The rustling grew louder.
Shin placed Laverna gently on her feet, eyes narrowing as the thick foliage before them trembled. His ears twitched, instincts sharpened. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.
A tiny nose poked through the leaves.
"...A rabbit?" Laverna blinked.
Indeed, a small, fluffy rabbit hopped forward, white with a single red spot over its eye. It twitched its nose, seemingly unafraid.
"Aww…" Laverna knelt slowly, lowering her guard. "Look at you. You're adorable."
The rabbit hopped onto her lap, nestling in as if it belonged there. Laverna giggled, gently petting its soft fur. "Shin, can we keep—"
Then came another. Then three more.
Shin's posture relaxed slightly, but he didn't lower his guard. "They're not hostile. Not yet. Maybe?"
The rabbits looked up at them with uncanny stillness. Their beady red eyes reflected the corrupted crimson skies. One of them opened its mouth—far too wide for its small head—and let out a high-pitched gurgle.
Suddenly, the rabbit on Laverna's lap convulsed violently.
Bones cracked. Flesh stretched. Fur split open as sinew and jagged limbs burst forth beneath her hands. Laverna shrieked and threw it off just as its form exploded into a grotesque mass.
The once-cute creatures grew monstrous, their bodies mutating into towering horrors. Their ears turned into bladed tendrils, their legs twisted into insectoid claws. Rows of serrated teeth formed in their jaws, now large enough to swallow a man whole.
Laverna recoiled. "Oh gods—what the hell!?"
One lunged.
Shin kicked the grotesque rabbit off of Laverna just in time, its warped jaws snapping shut where her neck had been moments before. He then sidestepped, grabbing her by the waist and flipping backward as the mutated creature slammed into the earth, carving a crater where they once stood.
The forest erupted.
More grotesque bunnies leapt from the shadows, their mutated forms shrieking with hunger. Dozens of them surrounded the pair.
Shin's orb flared, transforming into a dual-bladed naginata, something Laverna hasn't seen before. "Stay close."
Laverna drew her twin daggers, her stance low. "You think?!"
The first wave struck.
Shin whirled through them, cleaving one beast cleanly in half—its corrupted blood splattered the blackened trees, burning into the bark with a hiss. Laverna danced beside him, ducking under snapping jaws and slicing tendons with surgical precision.
One rabbit-beast slammed into a nearby ruin, causing a portion of a crumbled tower to collapse. Debris rained down, crushing two more creatures in a cloud of dust and stone.
Shin leapt atop a crystal boulder, kicking off it to drive his blade downward into a beast's skull. The impact shook the ground, a shockwave rupturing nearby corrupted vines.
Another leapt from behind—Laverna intercepted it midair, her heel crashing into its neck. She spun mid-flip and landed on a fallen log, eyes gleaming.
"Your fan club's getting aggressive."
Shin sliced through two more. "You're jealous of monsters now?"
"I'm jealous of anything that gets your attention more than me!" she huffed, flipping back into formation.
As the horde closed in, Shin took a deep breath.
The ground beneath him glowed with a red sigil—his tail split into five arcs of crimson lightning dancing between them. His crimson-golden eyes burned bright.
He slammed his naginata into the earth.
The explosion sent a wave of raw energy in all directions—trees uprooted, stones scattered, and a dozen rabbit-beasts were atomized in the blast. The crater widened, revealing corrupted roots squirming below.
Laverna grinned. "Now that's how you make a statement."
More rustling came—then a thunderous boom shook the trees.
An even bigger rabbit-like monstrosity bulldozed its way through the forest, branches snapping like bones underfoot. Towering like a small house, the creature resembled a grotesque blend of a snow bunny and a Falzath with multiple jaws with serrated teeth. Its snow-white fur was matted with rot, and patches of rusted iron plates were crudely bolted into its flesh, steam hissing from between the seams. Its limbs were disproportionately long, ending in razor claws, and its back bulged with twitching muscle clusters.
But it was the head that truly defied reason.
Its skull split into four massive jaws, each capable of biting a human in half. The flesh around its mouth peeled open like a grotesque flower, revealing layered rows of curved, barbed teeth. Inside, a tongue lashed like a serpent, slick with acidic drool that hissed where it hit the corrupted earth.
Laverna's smile died on her lips. "...I think we pissed off the big brother."
The beast's roar shattered a nearby cliffside, causing boulders to tumble and crash into the trees below. Birds—mutated and eyeless—scattered in every direction. Thunder rumbled as if the sky itself recoiled.
Shin crouched, blade humming with crimson lightning. "Then we give it a proper welcome."
The monstrosity lunged.
Shin vanished in a blur of motion, reappearing on the creature's back. He plunged his naginata between the iron plates—sparks and black blood sprayed upward. The beast shrieked, whipping its body and slamming Shin into a boulder. The impact cracked the stone and sent fissures spiderwebbing across the terrain.
Laverna hurled a dagger into its eye. It embedded shallowly before melting in the acidic slime. "Ugh, seriously? That was a poison-tipped one!"
The beast's four jaws clamped down and shattered a nearby tree, splinters the size of spears shooting outward. Laverna dashed up a stone pillar, launching herself off the edge. She twirled midair, landing a double-kick to its exposed throat. It staggered, howling in pain.
"Keep it disoriented!" Shin shouted, emerging from the dust with a deep cut across his arm.
The corrupted land reacted to the chaos—the floating stones began swirling violently in the air, drawn to the creature's rage. Gravity twisted around them.
Shin's eyes flared. His tail split again—six this time—and they arced around him in a ring of lightning.
"Laverna, brace!"
He vaulted skyward, spinning like a cyclone. As he descended, his naginata transformed into a massive glaive. He struck the ground just beneath the creature.
A shockwave blasted outward, sending the monstrosity airborne.
The terrain exploded.
Trees vaporized.
Corrupted roots were exposed, writhing like worms.
Laverna leapt into the falling creature's shadow, twirling her daggers into a whirlwind of silver. Dozens of slashes ripped across its belly, tearing fur and metal alike.
The beast crashed down, carving a trench into the corrupted earth. Its legs twitched.
It wasn't dead—but it was wounded.
Its jaws opened again, vomiting a stream of acidic bile.
Shin tackled Laverna aside, both rolling behind a fallen column just as the acid hissed through it, melting stone.
Laverna wiped sweat from her brow. "Okay. That one almost got me."
Shin exhaled. "Not done yet."
The monster was already rising.
And round two had just begun.