Alice moved faster, and activated another skill.
Solar Dominion.
Golden flames erupted outward from her position, spreading across a five-hectare area. The air grew hotter, and the light sharper. The roots nearest to her began to burn, blackening under the heat.
A distorted screech came from the Thorn Tyrant, the monster feeling its roots burning.
Its mana regeneration dropped sharply, and the flames further enhanced Alice’s fire, and light-based abilities. Since her Flame of Judgement was a fire-based skill, it was strengthened.
She activated another skill.
Daybreak Incarnate. After reaching Level 10, this skill boosted her stats by 120%. Additionally, it allowed her to ignore 65% of the defense of the enemies.
Her body changed as the skill took effect. Wings spread from her back, her form becoming more defined, and powerful. Faint scales appeared along her arms and cheeks, and her aura surged upward.
"Holy sun..." Averon stared, unable to hide his reaction.
The pressure coming off her was overwhelming.
Alice pulled her arm back and threw the spear.
The moment it left her hand, the air shattered.
A sharp crack echoed as the sonic barrier broke, and the spear transformed into a streak of golden light. It crossed the distance instantly.
Then it hit.
The mansion exploded inward.
A massive hole was drilled straight through the structure, tearing through layers of roots and flesh alike. A distorted scream echoed as green fluid spilled out from the wound.
The Thorn’s Tyrant’s main body was inside the mansion while the part visible above was its head. Alice had directly aimed for its main body, damaging it greatly.
"Don’t give it time to react!" Alice shouted.
Emily summoned Stoneward above the mansion.
The Abyssal Mammoth, just as big as the mansion, appeared in mid-air, its massive body casting a shadow over the ruins. For a brief second, it hung there.
Then it fell.
The impact was devastating.
The roof collapsed completely as the mammoth crashed down onto the Thorn Tyrant’s body. The surrounding walls shattered, debris scattering in all directions.
Emily called out more summons from her Soul Space without hesitation.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm emerged with a roar, followed by the Blazing Pterodactyls. She directed them forward, their attacks converging on the weakened monster.
Lightning gathered in the sky.
Flames streaked through the air.
Averon activated his skills as well. His presence surged, heavy and immense like a mountain. He stepped forward, then dashed toward the mansion, his speed increasing with each step.
For a moment, it looked like everything was working.
Then the ground moved.
A massive vine erupted upward and wrapped around the mammoth.
"Oh, crap," Averon muttered.
Before he could react further, the vine tightened and lifted the massive creature into the air.
Then it swung.
The mammoth was thrown like a projectile.
Averon forced his body to react, activating his speed skills just in time to dodge. Even then, the sheer force of the movement clipped him, sending him crashing back across the ground.
At the same time, the Thorn Tyrant roared again.
Its body began to expand.
More vines burst from the ground, thicker and faster than before. Each one as thick as a house, and it was lined with massive thorns, and they moved with unnatural speed.
The vines swelled, then contracted.
Spikes shot out.
The Blazing Pterodactyls scattered, barely avoiding the attacks. The Crimson Sky Wyrm took all hits directly, letting out a roar as lightning gathered above it.
Bolts of blue lightning crashed down.
The vines reacted instantly.
They moved like whips, striking the lightning mid-air and dispersing it before it could land on Tyrant Thorn’s main body.
The entire area became a storm of movement.
Vines lashed out in every direction, striking the ground, the air, anything within range. Their size alone made them dangerous, but their speed turned them into something else entirely.
Emily and Averon were forced to stay back.
There was no opening.
The Thorn Tyrant was pushing everything away, buying time for itself to recover.
And it wasn’t just defending.
Vines spread outward across the ruins, piercing into other monsters, into plants, into anything alive. Energy was pulled back toward the main body, feeding it.
Its regeneration was accelerating.
To Emily and Averon’s shock, Alice dashed right towards the Boss.
"Alice! Wait!" Averon shouted.
"We can’t let it heal!" she shouted back without slowing down.
She ran straight into the storm of vines.
They came at her all at once. Thick, massive tendrils lashed through the air at a speed that didn’t match their size. The pressure alone felt crushing, as if the space in front of her was being folded inward.
Alice didn’t slow.
Her grip tightened around the Legendary-grade hammer she had already drawn. The weapon felt heavy in her hands, but not unfamiliar. She adjusted her footing mid-run, then suddenly planted one foot hard against the ground.
Her body pivoted.
She spun with all her momentum generated by her sprint, dragging the hammer in a wide arc. At the same time, she activated its skills.
[Solar Acceleration].
The stored sunlight within the hammer ignited. Heat flared outward, wrapping around the weapon and increasing its destructive force.
[Gravity Well].
The weight of the hammer multiplied by a hundred times.
Coupled with the skills of her hammer, and her own skills boosting her stats to nightmarish level, she met the vine head on.
A deep shockwave erupted from the collision point. The ground split, debris lifting into the air before crashing back down. The sound lagged half a second behind, a heavy, echoing crack that rolled through the ruins.
For a brief moment, everything seemed to pause.
Then the vine bent, thrown back and half shattered.
Averon and Emily both froze for a second, unable to react to the scene before their eyes.
That vine had been strong enough to lift and throw Stoneward like it weighed nothing. And yet, in a direct clash of strength—
It lost.
Alice had won in a contest of strength against a Mini Boss!
But the exchange wasn’t without cost.
Her arms dropped slightly as she landed, hanging limply for a moment. The force had traveled through her weapon and into her body, breaking bones, tearing muscle.
She didn’t stop.
A pulse of light ran through her as she activated her healing skill. The damage reversed almost instantly. Bones realigned, flesh repaired, strength returned.
She took another step forward, breaking into a full sprint.
"That girl is crazy!" Averon shouted, snapping out of his daze as he started running after her.
Under normal circumstances, he would have waited. He would have waited for the flurry of attacks to end.
That was the safe approach, and the rational approach. Of course, if he did that the boss would have healed, but it still wouldn’t return to full health.
But Alice was not following the safe and rational approach.
She was so crazy she planned to interrupt the boss before it healed!
"Fuck..." He cursed under his breath as he pushed himself forward.
There was no choice now. He couldn’t let her go in alone.
Even if it meant getting caught in that storm of attacks, he had to keep up.
’She can heal me. Even if I get hit, she can fix it,’ he told himself, forcing down the hesitation.
That was the only reason he was moving like this.
Behind them, Emily’s expression changed rapidly, realizing both Alice and Averon had gone crazy.
However, it was too late to stop them. She could only support them.
"Crim! Second Eye! Blaze, Sena, Roa—Flame Breath!" she called out.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm responded immediately, letting out a deep roar as it gathered power. Lightning formed in the sky above, splitting into dozens of bolts that crashed downward.
The vines reacted instantly, lashing upward to intercept.
But this time, the lightning didn’t disperse on impact.
It slid.
The bolts twisted through the vines, slipping past them like living things, then struck the ground. The energy spread outward, forming a field that slowed movement within its range.
Everything inside it was affected.
The vines slowed slightly.
Even Alice and Averon felt the drag.
Alice responded immediately. Her healing skill activated, removing the debuff from herself and Averon, and she pushed forward without losing momentum.
At the same time, the Blazing Pterodactyls moved into position.
They opened their jaws and released streams of dark orange flames. The attacks converged toward the Thorn Tyrant’s head, forcing it to redirect its attention.
Vines shifted.
Several pulled back from the area around Alice and Averon to block the incoming flames. The fire clung to them, burning steadily, forcing the boss to commit even more of its defenses to containment.
The pressure eased on Alice and Averon.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
Alice reached the final stretch.
She lowered her stance slightly, then pushed off the ground with everything she had. Her body shot upward, moving past the last wave of vines as she aimed directly for the Thorn Tyrant’s head.
The Mini Boss had been busy blocking the Blazing Pterodactyls and was shocked to see Alice in front of its face.
Without waiting, Alice activated the main ability of her Legendary Grade hammer. [Supernova Impact]. This allowed release of all stored sunlight in a single, overwhelming explosion that carries both Holy and Fire attributes.
Her Solar Dominion skill was already boosting her Fire attribute, which boosted her hammer’s skill to another degree.
The Thorn Tyrant reacted swiftly.
Its massive flower-like head opened.
Inside, rows of thick, jagged spikes shifted into place, coated with a dark, glistening poison. They fired outward in a dense cluster, covering the space between them.
Alice didn’t dodge, or block.
She continued her swing.
A blinding flash swallowed the area. Fire and holy energy expanded outward in a concentrated burst, tearing through everything in its path. Most of the spikes shattered mid-air, disintegrating from the heat generated by the explosion.
The Thorn Tyrant’s head took the full force.
Alice’s body was thrown back from the recoil. She hit the ground hard, her form battered, armor cracked, blood trailing behind her.
At the same time—
Averon moved.
The moment the explosion created an opening, he dashed forward and entered through the massive hole in the main body of the Thorn Tyrant. This hole was created by Alice’s spear throw in the beginning of the battle.
Entering the body, he went on a rampage.
The interior wasn’t stable. It pulsed and shifted like a living organism. Roots twisted around him, trying to bind him, crush him, tear him apart.
He pushed through all of it.
His attacks landed heavily, each strike tearing through layers of flesh and root. The entire structure trembled as he advanced deeper, ignoring the damage building up on his body.
Outside, the Thorn Tyrant screamed.
The dust cleared slowly, revealing the damage.
Half of its head had been blown away. The remaining structure sagged, melting and collapsing under the lingering heat of the explosion.
It turned its attention toward Alice.
Anger radiated from it.
But it couldn’t act freely.
Averon was still inside.
Every second, more damage accumulated. The pain disrupted its control, forcing it to divide its focus.
At the same time, the Blazing Pterodactyls continued their assault, forcing it to keep defending.
The Thorn Tyrant’s body began to shift.
The green coloration darkened, turning red. Its structure swelled, expanding further as its energy spiked.
It was trying to transform.
A last attempt to overwhelm everything.
Inside, Averon felt the change.
He didn’t retreat.
Instead, he pushed harder, attacking like a mad berserker.
"Like I will allow you to transform!" he roared, increasing his speed as his attacks became more aggressive.
Then something else moved.
Stoneward returned.
The massive Abyssal Mammoth charged forward, its speed enhanced as it activated its skill. It lowered its head and slammed into the Thorn Tyrant’s body.
The impact shook the entire area.
The transformation faltered.
The Thorn Tyrant roared in frustration, trying to stabilize itself, trying to complete the process.
But it was too late.
Something shifted inside its body.
A distortion.
Then—
Water burst outward.
High-pressure streams shot through its body from within, piercing through multiple layers at once. Holes opened across its structure as the attack tore through it completely.
The energy sustaining it collapsed.
Life disappeared from its body and it slumped, dying before it completed its transformation.
Silence followed.
Finally, Averon came out of its body, carried by Lume, the Abyssal Trickster, and Aeralis, the Abyssal Shark.
It wasn’t just Averon who entered the body of the Thorn Tyrant. Lume had used its skill to hide itself and Aeralis, and they had entered along with Averon.
While Averon was wreaking havoc, Aeralis was gathering strength for its ultimate attack, and Lume was hiding Aeralis’ mana fluctuations.
"We... we really defeated it," Averon said, too shocked.
He looked at the remains of the Thorn Tyrant, still trying to process everything.
Emily was already flying towards Alice’s crash location, her speed increasing as concern pushed everything else aside.
"Alice! Are you—"
Her words stopped.
Alice was already standing.
Her wounds were gone. The visible damage had been healed completely, her body restored to normal. There were still traces of what had happened—cracked ground, scorched marks—but nothing remained on her.
Although Alice’s physical wounds had healed, the mental trauma should still be there. She had been pierced by countless huge spikes, and nearly killed.
That’s what had concerned Emily.
But instead of being shocked or frightened, Alice’s eyes were twinkling.
Those eyes carried a faint brightness, a quiet excitement that didn’t match what she had just gone through.
Emily blinked, caught off guard.
’...is she happy because we won? Or is she happy because we fought a powerful monster?’ she thought. ’Is this what... people call battle maniacs?’
Alice had clearly enjoyed the pressure, the risk, and the edge of losing everything.
Seeing her bright countenance, Emily smiled wryly.
Finally, Alice spoke, "You should tame the Mini Boss’ spirit."