With a slow, deliberate motion, the eye shifted.
And with that single movement, the entire mountain began to groan and move along with it.
On the opposite side of the narrow, shattered battlefield—the once-solid rock now fractured and steaming—I saw something impossible unfold.
In the span of just a few seconds, the eye rose higher, ascending far beyond my line of sight, and then... the rest of the figure came into view.
A shape that shouldn’t exist.
A monster that felt like it came straight out of myth and nightmare.
A system notification rang coldly in my mind:
« Skyshadow Basilisk »
Drop: Core (★★★★), Skyshadow Fang, Skyshadow Venom Gland, Basilisk Horn, Hide (★★★★)
I could hardly breathe.
A colossal basilisk stood before me—its polished black scales gleaming like obsidian under the molten light, each scale etched with faint glowing patterns.
It’s hide on the head, backward-curving horns jutted from its forehead, and its serpentine body extended so far into the mountainside it seemed endless.
It had two golden slit eyes—but only one was open, and it was staring directly at me.
The other remained closed, twitching slightly, as if the creature was still not fully awake.
But this? This thing?
It wasn’t just hiding in the mountain.
Half the mountain—literally half—had been its curled-up body the entire time. While I fought the Queen Cobra, while I slashed, bled, and raged, it had merely been sleeping. Resting beneath my feet.
My breath caught in my throat.
Fighting this monster was not an option.
This wasn’t like the illusion Isolde had conjured during training. That projection, even at its most terrifying, was bound by limits. Rules. Control.
And fighting just that illusion had taken everything I had. And even with that, I had barely defeated that hound.
This was a living, breathing Rank ★★★★ entity.
There was an inherent, brutal difference between Rank ★★★ and ★★★★—a chasm.
I stood frozen, trembling. My muscles locked, my senses dulled by sheer dread.
It didn’t even move yet. And already, I wanted to flee.
The basilisk’s golden eye flicked lazily in my direction. There was no killing intent. No hostility. Just... awareness.
A groggy curiosity, like something that had been disturbed from a centuries-long nap and found a buzzing fly nearby.
And that? That was my window.
Before it could fully awaken—before it could decide that I was more than a nuisance—I turned on my heels without a second thought.
Mana surged to my feet, violently condensing at my soles. The moment I kicked off the ground, I was launched forward like a bolt of amethyst lightning.
I couldn’t look back.
Every instinct in my body screamed at me to keep running. To flee as far and as fast as possible.
My body blurred through the jagged rocks and debris, slipping past molten cracks and shattered serpent bones. The heat clawed at my skin, but I didn’t stop.
I flew down the slope of the fractured mountain—and within seconds, I caught sight of the group.
They were still descending, cautious and unaware of the nightmare I had just unleashed.
Freya was at the front, leading them, but her body language screamed defeat. She looked like a ghost. Her back was slumped.
Her shoulders sagged under the invisible weight of loss. Her eyes—those once proud and commanding eyes—were now dull, almost vacant.
The guilt of losing her team must’ve broken something in her.
But this wasn’t the time to dwell on guilt. We were far past that.
I didn’t slow down. I didn’t call out.
Without hesitating, I ran straight through the group, mana surging around my limbs to control my momentum. My mind screamed one thing—don’t stop.
As I reached Freya, I acted on impulse.
I slid to her side, scooped her up into a firm princess carry, and bolted forward again without losing stride.
She stared at me at first—stunned, wide-eyed—as the world blurred past us.
Then her mouth fell open in shock, her voice cracking as she demanded, "Why are you running with me?! What happened?! What about them?!"
I gulped, my throat already parched and burning from the sheer speed at which I was sprinting.
The words clawed out of my throat, hoarse and raw. "Forget about it. I can only take you to safety. Another monster woke up—one I can’t defeat."
Her eyes widened further, horror spreading across her face. She barked at me, anger surging through her fear.
"What the hell are you doing then?! They—they won’t survive without help!! They tried to save me! I—I have to return the favor! Leave me, Cassius!!!"
She struggled violently in my arms, thrashing and pushing, trying everything she could to break free from my grip.
But I held her firmly, tightening my arms around her struggling body. There was no way in hell I was letting go.
Even as her fists weakly pounded against me, even as her voice broke from shouting, I didn’t waver.
She twisted her neck to look back at the others, at the rocky slope where we had left them.
Whatever she saw in that brief glance—
Whatever nightmare loomed behind them—
It stole every ounce of resistance from her.
Her flailing stopped cold. Her whole body trembled, then curled closer against mine.
Wordlessly, she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck, pressing herself into me like a child seeking shelter from a storm.
I heard her muttering under her breath, voice barely a whisper against the roaring wind:
"I’m useless... I’m pathetic..."
Her words stabbed somewhere deep, but I didn’t have the energy to console her.
Hell, I barely had the energy to keep running.
I was still burning [Flash Speed] at full tilt—and the backlash was setting in hard.
Needles of icy cold and shards of molten fire pierced my brain, stabbing behind my eyes, lancing through my skull with every step I took.
My head throbbed like it was about to split open any second.
It was a miracle I was still upright.
It was a miracle I hadn’t collapsed yet.
The wind screamed past us, carrying with it distant echoes—the fading screams of the examinees, swallowed by the towering cliffs.
Freya clung tighter around me at every sound, her body trembling like a leaf against mine.
But there was no time to grieve. No time to regret.
The terror that creature inspired wasn’t normal fear. It was something deeper.
An ability—an innate authority—to paralyze and dominate anything weaker than it.
The fear should have devoured me whole.
It was only because I had fled immediately that I was even alive.
If I had stayed... there wouldn’t have been a battle.
No desperate struggle.
So yeah, maybe some idiots would call it cowardice. Say I should’ve fought for "glory," "fame," or "the respect of a warrior."
I didn’t believe in that bullshit.
The only thing precious to me—was my life.
The thrill of combat, the glory of winning, the pride of battle?
Those could all wait until I was strong enough to actually survive a fight like that.
Still, one thought gnawed at the back of my mind—the only real fear left clinging to my bones.
What if that Basilisk chased us?
If that bastard decided to pursue, there was no escape.
Not even if I burned my life force to fuel another [Flash Speed].
Gritting my teeth, I shoved the useless thoughts aside, focusing every last scrap of willpower on the act of running.
The blackened terrain of the mountainous region blurred behind me.
The rocky outcroppings, the broken cliffs, the jagged boulders—all fell away into the distance.
The screams of the examinees had already faded to nothing.
Now there was only the howling of the wind and the frantic pounding of my heart.
I zipped over cliffs, skipped across shattered stone, dodged boiling lava flows and unstable footholds.
I didn’t dare stop for even a second.
And somehow, someway, I made it.
The landscape shifted ahead—changing from scorched, jagged stone into a surreal oasis.
But it wasn’t filled with water.
The pool at its center bubbled with molten lava, casting a hellish glow over the area.
And just as I crossed the final rocky ledge—
My body finally gave out.
My momentum shattered a nearby boulder with a deafening crash.
I twisted midair, shielding Freya with my body as we crashed through the stone.
The force ripped into me, agony flaring through my spine, my ribs, my arms.
We slammed into the ground with a resounding, painful thud.
Dust and embers scattered into the air around us.
Freya landed on top of me, her small frame pressed tightly against my chest.
For a long moment, she just stared at me with wide, glassy eyes—concern etched into every trembling line of her face.
She had finally diverted her attention away from the examinees she couldn’t save...
And onto the idiot who had saved her.