Chapter 338: Chapter 337 - Search for the panther.
In the Ashen Expanse.
The cavern swallowed them one by one.
Gray mist clung to their armor and skin like wet cobwebs as they slipped into the endless press of corrupted beasts.
Clara’s sound magic spread across the floor in a shimmering hush, muting every scrape of boot leather and flutter of cloak.
From the ledge above, Raven’s crimson eyes tracked each member of his team as if he were moving invisible pieces on a board.
Omni’s voice hummed in his mind like a purring blade. "Boss... this is either the dumbest or most gangster thing we’ve ever done."
Raven’s gaze never wavered. "Both can be true."
Below, the mission immediately began to degrade.
Jessy was first to break the illusion of grace.
She slid between the taloned legs of a towering bull-beast, narrowly avoiding a spiked tail that whipped past her head. When she straightened, she found herself eye-level with the creature’s... rear.
Jessy squinted. "...That’s either a tumor or an interdimensional tragedy."
She tilted her head, then gave the butt a little wave. "Excuse me, Your Majesty of Flatulence—seen a panther around?"
The beast let out a long, vibrating growl that sounded suspiciously like a digestive complaint.
Jessy wrinkled her nose. "Right. No panther. Just regret."
She ducked beneath another swinging tail and kept moving.
Next was Siris, who moved with predator elegance, hopping silently from one beast’s hunched back to another like a frostbitten shadow.
Every time a creature shifted beneath her, a dagger twitched into her palm, but she didn’t strike.
When a particularly fat, slime-coated brute blocked her path, she crouched low, peering at its twitching ears.
"...You’d look better frozen," she murmured with a faint smile before leaping over its head in a blur of icy mist.
Only gods knew how she was controlling her stabbing urges, especially with so many hostiles around her.
Raven, however, was happy that she wasn’t doing anything that would put the group’s safety at risk.
"She deserves a reward, I guess," Raven muttered with a smile, only for Clara to raise a brow beside him.
"What about me? Aren’t I the one contributing the most?"
Her question made Raven turn toward her, his smile still present.
"You..." He walked closer to her, his palms cupping her cheeks. "You are the one whom I always rely on, so of course, you deserve a reward as well."
Staring into her eyes, Raven leaned closer. "So tell me, what do you want as a reward?"
Clara, still focusing on her magic, smirked. "Don’t you already know the answer?"
The tension in the air rose as both Clara and Raven locked eyes, but before they could move any further—
Omni’s casual yet speechless voice cut through the air. "Man, you guys are really thinking of romance when your buddies are literally at the jaw of the enemy?"
That reminded Raven and Clara of the surroundings, and both of them looked away with an awkward cough.
Raven’s eyes then soon caught sight of the next person.
It was Selena, walking straight through the throng as if she owned it.
A hulking, six-eyed rhino-beast sniffed her hair.
Without breaking stride, she flicked a single icy glance upward.
The rhino immediately flinched back, a guttural whimper rattling in its throat.
"Wise choice," she said softly, her black coat barely stirring as she vanished into the mist.
Then there was Graye, who tiptoed like a kid sneaking cookies, her silver armor faintly clinking despite Clara’s sound suppression.
When a gangly beast lowered its skull to sniff her, she froze—then leaned forward until their noses almost touched.
"Hi. You smell like barbecue and trauma. Seen a panther?"
The creature blinked its mismatched eyes. Graye grinned wider.
"Cool. Blink once for yes, twice for... never mind, you don’t have eyelids."
She patted its snout and slid beneath its chin with a cheerful, "Stay ugly, champ."
Jake, on the other hand, moved like a phantom, his shadow magic blending him into the gray fog.
At one point, he flattened himself against the flank of a hulking bear-beast, using its fur as camouflage.
The beast twitched but didn’t react as Jake’s eyes scanned the crowd, calculating paths like a chessboard of living nightmares.
Rufus... tiptoed with exaggerated care.
"Left foot... right foot... don’t explode," he whispered to himself.
A tail the size of a tree trunk swung near his head.
He ducked, muttering, "Definitely don’t explode."
A nearby beast sneezed a cloud of corrosive mist.
"Extra definitely."
Then finally, there were Alex and Nibbles, who brought their own brand of chaos.
Alex crouched beneath the belly of a horned gorilla-beast, whispering, "You sure this is the right way?"
Nibbles squeaked rapidly, his tiny paws gesturing like a squirrel-sized general.
Alex nodded. "Uh-huh. Yeah, left at the dripping intestine, got it."
Another squeak.
"Wait—that intestine or the other intestine?"
Nibbles rolled his eyes and squeaked louder.
Alex winced. "Okay, okay. Jeez. No need to get testy, commander."
From above, Raven tracked them all, eyes gleaming with quiet calculation.
"Jessy’s talking to another butt," he said flatly.
Omni chuckled, voice smooth as velvet. "Girl’s got priorities. Respect."
"Graye just tried to interview a beast," Clara added, her soft voice betraying a hint of amusement.
Omni snickered. "Natural talent. Give her a press badge."
Raven’s gaze lingered on Siris again, whose daggers spun idly in her hands. "I wonder how long she can suppress her desire to stab."
"Whenever she does," Omni purred. "It would spice up the show."
"Not yet," Raven said, his voice a low command. "No violence until the panther is found."
Below, the team wove deeper into the monstrous tide, each absurd maneuver somehow keeping them unseen.
Clara’s sound magic hummed like a heartbeat around them, masking their scent and steps.
Meanwhile, somewhere between the endless sea of flesh and corruption... a single, familiar presence stirred.
The mist swirled low as if the cavern itself were holding its breath.
Through that heaving tide of flesh and shadow, the female corrupt beast—the one they had followed through the tunnels—slithered and clawed her way toward the nearest of the twelve giants.
Her twisted frame dripped black ichor, her every step a trembling plea to be heard.
The closest level ten towered over her like a living catastrophe.
It resembled a wolf only in outline: a lupine body fused with the majesty of a dragon.
Calcified antlers curved like jagged crescents from its skull, their ridges pulsing faintly with violet light.
Scaled plates ran down its spine in uneven patches, each one oozing steam.
When it exhaled, the air warped, bending as though reality itself feared the scent.
The female beast crouched low, muscles shivering, and loosed a guttural growl, low at first, then rising into a frantic, choking snarl.
The sound carried through the cavern like a tremor, a desperate litany of scents and clicks that only monsters understood.
From the ledge above, Raven, who saw the movement and noticed the female beast, narrowed his crimson eyes.
"She’s reporting," he murmured.
Omni’s voice coiled in his ear, velvet with unease. "Reporting what, boss? We didn’t even leave a Yelp review."
The giant wolf-dragon tilted its head, listening.
Its bleeding-moon eyes burned brighter with every hiss and bark, until its lip curled to reveal a row of teeth as long as swords.
Then—
With a single, contemptuous motion, it lunged forward, clamped its jaws around the messenger’s midsection, and hurled her into the crater.
The impact sent a shockwave rippling through the black soil.
A thunderous WHUMP echoed off the cavern walls, followed by a wet hiss as the unseen thing below devoured her in one gory breath.
The other corrupt beasts, as if unaffected by that, kept steady.
The wolf-dragon, on the other hand, raised its head again.
When it spoke, the sound was wrong—a voice like broken granite grinding through a throat of smoke.
"—Intruders."
The word slithered into the air, clear as a church bell.
It pivoted, gaze sweeping toward the other titans.
"Hidden. Watching. The female smelled them."
One by one, the remaining eleven monstrosities stirred.
A serpent crowned with fungal horns uncoiled, its scales rasping like chains dragged across stone.
A winged abomination unfolded its ribcage with a groan of splitting cartilage, breathing in deep, tasting the air.
A quadruped of crawling hands rose onto its hind legs, heads—plural—turning in jagged unison.
Their eyes—red, gold, and void-black—flared with draconic light as they began to scan the cavern, snouts lifting, claws flexing, and tails lashing like pendulums of execution.
The mist itself seemed to recoil from their presence.
On the ledge, Raven’s heart clenched, every instinct screaming.
The quiet was no longer covered—it was a trap collapsing.
Clara’s voice barely rose above a whisper.
"They’re searching."
Raven didn’t answer.
He reached into his cloak and drew a small, black whistle.
Its surface pulsed faintly with sealing runes.
He put it to his lips.
The sound that followed wasn’t a sound at all.
It was a pressure—a piercing, bone-deep vibration that threaded through the mist like an invisible blade.
To the team below, it was unmistakable.
Retreat.
Jessy froze mid-step, head snapping toward the west wall.
Graye’s grin faltered, replaced by a razor focus.
Selena’s eyes narrowed to cold slits.
Even Nibbles stiffened on Alex’s shoulder, tiny paws tightening in silent readiness.
Far below, the twelve level-tens prowled through the churning horde, their movements deliberate, their draconic senses peeling back the layers of shadow and sound.
Every heartbeat was a countdown.
Every breath was a razor edge.
And in the center of it all, the crater pulsed brighter, as if the thing beneath was waking to the hunt.