“The good news is we just need another fifteen minutes. The bad news is Melissa and her mechs are down, so our biggest distraction is gone. They will focus on us if we take this guy down.” Andy yelled.

“When we take him down,” Cal yelled back.

The fire rain had destroyed the majority of Ethel’s overgrowth assault, and Frank had run back inside in fear of ignition. Cal raised a stone barrier above his head so he could stay in the road for now. He waited for the creature to get closer. He had an idea.

Once he spotted the Gryalth, he understood what the capybara was talking about. This thing was at least five times the size of Frank. The shield around it shimmered every time it caught the light.

“Bill, do you see the shimmering?” Cal asked the small capybara.

“Yes, do you want me to try to move it?” He asked.

“No, I want you to try to turn the damn thing off and then let it turn back on the second you see my ball lightning in front of the Gryath. I want to trap a powerful explosion inside its shield.”

“Great idea, Bill, do what he says.” Andy had joined Bill.

“I’ll try my best, but those are some pretty big mana strings,” Bill answered.

They waited an agonizing few minutes for it to finally stop the firestorm so they could start moving in closer.

“Bill now!” Cal yelled.

The shimmering vanished. Cal pushed as much mana as he had into the last lightning ball into this one, too. He felt his mana channels burn. Apparently, they didn’t like this much lightning so quickly twice in a row. The shimmering returned. Bill collapsed from the effort, but he had given Cal all he needed at the moment. Cal ignited the ball.

It looked like a miniature sun had ignited above their heads for a fraction of a second before the shield exploded, and the creature came crashing to the ground. To their dismay, it was still very much alive and now looked enraged.

Cal charged the air between the monster and himself and pulled up a rock cocoon around Bill’s prone form. He felt his core rapidly draining. Luckily, the space around the creature’s head turned black.

“Stop fighting me and just fall, dammit!” Andy yelled at the giant Gryalth.

“You heard the man!” Cal joined Andy’s attack by blasting several lightning bolts into the black space.

They were answered by the creature slamming its hands together. The gesture created a small tornado between them and itself. The tornado was growing by the second.

Cal tried his best to slow the roaring wind down, but he just didn’t have fine enough control over the charged air particles to affect it. The tornado continued on its slow path toward them.

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Plants erupted from the ground, the pavement exploding over them as greens and browns shot up between themselves and the swirling vortex. At the same time, Frank threw his entire body into the creature, punching over and over. Pained screams finally started coming from its mouth.

“Frank, keep it up!” Cal yelled as he moved backward.

He had one more trick to try if he could just get a good view around this damned tornado. It was ripping some of the new trees out of the ground. Cal heard Ethel scream in the distance. The plant life withered in front of him.

Andy pulled a radio out of his pocket. He had lost his headset at some point. “Albert, strafing runs now. We need more cover.”

In response, Cal heard several explosions rain down on the monster. The mana bombs had been deployed.

Frank started pounding the monster even harder. He was screaming incoherently now.

“Andy, we are running out of time. I’m pretty sure Ethel is down. I need to get to the other side of that tornado. Any ideas?” Cal yelled over the screaming wind.

“Yes, throw yourself straight up like you did earlier. I’ll catch you in the ball.”

Cal obeyed and blasted himself skyward at an angle, managing to clear the vortex entirely. He spotted Frank's continued assault.

“Frank, try to pry its mouth open. I’ve got an idea,” Cal screamed to the green giant.

The gravity ball caught him, slowing his fall just in time to witness Frank trying to rip the creature's jaw off. It was fighting back, tearing chunks of Frank off, but Frank just ignored it, lost deep in a focused rage at his singular task.

Cal dropped down beside him just as the jaw popped open. He shoved his hand into its mouth, pushed a ball of lightning as deep as he could, and emptied his core into it.

“Frank, run now!” he yelled, diving for cover himself.

Cal once again detonated his lighting ball. The giant Gryalth battle mage exploded, leaving a vast crater in the ground where the body used to be. Gas and water pipes erupted from under the street.

A new message flashed before Cal’s eyes.

Boss defeated +25 Gryalth killed.

Gryalth killed 50/50

Upgrades available at the R.I.S.

“Holy shit, we did it.” Cal collapsed. He couldn’t believe the amount of mana he had channeled today compared to Mars, and while he felt exhausted, it didn’t compare to the level of what he felt before. It looked like all his training had paid off.

“Will mom be okay next loop?” Frank yelled across the destroyed street. He had found Ethel’s broken body crumpled next to a car.

“It’s okay, Frank, she will be back, I promise,” Cal reassured him. Without Frank, they would have lost this fight. The strength he had was incredible. Whatever Ethel had done with him was nothing short of game-changing.

“Ralth, you may as well join us out here. We need another five minutes. We aren’t in any shape to keep fighting, and I’m sure more are coming.” Andy had pulled the radio back out.

“On my way,” Ralth answered.

Stan, Jen, and Bug had come out of the building to help Frank with Ethel’s body. Cal heard them trying to soothe him as they all returned to the lab together.

Cal spotted several waves of Gryalth incoming, likely to be here any second. Ralth appeared, running through the lab doors, and leaped into the sky. He only had to hold them another minute. He held them for five as he danced across the sky. Gryalth, after Gryalth, fell to his spells, but the forces just kept coming. Eventually, the same scene from Ralth’s previous end-of-loop battle played out in the sky again.

The last thing Cal saw was the world erupting into flame.