried him backward violently, slamming him into Maya.

Maya was driven into Tami.

Tami hit the rock hard, the collision echoing through the basin.