{Title: Blood Burst}

{Status: Disaster Rank}

{Warning: Escape the vicinity}

Steven sighed, tearing his eyes away from the notification hovering before him. The pulsing warning flickered once, then steadied, as if reminding him that hesitation here would be paid for in blood. He exhaled slowly and turned his head toward Nott.

"Another one, aye, buddy?" Steven muttered, forcing a crooked grin despite the tension clawing at his chest.

The Grey Knight answered without words. Nott merely nodded, taking a single step forward, his posture never wavering, shield angled just enough to guard Steven as well. Even in silence, the construct radiated a quiet resolve, like a wall that refused to fall no matter how many times it was struck.

Then Silva surged ahead.

She took the lead with a sharp cry, boots scraping against the fractured marble as she charged. Steven and Nott followed immediately, keeping tight formation as they closed the distance, instincts screaming at them to stay close... close enough to strike, close enough to survive.

The Blood Burst wasted no time answering their advance.

Its bloated form convulsed, and from its pulsating mass erupted a forest of blood-red tendrils. They shot forward at bullet speed, tearing through the air with wet, shrill screeches, all of them aimed straight at the charging cohort.

Silva was ready.

Her azure blade flashed as she swung it forward in a clean arc. From the sword burst a crescent of blue light, sharp and luminous, which expanded mid-flight and solidified into a translucent wall of ice. The tendrils slammed into it a heartbeat later.

The impact was thunderous.

The icy barrier shattered instantly, exploding into shards that glittered like broken glass. Yet it had done its job. The momentary resistance slowed the tendrils just enough for the group to twist aside, the spiraling whips of blood tearing through empty air where their bodies had been a second earlier.

They pressed the opening without hesitation.

The distance between them and the Blood Burst collapsed in seconds. Silva struck first, her blade slicing upward toward the monster’s throat, aiming to end it in one decisive blow.

Before steel could bite flesh, blood surged.

From the creature’s shoulder, thick crimson matter surged outward, twisting and hardening into a crude tendril that slammed into Silva’s sword. The impact rang out like metal striking stone, and the force sent a violent tremor through her arms.

The blood was dense, unnaturally so, absorbing the strike as if it were reinforced steel.

"What the hell?!" Silva hissed, yanking her blade back just as the Blood Burst retaliated.

Its massive, swollen hand swept toward her face in a brutal arc. Silva pivoted backward at the last possible moment, the wind of the missed strike whipping past her cheek as the creature’s fingers crushed air instead of bone.

Nott moved next.

The Grey Knight surged forward, shield raised, interposing himself between Silva and the monster. From the Blood Burst’s distended gut, new tendrils erupted, lashing toward him in a frenzy.

Nott met them head-on.

His shield slammed into the first tendril, deflecting it with a resonant clang. He struck the second aside, then the third, advancing relentlessly as he battered through the writhing mass. Each step brought him closer, each impact driving the monster back by inches.

But this was never the Grey Knight’s true purpose.

"Nice work, buddy!" Steven shouted.

He leapt.

Planting a boot against Nott’s armored shoulder, Steven launched himself upward, using the Grey Knight as a living springboard. He twisted midair, slipping above the flailing tendrils, gravity dragging him down toward the Blood Burst’s exposed skull.

The Red Fang materialized in his grasp, its crimson edge humming with lethal intent.

Steven drove the dagger down.

The blade punched into the monster’s skull with a sickening crunch.

{-3 HP}

The Blood Burst shrieked, staggering backward as black-red blood sprayed outward. Its movements faltered, its bulk swaying as if drunk, and for a fleeting moment Steven thought he had stunned it.

He was wrong.

A massive hand snapped shut around his gauntlet.

The crushing force was immediate and horrifying. Metal screamed as Steven’s reinforced gauntlet caved inward around his wrist, bones grinding under the pressure.

"ARRRGHHH!" Steven roared, pain exploding up his arm.

The Blood Burst did not relent. With a savage motion, it hurled him away, flinging his body down the distant hallway like a broken doll. Steven smashed through debris before skidding to a brutal halt, breath knocked from his lungs.

The monster turned back toward its remaining prey.

And found itself staring at death.

Steven’s reckless strike had bought them a moment, a single, priceless moment of distraction.

Silva seized it.

Her eyes burned with cold fury as she lunged forward, azure blade raised high. Frigid winds spiraled around her, frost forming in the air with each step. Layers of ice coiled around the sword, thickening, sharpening, amplifying her intent.

She swung with everything she had.

The Blood Burst reacted on instinct, raising its forearm. Blood surged once more, layering over the limb into a thick crimson shield, repeating the same defense it had used before.

’Not this time...’ Silva declared within.

She stamped her foot down, the floor cracking beneath her heel. Pouring her full weight and will into the strike, she drove forward.

The blade cut through.

Ice shattered blood. Blood parted flesh. Flesh yielded bone.

In one clean, devastating stroke, Silva severed the arm completely.

The limb hit the ground with a wet thud.

The Blood Burst screamed.

Its cry echoed through the hall, raw and ear-splitting. Its eyes bulged, veins glowing as crimson flesh rapidly froze, the severed stump encased in malevolent ice. It staggered, clutching the ruined shoulder, hatred blazing in its gaze.

A mere human.

Cutting off its arm.

Rage consumed it.

With a feral snarl, the Blood Burst abandoned Nott entirely. Its remaining tendrils withdrew for a split second from Nott, then launched forward in a single violent barrage, all of them aimed at Silva.

She parried the first.

The second slipped past her defence and so did the third.

One tendril slammed into her gut, shattering her worn armor and tearing straight through her abdomen, bursting out her back in a spray of blood. Another struck her shoulder, ripping away flesh and leaving jagged bone beneath.

Silva gasped, pain ripping through her senses.

Still, the monster was not finished.

It dragged all its tendrils back into its gaping maw, preparing to lunge forward, to devour her whole and snuff out her life force once and for all.

Silva clenched her teeth.

Her vision swam. Pain threatened to overwhelm jer. Everything had happened far too fast for her to recover, to react, to escape.

She knew it.

This was the end.

And yet...