Chapter 276: Dark Beast of Getava
Kael looked from one option to the other for only a few more seconds before lifting his hand and pressing against the second choice.
"I accept to fight the Dark Beast."
The notification immediately changed.
[Corrective Measure Selected.]
[Hidden Objective Challenge: Dark Beast of the Rift.]
[Challenge Type: Solo Encounter.]
[Due to altered Trial parameters, a designated battle arena will be provided.]
[Warning: You will not be returned to the Rift before the encounter begins.]
[Increased Completion Reward Applied.]
Kael frowned at the warning. "Wait, what does that mean?"
The answer came in the form of the floor vanishing beneath him.
There was no countdown, no portal for him to consider stepping through, and no polite interval in which he could check his equipment or decide which runes he wanted ready. The Tower had heard his acceptance and apparently decided preparation was a luxury he had not requested. The circular chamber folded inward, the mist and stone twisting together until everything became a dark smear around him, and the next breath he took came with the smell of cold rock, old blood, and something animal.
His boots struck hard ground.
Kael steadied himself immediately, one hand already lifted toward his gauntlets as he took in the space around him. He was standing in the center of a circular cavern so large that the edge of it disappeared into blackness. The ground beneath him was flat stone, roughened by long scratches and impact marks, while jagged walls curved upward into a ceiling he could not properly see. There was no beacon here, no passage, no ledge, and no light except for the faint gleam of the notification fading from his sight.
It was not the rift itself, but it had been shaped to feel like it.
A place with nowhere to run and far too much darkness for anything meant to be fair.
For an ordinary climber, the arena would have been nothing more than a black pit. Kael felt his Basilisk Eyes react almost immediately, pupils adjusting as details slowly separated from the darkness. The stone floor appeared first, then the nearest ridges along the walls, then darker sections where shadows seemed to pool in unnatural depth. Even with his enhanced sight, he could not see the entire cavern clearly. Something in the place thickened the darkness, making it resist being understood.
Kael slowly shifted one foot backward, keeping his stance loose.
There was something else in the room with him.
At first he thought he was looking at one of the thickest shadows near the outer edge of the arena. Then that shadow moved in a way the others did not. It stretched forward, lowered, then withdrew before advancing again, its outline dissolving whenever it crossed through deeper darkness. Kael could only pick out pieces of it at a time: the broad shape of shoulders, the rise of a spine, the sweep of a heavy tail brushing soundlessly over stone.
When it stepped far enough forward for his eyes to catch the complete silhouette, Kael’s breath tightened.
It had the stance and stalking structure of a tiger, only far too large, its front limbs thickened into the brutal arms of something closer to a gorilla than any natural cat. Its chest hung broad and powerful between those limbs, while the hind legs were leaner, coiled and built for explosive bursts of speed. Its face was the clearest and ugliest part of it, shaped like a monstrous sabertooth, with two long fangs curving downward past its lower jaw. The creature’s body was not simply covered in black fur. Darkness clung to it, rolling from its hide in slow waves and blending its edges into the cavern around it until the beast looked less like an animal standing in shadow and more like the shadow had grown muscles and teeth.
Kael immediately understood why it had remained below the ravine instead of roaming with the smaller lizards.
This was not something that waited for prey to wander within reach because it lacked options. It waited because everything entering its darkness belonged to it eventually.
The creature’s head lowered.
Kael caught a brief glimpse of its eyes, thin slits reflecting no light at all, yet fixed directly on him. It did not hesitate, test his reaction, or bother roaring to announce itself. To the Dark Beast, he had not arrived as a challenger. He had simply appeared inside its feeding ground.
The muscles in its hind legs contracted.
Kael moved the same moment it did, but even expecting the attack did not make him prepared for its speed. The creature crossed the distance with such violence that its massive body seemed to blink out of the far shadow and appear directly in front of him. One forelimb swept down toward his torso, claws spreading wide enough to cover his chest, while the enormous fangs came forward behind the strike, positioned to catch him even if he managed to avoid being torn open.
His instincts screamed for him to strike first.
Kael ignored them.
He knew nothing about this thing yet. The Stone Maw had been powerful, but readable, a heavy creature wrapped in armor that he could crack apart once he understood the structure beneath it. This beast moved differently. It was too fast, too controlled, too confident in its opening attack. Throwing a punch into something like that before understanding its power was the exact sort of confidence that got people split open from shoulder to hip.
Kael twisted aside, throwing his weight toward the creature’s blind angle rather than meeting it head-on.
He was still too slow.
One of the claws skimmed across his shoulder as the beast passed, so lightly that for a brief instant Kael almost thought he had avoided the attack completely. Then pain erupted across his upper arm and collarbone. His leather jacket ripped open with a sharp tearing sound, hardened Basilisk scales snapping apart as easily as cheap bark under a knife. Blood followed immediately, warm and fast, soaking the torn edge of the armor before Kael had even regained his footing.
He landed in a low crouch several meters away, one hand gripping the injured shoulder as he watched the beast slide into the darkness again. The damage was not crippling, but the message behind it was far more concerning than the pain itself.
His jacket was Epic equipment, made from the Black Basilisk of Getava and reinforced with scales tough enough that ordinary creatures should have struggled to mark it. The Dark Beast had grazed him once, without even landing a full committed blow, and the armor might as well have been cloth.
A notification flickered in front of him.
[Journeyman’s Leather Jacket has suffered surface damage.]
Kael clicked his tongue and inspected the monster before it could make another pass.
[Dark Beast of Getava]
[Level: 35]
[Tier: C+]
[Hidden Objective Boss: Trial of Endurance]
[A corrupted prowler originating from the Getava Wilds. The Dark Beast hunts through silence, darkness, and the exhaustion of prey. Its presence transforms enclosed territory into a favored hunting ground.]
[Abilities:]
[Shadow Shifter]
Able to shift through connected shadows and alter its position at will.
[Razor Sharp]
All damage dealt through fangs and claws ignores defensive properties.
[Prowling Darkness]
Permanently releases a dark aura around its body, slowing prey and increasing exhaustion over time.
[Dark Attunement]
While within darkness, action speed is increased by 90% and all damage is doubled.
Under sufficient light exposure, the inverse effect is applied.
[Lore:]
[Dark Beast of Getava. Once considered a guardian deity and mighty prowler of the Getava jungles, it was reduced to its current cruel form through the interference of Vanitas. When its land was claimed by the Vane King, the Dark Beast was twisted into a predator that hunts within the darkness that consumed its home.]
***
Kael’s eyes stayed on the display for only long enough to absorb the important portions. Level thirty-five. Ten levels above the Stone Maw, and far beyond the Black Basilisk he had killed on the first floor. Worse, it came from the same place. The Getava name was something he remembered clearly because the Basilisk had almost killed him when he was weaker, untrained, and surrounded by people he had every reason not to trust.
Yet the level was not the part that made his expression tighten.
Razor Sharp made defense almost worthless. His jacket had not failed because it was weak. The creature’s claws ignored the protection it offered entirely. The new Stone Rune, which only moments ago had seemed like the perfect answer for strengthening himself or his equipment, would not save him from a clean hit either. He could turn his body into a damned statue, and those claws would still cut into him as though nothing stood between flesh and fang.
Then there was Dark Attunement.
Kael looked at the black cavern surrounding him, then back toward the living mass of shadow circling somewhere beyond clear sight.
"This arena really is compensation with teeth," he muttered.
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