CHAPTER 160: A CLASH WITH AN ELITE BEAST

Kelvin wiped at his face. His fingers came back and streaked red. He laughed weakly. "Still see straight, so that I will call it a win."

Lyra said nothing. She just turned away, wiping her blades, her shoulders trembling. When the fog finally cleared, they saw it.

Deeper in the forest stood a stone altar, half-buried in roots, its surface was etched with runes glowing faint green. Bones were piled around it in neat stacks with arms, legs, skulls that are arranged like offerings.

Lyra walked toward it slowly, her face pale. "I have seen this before." "Where?" Darius asked.

Her eyes darkened. "On the night Elara died. The cultists carved the same runes into the stones around our village. This... this is how they bind the Hollow to their will. They don’t just worship it. They farm it."

Kelvin touched the altar, feeling the pulse beneath it that is steady, like a heartbeat. He yanked his hand back with a curse. "They are spreading anchors. Every altar strengthens the Hollow’s reach. If we don’t tear them down..."

Lyra finished the thought coldly. "...the Plains will fall." Immediately Salaris shrieked above, as if it was agreeing.

Kelvin clenched his fist around Xerion’s hilt. His arms trembled with exhaustion, but his voice was steady. "Then we will burn every altar we find."

The Necrotic Forest grew darker with each step. Even though the sun still hovered above the Veilscarred Plains.

Every tree here seemed alive, if one could call it that as their rough roots are curled like clutching fingers and the black moss clung to the bark which was glowing faintly with the same violet veins that riddled the fissures in the ground.

Kelvin felt the shift first. His flame-runes hummed against his palm, which was a subtle warning. Xerion, perched at his side in its smaller form and let out a low, harsh hiss the kind that it only made when danger lurked close, hidden and waiting.

Darius raised a clenched fist, halting their advance. Rhoam’s armored bulk padded silently beside him with muscles rippling under its dark, plated fur. The panther’s ears was twitched with nostrils flaring as though catching an unfamiliar scent.

Lyra whispered, "Something is watching us." Salaris spiraled downward from the canopy with feathers bristling, its obsidian plumage was drinking in the dim light. The raven’s eyes glowed a sharp violet, wings that was shuddering with suppressed energy.

The forest had gone quiet. No moans of distant zombies. No rustle of vermin in the underbrush, everywhere was just in silence.

A branch snapped ahead, deliberately. Kelvin tightened his grip on his lance, the runes along its haft sparked to life. "It is not just another shambler. Whatever it is, it is waiting for us."

And then it stepped into view. The Elite Shambler was taller than any thing they had seen before, at least thrice the height of an armored man.

Its flesh was a tapestry of decay that was stitched together by glowing threads of necrotic energy that pulsed like veins.

Its ribcage was cracked open and within, a pulsing violet crystal that beat like a heart with every thrum sending out waves that rattled the trees around it. One of its arms ended in a jagged bone-blade, the other was an abnormal claw that was thick with rotting sinew.

It stared at them with hollow sockets, but within it burned a spark of cunning instinct. Kelvin’s chest was tightened. "That thing... it is not like the others." Kelvin said.

Darius’s jaw clenched. "An evolved form. Necrotic resonance turned shambler into something more. If it is drawing from the fissures, its power could rival a Level 7 Rare beast... or maybe higher."

Lyra’s shadow energy rippled along her fingers, while weaving instinctively. "Then we wouldn’t hold back."

Immediately the Shambler roared, the sound rippled through the forest like a storm. Necrotic veins spread across the ground, while splitting the earth and releasing a noxious mist.

"Xerion!" Kelvin called. The End-Tyrant expanded, its body is elongating in a rush of shadowed scales and burning eyes. With a hiss like fire over stone, Xerion unfurled its wings, with flames erupting at the edges, forming a circled band of coloured light.

Rhoam snarled, plating shifting as veins of soulstone energy coursed through its armor. It lowered itself to the ground, tail swishing like a war club, while waiting for Darius’s command.

Salaris screamed, the sound was shrill and otherworldly. Black feathers rained as it spread its wings, shadow runes kept spiraling into the air.

The Shambler moved first. Its clawed arm slammed down, tearing through tree roots as if they were parchment. Violet shockwaves surged outward.

"Scatter, now!" Darius barked. The Crest split, but the shockwave still cracked the earth beneath them. Kelvin stumbled, then flung his lance forward, as flame gathered at the tip. "Pierce its core!" He said.

A fiery bolt tore through the mist, searing into the Shambler’s chest. But before it struck the crystal heart, a net of necrotic tendrils erupted from its ribs, absorbing the fire and turning it into ash.

Kelvin cursed. "It can shield the core!" "Then tear it open first!" Lyra shouted. Shadows surged from her palms, weaving into spiked chains. Salaris dove with a screech, talons glowing with shadowflame, pulling the chains tighter around the Shambler’s bone-blade arm.

The Elite staggered but did not fall. It ripped against the chains with violet sparks flying. Its free claw swiped across the ground, catching Rhoam mid-lunge. The panther’s plating screeched as it was flung against a tree with bark splintering.

"Rhoam!" Darius’s sealing rune flared, cushioning the beast before it collapsed. The panther rose again, shaking the dirt from its shoulders, its fury was burning in its eyes.

Xerion roared with wings snapping downward. A vortex of fire and void-flame engulfed the battlefield, with flames bending unnaturally and it pulled toward the Shambler’s crystal.

But the beast only absorbed the flames. Kelvin froze immediately. "...It is absorbing Veil energy and fire both. Damn it, it’s adapting very well." Kelvin said.

The Shambler charged with its bone-blade slamming down toward him. Kelvin barely rolled aside, dirt exploded at his heels. Xerion lunged, jaws locking around the Shambler’s shoulder and teeth grinding into necrotic sinew.

The crystal pulsed again, while sending a backlash of energy through Xerion. The End-Tyrant shrieked in rage with its scales flashing, but it held on. "Darius!" Kelvin shouted. "Seal its heart, now!"

Darius dropped to his knees, carving a rune into the soil with his gauntlet. Blue soulfire raced along the lines, converging into a sigil. "Rhoam, pin it!"

The armored panther charged low, slamming into the Shambler’s legs. With a metallic crash, the giant beast buckled, dropping to one knee.

Lyra wove her shadows tighter though her lips trembled as she forced more essence into her chains. "Salaris, distract it, now!"

The raven dove with a blur of shadow and feathers, raking across the Shambler’s hollow eyes. The beast roared and thrashed, with blind rage overtaking its calculated movements.

Darius’s rune glowed brighter. He slammed his palm against the earth. "Soul Seal!" he said, and immediately blue flames erupted, chains of energy lashing around the crystal in the Shambler’s chest. For a moment, it faltered. The crystal flickered, the beast’s body stiffened.

"Kelvin!" Darius called out....

He didn’t hesitate. Immediately fire erupted along his lance, coalescing into a spiraling inferno. With Xerion still clamped to the beast’s shoulder, Kelvin sprinted up its arm, every step was fueled by rage and memory—of his parents, of fire and of sacrifice.

He drove the lance into the crystal and the environment exploded in light. The Shambler shrieked, with a sound so loud that the trees themselves shuddered.

Necrotic energy poured from the wound, spraying the forest floor with sizzling black ichor. The crystal cracked, spider webbing under the force. But it didn’t shatter.

The Elite surged with final strength, flinging Xerion away, breaking Darius’s seal with a desperate roar. Its clawed hand swiped at Kelvin mid-air. He braced, but the impact never came.

A wall of shadows rose between him and the claw. Lyra stood at the edge of her strength, blood dripping from her nose, hands trembling as she forced her barrier higher.

"Finish it, Kelvin!" she screamed. Kelvin roared, with flame bursting from every rune on his lance.

The weapon became a sun, brighter than the corrupted forest around them. He plunged it into the crystal once more and this time, it shattered.

The Elite Shambler convulsed with necrotic energy while bleeding from every orifice. It staggered, then collapsed with a thunderous crash, while shaking the earth.

Its body disintegrated into ash, leaving only the cracked crystal heart behind, which was still glowing faintly with residual Veil energy.

The Crest stood panting, each beast circling back to their tamer’s side. The forest slowly exhaled, the oppressive weight of the Shambler’s presence was lifted.

Kelvin retrieved the cracked crystal, its violet glow was reflecting in his weary eyes. "If that was just one Shambler, what the hell are we going to face in the Hollow?"

Lyra wiped the blood from her face, with exhaustion weighing down her shoulders. Salaris perched beside her, silent for once and its feathers was dim. "Then we had better be ready."

The forest moaned again, it was from a distant, as if it was answering to her. But this time, it wasn’t silence that followed. It was more moaning and many more.