[Chapter 161. Reversed Roles]

The two Wolves pounced simultaneously, their shadowy forms blurring against the monotone gray of the plaza. They slammed into the shimmering barrier protecting Iris with the collective force of a battering ram. With a sharp, crystalline sound—like a heavy weight dropped onto a sheet of glass—the first layer of the defense vanished in an instant. The impact sent a ripple through the air, but Iris didn't flinch.

With a low, guttural grunt, Iris planted her feet and pushed back against the wolf that had her blade embedded deep within its shoulder. The beast’s weight was immense, its muscle fibers twitching around the black metal of the Eldritch Zweihänder, but the injury hindered its reach, keeping its snapping jaws just inches away from the remaining layers of her barrier. With a sharp, violent tug, she wrenched the blade free. Blood, thick and dark as oil, sprayed across the gray stones. She didn't pause for a breath; the sword swung down again in a wide, punishing arc, the turquoise light along the flat of the blade flaring into a vibrant, pulsing glow. The metal carved through the wolf’s hide, bone, and muscle with a sickening crunch.

The beast collapsed to the ground, a high-pitched, pathetic whimper escaping its throat as his leg was separated from its body. It wasn’t dead, but the trauma to its spine and shoulder had effectively ended its participation in the fight for the time being.

Several meters away, Searanox raised his rifle, the weapon humming as it cycled through its cooling phase. He leveled the barrel at the second wolf and fired at point-blank range. The violet beam lanced out, striking the creature’s forehead, but to his grim surprise, the shot merely cracked the thick, bone of the skull rather than piercing through to the brain.

Another volley of energy from his drones bathed the gray space around him in a chaotic mix of crimson and violet light. The beams were precise, striking the already damaged skull with relentless accuracy. The previously cracked bone caved in under the sustained pressure, leaving a steaming, gaping hole in the center of the wolf's head. However, the sheer vitality of the creature was monstrous. Even with a portion of its skull vaporized, the beast continued snarling, its body thrashing wildly as it lashed out with razor-sharp claws.

The second layer of Searanox’s defensive barrier shattered under the frantic, dying attacks of the wolf. Before the creature could strike again, Searanox closed the distance in a blur of motion, burying a dagger into the wolf's open wound, twisting the blade to ensure the job was finished. Only then did the wolf collapse like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Searanox narrowed his eyes, and a system window appeared in his peripheral vision, displaying the target's data.

`A level thirty... no wonder.` He thought, his jaw tightening. The System was pointing out the recommended level. But this, this is way inside my current threshold... Was it refraining to Iris?

His gaze drifted past the cooling carcasses toward the real threat: the gigantic Turtle. The massive beast was a mountain of ancient stone and armored scales, its every movement resonating through the ground.

"Assist," Searanox spoke, a single word of command that redirected his forces.

The four assault drones pivoted in mid-air, their crimson beams flying past Iris’s head to slam into the side of the remaining wolf that was currently assaulting her barrier. He didn't wait to see if she finished it; his focus was entirely on the turtle. A deep violet glow began to emanate from his equipment, bathing the gray plaza in an ominous hue. His rifle and all available offensive drones were trained on a single point on the behemoth’s body.

After a few seconds of charging—a duration that felt like an eternity in the heat of combat—they fired in unison. All nine beams—one from his rifle and two from each of his four offensive drones—coalesced into a single, massive pillar of violet energy. The beam roared through the air, crashing directly into the vulnerable section of the turtle's neck where it emerged from the colossal shell.

This was his ultimate move, a concentrated burst of power that had once torn a gaping hole through an Elemental Dire Wolf back when he was significantly weaker. The moment the energy made contact with the turtle’s scales, the dust and unnatural gray fog covering the plaza vaporized. The space around the impact zone shook violently, and a massive shockwave rippled outward, pushing against Searanox with the force of a gale. His long coat billowed heavily behind him, and the recoil alone forced him to slide back half a step, his boots grinding against the stone.

When the light faded and the smoke cleared, Searanox’s heart sank. The turtle was mostly unscathed.

On its massive, tree-trunk-sized neck, there was a cauterized, blackened hole that billowed acrid smoke, but the wound was shallow compared to the creature’s sheer mass. Infuriated, the turtle lifted its massive front legs. As they came crashing down, both of Searanox’s defensive drones detected the impending seismic shift, automatically shifting their shields toward the beast.

Seconds later, the ground itself erupted.

Searanox fought to keep his balance as the earth beneath him buckled. A wave of stone and shattered pavement hurled toward them like a terrestrial tsunami. Iris, seeing the wave drawing closer, pulled her Zweihänder into a defensive stance. A pale, translucent barrier—her Mystic Ward—formed along the edges of the blade, widening outward to create a shield of mana.

The barriers of both defensive drones shattered instantly upon contact with the stone wave. The remaining force slammed into Searanox and Iris, sending them both flying several meters backward. Searanox tumbled across the hard ground, his armor taking the brunt of the impact, but he quickly rolled back to his feet.

He looked toward Iris. She was in much worse shape. She was bleeding from several gashes, and her arm hung at a wrong angle, the bone clearly broken. If it weren't for her Mystic Ward absorbing the majority of the kinetic energy, she wouldn't have been merely injured—she would have been crushed.

Searanox summoned two Intermediate Healing Drones. The moment they materialized, they enveloped both him and Iris in a soothing, pale green light. He glanced at his HUD, checking his Tech-points. The number was dropping rapidly, already drawing close to the halfway mark. This level of output was unsustainable.

As he turned his gaze back to the turtle, another System window opened.

`Holy shit... this node isn't a challenge, it's a death trap.` He realized.

His drones finished off the last of the initial wolves while the healing light worked to patch up their broken bones and close their open wounds. Iris gasped as her arm snapped back into place under the drone’s influence, her silver eyes refocusing on the enemy.

A dim, ominous glow attracted Searanox’s attention back to the turtle. The crystal structures embedded in its shell flared up with a brilliant, deep blue radiance. The air around the beast’s maw began to distort as mana condensed into a singular point.

Searanox threw himself to the side just as a beam of pure elemental energy tore from the turtle’s mouth. It ripped through the air with a deafening roar, incinerating the space he had occupied just a second prior. When the light vanished, nothing remained but a gaping, glowing crater in the center of the plaza.

"YOU FUCKING NOT!" he screamed, his voice raw with frustration.

From the shadows of the surrounding buildings, a dozen more or so Nightmare Wolves burst into the plaza, their eyes glowing with a predatory hunger. The green light of the healing drones faded and the units dissolved. Searanox stood up, feeling the last of his own minor wounds seal shut.

"Iris, focus on the wolves! Draw their attention and keep them off me!" he shouted over the din of the approaching pack.

The four assault drones that had been providing support hovered toward her, their crimson beams lancing through the gray monotone space in rhythmic, lethal beats. Iris nodded, her face set in a mask of grim determination. Her Zweihänder flared with turquoise light as she charged directly into the center of the newly spawned pack.

She let out a loud, piercing howl, a War cry that shook the very air and successfully drew the wolves aggro. They swarmed her, their claws clashing against her blade and the drone-provided barriers.

With the wolves occupied, Searanox turned his attention back to the Gaia Turtle. He and his offensive drones fired coordinated beams, though they were less powerful than the first volley, lacking the boost of an overcharge. Each hit only brushed the thick, ancient scales, leaving little more than scorched marks.

Searanox let out a dark, frantic chuckle. Something about this fight felt familiar—not from his own experience, but from a report told to him in great detail by Iris. It was a crazy, desperate tactic they had used once when facing an opponent they couldn't breach from the outside.

`If you can't fight it from the outside, you go inside.`

With that thought, he grabbed the edge of a newly materialized travel drone.

The drone shot forward, carrying him directly toward the gaping, smoking hole in the turtle’s neck. The plan was as simple as it was insane: use the existing wound as an entry point to bypass the creature's external armor. He had praised the concept when Sarah first thought of it, and while they had been higher level then their enemy at the time, the logic still held.

However, the Gaia Turtle had its own defenses. As he drew near, his drone hit the shimmering haze that surrounded the beast. The displacement field was like hitting a wall of pressurized air. The drone dissolved instantly under the stress, and the sudden loss of flight threw Searanox off balance. He was launched through the air, his momentum carrying him aimlessly.

He had no way to control his flight path or decelerate. He impacted the paved ground hard, skipping over the stone like a flat rock across a pond’s surface. Sparks flew from his armor as he skidded nearly twenty meters.

He finally came to a halt on the far side of the gigantic beast. The turtle stopped its advance toward the center of the node, its massive head turning with slow, deliberate movements toward the man lying crumpled on the ground. Searanox felt like a piece of trash that had been discarded in the street, every bone in his body aching from the impact.

The turtle took a step, its heavy foot cracking the pavement. Searanox could feel the vibration through his entire being. It was a reminder of the sheer scale of his opponent. He looked up, his drones fired eight violet beams that burned a shallow crater into one of the beast’s leg scales.

From this new, closer vantage point, he saw something he hadn't noticed before. He was damaging it. Each shot cracked and burned away a significant chunk of the scale. The combination of the haze, the turtle's massive size, and the initial distance had made the damage look like mere scorch marks. He could kill it. He was certain of it.

But time was his greatest enemy. He was losing thirty Tech-points every minute just maintaining his current drone count. He was already at half capacity. Even with no further complications, he only had a maximum of twenty minutes left before he was completely drained and defenseless.