Hush!"
A sound came from behind them.
Anna turned back, moving on instinct—but too late.
A claw, slick and dark, came down toward her face, glowing faintly with black mana. The scent of death washed over her.
At the last second, the claw slowed.
A brown barrier shimmered in the air, barely stopping the attack before it could tear her face apart.
Anna snapped her head around.
Noel stood several steps back, hands raised, face slick with sweat, blood dripping from his ears and lips. His eyes were clenched shut, teeth grinding together as he forced mana through his veins.
"Fast!" he gasped, voice strained. "I can't hold it long! My mana's draining!"
Rose, standing beside him, swallowed hard.
"A Tier‑2 spawn," she whispered, eyes wide.
"Hey!" Noel shouted, panic edging his voice. "You know something about that thing, right? Help me stop it!"
Anna barely had time to steady herself before she nocked an arrow and loosed it.
The arrow exploded on impact, flames and force slamming into the spawn's side. The creature screeched, a strange, distorted Hcrrrreakks! slipping from its mouth.
The spawn was grotesque: a twisted, warped mouse‑like body, its ears and whiskers gone, leaving only two burning red eyes that glowed like embers in the dark. Its form squirmed where the arrow hit, but the attack barely scratched it.
The spawn shook its head, red eyes locking onto the trio.
"Looks like it's angry," Rose muttered, stepping closer to Anna.
"We can see that!" Noel snapped. "Do something!"
As he spoke, his barrier shattered.
The recoil slammed through his body. Noel dropped to his knees, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, and mouth, his body shuddering, his mana reserves nearly dry.
With Noel out of the fight, the tide turned.
The spawn lunged forward, launching thick black tentacles from its body in all directions. The tentacles writhed like living chains, snapping toward Anna and Rose.
Anna shot into the air, firing blazing arrows that exploded on impact—but the spawn refused to die. The attacks only slowed it.
The spawn, seeing Anna in midair, opened its wide mouth.
A sound came out—Creeeechhhhhhh!—amplified as if the desert itself were screaming.
The sonar attack tore through the air.
Anna's eardrums burst. Blood trickled from her ears, and she doubled over in pain, hands flying to her head. In that split second, the spawn dove toward her, claws glowing with black light.
A pressure built up around Anna, freezing her in place, as if the air itself had turned to stone.
Just as the claw descended—
Clack. Clack.
A metallic sound rang through the air.
Rose stepped in front of Anna, two daggers in hand—one blade blocking the spawn's claw, the other buried deep in the creature's stomach.
Blood sprayed in a wide arc, painting the sand.
"H‑how did you get there so fast?" Anna asked, eyes wide with shock.
Rose didn't look back.
"Don't relax," she snapped. "The fight isn't over yet."
Even as she spoke, the wound in the spawn's stomach began to seal itself, flesh knitting back together in a gruesome, unnatural way.
Anna's eyes widened even further.
"Don't be too shocked," Rose said crisply. "Minor regeneration like this is common for Tier‑2 spawns."
Rose didn't waste time on explanations. For the first time, she took the offensive.
She threw one of her daggers, the blade singing through the air, streaking toward the spawn's neck. The spawn, sensing the attack, twisted its body sideways, but the dagger cut a clean arc across its throat, opening a jagged gash.
Kach‑kach.
Blood spilled, and the spawn's form blurred as it twisted away—but Rose had already moved.
She reappeared behind the spawn, another dagger in hand, and drove it deep into the same wound. The spawn shrieked, claws flailing, trying to claw at her, but she slipped out of its reach, vanishing and appearing again behind it, blade flashing.
Each time she vanished, the spot where she'd been was replaced by a dagger, spinning in the air like a frozen afterimage.
Anna, breathing hard, stared in disbelief.
"How is that possible?" she muttered, nocking another arrow.
But she didn't hesitate.
Rose's voice cut through the air.
"When I hurt him," she shouted, "don't let him heal! Fire arrows nonstop!"
Anna nodded.
The spawn, desperate, tried to stabilize itself, reaching for the wound to heal it—but just before its claws could touch the injury, Rose vanished again, reappearing behind it, dagger slicing through the air once more.
The spawn snarled, trying to jump away, to escape, to heal—but the moment it moved, Noel reappeared in the fight.
He raised his hands, blood dripping from his fingers, and thin Etherweave strings shot out from his palms, wrapping around the spawn's body from every angle. The creature's limbs locked in place, jerking like a puppet caught mid‑jump.
"Not so fast, bitch," Noel snarled, voice raw.
Above, the sky changed.
A massive, blazing arrow shot down from the air, trailing fire like a comet. The heat it radiated made the sand below shimmer, the very air trembling with its power.
Rose, facing the spawn, was still close enough to feel the inferno wrapping around her.
"Die, you stupid monster!" a voice shouted—but the one shouting wasn't Anna or Rose.
It was the arrow itself.
The spawn, realizing it had no way out, tried to escape with a desperate, screeching sonar blast—but Rose vanished again, the attack only hitting the dagger in the air where she'd been.
The spawn crouched, claws gripping the ground, ready to leap—
But the strings held it.
Noel ground his teeth, forcing every drop of mana he had into the threads.
The blazing arrow in the sky split open, shattering into hundreds of smaller arrows that all screamed toward the spawn at once.
Sccccccreeeh! Sccccccreeeh!
The spawn shrieked as the arrows struck, each one exploding on impact, erupting into a firestorm that tore through its flesh, burning it, charring it, turning it into a writhing, flaming mass.
The heat was unbearable, the fire spreading across the desert, painting the sky orange even in the high‑noon sun.
Noel, standing at the edge of the inferno, forced his next move.
He slammed his hand to the ground.
A Wither Orb pulsed in his palm, then exploded downward.
The sand beneath the spawn lost all moisture. The earth cracked, the sand turned to dust, and a small hole opened up in the dunes, the air around it dry and suffocating.
"Come inside!" Noel shouted, voice hoarse. "Both of you, now!"
Rose vanished again, then reappeared near Anna, grabbing her arm, and vanished a second time, landing beside Noel in an instant.
"Woah," Noel muttered, still on his knees, "that's some cool shit…"
"Rose, let's go," Anna gasped, firing one last arrow into the hole to widen it. "If you don't want to die from the heat and the lack of oxygen this place is burning away."
With that, the trio leapt into the hole just as the fiery inferno collapsed around them.
The spawn's howls faded into the distance.
The Hole and the Heaven Beyond
Inside the hole, the world changed.
Cuts, burns, torn clothes, and mangled hair told the tale of the fight above. Anna's shoulder was bleeding, Rose had burn marks along her neck, and Noel's body trembled, his mana barely holding him upright.
They climbed downward, the path narrowing, the air growing cooler, the light dimmer—then, suddenly, the tunnel ended.
The three of them collapsed into a vast, open space.
The sight hit them like a physical blow.
The world ahead was nothing like the endless dunes or the burning sky. It was a place that looked like heaven itself had been carved into the bowels of the nightmare.
A soft, golden light cascaded down from somewhere high above, bathing the place in a warm glow. The air was cool, clean, and rich with the scent of something like blooming flowers and fresh rain. The ground looked smooth, almost like polished stone, yet it shimmered faintly, as if it were alive.
Congratulations for three of the dreamers to be
the first to slay a Tier‑2 spawn – Whisker.
Granting titles upon you.
The interface appeared beside each of them, but none of them saw it. Their eyes were locked on the view in front of them.
"My God," Noel whispered, voice breaking, "how can something like this even exist…?"