They fight cautiously now.
No more reckless charges, no desperate gambles.
Instead, they circle the three-horned rhino, working in tandem—one attacks, the rest cover.
Each strike is calculated, measured.
Belinda's petals now slice thin gashes across the rhino's legs.
Madelyn coats the beast's hooves in layers of frost to slow its movement.
Black shoots pinpoint arrows into already wounded spots.
Ryan distracts with feints, while Sam and Jane push with pressure palms aimed at joints.
Talia's footwork disrupts its balance.
Jamie slips in behind, knifing tendons.
Ben—his gauntlet cracked—only punches when the rhino is distracted.
And Merin, battered but standing, joins with flame-infused strikes meant to burn the wounds deeper.
Bit by bit, they chip away at its strength.
The rhino roars and stumbles, but still fights back, and they all know it—a single clean hit could put any one of them out of the fight permanently.
Suddenly, the rhino lowers its head.
Its three horns begin to glow blue, building with electrical charge.
Everyone instantly pulls back, forming a wide circle.
Merin slides to a halt and raises his arms, forming a translucent True Energy shield.
The others summon their defences—walls of wind, layered Qi barriers, frost domes, lightning fields.
They brace.
Wait.
But… nothing happens.
Seconds pass.
They glance at each other—faces, tired, confused.
Ben lets out a breath, laughing.
"Looks like the beast's finally out of juice."
Smiles spread.
Jamie wipes sweat from his brow. "We might just pull this off."
Then—
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion rocks the field.
They whip around just in time to see a semi-truck erupt into the sky, engulfed in flame.
Shouts ring out.
The earth shudders beneath their feet.
Then, from the tree line, two colossal shapes emerge—each far larger than the rhino they've been fighting.
Two more Three-Horn Rhinos.
Their horns shimmer with blue light.
"Shit," Merin breathes. "They're bigger."
And then—lightning flashes.
The two new rhinos unleash twin bolts.
Merin barely lifts his hand, flame roaring in his palm.
He throws a punch—a blazing fist of fire energy rockets forward, colliding with one bolt.
But the lightning tears through it like paper.
It slams into Merin's chest, knocking him off his feet, searing pain coursing through his body.
He crashes hard—vision spinning, the taste of blood in his mouth.
All around him, the battlefield descends into chaos.
Merin groans, pushing himself upright, staring at the smoking wound on his chest—the skin cracked, blackened—but already, his body begins to mend.
His cells stitch together, muscle threads reknit, and blood flow slows.
He breathes out, steadying himself, and glances around.
Most of the others weren't so lucky.
Several are down, groaning or unconscious from the lightning blast—Talia's arm hangs limp, Jane is kneeling with burns across her back, and Sam is helping Ben to his feet.
Only Jamie and Ryan still stand tall.
Merin isn't surprised by Ryan.
He's known for Ryan's strength—he broke through to the Unification Realm five years ago, and his cultivation was deeper than anyone's in the group.
Ben had once said Ryan was only a year away from reaching the Upper Unification Realm.
But Jamie… Jamie does surprise him.
He had broken through just a month before Merin, yet the power he's showing now—it feels on par with Ryan's.
As if the lightning hadn't even touched him.
From across the battlefield, Ryan's voice rings out, sharp and commanding.
"Ben, Talia—take care of the wounded rhino. Finish it before it recovers."
He turns to the rest. "The rest of us—two teams of four. We each take one of the new ones. Don't hold back."
Jamie grins, eyes gleaming unnaturally.
"Don't be afraid," he says. "They're just intermediate Colossal Realm beasts. Only slightly stronger than us."
The others nod, resolve hardening.
Ben and Talia move toward the wounded rhino, weapons raised.
Ryan, Merin, Belinda, and Black charge toward the first of the incoming beasts.
Jamie, Madelyn, Jane, and Sam veer right, heading for the second.
The battle resumes—this time split, desperate, and far more deadly.
While fighting, Ryan lashes his spear in a wide arc, lightning crackling down its length, and says through gritted teeth,
"Their knees are above our heads—hitting their legs won't do much. We need height."
The group leaps between the hovering magnetic stones—floating platforms scattered across the terrain, perfect for launching aerial attacks.
Ryan thrusts his spear upward, a bolt of lightning racing toward the rhino's eye—but the damned transparent shield absorbs the blow with a sizzling hum.
Merin curses under his breath.
They can't use the same tactic as before—draining its energy slowly with low-level attacks—because they were already tired, and this rhino was still fresh.
Gunfire echoes from behind as the lower-realm martial artists—those stationed in the semi-trucks—fire high-powered rifles and plasma shots, helping to eat away at the rhino's energy shield.
Then, Ben joins the fight, panting, bloodied, but his eyes are sharp.
"We killed the wounded one!" he shouts, electricity crackling across his gauntlets.
"But listen—I know where we are! This is the Floating Stone Forest. A nesting ground for three-horn rhinos!"
Merin's heart sinks.
Madelyn snarls. "What? Jamie, are you insane?! Did you not research the site before dragging us here?!"
"If you wanted to die, you could've just told me," she adds, sword gleaming with ice, "I would've helped you."
Jamie grimaces. "I bought the information from an informant… I only checked the outer rim, found a rhino, and came back. I didn't check deeper."
Ryan doesn't miss a beat. "We have two options," he growls.
"We either run now, or kill these two before they call for backup."
A blast of lightning sears past them, turning a floating boulder into dust.
Merin dives behind another stone just before a bolt crashes down—flesh burning, air crackling.
Ben lands beside him, ducking low. "They won't let us escape easily," Merin says, voice tight. "Our speed can't outrun theirs."
Jane shouts across the field, "If we split, we die. Stick together—we might live."
Resolve flashes in Merin's eyes.
He breathes in deeply, the White Light Breathing Technique kicking in—cool, cold True Energy flows in, mixing violently with the fire-based True Energy in his system.
It hurts—energy clashing, warring inside his veins—but he grits his teeth, pushing through.
He forms a massive flaming palm beneath the rhino's belly and slams it upward.
The beast rears back and bellows, roaring in pain.
Ryan follows immediately, drawing its attention again, his spear lashing with blinding light.
Merin's veins blaze with energy, dual forces colliding—cold and hot, chaos and control—and he knows: this will either elevate him or tear him apart.
He steps forward, breath slow, hands calm.
Then he thrusts out his palm—the first move of the Ice God Palm, but warped by fire.
Instead of the expected icy glow, a white frost palm forms around a molten, churning core—cold encasing heat, stillness wrapped around fury.
It slams into the rhino's shield.
The energy rebounds at first—the shield flickers, holds, then detonates.
A thunderous blast punches through, a spike of force piercing the shield and tearing into flesh. Blood sprays.
The others turn, eyes flashing. They saw it.
They felt it.
As Merin dashes away, catching his breath, Jane and Sam move in, their energies fusing once again. A colossal palm rises, echoing Merin's form—this time slamming into the second rhino with thunderous force.
A pulse.
A second explosion.
A cry of pain from the beast as cracks split across its thick hide, flesh charred and torn.
Ben slides beside Merin, lightning dancing over his fists. "You surprise me, Adam," he mutters, panting. "I thought you broke through recently—but that technique…" He grins. "That's Upper Unification Realm mastery."
Merin breathes deep, True Energy surging as he reshapes the fused palm again.
"What do you mean?" he asks, tightening his stance.
Ben ducks a flying kick from the rhino. "Let's talk after the fight!"
Merin nods, eyes locked on the target.
He thrusts his fused palm again—white ice surrounding a molten heart—aimed at the same wound he tore open before.
The impact deepens the injury, flesh splitting, blood gushing.
Then Ryan charges in—his spear glowing red, wrapped in electric arcs.
He leaps, aims, and drives the spear straight into Merin's wound.
It pierces.
Lightning explodes from within.
The rhino shrieks, body convulsing—then collapses, twitching.
Dead.
Two down.
One to go.
Merin turns, breath ragged, bones sore, eyes locked on the last beast.
His voice was low. "Let's finish this."
The last rhino cries, furious and desperate—its massive form stomping through shattered earth, sparks trailing from its horns.
Merin, Ryan, Jamie, and the others circle it like wolves around a dying giant.
Black loses another arrow, the lightning-laced tip striking the beast's eye. It roars in pain, shaking its head, blood spurting.
Jamie darts in next, blade flashing, dragging a line of crimson across its exposed leg. Madelyn follows, her sword glowing blue, striking the same spot and freezing the blood in place.
The beast stumbles.
Ryan shouts, "Now!"
Jane and Sam merge their energy again, forming another massive palm, now crackling with strain. It hovers for a moment, then slams into the rhino's flank, sending it crashing sideways.
It rolls, groaning.
Ben leaps, both gauntlets glowing—*two charged punches slam into the beast's back*, cracking bone.
Then Merin charges.
His breath syncs with his energy, cold and fire dancing again in his veins.
He jumps, both hands glowing—*white frost encasing a core of molten heat*—and slams his fused palms down into the rhino's open wound.
The explosion ripples outward.
A final roar.
And then… silence.
The beast collapses.
Its giant body thuds against the ground, unmoving.
Dead.
For a long moment, no one speaks. No one moves.
Then Ryan sinks to one knee, panting.
Jane drops onto a nearby stone, soaked in sweat.
Ben falls flat on his back, gasping, "I never… want to see another horn… ever again."
One by one, they all collapse.
On the cracked ground, bruised and bloodied, but alive.
Merin lies back, staring up at the stormy sky, his chest rising and falling.
They did it.
Barely.
But they did it.