The freezing wind scraped across the barren wasteland like dull blades against stone. Davis' breathing had become ragged long ago. Every few steps, his shoulders dipped beneath Leon's weight before he forced himself upright again, sweat soaking through his clothes despite the unnatural cold. Miller wasn't in much better condition; his boots dragged across the crimson-stained ground, each step slower than the last as exhaustion settled deep into his bones.
Leon rested limply across Davies' back, his eyes half-open. Without warning, they narrowed. "It's here."
Davies instinctively slowed. "What?"
"About a kilometer." Leon stared toward the distant horizon.
Miller looked around frantically. "I don't see anything."
"...Coming this way."
Only then did Davies finally make out the tiny silhouette cresting a distant ridge: the armored crab. Even from this distance it was moving unnaturally fast, its massive legs driving through the stone with terrifying efficiency. Miller's face turned pale. "No... no, no, no... We can't run anymore."
"Relax," Leon answered in the same casual tone he might have used discussing lunch. "I have a plan."
The effect was immediate. Davis' shoulders loosened slightly, and his heartbeat steadied. Miller stared between the two of them, wondering how this man could possibly relax after hearing that. Then again, Leon hadn't been wrong yet. "...Right," Miller forced himself to swallow. "What do we do?"
Leon slowly lifted a finger. "There."
Between two enormous boulders lay an impossibly narrow passage, barely wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways. "Head inside."
"Are you sure? What if the-" Miller panicked.
"Trust me! There's no time. He's catching up quickly."
Davis shut his eyes, took a deep breath and rushed to the boulders. The three hurried through the stone corridor before emerging into a cramped dead end enclosed on three sides by towering rock. Miller's face fell. "A dead end?"
Leon nodded weakly. "The opening is narrow. The crab's size works against it. If it commits to entering, it'll lose mobility. If it refuses, it can't reach us. A confined battlefield favors the smaller opponent. Out there it's only a matter of minutes before we die for sure. This place gives us a fighting chance."
Davies lowered Leon carefully against the rock wall. "...You really thought all that through already?"
"I had several minutes." Leon closed his eyes again. His remaining internal energy drifted sluggishly through his body—not enough, nowhere near enough. One more attack... maybe, or maybe not. It would come down to luck.
...
Time slowly passed. With everyone in their positions, the wait gave room for idle thoughts. White meant penetration, while black signified corrosion. Every variation of Linked Energy Manipulation had formed naturally through experimentation, yet one combination had already become his preferred attack: the white layer pierced matter, and the black current destroyed everything hidden beneath.
It deserved a proper designation, Leon thought, frowning slightly. Names organized thoughts, thoughts organized expression, and expression guided energy. "...Yin-Yang Strike," he quietly repeated the words beneath his breath. The name simply felt appropriate.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Outside, the heavy crunching of stone grew louder and closer until finally—CRACK. The armored crab emerged between the distant rocks, its scarred shell reflecting the crimson light as it slowly approached the narrow entrance. Its antennae twitched, and then it entered. One massive leg after another scraped against the tight stone walls, and exactly as Leon predicted, its movements became noticeably slower.
Then, it stopped. The creature's jagged head slowly turned toward them. One human, two humans... its antennae twitched again. Silence fell over the dead end as the monster remained perfectly still. Leon felt a chill crawl down his spine; it was counting. There had been three scents, but now it only saw two. Its enormous head slowly tilted upward.
"...Damn."
Leon exploded from the ledge above, his exhausted body screaming in protest as he forced every remaining shred of vitality into Linked Energy Manipulation. Raw Qi, origin energy, and life force mixed together into one final attack. His fist descended toward the center of the creature's head. The white energy surged forward—then faltered as the coating began collapsing before it fully formed. It was a failure.
"...Yin-Yang Strike." The words escaped almost instinctively, and something changed. The unstable energy abruptly condensed; the white layer became thinner and sharper, while the black current compressed tighter than ever before. Leon felt the difference immediately—less waste, greater clarity, as though speaking the technique's name had aligned every fragment of his intent into a single point.
His eyes widened, and the fist landed. The white coating slipped effortlessly through the armored shell, and the instant it dissolved inside, the compressed black energy erupted directly into the creature's brain. The sound of the punch hitting the armor made everyone hold their breath. Then, the crab's legs buckled simultaneously, and its enormous body collapsed sideways with a thunderous crash that shook the surrounding rocks.
Dead. Leon landed beside it, his knees hitting the ground first, then his hands, then the rest of him. He couldn't move; every muscle had completely given up. His vision blurred as his thoughts lingered on only one thing: that attack shouldn't have worked. The energy had been insufficient, and he had felt it. Without the name, the technique would've failed.
"...Names..." he whispered. "No..." He slowly shook his head. "Expression." Naming wasn't power; it clarified expression, and clearer expression reduced waste. A simple name had made Linked Energy Manipulation noticeably more efficient. A faint smile appeared despite his exhaustion. "...Interesting."
He reached out to absorb the monster's origin and immediately used all of it as a substitute for vitality. The green hue of Linked Energy Manipulation was quickly consumed to keep him from blacking out.
...
Several hundred meters away, three figures cautiously crossed another rocky ridge. Maya walked at the front, followed by two familiar coworkers. One was a thin man with rectangular glasses whose permanently serious expression made it seem as though smiling had never occurred to him, while the other leaned heavily against a stone outcrop every few minutes, one hand constantly pressed against his lower back.
The man with glasses sighed. "Maya, we haven't walked in a straight line once."
"I know."
"And yet you insist we're going the right way."
Maya nodded. "I do."
The man with the back injury frowned. "Why?"
She looked toward the distant rocks. "...I don't know. Every time I think about going somewhere else..." She rubbed her chest absentmindedly. "...I get this awful feeling."
"What feeling?"
"Like..." She searched for the words. "...like that is the way to the solution of all of our problems."
Neither man answered; they simply exchanged a confused glance. Then, the man with glasses suddenly froze. "...Look."
Far ahead, the enormous armored crab squeezed into a narrow stone passage. The injured man swallowed hard. "...That's where your intuition led us?"
Nobody moved as they waited one second, two, three... and then, a tiny human figure suddenly dropped from above. A single punch landed, and the crab convulsed once before collapsing motionless onto the ground. Silence fell over the ridge. Three people stared in complete disbelief before Maya started running, squeezing through the narrow passage as quickly as she could.
The cave opened before her. Davis was sitting against a wall, breathing heavily, while Miller was poking the crab's enormous corpse with a loose stone. "...Are... are we sure it's dead?"
Davies chuckled weakly. "I think so."
Maya looked past them. There, lying against the stone wall with his eyes barely open, was Leon. "...Leon!"
Leon slowly turned his head, and his expression froze. A dead monster, someone asking if it was really dead, and Maya appearing immediately afterward—it was the exact same sequence from his dream. His eyelid twitched. "...Not again."
Silence filled the cave as everyone stared at him. Leon sighed deeply. "...If this is another dream... I'm going to be very upset."