The two nodded wordlessly.
Eurys was the first to move, sprinting straight toward the towering monstrosity."Aim for the humanoid torso!" he shouted, leaping onto the creature's writhing form.
Asher gritted his teeth and flanked the beast from behind, limping but determined, while Beaks veered beside him, cutting down flailing tentacles with sharp, practiced strikes.
"I'll clear the path for you!" Beaks shouted, already lunging ahead.
Asher gave a hesitant nod, his limbs heavy, body screaming in protest—but he ran.
Beaks was a blur of motion, swinging wildly yet precisely. Tentacles lashed from the beast's side, each strike a blur of meat and malice. Beaks intercepted them with brutal strength, his blade tearing through corrupted flesh as he carved a path straight toward the creature's flailing base.
Asher followed close behind, limping, blood dripping from his thigh with each jarring step. The ground trembled beneath them—mud and gore and shattered bone squelched beneath his feet. He focused on the torso. If he gets that, all of this shit ends. He just needs to cut that.
That Torso.
Above, Eurys sprinted across the defiled's front. His figure, like a comet streaking through chaos, robes flaring, sword gleaming with soul light.
The Skinwalker roared, its scream cutting through the battlefield with sharp sinew tentecles. They whipped toward Eurys, but he didn't flinch—he ducked, twisted, using the momentum to launch himself into the air.
Time slowed.
Eurys came face-to-face with the towering monstrosity, his sword poised to pierce its humanoid chest. A jagged tentacle whipped toward his heart with lethal precision—but Eurys didn't panic. Instead, he smiled.
Behind the creature, a white-haired figure emerged from the smoke.
"The fool used me as a feint," Eurys realized. In that instant, he abandoned his strike, letting his sword fall mid-air as he twisted his body, prioritizing the dodge. A clean maneuver—until a barely perceptible force shifted his stance.
It was minute. Almost meaningless shift.Almost.
The change in the center of gravity was just enough—just enough to throw off his balance.
—SHLK.
The tentacle found its mark, embedding deep into Eurys' chest.
His eyes widened in disbelief, locking onto Asher—who didn't spare him a single glance.
With a hoarse growl, Asher drove his blade into the Skinwalker's back. The creature shrieked, a guttural, gurgling wail echoing across the ruined battlefield. Asher's grip tightened, blood dripping from his fingers as he twisted the sword, angling it downward.
He summoned every ounce of strength he had left, channeling his aspect through his weapon.
The blade grew heavier.
But something halted his progress. The blade met resistance—the spine.
A sharp pain tore through Asher's chest. A tentacle impaled him clean through.
The agony was unimaginable. His vision blurred. His legs buckled.
But he didn't let go.
With a primal scream, he forced the blade downward, tearing through flesh, until—
CRACK.
The spine gave way, paving away a clean cut along the torso as the spell whispered.
[You have slain an awakened devil, Skinwalker]
[You have received a Memory: Second Skin]
Asher smirked, though his lips trembled. Darkness crept at the edge of his vision, and his legs gave out. He collapsed, his blood-soaked body thudding beside Eurys.
The two lay there in the wreckage—victors, perhaps, but broken all the same.
"...Why?" Eurys rasped, turning his head with effort. Blood poured from the hole in his chest. "Even you're not going to make it..."
Asher coughed violently, crimson spilling from his mouth as he grinned through the pain."Bastard... I didn't need to make it." He forced a ragged chuckle. "You stabbed me, remember? I'm petty like that."
His breath hitched as he winced, vision swimming.
[Wake up, Asher. Your nightmare is over.]
He closed his eyes, voice growing faint. "Tch... none of you were real anyway…"
[Prepare for appraisal…]
Asher let out a low groan. "Damn... I should've at least kicked that smug guard in the face…"
The pain surged again, a final wave of unbearable heat and pressure.
'End it... Please. Just end it already…'
He screamed internally—desperate for the nightmare to end—
And then—
Silence.
Suddenly, the battlefield was gone. The pain vanished.
Asher floated in a weightless void of runes and light—a cold, humming expanse of shifting geometry.
He had entered the inner workings of the spell.
________________
[This was actually be part of the previous chapter :p]