Boundless Evolution: The Summoning Beast
Chapter 81: Into The Pit

Chapter 81: Into The Pit

It hit like a tide. Not just weight, but intent.

Ash’s instincts screamed to resist the pressure. But nothing came.

His aether core wasn’t empty- he could still feel aether, hot and churning within him- but when he tried to send it out of his body, it was like forcing wind through sealed stone. It resisted, bottled and compressed, unable to leave his body.

’What-? My aether- why can’t I...?

The realisation hit harder than the pressure itself.

Something was suppressing his flow. Not cutting it off completely, but muting it, like trying to scream through water.

Just then, the beast moved- not with malice but with a look of amusement as if it could tell what Ash was thinking. With a single, explosive, shove, it hurled Ash from where he was initially standing.

He fell like a dropped stone, momentum dragging his limbs into a spiral of disorientation.

Mist whipped past him, thick and cold, stealing his breath as he spun helplessly through the air. Wind rushed in his ears, the world reduced to a blur of motion and noise while the floor rushed up with merciless speed.

Then impact.

Then pain.

His body struck the stone like a thrown weapon. The thumping shift from cold air to unforgiving ground knocked the wind from his lungs and rattled his ribs.

Ash groaned, vision blurred, and every breath came out ragged. His bones sang with strain- but he was alive.

He landed hard in the centre of the pit, claws skidding against the cold-stained floor. The breath shot from his lungs, and as he coughed, a voice echoed- not in the air, but in his mind.

"Our elusive guest joins the dance. The one who almost got away."

The crowd stirred. Beasts leaned forward. Statues cracked.

Ash slowly rose to one knee, breath heavy.

His head swiveled, scanning the upper walls, ears twitching as he tried to find the source of the voice. But there was nothing- only that low, echoing call that seemed to originate from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"You won’t find me," it answered him, as if reading the question behind his confusion. The tone was cool. Confident.

Then, a deep rumble rolled through the air like thunder contained beneath stone.

"Let the next offering step forward."

Immediately, a chorus of snarls, and inhuman roars erupted from the audience. Beasts shifted, rising to their feet or lifting their heads in anticipation.

The ground itself trembled faintly under the tension.

Ash turned back to the center of the pit.

To his right, embedded in the jagged stone wall and half-covered in creeping black moss, a heavy gate began to stir.

Out of it, emerged a beast.

First a leg, spindly but layered in sinew, touched the bloodstained ground. Then another.

The creature that emerged was nightmarish: tall, its limbs too long for its frame, a slick, wet sheen across its skin. Its eyes, small and beady, glowed like dying embers, and twitching whisker-like tendrils stretched from its jaws, scenting the air.

The crowd leaned forward as if drawn by an invisible tether. The arena seemed to pulse.

Ash felt something in his gut shift as he felt that the battle was just about to begin. He shifted into a low stance, body tense, heart hammering against his ribs.

The silence snapped. The air shifted- tensing, tightening- as if the whole arena held its breath.

The beast shrieked– high-pitched and deafening, a cry that stabbed straight into bone.

Ash didn’t flinch. Instead, he exhaled slowly, easing into his stance.

’Fast. And venomous-looking. I’ll need to finish this one quickly,’ he thought.

Ash met it head-on, shadow trailing his form like a living cloak. Their collision sent a shockwave through the pit- claw met fang, momentum clashed with speed.

Ash twisted low, dodging a snapping maw, his claws lashing upward to slice across the beast’s abdomen.

It shrieked and spun with unnatural flexibility as a pulse of aether came out from its body. A tendril formed out of darkness lashed out, cracking across Ash’s shoulder.

He grunted as he landed in a crouch, sliding backward across the blood-slicked stone, his breath ragged. The beast hissed, circling, its tendrils twitching like they were tasting the air.

Suddenly, it reared back and let out a piercing shriek- not one of rage, but summoning.

From above, the crowd erupted into frenzied motion, howls and screeches tearing through the air. Ash’s gaze flicked upward for only a heartbeat, then snapped back as the beast’s tendrils began to flicker to life and glow as marking appeared on its body similar to Ash’s.

A pulse of violet aether exploded from its back, whipping the surrounding violet aether that was released into a vortex. Ash’s ears rang from the shockwave but before it could turn into pain, Ash’s attention was quickly diverted into dodging as the creature lashed out with a tendril. Ash managed to barely dodge as the tendril flew past him and shattered a nearby stone column .

Ash moved like liquid fury, his instincts honed by his record of brutal encounters. He waited, baiting the beast into lunging, then he sidestepped, slamming his clawed palm into its back with a thud. The creature staggered, hissed- then tendrils on its back flared once again.

One tendril slammed into the ground and unleashed a whip-like shockwave.

Ash was thrown back, skilling across the bloodstained stone. Before he could rise, the creature snarled and launched again- this time, glowing arcs of energy laced along its claws.

Ash rolled just in time as the claws dug into the stone where his head had been. Sparks hissed.

’It’s got control over condensed energy- those whips aren’t just for show,’ he thought, grimacing before a spark of resoluteness came to life in his eyes, ’You aren’t too special though...’

He waited once again, for the beast to attack and this time, its charged forward, not using its tendril to immediately attack. In that moment, Ash braced the aether in his body as he waited for the beast to attack.

Now!

In that moment, he saw the beast’s tendrils spike as it struck with not just its claws but also with the tendrils.

Shadow Sprint!

Ash activated it at the last possible moment, appearing behind the beast in a blink with his teeth now glowing as it oozed shadow aether. And in that moment, he used it once again as he struck from the beast’s blindside before it could turn around.

Eclipsing fang!

He bit deep into the creature’s side, piercing through the fibrous muscle and bones.

The beast shrieked, its limbs spasming violently as it tried to twist free. Black ichor sprayed from the wound, sizzling against the stone floor.

Ash held firm, fangs embedded as he began to violently shake his head from side to side, tearing through sinew and bone.

A sickening crunch echoed as ribs cracked and more black blood erupted in a burst. The beast wailed once more- sharper, shorter- then its limbs went slack.

With one final rip, Ash tore loose a chunk of the creature’s side and spat it to the ground. He stood over the corpse, chest heaving, fur matted with black blood.

The air buzzed with tension, the mist clinging to the stone.

A final convulsion, then silence.

[Ding! Killed a D rank Glassmaw Lurker. 300 exp gained. +80AP]

It was only after hearing the notification that Ash began to relax his body, taking in a deep inhale as his breath rasped in the cold air.

The arena held its breath.

Ash staggered slightly, pain lacing through his side and shoulder. He then raised his eyes toward the watching beasts- some still learning forward, others returning to their eerie stillness.

’One down,’ his own hoarse voice rang out in his head, as violet mist curled from the beast’s corpse.

Even in death, the Lurker’s eyes stared with malice- glass-like and unblinking, as if daring Ash to let his guard down. A faint tremor pulsed beneath the stone floor, and the scent of scorched aether still clung to the air. Ash’s breath steamed in the cold, sharp atmosphere, each exhale a ghostly wisp that drifted past his bloodied snout.

But he could not stop. A great threat was still present.

Ash turned his head, gaze drifting instinctively to the largest gate- the same one that had swallowed the victorious panther earlier.

His body subconsciously tensed, expecting the entrance to crack open once more and reveal whatever force had claimed the beast before him.

But nothing happened.

One second, two... three...

The gate remained closed. Still. Silent.

Ash narrowed his eyes, ’Strange... I thought...’

A sudden sound shattered the moment, it was the sound of a gate opening. Ash brought his attention back to reality but was immediately alerted. The sound did not come from the gate that he was expecting to see opening- but from the opposite side of the arena. A second gate had made its appearance.

Then, with a deep groan, the second gate began to rattle.