*Step.*
"Huh?! Why am I-?!" Vera and Sammie looked at their legs in shock, trying to hold back against the force making them move.
However, no matter how much they tried to resist, their legs refused to listen and continued walking forward. Vera tried looking backward, but her neck was fixated on the two rock beings in front.
Zenon looked at both Unseens with widened eyes, not expecting Aurea would've gone this far. Her face was frozen with a small smile as she watched both go, not even blinking or moving her pupils.
Strangely, he remained unaffected by Aurea's command. He even braced himself beforehand to endure the order that was about to come but that sensation never appeared.
'Maybe... it only works to those in front of her?'
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Sammie shouted as he tried to store his sword back again in his soul and run away.
Vera tried doing the same with her bow, but could only watch as she became a puppet to someone else's will. It was as if she was watching a movie.
Suddenly, the girl stopped some meters away from the Layer Beast and Sammie stopped in front of one of the sleeping rocks. Vera drew her bow and Sammie prepared a strong attack.
"Zenon." Aurea called without looking at him, "At my signal, throw a punch forward as strong as your body can muster. Phoenix will take care of the wounds swiftly."
"Huh? Why would y-"
*Rumble!*
A sudden earthquake appeared, setting a cold feeling of dread in Zenon's heart. Was the Shifting occurring again?! Wasn't there only one Shifting per day and nothing else?!
He looked around and even sent Leviathan to the top of the canyon to search for an opening, but strangely didn't see any sort of movement. Confused, he looked at Aurea, who was watching the corner calmly.
Walking toward her, Zenon also peeked around the corner and widened his eyes when he saw Vera and Sammie running towards them while being followed by two gigantic living boulders.
They had pointy rocks everywhere you could look at. Rocks that could easily pierce metal if they wished to. However, they looked pretty humanoid, with two arms and two legs protruding from their torso.
Two red and orange eyes confirmed their suspicions, they were two Mixed Second-Ranks. However, the third Layer Beast remained still, not daring to move a single rock.
Snapping back to reality, Zenon understood what Aurea wanted to do. Punch a Layer Beast and play a gamble. A gamble of who will fall first, Zenon from the punch or the Layer Beast from the strike.
Zenon got in position. The first things that passed around the corner were the distraught faces of the two Unseens, who were panting from exhaustion. He cracked his knuckles and summoned the gloves, wrapping the void around them.
"Don't fuck it up." Aurea said.
She lifted one of her hands, and after some seconds of running sounds progressively getting stronger and louder, she brought it down. Zenon took a step forward and timed it perfectly.
*BANG! CRACK!*
Clutching his hand firmly while biting his tongue, Zenon saw how - due to the unexpected strike - a rock golem fell to the river.
However, this was all he managed to see, as the next second a black figure sprinted past him.
His sweat turned cold and forgot for a moment the fragmented bones of his hand. Aurea was also surprised by the sudden burst in speed and looked behind her. Then...
"SAMMIE!!"
A heartbreaking shout resonated through the ravine.
Widening his eyes, Zenon looked at an unnerving situation happening in front of him. Sammie got lifted from the ground as a long spike drilled through his stomach, blood flowing from his mouth.
The next second the sudden wave of pain from his broken wrist made him subconsciously groan, catching Aurea's attention. Phoenix quickly appeared and began treating his wound as fast as he could.
The Layer Beast threw Sammie to the wall and the next second he brought the arm down towards Vera, piercing her shoulder, and gaining yet another scream.
Aurea quickly reacted by attacking the Layer Beast. Knowing that her sword wouldn't let her continuously strike, she moved around its big body, sending strikes wherever she could.
Phoenix was finishing the last treatments, leaving Zenon with a refreshing sensation all over his wrist. He has broken this exact hand around... four times? Maybe five?
And to say the least, he wasn't getting used to it. What he was getting accustomed to was knowing when his bones would give up and collapse. Still, it wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat over and over.
Suddenly, a rock fell behind him. Not wasting a second, he looked back and saw a black hand coming from there.
'Gotta be-! You sneaky bastard!'
Quickly getting back up, Zenon ran toward the upcoming Layer Beast.
Just before he reached the rock humanoid though, he made a quick rotation and used that extra speed to punch the Layer Beast's face once again with his - now broken - left hand.
*BANG! CRACK!*
This time, however, a small purple and orange explosion happened when his fist connected and the Layer Beast flew a dozen meters away, ending up falling inside the river.
"Agh! It burns!"
Zenon dropped to his knees while hugging his hands in pain. He opened one eye as he gritted his teeth and made sure having killed that bastard.
'Please, please... don't tell me he is going to jump from the river to here...'
[You have slain a Mixed Second-Rank Mindless: Rock Golem.]
Luckily, his begging was rewarded as he saw a set of Runes appear in front of him. He subconsciously lowered his head before putting himself back up and letting Phoenix treat his other hand.
In all this time Aurea managed to do enough damage to reveal the soft insides of the Layer Beast.
The rock-like beast was getting sick of that annoying fly running around and even try kicking, but it was as slippery as a snake. Why couldn't that annoying shit die already?!
In frustration and driven by the desire to eat such an annoying meal, the Layer Beast brought both fists downs. Aurea took advantage of this by lowering her warmer and saying,
"Stay there."
Just as the Layer Beast wanted to repeat the same attack, his entire body froze in place. It tried moving away but nothing would happen.
The very next moment, Aurea used the Layer Beast's forearm as a trampoline and jumped as high as she could before stabbing the neck of the Layer Beast, making the entire blade disappear inside its body.
As if an electric shock was applied to it, the rock beast stood up while letting a deafening screech, trying to take that metal splinter out from his neck. Aurea took it out and jumped backward, landing beside Zenon.
The boy already healed up from both wounds and already summoned his dagger. Having seen where Aurea stabbed the rock beast, Zenon made the mental note to try and made a quick plan.
"Try to distract it, I'll stab the neck." Zenon said before sprinting towards it.
Aurea followed him by surpassing his speed and slashing at the Layer Beast's legs. Since it had its eyes fixated on the woman for some time, the Layer Beast forgot about the fact that another human was helping her.
Using that distraction to his advantage, Zenon jumped on top of the Layer Beast and stabbed its neck with Sharp Fang making the poison inside the blade run wild.
After some seconds, the Layer Beast's movement became erratic, slow, and was brought down, where Aurea used her sword to stab its brain.
Zenon remained still for a second. His hands were still suffering from phantom pain, making him grit his teeth for some moments. He stepped down from the Layer Beast, and out of nowhere, Aurea grabbed his hand.
"Huh, what are you doing?"
"Giving you the Sacrifices, the Layer Beast was dying so it was your kill."
Zenon blinked for a second before letting that surge of energy pass through his hand and a set of Runes appeared in front of him.
[You have received two Sacrifices.]