They moved deeper into the canyon.
The light thinned. The wind vanished entirely.
And the monsters came.
Not all at once. Not dramatic. Just steady.
A low-slung crawler with bone plating—F-rank. It slithered from a crack in the canyon wall, jaws clicking. Elysia vaporized its head with a palm strike before it fully emerged.
A shadow-backed hyena-beast, baring spectral fangs—E-rank. It tried to flank them from a ridge. Elysia's hand snapped once. A spear of compressed air slammed through its chest, pinning it to the rock.
Then two more—hybrid creatures. Strange, wrong in posture and pace. G+, maybe barely into F. She didn't even use mana. Just steel. Clean. Surgical.
Damien said nothing through it all.
Watched. Tracked. Measured.
Each kill reset the canyon's rhythm, but the tension remained. He could feel it winding tighter, step by step.
And then it came.
Pressure.
Real pressure.
They'd crossed some invisible line—another layer deeper—and the atmosphere thickened.
