Ren ran, every muscle in his body propelled by the fusion with the hydra, each movement maximized by Lin's relentless training.
But the abyssal beast didn't remain paralyzed after momentarily losing its vision. In a movement that defied all natural understanding, the creature did something that froze Ren's blood: it voluntarily detached its eyes.
The visual organs dropped from its head like ripe seeds falling from a plant, landing on the ground with sickening wet sounds. The creature had decided that sight was a weakness in this battle.
Without the distraction of visual stimuli, the beast fully reconnected with its other senses.
Ren finally reached the spear...
The weapon felt like a natural extension of his arm, its weight reassuring as he landed on one knee, pivoting to face the abomination once more.
Now, with the spear in his hand and exact knowledge of where the true core was located, Ren had a real chance. A single opportunity to end this nightmare once and for all.
The beast had rid itself of its eyes, but that had taken a second.
Taking advantage of that second of distraction, Ren leaped forward, suspending himself in the air so the now-blind creature would have trouble perceiving the direction of the attack. His body traced a perfect arc through the vitiated air, the spear extended before him like the point of a compass seeking true north.
The segment containing the true core was now within his reach. It was the last one, the massive tail that appeared to be a grotesque hybrid between a worm and a shadow stalker queen, swollen and pulsing with purple energy.
With every fiber of his muscles, Ren launched the spear. The weapon cut through the air like lightning, its path true and unwavering.
The tip penetrated cleanly into the abdominal section of the segment, piercing through protective plates and alien tissue until burying itself deeply into the pulsating core.
This time, the reaction was immediate and catastrophic.
A shriek, different from any sound Ren had ever heard before, reverberated throughout the chamber. The tail segment grotesquely swelled, pulsing with unstable purple energy that leaked through cracks appearing on its surface. The fissures spread like spiderwebs, purple light spilling from each new opening.
Ren barely had time to land and take cover behind a sizable corpse before the core imploded. The energy, released from its containment, collapsed inward before exploding outward in a small shockwave of abyssal power.
When he could finally focus his vision again, Ren observed with horror what he had unleashed.
From the shattered segment emerged small creatures, dozens of them. They were like abyssal miniatures, reduced versions of the greater abomination, with combined features of beasts but better structured. They writhed blindly, their translucent bodies weakly pulsing with residual purple light before fading out and stopping completely.
'It was gestating offspring,' Ren realized with a shiver that ran down his spine. 'It was going to reproduce using the shadow stalker queen's capacity.'
The implications were terrifying. If this abomination had managed to establish itself and propagate its brood, it could have permanently altered the subterranean ecosystem and even the surface. It could have created a new species of abyssal predators adapted to any environment, combining the worst aspects of multiple beasts into something nature never intended.
Relief washed over Ren.
He had prevented the worst. He had identified and destroyed the true core.
The beast's agonizing roar suddenly changed, transforming into a howl of pure primordial fury. The segment immediately adjacent to the destroyed one began to pulse with increasing intensity, the purple energy concentrating and crystallizing within it.
Before Ren's horrified eyes, a new core was forming.
'That's not possible,' he thought, desperation threatening to overwhelm him. 'If each segment can become the primary one...'
The realization hit him with devastating force. He wasn't facing a creature with multiple organs; he was fighting against a modular entity where each part could assume the central function.
He had destroyed one core, but the beast was simply creating another.
To completely eliminate it, he would have to destroy each segment individually. And in his current state, exhausted and at the limit of his capabilities, that task seemed impossible.
For a moment, despair threatened to consume him. His muscles shook from sustained effort, his energy reserves almost exhausted, the fusion with his hydra manifesting with increasing difficulty. The light that had sustained him was dimming, his extraordinary abilities fading as his strength waned.
But then, like a beacon in the darkness, images of his parents working tirelessly to give him the best filled his mind. He saw Liu, Min, and Taro, his first true friends. He remembered Lin, who had seen potential in him when everyone else saw only a child with the weakest beast. He saw everyone who now shared fun adventures with him...
And a few meters away, Han began to move weakly, his eyes slowly opening, disoriented and confused. His friend was still alive.
'I can't give up,' Ren decided, determination hardening within him like tempered steel. 'Not while I can still move.'
Ignoring the pain radiating from every cell in his body, Ren launched himself toward where the spear had fallen after the explosion. The creature, now reorganized around its forming new core, pulled back, as if evaluating this opponent who refused to be easily defeated like all those before.
Ren reached the spear, his fingers closing around the shaft with renewed determination. If this abomination could create new cores, he would destroy them one by one. No matter how many he needed to eliminate, he wouldn't stop until the threat had been neutralized.
The creature and Ren faced each other again, each evaluating the other with new respect. The abomination had lost a complete segment and its reproductive capacity. Ren had proven to be much more than simple prey; he was a predator in his own right.
A weak groan broke the tense calm. Han, finally regaining consciousness, tried to sit up, his body still weak from the vitality drain. His movements were sluggish, uncoordinated, his skin pale where the tentacles had touched him.
"Ren?" he murmured, his voice barely audible. "What...?"
The reaction was instantaneous. The abyssal beast, detecting more vulnerable prey, sharply turned its attention toward Han. Its multiple sensors registered the weakness, the fragility, the opportunity.
A hungry tremor ran through its remaining segments.
With terrifying speed, the creature launched itself toward Han, tentacles extended like deadly spears directed at the defenseless boy.
Han, still too disoriented to fully comprehend the danger, watched with bulging eyes as death approached.
Ren reacted without thinking, his body moving on pure instinct. In a fluid movement, calculated to take advantage of the beast's new angle of attack, he threw the spear.
The weapon flew. The tip headed inexorably toward the new core that was forming, the point where the purple energy concentrated with greatest intensity.
But Ren didn't stop there. In the same instant that the spear left his fingers, he launched himself with superhuman impulse toward Han, his body transformed into a projectile of pure determination. He moved faster than he ever had before, pushing beyond limits he didn't know he had, his only thought to reach his friend before the creature did.