Ali swung Claw downward with the full force of his arms, the chain's weight and his own momentum turning the half-beast into a living wrecking ball. The forest blurred around Claw as the world spun violently, the wind screaming past his ears. One thought burned in his mind:
'If I hit the ground at this speed, I'm dead'.
"Ghost Phase!" he roared, burning through his Spirit.
His form dissolved into a roiling cloud of grey miasma, the links of the chain passing harmlessly through his now-intangible body. Free from the bind, he hurtled forward, carried by the momentum like a spectral projectile tearing through the tree-line.
Ali watched him go, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. His Force Sense pulsed warnings into his mind — countless death threads stretched all around him, invisible to normal sight, a web of razor lines that could flay a man to bone. Ali stood casually balanced on one of those threads, suspended in midair as though standing on nothing.
Ahead, Silk's eyes narrowed. He had seen Claw speeding toward his net. A flick of his capped fingers and the strands ahead loosened, parting just enough to let the half-beast slip through without being shredded. But the moment Claw passed, Silk's attention shifted — the trap was now for Ali.
"Closed Bird Cage"
Every thread in a fifty-meter radius tightened and surged inward like a closing jaw, converging on Ali's position. Trees toppled like they'd been guillotined, trunks sliced clean through before they even knew they'd been cut. The air hummed under the sheer number of razor lines closing in.
Ali only smirked.
He dropped, letting himself fall into the chaos, but his mind was a calm, still lake. His body shifted through impossible angles, weaving between gaps that closed half a second after him. Invisible warnings from his Force Sense guided each micro-movement, turning his descent into a dance of precision.
The Ghost Panther wasn't as lucky. The great beast thrashed, snarls turning to pained growls as deep, bloody cuts multiplied across its body. Every movement tangled it further, threads sinking deeper, ghostly miasma leaking into the forest floor and leaving behind patches of decay where flowers wilted in seconds.
"F**k!" Silk spat under his breath. His form blurred with rapid body flickers, retreating while pulling his Imperial Arms to redirect more threads to seal Ali's escape. Controlling so many at once was like puppeteering a hundred swords at once —it took great dexterity and practice to do so.
Claw reappeared, his arrival heralded by the sudden parting of threads in his path. He shot toward Ali like a launched spear, his movements a perfect blend of animal ferocity and ghostly power.
"Phantom Kick!" he bellowed.
His leg came down like a war-hammer, smashing into the soil with a sound like a landslide. Entire trees uprooted and toppled from the shock. But the real danger was the attack that followed — a massive spectral slash, a crescent of ghost energy tearing forward through the forest, slicing through even some of Silk's reinforced threads.
Ali met it head-on. His lightsaber ignited, the blade swathed in dense black aura, and he angled it just right. The ghost slash slammed into him, the force shoving him back a single step — nothing more.
And then — a sharp sting at the back of his neck.
Blood trickled down.
Silk had made his move, a hidden thread wrapping tight and pulling hard for a clean decapitation. But despite all the force in his hands, the thread refused to budge. It was like trying to cut through a mountain with a butter knife.
"My turn," Ali said coldly.
A deep, bestial roar thundered above them.
WOOOOSH.
A five-meter-wide fireball screamed down from the clouds, its heat warping the air around it. It plummeted straight toward the Ghost Panther, which was still trapped in Silk's web and bleeding heavily. The smell of burning air reached them before it even hit.
Claw's eyes widened in horror.
"Beast Guild Spell: BEAST FUSION!"
He had no time to think. The moment the words left his mouth, the Panther's form dissolved into ghostly mist, streaking toward him in a desperate stream. The miasma slammed into his chest, disappearing inside — just as the fireball connected.
The explosion was deafening.
The Panther's physical body was gone, but the ground where it had been vanished into a crater, flames rushing outward in a wave that devoured the undergrowth and set old trees ablaze. The shockwave shook the forest, scattering burning leaves like a rain of embers. In seconds, a wide circle of the jungle became a charred wasteland.
Ali's shadow cut through the rising smoke — and he was already moving toward Claw.
Claw's form swelled, muscles knotting and bulging under fur as the Beast Fusion took hold. His shoulders widened, his spine arched, and ghostly smoke poured off him in thick, writhing tendrils.
The miasma flowed in and out of his body in steady, choking breaths, each exhale eating away at the life around him. Grass browned and withered under his feet, bark blackened and peeled from nearby trees. His claws — now even more elongated and curved like obsidian scythes — bled a constant fog of spectral venom, the air around them visibly warping.
'What the hell was that?' Silk thought, then he looked up.
Through the drifting clouds, a shadow blotted out a patch of sky. It moved, massive and deliberate, and the players who caught sight of it all froze for a fraction of a second.
ROAAAAAAR.
A load roar rumble led in everyone's ear.
The clouds split as Eldora burst through, her vast emerald wings folded tight against her body, ready to unfurl and tear the forest apart with her winds. The sunlight caught her scales, each one flashing green-gold as she dove.
Mateo's eyes widened, a faint grin forming.
"He controls dragons?", then he saw the dragon heading towards Fist.
His grin faded into a scowl. "No you don't."
With a crackle of blue lightning, Mateo vanished and reappeared directly above Eldora's diving form. Sparks licked up his arm, converging into a single, titanic spear of pure lightning. Eldora's eyes narrowed as a voice brushed against her mind.
'Flip — right.'
She obeyed instantly, folding and rolling hard to the side.
"Lightning Guild Spell: Lightning Bolt!"
The spear left Mateo's hand like a thunderclap. Eldora's manoeuvre saved her from a direct heart strike — but she wasn't fast enough to avoid it completely. The spear slammed through her left wing, punching a ragged hole wide enough to fly a carriage through.
Blood misted the air in a red spray. The smell of scorched flesh filled her nose as her once-pristine wing turned into a ruin of torn membranes and blackened veins. Her body pitched violently, unable to hold steady, the loss of lift sending her spiralling.
Above, Mateo was already shaping the next spear.
Ali's voice cut through the chaos like steel.
'Abeloth, get to her. Eldora — use the winds from Abeloth to glide toward Stork. Abeloth, cover her retreat and burn everything behind you.'
Abeloth's growl was pure anger defiance, his pride wounded at the thought of leaving the fight. Eldora's shame burned even hotter than her injury.
'Forget me, Master', she roared into his mind.
'That was an order', Ali's will slammed down, heavy and absolute. The command bent them both like iron under a hammer — no protest, no hesitation. He had used more will to touch their souls through the contract…
Mateo tracked the falling dragon, lightning coiling tighter in his palm. He was lining the throw when his instincts screamed.
FWOOSH
A stream of fire forty meters long, came roaring toward him. The heat hit first, a blast furnace that seared the skin.
He hurled the lightning spear, the strike splitting the inferno in two for a heartbeat before Abeloth's massive bulk exploded through the flames. The great dragon's wings unfurled wide as he passed over Eldora, sending her into a controlled glide, his own body sliding into formation behind her.
"No you don't," Mateo hissed, pulling back both arms now, twin lightning spears swirling into being. The air crackled, every hair in the vicinity rising from the static.
But then —
AAAAAAAAH!
"NOOOOO!"
X17's scream ripped across the area, raw panic layered with static. Her battle suit was strobing red, alarms blaring in every octave. The rail gun — her ultimate weapon — was now falling toward the forest floor, its reactor still spinning violently.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING— AHHHHH!" she shrieked. The AI guiding her suit glitched and viruses were frying her neural connection in an instant. The feedback seared through her brain like molten iron.
Her body convulsed midair. The suit flared a blinding red—
BOOOOOOOOM.
A sphere of fire engulfed her position. Armour shards and blood sprayed outward as her remains fell like smoking debris.
Mateo froze, his gaze flicking down just in time to see the falling rail gun tumbling, reactor still armed. His gut twisted.
"TAKE COVER."
The command hit the other players instantly as Mateo blurred upward, putting as much distance between himself and the ground as possible. Ali's dragons were already too far — unless he abandoned everything to chase them.
The rail gun kept falling with four sections of the barrel charged and the fifth would be charged before it hit the ground…
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