The giant's body was still twitching when Kael stepped down from its head.
The moss under his boots seemed to inhale — a slow, damp rise and fall. At first, he thought it was just the adrenaline still hammering through his veins, but when the same ripple passed through the ground toward the trees ahead, he realized it wasn't him.
The marsh was moving.
Ryn crouched beside the giant's still head, eyes scanning the shadows. "It's too quiet. Nothing's coming for the body."
Kael wiped the crystal dust from his blade. "They're not mourning it. They're clearing the path."
"Clearing it for us, or for them?"
He glanced at the moss ahead, the slow pulse of it almost matching his own. "For it."
They advanced in a loose wedge — Kael at the front, Ryn on his right, the surviving hunters forming the flanks. Two had fallen in the giant fight; the rest wore that tight, grim expression of people who'd already counted themselves dead and were still moving anyway.
Every step forward felt heavier. The air was thicker here, the mist denser. The twisted trees pressed close on both sides, their trunks bending together overhead like ribs.
After twenty paces, Kael realized there was no birdsong, no insect hum, not even the drip of water from branches. Just the slow, wet breathing of the moss underfoot.
The first trap came silently.
One of the spear hunters took a step — and the ground swallowed his leg up to the hip. He had just enough time to gasp before the moss hardened around him like concrete.
Kael lunged forward, stabbing into the moss at the edge of the pit. The blade slid in like cutting flesh. The moss screamed.
[C-Rank (Mid) | GP: 405 + 10 = 415]
The grip on the hunter's leg loosened. Kael hauled him free, but the skin below the knee was raw, patches eaten away by something in the moss.
"Don't touch the ground where it pulses," Kael said. "If it's breathing harder, it's ready to bite."
From then on, they moved slower, testing each step with spear butts and the hammer's haft.
The second trap was airborne.
Thin, vine-like strands hung from the branches above, swaying slightly though there was no wind. When one brushed the archer on the left flank, it tightened like a noose. The others dropped in an instant, trying to coil around throats and arms.
Kael's knife flashed, severing two before they could grab him. The hammer-wielder smashed another clean off the branch, the vine thrashing on the ground before curling in on itself and going still.
Ryn shot one mid-descent, the bolt pinning it to a trunk. It writhed like a snake before going limp.
The path narrowed until they were walking single file between two massive trees grown so close their trunks fused at the base.
Beyond them, the fog glowed faintly red.
Kael knew without seeing the map in his head — they were close to the core. The link to the giant was gone, but something else was pulling at him now.
It was colder, sharper. Older.
The red light resolved into a clearing. At its center was a pool of dark water, perfectly still despite the faint ripple in the air. Above it, hanging from the branches like a cocoon, was a mass of roots and bone in the vague shape of a man.
It opened its eyes.
Kael froze. The face — if you could call it that — was smooth except for the eyes, which were black shot through with red veins. The mouth was just a slit, but when it spoke, the voice was everywhere.
"You've come far, little thief."
Ryn's crossbow came up, but Kael raised a hand to stop her. "You're the Shaper."
The cocoon shifted slightly. "You've tasted my work. Worn it like armor. Stolen it from my children."
"I've killed your children."
The slit of a mouth widened just enough to show jagged, uneven teeth. "And yet, here you are… still wearing their gifts. Do you know what that makes you?"
Kael's grip on the knife tightened. "The one who's going to end you."
The Shaper's voice turned almost amused. "End me? You've barely begun. You think you've grown strong — but you've only been fed. Every beast you've killed, every gene you've stolen, I have allowed."
"That giant outside? You allowed me to kill it?"
The teeth showed again. "It was flawed. You were a better vessel."
The moss around the pool began to pulse faster, the ground trembling faintly. The hunters shifted uneasily, weapons up.
Kael took a step forward. "Then let's see if you can still shape anything when I've taken all your power."
The Shaper moved — not fast, not even abruptly, but with a sick, deliberate unfurling. The cocoon split down the middle, and something crawled out.
It was tall, thin, its limbs too long, fingers ending in root-like tendrils that writhed constantly. Where skin should have been, there was a patchwork of bark, bone, and chitin. Its chest was a hollow cage, the heart inside visible — and glowing.
The hunters loosed arrows. Ryn's bolt struck first, hitting the chest cage and sparking against bone. The heart inside pulsed once, and the arrow dissolved into dust.
Kael charged, Stonehide covering him in an instant. The Shaper's tendrils lashed out, some whipping past him, others striking with the force of spears. He ducked one, caught another on his arm, and slashed through it.
[C-Rank (Mid) | GP: 415 + 15 = 430]
The Shaper didn't flinch — it smiled.
"Good," it said. "Feed yourself. Feed me."
Kael didn't understand until the moss under his feet pulsed again, stronger this time. His new GP rush felt… wrong. Like it had been leashed.
Ryn shouted, "Kael! It's taking something back when you kill!"
He didn't have time to reply — the Shaper was on him, its tendrils a blur. One wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground.
The pulse in his chest was no longer his.
Kael drove the knife down into the tendril around his neck, the blade biting deep.
[C-Rank (Mid) | GP: 430 + 10 = 440]
The tendril snapped, dropping him to the ground. He rolled aside as another lashed down where he'd been, the impact splintering the earth.
The hunters pressed in, spears stabbing, the hammer smashing a tendril into pulp. Each strike chipped away at the Shaper — but the moss kept pulsing faster, feeding it strength.
Kael realized the truth:The Shaper's lair wasn't just a base. It was alive. And every kill inside it sent power back to the core — to the heart in its chest.
If they didn't end that heart soon, the fight would never stop.