"It’s falling!" Taro shouted, his hands trembling as he struggled with the delicate control required. "No, no! Softer!" Ren urged while the medusas began showing signs of doubt in their movements. "The motion has to flow, like air is water. Think of natural movements, not forced ones." "I’m trying!" Taro’s hands shook with the effort of controlling the threads, each tremor threatening to reveal their deception. "You’re making movements that are too tense... close your eyes," Ren interrupted, his voice steady despite the chaos around them. "Forget the threads. Think about your beetle, about how it will be when it evolves." "But we’re in danger... I can’t relax if..." "A living tunnel doesn’t fight against the earth," Ren’s voice softened despite the chaos, carrying wisdom beyond his years. "It doesn’t scrape, doesn’t push. It undulates, flows, makes the earth dance around it. Your beast will do this when you finish training. Just like the mana movement during cultivation." The medusas stirred restlessly, the incomplete signal pattern making them hesitate between their natural instincts and the artificial control. "Let tension go, breathe deep," Ren insisted, guiding his friend. "Let your arms move like your beast will. Like water beneath the earth." Taro breathed deeply, his eyes closed. For a moment, he could see it, his beetle transforming, becoming something more fluid, more natural. The vision was so clear it took his breath away. His arms began moving with a different rhythm. No longer fighting against the dead Shadow Stalker’s weight, he let his movements flow like liquid earth, each motion smooth and purposeful. "That’s it!" Ren adjusted his mushrooms’ glow to complement the new rhythm. "Keep it just like that!" Above, the medusas responded to the completed pattern. The danger signal finally registered in their primitive minds, and they began retreating toward their cave, their movements becoming more natural and coordinated. "I’m doing it," Taro whispered, a smile forming on his face while maintaining the undulating movement. "I can feel it... this is how it will be..." "Like dancing earth," Ren confirmed, proud that his friend had found that connection with his future evolution. ♢♢♢♢ The salamander-shaped abyssal ran, his purple skin gleaming with cold sweat. His supernatural senses were stretched to their limit, trying to detect where the next attack would come from. A whistle, barely perceptible in the night air. He threw himself right just as three silver feathers pierced the air where his head had been. He didn’t even have time to recover when two more emerged from an impossible angle, one finding flesh in his shoulder and drawing corrupted blood. ’Where is he? WHERE IS HE?!’ The Hunter was like a ghost in the darkness. There were no footsteps to hear, no presence to detect. Only the deadly whistle of feathers and the pain they brought with them. Ahead, he could see its companions, the tentacled one bleeding profusely, the purple slime being having lost consistency in several places. If he could just reach them... Your next chapter is on empire Another attack, this time from above. He rolled desperately, but a feather found his leg. The pain was unbearable, but the terror was worse. Every time he thought he had found a pattern in the attacks, Zhao changed it with lethal unpredictability. ’The rumors were true,’ he thought while another feather grazed his neck. ’The Hunter never lets his prey escape.’ A movement in the shadows, was it him? No, another distraction. The feathers came from the opposite side, piercing through scales and flesh as if they were paper. He couldn’t even scream anymore. Fear had closed his throat. All he could do was run, crawl, try to reach his allies while silent death followed in the darkness. Why had the leader accepted this mission? Why had they provoked the Hunter in his own territory? Another whistle. More pain bloomed in his corrupted flesh. The salamander panted, his purple blood leaving a trail as he ran through the night. ’If only I could see him,’ he thought desperately. As if answering his wishes... Zhao’s figure appeared before him. His eyes lit up. Throughout the entire chase, the Hunter had been attacking from the shadows, never giving an opportunity to counterattack. But now... ’A chance!’ the salamander felt his ancestral venom accumulating in his glands. ’At last I can see him!’ The attack he had been saving, his trump card unfurling like a deadly flower. The abyssals’ corrupt acid wasn’t like normal beasts’, it didn’t just melt flesh and bone, but disintegrated the target’s very mana. A single direct hit and not even the Hunter of Yano could maintain his beast manifested. Zhao launched a wave of silver feathers, but the salamander was ready. His purple muscles tensed to their limit, enduring the pain as he launched forward while his body twisted unnaturally to dodge each projectile by millimeters. ’I have you!’ his throat expanded, preparing the stream of corrupt acid. ♢♢♢♢ The lynx auxiliary, finally recovered enough to rejoin the fight, his wounds still bleeding but closed thanks to Min’s intervention, intercepted the attack with his manifested claws. "Luna!" he shouted while containing the spear-like legs with desperate strength. "Fall back!" But the myriapod twisted in an impossible way, its rear legs propelling it over the auxiliary. Luna barely had time to blink before the corrupted beast was above her, its legs descending like a rain of death. "Too slow!" the abyssal roared in triumph. A barely perceptible smile formed on Luna’s lips. Her body began dissolving into shadows just as the legs were about to reach her. The shadow wolf appeared in her place, its fangs finding the myriapod’s center while Luna emerged from the shadows several meters back, her timing perfect. "Damned brat!" the myriapod roared in fury. The lynx auxiliary, his body still aching but wounds closed thanks to Min’s healing, saw the opening. His manifested claws gleamed as he launched forward. The myriapod detected the attack, its legs spinning to intercept, but that was exactly the moment Luna’s wolf had been waiting for. It sank into the shadows once more, this time flowing over the corrupted beast like living darkness. The wolf wasted no time, its fangs finding the abyssal’s neck just as the lynx’s claws tore through its front legs. The scream that followed was a horrible mixture of insect chirp and bestial roar. Purple blood sprayed as the shadow wolf shook its prey, its fangs sinking deeper. The myriapod’s legs thrashed frantically, but without its front legs, its attacks had lost their deadly power. "It’s over," Luna gestured and her wolf gave the final pull, tearing through flesh and tendons. The abyssal’s body twisted one last time before collapsing, its multiple legs twitching as life abandoned it. "Who’s too slow?" she whispered.