Chapter 158: Into The Divide [IV] Veyra could finally breathe... At one point, she couldn’t. Her lungs had seized when a projectile split the storm, cutting through the air so fast it blurred out of sight. It had whistled past Azel, past Medusa, and arrowed straight for her heart. A javelin of pure ice. She hadn’t even registered the speed — only the blur and the deadly intent behind it. By the time her brain screamed danger, it should have already ended her. Instead, blood burst. But it wasn’t hers. One of Medusa’s spider legs had pierced into the ground, intercepting the strike in a violent clash of bone and frost. The leg shattered, droplets of crimson splattering onto the snow. The javelin fell uselessly, clattering at Veyra’s feet. Her breath hitched, knees threatening to buckle. She had almost died. "Keep your head in the game." Azel’s voice cut through her spiraling panic. "This isn’t going to be easy." Veyra swallowed hard. Her chest heaved as she stared at the spot of blood on the snow. ’Why... why do I feel so powerless?’ She had trained, harder than she ever had before. She had promised herself she wouldn’t lag behind. And yet... in the very first clash, she had been nothing but dead weight. [Monsters in the Trial will be much more powerful than their Winter counterparts. Tread cautiously. One wrong move could spell your death.] Azel bit his lip, it was getting tiring already. Azel raised his hand, and in it materialized the weapon of the goddess. The blade shone with divinity He exhaled, and his breath misted in the frigid air. The abomination shifted in the storm. [Corruptling] [Rank 3] The name floated in Azel’s vision, but it did little justice to the horror before them. Once a rabbit, it now stood a hulking parody of life. Its peeled flesh sagged, muscles twitching unnaturally. Bone jutted at wrong angles, its limbs too long, too crooked. Its face still retained hints of the original animal, but stretched, warped into something human-like yet grotesque, a constant smile carved across its split jaw. It twitched unnaturally, its body crackling with distorted energy. Azel adjusted his grip and shot forward, boots kicking up snow. He wanted to close the distance before it threw another trick. But the instant he crossed the halfway point, the ground betrayed him. Cracks spiderwebbed beneath his feet. The earth sank, and suddenly — Gravity spiked. A crushing force pressed against him, his muscles straining as if invisible chains had latched onto every bone. Behind him, he heard Medusa grunt, her knees shaking but she stood, while Veyra dropped to one knee, gasping for air. "Eh?" Azel muttered, his stride faltering but not breaking. He glanced back. Both women trembled under the weight. He clenched his jaw. He had endured worse. As a child, he had trained under the Ever Bracelet, its weight tenfold what normal gravity could impose. Compared to that, this was heavy, yes but manageable. He tore forward. The blade of divinity sang through the air, glowing with his aura. He slashed downward with enough force to cleave stone in half. He wanted to end this abomination in one strike. But— It tilted. It tilted his whole ugly body at once. Its twisted frame bent at an impossible angle, dodging the fatal slash by inches. The blade carved a gouge in the earth where its body had been. Azel’s eyes narrowed. That was no accident. The monster hadn’t resisted — it had read his attack and dodged. Which was a bit impossible, it looked no more than a rotting piece of trash. Before he could recover, it sprang backward with insect-like agility, snow scattering. But Medusa was ready. Her spiders launched forward, two oversized abominations of her own making, their mandibles gnashing as they collided with the creature. At the same moment, a hail of razor snow cut through the storm. Veyra’s magic — only this time, it looked different. The flakes weren’t the delicate shards she usually conjured. They were massive, jagged, their edges like serrated blades. They slashed through the creature’s flesh, tearing strips from its already ruined body. The abomination screeched, its eyes glowing with unnatural light. Its head snapped toward Azel. Then its tongue lashed out. It was long, black and slathered in rotting energy. It shot forward like a spear, aimed to wrap around Azel’s throat. But his aura flared. Green light erupted around him, and with one slash, his blade cut through the tongue and into the beast’s chest. Divinity roared through the strike, consuming the Rank 3 monster in a wave of green fire. It shrieked, spasmed, and then collapsed, twitching violently as the light burned it away. Snow hissed as blood boiled against the cold. Azel exhaled, shoulders lowering. "Haa..." His lips pressed into a thin line. ’What the fuck was that?’ Three abilities. In a single fight. What kind of monsters are these Trials producing? A chime answered him. [Ding] [1/20] His jaw tightened. ’One down, nineteen more to go.’ But he didn’t get time to breathe. The storm shifted again. The air trembled with a new sound — Wings. The buzzing was sharp and grating, slicing through the silence of the forest. Something zipped across the air like a streak of lightning. Azel’s instincts screamed. He leapt back an instant before the ground in front of him erupted. A blur had cut through the snow, carving a trench where he had just stood. He barely caught sight of it, the new monster was fast, impossibly fast. Even Dante could not compare. Then the sound again. His crimson eyes snapped to the side. All he registered was the glint of a horn — then impact. The beast slammed into his shoulder, driving its horn clean into flesh. Pain flared white-hot. Blood burst into the air. And Azel staggered back, teeth grit, eyes narrowing at the new horror rising before him. A monster with the body of a man, but the head of a beetle, armored plates shifting, wings buzzing with unnatural speed. Its horn dripped with his blood as it screeched in triumph. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 [Dreadhorn] [Rank 3]