Chapter 202: Run!!!

BOOOOOOM!

The collision between the spectral hydra and the charging Calamity Beast shook the cavern like an erupting volcano. Bedrock shattered into dust under the impact, sending spiderweb fissures shooting thirty yards across the stone.

The twenty-five-foot Calamity Beast slammed into the towering spirit at full speed.

Two of the spectral necks clamped their massive jaws shut around the beast’s left bone scythe, their razor-sharp fangs biting deep into the joint.

The hydra’s thick spectral coils wrapped tightly around the monster’s right arm and body, stopping its momentum. Bright green corrosive venom poured from its fangs, hissing loudly as it melted the black armor into boiling slime.

The Calamity Beast screeched in fury, thrashing its upper body to shake the hydra off. Thirty yards away, Evren planted his boots into the stone, his knuckles white around the hydra core.

Evren watched the clash with focus.

His cracked ribs still throbbed from the earlier fall, but with the beast’s momentum brought to a dead halt, the window was wide open.

"Drake! Now!" Evren roared. "Chain the legs!"

"Assault team, harpoons!" Drake bellowed across the chamber. "Pin it to the bedrock!"

Ten heavy defense hunters stepped forward, leveling heavy ballista-style launchers mounted to their armor.

THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!

Thick steel harpoons connected to alloy chains shot through the air. The sharp iron tips punched through the softer joints behind the monster’s four knees, driving deep into the bedrock below.

The hunters immediately slammed their anchors into the stone, locking the chains tight with mechanical ratchets.

Beside them, Zephyra raised both hands, channeling her shadow mana into the stone floor. Dozens of thick shadow tendrils erupted from the darkness beneath the beast, wrapping around its four legs and anchoring them into the bedrock alongside the steel chains.

Twenty archers behind them fired continuous volleys of steel-tipped arrows into the monster’s joints, pinning the legs under constant kinetic pressure.

The Calamity Beast roared in outrage, thrashing violently against the restraints. But with its scythe arms tangled in the hydra’s coils and its legs locked down by alloy chains and shadow tendrils, the twenty-five-foot monster was completely immobilized.

"Amber! Zephyra!" Evren called out through their mental link. "Hit the lower vents!"

Amber spread her crimson wings and shot into the air like a streak of fire. She banked hard over the beast’s pinned body, and with her single remaining dragon-bone saber blazing with dense red aura, she dove straight down, driving the blade two feet deep into the lower right spinal vent.

SPLAT!

At the exact same second, Zephyra stepped out of the shadows on the monster’s left side. Her two daggers ignited with dark shadow rot. She drove both blades deep into the lower left vent, channeling a wave of corrosive shadow mana directly into the beast’s internal circulation.

The Calamity Beast let out an ear-piercing shriek of agony. Boiling purple blood erupted like geysers from the two pierced vents, spraying across the cavern floor.

The damage was catastrophic.

With two of its internal cooling vents flooded with aura and shadow rot, the monster’s mana circulation violently backfired, sending thick plumes of black smoke pouring from its carapace.

"Its core is exposed!" Amber shouted, ripping her blade free and launching back into the air. "Evren, finish it!"

Evren dismissed the summon, and the sixty-foot spectral hydra dissolved into glowing blue mist back into the core. He gripped the Frost-Bane Cleaver with his right hand, bracing his injured left arm tight against his ribs.

He locked his gaze onto the largest, unarmored central vent near the monster’s neck and triggered Umbral Blink.

FZZT!

Evren phased out of reality and reappeared directly on top of the monster’s shoulders, hovering right above the primary spinal vent. The Calamity Beast felt his weight and tried to jerk its head back, snapping its jaws in desperation.

But Evren didn’t give it the chance. He pumped every drop of his remaining mana into the Frost-Bane Cleaver, fully activating the Level 45 Glacial Wyvern Dual Frost Core.

Thick, crackling white ice spread along the blade, dropping the temperature below freezing. Plumes of freezing mist shot out from the sharp edge as Evren flipped his grip and drove the frozen cleaver straight into the smoking central vent.

CRUNCH!

The blade buried itself three feet deep into the monster’s raw spinal core. The cryogenic frost detonated outward from the blade.

The sub-zero chill was so intense that the boiling purple blood inside the monster’s spine froze solid in a second. Thick blue ice spread rapidly through its chest cavity, crystallizing its veins, organs, and spinal cord into brittle glass.

The Calamity Beast’s thrashing abruptly froze. Its four glowing purple eyes widened, turning pale and milky as the frost overtook its skull.

"Stay dead," Evren growled as he channeled the full fury of Heavenly Lightning directly through the frozen steel.

KABOOOOOOOM!

A blinding blue shockwave exploded inside the creature’s frozen torso. The high-voltage electrical detonation shattered the brittle, frozen core into millions of glittering shards.

The shockwave tore through the monster’s entire body from the inside out. The twenty-five-foot Calamity Beast didn’t leave a bloody corpse... under the combined devastation of frost and lightning, its massive armored body cracked apart and collapsed into an enormous mountain of gray ash that cascaded down onto the cavern floor.

Evren dropped lightly onto both boots amidst the falling ash, landing with a soft thud.

A dull chime echoed from his tactical wrist-pad:

[TARGET DESTROYED: VOID CALAMITY BEAST — LEVEL 102 (SSS-RANK)]

From the center of the ash pile, a brilliant, fist-sized purple crystal floated into the air, pulsing with dense, celestial energy. Evren’s Core Siphon passive activated instantly, sending a stream of blue light to wrap around the Level 102 Void Calamity Core and pull it smoothly into his spatial storage ring.

Beside him, four smaller Level 82 cores from the royal guards were sucked in alongside it. Evren exhaled a long plume of white mist, leaning slightly against the hilt of his cleaver as the sharp pain in his cracked ribs flared.

Around the cavern, forty elite hunters stood in total, stunned silence. Silas Drake lowered his golden rapier, his mouth hanging open as he stared at the giant pile of ash.

Every single hunter in the room looked at Evren with wide eyes. This was an SSS-Rank emergence, a Level 102 extinction entity that could have leveled District One in minutes. Evren had broken its stasis, halted its charge, and shattered its core with his own hands.

"He... he actually killed it," one of the heavy shield-bearers whispered.

Nobody made a sound as the reality sank in. Before anyone could cheer, the cavern floor violently lurched.

CRACK!

A deep, deafening tremor ripped through the bedrock beneath their boots. A giant fissure split open across the center of the chamber, swallowing boulders and ash into an endless black abyss.

Overhead, massive stalactites snapped from the ceiling, crashing down onto the stone floor. Every wrist-pad in the room flashed with blinding emergency red:

[CRITICAL ALERT: RIFT ANCHOR COMPLETELY DESTROYED!]

[POCKET DIMENSION INITIATING SINGULARITY COLLAPSE!]

[ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL COMPLETE IMPLOSION: 00:02:30]

Two and a half minutes.

Silas Drake’s eyes snapped wide in panic. "The pocket dimension is collapsing! The exit portal is a mile back across the floating islands!"

Evren looked up at the crumbling cavern ceiling, his eyes narrowing as he gripped his blade.

"Nobody gets left behind," Evren shouted over the deafening roar of falling rock. "Run!"