"It" blew away the old mud-brick walls of the abandoned warehouse, chunks of debris scattering in the trajectory of the frantic cluster of arms trying to crush the dark silhouette charging in front of it.
Ren retreated and advanced in short bursts, moving step-by-step as if wading through a storm of fragments, dodging the blocks of falling brick as the monster unleashed another attack with bony spikes erupting from its distorted body.
The screaming sound struck his skull, echoing like a copper bell being continuously struck, ringing heavily, threatening to crush his thoughts.
Ren bit his lip, biting deep enough for the metallic taste of blood to spread on his tongue, just to pull himself back from the daze, keeping his mind from sinking into chaos.
He didn't know how long he had been struggling, fighting in this half-conscious state; five minutes, ten minutes, or fifteen?
Time slipped away like spilled water, distorted and meaningless, while the creature continued to roar, to charge, wanting to tear him into bright red strips.
In the narrow space almost pressing against the skin beneath his visor, Ren was still panting, the hot breath rebounding against his cheeks as if squeezed between two steel plates.
Then a terrifying explosion sounded. The monster deliberately uprooted an entire heavy section of wall and flung it straight toward him.
Ren leaned back, staggering away from the giant wall segment, narrowly avoiding it like a runaway vehicle spiraling towards him.
His entire body tilted, but his feet remained anchored to the stone floor like a stubborn roly-poly toy, maintaining his stance little by little.
The brick fragments piled up, rolling and then crashing down as if to crush his slender body. Ren squeezed through a gap so narrow that two brick pieces almost scraped together right behind his back, the dry mud grazing his armor, leaving long streaks of scratches, the existing ragged lines of acid corrosion now even more visible.
But… just as Ren tilted his body out of that space, something was waiting.
A face.
Disgusting.
Wrinkled.
"Its" mouth was wide open, seemingly ripped all the way to its neck, the jagged bony teeth like shards of glass embedded crosswise, growing in the wrong direction, gleaming with a sickly light right in front of Ren.
Immediately after… the wide-gaping jaws snapped shut in a frantic bite, a cold gust of wind whistling past Ren's face. He instinctively raised his sword, his hands gripping until they were numb as he poured all his remaining strength into blocking the snap.
The muscles in his arm twitched as if brutally pulled out with iron pliers, shoving Ren backward into the pile of debris behind him. The metal fragments hitting his back made his breath catch in rhythmic gasps.
A cold metallic clang rang out. Followed by a small, crunching sound, like a bone being ground to powder.
Ren's blade, under the brutal pressure of the monster's jaws, began to show tiny cracks. They spread. Slowly, and cruelly, like a disease eating away at every fiber of steel.
In the next moment, the entire sword spine burst into countless lines of fissures. Then, with a near-silent sound,a silence even more terrifying than a scream, the Windslash shattered into brilliant fragments.
They vanished instantly, leaving only the bare hilt in Ren's hand… and a cold void running down his spine.
[Dash].
Sensing extreme danger, Ren activated the skill almost instinctively, his body sliding across the dust-covered stone floor.
But he was still one beat slower than the monster. "Its" speed showed no signs of slowing; on the contrary, it seemed as if the block with the sword had flipped a switch that drove it mad.
A sharp, grating sound of snapping steel echoed.
In the next instant, Ren's whole body was flung away like a useless toy. The monster charged straight into him like a runaway car, dragging the pile of debris crashing down behind them.
The impact was so violent that Ren felt his ribs bend.
"It" didn't stop. It used Ren like a living sledgehammer, slamming through the cracked walls of the warehouse.
Dust exploded in clouds, enveloping both of them, tearing the entire space with deafening shrieks. Its goal was clear: not Ren. It was all the living creatures in the city.
As the dust slowly settled, a limping figure emerged from the haze.
A creature that looked human… but could not possibly be human. Redundant arms twisted like congenital defects, while others dangled powerlessly as if jaggedly broken. Sharp bone fragments pierced through its skin, cutting into its own body.
Right in the middle of its broad chest, a deep gash opened, a horrible slash running across the chest down to the waist, weeping trails of thick black liquid like burnt oil.
Its legs were almost non-functional, forcing the entire body to crawl on the ground like a bisected beast.
The HP bar above its head… was now just a faint line, almost completely gone.
But even while dying, "it" did not stop advancing. Slow. Disjointed. Each step seemed to drag its disintegrating body, yet its direction was a straight line towards the faint lights of the nearby market... where the smell of humans was... where there was enough life for it to restore itself.
Then… clack… clack… clack…
The sound of thick metal heels lightly tapping the stone floor rang out behind its back. Rhythmic, and sharp as an invisible warning.
The monster flinched. Its entire ragged torso suddenly tensed in a desperate convulsion, and then "it" charged wildly, trying to escape from that place… but it was too late.
A cold metallic sound ripped through the air.
The Oathrend pierced "its" distorted skull from behind, pinning the disgusting head to the stone ground. The sound that came out of the creature's throat was no different from the wind whistling through an empty sack, weak, trembling, then fading away.
Its body went instantly limp. The redundant arms retracted as if their tendons were pulled, the bulging skin began to crack in segments, then shattered like rotten paper.
Large chunks of flesh and skin peeled away from the body, dissolving into countless black pixels that swirled like ashes in the wind before disappearing completely.
[You have eliminated a... Night.... People?]
[You receive a large amount of experience points.]
[You have leveled up.]
[You receive a Vampire's Seal.]
Ren walked forward, each step slow, the sound of his boots clanging on the stone debris echoing as if from a great distance.
He looked at the empty space where the creature had just existed, finding only coldness and a few fragments of ash that had yet to fully dissipate.
"Vampire… truly ridiculous," Ren muttered, his voice hoarse from unstable breathing.
He raised his hand and lightly wiped the Oathrend blade. The pale ash-colored steel reflected back into Ren's eyes.
Actually… the moment the monster crashed into him, Ren had managed to activate [Recall], a feature used to pick up equipment the owner accidentally dropped.
Thanks to the monster's immense pushing force... and a bit of crazy self-abuse, Ren had generated enough acceleration to plunge the blade straight through its distorted body, then twist his wrist, cutting a deep and long gash whose sound of tearing flesh echoed like ripping wet cloth.
Right now, with the danger eliminated, Ren's entire body screamed in protest. His HP bar constantly hit the red alarm level, flashing non-stop before his eyes.
His breath was ragged. His pulse was frantic. His body demanded to collapse, immediately, like an overloaded machine about to catch fire.
But he still stood.
"Did you enjoy the show?"
Ren's voice erupted into the empty courtyard of the abandoned warehouse area, dry, choked, as if not belonging to a living person.
Responding to him… was only darkness.
A layer of silent blackness, thick as ash, covering the entire city that lay dead still in the night fog.
Ren frowned slightly. He turned his head to the left.
And right there, the edge of a blade was pressed against the neck section of Ren's armor, accompanied by Varn's smile.
A smile thin as a razor blade, stretched like the lower jaw of a venomous snake.
This time, he wasn't disguised as Yuzu as before.
It was just Varn… truly, hiding his sickly face beneath a tattered hood, revealing lips curled up as if savoring every drop of blood on Ren.
"The performance was truly… magnificent… Sir Knight…," Varn's voice drew out slightly, deliberately emphasizing the last two words, as if wanting to etch each word slowly into Ren's ear.
"A perfect New Year's Eve… and some interesting discoveries. I'm starting to regret having poked you… you monster." He paused, letting his own hoarse voice echo in the empty space, his tone mixed with a hint of self-mockery, a touch of sick pleasure.
"We… lost three people… just to keep that thing calm. Three experienced beta testers… just to make sure it didn't get hungry… truly hilarious…" He smirked, his eyes lighting up with a brilliant fire, that light carrying both madness and obsession.
"What do you think about joining us? We… are the chosen ones, those born to do great things… while those fools just see this as a game…" Varn gradually lost his composure, his voice echoing in staccato bursts, his eyes flashing with a sick craving, as if wanting to devour everything in his path.
Ren looked deep into those eyes, feeling as if the entire ruined city, the darkness, and Varn's madness were all converging on him, making his heart feel as if it would burst within his chest.
"So you guys… can't bring another thing like that in here again, can you?" Ren sighed, a long breath that seemed to drain the remaining pressure from his chest.
In that moment, he felt a slight relief. If they could truly do it, it wouldn't be just one monster that appeared… and their mission was considered a failure anyway. Perhaps the person who gave this mission would have to keep quiet for a while.
"What do you mean?" The smile on Varn's face vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp gaze as he noticed the flickering torches of the guards approaching.
"Damn it…" He uttered the two words, then turned and plunged into the darkness, seeming to choose the opposite direction, abandoning everything behind him.
Ren stood there, his body sore and covered in wounds, his eyes following Varn's disappearing figure.
He made no further move, because in his current state, what could he do?
Everything was just silence and a heavy exhaustion that gripped every muscle fiber, making him feel as if he himself was becoming the temporary reward for this desolate night.