Yuzu stopped, looking at Ren with eyes filled with both worry and panic, truly unsure what he was supposed to do at this moment. His feet felt numb, as if poured full of lead, while his mind tangled helplessly between countless choices equally terrible.
Instinct told him to run, to run immediately from this place before things spiraled beyond control, but reason gently tugged at his shoulder, telling him he had to drag Ren along, that leaving Ren behind here was almost the same as pushing him into death with his own hands.
Even though he had never witnessed the strength of that grotesque creature directly, the things Yuzu heard from Lily's account were enough to chill his spine with fear.
"It"...just that single word was enough to conjure the image of something that had torn apart four fully equipped, skilled, experienced players, along with several innocent NPCs…
…all with those distorted arms sprouting unexpectedly from its back like spears thrust from the void, following no law or natural motion.
Even without seeing the scene himself, Yuzu easily imagined that the players killed by 'it' were far from ordinary low-floor players like them.
Those people were numerous, strong...strong enough to walk at the front, confident enough to face danger. Yet in the end… in the end they were nothing more than prey to that creature, torn apart as if their strength meant nothing.
Yuzu felt his chest tighten as he looked toward Ren.
He wasn't sure Ren could do anything against that thing… no, thinking that was just lying to himself.
Yuzu knew very well Ren would die if he faced that monster alone, and worse, he… Yuzu… would die too, because even if they ran, even if they hid, that thing wasn't something they could escape from so easily.
Yuzu understood Ren's combat ability. He knew Ren was far stronger than he looked thanks to what his sister and Rowa had told him, but even so, within Yuzu's perception and imagination, Ren was still just a normal player, a human still well within the danger zone of things far beyond their level.
No matter how strong Ren was, he wasn't an invincible hero from a story, and that very truth made Yuzu even more desperate.
"Don't worry… I'm not as weak as I look…" Ren's voice came softly, warmly, strangely comforting, like a sudden gust of heated wind blowing away the dark thoughts strangling Yuzu's mind, lightening his chest in an instant.
Yuzu slowly raised his head, eyes turning to Ren, who had somehow ended up behind him without him noticing.
The hallway's shadows draped over that slender figure like a thin cloak, not heavy but enough to create an enigmatic presence that made Yuzu unconsciously hold his breath.
"And remind Hina not to forget what she promised me."
Ren's thin lips curved into a faint smile, impossible to discern whether it was reassurance, a reminder, or simply a mask concealing something deeper.
Yuzu stood there, staring blankly at the person before him… no, this wasn't the graceful, quiet Ren who always hid himself in the corners of Yuzu's imagination.
In that place stood a knight, an unfamiliar yet strangely familiar silhouette, wrapped in elegant black armor, each contour blending into the darkness while still carrying an invisible pressure, like a wordless aura.
Yuzu quietly lifted his head further, catching the reflection of his own face in the helmet's onyx plating.
That black sheen wasn't cold, wasn't sharp, instead, it emanated a solid, indescribable sense of stability.
Yuzu instinctively felt safe an odd, contradictory safety, as if so long as Ren stood there, whether clad in abyss-dark armor or standing amid a nightmare, none of those horrors could touch him.
Ren remained still, letting his body gradually merge with the thick darkness of the hallway, watching silently as Yuzu's worried figure retreated, footsteps growing distant, thinner, then dissolving into silence.
When Yuzu disappeared around the bend, the space instantly felt terrifyingly empty. In its place came a piercing chill slipping through the armor like needles, making Ren's skin crawl.
At the same time, from deep within the darkness, came a strange scraping sound, like a dull saw biting into water-swollen skin, the sound wet and heavy enough to feel like it clung to the throat of anyone who heard it.
"I wish I'd learned night vision…" Ren sighed softly, his voice so small it sounded like he was mocking himself from inside his own mind.
But before Ren could move, before his hand could even reach the sword hilt, a black mass shot out of the darkness as if fired from a giant crossbow.
It lunged at Ren with a speed visible only through instinct, a blatant, hateful pounce ripping through the air right in front of him.
A tremendous force surged into Ren's hand from the sword hilt, punching up the fragile nerves of his arm and slamming into his skull, making Ren feel like his very bones were vibrating to the point of snapping.
The onyx boots skidded harshly across the stone floor, releasing a shrill screech that made the entire hallway contract for a heartbeat.
Ren clenched his teeth, snapping his sword upward, forcing back the pale arm that had shot out of the darkness like a living spear.
Feeling the arm still trembling from the impact, Ren tightened his grip on the hilt through his gloves and armor, steadying himself with the thought that he could withstand that strike, even if raw strength wasn't his main attribute.
But being pushed back that easily… still sent a faint chill along his spine.
Ren hadn't even regained his balance when the sound of flesh tearing erupted from the darkness, wet, taut, like a stretched cord about to snap.
A heartbeat later, three slime-slick arms shot out, locking down the space on both sides, pinning Ren into a perfect dead zone.
Oathrend trembled lightly in Ren's grasp as he raised it, the steel slicing the air with such sharp dryness that even the hallway seemed to compress around it.
This was the first time Ren truly used this sword since receiving it, and it did not disappoint.
The ash-silver blade of Oathrend spiraled through the darkness, cleaving cleanly through each grotesque arm with precise, decisive cuts, leaving trails of viscous fluid exploding outward like living sludge sputtering in pain.
The severed limbs spun away, twitching midair, flinging strings of slimy blood-like matter against both walls as Ren held his stance, breath releasing in short, heavy bursts like heated steel.
A shrill, bone-grinding screech rang out, swallowing the entire hallway as Ren severed the monster's three arms, the sound rising from its mouth lined with glass-sharp teeth grinding together in pain and fury.
Instinctively, the creature staggered back to widen the distance, survival forcing it to retreat into the dark, but Ren didn't grant it even a single heartbeat.
Immediately, Ren triggered [Dash], his entire body shooting forward like a streak of blurred silk thrown by a fierce wind, light, fluid, feline.
In the sliver of time between two heartbeats, Ren crossed the foul-smelling gap, weaving between the twitching remains of severed arms still spasming midair.
Ren lifted the saber to chest height, and a pale blue light flared to life around the blade, pulling in the surrounding darkness like a vacuum.
With a thin exhale, Ren lunged forward as [Stab] activated, the ash-silver tip plunging deep into the creature's swollen chest, piercing its damp, rubbery flesh as if stabbing through water-soaked hide.
A disturbing sensation crawled up Ren's arm, like stabbing into a sack full of living skin, slick, cold, and wrong enough to make every nerve in his arm tighten in discomfort.
The creature screamed, the sound reverberating like nails dragged across rusted metal walls...but Ren did not withdraw. He only tightened his grip and pushed the blade another inch deeper, as if trying to bury this horror at the bottom of the hallway.
He shifted his stance, boots sliding on the damp stone as his muscles flexed, ready for the next strike.
Instantly, Ren activated the sword skill [Vertical Arc]. The blade exploded in light inside the creature's pale chest, ripping upward like splitting its body in two, carving a sharp, dangerous V-shaped wound, a death sentence traced in blood and slithering ichor.
Ren quickly retreated, bracing himself within the darkness like a piece of the environment itself, taking advantage of his passive +15% damage in dim areas, plus the stacking bonus after every three consecutive strikes from the sword.
Combined with the skill damage, Ren knew he had shaved off a massive chunk of its HP.
But when he looked up at the monster's grotesque head, barely breathing after the assault, Ren's heart skipped a beat.
Its HP bar… hadn't budged. Not a single sliver.
Every effort, every ounce of strength was nothing more than invisible needles stabbing a stone slab.
Ren felt his body tremble slightly, cold sweat soaking into his armor.
Suddenly, the creature twisted its abhorrent chest toward Ren. Its wrinkled skin shifted, birthing small faces that pushed up beneath the surface, followed by a scream so piercing it shredded the air.
[Banshee Scream]
Ren staggered back, one hand clutching his sword hilt, the other gripping his head as if holding something inside from breaking out.
The creature's scream… wasn't just sound. It was a psychic force, wrapping around every neuron in his skull, shrieking violently, each pulse slamming into Ren's mind like a hammer striking bone.
Every wave of sound made his skeleton quiver, his heartbeat stutter, and in that moment, the darkness of the hallway thickened, threatening to swallow Ren's consciousness whole.