Three hundred meters away from Ali, high above the forest canopy, the air split open.
A black magical circle, etched with shifting runes, materialised in the sky. Lines of floating incantations revolved around it, pulsing with a slow, ominous rhythm. Then, with an almost ceremonial lift, the circle elevated — revealing five figures waiting beneath its shadow.
The moment the veil parted, all five sets of eyes locked on Ali far below. The wind caught the hem of his white coat, whipping it behind him like a battle flag as he stared back with an expression that gave away nothing.
'Of course Jacob would warn him…' Pummel Fist's thoughts were venomous, his jaw tightening. 'That rat will pay after we're done here.'
He didn't wait another second.
Pummel Fist tipped forward, letting gravity take him — his descent rapidly becoming a controlled fall. Claw and Silk dropped in unison behind him, moving like predators closing in. Above them, X17 didn't fall at all — the twin propellers hidden in the soles of her armoured boots spun into a furious blur, suspending her in place while her visor locked onto Ali's position.
Beside her, Mateo's entire body crackled violently. Bolts of sharp, blue lightning ripped across his frame in jagged arcs, wreathing him in light. Each surge of current kept him aloft, the air snapping with the smell of ozone as he looked down at the target below.
Ali saw them coming. His coat snapped once more in the wind — then he unclipped it in a single smooth motion. The garment whipped away from him and, in the same instant, dissolved into the void of his inventory. His eyes stayed locked on the incoming threat.
Claw and Pummel Fist hit first.
The impact was like a detonation — dirt, rock, and shattered roots exploded outward, leaving a smoking crater in their wake.
Claw was the first shape to emerge from the swirling dust. Even as he stepped forward, his body was already changing. Fingers elongated unnaturally; nails dropped to the ground, replaced by razor-edged claws that caught the light with lethal aura. His legs bent and thickened, reshaping into those of a panther, every muscle bulging with predatory strength. A grey, ghostly energy crawled up his limbs, clinging like mist.
It didn't stop there — his entire frame bulked out, dense muscle coiling under his skin, his features sharpening into something half-human, half-panther. Around his neck flowed a thick, majestic ruff of spectral grey energy that drifted and curled like smoke.
"Beasts do not forgive those who hurt our family!" Claw's roar shook the air, his voice deepened with a raw, animalistic resonance. Then he lunged.
The forest floor cracked beneath the first step, his beast legs propelling him forward in great, ground-eating strides. He dropped to all fours mid-sprint, his speed surging as he tore across the earth like a true hunting cat.
'Fast… but not fast enough,' Ali thought coolly, tracking his approach. 'Actually… he's much slower than that wolf guy.' The memory of an old fight in the Demon Slayer world flashed briefly in his mind.
Meanwhile, Silk had vanished.
One moment he was a shadow in the dust cloud — the next, he was perched high on a branch, his Imperial Arms spinning in a tight blur in his hands. Thin white strands spread outward in an intricate, widening lattice, threading through the air and over the branches.
He disappeared again — reappearing on another branch a dozen meters away, then vanishing once more. The movement was so fluid and instantaneous that anyone familiar with shinobi arts from the Naruto world would have recognised it as the Body Flicker Technique. But Silk's mastery was beyond that — he needed no hand seals, and the Spirit cost of each shift was a fraction of what it should have been.
THUD.
Claw halted mid-charge. His head turned sharply to the east — as did every other player's.
The entire forest trembled.
It wasn't just sound — it was pressure. A primal, suffocating dread seeped into their bones. Instinct screamed predator.
Pummel Fist straightened from the crater, copper plating now sheathing his skin in a dull, burnished glow — a protective layer to absorb the impact of the fall. He followed their gaze.
From the eastern tree-line, the ground erupted.
A colossal figure emerged, each step cracking and tearing the soil. Thirty meters tall, its pitch-black skin gleamed under the sunlight, and with each movement its muscles rolled like living mountains.
Its chest and back burned — not with ordinary fire, but with deep, blood-red flames that clung to its flesh without consuming it. The inferno seemed to merge with the beast, flowing down into its massive arms until each punch carried the raw, crushing force of fire itself.
It slammed its colossal fists into the earth, sending another tremor through the forest. Then, with a bellow that rattled leaves from the treetops, it launched itself at Pummel Fist.
This was no random monster.
This was the Beast King Flame Ape — sovereign of this territory, lord of an entire clan of giant apes. Two of its wives had been torn from it in an instant, consumed by a sudden, mysterious series of explosions explosion. The trail of that destruction had led it here… and the fire in its eyes promised there would be no survivors.
"I'll handle it — you focus on killing that bastard!" Pummel Fist roared to the others, his voice booming across the battlefield. He thrust his right hand skyward, fingers curling into a crushing grip.
"Rock Spell: Bronze Giant!"
The shout tore from his lungs like a war horn. Spirit flared violently around him, burning away in massive chunks.
The ground behind him shuddered — then split apart with a deep, ear-splitting crack. From the chasm erupted a colossal, twenty-meter-high fist of pure, gleaming bronze. The giant construct's knuckles glinted like a Warhammer under sunlight as it shot upward and smashed into the incoming blow of the Beast King.
The collision was cataclysmic.
A shockwave ripped outward, flattening grass and bending trees, sending flocks of birds scattering in panic.
But Pummel Fist wasn't done.
The earth trembled again as a second massive bronze hand burst forth, fingers curling like the jaws of a titan. It lunged forward, locking fingers with the Beast King's other hand, the two titanic forces grinding against each other with bone-shattering pressure.
"AAAAAAAARGH!"
Pummel Fist's scream was raw and guttural, the strain ripping through every fibre of his being. He pushed forward — veins bulging in his neck, muscles trembling — and his bronze arms mirrored his motion, forcing the giant ape backward.
The Beast King's heels gouged trenches in the earth as it slid, until, with an earth-splitting crash, the great ape fell onto its back.
That was when its rage erupted.
It slammed both massive fists into its chest, the black skin splitting with lines of glowing magma. The red flames across its torso flared brighter, hotter, until they roared like a living sun. Then — with a deafening bellow — it unleashed a concentrated beam of fire straight into one of the bronze arms.
The impact was instant devastation.
The bronze hissed, blistered, and then melted into streams of glowing slag that splattered against the ground, devouring the dirt in pillars of smoke.
'FUCK!' Pummel Fist's thoughts were jagged, frantic. He could feel the Spirit drain pulling at his very bones. That much power meant one thing — he'd have to burn far more if he wanted to stop the Flame Ape from ripping him apart.
High above, Mateo still hadn't moved. He hovered in place, lightning crackling and arcing over his frame. Beside him, X17 raised her arms, palms flat and steady. Between them floated a metallic cube, spinning slowly as if weighing the moment.
Then it flared red.
The cube shifted, folded, and reformed — metal snapping into place with precision-engineered clicks — until it had become a monstrous, five-meter-long plasma rail gun.
This wasn't in her usual arsenal.
This was a weapon she had never revealed, the kind of thing that could level city blocks or carve through fortresses like paper.
The weapon extended further, the long barrel locking with a heavy metallic clunk. At its base, a rotating reactor spun into a blur, sucking in the surrounding air in a visible distortion before slamming the intake into the rear of the barrel. The first chamber of the weapon began glowing an ominous, molten red.
The reactor pulled back again, drawing in more air, building pressure, building death. It had four more sections to charge…
'I better step back,' Mateo thought with a slow smile, lightning flaring brighter around him. He flashed — one blue spark, then gone — reappearing forty meters away from X17, still suspended in the air.
On the forest floor, Ali stood perfectly still.
"Miles… you'd better deal with that thing," he muttered under his breath, his tone flat, almost bored. Claw was closing in fast, and Ali's gaze sharpened, already reading the intent behind his opponent's movements.
'This idiot really wants to fight me up close…'
Ali extended his right hand. A moment later, the metallic hilt of his lightsaber materialised in his palm with a satisfying snap-hiss. In his left, the Inverted Spear of Heaven appeared — its chain trailing loosely behind him, glinting in the sunlight filtering through the broken canopy.
"Deadly Feline of the Nether Realm and descendant of the Great Ghost Panther…"
Claw's voice boomed as he leapt high into the air, his body silhouetted against the sky. His spectral ruff of ghost-smoke ignited, swirling furiously before being blown backward in a sudden, explosive rush.
"Heed my call and FIGHT WITH ME!"
The ring of ghostly smoke surged outward, expanding into a thick, roiling storm of grey miasma. From its depths, two pale, glowing eyes opened. Then the monster stepped forth — a twenty-meter-long grey panther, its claws bone-white and jagged, curving like blades. Each move it made left ghostly afterimages in the air, and its roar wasn't just sound — it was a vibration that rattled the soul.
The beast lunged with its master, both diving down toward Ali like twin predators converging on the same kill.
A thick trail of ghostly miasma slashed through the air in the wake of Claw and his summoned beast, their movements leaving rippling afterimages behind. It was a sight both supernatural and majestic — the perfect harmony between man and monster — the kind of display that could make even hardened warriors pause in awe.
Unless, of course, you were the one they were hunting.
Beneath them, Ali looked up, his face a blank mask, eyes cold and unblinking. Then, without warning, his aura erupted. It burst from his body in a blazing wave, surrounding him in a dense, shimmering shell that pulsed with raw power. The ground cracked beneath the sudden surge — an ear-splitting boom marking the instant he moved.
When the dust cleared, only a deep crater remained where Ali had been standing.
'He already has third-level aura… NOT BAD,' Mateo thought, his lips curling into a maniacal grin. His attention flicked to the weapon beside him. The rail gun's third barrel segment now glowed molten red — only two sections left before it would fire a shot capable of erasing everything in its path.
Below, Claw bellowed —
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
His claws lashed out with blinding speed, the massive panther mirroring his movements perfectly. Twin slashes ripped downward, the air screaming from the force, aimed to carve Ali apart mid-leap.
But there was nothing there.
Ali had vanished.
'Where—?!' Claw's head snapped around, eyes wide, muscles tensing.
And then he saw him — behind the panther.
'No… he can't be that fast—'
Before the thought even finished, the air shimmered with motion. Five massive, spectral claw marks ripped through the space where Ali had been moments ago, each swipe carving jagged trenches into the forest below. Bark and dirt exploded upward in sprays. This was Claw's signature move — the Phantom Fang Barrage — an ability borrowed directly from the ghost panther itself.
The beast growled, a deep, bone-vibrating sound, but its threat ended in a sharp, pained snarl.
Ali's lightsaber had found it's mark without his hold. The blazing blade tore upward into the panther's underbelly, sizzling through flesh with a hiss of vaporised ghost-matter. The strike was precise, ruthless — meant to cut the beast in half.
But before it could finish, the air exploded with power.
A violent surge of ghostly energy blasted outward from the wound, knocking the weapon away.
At the same instant, Ali's hand snapped the long chain forward. The Inverted Spear of Heaven's links whirled in a deadly spiral, cutting through the air with a sound like tearing steel.
Claw twisted mid-air, desperate to avoid it — but he was too slow. The chain wound around his torso, tightening in an instant, the sharpened weight at its end locking into place like a predator's bite.
Ali yanked.
The force ripped Claw's body sideways through the air, dragging him helplessly toward the forest's shadowed depths. Ali's boots barely touched the branch before he was sprinting, chain taut, pulling his opponent with him like a hooked fish with the panther following.
Through the canopy ahead, faint glints of strings told him all he needed to know — Silk was there, finishing the last of his death-web, the threads strung between ancient trees like a waiting guillotine.
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