49) The Behemoth Part 3
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{3rd POV}
The sea waves rolled gently onto the beach, spreading across the sand and wetting Karan’s feet as they retreated back into the ocean.
His eyes, which had been dull and completely lacking any luster just moments ago, slowly regained their color and focus.
He blinked a few times and looked around in confusion, only to realize that he was standing on a beach.
“Bhaiya! Let’s get a kulfi!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Karan turned around, wondering who had called out to him so suddenly.
Behind him, he saw a young girl grinning brightly, her expression full of excitement and impatience.
“Anjali?” he asked in surprise, his voice hesitant, as if he was struggling to remember her name properly.
“What’s with that look?!” she snapped playfully.
“Bhaiya, get me a kulfi already!” Without waiting for his response, his sister grabbed onto his sleeve and started dragging him across the sand.
Karan stumbled slightly as she pulled him along, her enthusiasm leaving him no choice but to follow.
Soon, they reached a small kulfi stand near the shore.
After a brief moment, Karan bought kulfi for both of them, ending up with Banarsi kulfi in their hands as they stood there together on the beach.
Karan took the kulfi from the vendor and then glanced down at his purse.
He hesitated for a brief moment before slowly sliding out a photograph tucked inside.
It was a family photo with his mother, his father, himself, his sister Anjali, and his older brother Arjun all standing together and smiling.
For a short while, he simply stared at the picture in silence, his thoughts drifting.
Suddenly, his sister nudged him impatiently. “Bhaiya, aren’t you going to eat your kulfi?!”
Karan looked up and realized that Anjali had already finished hers and was now staring shamelessly at his kulfi, which was beginning to melt in his hand.
Seeing her expression, he couldn’t help but grin.
He immediately brought the kulfi to his mouth and took a bite.
“There’s no way I’m letting you have my share,” Karan said with a chuckle, making his sister grin in response.
“I was worried for a moment,” she said honestly after that, her tone more serious than before.
“You’ve been acting kind of unusual, bhaiya.”
As Karan finished licking the kulfi stick clean, he raised an eyebrow and looked at her in surprise.
“I’ve been acting unusual?” he asked, clearly caught off guard by her comment.
“Yes! Like the time you kept staring at the ocean for more than half an hour!” she complained loudly, clearly not letting it go.
“I almost thought you had fallen asleep while standing there!”
She then added in a worried yet childish tone, “Arjun bhaiya already doesn’t give me money, so if something happens to you too, how am I supposed to eat kulfis?”
Karan’s lips twitched at her words.
He couldn’t help but feel that he might have spoiled his chotti a little too much over the years.
Still, he didn’t say that out loud.
“I understand,” he began calmly as he walked over and threw the empty kulfi stick into a nearby dustbin.
“Eating kulfi and visiting the beach like this really is refreshing.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, his tone turning quieter.
“But I doubt I’ll be able to come out with you like this anymore.”
“Huh? Why?” Anjali tilted her head to the side, completely confused by what he had just said.
Karan didn’t answer her question right away.
Instead, he slowly turned his gaze toward the horizon, where the sun was slowly nearing the edge of the sea, about to set.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked softly, still looking ahead.
“It is! Suryast really is beautiful!” she admitted, nodding in agreement.
After saying that, she noticed him sigh quietly beside her.
“I wonder how long this beauty will last,” he muttered under his breath before starting to walk toward the beach.
“Bhaiya, where are you going? It’s time to return home,” she called out to him.
Karan stopped in his tracks at her words.
“Can you go back home on your own?” Karan asked, his tone much calmer than before.
“I mean, home is only a twenty-minute walk from here,” she replied hesitantly.
“But won’t you come with me, bhaiya? Mama and Papa, along with Arjun bhaiya, are waiting for us.”
As she spoke, tears slowly began to roll down her cheeks.
“I see,” Karan said softly.
He remained silent for a moment before turning back toward her and gently patting her head.
“You’ve grown up,” he said quietly, “and so have I. There’s something I must do.”
He paused before continuing, his voice steady.
“Tell Arjun to take care of everyone. And… I’m sorry that I have to leave.”
Her tears fell faster at his words, but she still nodded, biting her lip as she tried to hold herself together.
Karan smiled faintly and then turned around, facing the Suryast once more.
He began walking toward the ocean, his feet leaving clear footprints behind on the sand.
The next moment, when Anjali looked up again, she realized something strange.
Her brother’s footprints had vanished after just a few meters, disappearing mysteriously without even reaching the sea waves.
“Take care… bhaiya,” she whispered softly.
…
Ember woke up abruptly, his entire body instantly assaulted by overwhelming pain.
His mana was going almost completely haywire, on the verge of triggering an Ignis Fatuus.
Every single organ in his body screamed in agony, while his bones felt as if they were tearing themselves apart even as they desperately tried to heal.
Without wasting even a second, Ember clenched his jaw again and bit down hard, breaking the second elixir pouch hidden at the corner of his mouth.
The liquid immediately slid down his throat.
At the same time, he dug his feet deeper into the ground, forcing them into the dirt in an attempt to slow down and stop the Bloodsaurus’s momentum.
He slammed his entire body forward against the beast’s massive head.
“ArghhhhhhHH!!” he roared, his voice tearing out of his throat.
The pain was so intense that, for a brief moment, it felt like dying would have been easier.
Still, he endured it.
Ember grabbed the hilt of his sword tightly and began pouring even more mana into his magic, refusing to let go.
His bones shattered and then healed again, over and over, in rapid succession.
The pain was beyond agonizing, pushing him to the absolute edge, yet he did not give up.
By now, the momentum should have been reduced.
By now, the beast should have stopped.
But it did not.
The Bloodsaurus continued moving forward, its powerful limbs still dragging Ember across the battlefield as if he weighed nothing, carving through the ground while Ember fought desperately against both the monster and the unbearable pain tearing his body apart.
He could feel his organs rupture and then heal again, over and over.
He could feel his bones breaking apart and then mending themselves in rapid succession.
Ember knew that the effects of the elixir would eventually end, and when that happened, there would be no miracle left to save him.
So he poured mana.
He poured more and more mana into his magic, refusing to stop.
He continued pouring it until his mind itself felt like it was burning from the strain.
The rate at which his body was forcing mana into the spell became unnatural, increasing by dozens of times compared to before.
It was far beyond anything a normal adventurer should have been capable of sustaining.
Suddenly, his entire body was flooded with a newfound strength.
His twisted legs healed properly and held together this time without breaking again.
His ribs, which had just barely mended, were reinforced, becoming far sturdier than before.
Ember had officially entered a limit off state.
At this moment, his overall prowess skyrocketed dramatically, and his body overflowed with a violent surge of Falna, pushing him beyond his previous limits as he stood against the Bloodsaurus with power he had never reached before.
At this moment, his physical prowess alone rivaled that of a Level 4 adventurer, while his magic had officially reached Level 6 in output.
Within this extremely short span of time, the mana he was desperately pouring into the spell finally reached a critical level.
Ember’s feet crushed down onto a boulder, cracking it apart.
Then another boulder shattered beneath him, and then another.
With each step, the ground gave way, until finally the Bloodsaurus could no longer continue pushing forward against him.
“Thunder—” he began the syllable, his voice steady despite the chaos.
Lightning manifested around his sword in a way that surpassed every spell he had ever cast before, the energy far denser and more violent than anything he had previously controlled.
“—Bolt.”
In an instant, the thunder descended upon the Bloodsaurus.
Before it could even let out a cry, before it could attempt to retaliate, a single overwhelming blast struck it directly.
The force was absolutely overwhelming.
The entire Bloodsaurus was reduced to ashes in that moment, its body and even its magic stone completely annihilated, leaving nothing behind where the monstrous presence had once stood.
The power of the lightning blast was still flowing uncontrollably from his magic.
Reacting on instinct, Ember quickly pointed his sword upward, releasing dozens of thick bolts of lightning into the sky.
The flashes brightened the entire area for miles, turning night into day for a brief moment.
Thunder roared violently as the lightning struck upward, crashing into the sky, and with a massive boom, the sound traveled through the clouds far above.
Ember gasped desperately for air as the last of his magic faded.
His sword began to crack, then shattered completely, slowly crumbling apart as the remaining energy dissipated.
In just a few moments, the weapon was reduced to broken pieces scattered on the ground.
Then Ember collapsed.
He fell onto the earth heavily, utterly exhausted, his entire body aching with pain.
“Fuck… I almost died,” he muttered as he lay there, unable to move.
“I think I still have a lot of broken bones… and a few organs are probably still ruptured,” Ember groaned, his voice strained from the pain.
Even so, he knew he was in a far better condition than he had been just a few seconds ago.
That much was undeniable.
Still, his body throbbed with unimaginable pain.
Although he was no longer on the brink of death like before, he had yet to properly heal.
His body had been broken again and again due to the direct collision with the Bloodsaurus, and the aftermath of pushing himself beyond his limits was now crashing down on him all at once.
'Yeah, that was a bad idea…', Ember thought to himself, frustration mixing with lingering pain.
'Fuck it. If I hadn’t kept two small pouches of elixir on both sides of my jaw and bitten down on them at exactly the right moment, I would have been dead for sure.'
He couldn’t help but question his own decision to collide head-on with the beast.
But then again, the monster had been a Level 4.
Its speed was far greater than Ember’s, and it wasn’t as if he had many options to begin with.
Running away or trying to dodge endlessly would have only delayed the inevitable.
No matter how reckless it had been, the result remained the same.
He had killed the Bloodsaurus, a monster two levels higher than him.
And it wasn’t just any ordinary Level 4 either.
It was something far more terrifying than a normal Level 4 monster, an existence feared even among creatures of its own rank.
Then the realization finally hit him.
He had won.
He had actually won, and more importantly, he had survived.
Against all odds, he was still alive!
Just as Ember was about to let that fact sink in, the ground suddenly trembled beneath him.
At first, it was nothing more than a slight vibration, a few particles of dirt shaking and rolling across the surface.
But the trembling didn’t stop.
It grew stronger, heavier, until Ember could clearly feel the ground itself shaking under his feet.
“The fuck…” he muttered as he forced himself to stand up despite the pain still wracking his body.
What he saw next made his breath catch in his throat.
A massive beast was running straight toward him, its enormous form charging in the direction of Karuna City.
Even from this distance, its size was overwhelming.
Ember could see small flashes of magic striking its body again and again, exploding against its hide.
The creature was already covered in injuries, grievous wounds so severe they were visible from miles away.
Torn flesh, scorched areas, and bleeding gashes told a clear story.
It was retreating.
The monster was fleeing, and its escape route just happened to lead directly toward him.
As Ember stared at the approaching monstrosity, realization dawned on him.
He knew exactly what kind of monster this was...no, not just the type, but the specific existence itself.
It was the Behemoth.
The Behemoth resembled a colossal boar straight out of a nightmare.
Its massive tusks were longer than towers, and its hide was thicker than fortress walls, layered with natural defenses that looked almost impossible to penetrate.
With every breath it took, poisonous miasma seeped out into the air, spreading around it like a deadly fog.
The land beneath its feet withered and died as it moved forward, grass turning black and soil cracking apart under its presence alone.
This was not just any monster.
It was the King of Beasts.
One of the three strongest monsters in the entire world.
Ember could hardly believe what he was seeing.
His mind struggled to process the sight before him.
Why was the Behemoth here?
Why was a monster of this caliber anywhere near Karuna City in the first place?
The Behemoth was running at full speed, its enormous body generating shockwaves with every step it took.
The earth quaked violently beneath it, cracks spreading outward as if the ground itself was about to collapse.
Judging by its speed and the distance left, it would not even take a full minute for the monster to reach Karuna City.
And once that happened, the outcome was obvious to anyone who understood what the Behemoth truly was.
Ember didn’t have much time left.
If he wanted to live, he needed to run away immediately.
But the question was run in which direction?
If he ran backward, there was no chance he could ever outrun the Behemoth.
Its speed was far beyond anything he could match in his current state.
If he ran toward it instead, he would be stepping straight into the range of its attacks.
That creature didn’t even need to strike to kill its very breath carried death.
Left or right?
On one side lay Karuna City.
On the other side were other villages and towns, places like Argon City.
No matter which direction he chose, innocent lives would be caught in the path of that monster.
There was no safe route, no clear escape that didn’t lead to catastrophe for someone else.
Then it happened.
Suddenly, the Behemoth locked its eyes onto him.
Yes, even from several miles away, its gaze fixed directly on Ember.
Ember froze completely.
His body refused to move, his muscles locking in place as if they no longer belonged to him.
His instincts didn’t just scream danger anymore.
They screamed death.
They screamed fear so overwhelming, so absolute, that for a brief, horrifying moment, Ember wished he had died earlier, before ever meeting the gaze of that monster.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Why the hell is it looking at me?! This doesn’t make any sense, I’m several miles away from it!'
Ember thought in pure panic.
His mind raced wildly as fear threatened to overwhelm him.
He forced himself to think, desperately trying to recall everything he knew about the Behemoth and its known attack patterns, because hesitation here meant death.
Then it happened.
Toxic Miasma Exhalation.
With a single, terrifying exhalation, the Behemoth released a massive stream of poisonous mist, spraying forward in a straight line.
The toxic cloud expanded rapidly, corrupting the air itself.
Ember was taken aback by the sheer scale of the attack.
However, because the King of Beasts was still several miles away, the poisonous breath had not reached him yet.
He immediately held his breath, knowing that if he reacted quickly enough, he could survive this one attack.
Ember’s thoughts snapped into clarity.
The Behemoth was supposed to be killed in the Dedine Desert.
That meant this monster was not here by coincidence, it was running away considering it was coming from the direction of where the Empire was located.
And its current path just happened to cross through this area towards the desert which was on different direction to the Karuna city.
Running directly toward it was suicide.
Running away from it in the opposite direction was even worse, because if the Behemoth decided to pursue him, there would be absolutely no escape.
That left only one direction.
Karuna City.
Ember didn’t hesitate any longer.
He took short, rapid breaths to stabilize himself and immediately began sprinting toward the city walls with everything he had left.
His battered body screamed in protest, but he ignored the pain.
He leaped several meters into the air, barely managing to catch onto a brick along the city wall.
Using the last of his strength, he pulled himself upward, climbed over, and dropped down on the other side, successfully entering the city.
Thankfully, due to the chaos indicating the Behemoth’s approach, the few adventurers stationed on that side of the wall were fully focused outward.
None of them noticed Ember slipping into the city at all.
Ember ignored the chaos around him and everything else happening in the city as he ran straight toward the guild building.
As far as he knew, every guild building had a secret underground passage, and he was desperately hoping to exploit that fact to survive.
Forcing his aching body to move, he ran at full speed despite the pain screaming through every muscle and bone.
The earthquake grew stronger with every passing second.
Soon, buildings around him began to crumble as shockwaves tore through the city.
Ember ignored all of it.
He ignored the collapsing structures, the terrified screams of people, and the cries of innocent civilians trapped beneath the rubble.
He wasn't heartless, but he knew the truth that he was powerless to help.
After fighting a Level 4 monster, he had almost nothing left.
His strength was nearly gone, and his only chance of survival now was to run for his life.
Stopping for even a moment would mean death.
Soon, Ember reached the guild building.
It stood eerily isolated, abandoned during the earlier chaos.
When the wyverns had attacked the city, they had unleashed waves of fire, and staying inside a mostly wooden structure had been nothing short of a death wish.
That was why the place was empty now.
Ember rushed inside without slowing down and immediately began searching through the building for anything unusual.
He moved quickly, scanning rooms and corridors until he finally found a basement entrance.
Without hesitation, he descended.
As he walked through the basement, his sharp elven ears picked up something subtle—a slight inconsistency in sound beneath his footsteps.
He stopped and focused, carefully listening.
Then he tapped the floor with his foot and realized there was something hollow beneath it.
There was something hidden below the floor.
He struck the spot with force and broke through it, revealing a hidden entrance beneath the floor.
Ember couldn’t help but smile in relief, silently thanking Disha from Argon Town, who had once told him about this very secret.
Without wasting any time, he quickly slipped inside the opening and found himself in a long, dark passage stretching far ahead.
He immediately began running deeper into it, moving away from the entrance as fast as his battered body would allow.
It wasn’t until he had covered nearly a hundred meters that his legs finally gave out, forcing him to stop.
Ember collapsed onto the ground, gasping desperately for air as exhaustion completely overtook him.
He was safe.
Finally, he was safe! He repeated the thought twice, proving how happy he felt to be away from that nightmare.
But outside, the situation in Karuna City was turning into a nightmare.
The poisonous mist released by the Behemoth spread rapidly, covering the entire city in a deadly haze.
Before long, the toxic gas seeped into every corner of Karuna City, swallowing streets, buildings, and anything still above ground.
Ember didn’t realize it yet, but it would only be a matter of time before the poison reached him as well.
To be continued…