The entire focus of the allied forces fell upon the S+ Two-Headed Crystal Wyvern. Riona Steelsworn, flanked by her key lieutenants, Garrick Winterspire (an Earth Tank) and Elysia Fulgurant (a Lightning Mage), commanded the ranged assault. Kaelus, his silver-white hair now permanently revealed as he could not sustain his disguise, stood among the attackers.
The adventurers bombarded the Wyvern with their best long-range skills. Zane elevated mages with his Gravity magic to improve their range. Sylva Moonshadow launched rapid-fire Plasma bolts. Kaelus unleashed focused bursts of compressed air: Wind Skill: Gale Rifle!—a skill he had honed during the Orc subjugation.
The Wyvern was frustratingly agile, easily dodging larger, slower spells. A few minutes into the continuous bombardment, Sylva barked a warning to the command team. "Stop the secondary and deviant elements! They're ineffective!"
She had quickly observed a critical flaw: "The Wyvern's crystal body is nullifying secondary elements like Sound, Gravity, Ice, and Lightning, and deviant elements like Plasma, Wood and Metal! Only the primary elements—Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind—are causing damage! And even those aren't hitting its weak points!"
The Wyvern responded to the persistent, minor damage by launching its devastating ultimate fire attack, Dual Incineration Wave!
Twin cones of searing, concentrated fire blasted toward the ground forces. Zane desperately slammed his Gravity magic into the attack, attempting to disperse the flames, but the Wyvern's concentrated Fire mana was too powerful.
"Water and Ice mages!" Sylva shrieked, instantly activating a defensive counter. The available Water and Ice mages launched streams and shards of their elements, attempting to deflect and resist the ultimate skill, but they could not totally overcome the Wyvern's Fire element.
The attack hit. Many were injured, and both Sylva and Vara were severely wounded, scorched despite the desperate defense. Zane and Riona, though protected by their higher-grade armor, were fighting ineffectively, their best skills nullified or dodged.
Kaelus knew he was the only option. He could not risk a massive, mana-draining spell like Ryujin no Kaze while the Wyvern was airborne. The only way was to match its speed and target its weak points.
He rushed forward, positioning himself at the rear. "I need time! Three full minutes! I need to channel the surrounding mana and create a stable medium. I will engage it directly in the air!"
Sylva, already struggling to stand, looked at Kaelus's silver hair and emerald eyes—the signature of an existence beyond their understanding. She didn't understand the physics, but she knew they needed an anomaly like Kaelus.
"Everyone! Defend Kaelus!" Sylva commanded, ignoring Riona's bewildered look. "He is our only shot! Riona, focus your Aegis on interception! Keep the Wyvern's gaze on us!"
Riona, seeing the desperate state of the battle, accepted the command. "Ironclad Aegis! Defensive Barrier! Prioritize missile defense! Keep the Wyvern busy!"
Kaelus sat cross-legged, closing his eyes. His own mana, vast but exhausted, served as the binder. He began the intricate transformation process, pulling the enormous amount of Wind mana from the surrounding environment and fusing it to his own aura. The process felt like adding a new, powerful set of limbs to his back.
In a minute, the gathering was complete. Kaelus shot up, his concentration breaking the stillness as a pair of elegant, translucent green wings, crackling with pure Wind mana, snapped into existence on his back. He had unleashed his new skill: Tempest Wings!
These wings were not the rigid form of his innate dragon wings; they were liquid, agile, and made for high-speed, three-dimensional combat. However, he knew the exhaustion would catch up. He had to finish this in the next one minute.
Kaelus launched himself into the sky, meeting the Wyvern's furious charge head-on. The spectators—Riona, Aethon, and the hundreds of adventurers—were awestruck by the sudden appearance of the silver-haired figure with wings of light.
The Wyvern shrieked, unleashing a barrage of fire projectiles. Kaelus used the Tempest Wings with impossible finesse, phasing through the fireballs. He didn't waste a single movement; every dodge was followed by a focused wind slash from his hand, cracking the Wyvern's outer crystals. The Wyvern's defensive layer began to visibly break and fall away as Kaelus approached.
Below, the ground forces assisted flawlessly. Zane pushed his Gravity field to maximum distortion, creating sudden, disruptive pockets of air resistance that destabilized the Wyvern's flight path. Sylva, though injured, used light, highly concentrated Wind magic to create momentary blinding flashes, disrupting the Wyvern's visual tracking.
Kaelus unsheathed the Viridian Sword, channeling intense, focused Wind mana into the blade. He closed in, aiming for the Wyvern's vulnerable neck joints.
The Wyvern twisted and weaved with incredible agility. Its long neck whipped out, jaws snapping. Garrick Winterspire slammed two massive Earth Pillars upward, causing the Wyvern to pull up, losing crucial momentum.
Kaelus seized the stall, channeling the full force of his Wind mana into his limbs to execute a lightning-fast approach. His first slash struck the Wyvern's back, but the damage was shallow—not enough to stop its immediate counterattack.
Roaring in fury, the Wyvern twisted its body, attempting to incinerate Kaelus. Kaelus, shouting desperately as he pushed his remaining Wind mana into the Viridian Sword, unleashed a rapid series of slashes, grinding the blade against the Wyvern's thick, crystalline back. Crystal shards flew off, revealing a vulnerable, damaged section near the base of the necks.
In that instant, Kaelus landed forcefully on the Wyvern's wounded back. He knew his Tempest Wings were unstable, on the verge of collapsing. Instead of fighting to maintain them, he made a final, devastating choice: all the mana stored in the dissolving Tempest Wings was compressed and channeled into the Viridian Sword.
He jammed the hilt of the sword into the freshly exposed, damaged spot on the Wyvern's back.
"Dragon's Gale Blast!"
Kaelus triggered a point-blank Wind mana explosion directly into the Wyvern's wounded body, targeting the critical spinal and neck joint. A deafening, localized blast erupted, tearing through the Wyvern's structure from the inside.
The two crystalline heads of the Wyvern flew upward, momentarily intact, before suddenly dispersing into pure mana and vanishing. The massive S+ Wyvern convulsed one last time and plummeted to the earth, leaving behind a massive, throbbing Fire Elemental Core.
The S+ Wyvern was dead.
Kaelus, his body utterly drained and his silver hair whipping around his pale face, dropped the Viridian Sword and fell from the Wyvern's back. He barely managed to catch himself with a final, ragged gasp of Wind magic before landing hard on the pulverized ground.