The Night Stalker Variant landed on the stone platform with terrifying grace.
Its claws scraped the ground slowly.
Its glowing eyes moved between the three remaining students.
Kael. Lena. Talia.
Marcus and Rowan's bodies still lay nearby, their blood darkening the stone beneath them.
The smell of iron filled the air.
No one spoke.
Everyone knew the next few seconds would decide whether they lived or died.
Without warning.
The creature lunged.
Its body blurred across the platform.
"MOVE!" Kael shouted.
Talia rolled to the side just as the beast's claws slammed into the ground where she had been standing.
The impact cracked the stone.
Lena quickly raised her staff.
"Arc Lightning!"
A bolt of blue electricity shot forward and struck the creature's back.
CRACK!
The electricity spread across its body.
For a moment the beast convulsed violently.
Lena gasped.
"It worked!"
But the moment lasted only seconds.
The creature's muscles twitched.
Its body shifted unnaturally again.
Then it slowly stood back up.
Completely unaffected.
Kael's heart sank.
"It adapted already…"
The beast had learned to resist lightning.
And now its glowing eyes were fixed on Lena.
Lena Becomes the Target
The creature sprinted forward.
Straight toward her.
"Lena!" Kael shouted.
She tried to step back but slipped on the blood-stained stone.
The beast's jaws opened wide.
Its claws raised.
Just before they struck.
Talia jumped forward.
"Shadow Step!"
Her body vanished into darkness.
Then she appeared behind the beast.
Her twin daggers flashed.
SLASH.
She cut across the creature's back.
Black blood sprayed across the platform.
The beast roared violently and spun around.
Talia jumped back just in time.
But the attack had done something worse.
The creature's body twisted again.
The wound on its back slowly closed.
It was healing.
"Are you kidding me?!" Talia shouted.
Suddenly the platform trembled again.
RUMBLE.
The entire arena shifted violently.
Stone walls rose from the ground.
Bridges formed between platforms.
Deep pits opened beneath them.
Students screamed as the terrain changed around them.
Professor Halden's voice echoed above.
"Second phase of the trial."
The battlefield had become a maze.
And now the beast had more space to hunt.
The Night Stalker crouched low.
Then something horrifying happened.
Its spine cracked loudly.
Two long bone-like spikes erupted from its back.
Its legs grew longer.
Its muscles expanded.
It had evolved again.
Talia whispered in disbelief.
"It's getting stronger…"
Kael clenched his fists.
"We can't drag this fight out."
Because the longer the battle lasted.
The stronger the creature would become
The beast suddenly sprinted forward again.
But this time it didn't attack immediately.
It ran past them.
Then leapt onto one of the new stone walls.
Its claws dug deep into the rock.
It climbed rapidly across the arena structure.
Like a spider.
"It's hunting us…" Lena whispered.
The creature was now using the terrain to its advantage.
Kael quickly thought.
"Split up for a moment!"
"What?!" Talia shouted.
"If we stay together we're easy targets!"
The beast leapt down from above.
Straight toward them.
They scattered just in time.
The creature crashed into the ground between them.
Stone exploded everywhere.
Dust filled the air.
Through the dust.
The beast suddenly appeared in front of Talia.
Too close.
Its claws slashed toward her chest.
She barely raised her daggers in time.
CLANG.
The impact threw her across the platform.
She slammed into a stone pillar.
Blood ran down her forehead.
The beast slowly approached her.
Step by step.
Its eyes glowing brighter.
It had chosen its next prey.
"Talia!" Lena screamed.
But she was too far away.
Kael's mind raced.
If the creature killed Talia.
The next targets would be him and Lena.
He couldn't allow that.
Kael ran forward.
Directly toward the beast.
"HEY!"
The creature turned.
Kael jumped onto a fallen stone block and launched himself through the air.
His hand glowed faintly with magical energy.
He slammed his fist directly into the creature's skull.
BOOM.
The impact knocked the beast sideways.
But Kael immediately felt something terrifying.
The creature's body was becoming harder.
Like armor.
Even physical attacks were becoming less effective.
The beast rose slowly again.
Now even angrier.
And faster.
The creature attacked Kael with terrifying speed.
Its claws sliced the air.
Kael dodged the first strike.
The second nearly cut his arm open.
The third forced him to roll across the ground.
It was relentless.
From the side, Lena shouted.
"Kael!"
She pointed her staff.
"Gravity Bind!"
A wave of heavy magical force slammed down onto the beast.
Its body slowed slightly.
The platform beneath it cracked from the pressure.
But even that didn't last long.
The creature adapted again.
The gravity magic weakened quickly.
Kael stood up breathing heavily.
"We're running out of options…"
The beast roared louder than before.
And across the arena, more students screamed as other adaptive