Alonso took a shallow breath as the soft breeze touched his face. He was barefoot, dressed in light clothing, seated on a patch of grass that stretched endlessly in all directions, with no one else in sight.

From the pores of his skin rose faint wisps of smoke, carrying the sharp stench of burnt flesh.

His mind stayed locked on the feedback from his body—was it right, was it wrong, should he shift focus, follow a new path, or had the last dozen steps been a mistake that needed to be retraced?

It was an excruciating process. Pain didn't always mean progress. Sometimes, it meant nothing at all. And yet… he kept going. He didn't really have a choice.

Hours passed in absolute silence. His focus tunneled deeper—on the body nodes, their connections to the subnodes, the routes that felt smoother, the flow through tendon, muscle, and bone, the delicate balance of the structure as a whole. But out of millions—no, billions—of possibilities, finding that balance was anything but easy.

"So, how's it going?" A sudden cheerful voice snapped him from his thoughts.

"Could be worse," Alonso muttered, frowning as the stench of his own body hit him. "Damn. Sorry about the smell."

"It's fine. I've smelled worse," Ayu said with a grin, dropping down beside him. "Need me to save your genius butt or what?"

"Nah, I've got it," he said, letting himself fall back into the grass, eyes on the blue sky. "Just a matter of time. That's all."

Ayu smirked. She rolled herself over and planted her face above his, blocking his view with that wide, wicked smile of hers. "If it's the beastmen trolling you're sulking about—forget it. That's just how they are. Not your path. You know it."

Alonso chuckled, looking up at her. "Yeah. I know. Enough about me though—how's it going on your side?"

Ayu sighed and let her head rest on his chest, hair tickling his jaw. "Ugh, Third Body State's a pain in the ass. And I can't hit grandmaster Understanding without it. So right now? I'm kinda stuck. Which means I'm officially jealous of you. You've got all that progress waiting—so no whining, okay?"

"I'm not whining." Alonso laughed, eyes softening as he looked at her. "And it's not my fault you're limiting yourself to the Body Path alone."

"Well, it's the only path I need to kick everyone's ass, so what can I do about it? Not my fault I'm a natural-born prodigy in the martial way." Her eyes flicked up to meet his, teasing, full of mischief.

"The Daughter of the Moonless Night, huh? Heard that one the other day. Kinda ominous for such a cutie." Alonso smirked.

"Cutie? I remind you—the last dozens of spars didn't end well for you, did they?" She grinned wide, clearly enjoying herself.

"Well, give me time. We'll see who laughs last."

"Sure." Ayu pushed herself up, standing tall, stretching like a cat. "But time, huh? I kinda wish you could hold out for more time too." She chuckled, eyes dancing.

Alonso shook his head, getting to his feet too. "Any lead on a new nest?"

"Of course. Xok'al are pests—they're everywhere. But this time we'll have to head a bit further north." She gazed out at the horizon, the breeze lifting her hair. "You need a rest, or are we going now?"

"I'm good. I'll rest when we're back."

"After coming back? Bold of you to think they'll let you. It's full moon tonight."

"Full moon? And what, they all turn into werewolves or some shit?" Alonso raised a brow, genuinely intrigued. He couldn't recall anything in the Ajnal records about what beastmen actually did on a full moon.

Ayu smiled. "Oh, nothing much… you'll find out." Then, without waiting, she dashed off.

Alonso sighed and went after her. As they moved, he focused on Ayu's steps—the way her presence seemed to meld with the world around her. That aura… he recognized it. It marked the second of the three stages in the beastmen's core technique.

The first stage was something that could be translated as Understanding of I. It amused him—he'd discussed it with Darius before. The name reminded them both of the perception realms Darius had coined. The first, Enemy as Self, was one Alonso had actually reached. And while the two sounded similar, their core was different.

Enemy as Self was all about combat perception—about seeing the opponent as part of yourself, reading their intent as your own. Understanding of I was about knowing the intrinsic nature of oneself—the true capacity of one's body, purely in the physical sense. Darius had mentioned it might have been a second stage in his own invented perception realms.

Whatever the name, it was clear: the beastmen path intersected with Darius's ideas. And Alonso knew—it was his next step. If he could reach Understanding of I, it would sharpen his combat prowess and help him achieve the Second Body State, as Ayu had pointed out.

And yet… five days alongside Ayu and the beastmen, and he hadn't touched this stage. Not fully, at least. Something was missing. Something small, but essential.

He'd talked it through with both Ayu and Darius. They'd both given him the same frustrating answer: "You have to feel it."

He kept going after Ayu, and soon they reached the mountain range in the west. From there, they followed its edge north.

"By the way, how do you get intel on these nests so quickly?"

"Beastmen are very good scouts," Ayu said without looking back, keeping the pace steady.

Alonso just nodded, keeping his senses sharp even as part of his mind kept circling that elusive next step—the missing piece in the beastmen's perception technique.

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And then—

A faint shift.

Ayu blurred forward, feet light on the stones.

Alonso followed, half a beat behind, blades ready. His waves flowed through the metal, magnetizing them—he felt the pull along his arms. His pulses spread wide, invisible threads searching for the next threat.

The first Xok'al lunged from cover—a two-tailed one, bladed forelimbs slashing through the dusk.

Ayu didn't slow. She twisted low, sliding over loose soil. One kurki dagger drove up beneath its joint, the other punched deep into a gap at its side. Before its legs could fold, her knee smashed into its chest plate with a sickening crack.

Alonso caught the surge of two more—one two-tailed, the other a three-tailed.

The air shifted as the three-tailed Xok'al's EM field rolled out.

Alonso grinned.

He countered, his own field slamming forward, forcing the Xok'al back. His twin blades shot ahead—one wide, baiting. The creature's senses locked onto it—too late. The second blade came in tight, driving through the throat gap, clean and final.

A two-tailed Xok'al tried to flank. Its tail whirred, a round snapping free—Alonso's field bent it off course, the shot burying harmlessly in a tree. He pivoted, boots grinding the soil, and sent a pulse straight at the creature's mind. A flicker. A freeze. Just long enough. His blade punched through the eye socket.

Ayu was a storm among two fresh attackers. Elbows, knees, kicks—every strike brutal, precise. Her kurkis gleamed in the dying light, slashing clean. She flowed ahead of every strike, dodging by instinct, always one beat ahead. A tail round hissed past. She rolled, came up behind, and opened a spine with a flick of her blade.

Alonso's blades snapped back to his grip.

Another three-tailed one twitched, tried to fire. Alonso was already inside its guard. One blade deflected a limb, the other chopped down on its tail, severing the weapon clean. Sparks burst as the piece clattered on stone.

The Xok'al reeled—Ayu was faster. She lunged, both daggers punching through its chest in a single smooth motion. She dropped in a crouch as its body crumpled.

The clearing stilled.

Alonso breathed deep. Dust coiled on the breeze.

Ayu straightened, flashing him that wild grin.

"Not bad, soft-foot," she teased, smearing blood from her cheek with the back of her hand.

Alonso smirked, flicking his blade clean. "You're not too bad yourself, beast-girl."

She laughed, nodding ahead.

"Come on. That was just the greeting party."

They both cracked the skulls open, absorbing the orbs—but only from the three-tailed. As Alonso pressed on the last, he felt the familiar boost.

Stage 1 – 13.724%

Over the last five days, his Stage Progress had climbed steadily, gaining over 2.5%. But now, the gains were slowing. Even a three-tailed Xok'al barely gave him 0.010%.

The good part, though, was that any Stage Progress fed directly into both the Body and Pillar Path. And he needed all the help he could get—not just because he was sick of the beastmen trolling him, but because he needed balance. His path aimed to bridge Pillar and Body, and that balance had fractured when he reached the Second Pillar Path. His waves had surged ahead, but his body couldn't keep up. It was why every spar left him injured, why every exchange with the beastmen or Ayu left him on the losing end.

Worse, Overdrive fed on instinct more than mind. And the percentage he could push it was chained hard to his physical limits.

He exhaled, thoughts flashing through his head as his eyes lifted to the new wave of Xok'al charging their way.

Here we go again.

Alonso pushed forward, his boots cracking the stony ground with each step. Ayu zigzagged through the uneven terrain, her kurki daggers a blur—Xok'al heads dropping one after another.

Alonso advanced at a slower, steady pace, the projectiles fired his way veering off as his magnetic field bent them aside. He passed the corpse of a three-tailed Xok'al from the previous batch and magnetized its limbs, lifting the body like a grotesque puppet.

He controlled the bladed arms, slashing down the incoming two-tailed Xok'al one by one—the few that ever managed to close the gap.

The pressure from them felt almost laughable. This—

Huh?

Alonso froze.

The air stilled. His muscles tensed as a vast EM domain pressed down on him like a mountain.

What the…

His grip tightened on both blades, pulse racing as he turned his gaze—and then—

"Watch out!"

CLANG!!!

A bladed tail slammed toward him, but Ayu intercepted, her daggers colliding mid-air with the strike. The impact forced her back, bare feet carving deep grooves into the rock as if it were dirt.

Dual Overdrive

The world snapped slower. Every detail sharpened—the crackle of shifting gravel, the tension in the air. Alonso forced a pulse outward, trying to disrupt the pressure, stepping back—but his blades moved like they were dragging through mud.

His heartbeat roared in his ears as old memories flooded in, tension coiling through his frame as he stared at those four tails.

Why—

CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

The Xok'al pressed the attack, axe-shaped arms hammering Ayu's daggers in quick, brutal strikes, driving her onto the back foot.

Alonso bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.

Focus, dammit!

He roared, feet pounding the earth as he charged, eyes blazing. Ayu barely blocked the next strike, but the Xok'al's tail swept in from the side. She was already twisting, her body trying to evade—but the blow caught her mid-roll, sending her skidding across the ground, dust and shards of stone flying.

Alonso reached the creature, blades flashing down—and froze.

His arms bulged, straining—but the blades stopped mid-air, centimeters from their mark.

No…

The instant realization hit, the Xok'al's counter came.

A kick slammed into him, the force bursting through his gut like a hammer. He flew, body twisting mid-air, crashing through dirt and stone until his head smashed against the mountain's rock face, sending up a shower of debris.

"ALONSO!"

Ayu's voice rang out—but his mind barely registered it. Blood trickled from his cracked scalp, warm down his cheek. His body trembled, pain radiating with every breath.

His vision blurred, some ribs shattered, each inhale sharp as a blade.

His mind fogged as he caught broken glimpses of the fight—Ayu clashing with the creature, forced back after every exchange, the cracks and booms echoing down the rocks, making his battered body tremble.

I… I have to…

His body jerked forward, pain suffocating—but he held on. Dual Overdrive fully active, he gripped his blades, took one step… then another…

And suddenly—a scream.

Ayu reeled, her left arm nearly severed, blood pouring down her side. She was sent sprawling—but forced herself up in an instant, teeth clenched, dagger gripped in her only working hand, ready to face death.

And yet—

The Xok'al wasn't in front of her anymore.

Her heart skipped as she turned—Alonso stood there, posture off, eyes distant… and the Xok'al loomed before him.

A blade fell.

An arc of blood painted the mountain.

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