"You won’t be able to beat me... unless you catch me."

The whisper slid across Tyler’s ears like a cold blade. Instinct took over. He spun, drawing his sword in one fluid motion, and unleashed a crescent slash behind him. The air screamed as the blade cut through space—

—but it struck nothing.

A cluster of spiders scattered midair, splitting apart just before the slash reached them.

"Isn’t that the leg from my shed skin?" Gailo’s voice echoed mockingly. "Hahahaha!"

The swarm converged, twisting and stretching until dozens of spiders fused into a single humanoid form. Gailo stood there, smiling lazily, as though this were a game.

Tyler narrowed his eyes.

Suddenly, he sensed killing intent to his left. He shifted his stance and slashed again without hesitation.

Gailo blurred.

The blade tore apart afterimages.

Tyler pressed forward, attacking relentlessly. Each strike carried precision and power, yet Gailo evaded every single one —sometimes by a hair’s breadth, sometimes by dissolving into spiders at the final instant.

At the same time, Tyler’s free hand moved subtly.

Seeds scattered across the floating debris. More seeds fell to the shattered ground below.

Then came droplets— beads of crimson blood, condensed from his own essence. They glowed faintly as he flicked them out alongside the seeds.

They embedded themselves into cracks, into holes carved by his slashes, into floating walls and fractured stone.

Gailo’s smile faltered slightly.

"What are you doing?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

Tyler didn’t answer.

Gailo’s body suddenly burst apart into hundreds of tiny spiders. They skittered across walls and ceilings, weaving webs rapidly. Silk threads covered the holes Tyler had made, sealing them tightly. Even without understanding Tyler’s intention, Gailo acted on instinct.

It was Caution. But Tyler didn’t stop.

He continued attacking, slashing debris, creating more fractures, more openings.

Burying More seeds.

And burying More blood beads.

He did Again and Again.

Then—

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The castle trembled violently.

Outside, Kaeya staggered as the ground beneath her feet shook.

"The castle... it’s shaking!" The plump young female demon shouted.

Inside, explosions echoed in rapid succession. Not fire— no flames erupted. Instead, life exploded.

From the cracks in the floor, thick green vines burst forth like serpents. From floating walls, roots pierced outward. From the broken ceiling, branches twisted down. Every place Tyler had planted seeds and blood beads erupted into growth.

The blood acted as nourishment. His cultivation energy accelerated their evolution beyond natural limits.

Within seconds, saplings became trees.

Vines thickened into towering pillars.

Leaves unfurled in every direction.

The air filled with the scent of fresh earth and wild forest.

The castle’s inner structure warped under the pressure of roots splitting stone apart. The once- void filled hall transformed into a chaotic jungle maze.

There was no clear above or below anymore.

Floating debris became platforms wrapped in moss.

Walls were swallowed by bark.

Ceilings vanished behind canopies of leaves.

It was no longer Gailo’s castle.

It was a forest.

A suffocating, living forest.

Tyler closed his eyes briefly and whispered,

"Eye of Jungle..."

The world changed.

The rustling of leaves became whispers of information.

The tremble of vines became vibrations across his nerves.

Every root touching the ground became an extension of his senses.

Every leaf brushing the air carried disturbances.

Every branch bending slightly revealed movement.

"Found you..." Tyler smirked as he opened his eyes. There are spiders seen in his pupils.

Without hesitation, he vanished.

He leapt onto a towering branch and slashed downward. The blade cleaved through a tree trunk— but the tree shattered into fragments unnaturally.

At the last second, the trunk dispersed into a swarm of spiders that scattered in panic.

Gailo reassembled several meters away, his expression no longer relaxed.

"How...?" he muttered. "How can you see me?"

His camouflage technique distorted light around him. His speed was extreme. Combined with splitting into spiders, he should have been untouchable.

Tyler rested his blade on his shoulder casually.

"My Eye of Jungle is my best observation skill," he said calmly. "But it only works in a forest."

He gestured around.

"So I made one."

Only then did Gailo truly look around.

The inside of his castle had completely transformed into a miniature jungle. Roots cracked pillars. Vines wrapped around floating stones. Massive tree trunks replaced structural supports. Dense foliage blocked every open line of sight.

Gailo clicked his tongue.

"Clever."

He dissolved again into countless spiders, scattering in all directions. This time, they crawled across leaves, hid beneath bark, slipped into root systems.

But it didn’t matter.

Tyler could feel them.

When a spider touched a vine, Tyler felt the vibration.

When one stepped on moss, Tyler sensed the weight shift.

When silk threads stretched, he detected the tension change.

The entire forest was his sensory network.

He moved like a phantom between branches, cutting down clusters of spiders with precise slashes. Wherever his blade passed, wooden splinters mixed with black ichor.

Gailo’s voice echoed again, but it carried irritation now.

"This is still my artifact! You think you can dominate it?"

The walls groaned as parts of the castle tried to reject the forest growth. Sections of stone shimmered, attempting to reassert structural control.

Tyler stabbed his blade into a tree trunk.

More blood seeped from his vial onto the bark.

The tree pulsed.

Roots thickened, digging deeper as vines led way for Tyler.

"This place may be your artifact," Tyler replied quietly, "but life spreads."

The forest expanded further, suffocating corridors and swallowing enchanted surfaces.

Gailo reformed once more, landing atop a high branch.

"You’re burning your own blood for this," he said sharply. "How long can you maintain it?"

Tyler’s breathing had grown heavier. His face paler. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

But his eyes were steady.

"Long enough."

He vanished again.

This time he didn’t attack blindly. He anticipated Gailo’s escape vectors by reading the forest’s subtle changes before Gailo even moved.

A slash forced Gailo to split.

A second slash cut through half the swarm.

A third strike pinned spiders against a vine wall.

For the first time—

Gailo hissed in pain.

"You—!"

Tyler landed on a branch opposite him.

"In a jungle," Tyler said evenly, "I don’t chase the prey."

He raised his blade.

"You make the entire forest hunt."

Around them, vines tightened.

Branches shifted.

Roots erupted upward like spears.

The jungle moved—not randomly, but with purpose.

Gailo’s confident smile finally disappeared.

For the first time since the battle began—

He was cornered.

Gailo observed carefully as the battle dragged on.

Tyler’s movements were no longer as sharp as before. His breathing grew uneven. The once-vibrant forest pulsed less frequently, its growth slowing as if starved of nourishment.

Gailo narrowed his eyes.

Tyler was weakening.

Yet Gailo did not rush forward.

He continued dodging.

Still cautious.

Even when Tyler’s slashes became slightly slower... even when the vines reacted a fraction later than before... Gailo kept his distance.

He had lived long enough to know that a cornered beast was the most dangerous.

Meanwhile, Tyler secretly took out several blood beads. He crushed them between his teeth and bit down hard.

He coughed violently.

Fresh blood spilled from his mouth, staining the leaves beneath him.

His shoulders trembled.

He looked pale.

Weak.

Vulnerable.

But in truth, not a single drop came from his real body.

All the blood he had been using from the start was copied blood. It carried the same aura, the same vitality signature, the same scent.

To Gailo, it was indistinguishable.

And that was exactly the point.

Gailo’s gaze sharpened.

"He’s exhausting himself," he thought. "Using his own blood to sustain this forest..."

So he waited.

He wanted certainty.

He wanted Tyler completely drained before delivering the final strike.

Tyler staggered forward again, swinging once more at a phantom swarm. The blade missed.

His grip loosened.

Then suddenly—

He collapsed into a dense bush.

Silence filled the jungle.

The vines slowed further.

The tremors faded.

Gailo’s lips curved upward.

"Chance..."

His body dissolved into a torrent of spiders and vanished.

In the next instant, he reappeared beside Tyler’s fallen form.

Tyler lay face down, unmoving.

Gailo did not hesitate.

Silk erupted from his palms in thick torrents. In seconds, Tyler’s body was wrapped completely—layer after layer—until he resembled a white cocoon.

A perfect mummy of webbing.

Gailo tightened the silk, binding every limb securely.

"Hahahaha..." he laughed, stepping back to admire his work. "New puppet captured."

His laughter echoed through the jungle.

Then—

It stopped.

A faint ripple passed through the leaves behind him.

Before Gailo could turn—

Slash.

A blade carved through his torso from shoulder to waist.

His body split cleanly in half.

For a heartbeat, time seemed frozen.

Then both halves burst apart into swarms of spiders scattering in every direction.

At the same time—

The web-wrapped body also split neatly in half.

Blood splattered across the forest floor.

Tyler stood behind Gailo’s fading form, blade dripping.

"Eww..." he muttered, grimacing slightly. "Seeing my own body split like that is disgusting."

The cocooned corpse lying on the ground was not him.

It was a body copy.

A perfect replica he had created earlier using the Copper Pot.

Even the weakening of the forest had been staged.

The slowing vines.

The uneven breathing.

The coughing blood.

All calculated.

Gailo had been cautious.

But caution could also be exploited.

As the scattered spiders regrouped at a distance, reforming into Gailo’s trembling humanoid shape, his expression no longer carried amusement.

"You..." he hissed.

Tyler adjusted his grip on the blade.

"In a jungle," he said calmly, "you shouldn’t assume the prey is dead even if it is dead."

The forest rustled ominously around them.

And this time—

Gailo was the one who felt a chill.