After landing on the ground, the chameleon turned even more aggressive as it let out a sharp, distorted screech— its body twitching with feral energy as its camouflage flickered on and off like a dying lightbulb.
*Fssshh!*
The corrosive tongue lashed out again, burning a shallow crater into the ground where Bob had been standing a split second earlier.
"Don't clump!" Raiden barked, dodging right. "Force it to divide its focus!"
The team spread out, moving with trained discipline despite their exhaustion, as they rapidly changed their positions.
Bob darted behind a trunk, drawing the creature's gaze with feinting jabs, while Raiden took the lead from the front, engaging it head-on with low, measured slashes.
Leo, silent as ever, slid to the side, keeping to the shadows, as he blended and [Vanished] in them, waiting silently for an opening to appear.
Meanwhile, Cipher flanked left, spinning his daggers and circling low, his eyes wide and frantic, but his hands still sharp enough to react.
Soon, the chameleon snapped its jaws and lunged again, only to meet Raiden's blade mid-thrust.
*Clash*
Sparks flew.
Acid hissed.
And this time it was the monster that staggered, as Raiden used the attack [Rapid Slash] to injure its tongue.
'Now!' Leo thought, as he stepped in after spotting an opportunity, his body blurring as he activated [Thousand Phantom Strikes].
Immediately, his body turned into a flurry of afterimages, as each step he took left behind a translucent echo of himself, an echo that was always followed through with a slash.
*SHINK—*
*SHINK—*
*SHINK—!!*
He tore through the creature's flanks, disrupting its momentum and forcing it back, as green blood sprayed in arcs and its camouflage broke entirely, revealing the mossy, fungal flesh beneath.
And this was when Cipher spotted his chance to attack.
"NOW!" he roared, surging forward for the finishing blow, when suddenly he took a wrong step.
A gust. A shift. A misstep.
A mistake that could happen to anyone, but should not happen at this level, as his eyes widened in disbelief and his body propelled forward in a way that was not entirely in his control.
*CRACK—!!*
He stumbled forward a fraction too far, his torso exposed just long enough for the monster to retaliate, as its tongue shot out and slammed into his ribs with brutal precision.
*Thud!*
The impact sent him spinning through the air, his body crashing against a tree before dropping to the dirt, where he began shrieking in pain.
"Cipher!" Raiden shouted.
Leo's eyes narrowed, but his blades didn't stop.
He advanced relentlessly, slicing with precision, as Bob came from the rear to assist.
Together, the two overwhelmed the beast
And soon, with one final strike, Leo embedded his blade deep into the creature's skull, and activated [Kill Strike] to blow its brains out.
*THUNK*
The chameleon collapsed.
Dead.
And once again, the forest fell into silence, save for the writhing, guttural screams of Cipher, who clutched his torso with both hands as thick steam curled from the venom hissing through his shredded clothes, burning straight into the flesh beneath.
"Shit… he's bleeding a lot," Karl muttered as he rushed over at last, dropping to one knee beside Cipher and beginning a quick assessment. "This is bad."
His hands moved quickly, tearing away fabric, inspecting the full extent of the damage. The venom had carved straight through skin and muscle, leaving a deep, raw trench down the left side of Cipher's abdomen.
"If I can't plug this wound immediately…" Karl said, his voice grim, deliberately loud enough for the others to hear. "He might go into a coma. Or worse."
"What? What—what?" Cipher gasped, voice high and cracked as panic set in. His breathing grew faster, more ragged, as he tried to push himself up.
"You… you can fix this, right?! Right?!" He asked, as Karl gave him the most cruel of smiles from close up.
"Of course I'll try my best…." He said before turning towards the others, as he urged them to move away.
"Go back! Give the patient some room to breathe! He's hyperventilating!" Karl ordered, as he used his superior strength to hold Cipher in place, as he forcefully stopped his thrashing.
As ordered, the rest of the team stepped back reluctantly, a wide semicircle forming around the two as Cipher whimpered, now visibly trying to fight against Karl's grip as sweat poured in buckets from his brow.
Karl leaned in.
His fingers, steady and controlled, reached into his pouch— not for a healing salve, but for a nearly invisible packet of anticoagulant.
He mixed it swiftly into a red-tinged ointment, spread it over a thin gauze, and began wrapping the wound in tight, confident layers.
From the outside, it looked like precision and care. But beneath the gauze, the anticoagulant already began its slow sabotage.
With a wound this size, if the blood loss did not stop immediately, Cipher was bound to die.
And while Karl could have saved him if he tried hard, he deliberately sabotaged his healing instead, as he pushed him closer to death vengefully.
Next, he forced Cipher to swallow a pain numbing potion to dull the immediate pain. Enough to delay suspicion.
Before pulling out a mid-grade healing potion and forcing a few drops into Cipher's mouth to make his efforts to save the patient look authentic.
Finally, by the time he rose, his expression was the very image of grave concern, as he played the part of a caring healer to perfection.
"I've done what I can," Karl said, wiping sweat from his brow and standing slowly. "I gave him the best healing potion we have, but it's not looking good. The creature's venom… it's preventing the blood from clotting, so unless we cut away the affected tissue entirely, there's no way to seal the wound."
"Then cut it off," Bob said bluntly, stepping forward. "You're saying he'll die anyway if we don't. Might as well try it."
"I could… but I'm not sure if he will survive it.
The wound is big enough as is, if I cut off more, I would essentially be pushing him closer to death with my own two hands—" Karl argued back, as Raiden shook his head in depression.
"No. Then don't do it. He's still conscious. Still fighting. We'll give it ten minutes. If the bleeding stops due to some miracle, we will protect him till he recovers enough to move with us.
But if he slips into a coma…"
"We leave him," Leo finished, voice neutral. "Agreed."
Cipher's breathing grew erratic again.
"Wha—What?! You can't leave me here! I'm gonna be fine unless Karl doesn't treat me properly. Karl! You bastard! I don't trust you! You slimy bastard! You treated me properly right?"
Cipher's eyes darted wildly from face to face, but no one moved. No one offered reassurance. Even Raiden said nothing, his jaw locked tight, his arms folded.
And then—slowly—Cipher's voice began to weaken.
His protests slurred.
His arms sagged.
And blood kept pooling.
His fingers twitched, then stilled, and a blankness rolled over his gaze as his body tipped backward into the dirt with a soft thud.
Until he stopped moving all together.
Raiden bent over him, pressing two fingers to his neck. A long pause passed.
"He's alive," he said at last. "But he's slipping into shock due to excessive blood loss. Coma's close."
No one spoke.
And no one disagreed.
"We move in five," Raiden announced coldly, as the team collectively let out a sigh of regret.
Karl stared at the unmoving body in front of him.
'Shouldn't have slapped me, you dumb wannabe scholar,' he thought, hiding the flicker of satisfaction behind a mask of guilt.
Soon, five minutes passed and it was time for the team to move on once again, as Raiden paid Cipher his final respects.
"I will miss you….. old friend—" Raiden said while standing over Cipher's unconscious body, as he placed one of his daggers on his chest, before moving on.
It sucked that they had to abandon him before he was completely dead.
But saving him was clearly impossible.
Which was why, Raiden and everyone else made the practical choice to move on.
As the initial group of six…. was now whittled down to just four.