The entrance to the Central Transit Concourse was an gaping iron maw in the concrete foundation of a collapsed skyscraper, swallowed by calcified roots and dripping curtains of dark, violet moss.
Every step down the shattered escalator shaft echoed into the abyss below like a stone dropped down a deep well. The temperature plummeted twenty degrees within fifty feet of the surface, replaced by a heavy, suffocating atmosphere that tasted of wet copper, old iron, and stagnant Aether-Miasma.
Marcus and Timothy moved down the steps with their backs pressed together, their tactical filter masks hissing rhythmically with every ragged breath. Marcus held his tower shield braced in front of him, while Timothy kept his crossbow loaded, his optics clicking as he scanned the shadowed tiled walls.
"The air is... heavy," Marcus whispered, his voice trembling through his mask's acoustic speaker. "It feels like standing under fifty feet of water."
"That's Tier D+ miasma density," Sabrina said calmly as she descended beside Rian.
Her silver rapier rested drawn in her right hand, its tip hovering inches above the stone floor. A soft, icy blue luminescence radiated from the blade, casting a cold halo over the cracked ceramic tiles and shattered turnstiles ahead.
"The atmospheric pressure alone will cause a novice cadet's mana channels to collapse if they don't maintain internal suppression," she added, her pale blue eyes fixed on the darkness at the bottom of the shaft.
Rian walked smoothly at the head of the formation, his slate-grey coat unbuttoned, his hands resting easily in his pockets.
He didn't draw his short sword. He didn't activate a protective filter collar. Instead, the midnight-black threads beneath the skin of his wrists and throat twitched with eager, rhythmic pulses, drinking the dense, toxic air like cold water.
> [Environmental Saturation: Grid 12 Subterranean Concourse]
> Aether-Miasma Saturation: 38% (Tier D+ Threshold)
> Living Shadow Passive: Atmospheric Siphoning Active!
> Living Shadow EXP: 74 / 500 -> 122 / 500 (+48 EXP from deep ambient absorption)
One hundred twenty-two EXP, Rian noted mentally as he reached the bottom of the stairs. The deep ruins are a banquet.
The subterranean concourse opened into a vast, vaulted hall twice the size of the academy’s lower colosseum. Broken glass from collapsed skylights littered the marble floor, intermingled with rusted ticket machines and ancient structural pillars wrapped in glowing, purple-seeded fungus.
At the far end of the hall, two rusted mag-lev train cars sat off their rails, half-embedded in the collapsed concrete wall.
And inside the shadows beneath those train cars, six glowing crimson eyes snapped open.
A low, vibrating growl echoed through the concourse—a mechanical, bone-scraping sound that vibrated the concrete floor beneath Squad Alpha's boots.
Out from the dark crevices between the train cars slunk three terrifying beasts.
They were Rail-Hounds (Tier D - Level 4).
Eight feet long from snout to tail, their skeletal bodies were forged from jagged, dark iron chitin covered in a thin layer of sleek, obsidian fur. Their jaws unhinged unnaturally to reveal double rows of razor-sharp, metal-infused teeth, dripping with a thick, smoking purple miasma that hissed as it touched the marble floor.
"Rail-Hounds!" Timothy shrieked, backing up until his pack slammed against a tiled pillar. "Tier D pack predators! Their kinetic charge can crush a Vanguard scout!"
"Form the wedge!" Sabrina barked, stepping three paces ahead of the squad.
Sabrina swept her rapier across the open concourse in a sweeping horizontal arc. A five-foot-tall wall of jagged, brilliant blue ice erupted from the marble floor, spanning fifteen yards to choke off the central avenue between the pillars.
The icy barrier caught the lead Rail-Hound mid-stride, freezing its front legs solid against the floor. The beast let out a deafening, metallic howl, its powerful skeletal jaws snapping uselessly at the cold air as it thrashed against the ice.
"Marcus, pin the left flank!" Sabrina commanded, her rapier thrusting forward in a blinding blur of cold light. "Timothy, target the trapped beast's eyes!"
"Understood!" Marcus yelled, planting his boots and slamming his heavy shield into the floor to intercept a second Rail-Hound that tried to leap over the frozen barrier.
BOOM!
The second Rail-Hound slammed into Marcus’s shield with terrifying kinetic force. The heavy wooden-and-iron barrier groaned, but Marcus gritted his teeth, holding his ground as Timothy fired a heavy iron bolt clean through the beast’s left eye socket.
While Sabrina and the cadets locked down the left flank, the third Rail-Hound—the largest of the trio—pivoted away from the icy wall, its crimson eyes locking onto Rian, who stood alone in the center of the concourse.
The beast let out an ear-splitting howl, its tail whipping through the air like an iron chain as it lunged straight for Rian's throat at terrifying speed!
To any normal observer, Rian was completely exposed—a Level 1 cadet standing in an open hall with no shield, no armor, and no defensive spell activated.
Rian didn't step back. He didn't even raise his blade.
Sovereign’s Tendril — Dual Manifestation!
WHIP-CRACK!
From the three-meter pool of liquid dark shadow beneath Rian's heels, two thick, midnight-black tendrils erupted from the marble floor like obsidian harpoons!
The first tendril wrapped tightly around the leaping Rail-Hound’s torso in mid-air, halting its forward momentum instantly. The second tendril shot upward, coiling tightly around its unhinged lower jaw!
CRACK!
Rian flexed his left fist.
The two shadow tendrils slammed the Tier D beast violently into the marble floor, crushing its iron chitin structure under two hundred units of Level 2 shadow force!
> [Target Neutralized: Tier D Rail-Hound]
> Living Shadow EXP: 122 / 500 -> 222 / 500 (+100 EXP!)
The beast went still, its skeletal body dissolving into a small cloud of dark, high-density miasma, leaving a glowing, fist-sized green crystal sphere resting on the shattered marble floor.
Across the hall, Sabrina finished off the remaining trapped Rail-Hounds with two swift, glacial rapier thrusts to their skulls.
Silence returned to the subterranean concourse, broken only by the hiss of Timothy’s filter mask and the quiet dripping of water from the vaulted ceiling. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Timothy dropped to one knee, leaning against his crossbow as he gasped for air through his rubber valve. "Three... three Tier D beasts cleared in under two minutes..."
Marcus stared at Rian in complete shock. He looked at the shattered marble floor, then at the dark shadow tendrils slowly receding back into Rian's boots.
"You... you caught a Tier D Rail-Hound by its jaw in mid-air..." Marcus stammered, his eyes wide. "Rian... what kind of shadow skill is that?!"
"It's precise vector anchoring," Sabrina said smoothly, sheathing her rapier with a crisp click as she walked over. She picked up two of the glowing green crystal spheres from the floor, examining their rich clarity. "Rian's shadow anchors kinetic force instead of resisting it."
She looked up at Rian, handing him the harvested Tier D crystals. "That's three Tier D cores. More than enough to top our daily quota."
Rian took the glowing crystals, storing two inside his coat pocket while holding the largest in his palm.
Living Shadow... assimilate.
A paper-thin thread of liquid dark mana wrapped around the green sphere, dissolving the stone into fine black dust between his gloves.
> [Item Consumed: High-Purity Tier D Core]
> [Purifying Subterranean Miasma Reserves...]
> Living Shadow EXP: 222 / 500 -> 342 / 500 (+120 EXP!)
A warm, rich current of dark energy flooded Rian's core subspace, expanding his channel stability.
> [Living Shadow Status]
> Level: 2 (342 / 500 EXP)
> Mana Capacity: 150 / 150
> Reach: 3.0 Meters
Sabrina stepped closer, her pale blue eyes looking past the train cars toward the dark mag-lev tunnel stretching deeper south, where faint orange torch light flickered against the concrete walls.
"Human signatures ahead," Sabrina noted, her voice dropping into a razor-thin whisper. "Heavy boots. Fire magic."
Rian adjusted his slate-grey coat, his dark eyes narrowing as he felt the faint, thermal vibrations reverberating through the three-meter shadow pool beneath his boots.
"Victor Vance," Rian said quietly. "Let's see what his guild mercenaries have cleared."