The wall offered no more safety.
Two more six-legged hunters reached Elara’s level in quick succession, climbing with the same explosive speed that had made them dangerous on open ground. She met the first with a hard lateral cut that opened its neck, but the second slammed into her before she could fully recover. The impact drove her against the stone. Claws raked across her side, scraping through plating and into the flesh beneath. She drove an elbow into the creature’s face, forced enough space to bring her blade around, and shoved the dying body off the wall.
She had no time to breathe.
A pale vine coiled around her left wrist and yanked hard. Another wrapped her ankle. Elara severed the first with a short, precise stroke, but the second lifted her clear of the wall for a moment before she cut it as well. She dropped back to the stone unevenly, boots scraping for purchase. Below her, the floor battle continued in full chaos — the magma beast still tearing at golden vines, the main mass of hunters dying in clusters — but the edges of that fight kept feeding new attackers upward.
Ryzek was under heavier pressure.
Three Phase Stalker distortions harried him at once, forcing him to move constantly along the wall. Unseen limbs struck from shifting angles. He blocked one, cut another, and still took a deep scrape across his ribs that left dark blood running over the crystalline ridges of his armor. Amber energy flared in short, controlled bursts as he tried to keep them from surrounding him completely. A golden vine dropped from above and nearly took his head; he twisted aside at the last moment and answered with a compressed spear of energy that punched through the vine and forced it to retract.
It was not enough.
The numbers climbing and reaching for them continued to grow. Every creature they killed or drove back was replaced by another that had noticed the elevated movement. The living gate itself seemed to be allocating more of its pale vines toward the walls now that it registered persistent targets above the main slaughter. The vines came in overlapping waves, some thin and fast, others thicker and harder to cut in a single stroke.
Elara’s breathing grew sharper. A six-legged hunter leapt from a side ridge and caught her across the shoulder with its full weight. The two of them fell several meters down the wall in a tight, violent struggle. She planted a boot against its chest and kicked free, then had to immediately slash through two more vines that tried to claim her while she was off-balance. Blood ran freely down her arm and side. Her grip on the blade remained steady, but each exchange cost her more than the last.
Ryzek dropped lower to avoid a coordinated strike from two Stalkers and a descending vine. The movement brought him closer to the edge of the main floor battle. A wounded six-legged hunter, half-crushed and frantic, lunged at him from the press of bodies. He killed it with a precise thrust, but the brief distraction allowed one of the Stalkers to land a solid hit across his back. The force drove him into the wall hard enough to crack stone. His four amber eyes narrowed with cold focus as he forced himself back into motion.
They were being overpowered.
Not by any single creature, but by the constant accumulation of attacks from too many directions at once. The chaos they had created on the floor was still working — the living gate remained heavily occupied with the magma beast and the larger mass of bait — yet enough individual predators and vines had broken away to make the upper walls unsustainable.
Elara cut down another climber, felt a vine rake across her thigh, and pushed herself laterally along the stone toward Ryzek’s position. He was fighting his way in her direction as well, amber energy flashing in short, efficient arcs. Between them the wall was a vertical storm of claws, unseen limbs, and lashing vines.
Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)
Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.
Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.
Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.
Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.
Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc
Power Scale Reminder
Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.
Elara Voss: Core Condensation Peak
Keep it as reminders
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