Leo did not dare freeze up when faced with a creature that could kill him in a second. He had learnt from his past experiences.
Leo's mind raced through everything he knew about nightmare beasts. Unlike evolved animals, which adapted to Lumina energy, true beasts possessed corrupted cores that granted them abilities beyond basic physical enhancements.
This mantis-like creature was only Fodder-tier, the lowest classification, but that meant little when facing their first true beast.
"Aim for the neck," Leo whispered, shadows instinctively gathering around his hands. "It's the only way to kill these things permanently. That and the core, which is too durable to be easily destroyed."
Aria nodded grimly, drawing her bowstring. "Easy to say when it's behind that armored shell."
The mantis beast tilted its head, its sensing organs swiveling toward them. It seemed to be analyzing them, calculating the threat they posed. That momentary hesitation gave Leo an idea.
"It's reading our Lumina signatures," he realized. "Evolved animals hunt by sight and smell, but nightmare beasts track energy patterns."
"Great science lesson," Aria hissed. "Got any practical advice to go with it?"
Leo's thought of what to do. "I can mask our signatures, maybe confuse it. When I give the signal, hit it with everything you've got."
The beast suddenly charged, covering the distance between them with frightening speed. Its blade-like front limbs slashed downward, aiming to bisect Leo where he stood.
Leo threw himself sideways, rolling across the ground as the mantis's blades sliced into the earth where he had been standing. Soil and grass exploded upward from the impact.
Aria let go of her arrow, the projectile whistling through the air before striking the beast's armored carapace. The arrow bounced off harmlessly, the beast barely feeling the impact.
"Regular arrows won't penetrate!" she shouted, already nocking a different arrow with a glowing blue tip. "Switching to Lumina-infused!"
The beast turned its head towards her, sensing the energy signature of her specialized arrow. It scuttled sideways with quick agility, positioning itself for another charge.
Leo concentrated, reaching deep into his shadow abilities. He extended his awareness outward, covering both himself and Aria in the Shadow Cloak. Out in the sun it wasn't true invisibility, but rather an energy dampening field that might confuse the creature's senses.
The mantis paused, its sensing organs twitching in confusion as it lost track of their Lumina signatures. It stabbed randomly at the ground, trying to locate them.
Unlike other insects, Preying Mantis tend to have really good eyesight, the only reason it could not hit them was simple because its little intelligence could not fathom what had happened to the two humans previously standing before it and what the cloak of darkness in their place was.
"Now!" Leo shouted, the effort of maintaining the shadow field draining his limited Lumina reserves.
Aria's Lumina-infused arrow flew, striking at the junction between the beast's head and thorax where the carapace was thinnest. The arrowhead penetrated slightly before exploding in a flash of blue energy.
The beast shrieked, its front section partially disabled by the blast. Black blood leaked from the wound as it staggered sideways, its blade-limbs clicking furiously.
"Did we get it?" Aria asked, already preparing another shot.
"Not even close," Leo replied, seeing the creature's core still pulsing steadily behind its damaged shell. "That just made it angry."
As if confirming his words, the beast's core flared brightly. The damaged carapace began to regenerate before their eyes, the wound closing as fresh armor formed over the damaged section at a visible speed.
"It's healing!" Aria shouted. "What the hell?"
"That's what nightmare beasts do," Leo said grimly. "Corrupted cores give them regenerative abilities normal creatures don't have."
The beast, seemingly enraged by the attack, abandoned all caution. It charged directly at Aria, sensing her as the source of the painful arrow strike.
Leo had seconds to react. Drawing on his dwindling energy reserves, he extended his shadow sense ability then, using Aria's shadow, created a wall of darkness between Aria and the charging beast.
The mantis crashed into the shadow barrier, its momentum temporarily slowed down by the half-solid darkness. Leo gritted his teeth against the strain of holding it, blood trickling from his nose as he maintained the shadow wall.
"I can't hold it long!" he warned, his vision already beginning to blur from the effort.
Aria didn't waste the opportunity. She fired three arrows in rapid succession, each one striking the beast at different points along its thorax. Two bounced off harmlessly, but the third found a vulnerable spot where Leo's shadow had wrapped around the creature.
The arrow penetrated deeper, exploding inside the beast's body. The creature shook violently, its limbs thrashing in all directions.
Leo's shadow barrier collapsed as his strength gave out. He dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, his body trembling from overexertion.
"Got you, you ugly bastard," Aria crowed, reaching for another arrow.
Her celebration came too early. The beast's core pulsed with renewed intensity, and to their horror, the damage began repairing itself almost immediately. The creature righted itself, blade-limbs clicking together with renewed anger.
"That's not possible," Aria whispered, fear entering her voice for the first time. "I hit it dead-on!"
"We need to destroy the core completely," Leo said, forcing himself back to his feet despite the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him. "Nothing else will stop it."
The beast paused, staring to the right where faint green lights would occasionally light up that part of the forest. The beast quickly turned to focus on what's in front of it.
It charged again, this time with a new tactic. Instead of rushing directly at them, it leaped high into the air, body spinning like a deadly pinwheel of blades.
Leo and Aria dove in opposite directions as the creature crashed down between them, immediately turning towards Leo. It sensed his weakness, his exhaustion making him the more vulnerable target.
"Leo, move!" Aria shouted, firing another arrow that glanced off the beast's back.
One blade-limb slashed toward Leo's waist. He barely twisted away, feeling the wind as the razor-sharp edge passed inches from his stomach. The second strike came immediately after, forcing him to dive backwards awkwardly.
Leo's foot caught on an exposed root, sending him sprawling onto his back. The beast loomed over him, its sensing organs fixed on his layed-down body. It let out an almost triumphant quality hiss as it raised both blade-limbs for a killing blow.
Aria's arrows struck the creature repeatedly, but it ignored them completely, focused entirely on finishing Leo. He tried to summon shadows for defense, but his energy reserves were nearly empty, barely enough to create wisps of darkness around his fingers.
Time seemed to slow as the beast brought its blades down toward Leo's neck in a scissoring motion that would separate his head from his body.
In that moment, Leo's life flashed before his eyes. He thought of his sister, of the promise he'd made to find her. He thought of all the questions still unanswered, the mysteries that would die with him.
The blades approached his neck just as a brilliant flash of green light erupted from somewhere to Leo's right.