Chapter 76: Evolve or Die

"Talk? Right now?" Ryan asked, looking at Soren strangely.

"Especially now," Soren nodded seriously. "Once we step into that clearing, there is no guarantee we will succeed. Our only chance to increase our survival is to ’talk’."

He leaned his spear against his shoulder, meeting Ryan’s eyes directly.

"I know you have your guard up against me, Ryan, and I don’t blame you for that," Soren said calmly. "After all, we just met today. So, I don’t expect you to trust me unconditionally after everything that has happened. But right now, we are about to walk into a slaughter. I just hope that we can at least be honest with each other."

Ryan remained silent, his expression unreadable as he listened.

"First, I promise I won’t betray your trust," Soren continued, his gaze unwavering. "Second, if you’re worried that I’ll leave you behind to save myself or use you as a distraction, you can put that out of your mind, too. And finally, if you have any questions or doubts regarding me or my lead, say them now. I’d rather hear them here than when we’re surrounded."

To Soren’s surprise, Ryan didn’t look conflicted. A small smile played on his lips as he shook his head.

"I’ll admit, I was thinking exactly like that at first," Ryan said. "But after these last few hours, I know I can trust you. If you wanted me dead, you had a dozen chances before we even got here. But you didn’t. So, I’m in. I just hope you can trust me as well."

Soren felt a genuine weight lift from his chest. "Good." He offered a brief, sharp smile. "Then let’s make sure we actually survive. So... Let’s share our powers."

He didn’t wait for Ryan to go first. If he wanted honesty, he had to provide the collateral.

"I have a few innate abilities I haven’t fully shown yet," Soren whispered, his voice low enough to stay beneath the thrum of the monolith. "Beyond the spear, my body is... different. I have an Ironclad Body; my skin and bones are much denser than a normal human’s, and my stamina is much greater than most of the awakened at the same rank. I also have Accelerated Regeneration; if I get cut, the wound closes in minutes. And... If things get desperate, I can trigger an Adrenaline Burst to temporarily push my speed and strength beyond their limits."

Ryan listened with wide eyes, clearly processing the sheer amount of utility Soren had been sitting on. After a moment, Ryan took a breath to reciprocate. He remained careful, keeping the core secrets of his Sunless inheritance buried, but offering enough to be useful.

"I don’t have that kind of variety," Ryan said. "But my mana isn’t normal either. It has a high-density ’weight’ to it. I can shroud my blade in a silver resonance that cuts through physical armor like it’s paper. My senses are also sharper than they look. I can feel the ’pulse’ of monsters before they move. I’m essentially a glass cannon; I can kill almost anything in one hit, but I can’t take the hits as you can."

Soren listened, accepting the new knowledge.

"And... as you might have noticed, my ability is related to support," Ryan continued, his voice steady. "But it is more versatile than just a general boost. I can perform Amplification. I can strengthen a person, a weapon, or even specific attributes like the sharpness of a blade or the raw output of a technique."

Ryan paused, looking at Soren’s spear. "The limit is triple the original power. I can make an attack three times more powerful, but I can’t push it beyond that yet. And it’s taxing and absorbs a lot of mana."

Soren gave a slow, knowing nod. He had already guessed that Ryan’s support wasn’t a simple buff; furthermore, he didn’t mention the fact that the boy was still holding a few cards close to his chest. It didn’t matter as he was the same. In a world of Awakened, everyone kept a final ace for themselves. The fact that Ryan had shared this much was enough to bridge the gap.

"Triple output," Soren murmured, his mind instantly recalibrating their damage potential. "That should be enough to bridge the gap between us and that Drake."

They spent the next few minutes finalizing their plan.

Once the strategy was set, they moved.

For the first hour, the plan worked with lethal precision. They used the petrified roots as a meat grinder, funneling the Drakelings into a narrow space where Soren made the ground a frictionless death trap with his ice affinity. Ryan’s blade followed every opening, and they managed to dismantle more than half of the horde, even turning to strike down the few groups that tried to ambush them from the forest behind.

However, as the second hour began, the momentum shifted. The remaining Drakelings stopped charging. They drew back, forming a dense, overlapping circle around the bone-white stone, as if glued to the monolith. They were no longer falling for the lure.

Soren and Ryan had no choice left. To reach the "King" before its evolution finished, they had to leave the safety of the trees and step out into the open clearing.

The moment they reached the halfway point, the air turned cold.

At the most critical moment, the massive creature atop the monolith sensed the threat. Its eyes snapped open, two pits of molten gold, and it roared, the sound vibrating through their very bones.

The Drakelings reacted instantly. They swarmed with a hive-mind intelligence, cutting off the retreat back to the forest. Within seconds, the two found themselves in the center of the opening, surrounded by a hundred or so snarling monsters with no way out.

"Huff... Huff..."

Soren and Ryan stood back to back, their weapons drawn and expressions grim. The circle was closing in, a wall of obsidian scales and jagged teeth.

"Just how did we end up in this situation?" Soren muttered bitterly, his spear shaking slightly from the sheer mana pressure in the air. It seems like they overestimated themselves a little.

Ryan didn’t turn his head; his focus was locked entirely on the giant figure rising atop the monolith.

"It is... probably Master’s gift," he replied, finally recalling his master’s final words about preparing a final gift for his successor and his first companion.

Soren let out a sharp, jagged exhale, the irony of the situation hitting him like a physical blow. "I see... This is surely a ’nice’ gift."

Ryan nodded in grim agreement, his blade humming with a silver light that felt tiny against the vastness of the horde.

"The best he could give," Ryan whispered. "A situation where we either evolve or die."

Soren shifted his grip, casting a sharp look toward the top of the bone-white structure. The massive drake was arched back, its body convulsing as gold light surged through its veins like molten wire. It was clearly caught in the final stages of its change, pinned in place by the sheer density of the mana it was trying to absorb.

"Fortunately," Soren grunted, his voice tight from the mana pressure. "We still have some time before that guy finishes."

Ryan took a jagged breath, his face pale as he looked at the wall of scales closing in from every side. "If we don’t move now... there won’t be anything left of us to worry about him."

Soren stepped slightly in front of him, instinctively taking the lead.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Then, don’t die!"

Soren didn’t wait for the circle to close. He threw himself forward, his weapon leading the way as he carved a path through the first wave of obsidian scales. Ryan followed like a jagged bolt of silver lightning, and together, they dove headfirst into the sea of yellow eyes.