The Crimson Sky Wyrm threw Kael flying upward like a cannonball.
The Catastrophe opened its jaws wide, revealing a furnace-like glow building deep inside its throat. Heat distorted the surrounding air as flames gathered rapidly. Even the clouds above began to turn crimson from the intensity.
Below, Bjorn planted both feet into the ruined ground and activated his skills at maximum efficiency. Mana exploded out of him in violent waves. The space around his body distorted heavily before a gigantic manifestation appeared behind him.
The giant warrior wore ancient armor covered in weathered carvings. It had five arms, and each arm carried a massive shield larger than a carriage. The manifestation immediately moved in front of the Mistborn team as three Blazing Pterodactyls breathed fire from the sky.
Booms echoed continuously.
The giant manifestation endured the attacks without retreating, its four shields moving with surprising precision as it intercepted flames, claws, flaming dives, and explosive feathers.
Bjorn’s face tightened from the strain, but he continued feeding mana into the construct without pause.
Above them, the Crimson Sky Wyrm released its breath attack.
A pillar of fire engulfed Kael completely.
At the same time, dark clouds churned overhead and lightning crashed downward directly onto his position. The thunderous impact merged with the flames, turning the sky into a sea of red and blue destruction.
Burning flames from below.
Lightning from above.
The Catastrophe was clearly trying to erase him entirely.
For a brief moment, Kael’s figure disappeared inside the violent storm of fire and lightning. Then the Crimson Sky Wyrm suddenly sensed danger.
But it reacted too late.
Inside the sea of flames, Kael completed his skill activation.
His axe moved.
The momentum behind the strike felt impossibly heavy, as though an entire mountain had been swung through the sky. The sea of flames split apart instantly. A massive shockwave tore through the air and the attack crashed into the Crimson Sky Wyrm’s mouth.
Blood exploded outward.
A huge gash was carved across its jaws, forcing the creature to recoil violently in pain. Its concentration broke for a moment, and the lightning bolts raining from above abruptly stopped.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm roared furiously.
Its roar shook the battlefield hard enough to crack the ground below.
But when the creature searched for Kael again, he was already gone.
The Catastrophe quickly looked downward and saw Kael descending through the sky at terrifying speed. He continuously created footholds beneath his feet and kicked off them one after another, moving so fast that afterimages trailed behind him.
Parts of his armor were blackened from the flames. The gem embedded on the helmet had shattered completely, and several sections of the armor were cracked open.
Still, there was no serious damage to the Steam Suit.
The armor had protected him well.
Kael’s gaze locked onto the Thorn Tyrant below.
His axe began glowing brighter with every step he took through the air. The surrounding space distorted faintly around the blade as mana gathered into it at frightening density.
Then he appeared directly above the Thorn Tyrant Mini Boss.
He swung downward.
The force behind the attack carried the same overwhelming weight as the strike that had split apart the sea of flames earlier. It was obvious what he intended to do.
Kill the Thorn Tyrant before it fully rooted itself and started participating in the combat.
However, just before the axe descended fully, Kael abruptly changed the trajectory of the attack.
The glowing axe cleaved through empty air.
For half a second, nothing happened.
Then the air exploded.
A gigantic chasm ripped open across the battlefield as the delayed force of the attack detonated into the ground. Stone, dirt, and shattered roots erupted everywhere.
Kael remained standing on a foothold high above the battlefield, staring downward carefully.
The mana disruption from his attack had destroyed the illusion hiding the target.
The Thorn Tyrant vanished.
In its place stood Falsi, his teammate.
If Kael had continued the attack, he would have gravely injured her, if not killed her outright.
The moment he confirmed her identity, Kael turned toward Emily and shouted, "Cast a spell on me to protect me from further illusions!"
Falsi immediately nodded and started casting support spells.
At the same moment, the Iron Armor Rhino let out a furious roar and charged forward. Its massive red horn glowed intensely before slamming into one of the giant manifestation’s shields.
The shield finally shattered apart.
Bjorn immediately activated more skills, reinforcing the manifestation while focusing entirely on blocking the summons. Beside him, the remaining two Mistborns launched long-range attacks continuously toward Emily’s creatures.
For a brief moment, everyone’s attention was on the summons.
That was when Averon appeared in front of Falsi like a ghost.
She was shocked.
"Averon, don’t—"
"Sorry, but I have to do what the boss ordered," Averon interrupted with a sigh, knowing defeating the Mistborns this thoroughly would be too detrimental for their image.
He honestly did not want this situation getting worse politically. Defeating the Mistborns too thoroughly here would become a serious problem later.
But there was no helping it.
Emily was genuinely furious right now. And knowing Isaac, if Averon held back after Alice had been injured, that bastard would probably skin him alive himself.
Red sigils ignited around Averon’s fist.
Then he drove the punch straight into Falsi’s abdomen.
Her body folded from the impact before she was launched backward violently. At the same time, the red sigils detached from Averon’s arm and burrowed directly into her suit and body.
Falsi’s mana immediately destabilized.
Her active skills collapsed one after another.
The healing and buffs supporting the Mistborns vanished instantly. More importantly, her cooldown reduction ability—that she was using on her teammates—was disrupted completely. She would not be able to activate it again for at least ten minutes.
At that exact moment, the Thorn Tyrant finished burrowing its roots.
Its body began expanding rapidly.
Vines thickened. Its size grew larger. Green coloration faded into deep crimson as the creature entered a second transformation.
Eager to prove its usefulness, the Thorn Tyrant had instantly activated its Second Stage during the rooting process.
Its vines suddenly expanded and contracted. Thousands of embedded thorns shot outward in every direction toward the Mistborns.
Then its sunflower-like mouth opened wide.
Unlike the poisonous thorns inside its mouth during the First Stage, there was now only a massive red chasm spinning with unstable energy.
Even staring at it felt dangerous.
A beam erupted from the chasm and blasted toward Kael.
Kael immediately spun on his heel and swung his axe in a complete rotation. He understood this would likely be his final full-powered attack now that Falsi’s cooldown reduction had been disabled.
So he committed everything into it.
The glowing axe carved a massive ring into the air.
The ring expanded outward rapidly, slicing apart countless incoming thorns before colliding directly against the beam fired by the Thorn Tyrant.
At the same time, the expanding ring reached Emily and her summons.
Despite the danger approaching her, Emily did not move even a single step.
Kael only caught a glimpse of her expression before the Thorn Tyrant’s beam overwhelmed the ring and slammed into him.
At the same instant, Stoneward activated his skill.
A golden-brown glow covered both him and Emily as all damage targeting Emily transferred directly onto him instead.
The beam blasted Kael away violently.
His armor shattered apart piece by piece while his body bounced repeatedly across the battlefield before finally sliding to a stop.
For several seconds, he simply lay there staring at the sky. Parts of his mist body were visible through the destroyed sections of his armor. He was defeated.
Yet, a laugh escaped him.
He remembered Emily’s cold eyes from moments earlier.
’That girl is brutal,’ he thought to himself.
Her combat ability was already monstrous, but what shocked him more was her mentality.
Emily could have dodged that final attack. Staying still had been dangerous even with the Abyssal Mammoth and Iron Armor Rhino protecting her. There was no guarantee they could completely block the damage.
Yet she never moved.
She didn’t just want to eliminate the Mistborns. She was trying to destroy their public image, showing that they couldn’t even touch a hair of her, an Adept.
Staying in one place had been a statement from her.
Kael, an Apex Overlord, failing to damage her was a slap to the face of Mistborns and the Lord of Mists.
’Sheesh, that dragon girl really exhausted me a lot.’
’If not for her, I could’ve been in a condition to do a stronger attack.’
Despite those thoughts, Kael did not feel ashamed about losing. If anything, his mist churned more intensely than before, carrying traces of excitement rather than frustration.
This battle had been satisfying.
Painful, exhausting, and brutal.
But satisfying.
"Get up, you idiot!" Bjorn’s roar echoed across the battlefield.
Kael tilted his head slightly toward the source of the voice. Even from here, he could hear the strain hidden behind Bjorn’s anger.
Bjorn already knew this battle was lost.
Still, they had to continue fighting.
They only needed to buy time.
Bjorn’s giant manifestation was still standing behind him, though cracks had already spread across several shields. The five-armed construct continued blocking attacks from the summons while roots erupted across the battlefield around it.
Bjorn’s thoughts moved quickly.
He did not know where the Water Elemental Spirit and the rest of Emily’s team were, but they should have been on their way already. Emily had been ambushed by Serisa earlier, so she must have contacted the others for support.
Bjorn was waiting for the Water Elemental Spirit.
As long as they could hold out until she arrived, surrendering afterward would not damage the Mistborns’ reputation too badly. Losing against someone like the Water Elemental Spirit was understandable. People would simply think it was natural.
That outcome was far better than being completely crushed by Emily, who was technically still only an Adept.
Of course, from an outsider’s perspective, things already looked terrible for the Mistborns. Emily had obtained the Thorn Tyrant, and the battlefield had turned overwhelmingly one-sided.
But Bjorn knew something others did not.
Special Dungeons enhanced their monsters.
This Great Dungeon was also a special dungeon. It boosted all creatures born within it, especially powerful ones like the Thorn Tyrant. However, now that Emily had tamed the Mini Boss, it no longer received the Dungeon’s enhancement.
The Thorn Tyrant was still monstrously powerful. None of the Mistborns could handle it one-on-one.
But stalling against it?
That was still possible.
At least, that was what Bjorn believed.
Emily, meanwhile, could practically read the thoughts running through his head.
Her expression remained cold as she stared at him from afar.
She was not planning to let them drag this out. Not after Alice had been hurt.
Her gaze slowly shifted toward the Thorn Tyrant.
The massive creature immediately straightened slightly under her attention. Since earlier, it had been carefully observing Emily’s reactions, trying to determine whether she was satisfied with its performance.
Now, seeing her gaze settle on it again, the Thorn Tyrant understood. She wanted more carnage.
[How dare they hurt our teammate! Let me teach them a lesson, Master!]
Countless roots exploded upward from beneath the battlefield.
The ground cracked apart violently as thick crimson vines surged toward the Mistborns from every direction.
The roots wrapped around them instantly.
Poison-coated thorns scraped across their Steam Suits while layers of debuffs spread through the mana systems of the armor. The poison itself did not matter much since the Mistborns lacked fleshly bodies, but the debuffs still worked perfectly.
The roots tightened further.
Metal groaned loudly.
Bjorn barely managed to block several roots aimed toward him. Each vine was as thick as a house and carried terrifying force behind it. Even with his manifestation helping him, he could not protect everyone at once.
"Kael! You bastard! Stop dillydallying!" Bjorn roared furiously.
Kael simply shrugged from where he lay.
Roots wrapped around his damaged armor and crushed parts of it apart completely, but he did not even bother resisting. It almost looked like he had already accepted defeat.
Then, after realizing Bjorn could no longer properly see him through the chaos of roots and debris, Kael sent a telepathic message instead.
’Give up, bro. You’re sleeping outside tonight.’
Bjorn froze for a moment.
Not because of the message itself, but because of how casually Kael said it.
Bjorn was married to the Lord of Mists, making him Kael’s brother-in-law. Still, Kael rarely called him "bro" during serious situations.
Unless...
Unless Kael no longer considered this situation serious. Which meant he had already mentally surrendered.
Kael’s voice continued inside Bjorn’s head.
’I’m just saying, but you should know you’re the one facing big sis’s wrath later. I’m safe already. I fought without holding back, so I’m safe, and I fought to my heart’s content, so I don’t really care anymore.’
Honestly, he still wanted to continue fighting.
But his armor was nearly destroyed, and exhaustion was finally catching up to him.
Thinking about that only made him realize how insane Alice truly was. Even after receiving injuries far worse than his, she still refused to stop fighting earlier.
Compared to her, maybe he was the normal one.
’I guess even among battle maniacs, there are categories,’ he mused to himself.
"What!?" Bjorn shouted loudly, too busy dealing with the roots to even activate the artifact needed for telepathic replies.
’I told you earlier to fight Alice to kill her. But you pulled your punches because this was supposed to be a competition. That’s why we couldn’t deal with her fast enough and help Serisa in time.’ Kael snickered.
Kael still remembered his clash against Alice clearly. The moment they fought, he had understood what kind of person she was.
A battle maniac. Just like him.
For people like them, the strongest ability was never some powerful aura skill or destructive attack technique.
It was [healing].
Alice possessed the perfect skill for someone obsessed with combat. As long as she could heal herself, she would continue fighting recklessly without hesitation.
That was why Kael had wanted to overwhelm her immediately with full force and put her down before things dragged out.
But Bjorn had restrained himself.
Because this was still a competition.
Using truly lethal attacks carried a high chance of killing Alice accidentally.
At that exact moment, one of the Thorn Tyrant’s massive roots slammed down from above.
Bjorn’s manifestation raised its shields too late.
The root crushed directly into Bjorn and finally pinned him beneath its weight.
The surrounding roots tightened even further around the other Mistborns. Thorns pierced through their Steam Suits repeatedly while metal buckled under the pressure.
Then, amidst the chaos, someone suddenly grabbed Emily’s hand.