Vael's group ventured deeper into the valley, their final day in this place unfolding under a dull grey sky.
Roughly an hour into their march, something shifted.
An oppressive weight pressed down on the air. Two auras—cold, warped, and powerful—surged into the edge of Vael's senses.
Third Stage. Low, but unmistakable.
Two of them. Almost identical.
He froze mid-step.
Corrupted Legionnaires.
Not one.
Two.
The others felt it too. Kiera's eyes narrowed, her posture tense. Lucia instinctively reached for the hilt of her dagger, and Ash stopped in her tracks, her breath shallow.
"Two at once?" Kiera muttered. "That's not supposed to happen."
"No," Vael agreed, scanning the twisted forest ahead. "It isn't."
He crouched low, brushing his fingers against the dirt, anchoring himself. The auras weren't just strong—they were unstable. Twisting, pulsing, like the creatures themselves were barely holding themselves together.
From this distance, he could already smell the rot. A sickly, chemical stench like spoiled meat and burnt oil.
A branch cracked.
Something moved.
And then they saw them.
Two towering figures emerged from the mist, hulking and grotesque.
Each wore the warped remnants of old Legionnaire armor—dented breastplates, shredded cloaks, and helmets fused into the goo that made up their forms. Their flesh, if it could even be called that, was black and purple, glistening like oil in the pale light.
They were the same height. Same build.
Same twisted grin carved into faces that should've been long dead.
Vael's blood ran cold.
"They were twins," he realized aloud. "In life."
And now, in corruption.
Ash immediately took cover, knowing her presence on the battlefield would only be a liability.
But the group didn't split up the way they usually did.
Under normal circumstances, Vael and Kiera could each handle a single Corrupted Legionnaire on their own. But two at once? Not without consequences. And neither Lucia nor Drako were strong enough to face one alone.
They had to adapt.
Vael—versatile, fast, and reliant on surprise—paired with Drako, whose defensive strength and grounded style helped anchor his unpredictable rhythm.
Lucia, like Vael, focused on speed and sustained damage. She teamed up with Kiera, whose control over the battlefield through her shadow tentacles offered the protection Lucia lacked.
By the time they finished splitting up, the Legionnaires were already upon them.
To call them grotesque would be an understatement.
Their limbs were unnaturally elongated, reinforced with black, pulsing goo that oozed around their joints like crude armor.
Their heads were gone—cleanly severed at the neck, as if they'd never had any to begin with.
They were naked, yet disturbingly smooth—no genitals, no identifying features, just skin turned a sickly blend of deep purple and oozing black.
But the most unsettling detail wasn't their shape.
It was their silence.
They made no sound—not even the crunch of twigs beneath their deformed feet, not a single grunt or snarl.
Even as they lunged forward with lethal intent, they did so in complete and perfect silence.
And their movements… mirrored each other exactly.
As if they weren't two enemies, but one.
That's when Kiera realized the truth.
They weren't fighting two Corrupted.
They were fighting one Parasite. Two hosts.
A single mind. Split across two bodies.
Designed for strict, deadly efficiency.
(L1 stands for Legionnaire 1, L2 stands for Legionnaire 2)
The forest fell silent as L1 and L2 lunged out from the trees, charging without warning. Twisted bodies, no heads, limbs stretched unnaturally long, and black goo flexing at their joints — they looked like nightmares brought to life.
Vael and Drako dashed to the right, drawing L1 toward them. Kiera and Lucia moved left, pulling L2 in their direction.
As L1 struck down at Vael, he teleported behind it, letting Drako tank the hit.
Since the Legionnaires were well-rounded rather than crazy strong but weak in other categories, such an action was possible.
Did t mean it was easy, though.
As the hit landed on his shield, Drako immediately felt the force of the beast's attack.
It was exponentially stronger than the tiger they fought against recently.
His feet dug into the ground, but he held.
That gave Vael all the time he needed.
He performed a quick thrust to L1's back, hopping to test out its defensive ability.
However, before the hit could land, a piece of flying bark crushed towards Vael at speed clearly surpassing the sound barrier.
He was forced to blink away.
Vael reappeared a few meters away, the bark crashing into the tree behind where he'd just stood. The explosion shattered the trunk, sending wooden shrapnel in all directions.
He didn't need to look to know where it came from.
L2.
He narrowed his eyes. So even though they're fighting in different areas, they can defend each other…
Across the clearing, Kiera had already caught on.
"They're linked!" she shouted, launching a series of shadow spears toward L2. "One mind, two bodies!"
L2 ducked and spun its long limbs like whips, slapping the projectiles out of the air. But as it did, one of its hands stretched unnaturally backward—pointing toward Vael's side of the battlefield.
Kiera tensed.
Sure enough, L1 reacted instantly. It stopped focusing on Drako, turned its torso all the way around, and with a disgusting twist, launched a thin spike from its palm toward Kiera's flank.
Lucia jumped in, parrying it with her daggers mid-air, but the momentum still sent her flying back.
"They're coordinating everything," she muttered, rolling back to her feet.
"They're not reacting—they're predicting," Vael muttered. "Because they're not two fighters. They're just one."
Drako clenched his fists, golden mana flaring around him. "Then we stop trying to split them up."
"No," Vael said, eyes sharpening. "We turn their strength into a weakness."
He dashed in again.
L1 swiped low, its elongated arm arcing up like a blade. Drako met it head-on, planting his feet and locking its limb against his shield. This time, he didn't just tank—it was a full grapple.
With a roar, he twisted the arm and locked it under his shoulder.
"Now, Vael!"
Vael blinked again—straight toward L1's exposed back.
His rapier gleamed with silver light as he slashed, aiming for the spine.
But right as it was about to connect—
Crack!
The ground erupted under his feet, a burst of corrupted roots exploding upward.
L2 had stabbed the soil where it stood.
And it affected the terrain under Vael.
He flipped mid-air, barely dodging the jagged roots, but the attack was ruined.
"Shit!" he cursed, landing hard.
Lucia tried to strike back—aiming a precise dagger throw at L2's leg—but L1 raised a finger and a sudden pulse of mana in the air warped the trajectory.
"They're protecting each other without even looking," Kiera said, a note of urgency in her voice.
"Then we stop trying to kill them separately," Vael muttered.
He turned to Drako. "Can you hold it down again?"
Drako gave a pained grin. "You got five seconds."
Through their mental link, Vael told Kiera his plan, which she quickly forwarded to their other two allies.
He was going to unleash everything he had on L1.
A constant barrage of attacks. Constant blinking.
When L2 would inevitably come to help its twin, that's when he'd strike.
Drako and Lucia nodded, understanding exactly what to do.
The whole team resumed fighting like before: maintaining pressure, but never truly attacking.
Suddenly, Vael activated his Spatial Awareness to the maximum.
Grunting, he blinked.
A slash.
Blink.
Slash.
Blink.
Thrust.
And so on.
He didn't do much damage with each hit, but the strikes began to pile up on L1.
As if on command, L2 rushed to aid its twin, using its distorted limbs to launch itself across the battlefield.
As it jumped, Vael shouted, "Now! Kiera!"
Shadow tendrils, thick as logs, erupted and wrapped around L2 mid-air.
Vael, blinking behind the beast, got to work — harnessing his mana with everything he had.
While he did, Drako activated a temporary buff on Kiera, who was struggling to contain L2's strength.
L1, realizing what was happening, turned to help its twin.
But Lucia was already there to intercept it.
"Not so fast, big guy," she said, exhausted.
She moved in to engage L1, keeping it at bay — but not without cost. Deep cuts opened along her arms and knees as she blocked and dodged, doing just enough to hold it off.
Until, finally, he was ready.
Vael's core surged with unstable mana as he forced it into alignment. His breathing grew ragged, and sweat streamed down his face. But his stance was solid. Sword raised, feet grounded.
This was it.
The air around him shimmered, distorting like heat waves — only far colder.
Space magic, focused and compressed, warped reality at the tip of his rapier.
Across the battlefield, L2 roared — not with sound, but through raw vibration, its goo-like body writhing against the shadow tendrils pinning it down. Kiera gritted her teeth, nearly buckling, even with Drako's buff coursing through her body. The beast was insane, thrashing wildly, nearly snapping its own arm in the process.
But she held on.
Vael blinked one final time, just behind L2's headless neck, and unleashed the Dimensional Slash.
It was quieter than last time. No explosions. No gusts of wind.
Just a thin line of annihilation cutting through the air.
The space behind L2 folded inward. For half a second, it looked like the world itself had been bent.
Then came the effect.
L2 stopped moving.
There was no wound, no blood.
Just… absence.
The upper half of its body — gone. From waist to stump — erased. Not a clean cut. Not even a burn.
Just nothing.
Its legs dropped to the forest floor with a heavy thud, convulsing once before lying still.
But there was no time to celebrate.