Emily got to work. She floated in the air with Spirit Element swirling around her body.
The energy spread through every summon connected to her Bond, coating them in a faint translucent glow.
The moment the Spirit Element touched them, the pressure coming from the Colossus Grazer’s spirit weakened significantly.
Spirit Element naturally held an advantage against spirits.
More importantly, this spirit had been dragged back by Emily herself. Her Spirit Element over it acted like chains wrapped around the massive creature, suppressing it further.
Even then, the Colossus Grazer’s spirit was terrifyingly difficult to deal with.
The enormous rhino-like spirit roared and slammed its front legs into the ground. Shockwaves spread through the ruined battlefield as Crimson Sky Wyrm was blown backward. Stoneward raised thick walls of earth to block the impact, but the walls shattered almost immediately.
Emily narrowed her eyes and pushed more Spirit Element into her summons.
"Don’t let it break through," she said while extending her hand forward.
Blazing Pterodactyls screeched and released burning slashes that exploded against the spirit’s body. Lume followed with compressed beams of light while Thorn Tyrant wrapped massive vines around the Colossus Grazer’s legs.
The spirit tore through them anyway.
Its strength was absurd.
Even weakened by Spirit Element and Emily’s suppression, the Boss Monster still fought like a disaster. The spirit rammed forward and smashed Thorn Tyrant apart into fragments of wood and vines before swinging its horn toward Stoneward.
Stoneward barely managed to block the attack. The impact pushed the massive summon backward across the ground.
Emily remained calm, and continued giving commands to her Spirits.
Several minutes had already passed.
Normally, taming a weakened spirit would not take this long, but the Colossus Grazer’s willpower was simply too stubborn. Every time it was pushed down, it rose back up again as if refusing to acknowledge defeat.
The spirit roared again and charged.
This time, Catastrophe Iron Armor Rhino intercepted it directly.
The two rhino-like monsters collided head-on.
A thunderous boom erupted across the battlefield.
The Iron Armor Rhino was forced backward several meters, its legs digging deep trenches into the earth, but it still managed to stop the charge long enough for Crimson Sky Wyrm to descend from above and slam its claws into the Colossus Grazer’s back.
They attacked it thoroughly, weaking it further.
Emily immediately activated her Bond.
Spirit chains spread from beneath the spirit’s body.
"Now," she muttered.
All of her summons attacked together.
The spirit finally collapsed.
The giant body crashed onto the ruined ground while Spirit Element wrapped around it from every direction. The violent resistance slowly weakened until the Colossus Grazer finally stopped moving.
Emily descended slowly.
A pale Bond mark formed between her and the spirit.
For several long seconds, the Colossus Grazer simply stared at her silently. Then its eyes slowly closed, as if it had finally accepted the outcome.
Only then did Emily let out a long breath.
"That was harder than I expected," she muttered tiredly.
Alice walked over immediately and placed her hand on the Colossus Grazer’s spirit body. Gentle healing light spread through the creature.
One strange thing about Emily’s spirits was that they were not truly dead spirits anymore after forming Bonds with her.
Once bonded, they gained flesh-like bodies and could use complete skills again.
For example, N’theris Serpent still possessed its resurrection skill despite technically being dead already. Dying as Spirit meant complete erasure, and no skill could bring those back.
Resurrection should have been impossible from "dead" Spirits.
Normally, spirits were divided into two categories.
The first were natural spirits, such as Elemental Spirits. Those beings were born as spirits from the beginning and were extremely rare.
The second were spirits of the dead.
Those spirits had already died once. If they were destroyed again, they would disappear permanently. Resurrection abilities should not have worked on them.
Yet Emily’s spirits behaved differently.
They resembled natural spirits capable of revival while simultaneously retaining the identities of dead beings.
It was an unnatural contradiction.
Perhaps that strange dissonance was why Emily’s mother had to create Netherworld for them instead of letting them exist in Hell where most dead spirits resided.
As the Colossus Grazer recovered, the other summons immediately surrounded it.
Thorn Tyrant crossed its vine-like arms proudly.
[Hey, newbie, you are the youngest summon now. Understand? As a junior, you need to listen to us seniors.]
Tirra immediately flew over and smacked Thorn Tyrant on the head with a ghostly wing.
[Stop trying to act like the leader. Let the newbie breathe first.]
[You little bird—!]
Thorn Tyrant turned angrily, but its expression stiffened after noticing Crimson Sky Wyrm, Stoneward, and Lume quietly staring at it.
The summon snorted down and looked away.
The Colossus Grazer slowly rose to its feet. Its gaze moved around the group before stopping on Catastrophe Iron Armor Rhino.
Since the Colossus Grazer had canceled its size enhancement skill earlier, the two rhino-like monsters were now roughly the same size.
The Iron Armor Rhino glanced back at it briefly but showed little reaction. It remained silent, having no curiosity to start a conversation.
Emily floated closer to the Colossus Grazer and gently placed her hand on its head.
"I’m sorry about hurting you earlier," she said softly while caressing its rough armored skin.
The Colossus Grazer looked at her calmly.
[I don’t mind it. We were fighting, and I was weaker, so it is only normal that I lost.]
Emily blinked. Those words sounded strangely familiar. Almost exactly like something Alice would say.
Emily smiled awkwardly.
’Looks like Alice got another like-minded friend,’ Emily thought.
Afterward, Emily stored the corpse of the Colossus Grazer away. Most of the valuable materials had already been collected and distributed by the System after the Boss Monster died, but the remaining corpse still contained useful resources.
Then the three of them waited. Their goal was simple.
They would ambush every team the moment they escaped the Shadow Dimension.
Until now, they had constantly been forced onto the defensive whenever others attacked them. This time, the situation had reversed.
Now they were the ones waiting.
They did not have to wait long.
Only two minutes later, cracks suddenly spread across the air itself.
Dark shadows leaked out from the fractures. Then the cracks exploded open.
Dozens of awakeners were violently thrown out of the Shadow Dimension.
Some crashed onto the ground unconscious. Others were injured and covered in blood. Several people had their weapons drawn while scanning their surroundings cautiously as if expecting another attack at any moment.
Unlike the others, Avery calmly stepped out while holding her umbrella over her head.
She looked completely relaxed.
Her eyes landed on Zahard and the surviving members of Florathi.
"I thought you wanted to fight after ambushing us earlier. Why did you open the Shadow Dimension so quickly?" Avery asked with a smile.
Zahard ignored her words completely.
His eyes were already sweeping across the battlefield.
Then he froze.
Emily, Alice, and Averon were standing there calmly.
His expression changed instantly.
’Why are they here?’ he thought. ’They should have taken the corpse and escaped to the Second Area already.’
Then his gaze shifted again.
The Boss Monster was standing behind them.
Zahard blinked once.
For a moment, his mind completely stalled.
The Colossus Grazer was alive.
No.
Not alive.
His eyes immediately noticed the faint flow of Mana connecting Emily and the monster.
It was a summon.
’She tamed it?’
Shock flashed through his eyes.
The taming limit should have been one monster per day. That much had already been inferred from Emily’s previous summons—by comparing the number of Blazing Pterodactyls to the number of days the Great Dungeon had been opened.
Then how was this possible?
Had she hidden her real limit the entire time?
Or had her ability evolved?
Zahard’s thoughts moved rapidly. At transcendent speed, he exchanged glances with the leaders of the other teams. No words were needed.
Everyone reached the same conclusion immediately.
They needed to join hands, retreat to the Second Area, recover, and gather their full strength before fighting Emily’s group.
"Are you planning to run away to the Second Area?" Avery asked with a gentle smile.
Nobody answered.
"You can run away." Avery nodded lightly. "If you have the capability, that is."
The moment she finished speaking, everyone moved at once.
Massive columns of water erupted upward and curved inward, attempting to trap entire groups inside a giant dome.
Emily’s summons charged simultaneously.
Crimson Sky Wyrm descended from above while Stoneward slammed both hooves into the earth, raising walls to separate enemy teams.
Chaos erupted instantly.
Explosions echoed everywhere as awakeners unleashed abilities one after another.
Yet amid all the destruction, something strange was happening.
Alice, Averon, and Tirra were rapidly pulling unconscious people away from the battlefield to protect them from the aftermath.
They were prioritizing saving people for some strange reason.
Sera and Eleanor were among them.
Eleanor still looked exhausted after everything that had happened earlier. As for Sera, she appeared to be in considerable pain despite not fighting much recently.
Meanwhile, Zahard ignored the chaos around him entirely. The others teams were protecting him, allowing him to make his move.
Mana gathered around his spear.
The pressure became heavier and heavier until even nearby awakeners instinctively backed away. Then he moved.
The spear shot forward.
Reality itself seemed to tear open.
A massive line was carved across the battlefield as Zahard’s spear erased everything in its path. The ground split apart while shattered debris and distorted mana exploded outward like a storm.
Yet even at that moment, the Colossus Grazer managed to retaliate.
The enormous summon lunged through the destruction and slammed its horn toward Zahard. He twisted his body at the last second, avoiding a fatal injury, but a deep wound still tore across his arm. Blood splattered through the air as the impact forced him backward.
"Move!" Zahard shouted immediately.
The surviving teams did not hesitate any longer.
Everyone rushed toward the opening Zahard had created. Injured awakeners were dragged along while others activated movement skills to increase their speed. One after another, they disappeared through the portal leading toward the Second Area.
The battlefield finally became quiet again.
Emily watched the portal close before her cold expression slowly faded. Her shoulders loosened slightly, exhaustion immediately surfacing on her face.
"That was close," Emily muttered quietly.
"It really was," Avery said with a small chuckle as she walked toward her.
Although Emily had successfully tamed the Boss Monster, nearly everyone on their side had reached their limit. Emily herself was exhausted from using her Phantom Parade skill to limit earlier and suppressing the Colossus Grazer’s spirit. Alice had spent too much mana healing people repeatedly. Eleanor still had not fully recovered, while Sera looked pale from pain.
Even Emily’s summons were visibly tired after the prolonged battle.
Only Avery and the newly tamed Colossus Grazer looked completely fine.
If the other teams had truly chosen to fight desperately instead of retreating, the situation could have turned dangerous. Powerful attacks launched in desperation were difficult to block in their exhausted condition.
Fortunately, their bluff had worked.
They only needed to make the others believe they were still capable of fighting at full strength.
Of course, the ambush had another purpose as well.
"Hey, wake up."
A loud slap echoed out as Averon smacked the leader of Lord Qizhal’s team across the face.
The giant two-headed canine slowly regained consciousness. The moment his blurry vision cleared, he saw Averon standing above him. Then his eyes shifted toward Emily’s summons before finally landing on Avery.
His entire body trembled.
The memories from before he lost consciousness immediately resurfaced.
"Hey, don’t faint again," Averon warned while raising his hand threateningly.
"W-What do you want?" the leader asked stiffly.
He wanted to resist. He truly did. As a representative of his Lord, surrendering so easily was humiliating. Yet the fear lingering in his body made it impossible to even gather strength.
"Your team lost, so you all need to leave the Great Dungeon. Also, you should thank us. We saved your lives from getting caught in that battle earlier," Averon said righteously.
"T-Thank you?" the leader repeated blankly unable to understand what Averon was trying to say.
"Wow. Just a verbal thank you after we saved your lives?" Averon muttered in disappointment, repeating the lines told to him by Avery.
At that exact moment, Thorn Tyrant released its mana pressure across the surroundings.
The already frightened team immediately stiffened.
"What do you want?" the leader asked again.
"All of your rewards from defeating the Boss Monster and the Mini Boss," said Averon with a bright smile.