Hide completely abandoned standard movement and threw his entire body forward, pushing his Agility to its absolute peak. He became a blur of dark scales, tearing through the overgrown moss and grass of the mountain path.

The ruined house was only a few hundred yards away, but in the pitch-black night, it felt like miles.

Another violent crash echoed through the darkness. The entire roof of the moss-covered house caved in, sending a massive plume of dust and shattered wood into the air.

Elara was standing in the middle of the ruined street, her wand glowing with frantic, pale blue light.

"Get away from her!" Elara screamed, her voice cracking with desperation.

She thrust her wand forward. A dozen jagged spikes of pure ice materialized in the air and shot toward the collapsed house like missiles.

Well, she could not see now that the fire was gone, so she fired them all blindly in the direction.

But before the ice could hit their target, a blur of motion swept across the wreckage.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Every single ice spike was completely shattered in mid-air.

Hide arrived at the edge of the street just in time to see the dust clear. His True Sight pierced the darkness, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

Standing on the remnants of the collapsed roof was a beast, but it didn’t look like any Calamity beast Hide had ever seen. It was entirely humanoid.

It stood roughly seven feet tall, with a slender, incredibly muscular build wrapped in what looked like dark, bio-mechanical armor. Its face looked like a doll’s face without any features, but with a single, glowing red vertical slit running down the center.

In its right hand, it held a long, jagged spear made of dark, hardened bone.

And tucked under its left arm, completely unconscious and bleeding from a cut on her forehead, was Evelyn.

Hide didn’t hesitate and lunged.

"H...Hide is that you?" Elara asked, though Hide didn’t answer her.

His boots cracked the asphalt as he launched himself into the air, crossing the distance in a fraction of a second. He gripped Night Singer with both hands, and swung downward with enough force to cleave a boulder in half.

The humanoid beast didn’t even look at him.

It simply raised its bone spear with one hand.

CLANG!

The impact rang out and the shockwave blew the remaining dust away from the house.

Hide’s eyes widened. The beast had completely blocked Night Singer with zero effort. The physical strength behind its single arm was overwhelming. Before Hide could pull back, the beast casually flicked its wrist.

The sheer kinetic force of the parry sent Hide flying backward. He twisted in the air, landing heavily on his boots and skidding a dozen feet across the pavement, leaving deep trenches in the street.

"Hide!" Elara yelled, running to his side. "It... it came out of nowhere! It just broke through the wall, knocked Evelyn out, and ignored me completely!"

Hide gritted his teeth, feeling a dull ache in his forearms. That casual parry possessed the strength equal to that of a D-Rank Gatekeeper, if not more.

The humanoid beast stood on the roof, looking down at them through its glowing red slit. It tightened its grip on Evelyn. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

It wasn’t trying to fight them. It was trying to kidnap her.

The beast bent its knees, preparing to jump away into the darkness.

"Don’t let it leave!" Hide barked.

He thrust his left hand forward. "Abyssal Frost!"

Elara mirrored his movement. "Zero!_"

Two massive torrents of freezing energy—one pale blue, the other pitch black erupted from their hands. The two spells intertwined in mid-air, creating a catastrophic drop in temperature that instantly froze the entire collapsed house into a solid block of jagged ice.

The humanoid beast was caught mid-jump. The combined frost encased its legs and lower torso, anchoring it violently to the frozen roof.

The beast let out a low, vibrating hum that sounded almost mechanical. It shifted its grip on its bone spear, pulling its arm back. The red slit on its face glowed fiercely.

It wasn’t aiming at Hide or Elara.

It aimed the spear directly at the unconscious Evelyn in its own arm. If it couldn’t take her, it was going to execute her.

"No!" Elara screamed in horror.

Hide couldn’t reach her in time. His Mana Blast would kill Evelyn along with the beast. He had no skills to close the gap before the spear fell.

The beast thrust the bone spear straight down toward Evelyn’s chest.

A sudden, sharp cry echoed from the darkness below in the broken house.

Hide had completely forgotten. He had left Hooter, perched on a nearby tree as a scout while he went hunting.

A mass of dark, shadowy feathers blurred into existence. Hooter dove perfectly between the beast and Evelyn.

SQUELCH.

The bone spear violently impaled the small, shadowy owl, completely piercing through its anchor.

The phantom let out a distorted, broken cry. Its shadowy form instantly destabilized, bursting into a cloud of dark mist and rushing back to Hide.

Hide felt a sharp sting in his mind as the connection to his phantom abruptly severed.

[Phantom Hooter has died]

But the sacrifice had bought them the exact fraction of a second they needed. The spear’s momentum had been completely halted by Hooter’s body.

Hide vanished.

Using the distraction, he pushed his Agility past its limits, appearing directly behind the humanoid beast. His Abyssal Scale Carapace flared, thick black scales covering his arms as he wrapped his left arm in a chokehold around the beast’s neck, violently yanking it backward.

At the same time, he drove his right knee directly into the beast’s armpit, forcing it to drop Evelyn.

Evelyn tumbled out of the beast’s grip, rolling safely down the slope of the frozen roof and landing softly in a patch of tall grass.

The humanoid beast practically vibrated with rage.

It violently elbowed Hide in the ribs. The impact was like getting hit by a wrecking ball. Hide’s dark scales cracked under the sheer force, and he was thrown off the beast, crashing into the frozen debris.

Hide coughed up a mouthful of blood, forcing himself to stand.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Muscle Authority

Location: Stomach

Source: C-Rank Calamity Beast (Slaughter Doll)

Severity: High

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

[Awaiting command.]

Hide’s eyes widened. A C-Rank beast? A Lesser Calamity Lord? Why was it attacking Evelyn?

There were a lot of other questions in Hide’s mind as he saw what was happening in front of him without any explanation.

The humanoid beast shattered the ice around its legs with a single flex of its muscles. It didn’t try to grab Evelyn again. Instead, it slowly turned its featureless head toward Hide.

And then, the impossible happened.

The beast spoke.

--- Please support the story by giving Power stones and Golden tickets. It means a lot. There are mass release goals upon reaching a certain number of Golden tickets. It is in Auxiliary Chapter. Thank you.