Strongest Incubus System

The snow swallowed him. Damon had been running for too long, his muscles burning, his legs already heavier than stones in his boots. The wind was a constant whip, lashing his face until it opened small, icy cuts on his skin. His lungs burned as if they were filled with embers, and each step seemed slower, more dragging.

He dodged a fallen log, but his foot caught in the ice betrayed his balance.

”Shit—”

The world went white. His entire body lurched forward, and he landed with a sharp impact on the soft snow. The air rushed from his lungs, leaving him gasping, the spear slipping from his hand and lost in the white blanket.

Behind him, the sound.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The ground vibrated like the drums of an ancient war. The colossal shadow advanced, snapping trees, tearing the silence of the blizzard with each step. Damon tried to stand, but his arms trembled. His body wouldn’t obey.

And then, darkness fell upon him.

The giant ape leaped. The snow around him exploded like waves, a white flash engulfing everything. Damon barely had time to look up before the weight crashed down on him.

CRASH!

The ground gave way under the impact. The creature’s massive body pinned him to the snow, his breath escaping in a choked grunt. He tried to move, but it was useless—it was as if he were trapped beneath a living wall.

The beast’s face descended, filling his field of vision. Its blue eyes glowed like frozen fire, every detail magnified inches away. Its enormous teeth, yellowed and icy, gnashed like grinding stones.

And then, the roar.

A roar that wasn’t just sound, but pressure. The hot, humid breath mixed with the biting cold hit him hard, shaking his bones, piercing his skin, exploding inside his head. The snow beneath him trembled and scattered as if trying to flee too.

Damon gritted his teeth, his eyes half-closed to keep from buckling under the impact. Blood trickled from his nose with the vibration, painting his already scarred face.

He lay motionless, vulnerable, reduced to an insect under the paw of a savage god.

”Is this it...?” he thought, his mind reeling between desperation and instinct.

But his fingers moved. They searched blindly in the snow, groping desperately. Searching for anything. A rock. The spear. Even a broken twig.

The roar ended, and the ape still stared at him, eyes burning like blue blades. The silence that followed was even worse than the sound.

Damon took a deep breath, his chest crushed by the beast’s weight, but his mind still screamed: ”I can’t die here.” Continue: He goes to punch Damon, but the ground, where there was a lot of snow, trembles and collapses, sending Damon falling back to the ground, purple and badly hurt. The monkey stayed on top.

The colossal fist rose. Its shadow covered Damon entirely, an eclipse of flesh and fury. The creature roared again, its hot, fetid breath mingling with the frozen air, and its arm descended like a sentence.

But the ground groaned first.

CRRRRK—

The beast’s sheer weight, combined with the impact of the blow, was too much for the crust of snow and ice supporting the ravine. The ground vibrated, cracks spread in black lines beneath their bodies, and then the world simply gave way.

”What?!” was the only thing Damon could say before he felt the ground disappear beneath his back.

The snow opened into a white hole, and he plummeted.

THUD!

His body hit the ice-covered rock hard. The impact shook his spine, tearing a hoarse scream from his throat. It felt as if all his ribs had shattered at once. He rolled onto his side, blood rushing to his mouth.

He spat redly into the snow. He coughed, the sound frail against the heavy silence that followed the fall.

Above him, the colossal shadow of the ape lingered on the upper level. The monster hadn’t fallen with him. It had clung to the edges of the hole with its powerful hands, its body hunched downward, its icy eyes staring at Damon like prey fixed on its prey.

The ground still trembled with the creature’s every breath. Damon, lying on his back on the snow and hard rocks, struggled to move. Pain pierced his ribs like ice spears.

He tried to brace himself with his arm, but his shoulder screamed in protest. His hand found only soft snow mixed with the biting cold of the rocks.

Above, the ape roared—a roar of victory, as if celebrating the fact that its prey had nowhere to run. Its massive claws scraped the edges of the canyon, the sound echoing like a shovel scraping against stone.

Damon breathed deeply, each movement of his chest torture. Warm blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, staining his sparse beard and freezing almost instantly to his skin.

”I fell like a rat into a trap... and he’s still up there.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the pain and focus. The hole he’d fallen into was narrow and uneven, with snow-covered stone walls and frozen roots clawing at the earth. There was no easy way out.

But above... above, there was the monster, waiting to finish the job.

Damon laughed low, a hoarse, broken sound, spitting out more blood.

”Hah... damn my luck...”

The ape raised its arm again, ready to crush him even from below. The sound of the creature’s joints cracking echoed through the ravine like the creaking of a hellish gate.

Damon gritted his teeth. He tried to move, but his body screamed in protest. His chest burned, each breath a knife piercing his ribs. Still, he crawled, his fingers digging into the hard snow as if they could find strength in the ice.

The fist came down.

BOOOOM!

The impact was so strong that the ground shook again, rocks and snow cascading down the ravine walls. A block of ice rolled and struck Damon in the shoulder, eliciting another scream.

The pain nearly blacked him out. Almost.

He opened his eyes suddenly, breathing heavily, and stared at the side of the ravine. The walls were covered in thick, frozen, twisted roots. A bad idea blossomed in his mind—but it was better than dying there waiting for the next blow.

He rolled to the side, narrowly escaping as the giant fist tried to crush him a second time. The monster’s arm was trapped for a moment between rocks, and Damon used that brief space to crawl to one of the roots.

With bloodied fingers, he grabbed it.

The pain in his shoulder protested, but he pulled anyway, climbing inch by inch, groaning with each movement. His body trembled with cold and exertion, but he still moved.

Above, the ape roared angrily, reaching for him with its other hand. Its claws scraped the wall inches from his leg, cutting off a chunk of his cloak. Damon grunted and climbed a little higher, the snow falling over his head.

”Come on, damn it... climb... climb!” he whispered to himself, spitting blood.

Suddenly, the monster wrenched its trapped arm away and slammed both hands against the ravine walls. The echo reverberated like thunder, and chunks of ice tore loose. Damon nearly lost his grip. His body plummeted two feet before he managed to catch himself again, the pain in his fingers and arms blinding him for a moment.

The ape roared, pressing its face to the edge of the hole, its blue eyes like blades. Damon stared back, teeth clenched, breathing heavily.

It was like staring death in the face.

”You... won’t catch me... down here...” he muttered, more to convince himself than to challenge.

And then, he felt a strange vibration.

The roots he was clinging to began to loosen, fragments of earth and ice falling. His weight, combined with the monster’s blows, was tearing away what little support he had.

”No, no, no...” he muttered desperately.

With a final effort, he pushed himself upward, muscles screaming, and managed to reach a firmer ledge of rock. He clung to it like a cornered animal.

But the monkey was already raising its arm again, its shadow covering him completely.

Damon looked up, his eyes narrowed from the blood and the cold, and felt his throat burn as he let out a hoarse laugh.

”Let’s see... if the bastard can fall too...”

And instead of climbing, he pushed his body against the wall, deliberately tearing up more roots, more snow, more rocks. The entire structure of the ravine’s edge began to tremble.

The monkey roared in confusion, trying to maintain his balance.

And then, a section of the ledge gave way.

CRAAASH!

Tons of snow and ice crashed down on the beast. Damon was thrown backward with the landslide, slamming back against the rocks again, his breath knocked out of him. The world spun, his body rolling to a stop amidst the white chaos.

Above, the creature roared, buried halfway in the makeshift avalanche. It still moved, still alive, but for a moment... trapped.

Damon gasped, blood running in lines down his chin. His entire body ached as if he’d been run over by a mountain—and, in a sense, he had.

But he was still breathing.

He was still alive.

”Still alive... stubborn bastard...” he muttered to himself, with a fragile, broken smile.