"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Elara’s voice was strained, forced out through gritted teeth in a desperate, ragged rhythm. She kept muttering the curse word like a mantra, trying to keep her mind busy, trying to drown out the blinding agony pulsing from her mangled left arm.

But it was useless, really.

She stumbled forward, her boots slipping on the slick, blood-stained asphalt. The terrain around her was an absolute nightmare. When that weird land collapsed, geography had seemingly given up. It was a literal maze of destruction.

Random things were scattered everywhere—crushed sedans, shattered machines, and chunks of massive concrete pillars. But the worst part was the environment itself. The terrain was so weird and violently folded that there were massive, ancient trees growing horizontally out of the walls to her left and right. There were even thick, jagged roots hanging from floating chunks of bedrock directly above her head.

It was a suffocating, three-dimensional labyrinth.

She vaulted awkwardly over two massive tree trunks that had fallen horizontally across her path. Her landing was completely off-balance. She plummeted a few feet and landed heavily on the crushed, rusted roof of a busted car.

The impact sent a fresh wave of blinding pain up her ruined arm.

Before she could even catch her breath, the temperature behind her skyrocketed.

A deafening, reptilian roar shook the twisted concrete walls of the maze. The D-Rank beast opened its massive jaws, and a blinding light gathered in the back of its throat.

Elara threw herself off the hood of the car just as the beast fired.

A massive, roaring pillar of dark orange flames erupted from its mouth. The fire washed over the horizontal trees she had just jumped over, instantly incinerating the thick trunks into ash. The surrounding area was immediately engulfed in a terrifying inferno, the sheer heat blistering the back of Elara’s neck.

She scrambled across the cracked pavement, her breathing erratic.

She was terrified. For the first time since she had become a Major, the very real, very cold realization gripped her heart.

’I might actually die here. Fuck it... why did this land had to become so weird all of a sudden. IF that rock hadn’t crushed my hand and those beasts hadn’t drained my mana, i might have killed it by now.’

The colossal beast stomped forward, crushing the burning remains of the trees under its heavy feet. It loomed over the busted car, its reptilian eyes locking onto her fragile frame.

It opened its massive jaws again. The air distorted violently as another, even larger flame blast began to gather in its throat.

Elara squeaked loudly. She looked left and right, but she was completely boxed in by the twisted terrain. She had nowhere to run.

Desperation took over. She raised her right hand, trembling as she forcefully activated her talent.

"Ice Wall!"

She had run out of mana a long time ago. Her core was almost dry. Forcing her talent to activate now meant drawing on her own life force, cannibalizing her physical stamina to forcibly manifest the spell.

A thick, massive glacier of pale blue ice erupted from the pavement, forming a sturdy, jagged barricade between her and the dinosaur.

The physical toll hit her instantly.

Elara dropped to her knees, violently coughing before vomiting a thick puddle of blood onto the pavement. Her vision swam, black spots dancing at the edges of her sight.

But truth be told, she knew it was completely useless. Against a D-Rank beast’s concentrated flame blast, a rushed wall of ice was nothing more than a momentary delay. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

She looked up at the chaotic, folded sky, tears of pure frustration and fear pricking her eyes.

"Where are you?!" Elara screamed into the humid air. "Evelyn! Hide!"

Suddenly, the unnatural shadow stretching beneath the busted car beside her rippled.

From the dense darkness, a towering, armored figure appeared completely out of nowhere. Before Elara could even register the movement, a massive, gauntleted hand reached out and grabbed her firmly by the waist.

The figure hoisted her effortlessly into the air like a ragdoll.

Elara shrieked in absolute terror. She weakly pounded her one good fist against the solid, dark metal of the creature’s chest.

"Wait, wait! What are you?!" she screamed.

Zenith didn’t answer. The phantom soldier simply bent its knees and jumped.

With terrifying physical power, Zenith launched itself backward, clearing the immediate blast zone in a single, massive leap, carrying the thrashing girl up the steep incline of a nearby rocky hill.

A split second later, the dinosaur unleashed its flame blast.

Elara ignored the explosion below them. She was entirely focused on the terrifying shadow monster carrying her away.

"Stop! Stop!" Elara kept hitting Zenith’s impenetrable armor, her legs kicking wildly in the air. "Where are you taking me?! You can’t rape me! STOPP!"

Zenith, completely unbothered and incapable of caring, simply followed its master’s exact orders.

The monster landed perfectly on the crest of the hill. It walked over and gently, almost delicately, put Elara down on the ground right next to a completely stunned Evelyn.

Once its task was complete, Zenith simply stood there. It just stared at the two girls with its hollow, glowing violet eyes.

"Elara!" Evelyn gasped, immediately dropping to her knees to check on the injured girl.

Elara blinked, looking at Evelyn, then at the silent shadow monster, and then finally noticing the boy standing at the edge of the cliff.

Hide was standing a few yards away, his hands resting casually in his pockets, looking down into the valley.

Below them, the D-Ranked dinosaur beast maintained its concentrated flame blast. The roaring fire hit Elara’s thick ice wall. The ice didn’t even have time to melt into water—it instantly vaporized into a massive cloud of hissing steam.

The heat was so intense that the asphalt and debris directly in front of the beast literally liquefied, turning the entire area into a bubbling pool of molten lava.

Hide didn’t look scared. In fact, as he watched the terrifying display of raw destructive power, his face split into a wide, satisfied grin.

A pale blue system window suddenly materialized in front of his eyes.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Concentrated Flame Blast

Location: Biological Material (Strand of Hair)

Source: D-Rank Calamity Beast (Brochio Fiend)

Severity: low

Hide’s grin widened.

He hadn’t just sent Zenith down there to save Elara. Right before ordering the phantom soldier to jump into the valley, Hide had plucked a single strand of his own hair and handed it to Zenith with a very specific, secondary command: Throw this directly into the beast’s fire.

Because his hair was biologically a part of him, the Universal Adaptation System still registered its destruction as a direct, hostile attack on the Host.

System Query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this specific attack type?

[Awaiting command.]

’Evolve,’ Hide commanded mentally.

[Adapting – 0%]

[15%]

Hide rolled his shoulders, completely negating the stifling, humid heat radiating from the lava pool below.

He turned around, his blue eyes locking onto the massive, roaring dinosaur at the bottom of the hill.

"Time to hunt some big lizard,"