Kitty’s heart raced as she stared at the colossal daemon mantis looming before them. The normal mantis daemons were already massive—three to four times Julian’s height—but this one? It towered over even them, easily four times larger. Its blade-like arms gleamed in the dim, gray light, and its alien eyes reflected a predatory intelligence that made her skin crawl.

  "Uh… Julian?" Kitty whispered, her voice betraying her nervousness. "Do we fight it? Or, like… run?"

  Julian, however, wasn’t even looking up at the towering creature. His head tilted slightly, his rapier resting lightly in his hand. Kitty thought he was getting scared, but not at all.

  His expression wasn’t one of fear—it was more… puzzled.

  “Julian?” Kitty asked again, glancing between him and the daemon. “Big scary bug monster right in front of us! Should I take the shot or—”

  “I can’t sense it,” Julian murmured, cutting her off. The tone of his voice making his confusion even more apparent, “I know that it’s right in front of me, but… it’s like it isn’t even there.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t sense it?” Kitty gritted her teeth, her grip tightening on her bow as her gaze flickered back to the mantis. “It’s. Right. There.”

  “I know,” Julian replied, his calm tone only making the situation feel even stranger. “I can hear the leaves falling around us. I can feel the vibrations in the ground from your breathing. But I can’t sense it.”

  Kitty blinked at him, her eyes once again looking back and forth between the monster and Julian, “Oh… yep. Yep. That means we should run.”

  Julian hummed, but before he could actually reply, he quickly grabbed Kitty’s head and forced it down along with him as he ducked. The mantis’ massive blade swept through the air above them, causing a whistle to whisper violently in the air.

  Kitty yelped, rolling to the side as the mantis latched onto another tree in front of them, its blades embedding themselves into the flat surface. The daemon hissed, its tentacles vibrating in a rhythmic pattern that sent chills down her spine.

  “Stupid bug won’t let us go!” Kitty cursed, quickly climbing to her feet. “We should just head for the tower if it’s going to come after us!”

  Julian didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he crouched slightly before saying, “It doesn’t have wings.”

  “Huh?”

  “It doesn’t have wings unlike the smaller daemons,” Julian continued, straightening his posture. “It’s leaping. Jumping from tree to tree.”

  Kitty stared at Julian, her brows furrowed in confusion. “I thought you said you couldn’t sense it?”

  “When it attacked us, I could.”

  Kitty groaned. “Great. So, what? We wait for it to attack before you can do anything? Fantastic plan. Let’s just fly away and—” She cut herself off mid-sentence as her eyes flicked back to the colossal daemon mantis. “Wait. No. That’s stupid. It’s too fast. If we fly, it’ll just skewer us.”

  “No, let’s do that.” Julian, however, agreed with her so-called stupid plan, “Fly up and head to the tower and destroy the black cube instead. I’ll be the bait.”

  “I already told you that it’s a stupid plan. It—what do you mean bait? You just told me you can’t even sense it and you—!!!”

  Before she could finish, Julian moved with surprising speed, shoving her with such force that her thrusters automatically activated to stabilize her. The propulsion sent her flying several meters toward the tower, her body feeling the shock of the push like she’d been yanked by a speeding flying car. She landed in a crouch, stunned and breathless.

  “What the hell are you doing!?” Kitty shouted, turning back toward him. But her frustration turned to gratitude once again as she saw the colossal daemon’s blade arm slam into the ground where she had been standing seconds earlier. The impact sent tremors through the flat forest floor, cracking the gray, metallic-like ground beneath them.

  “Go!” Julian commanded. “Destroy the black cube!”

  Kitty wanted to argue further, but the sight of Julian suddenly leaping toward the daemon’s blade arm froze her words in her throat. He latched onto the blade’s smooth surface with both hands, gripping tightly as the creature retracted its arm.

  “What the fuck are you doing!?” Kitty muttered, her eyes wide as she watched Julian cling to the daemon.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The colossal mantis didn’t seem to notice him—or if it did, it didn’t care. Instead, its alien eyes were locked in Kitty’s direction, and its body coiled in preparation to leap.

  “Oh, no, you don’t!” Kitty growled, her boosters flaring to life. But before the creature could launch itself, Julian made his move.

  And with surprising agility, Julian climbed along the mantis’ massive arm, running across its forearm before launching himself toward its head. His knee slammed into its smooth, slimy surface with enough force to knock the towering creature off balance. The mantis staggered, its blade arms swinging wildly to regain stability.

  Julian didn’t stop there. He grabbed onto the writhing tentacles on the creature’s face, using them as leverage to thrust his rapier into one of its massive eyes. The daemon let out a guttural screech, its body jerking violently as it tried to dislodge him.

  Kitty watched, her breath caught in her throat. “What a fucking monster,” she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief.

  And of course, she was talking about Julian.

  Julian was about to stab the other eye, but before he could do so, one of the mantis’s face tentacles whipped at him with terrifying speed. Julian managed to block it with his rapier, but the sheer force of the strike sent him hurtling through the air. He landed violently, rolling across the ground before coming to a stop, his body visibly shaken but seemingly unharmed.

  Kitty exhaled sharply, her focus snapping back to the mantis. “Shit… this is crazy. Don’t you fucking die on me.”

  Her boosters roared to life as she finally did as Julian said, and she began flying toward the tower… backward.

  She had been fighting monsters for years with other people, and one of the things she had learned was to never turn your back against the enemy and always provide support for your allies.

  She refused to take her eyes off the battlefield. And with a short but very deep breath, she drew her bow and fired several arrows as she moved. One arrow zipped toward the daemon’s remaining eye, but the creature raised its blade arm just in time, deflecting the shot with a sharp clang.

  It didn’t matter, however, as she already expected that—that was why she let loose several arrows, which all hit their intended target. And like with what Julian had been doing since earlier, she opted to target the daemon’s joints as she was unsure whether her arrows would actually pierce the creature’s exoskeleton.

  Only one, however, managed to hit its target; one of the joints of the mantis’ leg was hit—but the damage seemed too small for it to even affect it.

  “Baboom.” But with a whisper escaping Kitty’s lips, the arrow lodged inside the mantis’ joint suddenly exploded.

  The colossal mantis staggered slightly, but its leg wasn’t completely torn apart. But still, its balance wavered, forcing it to support itself with one of its blade-like arms. A guttural growl escaped its spiked teeth as it twisted its head toward Kitty completely.

  That was a mistake, however. Before it could even try and leap toward Kitty with its remaining legs, it felt a tug from its loose limb. It looked, only to see Julian hugging its leg.

  It wondered what Julian was doing, but there was really only one thing.

  His chest was heaving violently as the veins on his arms pulsed from the sheer effort he was exerting. And with a quiet roar, he took a step backward… and pulled on the loose limb.

  The sound of the daemon’s loose flesh tearing apart squished in the air, and with a snap, the leg finally completely separated from the rest of its body. A loud thud followed as its leg slammed on the ground.

  And the attention that the daemon gave Kitty was quickly transferred to Julian almost instantly.

  Kitty caught the shift and gave a quick, firm nod to herself. Without hesitation, she pushed her thrusters to full power and shot toward the tower. The colossal daemon, intent on Julian, made no move to intercept her. Even so, Kitty kept her movements erratic, her sharp eyes still watching the colossal daemon’s every move.

  She could have gone straight for the top of the tower from the outside, but with the swarms of flying daemons that might be waiting for her above the dark leaves, that was a death wish.

  Instead, she headed for the entrance below, vanishing into the tower.

  And as soon as Kitty disappeared from sight, a sudden change rippled through the glade. The tension in the air thickened, almost suffocating, but it didn’t come from the colossal daemon.

  No, the shift came from Julian.

  A slow, deliberate smile crept across his face as he stretched one arm out to the side.

  “I thought she would never leave, MEGAN,” he whispered.

  The colossal mantis tilted its head at him, an almost human-like motion of confusion as it felt a different scent of energy emitting from him. Its predatory gaze narrowed, its body tensing as it instinctively stepped back.

  Julian’s smile widened. “I’ve been waiting to use this.”

  Half of Julian’s arm vanished, sinking into the shadows beside him. The mantis twitched, its tentacles trembling as though sensing an unknown threat.

  According to MEGAN, this daemon’s plane was completely covered in shadows. And so, as much as this was their home…

  …it was also Julian’s.

  And then, another change happened.

  From the mantis’ point of view, Julian’s silhouette began to shift and distort, but instantly.

  His body became encased in a shell—an exoskeleton eerily similar to the one covering the mantis itself. Dark gray with pulsating veins coursing through it, the… armor seemed almost alive.

  And that wasn’t all.

  The arm Julian had plunged into the shadows reemerged, now gripping the hilt of a massive greatsword that was as large as Julian himself. The weapon was grotesque in its design, crafted from the severed blade-arms of the smaller daemon mantises they had slain earlier.

  The edges of the sword shimmered with a faint, menacing light, its jagged surface exuding a lethal aura.

  “Now…” Julian whispered, his voice low but resolute as he swung the monstrous blade in a slow, deliberate arc. The weapon hummed, the air whistling faintly as its jagged edge sliced through it. He adjusted his grip, holding the hilt firmly with both hands as his stance shifted, grounding himself.

  “We need to kill it before Kitty destroys that black cube,” he muttered. “MEGAN, I need your help on this one.”

  [Roger that,] MEGAN’s voice rang clearly in his mind, her tone sharp and energized.

  And as she spoke, Julian’s eyes began to emit an intense blue glow. The light washed over the shadowy glade, pushing back the suffocating darkness in waves,

  [Let’s get this over with!]

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