The forest was silent — too silent, as if every other living being had gone into hiding.

No rustling leaves. No distant growls. Not even the faint chirping of insects.

Just silence.

Derek lay on the ground for a moment, breathing heavily, trying to steady his trembling body. His daggers were still in his hands, their blades stained with blood and faintly shaking from exhaustion. He could barely feel his fingers.

But that presence…

It pressed against his skin like a cold hand, forcing the hairs on his body to stand straight. His heart skipped a beat.

He pushed himself up instantly.

His knees wobbled, his dress throbbed, but he stood anyway, raising his daggers and taking a fighting stance. Sweat dripped from his forehead. His senses screamed danger, far worse than anything he had fought before.

And then...

The ground trembled.

Not the light vibrations of footsteps.

But deep, powerful tremors that shook the entire forest floor. Soil cracked beneath his feet. Pebbles danced. Leaves rained down from the canopy above.

"It's powerful…" Derek whispered, tightening his grip. "Way too powerful…"

The tremors grew stronger — closer.

The air felt thicker, heavier, as if it had weight. Derek's instincts screamed at him to run, yet his legs remained stubbornly still. He was frozen in place, forced to confront whatever was coming.

And then...

A massive shape burst through the trees.

A giant serpent slid forward, its enormous body rippling like a tidal wave. It was bigger than the one Derek faced in the Quest Tower.... much bigger. Its scales were dark green and jagged, each one like overlapping plates of armor. Its eyes glowed with a feral, predatory gleam.

It reared its head high, towering over him like a monstrous pillar, and let out a deep, vibrating hiss that shook the branches.

Derek's pupils shrank.

"A… serpent? No — this size… this pressure…"

His instincts screamed that this was no normal magical beast.

Before he could finish thinking, the serpent arched back, opening its massive jaws. A low, rumbling hiss escaped it — a warning, a threat, and a promise of death.

Then it lunged.

Derek jumped, throwing his body sideways.

BOOM!!

The place where he had been standing exploded into a vast crater. Dirt shot upward like a geyser. Trees split from the force of the impact. The shockwave alone sent Derek rolling across the ground.

He coughed, pushing himself up, but the serpent was already coming again.

The fight began.

And from the very beginning… Derek was losing.

He slashed, stabbed, dodged, and twisted, but his body was already exhausted from the hours-long battle with the giant ape before. His muscles were burning, his movements slower than usual.

On the other hand, the serpent was relentless.

Its tail whipped through the air with enough force to tear boulders apart. Its jaws snapped with a sound like cracking bones. Each attack came faster and heavier than the last.

Derek tried to counter.

His daggers sparkled as he slashed at the serpent's scales.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

His blades barely left a mark.

"What the hell…?" Derek muttered between panting breaths. "This isn't… a C-class. There's no way."

Despair started creeping in.

If this beast wasn't C-class… Then what was it doing in this forest where C-class magical beasts were supposed to be the strongest?

He couldn't understand. He didn't have the luxury to understand either.

The serpent swung its tail.

Derek raised his daggers to block....

But the impact sent him flying like a leaf caught in a storm.

He crashed through a small tree, then another, snapping them completely before slamming hard into the ground.

"Gahhh!" he coughed, blood spraying from his lips.

His stance turned defensive, whether he wanted it or not. He barely had the strength to hold his daggers. His arms trembled. His knees threatened to buckle.

Cuts, bruises, and blood covered his body. Fresh wounds opened with every hit.

"At this rate..... I might die at any moment," he whispered.

But he still stood. Still clung to life.

The serpent surged forward again, tail whipping from the side. Derek blocked, but the sheer force sent him skidding across the ground, his feet digging trenches into the dirt.

He staggered. His vision blurred. He could hardly breathe.

And then...

The serpent's massive body slammed into him.

"Ughhh!"

He flew again, snapping several thick branches as if they were twigs before smashing into a huge boulder. The surface cracked, spiderweb patterns spreading across the boulder.

Before he could even blink, the serpent lunged again.

Derek tried — tried to move. But his tired body was too slow.

The serpent's jaws clamped around his left arm.

Crunch.

"AAAAAARRRRGGHHH!!!"

A raw, agonized scream tore from his throat.

He felt teeth sinking deep into flesh. Felt bones crack. Felt nerves scream.

His vision went white from pain.

The serpent thrashed him like a rag doll, trying to rip his arm clean off.

He felt his life slipping..... Fading.

But then.... At that last moment... When he was already standing at death's door — only inches away.

Images flashed before his eyes. Not from this life. From the last one.

His comrades dying one by one. His siblings torn apart. And finally… The end of humanity.

Sitting beside Vanessa when she kissed him, giving him a chance. A chance to change the fate of humanity.

"No… No… NO!"

A spark ignited inside him.

"I can't die like this… Not here… Not before I kill each and every demon!"

With a desperate shout, Derek flicked a finger as the storage ring in his finger shimmered.

And then his sword came out as he grabbed it, his finger wrapping around its hilt tightly.

"AHHHHHHHH!!"

He swung the blade upward with every bit of strength he had left and stabbed it straight into the serpent's eye.

Squelch!

The serpent shrieked, releasing his arm instantly. Blood sprayed out as it recoiled in agony, thrashing violently.

Derek staggered back, clutching his ruined arm, gasping for air. The pain was unbearable, yet he forced himself to remain standing.

The serpent's pain turned into rage.

Pure, insane rage.

It lunged again — no strategy, no caution. Just a wild beast driven mad.

Derek raised his sword to block.

And the serpent hit him again.

"Gahh!!"

He was sent flying a second time, his body slamming into another massive boulder. Cracks spread across the rock, stone chips raining onto the ground.

Derek collapsed to his knees and coughed a mouthful of blood. He was shaking. Bleeding.

Barely conscious.

But he pushed himself up anyway — even if just slightly. He clenched his teeth, rage boiling inside him for being weak. He didn't want to lose everybody again. "I can't die like this. I can't die like this. I have to get stronger. I need to save my family — my father." He started blabbering those words like a chant.

And then....

At that moment…

Something snapped inside him. It wasn't physical. It wasn't emotional.

It was deeper — as if a shackle inside his very being broke open.

A strange energy surged through him. Familiar yet unfamiliar.

His veins bulged, muscles tightening. His vision sharpened. His eyes darkened, almost black.

He exhaled slowly.

And then...

He moved.

Like a blur. Like lightning breaking free.

The serpent struck again, but this time Derek dodged effortlessly — far faster than he should have been able to. His blade flashed, carving deep into the serpent's scales.

He struck again.

And again.

Each movement precise. Each slash deadly.

Each attack was fueled by something wild inside him.

The serpent, who had been overwhelming him moments ago, now stumbled back, unable to keep up.

Derek vanished — reappeared above the serpent and cleaved downward.

A black, shadow-like aura flickered around his sword.

Schclk!!

The blade sliced straight through the serpent's neck.

Then its body.

Then the ground beneath it.

The massive serpent split cleanly in half. Not only that. A huge fissure appeared in the ground.

The magical beast's body convulsed once before dissolving into scattered particles of light.

Silence returned. But Derek was in no better shape either. He staggered. His vision flickered.

His eyes slowly returned to normal. The strange surge faded, leaving only exhaustion behind. His legs gave out.

He collapsed flat on the ground.

His breathing was ragged. His body limp. His arm bleeding heavily.

He had nothing left. But… he was alive.

Barely though.

Meanwhile, as the serpent's corpse finished dissolving, something remained behind.

A crystal core.

Dark. Twisted. Ominous. Almost pulsing with a malevolent glow.

Derek didn't even have the strength to look at the crystal core, nor was he aware of its presence. His consciousness slipped away completely.

Time passed.

Minutes turned into hours.

The sun sank beyond the horizon, and night slowly swallowed the forest. Derek lay unconscious in the middle of the clearing, yet no magical beast dared to approach. The earlier battle had been so fierce, so overwhelming, that even after hours had passed, the lingering pressure still terrified anything nearby.

That was how devastating the situation had been.

More hours slipped by as darkness deepened.

Finally, Derek's eyelids twitched.

He forced them open.

A faint breath escaped him.

"Still alive, huh…" he muttered, letting out a tired sigh.

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