Within a cavern, a small reservoir was nestled against the back wall. The water came tricking down from a crack in the ceiling. It was an innocuous body of water, at least compared to the life flourishing around it. Tree-sized mushrooms, coral formations the size of a hut, and even spine-tingling insects were crawling all about.

And in the middle of it all, a Crystal Rat lay beside the tiny lake while it munched on the corpse of a giant centipede. It was at least five metres long and broader than a surfboard. Its shell was also covered in a mishmash of coral, but it didn’t seem to be infected. Rather, the coral looked like an attempt at camouflage.

Logan nodded at the rest of his team, who all confirmed they were ready. They were all at the second stage of Body Tempering, were very fit thanks to nearly two weeks of using their life force manuals, and had at least three techniques to use at will. They were as ready as they could be, Logan stepping out and immediately using Flash Step.

He moved silently towards the back of the Crystal Rat, but that didn’t seem to matter. The beast immediately spun around despite facing the opposite direction. Logan had initially been aiming a Shattering Strike at its lower back, but now that he was face to face with the beast, he had to adjust his aim at the last moment.

The spear rocketed towards its face. The beast’s mouth was covered in blood as it snarled at him, and its body immediately lowered itself to the ground. Logan aimed for its skull. He pulled on the egg, and his body erupted in flames. His strength soared as the spear almost slammed into its forehead, but at the last second, the Crystal Rat swiped out with its claw and smacked his spear away.

The impact was so strong that Logan almost let go of the spear. He barely managed to hold on, but that caused its own problems. His right arm was now flying back and to the side, his body taking enough of the impact that he stumbled and almost fell.

The rat took that opportunity to pounce at Logan. With its jaw open, it intended to rip his right leg clean off. He stepped back at the last second by using Flash Step. The rat didn’t chase him, giving Logan a chance to disengage before he made another mistake. A moment later, he felt a sharp pain on his leg, a stream of golden power sealing up the scratch on his thigh.

Despite dodging, it still scratched his leg deeply enough to cut through the muscle. Logan shook his head and thought about their options. The initial plan was to cripple or severely limit the rat’s mobility with a sneak attack. The only thing they didn’t account for was its super senses. The beast had somehow noticed Logan despite him not being in its line of sight, which pointed to it being some kind of supernatural ability.

Logan didn’t know exactly how it worked, but he still told the rest of the group as they gathered around him. “It has some kind of sensory ability. It shouldn’t have seen or heard me, but it still managed to sense that I was coming.”

No one spoke, nor did the rat do anything besides watch them curiously. Logan didn’t like that. Something was wrong about how calm it was, especially when its mouth and fangs were dripping with blood. He thought about running but decided against it since the entire situation left him feeling suspicious.

Logan charged in with Flash Step again. The rat pounced, its arms swiping out at the tip of his spear. Its claw was too fast to avoid. That was why he used Shadow Thrust, the spear sliding past its claws and disappearing into the beast’s eye. The rat screeched out in pain, its claw suddenly speeding up. Only instead of going for his weapon, it arced right towards his face.

Logan tried to step back, but he was too slow. Using techniques took a moment of build-up. He simply didn’t have enough time to use Flash Step, allowing the rat to claw him from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist.

Logan thought about retreating at that moment, but wasn’t that exactly what the rat expected him to do? That was why he changed his mind and lunged. Sliding under the rat’s arm, Logan appeared on its flank. He ignored its roars of pain and thrust his spear into its side. Shattering Thrust went off without an issue, but at the last moment, the rat shifted to the side and brushed away most of the impact with its crystal hide.

Logan immediately used Flash Step to leap away. A moment later, the rat was rolling over where he had been standing a second ago, its body heavy enough to crush him. When it stood back up, Logan managed to spot the damage he had done. His technique still destroyed a dinner plate’s worth of its hide despite missing. The crystal hairs had all fallen off, the skin underneath turning purple.

It failed to compare with the shattered organs he wanted to inflict, but it was better than missing entirely.

Logan charged in again, and Amelia took that as her chance to join in. She used her new movement technique, Leap. It had a longer build-up than Flash Step, but once she used it, Amelia quickly overtook Logan with her shield raised in front of her. She used Heavy Blow with her shield to smack away the rat’s claw. The shield and claws made a thud like two rocks smashing together, bouncing off each other.

As the beast recoiled, Amelia thrust her spear into its face. She used Heavy Blow again. Her spear raced towards its nose, but the rat didn’t sit back and wait to be hurt. It bit down on her spear and shattered it to pieces. Unluckily for it, the tip kept going thanks to the momentum of her technique. The rat cried out in pain and reared up on its hind legs, its mouth wide open as half of the spear poked out of its mouth.

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She had stabbed the rat in the back of its throat, giving everyone else a chance to attack while it reeled in shock and pain. James and Stephanie raced forward with their own movement techniques. Meanwhile, the rat tried to pull the head out with its paws, not even considering the two of them as threats.

Logan quickly arrived at its side and used Shadow Thrust on the bruised patch of skin. The spear disappeared into the rat’s abdomen, making him blink in surprise that he hadn’t been attacked. He realised something was wrong and tried to step back, but the rat was too quick. It pulled the spear from its mouth and tried to stab him with it. At the same time, it spun around and slammed James and Stephanie with its tail, launching them both across the cavern.

That just left Tom, his sword flashing out with his own technique. Whispering Strike was characterised by its silence and speed. Tom had also learned a technique that allowed him to move in silence, which was why he could sneak up on the rat while it was distracted. Of course, he hadn’t avoided its senses. The rat just didn’t have enough hands to deal with everyone at the same time.

Tom’s sword slashed across the rat’s exposed stomach, leaving a deep line in its abdomen. He quickly leapt away before getting grazed by its massive tail. It was at least three or four metres long, acting like a whip as it lashed him in the side. He flew back and bounced across the floor, the skin on his right arm split open from the impact.

Logan took that chance to run over. James and Stephanie were both alive, but they were bleeding and unconscious. He healed them in under a second, allowing him to jump straight back into the fight while Amelia took the brunt of the rat’s anger.

With both hands on her shield, she used her new defensive technique to withstand the rat as it crazily slashed at her with its paws. Each slap was like being hit by a grizzly, only worse. Its claws were sharper than knives, and thanks to the crystal bones, its arms were much heavier than a bear’s. A deep, rhythmic thudding should’ve been echoing throughout the cavern, but Amelia’s new technique absorbed all the vibrations.

Iron Bulwark was easily her best purchase so far.

Logan used Flash Step to get back into the fight, his spear arcing towards the rat’s exposed stomach while it stood on its hind legs. He also dropped James’ spear behind Amelia. She quickly disengaged and grabbed it while Logan attacked, his spear getting deflected like before. Only this time, he didn’t use Shattering Strike. The rat’s paw was thrown to the side by a perfectly timed Parry, but instead of trying to jump away thanks to the opening, Logan used the chance to pounce forward and shove his flaming arm into the cut on its belly.

The rat screeched out in pain. A sudden blanket of pain assaulted Logan’s mind, the rat using a powerful mental attack similar to that of the circlet, but he just ignored it and held on for dear life. He didn’t have to do anything now other than cling to the beast. Still, the rat’s mental attack was slowing down his thoughts and causing great pain, the feeling much worse than a migraine.

Bloody steam wafted out of the cut as the flames turned its insides into charcoal and ash. The rat’s claws raked down onto Logan’s back, slicing his skin open. Amelia took the chance to use Heavy Blow on the rat’s knee with her shield. It buckled and fell over but wasn’t injured from the attack. Logan also used his immense strength to push it, forcing the beast onto its back with him on top.

While all this was happening, Tom charged in from the side and thrust his sword into the rat’s face with a Heavy Blow of his own. The weapon flew straight into the rat’s only remaining eye. Sadly, the blade failed to pierce its brain and kill it, the rat screeching in pain before it began to rage.

Tom stepped back and pulled his sword out. The rat screeched again and lashed out. Despite being blinded, its other senses were sharp enough to pinpoint anyone nearby. That was why Tom got thrown across the cavern when the beast smashed its head into his chest.

Amelia attacked its joints, and Tom, James, and Stephanie soon joined her when they all recovered. Their goal wasn’t to injure the rat. Logan had been hanging on its belly the whole time, his arm reaching deep into its guts. The rat clawed at him in a useless attempt to throw him off. He was the actual damage dealer and also the most vulnerable. That was why the rat ignored everyone and tried to rip him off its stomach, but Logan held on tight.

Throughout it all, the pain only stopped when Tom and Amelia landed Heavy Blows on its arms. They did no real damage to the monster. Its joints were all made of crystal, meaning their attacks did nothing besides slow it down. Which helped a lot since it stopped the rat from tearing Logan off or ripping him in half. All it managed to do was claw his back or roll over on top of him. The rat hated to do the latter as it only pressed him into its body, which wasn’t very good for it since he was covered in flames.

Still, Logan held on tight, each second passing slower than the last. It was a fresh hell like no other. He almost let go a few times from the extreme agony of it all, his mind going blank from the physical and mental pain. He even disassociated before the wave of mental agony dragged him back.

The pain redoubled as it was brought to the forefront of Logan’s mind. He almost lost control of his body when everything went blank, a field of flowers blossoming around him. Somehow, his mind had pulled itself deep into his subconscious, even going so far as to use the Long Night as a shield.

The pain and mental attack began to fade, both getting blocked out by his visualisation technique. A halo of light spread out around Logan’s mind, cloaking it in a hazy shield that stopped him from being affected by anything outside. The field protected him from the mental attack and the pain, allowing his mind to stabilise.

Logan attained a level of calm that he had never experienced before. He sat in place of the Goddess, meditating on the same hill that she should’ve been sitting on. Around him was a field of flowers, and above it was a meteor shower that streaked across the night sky, empty of everything other than the stars.

There was no pain or mental attack anymore, and neither did Logan feel worried. He simply was. As the Crystal Rat continued to rage outside, Logan silently broke through the bottleneck he had been stuck in the last two weeks. The third set of flowers lost their mysterious aura, and with it came a burst of mental clarity like never before.

As a result, the flames began to burn even brighter as Logan pulled on the egg. His improved focus helped draw more power from it than he ever could. The rat cried out in pain, but he didn’t as his mind continued to evolve. The halo of light surrounding his mind also became more powerful, allowing him to shut everything out, even his own thoughts and worries.

There was no Logan anymore; he simply was.

That was also why he didn’t realise he had received a notification until the third time it rang out in his mind.

[You have slain an Uncommon Mortal at the Seventh Step, Crystal Rat.]