'Shit, marvellous. I lost the bone weapon, and the meat as well. Excellent work, pool. You seem talented at many things, including attempted murder.' Kyle grumbled inwardly, trailing beside Na-Ri and dripping from head to toe.
They had already covered several kilometres, far enough to be safe from the Titan-type creature, though Kyle had not realised its nature until the beautiful stranger offhandedly referred to it as the 'grandmaster of the pool.'
Before them stretched a barren expanse, the ground blackened and broken as though scorched by a volcanic eruption.
The brightening sky illuminated the desolation, granting them clear sight of the land ahead.
By now, she had arrived in the area and was attempting to move forward as they made their way, but a sudden shiver forced her to turn back, revealing still another horror in their path.
She spun sharply to Kyle, who was frowning as he attempted to dry himself.
"…Up ahead, there is a stone masonry dam. That is where we will stay for the day. Any movement beyond that is not safe," the beautiful stranger said solemnly, her gaze returning to the path ahead.
Kyle blinked twice, a trace of confusion in his expression.
Remaining in one place did not seem like a wise strategy for survival in this world, and the existence of a human construction within a Trial Zone — an area meant solely for the denizens of ruins and full-scale horrors — seemed impossible.
Nevertheless, she spoke with certainty.
Perhaps she had been here before, of course.
If that was the case, it seemed a relatively safe place to remain, and with that thought, another question arose in his mind.
"Umm… Lee, what about Orion and Adela?" Kyle asked in a subdued tone, curiosity edging his voice.
She was alive, which suggested that Orion might also have survived somewhere, even if not alongside her.
As for the grey-haired beauty who had remained unconscious through the transmission, he was far less certain.
Na-Ri's expression darkened immediately. The question seemed to sap her energy, leaving her momentarily drained, though she too wondered if the two had survived. There was no way to confirm their status.
From the look on her face, Kyle realised she truly had no knowledge of their condition and had lost contact with them ever since Orion departed.
A part of him felt unsettled, recognising that if Orion had indeed fled to save himself, he was no different from the selfish individuals who prioritised only their own survival.
...But he reminded himself that he might have done the same. Survival mattered above all else, far more than the fate of anyone around him.
Na-Ri closed her eyes briefly as they continued in silence, cautiously approaching whatever lay ahead.
Kyle experienced a measure of relief, though he refused to lower his guard.
He remained uncertain about the true nature of this stranger. She might have presented herself as detached, but she was far more nuanced than that, exuding both allure and latent danger.
His mind insisted that if Na-Ri encountered a stronger creature and her survival was at stake, she would not hesitate to sacrifice him.
He found himself confronted once more by the persistence of such intrusive thoughts.
This remarkable stranger had just imperilled herself to save him.
Had the Titan-type creature she described awakened while she was attempting to extract him, neither would have survived.
The mere notion of that sea creature was enough to instil fear.
If Na-Ri, a consummate strategist and formidable practitioner of her abilities, displayed apprehension towards a Brutal-ranked Migrel Sea Titan, then his own prospects of survival were virtually nonexistent.
Nonetheless, a Stage Two could never overcome a Stage Three.
His success in defeating two adversaries on the cusp of Stage Three represented the greatest stroke of fortune he had encountered since the era when 'plot armour' had consistently shielded him.
Na-Ri was not a force to be trifled with, and whatever had unsettled her must be far more formidable.
That thought alone gnawed at Kyle's mind.
Glancing at his leg, he noted a slight numbness in his toes, while his body had reverted to its usual state of weakness and malnutrition. The breakthrough had not altered much, if anything at all.
That was that.
Their immediate plan was simple: find temporary refuge for the day, then venture out in search of food or, if possible, other survivors.
Beneath that plan, however, lay more complex and unsettling considerations.
Na-Ri wrestled with fear of the creature she had fled from, yet she pressed onward, hoping it had moved elsewhere, and with thoughts of her two companions, uncertain whether they had survived.
Her concern for the unconscious girl was particularly acute, recalling Orion's warning moments before the chaos, that the girl's core was unstable.
Kyle's mind remained consumed by the relentless calculus of survival, assessing danger at every turn, while also fixating on a peculiar anomaly: how a human structure could exist within a Trial Zone, a place supposedly devoid of such constructions.
...Or was it possible that the rumour he had heard was mistaken, and that some individuals had actually inhabited this place before it also fell into ruin?
***
Some time later, the duo arrived at a stone masonry dam wedged within the throat of a rocky gorge.
The red cliffs on either side rose in fractured forms, resembling the jaws of a petrified beast frozen mid-snarl.
Massive slabs of stone leaned at improbable angles, as though the gorge had been split open by a tremendous force rather than sculpted by water, imparting the place with a distorted, almost otherworldly geometry.
Kyle surveyed the expanse beneath the dam. The location offered genuine security from most mutated creatures, provided they were not Titan-type, Chimera-type, or Swift-type.
"…I take it you have thoroughly assessed the safety of this location?" Kyle asked Na-Ri, a trace of scepticism in his voice, despite recognising the site's apparent security.
The succession of trials he had endured had further entrenched his cautious mindset. A shadow of drenched apprehension lingered on his features as he took in the surrounding terrain.
Na-Ri exhaled quietly and replied blankly:
"Yes, Kyle. I have done that. This is where I first arrived, then…" She paused, gesturing subtly towards the dam, inviting Kyle to examine it more closely and discern the reason she had initially abandoned this place, only to encounter a far greater threat.
The dam itself rose nearly twenty metres from the riverbed, its surface marred by fissures and patches where entire blocks had sheared away.
Below, a battered stairway clung precariously to one flank of the wall; half the steps were missing and the remainder fractured into jagged, crooked shards.
Even so, it still provided a climbable route for anyone willing to proceed with caution.
The wall extended over three hundred metres from cliff to cliff, its battered crown broad enough that wagons might once have rattled across it.
Massive sections had collapsed into the torrent below, leaving hollow voids within the structure, while sufficient remnants remained to convey the original scale of the construction.
Even with modern machinery and engineering, a project of this magnitude would have required years, perhaps half a decade, to quarry, transport and assemble the stones into place.
They began the ascent along the stairway, slow and deliberate, until they reached the crest.
From that vantage, the gorge yawned in both directions.
The dam spanned it like a scar, while the fractured cliffs loomed overhead in warped formations that appeared less natural than deliberately conjured.
Kyle and Na-Ri both peered over the edge, and what lay beyond sent a tremor of horror through Kyle that he could not suppress.
It was a wounded Glacial Skyscander, also at Stage Three, but of the Elemental type and enormous in scale.
The spot where it lay bleeding, likely felled by another beast, was encased entirely in ice.
"…There is no certainty of peace in this realm," Kyle murmured.