Baek Ro's mouth opened as if to argue, but the words caught in his throat when the first shadowbeast lunged into the torchlight.
It was wrong—its body too thin for its size, legs bending in ways no natural creature's should. Its head was a mass of glistening eyes, all fixed on them, and its claws scraped the floor with a sound that made Baek's teeth ache.
Matic loosed an arrow before the thing had even finished stepping into view. The shot pierced straight through the first eye cluster, and the beast collapsed, twitching, but it didn't vanish—it kept dragging itself forward, pulling with one arm like a drowning man toward shore.
With the new power granted by his familiar, Matic felt a surge of possibility. He could teleport instantly to any place he'd been before—but the farther the distance, the heavier the mana toll. He still barely understood the mysterious ability the boy had given him; there hadn't been time to master it. His only real experience with teleportation came from his last party, where it had saved his life more than once.
Teleportation favored ranged combat, and in this fight, his trusty sword felt like dead weight. Tchaka's mind raced. He couldn't drift too far from the boy—who knew when he might need that power again? His familiar, now matching his own level, posed no threat and stayed summoned, a silent guardian at his side.
"Entana," he whispered, choosing to save the merged power between himself and his familiar for a more desperate moment.
For now, he wanted to test someone else's gift—Baek Ro's, to be precise.
Activation: Heron's Armament Surge (active for 5 minutes)
Focusing, Matic empowered the tips of his arrows. Immediately they turned black, crisscrossed with red lines like veins. He fired the first shot, which sliced through the atmosphere and fatally pierced the adversary.
20 XP gained.
A low, satisfied growl escaped him. Before the enemy could react, he teleported to the side and fired again—aiming straight for the creature's head. Staying close to Baek Ro, he flowed through the fight like a phantom.
20 XP gained.
"Ohhh, this feels right," he breathed, adrenaline sharpening every sense. But then the cold reality settled in: his five-minute window was up. A one-minute cooldown began, forcing him to rely on his instincts and steel.
Baek Ro's eyes flicked from Matic… to the arrow tip.
It looked far too familiar.
Then he glanced at his own hand—at the circle etched around it.
Oh… so that's what they meant.
His mind reeled back.
Wait… he's one of them—
Before the thought could finish, a heavy THUD… THUD… shook the air.
The battle was far from over.
Out from the wave there was a new beast.
The troll loomed before them, a hulking beast standing well over eight feet tall. Its skin was a sickly greenish-gray, rough and mottled like cracked stone, stretched tight over bulging muscles.
The monstrous figure barreled forward, muscles flexing beneath its rough, scaly hide. It held a crude, blood-stained club in its enormous hand, worn and jagged from innumerable battles. It swung the heavy weapon in a vicious arc, aiming to smash anything in its path, and let out a guttural roar. The ground trembled under the bone-crushing blow, sending dust and debris spiraling.
Matic held his ground, waiting for the opening. In a blink, He lost an arrow as he teleported behind the beast's head in an instant, but the creature's reflexes were startlingly quick. It twisted, swatting the projectile aside, and retaliated with a vicious swing. Matic vanished again, reappearing at a safer distance.
He decided to test something—his so-called merge power.
Conduit Merge Ability: Entana—Activated.
From the chaos, they emerged—twelve projectiles hanging in the air like judgment given form. They were spears of pure blackness that resembled needles and tapered to razor points on both ends. As though piercing reality, their cores were so dark that they swallowed light itself.
Four evenly spaced horizontal bars cut across each vertical shaft, forming cross-like silhouettes—not holy, but oppressive and absolute. And yet, paradoxically, the darkness bled a ghostly-white aura so blinding it warped the air, their borders blurring in the overwhelming glow.
Matic studied them, unsure of their function but eager to find out.
The beast roared and charged again. Instinct took over—Matic teleported to the position of one Entana, while the Entana itself blinked into the space Matic had just occupied. The creature lashed out, swinging its club at the sudden threat.
Like clockwork, his cooldown expired. But before Matic could act, his attention snapped to the boy he'd told to hide.
He thought to himself, Well… I figured it might come in handy.
What he didn't realize was the can of worms that thought had just opened.
In a flash, the boy appeared—right where the Entana had been, the very spot the troll's club was swinging toward. Instinct took over. He raised his shield, crimson runes flaring across its surface, and triggered his parry ability.
The blow came… softer than expected.
Eyes squeezed shut, he braced for bone-crushing impact—but instead, there was only a dull thud. Slowly, cautiously, he cracked one eye open.
The troll wasn't pressing forward. It was staggering.
And jutting from the side of its thick neck was one of the dark projectiles…
Only this one glowed with a deep, ominous red outline.