"It’s Serisa! The leader of the Mistborn teams! This is our chance! She isn’t wearing the Steam Suit! Attack!" Averon roared from the distance. His eyes lit up fiercely as he charged forward.
There was an unusually excited look on his face, almost as if he had finally found an opportunity to settle an old score.
"Boy, did you forget the beating you got last time?" Serisa asked calmly. Her voice echoed strangely from within the swirling grey mist that made up her body.
Averon only grinned wider.
"Don’t let her wear her Steam Suit!" he shouted.
Serisa reacted instantly. Several rotating funnels of wind appeared around her body before shooting toward Averon like drills. The pressure behind them was enough to tear apart chunks of ancient stone from the ruined streets below.
At the same moment, Alice appeared behind Serisa.
She swung her hammer without hesitation. The sheer force behind the attack created gigantic shockwaves that tore through the air and shattered nearby walls.
Serisa moved swiftly. Her mist-like body compressed before shooting sideways like a gust of wind, narrowly escaping the attack range.
Alice narrowed her eyes slightly.
The information Professor Catherine and Averon had given her about Mistborns was proving accurate.
Mistborns were a very unusual race. At birth, they existed as tiny masses of dense white wind rotating endlessly within themselves to maintain cohesion. As they ranked up, their bodies grew larger, but their mass remained nearly the same.
That meant their density gradually decreased over time.
Since their bodies were fundamentally made of moving wind currents, they constantly risked dissipating into the atmosphere. Every Mistborn had to continuously focus on maintaining the cohesion of their body. If they lost concentration for even a moment, their form would scatter and mix into the natural wind.
But maintaining their form became harder as they ranked up, and grew larger and their density decreased.
That was also why no Mistborn could naturally surpass the Champion rank. By the time they reached the peak of Champion rank, their bodies became too large and unstable to maintain properly.
However, centuries ago, one of the former Lords of the City of Scales befriended a Mistborn.
That friendship eventually led to the creation of the Steam Suits.
These suits were special armored shells without openings. A Mistborn could reside safely inside one without worrying about dispersing. The suits were also filled with gears, valves, and pressure systems designed specifically for the Mistborn race.
By expanding and compressing their wind bodies inside the armor, Mistborns could generate horrifying physical force.
Previously, if a Mistborn tried to release too much force through their racial abilities, their concentration would weaken temporarily and they would end up dissipating in the wind. Many died that way.
But after the Steam Suits were invented, that weakness disappeared. The Steam Suit would protect them from dissipating.
For the first time, Mistborns could fully utilize the power of their race.
That was why Serisa attacking them without a Steam Suit was both an incredible opportunity and an enormous risk.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm flying overhead roared loudly while several Blazing Pterodactyls flapped their wings violently. Massive waves of wind blasted toward Serisa from multiple directions.
Serisa retaliated immediately. Sharp currents of compressed air shot outward and collided against the incoming attacks. The sky trembled from the clash.
Unlike normal Mistborns, Serisa possessed a rare Talent related to wind control itself. Because of that, she could maintain her form more easily than others of her race. It also allowed her to manipulate wind attacks without relying entirely on the dangerous expansion-and-contraction process of a normal Mistborn.
While Averon, the Crimson Sky Wyrm, and the Blazing Pterodactyls kept pressuring Serisa, Alice remained strangely still.
Her red eyes narrowed slowly.
Something felt wrong.
Serisa was not trying to escape anymore.
Alice believed Serisa wanted to prevent Emily from taming the Mini Boss. That would make sense. A successfully tamed Mini Boss would massively increase their team strength and widen the gap between them and the other groups.
But fighting them alone made no sense.
Even if Serisa was an Apex-rank Overlord, facing Alice’s group by herself was reckless.
Then Alice realized it. Her pupils contracted.
Serisa was buying time.
Without hesitation, Alice activated her Draconic Transformation.
An enormous amount of mana was sucked by the skill. Her bones, muscles, and soul underwent rapid transformation as black scales spread across her skin. In mere seconds, a gigantic black dragon appeared amidst the ruined battlefield.
The pressure released from her body spread across the area like a storm.
Nearby monsters immediately panicked. Many of them turned and fled instinctively, unable to endure the overwhelming dread pressing against their minds.
Even Serisa became alarmed for a brief moment.
Alice ignored her completely.
Instead, she expanded her senses outward. In her transformed state, the range of her perception had increased dramatically.
Almost instantly, she detected five powerful mana signatures rushing toward their location at high speed.
Her eyes sharpened.
’So Serisa’s team was stationed nearby.’
It was obvious now. Their original plan was probably to let Serisa handle everything alone. If she succeeded, they would steal the corpse and retreat. If she failed or got cornered, the others would immediately rush over to reinforce her.
Alice knew they could not allow that regrouping to happen.
Alice’s team was strong, but awakeners at the Overlord rank were never simple opponents. Every single one of them had lived a long and dangerous life. They possessed hidden cards and dangerous abilities.
It was entirely possible Serisa’s teammates possessed some way to destroy the Mini Boss’s soul before Emily could tame it. They might even have teleportation items capable of forcibly separating Emily from the battlefield long enough for the spirit to dissipate naturally.
Alice made her decision immediately.
[Defeat her and tame the Mini Boss. I’ll stop their team.]
Before anyone could respond, Alice flapped her wings powerfully and shot into the distance like a black meteor. The ground beneath her exploded from the force of her takeoff.
For a split second, both Averon and Serisa froze.
Did Alice really just leave alone to intercept one Apex Overlord and four High Overlords by herself?
That was insane.
Even Averon, who had personally witnessed Alice’s combat abilities, found it difficult to believe.
But then memories of the Mini Boss battle resurfaced in his mind.
Alice’s damage output had been absurd.
Even with a dragon bloodline, Titles, and maxed-out stats for her level, it still should not have been possible for her to hit that hard.
What neither Averon nor Serisa knew was that Alice’s hammer was a Legendary-grade weapon.
On top of that, she was a Conqueror Candidate, making her stats twice as effective.
Her Physique had also evolved recently, strengthening her mana circulation and amplifying the output of her body even more.
Alice was not simply a dragon-blooded awakener anymore.
At this point, she was beginning to resemble a monster wearing human skin.
Far ahead in the distance, five figures rapidly moved through the ruined city toward Serisa’s location.
Then all five suddenly stopped.
A gigantic black dragon was descending toward them from the sky.
"Set up shields!" the Apex Overlord of the team, Kael, shouted.