Thunder shattered the crimson sky, its jagged echoes reverberating through the ruined forest.
The monstrosity, spawned by the Falzath's void-born hunger, unleashed a shrill roar, its four-jawed maw splitting unnaturally wide, revealing rows of serrated teeth glistening with dark ichor. The corrupted earth quaked beneath its thunderous steps, each one splintering the desiccated soil and sending fissures snaking through the clearing.
Towering trees, their bark blackened by despair, shuddered as the beast emerged, their skeletal branches snapping like brittle bones. Patches of its matted fur had sloughed away, replaced by jagged crystalline growths that pulsed with eerie red light, as if the void itself beat within them.
Spines jutted from its hunched back, crackling with arcs of corrupted energy that scorched the air. Its mismatched limbs—some clawed, others bladed—gouged deep trenches in the earth, uprooting petrified roots with every lurching step.
Laverna's breath hitched, her knuckles whitening around her daggers. "Shin, I really don't like the look of this one."
Shin's foxlike ears twitched, his crimson eyes narrowing as he flicked viscous blood from his naginata, the blade humming with latent energy. "Good," he muttered, his voice low and edged with grim resolve. "Because we're not here to like it."
The beast charged, its roar splitting the air like a death knell. The ground erupted beneath its weight, sending shards of stone and clumps of corrupted soil skyward. Trees groaned and toppled, their roots torn free as the shockwave rippled outward, flattening the underbrush in a widening circle of devastation.
Shin dashed forward to intercept.
The collision was cataclysmic. A shockwave exploded from the impact, leveling a swath of the forest.
Corrupted trees splintered into jagged spears, and ancient stone pillars—remnants of a forgotten shrine—crumbled into dust, their fragments hurled like shrapnel. Sparks cascaded as Shin's blade clashed against the beast's iron-plated forelimb, each strike igniting the air with molten light.
The creature swiped with a massive paw, its claws rending the earth into a jagged scar. Shin twisted midair, his movements precise and fluid, but the blow caught him, sending him skidding across the clearing.
His boots carved a deep trench through the corrupted soil, unearthing glowing red veins that pulsed beneath the surface like the Falzath's heartbeat.
Laverna didn't hesitate. She sprinted along the beast's flank, her wind-imbued daggers trailing silvery gusts.
Leaping from a toppled pillar, she vaulted onto the creature's back, her blades sinking into its corrupted flesh. Steam hissed as the daggers reacted to the malice seeping from the beast, their edges glowing with faint green light.
The monstrosity shrieked, its spines flaring with void energy that ignited the surrounding air. It bucked wildly, slamming into a cluster of petrified trees.
The impact obliterated them, sending a cascade of splintered wood and ash raining down. Laverna clung to its back, her daggers carving deeper, but the beast reared and smashed itself against a ruined wall.
The structure collapsed in a thunderous avalanche, burying part of the creature in rubble and sending a choking cloud of dust billowing across the clearing.
Shin seized the opening. His naginata pulsed with red lightning, the air crackling as he channeled his Kitsune aura. He teleported forward in a flash of crimson, reappearing midair with a spinning crescent slash that carved a gaping wound in the beast's side.
Dark ichor erupted like a geyser, sizzling as it burned through the ground, leaving smoking pits in its wake. The forest groaned, as if the Falzath's despair fed on the destruction.
The beast's roar shook the heavens, its four jaws parting to unleash a torrent of crimson mist—a corruptive breath that withered everything it touched. Trees blackened and crumbled into ash within seconds.
The ground beneath dissolved into a bubbling mire, releasing a sickly sweet stench. Shin leapt back, his tails fanning out to shield Laverna as she tumbled from the beast's back.
The mist grazed his aura, searing his skin despite his enhanced form, leaving faint burn marks across his arms.
"We can't take that head-on," Laverna gasped, her eyes darting for cover as she landed in a crouch, wind swirling around her daggers.
"We don't," Shin growled, his voice resolute. "We finish it before it tries again."
He surged forward, the naginata morphed into Yoshimatsu, its blade vibrated with a barely audible whine, the air around it shimmering with raw power. Shin's grip tightened, his aura surging as he prepared to unleash the katana's devastating potential.
He surged forward, Yoshimatsu crackling with crimson lightning. The blade's vibrations amplified each strike, slicing through the beast's tendons with surgical precision.
He teleported past its legs, the katana's churning edge leaving wounds that expanded violently, ichor spraying as the beast staggered. The forest floor trembled, craters forming where the ichor burned through.
Laverna flash-stepped behind the creature, her wind daggers singing as they carved through crystalline growths. Shattered fragments exploded outward, embedding into nearby trees and igniting them with bursts of void energy.
The forest became a battlefield of fire and shadow, the air thick with the stench of burning corruption.
The beast stumbled.
Enraged, it slammed both forelimbs into the ground with a bone-rattling screech. The impact unleashed a catastrophic shockwave, radiating outward in a ring of destruction.
The forest floor buckled, sending geysers of corrupted soil and rock skyward. Trees were uprooted and hurled like missiles, their flaming branches trailing embers.
The shrine's remaining pillars shattered, their debris raining down in a deadly storm.
Shin twisted midair, catching Laverna and shielding her with his tails. They landed hard in a crouch, the impact cracking the earth beneath them. He set her down gently, his crimson-golden eyes locking with hers, a flicker of care breaking through his vengeance-driven heart.
"We end this. Together."
Laverna nodded fiercely, her fear masked by determination, though her panting betrayed the toll of their brutal world.
They launched in unison—Shin from the left, Laverna from the right. Yoshimatsu's vibrating blade danced with crimson lightning, each teleporting strike carving through the beast's hide with devastating force.
Shin drove the katana into the creature's flank, the High Frequency enchantment churning within, causing fissures to spread from the wound. The beast howled as air built up within its body, beginning to destabilize it, its crystalline growths cracking under the pressure.
Laverna's daggers sang with wind, slashing with agile precision as she weaved through falling debris, severing arteries beneath the beast's chin with bursts of green wind. Blood and ichor sprayed, painting the shattered forest in dark streaks.
Shin teleported above its head, spinning in a vortex of red lightning and plunging Yoshimatsu into its throat. The blade's vibrations intensified, the wound expanding as air surged within, tearing the beast apart from the inside.
With a final, deafening roar, its crystalline core detonated in a blinding explosion, carving a massive crater into the ruined forest. The shockwave ripped through the landscape, flattening what remained of the trees and hurling boulders into the crimson sky.
Shin shielded Laverna with his tails once more, their fiery glow absorbing the brunt of the blast. The air howled with the Falzath's lingering despair, as if the void itself mourned the beast's fall.
When the dust settled, the creature's massive body lay in smoldering, twitching chunks, its crystalline growths shattered and dark. The forest was a wasteland—scorched earth, flattened trees, and glowing craters where the ichor had burned through.
The shrine was gone, reduced to rubble scattered across the clearing.
Laverna panted, her daggers still clutched tightly. She looked up at Shin, forcing a wry grin despite her exhaustion. "...Can we not touch any more rabbits?"
Shin exhaled, Yoshimatsu humming as he flicked the ichor away, its blade gleaming faintly as it reverted to the orb's dormant form. "Agreed."
But then... another rustle.
Louder this time. Deeper.
Shin's ears twitched. His hand shot up, tails flaring instinctively. "Something else is coming."
The air grew heavy, thick with the same despair that had birthed the beast. From the shadows of the ruined forest, a figure emerged. A swordswoman, her presence a chilling echo of the void's corruption.
Her eyes glinted with cold malice, and the faint rustle of her approach carried the weight of inevitability.
The rabbit lingered in Laverna's mind, a twisted symbol of innocence corrupted by the Falzath's touch, hinting at darker battles yet to come.