The thermal pulse vaporized fur and corrupted tissue, but the wolf only convulsed, its jaws snapping wildly at Garrett’s face. The dark magic suturing its flesh together held fast.
"They’re augmented!" Nathan shouted, drawing Moonlight. "The Court’s corruption... it’s acting as a kinetic buffer!"
"Then we break the buffer!" Mirko shifted seamlessly into her humanoid form, her D-Rank sword singing as it cleared the scabbard. [Impenetrable Fortress] erupted around her in a blinding jade sphere. "Hmph! You twisted abominations of dark magic! This Knight has stared down the Last King! You are merely a rabid dog with too many legs!"
A second monstrosity slithered from the ruins—a massive serpent boasting three distinct heads, each one hissing with venomous, coordinated malice. Its scales were a sickly, necrotic green, stitched together by bulging purple veins. Thick saliva dripped from its fangs, hitting the dirt with a violent HISSS-POP, dissolving rock into slag.
"Dillon! Cloudy! Own the sky!"
"Already there!" Dillon kicked off the ground, his Storm Striders propelling him upward in a flash of azure light. Cloudy spiraled around his arm, her scales flaring before unleashing a blinding volley of static discharge. CRACKLE-KABOOM!
The lightning arced across the serpent’s canopy, forcing two of the heads to violently recoil. Dillon inverted mid-air, bringing his [Thunder Edge] down on the third. KRAK-ZAAAP! The blade cleaved deep into the scales, but the serpent didn’t sever. The wound immediately began bubbling, the dark veins pumping regenerative magic to seal the laceration.
The architects of the ambush finally stepped out from the ruins. Three grey-robed figures, their faces swallowed by deep cowls, spreading out with lethal, rehearsed efficiency. A fourth operative—the one anchoring the wolf—raised a scarred hand. Space warped, vomiting forth a third summon: a towering, humanoid construct forged of twisted iron and pulsing dark magic, its jagged chassis a profane mockery of the Iron Legionnaires.
"Climber Cross," the lead operative called out. Her voice was young, infected with a fanatical zeal. "The Bunny King himself. Clamour wants your head on a spike, but the Lord desires you broken first. I am delighted to oblige both."
"You have me at a disadvantage," Nathan said, nocking an arrow. "You know my name. What’s yours?"
"I am no one. Merely a conduit for the new world." She snapped her fingers. "Tear them apart."
The battlefield erupted.
Shiro shifted, meeting the metal construct head-on. [Dragon King’s Ascension] propelled her across the scarred earth in a blinding streak of golden fire, draconic afterimages trailing in her wake. She closed the gap before the construct could raise its massive arms. [Tyrant Dragon Fist] detonated against its iron breastplate. KRAK-BA-DOOOOM!
The spectral dragon’s maw manifested, the concussive shockwave crumpling the thick iron chassis inward with a horrific screech of tearing metal.
"The mutation process affords it high kinetic resilience," Shiro observed, her golden eyes burning as she evaluated the dent. "But resilience is not invincibility. Physics still apply."
She stepped into the construct’s guard, unleashing a flurry of devastating blows. CLANG! SKREEE-CLANG! Each punch drove the iron giant backward, its internal gears grinding and shrieking under the overwhelming blunt-force trauma.
Mirko held the absolute center against the three-headed serpent. [Impenetrable Fortress] caught a venomous lunge from the center head—CLANG-SHHHH—the acid sizzling uselessly against the jade barrier. Her immediate counter-stroke carved a bloody trench across its scaled throat. As the serpent recoiled, the left head snapped toward her blind spot. Mirko didn’t even turn. Her [Quick Reflex] triggered, and [Aegis Strike] released in a violent burst of kinetic force. KRAK-BOOM! The shockwave rattled the serpent’s skull, throwing all three heads dangerously off-balance.
"Hmph! Three heads, and yet you lack the vision to land a single blow! Grow a fourth! But it will not save you!"
Kuro did not engage the summons. She slipped into the shadows of the ruins. [Invisibility] carried her straight past the chaotic melee, ghosting through the operatives’ defensive lines. She materialized directly behind the fanatic who had spoken.
Her hand snapped out. [Blind].
The operative shrieked, dropping to her knees and clawing desperately at her lightless eyes. Kuro raised both daggers to execute [Assassinate], but a broadsword intercepted her downward strike. CLANG-SHINK!
A massive, broad-shouldered operative stepped over his blinded leader, pushing Kuro back with sheer brute force. "The Shadow Assassin. Clamour warned us about you. Said you were lethal." He readjusted his grip. "He failed to mention how fast you were."
’I have improved since Clamour’s last report,’ Kuro projected into his mind. Her voice was an absolute void, devoid of mercy or inflection. ’You will not be the last to learn this.’
She vanished. The operative spun, swinging his broadsword in a desperate, sweeping arc—but he was cutting empty air. Kuro materialized directly against his spine. SHINK-SHINK. Both daggers sank perfectly between his vertebrae. He collapsed instantly, his summon mark flaring once before dying out.
The third operative—a woman wielding a staff humming with dark kinetic energy—hurled a volley of purple bolts toward Garrett. Red intercepted, its wool absorbing the brunt of the kinetic impact, though the force sent the Mad-Sheep skidding backward through the dirt. Garrett answered the insult. Volcan swung in a wide, devastating arc. KRAK-THOOOOOM! The thermal pulse caught the operative squarely in the chest, launching her backward like a ragdoll. She hit the earth and did not move.
The lead operative, still blind and bleeding, screamed frantically. "The serpent! Use the serpent! Melt the archer!"
The three-headed abomination snapped its attention to Nathan. The jaws unhinged, pooling with volatile, acidic dark fire.
Elise didn’t give it the chance. [Glacial Lance] punched cleanly through the center head. CRRRR-ACK! The serpent seized as absolute zero flash-froze its blood, frost aggressively spider-webbing across its scales. Dillon dropped from the sky, his [Thunder Edge] separating the left head from its neck. Cloudy finished the execution, her static discharge frying the remaining brain stem. The massive serpent collapsed, its body rapidly dissolving into fading motes of dark ash.
Fifty yards away, Shiro delivered a final, spinning [Tyrant Dragon Fist] directly to the construct’s core. CRUNCH-SKREEE. The iron giant folded in on itself, collapsing into a heap of sparking, inert scrap.
The lead operative knelt alone in the dirt. Her summons were ash. Her vanguard was dead or unconscious. The ambush had been systematically dismantled.
Nathan walked slowly toward her, pulling Moonlight’s string taut. "The Cleansing. How many Towers are rigged? How many operatives are in the field? Where is Clamour?"
The woman tipped her head back and laughed—a wet, fanatical, broken sound. "Clamour is the wind. Clamour is the shadow. This Cleansing will not cease until the outer regions are reduced to glass. You saved this village. You saved the last one. But you cannot save them all, Bunny King. The Lord’s vision is absolute. The new age is already here."
"Then I will cull the new age myself." Nathan aimed the arrow directly at her chest. "Extract. Now. Or I shatter your summon mark and leave you to the TCA interrogators."
The operative’s blind, weeping eyes widened in sheer terror. She fumbled desperately at her belt, crushed her teleportation crystal, and vanished in a violent implosion of dark light.
The battlefield fell deathly silent.
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