Chapter 40: The Gazer Pair

The crab roared and lunged desperately. The floating eye, seemingly giving up on its psychic attacks, rushed toward them as well, but it was too far behind as the momentum of the fight continuously pulled away from its position. Leon stepped forward, and silver light gathered once more around his knuckles. This time, his fist struck the previously cracked section of armor with a heavy boom. The fracture spread across nearly half the shell, and the beast collapsed sideways, one leg giving way beneath its shifting mass. It wasn't dead, far from it, but its greatest advantage—its armor—had become little more than decoration.

Leon calmly walked toward the struggling creature. "...Guess I found my answer."

Behind him, Lyra and Maya had gone completely silent.

Adrian was the first one to talk. "That's just like Davis said."

They had watched Leon invent a new technique right in the middle of a fight.

The floating eye shrieked, its violet iris constricting into a razor-thin slit as it watched its lifelong partner stagger backward under the spreading silver fissure. Then it charged, the air distorting around its gelatinous mass as another psychic pulse gathered. Leon didn't retreat, stepping forward into the attack instead. The newly formed silver aura wrapped around his right fist once more, but unlike the Yin-Yang Strike, the energy wasn't released outward. It remained condensed around the surface of his knuckles, quietly altering the nature of every ounce of force behind the blow.

The crab tried to intercept him, raising one massive scythe to block the advance. It was too slow. Leon slipped underneath the sweeping limb and drove his fist upward.

**Crack.**

The silver strike landed squarely against the creature's head, and the reinforced shell exploded inward. Fragments of black chitin scattered across the snow as the crab's body convulsed once before collapsing lifelessly onto the frozen ground.

The floating eye let out a furious screech, its tendrils lashing wildly as another mental shock rippled through the air. Leon had already turned to face it. The eye lacked armor, relying entirely on distance and its companion; now, it had neither. In one swift motion, he took a step, leaped, and flashed his fist with silver once again.

**Bang.**

The eye burst apart like fragile glass, violet fluid spraying across the crimson snow before evaporating into drifting motes of Qi.

Deep silence returned to the wasteland. Leon remained standing perfectly still for exactly two seconds before his shoulders finally sagged.

"Haa..." He bent forward, both hands resting on his knees as he struggled to draw a proper breath.

Every muscle in his body felt heavy, as the active forms of Linked Energy Manipulation had drained his vitality far faster than expected. Purple continuously reinforced his body, green constantly repaired the damage the reinforcement created, and yellow absorbed the remaining impact, while the silver energy consumed the largest share by far every time he attacked.

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"So that's the price..." He let out another slow breath, feeling the tight ache in his core. "I'll definitely need to improve the efficiency."

The Universal Vessel immediately began recording every sensation, tracking every fluctuation, loss, and inefficiency for future modifications. For now, he walked toward the corpses. The familiar pull inside his Spirit Blood awakened, and dark crimson essence slowly drifted out from both monsters, flowing toward Leon before disappearing beneath his skin. His blood accepted both without resistance, spreading a faint warmth through his body. It wasn't enough to evolve his realm, but it was enough to strengthen his foundation a little further.

Lyra watched the entire process quietly before speaking. "That's... actually rather fortunate."

Leon glanced over, wiping a thin layer of frost from his brow. "Fortunate?"

"They're called Gazer Crabs," she walked toward the dead beasts, nudging the shattered shell with the tip of her boot. "Most people think they're two unrelated species that happen to always appear together. They aren't. They're twins."

Leon raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"They hatch from the same egg," Lyra explained, pointing toward the crab. "One twin develops into the body, and the other develops into the mind. They spend their entire lives hunting together, growing stronger side by side. But once they mature, they devour each other."

Maya blinked, stepping closer to the mounts. "What?"

"It's their final evolution," Lyra crouched beside the corpse. "If the eye wins, it burrows into the crab's body, its tendrils spreading throughout the shell and taking control like a parasite until it becomes a single Grade One Demonic Beast. If the crab wins instead, it consumes the eye. The eye disappears, but the crab still develops the same ocular organ from its back. So either way, the end result is the same: a complete Gazer Crab."

Ethan frowned from his position. "That's... horrifying."

"It is," Lyra nodded, standing back up. "They only reproduce once. After reaching adulthood, they return to their breeding grounds, fuse, lay a single batch of eggs, and go out to hunt for the rest of their lives."

Leon silently looked between the two corpses, analyzing the developmental cycle. "So as juveniles, they're both Grade Zero."

Lyra smiled. "Individually. Together, they already fight like a Grade One. The crab occupies your attention physically while the eye attacks your mind with illusions and psychic assaults. That's why they're infamous among new hunters."

Leon nodded slowly. It made perfect sense; neither one alone had been especially dangerous, but together, they complemented each other's weaknesses through an evolutionary partnership.

After another few minutes of resting, Leon finally straightened his posture. His breathing had stabilized—not fully recovered, but enough to continue the march. He looked toward the two mounts, then toward Maya.

"Well, no reason to wait for me to recover here. I can recover just the same when on top of a mount. I'm running on fumes though, so whatever appears next... well, have fun. I'm not participating again today. I'd rather recover while riding than keep pretending I have pride."

Maya laughed softly. "I wasn't going to stop you."

Before she could continue, Leon looked toward Lyra. "Would you mind riding with Adrian instead?"

Lyra shrugged, shifting her cloak. "...Whatever." Her tone remained perfectly indifferent, as if the request barely mattered. Yet inside her head, a frantic voice was screaming in absolute victory. *Yes. Yes. YES! Finally! Great job, Leon. I always knew you were a sensible young man.*

She somehow resisted smiling as the mounts were rearranged. Leon climbed onto Maya's mount and immediately leaned back, closing his eyes as the rhythmic movement lulled his exhausted body. Lyra climbed into the saddle with Adrian, and the expedition resumed. The crimson horizon slowly disappeared behind an immense wall of swirling, blood-red snow; a blizzard was forming, and they were riding straight into it.