The earth groaned under the giant's nature.
Its torn armor scraped against the desert as it moved, the sound like rusted metal beating with another metal.
The smaller abominations that had been crawling nearby suddenly merged into the giant's flesh. They were absorbed—one by one.... their bones cracked, their shrieks folding into silence. The giant's frame bulged, its joints snapped and reformed. New limbs sprouted like roots.
The air pressure plummeted. The sand began to lift, swirling in orbit around it.
"It's marking with the others. Damn it's evolving!" Rosario shouted with eyes widening.
Elior's expressios turned tougher. "Then we need to end it now."
A step and it was suddenly there. Its speed no longer matched its size; it was a mountain moving like a bullet.
Tom clenched his fists, feeling the air swirl between his knuckles. He began rotating it tighter, faster until a spiral of compressed wind formed around his arm. The air cracked and sparked. His heartbeat matched the rotation, faster, faster.
Elior looked at him, the corners of his mouth curling into a sharp grin.
"Ready?"
"Throw me," Tom said.
Elior's aura flared as the dust blew backward like an explosion. His Face showed off, his muscles radiating unnatural strength. He grabbed Tom by the back of his coat.
Then Elior threw Tom.
The ground collapsed under Elior's stance as Tom was launched like a meteor. The air behind him ripped open.
Tom braced himself midair, spinning the force around his arm condensed, creating a blue spiral of wind and plasma.
He shouted with a shaky voice,
"TAKE THIS—!"
The giant raised its arm to block.
Unexpectedly.... Tom vanished.
It tilted its monstrous head in confusion, its glowing eyes searching in the empty air.
Elior's was confused too. "Where?"
Unexpectedly, the sound came ripping in the atmosphere behind the giant.
THUD!
Tom appeared in a blur behind it with his arm already rotating, wind spiraling with such density that light bent around it. He punched.
The impact ripped through the creature's spine. A massive crack sound scattered across the desert. The entire body jerked forward, the blue glow flickering out.
Everyone blinked then saw another figure standing behind Tom.
Rosario Enrico.
Omen in hand. His face was calm, a smirk crawling up the corner of his lips.
"So it is you" Elior muttered.
Rosario twirled his weapon. "Simple," he said. "He flies fast. I teleport faster."
The giant began to turn. Its eyes rolling backward. Rosario stepped forward beside Tom, the Omen glistening crimson under the red moon.
He said softly, voice cutting through the roar of the dying beast.
"Never blink when death's standing behind you."
He vanished with a flicker of black and reappeared behind the monster's neck.
A clean, single motion. Slash.
The giant's body stopped for a second. A thin red line spread from its throat to its chest. Then its form split apart, cleaving into two halves. Black liquid gushed out like a flood, evaporating before touching the sand. The smell of rust and rot filled the air.
Elior lowered his stance, breathing hard, eyes watching as the colossal remains melted into a puddle of disgusting, pulsating sludge. The smaller creatures that hadn't merged twitched — then dissolved as well.
Rosario sheathed his Omen, stepping beside Tom. The heat shimmered around them; Tom's arm was still glowing faintly from the force.
Elior crossed his arms, smirking faintly. "Nice teamwork, boys."
Tom exhaled, sweat dripping down his face. "I wasn't even sure that would work."
Rosario shrugged, glancing at the melting corpse. "That's the fun part of improvising."
The liquid that once was a godlike monster hissed as it evaporated, leaving nothing but a crater and a black mark on the sand, a scar on the earth itself.
Tom stared upward.
He thought he saw something in those clouds staring back, but vanished.
However,
The battlefield was still steaming.
The last of the creatures had already fallen, their black blood seeping into the land.
Tom exhaled sharply, wiping grime off his face. "That…. was way more than I signed up for," he muttered, resting his hands on his knees.
Rosario spun Omen once before it dissolved into smoke, sliding back into his inventory. "Here you are, still breathing. I would call that a good sign."
Elior was standing a few paces away, looking at the horizon that still shimmered red. "Don't relax yet," he said quietly. "If these things came crawling out of the Overseer's shadow, then this was only a preview."
Vera emerged from the haze, his trident dragging across the ground, dripping with some unidentifiable goo.
His armor was cracked, his coat burned in places yet he walked with that same blank, mechanical calm.
Tom raised a brow. "You look like you wrestled a volcano."
Vera stopped beside him, looked down, and replied flatly, "It was more like eight volcanoes. They had teeth too."
Rosario snorted. "That's the most emotion I've ever heard in your voice."
Vera tilted his head slightly, as if computing something. "Emotion detected. Discarding."
Tom chuckled under his breath. "He's back."
Elior's expression softened for the first time in hours. He glanced at each of them. Arlong standing by the bunker entrance with his barrier still flickering faintly, Rosario brushing dust off his cloak, Tom looking ready to pass out, and Vera standing like a war statue.
"You all did good," Elior said. "Really good."
Arlong finally spoke up, his voice quieter than usual. "I thought the barrier was going to collapse. I could feel their claws scraping against it."
Rosario patted his shoulder. "Fortunately, it didn't. That is what counts."
Vera looked toward the fading puddle of the giant's remains. "What now?"
Elior took a long breath, eyes narrowing. "Now…."
He looked toward the crimson sky that refused to fade.
"….we prepare for what's coming next."
The world seemed to breathe in unison with them. Then, Rosario's eyes widened.
He pointed upward. "Wait, look at the sky."
A shudder passed through the group as they all tilted their heads back.
Where the colossal creature had fallen, the clouds were twisting, turning into a deep viridian hue, churning like a boiling sea.
Within, something began to fall slowly at first, then all at once.
Drops the size of footballs, translucent green and sizzling as they struck the sand. Wherever they landed, the ground hissed and melted, turning to bubbling sludge.
"Acid rain!" Tom shouted, his voice cracking with urgency. "Everyone, cover!"
A drop splattered near them, vaporizing a stone into steam. The smell of burning metal and flesh filled the air. The survivors hiding in the bunker screamed from inside.
Vera clenched his jaw, holding his trident like a shield. "If one of those touches the bunker, it's over."
Arlong stepped forward without hesitation, his cloak whipping in the wind. "Then we won't let that happen."
He unslung his bow, black and curved like an eclipse, and bit down on an arrow, holding it with his teeth. His right hand trembled not from fear, but from pressure, from the weight of what was coming.
Tom was confused. "Arlong, what are you doing?"
Before anyone could finish, Arlong tilted his head slightly, grinned through his teeth, and spat the arrow into the air. His hand shot up, catching it mid-spin, and then he threw it.
It didn't move like an arrow, as always.
The moment it left his right hand, the directions were changing. The sky folded on itself, and the arrow split into thousands of shards of blue light, breaking every known law of motion. Each fragment streaked upward, colliding with the falling acid drops, bursting them midair into harmless vapor.
For a moment, it looked as if he'd done it.
The survivors cheered from within.
But then more clouds began to gather. Hundreds more drops formed, blotting out the moon.
Arlong's expression turned grim. "There is too many," he muttered.
Rosario took a step forward. "Then we fight it together, we will—"
"No."
Arlong's voice was firm and mature-like now. "Go inside. All of you."
Tom shook his head in denial. "What about you?"
Arlong smiled faintly, eyes soft but resolute. "Someone has to stay and hold the line, you know right?"
The others hesitated, then, seeing the look in his eyes, obeyed. One by one, they ran toward the bunker.
Arlong stood alone.
He let his bow fall to the sand, the string snapping softly.
The sky was nothing but acid and green light.
He looked up, whispering to himself,
"Let's see if I can melt my fate too."