Echoterra: Rise of the Verdant King
Chapter 40: Hunter in the ruined city [2]

Chapter 40: Hunter in the ruined city [2]

Finding the buried Atlas Node changed Clayton’s world view completely.

He learned so much. He understood better.

But some of the truths he learned left him shaken. ’The Behemorph definition said they are abominations born when creatures or entities saturated by Genesis matter mutate beyond identity’.

’Creatures or entities, not just beasts. Does that mean... humans when saturated and corrupted by Genesis matter can become Behemorphs too?’

His gaze darkened.

The world had changed so much, and Clayton was still struggling to adapt.

As for the other information that he learned, he’d tested some of them already. Absorbing Ember fragments was like breathing fire into your bones. Painful, yes, but transformative.

The Regalia itself was evolving. Its responsiveness, its density, its will.

And so was he.

Clayton crouched beside one of the dead wolves now, placing a palm against its cracked ribcage.

Vines spread from his arm and grew into the corpse, drinking in residual Genesis radiation.

DING!

~----~

[Partial Genesis Extraction Successful.]

[Verdant Warden Progression: 8% - 9%]

~----~

His affinity and connection with his only Artifact was growing.

He looked up toward the skyline. The sun was just a sickly blur beyond the ash-colored clouds.

The buildings were hunched like petrified giants. Somewhere far off, he heard a Behemorph roar; a deep, metallic bellow that rolled like thunder.

He didn’t flinch.

He had questions still. Many.

But not the kind that festered anymore.

He knew enough now.

Enough to survive.

Enough to evolve.

Enough to prepare for the next true encounter.

Because if this city had taught him anything, it was that the monsters weren’t just out here. They were waiting. Watching.

And waking up.

...

The next day...

The day broke gray.

Clayton barely noticed anymore. The sky above the ruined city always looked the same; blanketed in smog, framed by broken towers clawing at the heavens.

He stood atop the shattered ribcage of an old flyover bridge, peering down into the skeletal remains of what used to be the Aether Core Reactor District.

Concrete had melted. Metal was fused with fossilized bone and roots long corrupted by Genesis exposure. The air reeked of rust, old ozone, and ash.

Something down there breathed.

Big.

Slow.

Violent.

Clayton exhaled, bone spear in hand. His body moved automatically now, each motion measured and purposeful.

Four days in this city had reshaped him. Not physically; though he was stronger, faster, but the change was more on the mental side. Emotion had dulled into cold purpose, and purpose into survival instinct.

And this Behemorph... it was different.

It had dragged three Ember Wolves into a collapsed building the day before. He’d tracked it since then, baiting it slowly, learning its rhythm.

Now was the strike.

The monster emerged from the old power vault in a tide of smoke.

Twelve feet tall. Quadrupedal.

Its flesh was half-charred, half-crystallized. Scales like fractured glass glinted with internal magma veins. Each breath ignited sparks from the tubes and vents lining its spine.

~----~

[Behemorph: Charhound Tyrant]

[Genesis Rank: Late-Initiate Tier/Luminous Traces Detected]

[Crown Type: Ash Crown]

[Danger: EXTREME]

~----~

It saw him.

Roared like a dying furnace, then charged.

In response, Clayton moved.

Bam!

The ground shattered beneath the Tyrant’s leap. Flames surged around its claws as it brought down one obsidian-sized paw like a wrecking ball.

Clayton rolled left, a vine bursting from the ground mid-movement as he thrust his hand down, activating his ability.

’Thorncall’.

Spiked biomass erupted upward, coiling like a serpent and raking against the Tyrant’s chest. The creature screamed, its side slashed open, but not deep enough.

It didn’t bleed.

It hissed steam.

Then it exploded forward again, barreling through a broken tram and igniting the air behind it. Clayton vaulted back.

~----~

[System Notification!]

[Genesis Threshold: 87%]

[Aspect Strain Building – Threshold Warning!]

~----~

’Can’t hold out long’. He realized immediately.

He grounded himself near the remains of a monorail spine. The Tyrant roared again, then released a thermal burst; a shockwave of incendiary pressure that turned the nearest wall into molten slag.

Clayton shielded with his arm. His bone flaked, and his skin peeled, but he ignored it.

This had to end now.

~----~

[Verdant Reign – Area Lockdown: 40m Radius]

~----~

The ground answered.

Vines burst like a coiled spring.

Roots writhed from the ruins, shifting the terrain into a chaotic jungle of thorns and bloom. His influence expanded. The air grew humid, thick with the scent of old moss and burnt resin.

The Tyrant lunged, but Clayton was already moving.

His spear twisted, reshaping mid-thrust, morphing into a longbow of blackwood and bone.

~----~

[Soulbound Weapon – Dual-Form Activated!]

[Bow Mode – Piercer Intent Confirmed]

~----~

He loosed three arrows in rapid succession.

Each one a spike of hardened bone laced with seething plant matter.

The first shattered its eye, the second pierced its left hind leg, while the third buried into its chest, and bloomed.

A massive root construct burst from inside the beast, thorned and flailing.

The Tyrant screamed. Collapsed.

Still. Not dead.

It started dragging itself, one molten claw pulling its crippled body forward.

Clayton landed on its back.

He stabbed downward with both hands, the spear reforming instantly in mid-air, crackling with Genesis fury.

He drove it through the core of the Tyrant’s spine, and then...

He unleashed Thorncall from within.

The monster convulsed. Spasmed. Then it detonated in a bloom of ash, smoke, and splinters.

DING!

~----~

[Behemorph Slain: Charhound Tyrant]

[Genesis Rank: Late-Initiate Tier/Luminous Traces Detected]

[Crown Type: Ash Crown]

[Genesis Embers Acquired: 4 units]

[Territory Influence Expanded: +2m radius]

[Current Genesis Threshold: 72% - Stabilized]

[Aspect Strain Receding...]

~----~

Clayton fell to his knees, breathing hard.

Steam drifted from his skin.

He didn’t feel proud.

Rather, he felt watched.

And this time, it wasn’t just instinct neither was it paranoia.

He looked up.

One of the broken reactor towers; half collapsed, distant, held a silhouette. Cloaked. Kneeling at the ledge. A small scope gleamed in hand.

It wasn’t a monster.

Badump!

Clayton felt his heartbeat accelerate.

It was a person!

And they vanished a heartbeat later.

Clayton stood slowly, blood cooling.

He had killed dozens of beasts in the last few days, rebuilt his instincts, discovered and built his strength.

But that had been the first time anything watched him and didn’t run.

Something else had entered the game.

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