Auron narrowed his eyes, he wasn't liking what he was seeing.

  Distorted appearance and movement—no, that wasn’t movement. That was a spasm. A broken rhythm that betrayed the natural flow of life. Unnatural energy crackled off its frame like corrupted aura, wrong to the senses in a way that couldn’t be described only felt.

  With a body more-like a mass, twitching and shuddering unnaturally with each step.

  It gave way to only one conclusion.That wasn't a beast. It was corruption-given form. Following that realization, his eyes widened slightly.

  “…Is that a corrupted beast?”

  The words slipped out under his breath before he could stop them.

  His mind reacted before the rest of him could, firing off flashes of images, fragments, footnotes—memories from lectures he thought he’d long tuned out, suddenly surfacing with vivid clarity.

  Records of beasts, no, distorted monsters— favored by Ignea to wield power beyond that of ordinary beasts, their supposed origin of being spawned by the wastelands themselves shrouded them in even more mystery.

  But they were supposed to be exceedingly rare if his memory served him right, “What was it again Instructor Harwin used to say…?”

  Auron’s brow furrowed.

  “If you ever see one,” Harwin had said, “run.”

  Auron’s breath caught in his throat. That memory had a weight to it now. It wasn’t just a classroom warning anymore. It was advice. Practical, urgent, and real.

  Yeah no shit, looking for a combat partner didn't mean looking for death. Who the hell was he kidding? Just by the aura the damn beast radiated, it had already eclipsed the bronze rank Armoured Quadruped he had just fought by tens if not hundreds of times. If he had to guess, he'd give it mid if not peak silver rank.

  Which adhered to the beast's leveling system. When beasts crossed a major threshold in their evolution such as from peak bronze to initial silver, the power increase was not a simple 1+1 additive but multiplicative, the range? Bloodline and potential the only limits.

  But corrupted beasts were on a whole new level, their potential surpassing all other beasts within the same rank, a minuscule amount only able to contend against them on the same level, barely.

  Then there was him, still struggling to slay initial bronze-rank beasts, he was not delusional enough to think he could defeat the beast before him even with his new skill whispering certainty into his limbs, one glance told him the truth: death waited behind that thing’s pale, bone-white eyes. So he did the most logical thing, run!

  All those thoughts had been processed in the span of five seconds thanks to his somewhat high agility.

  If looked at from another point of view one would be surprised if not amazed by the calmness Auron had unknowingly displayed during his encounter with the corrupted beast, his reaction had been way too rational. No screaming. No panicking. No stumbling.

  But subtle changes were already taking root. Brought forth by his newly unlocked stat—Willpower.

  Steps measured, Auron gave in to instinct and from that he focused on his new ability, will of the earth which if he could describe clearer now was that it was something of a passive ability, he didn't need to activate it, it was there inscribed into his being, guiding his movements, precise and coordinated.

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  Now adding his high agility that rivaled a peak iron-ranked beast if not higher to the fray, his motion would be described as a symphony of speed and dance, not surprisingly he caught up with Riven's group shortly after before a sudden realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

  Something didn't quite feel right. The corrupted beast's speed. Wasn't it a bit... slow? Hell, even a peak bronze-rank beast was surely faster than this, right?

  Which all came to a single conclusion, the beast was toying with them. To affirm his suspicions he looked back.

  The beast's slow dragged steps suddenly shifted to a blur of motion even with his high agility he was straining to see its movement.

  Goddammit! Riven what the fuck did you do to piss it off?

  Auron voiced out as he looked at the bare-chested figure beside him who was already straining to keep up the sprint, their bloodied figures already hinted at their attempted combat with the monster, which he could pretty well surmise didn't quite go well.

  Surprised, Riven looked at the figure beside him a spark of curiosity flaring deep within his eyes interlaced with a maniacal glint as thoughts rapidly flashed within his brain. “Would you believe me if I said it just stumbled into us and decided we were dinner? And what the fuck are you doing wandering the Wastelands alone, Raventor bastard? Got a death wish!?”

  Before Auron could answer, another voice cut in— “Holy fuck! Are you dancing while running!?” Mila shouted, somewhere between terrified and impressed.

  He could swear she moaned.

  On cue, the rest of the group looked over. Then gasped.

  “Graceful. Elegant,” Kara muttered, eyes wide and glittering.

  Auron blinked. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  His thoughts were interrupted by the pressure building behind them.

  The beast was closing in. Playtime was ending.

  They needed a plan—fast. Running wouldn’t cut it forever. Not against this.

  Before he could dive deeper into his thoughts, a low groan pulled his attention.

  Arthur—bloodied, unconscious—was being carried by Mila. He looked barely clinging to life.

  “We can’t keep this up,” Arthur rasped. “We already fought it and lost. It's too strong. We need help—your team. That’ll give us a fighting chance.”

  Auron looked at him, surprised by the clarity of thought under stress.

  It was a good plan.

  Lyra was on his team—a Silver-rank prodigy. Add Dante, Max, Asha... yeah. Their odds were far better than now.

  Even more surprising? Their expressions. No condescension. No judgment.

  Just trust.

  Auron hesitated. Not because of the plan. But... he wasn’t used to people looking at him like this. With hope. Given his antisocial bearing, he had long withdrawn himself from mortal affairs...cough.. cough, well when somebody gets rejected by society as much as he did their perception shifted and so did his, not that he had interacted much if ever with them, still he couldn't make judgements too early.

  “Follow me, then,” he finally said, then surged ahead—his speed kicking into overdrive.

  “Damn! You can run even faster!?” Riven shouted behind him, half in awe, half unhinged curiosity.

  ***

  Elsewhere still within the wastelands overlooking the group, a figure came to light while a not-so-subtle grin was etched on her face.

  Snapping her fingers. A golden rune flared to life on her palm, leaking shimmering essence.

  Then, with a soft blow, she released it. The rune shot off like wind, reaching the corrupted beast instantly.

  It didn’t matter how far it was.

  The creature’s movements slowed—just slightly. But enough.

  Lena then tilted her head playfully as she continued to manipulate the strings behind the scenes. Anticipation burning deep within her crimson eyes as even more questions sparked within her. Would Auron find another spark of inspiration mid-battle? Would his martial art evolve further?

  Only time would tell.

  ***

  "Argh, damned bastard wandering around the wastelands as if he's

  fucking immortal!" Dante voiced out, his voice etched with the frustration of waking up in the middle of the night only to find Auron missing.

  Sure he'd seen the somewhat stone-based martial art that gave him an edge over iron-ranked beasts, but being this far into the wastelands, encounter with bronze rank beasts was inevitable.

  He doubted that would be enough to face bronze-rank beasts.

  Having an intermediate bronze-rank contracted beast he could affirm the insane leap beasts took from peak iron to initial bronze.

  Lyra was beside him, glaring at her Frost wolf for not informing her of his departure, but having only told her to inform her only of incoming danger she couldn't be blamed as

  technically, his departure hadn't sparked off any danger at the time.

  Max and Asha were also up.

  "Dude is just full of surprises" Dante finally sighed rubbing his face.

  Speaking of surprises, Lyra's Silver rune glinted under the moonlight before her frost wolf sent her a mental transmission.

  A moment later her expression became grave, "Something's coming, stay alert!"

  Before she could finish, a running figure emerged, faint at first but became clearer as he approached.

  A young man sporting midnight hair with a pair of deep violet eyes.

  "Auron, you sneaky..." Dante's voice echoed out before trailing out as he saw Riven's group behind him.

  Before any of his team could voice out a question, " Auron's laughter echoed out in the wastelands.

  "Hahahaha, missed me already? Yeah right didn't you also say you haven't been having enough battles to your liking lately, bet this will be enough to last you a while buddy!

  "Huh? When did I say that..."

  Before he could continue, his words got stuck in his throat

  Far off in the distance, he felt the aura of a powerful beast—different from any he had faced before.

  Powerful didn’t even begin to describe it.Moments later, the beast emerged from the dark. A mockery of form.

  A panther? A hound? Hard to say.

  It was bloated and hunched as if its muscles were fighting against it. Its limbs bent at unnatural angles, twitching with every step. A snarl rattled in its throat, half-choked by black bile spilling from its mouth.

  Its eyes glowed with a pale, bone-white light, cold and empty like moonlight on a corpse.

  The thing’s movements were jittery and delayed. Its body layered with something rotten, skin shimmering with crimson runes and bones jutting beneath like it as if melting from the inside. Warped energy bled from it in waves, distorting the air like something corrupted.

  Dante took a step back before his eyes widened, "Is that a corrupted beast?"