How is it still moving...
The question echoed in Mia's mind as a figure shot past her in a blur, crashing into the ground with a force that sent ripples through the tall grass of the meadow. Without hesitation, Mia sprinted toward the impact site.
“Marcos, are you alright?” She called out, her voice laced with urgency. The dust settled, revealing Marcos lying in the small crater left by his fall. His usual cloak was gone, leaving only his dark, reinforced leather gear and the half-empty belts of throwing knives strapped around his waist. But that wasn’t what held Mia’s attention. Her eyes were locked on the shallow, frozen gash stretching across his chest. It had sliced through his protective layers, from his lower chest to his upper side, and now those very layers were crumbling away. The sight was hauntingly familiar—she’d seen it before, during her role as bait.
It didn’t matter what it was or what it touched. One graze was enough to freeze solid, rendering anything so brittle it shattered in the faintest breeze.
“I... I think so,” Marcos stammered, his breath visible in the air as his body trembled against the cold.
“I just barely managed to avoid it touching my skin... but Mia, I’ve never felt anything so cold in my life.” His voice carried a tremor as his aura worked overtime, forming a barrier between his body and the frigid remnants of the attack. They both knew that without it, Marcos would already be frozen solid.
“Marcos, I need you to find Hazel and get him out of here. Understand?” Mia’s sudden command made him pause, his expression tightening.
“Are you sure?” he asked, hesitating.
“He’s already-” Marcos stopped, the rest of the sentence hanging in the air. A flicker of conflict crossed Mia’s eyes before she nodded firmly.
“I know. But he might still hold on long enough for us to get him help.” Marcos didn’t respond immediately, his jaw clenching as he pushed himself free from the dirt embedding him in the ground. Mia stepped in, helping him to his feet as he leaned against her, his body and aura fighting to keep the cold at bay.
He gave her a sidelong glance, then nodded.
“Alright. Just... try to keep Gerald from doing anything reckless,” he said. Mia offered him a faint, partly sincere smile.
“Of course.” With that, Marcos pulled away, limping toward the opposite direction of the main battle. Mia watched him for a moment before turning her attention back to the center of the open meadow. Her expression hardened, her focus absolute.
The familiar chaotic swirl of Gerald’s black and dark reddish aura flashed across the battlefield. It was a jarring sight—such a massive man moving with such speed. Each step he took crushed the ground beneath him, leaving deep indents in his wake. His usual grin was absent, replaced by an expression of pure intensity and focus.
Mid-stride, Gerald raised his leg high and slammed it into the ground. A vibration rippled outward from the impact, but instead of spreading in every direction like normal, it arched beneath the earth with precision.
Moments later, cracks splintered across the ground, forcing a massive chunk of rock to the surface. It surged upward as if the earth itself were spitting it out. The colossal boulder, easily dozens of tons and towering three times Gerald’s size, broke free of the dirt.
“Try freezing this!” Gerald bellowed, his voice booming. Without breaking stride, he thrust his hand forward, his fingers digging into the stone’s surface. Effortlessly, he lifted the enormous rock, his aura shrinking slightly as it flowed from his body to coat the boulder. Momentum carried him forward as he spun on his heel, turning the massive rock into a makeshift weapon. With a powerful twist, he hurled it like a frisbee.
The stone spiraled through the air, a blur of aura and rock moving at cannonball speed. It flew straight at its target, slicing through the air like a top. But as it reached the creature, the boulder passed harmlessly through its head, as if the target wasn’t there at all.
The aura coating the rock dissipated, flowing back into Gerald’s body. The projectile continued its trajectory, crashing into the top of a nearby hill. The impact shattered the hilltop, sending a shower of dirt and jagged shards of stone cascading down the slope.
“What the hell are we supposed to do against this thing?” Gerald cursed through gritted teeth, frustration thick in his voice.
“Even with aura, nothing can touch it.” He clenched his fists, his aura flaring briefly before settling. Aura and magic weren’t strangers to the incorporeal—both could affect the intangible, striking at willpower, souls, and even the mind. Yet against this creature, their aura reacted as if it wasn’t there at all, treating it like an empty void.
“Though, if I’m being honest,” Gerald muttered under his breath, his gaze fixed on the creature, “I doubt hitting it would make any difference anyway.”
His voice carried a faint trace of hopelessness, tinged with defeat.
The Nullfang.
But it didn’t look like it had when they first encountered it. Half of its head seemed as though it had been shoved through a grinder and then hacked apart. Fragments of its skull were embedded in the tattered flesh hanging from the wound, with blood still dripping onto the meadow below. The remaining half of its skull was exposed, its bony surface gleaming under the sun. And yet, even that wasn’t its worst injury. Chunks of its tail were missing, as if some massive beast had taken jagged bites out of it.
In other places, its scales were cleanly sliced through, deep gashes leaking a slow but steady stream of blood.
Even if we held back to avoid hitting Mia, all those attacks, all those aura styles... it should have been enough to kill this bastard. So how the hell is it still moving?
Gerald and Mia both found themselves grappling with that same question. The Nullfang should be dead. Its wounds were catastrophic—deep enough to expose its skeleton. Parts of its body had been torn away, blasted apart, or simply shredded. Without anyone landing another blow, it was already falling apart, blood spraying out and staining the grassy meadow. Flesh caught on the ground and ripped from its body as it moved, left to rot in its wake.
A grotesque contrast to the valley’s serene beauty under the sun’s rays.
Yet its remaining eye burned with the same predatory intent as before, its focus fixed squarely on Gerald and not the pain it should be in. Its mouth, partially hanging open despite missing most of the muscles required to do so, let out a bubbling hiss—a sound born of blood filling its throat. Yet somehow, it wasn’t drowning.
It should be dead. But it wasn’t. And its aggression and danger remained unchanged.
The creature raised its battered head and then slid into the ground. Its body—or what remained of it, including its tattered internals—dissolved into that same disorienting haze of color. Gerald immediately dropped into a defensive stance, his frown deepening as he scanned the area, his senses sharp.
Doesn’t make a sound when it does that. I’ve fought assassins who specialized in stealth, but the quietest one so far is some goddamn snake that makes my eyes hurt just looking at it. And it doesn’t help that I still haven’t replaced my sword since dealing with those damn Kryle.
His sixth sense flared, and on instinct, Gerald sidestepped. His movement was so fast it left an afterimage lingering where he had just been standing, despite the fact he’d only moved a meter.
Turning his head, he saw the Nullfang’s mangled head snapping at where he’d been moments before, its teeth still eager to tear into anything. Without hesitation, Gerald twisted his body and launched a punch at its exposed skull, his strength enough to burst it like a grape.
But his fist hit nothing. The creature’s head flickered, turning to static as his blow passed through harmlessly.
“Fuck,” he hissed, sensing movement behind him. He braced for a counterattack, expecting the Nullfang to strike. But it didn’t. Instead, its head continued to evade his strikes, flickering in and out of existence as the rest of its body emerged from the ground. Within seconds, its form fully materialized, a massive coil tightening around him.
What is this thing up to now?
Gerald threw a flurry of punches in every direction, each one fast enough to generate micro shockwaves as they launched. But none of them landed. The Nullfang’s body nulled and unnulled in an instant, slipping through his strikes as if mocking him. Worse still, the coils around him tightened with each passing second.
From her vantage point, Mia watched the battle intently, searching for an opening to strike. Suddenly, she called out, her voice carried on the wind spirits to Gerald.
“Gerald, get out of there! It’s trying to constrict you!”
Hearing her warning, Gerald furrowed his brow and readied himself to leap. Despite the Nullfang’s coiling body forming a tightening wall of flesh around him, the top was still uncovered. With a powerful jump that fractured the ground beneath him, he launched upward. But as he ascended, the Nullfang’s head appeared again, arcing over him like a rainbow, blocking his escape route.
Mia reacted first. Her movements were swift and deliberate, almost mechanical in precision. She fired three arrows in rapid succession, each barely visible as it was drawn, nocked, and loosed. Assisted by the wind spirits, the arrows streaked through the air at near-sonic speeds, their flight barely audible.
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Each arrow struck the Nullfang’s body with a crack that echoed across the battlefield. Violent, cleaver-like blades of wind erupted from each impact point, rippling outward in chaotic waves. But as the dust settled, Mia’s eyes widened. The Nullfang’s body remained unharmed. In the spots her arrows had hit, the familiar static texture flickered.
“Right... it can nullify the state of being penetrated,” Mia muttered, frustration lacing her voice.
“Meaning arrows are useless... Dammit!” Realizing her bow was ineffective, she abandoned her long-range advantage and rushed in. Meanwhile, Gerald didn’t falter at the sight of the Nullfang trying to block his ascent. Instead, his expression hardened as he saw an opportunity.
“If you’re trying to block me, that means you have to stay solid. Which means I can finally hit you!” He was right. Clinching his left hand, Gerald poured all the momentum from his jump and the power of his arm into a single upward punch aimed at the Nullfang’s underbelly. He braced for the impact, anticipating a satisfying collision—but the sensation never came.
Confusion flashed across his face as an empty sensation shot through his hand. His fist had struck a static zone on the Nullfang’s body, but nothing about the interaction made sense.
What the hell did it nullify? It feels like all the force I put into that punch just vanished. There wasn’t even any recoil.
Before he could puzzle it out, the Nullfang moved swiftly, just as Mia had warned. Taking advantage of Gerald being mid-air, its head swirled around him, followed by the rest of its massive body, coiling tightly until it had him fully constricted.
“Ah, crap...” Gerald muttered, his aura flaring. It grew denser, pulsating with intensity as he fought to break free. The Nullfang’s danger didn’t lie in its physical strength—its power came from its null states. While its size gave it some advantage, any Master-level knight could overpower it with sufficient force. But that was only if they could manage to apply their strength.
The moment Gerald attempted to pry himself free, the parts of the Nullfang’s body constricting him flickered to static. The same sensation returned—every ounce of force he exerted disappeared into nothing, swallowed by some unseen void.
Shit... did it nullify its ability to experience force or something?
Gerald could feel the Nullfang’s grip tightening around him. Though it couldn’t directly harm or crush him thanks to his aura, it didn’t change the fact that he was trapped. And with one enemy incapacitated, the Nullfang’s focus shifted entirely to Mia.
She stood just outside its range.
It’s captured Gerald, but it can’t kill him... not until his Aura Intensity drops. On the other hand, keeping him restrained means it can’t slip underground or move far without letting him go. Still, that doesn’t help with actually dealing with it. Large-scale Aura Styles are out of the question unless I want to drag Gerald into the aftermath. And my arrows are practically-
Mia’s train of thought halted abruptly as an idea struck her.
She exhaled slowly, her determination settling in. Kneeling down, she pressed her hand against the dirt. The Nullfang watched her with a sharp, calculating eye but didn’t move.
As it observed her, Mia’s figure began to waver, her image twisting and bending like a mirage before vanishing entirely. At the same time, the wind that usually surrounded her stilled. All around the meadow, water was being drawn from the air, forming droplets too small to see. Yet in their numbers, they quickly became a dense fog, blanketing the battlefield in an impenetrable mist. Within seconds, the Nullfang’s vision was reduced to just a few dozen meters away.
Even with its heightened senses as a serpent, it couldn’t locate her. Its tongue tasted the air to no avail, its body searched for vibrations in the ground, but there was nothing. The earth beneath it had gone unnaturally still, and the air felt thick and stifling.
“Ergh... Hu- Huh? What is that girl up to?” Gerald muttered, still struggling to free himself from the Nullfang’s tightening coils.
Then, the Nullfang sensed movement. Mia’s figure flickered into view behind it, bow drawn as she glided across the ground with impossible speed. An arrow fired, slicing through the air, but before it landed, Mia vanished again. The Nullfang nulled the state of being penetrated just in time, and the arrow shattered on impact.
Moments later, Mia reappeared—this time in front of it, loosing another arrow. Once again, the Nullfang reacted, nullifying the area she targeted. The cycle repeated, but each time, Mia was faster. She blurred across the battlefield, her figure appearing for only an instant as she fired. Arrows rained down from every direction—left, right, behind, even high above.
The Nullfang struggled to keep up. Its body flickered with static, nullifying impacts, but the attacks came too quickly, too frequently. Arrows began to slip through its defenses, tearing away bits of flesh faster than it could react. It was like being surrounded by a frenzy of piranhas, biting away from every angle.
Desperate, the Nullfang shifted. It nullified every inch of its external body, except for the part restraining Gerald, rendering itself completely impenetrable. But in that same moment, it was struck.
Its head recoiled violently as a massive slab of rock slammed into the fractured side of its skull. Unlike the arrows, this wasn’t a piercing attack—it was blunt, and the Nullfang hadn’t sensed it coming. The obscuring fog and Mia’s strange invisibility had masked it completely.
The winds around the Nullfang began to stir, flowing across its battered body. At first, the breeze was gentle, but it quickly turned into a relentless force. High-speed currents slipped into the Nullfang’s gaping wounds, tugging at its exposed innards—areas it hadn’t nullified. The winds pulled at its flesh like an invisible vacuum, sucking at its vulnerable insides.
The assault didn’t end there. More rocks, larger and heavier, were wrenched from the earth and launched like catapult projectiles, crashing into the Nullfang. At the same time, the water in the air began to move. The once-heavy fog seemed alive, brushing against the Nullfang’s exposed body and drawing out moisture. Even its blood was being pulled from its wounds, tinting the air red with the sharp scent of iron.
As the chaos unfolded, Mia stopped her rapid movements, standing still amid the thick mist. Her assault continued relentlessly, every force in the meadow working in harmony to tear the Nullfang apart.
She watched as the Nullfang’s body thrashed wildly, its form constantly shifting states in a desperate attempt to counter everything happening to it. But it was too much at once. If it were still slipping through attacks and the world as it had before, all of this would have been pointless. But as long as it clung to Gerald, it couldn’t phase through reality. Even negating the force acting on it couldn’t stop the liquids in its body from draining away.
Slowly, its already ruined form began to shrivel, shrinking like a dried sardine. Even its gargling hisses fell silent as the blood in its body flowed out, and the winds around it muted any remaining sound. The very world seemed to have turned against it.
But the Nullfang wasn’t the only one paying the price. Mia was summoning spirit after spirit, coordinating their efforts in a chaotic symphony of power. Incomprehensible voices—some thunderous, others barely whispers—echoed through her mind in endless, repetitive tongues. The wind spirits felt like hurricanes sweeping through her thoughts, while the water spirits seemed to liquefy her focus, making it impossible to hold onto a coherent idea. With the other spirits added to the mix, it was sheer mental chaos—something only a spirit naturalist could even attempt to endure.
Yet even as talented as she was, Mia was struggling. She stumbled, unable to walk straight, and collapsed to one knee. Blood trickled from her nose as she pressed a hand to her head.
Come on... I just need to hold it together a bit longer. It only has two options: let go of Gerald to try and escape or shrivel up and die.
Her vision blurred, but she forced herself to keep watching. The Nullfang’s thrashing grew weaker as it lost more of itself. Then, to Mia and Gerald’s surprise, it seemed to make its choice. It didn’t let go of Gerald. Not even as its biological components fell apart.
Minutes passed, and the Nullfang’s flesh was gone, followed by its muscle and blood. What remained was a skeletal, blood-stained corpse. Its body fell limp, and Gerald, still entwined in its coils, was finally able to free himself. The once-formidable scales that had negated his force crumbled to dust as he slipped through its remains.
Only then did Mia stop. Her connection to the spirits broke away slowly, leaving her mind in a not completely silent, but much more manageable state. The exertion slowly caught up to her. Her balance gave out, and she collapsed, only to feel herself get caught.
Through half-closed eyes, Mia looked up to see Marcos holding her. His expression was a mix of worry and relief.
“You okay?” He asked gently. Mia gave a faint nod, her voice barely audible.
“Yeah... what about Gerald?” Marcos glanced over at the Nullfang’s remains. Gerald was sliding free of the skeleton, his movements slow and deliberate. The moment he was clear, he collapsed to his knees, exhaling deeply after enduring the relentless constriction.
“How are you holding up?” Marcos called out. Gerald raised a hand, giving him a thumbs-up while catching his breath.
“He’s fine,” Marcos said, turning his attention back to Mia. She looked pale and drained, her face slightly flushed from the strain and the blood she’d lost.
“Good,” she muttered, her voice trailing off into a low groan. She hesitated before asking another question.
“What about Hazel?”
Marcos’s expression darkened. He hesitated before lowering his gaze.
“Alive... for now. But his lower half was completely frozen and disintegrated. I don’t know how long he can hold on.” Mia’s lips pressed together tightly, her frustration visible.
“If... if only we’d known how hard it would be to kill this thing. We let our guard down because we thought it was dead. Hazel would still be whole, and Galven wouldn’t have...” Her voice broke, and she clenched her teeth, unable to finish the sentence.
There were only two ways to break through a knight’s aura with physical attacks. The first was to convince them mentally that the attack couldn’t be fully defended against and the second was to catch them off guard when their defenses were down, typically after they’d expended a lot of willpower.
The Nullfang had exploited both. Its ability to strike at absolute zero temperatures was something none of them believed they could survive head-on. And after they thought they’d killed it, their defenses had dropped. That’s how it caught Galven off guard, shattering him completely. There wasn’t even a body left. Hazel had reacted faster, but not fast enough—his aura had kicked in too late to save his lower half.
“That’s no one’s fault, Mia. How were we supposed to know that thing was-” Marcos’s words cut off abruptly. His eyes widened in shock, his gaze locked on something behind Mia. The next moment, his voice broke out in a high-pitched scream.
“Gerald! Watch out!” Mia’s head snapped around at Marcos’s cry, her expression shifting to one of pure horror. The skeleton—just the skeleton—of the Nullfang was moving.
Not again.
The thought rang in her head like a deafening bell.
It’s still not dead. How is it not dead?
Gerald, still catching his breath, felt it before Marcos’s warning even reached him. Slowly, he turned his head, just in time to see the Nullfang’s skeletal tail striking at him. The air around it shimmered with frost as it lashed forward. But it was too late. His body froze—not from the cold, but from the realization that he couldn’t rouse his aura in time to defend himself. That very acknowledgment made it impossible for him to act. It was the tragic flaw of knights: as quasi-idealistic beings, the acceptance of helplessness made it a reality.
A look of resignation fell over Gerald’s face, his eyes narrowing.
Caught with my back turned. Not how I imagined I’d go out. Then again, who really knows how their end will come? I guess that-
Before he could finish the thought, the Nullfang disappeared.
It happened in an instant—so fast that none of them fully registered what had occurred. In truth, the Nullfang hadn’t simply disappeared; it had been blown away or perhaps carried off. Where its skeletal form had been a moment ago, there was now empty space. A violent shockwave tore through the meadow, flattening grass and kicking up dirt in its wake. As the dust settled and the reality of the situation began to dawn on them, all three slowly turned their heads north—toward the direction the Nullfang had seemingly been taken.
“M-Marcos...” Mia’s voice wavered, her tone filled with disbelief. She needed confirmation, her battered mind struggling to process what she had just seen.
“Was that...?”
Marcos stared ahead, his jaw tight. After a beat, he nodded.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure that was him.”