WHOOOOOOOM!
The monster wave surged over the ridge like a flood of fang and talon—eight, ten, fifteen of them. Winged lizard-kin with serrated tails and molten orange eyes, their scaled bodies reinforced by mana plating that shimmered beneath the canyon haze.
But Team Fourteen was already in motion.
Layla stepped forward, boots grinding into the cracked stone as she slammed her shield into the ground with a resonant KLANG!—activating her skill Anchor Pulse. A radiant ring of force erupted outward, slowing enemy momentum within a ten-meter radius and dragging the first two beasts into her zone of control.
One lunged—she caught it mid-air, her shield erupting with glowing runes as she met its jaw with a forward bash. THUMP! The creature’s skull snapped sideways.
The second circled lower—she pivoted, braced, and drove her knee up, stunning it long enough for—
Shff!
Jasmine to cut in.
Her sword gleamed silver with flickering wind mana, skill-imbued with Flicker Fang. She vanished from Layla’s right and reappeared in a blur to her left, carving through the monster’s wing joint. SLASH!
It howled—until she spun and drove her blade into its neck. KRRSSK!
She didn’t pause.
“Behind!” Layla warned.
Jasmine ducked low just as another beast dove from above. Irina’s flame met it mid-dive.
FWWOOOSH!
A roaring spiral of fire surged upward—Crimson Bloom, a delayed detonation spell Irina had pre-layered into the terrain’s broken crevice. The creature hit the flames and ignited mid-air, spinning wildly before crashing to the canyon wall.
Irina followed up with Ignition Trail, dashing forward and dragging a line of burning mana across the battlefield. The air hissed—and when the trailing beasts crossed the path, the flames exploded upward like a wall. BOOM!
Sylvie, standing just behind Irina’s position, moved her fingers in tight, deliberate arcs, knitting together enhancement glyphs mid-air. Threaded Focus shimmered across Irina’s back, tightening her flame compression and raising her cast rate by 20%.
“Left crest—two coming!” Sylvie called.
Without waiting, she pivoted and unleashed a focused burst of yellow energy—Sunbind Shot—striking one of the aerial monsters in the eye. ZAPP! It shrieked, blinded, and spiraled down.
Layla shifted to intercept its fall, shield flashing.
CRASH!
They moved like that—moment by moment. A living formation.
Flaws were answered with covers. Openings were punished instantly.
Layla’s defense wove into Jasmine’s precision. Jasmine’s tempo fed Irina’s lane control. Irina’s flames carved space that Sylvie reinforced and locked down with suppressive bursts and heals.
Even the terrain worked for them now.
The canyon that once splintered their cohesion now channeled enemies into traps and choke points that they could exploit with near-perfect synergy.
And then—
CRACK.
A noise.
Not from the monsters.
From the air.
From the dungeon itself.
Sylvie’s eyes darted upward.
“…Did you feel that?” she asked quietly.
They all paused for just a second—mid-motion. Even the monsters that remained held slightly back, pacing at the outer edge.
Another crack.
CRACK—KRRRRSSSSHHHH!
The sky shimmered again—this time violently. Mana fractured through the air like lightning splitting glass. The canyon walls groaned. The ground pulsed once beneath their feet—then twice, harder.
Astron’s voice came out like a whip. “Take cover—now! Sylvie, barrier—!”
But before Sylvie could lift her hands, before the incantation could fully form—
ROOOOOAAAARRRRR!
A thunderous bellow, ancient and wrong, ripped through the canyon, so loud it didn’t just shake their ears—it rattled their bones. A wall of concussive force struck them like a tidal wave, a shockwave of raw mana pressure exploding from deep within the fractured chasm ahead.
BOOOOM!!!
The air detonated.
A fiery-red flare cracked through the center of the battlefield like a spear of godlight, and the world split.
The ground beneath their feet heaved.
Layla’s shield shot from her arm as she was launched backwards, crashing into a rock outcropping with a sickening CRUNCH. Jasmine flew sideways, tumbling mid-air as debris slammed into her ribs. Irina’s spell detonated prematurely, the fire spiraling out of control before flickering away, its caster hurled through the haze in a burning arc.
Sylvie screamed, hands up too late, her half-formed barrier shattering like glass. She hit the ground hard and rolled, skidding through shattered stone and glowing mana dust.
And Astron—Astron vanished into the burst.
When the smoke settled, the canyon was no longer the same.
The floor had collapsed, a vast crater torn into the middle of the battlefield, glowing with unstable violet light. The walls glowed with jagged fractures, pulsing like veins in a dying beast.
And rising from the chasm—tall, cloaked in warped shadows and flickering mana fire—stood something wrong.
Twisted humanoid in shape, but with spined limbs too long to belong to anything human, and eyes like burning sigils carved into molten gold.
Its voice echoed through the ruined canyon.
SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!
The sound tore through the canyon like a blade through silk—inhuman, unrelenting, and brimming with the kind of raw malice that didn’t need words to be understood.
The creature’s intent surged outward in waves—hatred, hunger, annihilation. It wasn’t sentient in the way a person was, but something in its twisted mana—its broken, aberrant form—screamed one message loud and clear:
Destroy. Everything. Alive.
Sylvie barely had time to breathe.
The monster moved like a blur of ink and fire—lunging forward with impossible speed, its spined limbs slicing the stone beneath it into molten shards.
It was faster than anything they’d faced.
Too fast.
“SYLVIE—!”
A hand yanked her back, just as the creature’s claw slammed into the spot where she’d stood. Stone shattered, glowing fragments slicing into the air where her chest would’ve been.
Sylvie tumbled backward—into Jasmine’s arms.
The two of them hit the ground hard, rolling, but alive.
Jasmine’s breath came short and sharp, but her grip didn’t loosen.
“Hey—hey, look at me!” she snapped, eyes blazing.
Sylvie’s pupils were wide, hands trembling, mana still sparking incoherently between her fingers.
“We don’t have time to freeze—Sylvie!”
That snapped something loose.
The fog in Sylvie’s mind shattered.
The fractured light.
The ruined terrain.
The pressure.
None of it mattered.
One thought surfaced in the noise, calm and absolute:
Focus.
Her breath steadied.
She raised one hand, threads of golden energy weaving swiftly across her knuckles.
“Jasmine, hold steady.”
A burst of bright glyphs spiraled around Jasmine’s feet and arms—Acceleration Sigil and Pulse Blade Sync—both slammed into place like falling locks.
Jasmine surged forward just as the creature twisted its torso, spines flaring outward. Its next strike aimed to impale, to erase.
But Jasmine was already gone.
CRACK—SHFFF!
She blurred low under the creature’s reach, wind mana whirling around her blade, feet striking canyon stone as she launched upward in a sharp arc. Her sword carved across the monster’s outer plating—KRRRSH!—scraping along the edge of its protruding ribs.
The creature reeled, not in pain—but in reaction.
Sylvie didn’t hesitate. She sprinted behind Jasmine, weaving new glyphs mid-run. Stability Thread lined Jasmine’s spine, helping her absorb impact from rebounds. Shield Bloom wrapped faintly over her arms—not a full block, but enough to deflect a grazing hit.
The creature snarled—if it could be called that—and swung again, limb sweeping horizontally.
Jasmine ducked and pivoted, drawing the swing past Sylvie’s retreating side.
“Left—!” Sylvie called.
Jasmine spun and delivered a crushing diagonal slash into the beast’s joint as it overextended—WHAM!—forcing its limb down into the stone.
“Right!” Jasmine barked.
Sylvie was already casting—Burst Pin Glyph, a concentrated spark of binding light that exploded in a crack of gold, blinding the monster’s right eye socket for three seconds.
FLASH!
The creature shrieked, staggering half a step.
It wasn’t much.
But it was a start.
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