Her pride was stomped beyond belief, but she put the feeling aside as the giant monster finally appeared for them to defeat. She could even point out the battle with her eyes, Her Kinetic Manipulation boosting her eyesight tenfold. Bastion soldiers were trying, and failing, to attack the monster. She expected that the boss had the capabilities to control the elements, its different colored talons and claws making the hint, but she was stunned at the level of control.

With one slash, the so-called Nature Weaver Monarch summoned slashes of condensed water that decimated an area, demolishing everything in its path like a horrid storm. Any soldier in the middle of that was slashed apart, their body parts dissipating into motes of blood and viscera from the pressure.

It made her sick to see so many people die, even if they were her enemies. Shouldn’t they know such a thing was clearly beyond them? Putting aside that there could be actual Journeymen than the fakers that she and her group fought, not even Cloud and Val would approach the creature so casually.

She could only blame the ones in charge of the army. Only they would haphazardly send an army to their deaths as meat shields to find out the weakness of the boss. She understood the value of finding any information, but at the cost of so many lives was just nauseating to her.

She shook her head. Even after trying to gather herself by keeping a look out for the rest of her comrades, she still couldn’t find Zeke and Clara. She knew the lords would be fine, so her nerves were frayed at the thought of anything happening to them. Even if she had actual news from Zeke himself that he and Clara were fine, He had the bad luck of getting himself into trouble.

Last time that happened, he ended up jumping around the entire tower filled with zombies in a superball. Last time before that, he ended up making himself bait across the field in front of Eve Glade’s entrance. Hell, even before that, didn’t he try to sacrifice himself to get the girls out of the tower when they faced their own Master of the Tower?

The more she recalled those memories during the strange null of activity, the more she flared her sight forward. It was only then she got caught in surprise when a hand touched her shoulder.

“Mikella, keep yourself aware of your surroundings,” Piker said, nearly making Mikella slap his hand away before realizing it was him. “I know you’re worried, but we need you on your toes.”

“Right, right, sorry,” Mikella shook her head. She hated having her consciousness disappearing when she used her senses to search. “But I can’t help it! We’re closer than ever before to the fortress and we still can’t find head or tail of him and Clara.”

“We at least know he’s nowhere near the boss,” Myra mentioned, pointing at the boss several miles away. Even at this distance, the pressure was palpable, but it was manageable. “That’s something. Also, I think I found the lords!”

Mikella turned to where Myra was pointing at, actually using her hand to cover the top of her eyes. She didn’t need to do that, her Kinetic senses being as good as Mikella’s, but it was a habit that even Mikella herself would do sometimes. Following her direction, she managed to see a lot of magic spells flying about, noticing that it had to be Cloud’s spells attacking.

Then there was that bright purple flames that seemed to be radiating pure power. It made her body shiver at the sight of it, the density of those flames being too unnerving to look at. But at the same time, they felt off. She didn’t know what it was, and put that thought aside as Piker spoke up.

“Let’s go after them. We might not be able to handle that mage they’re fighting against, though. He looks like he might even be at Master-stage,” Piker frowned, his scowl returning back in waves.

“Master-stage?” Mikella asked, surprised. “Is that seriously a Master?”

“Probably the Lord of Bastion,” Myra guessed. “I don’t know about them, but if there’s a Master in that group, that’s gotta be the leader. Besides, you heard the wolf guy–his dad’s here, so that’s gotta be him.”

“His dad’s at Master-stage, huh…”

She can’t imagine having someone as powerful as that as a father. Yet despite that, Zyler seemed like the sort to be utterly carefree and lacking any sort of ambition other than to look for a good fight. Following that, she asked.

“Should we try to find that guy? Zyler?”

“Even if we find him, we should focus more on defeating the boss,” Piker said, but he had a thoughtful look on his face. “Everyone else is heading there now, trying to get some damage at it. It’s a free-for-all, so we need to be the ones to take it.”

Mikella grimaced, but she nodded. She never liked having to compete for this type of thing. She liked to compete against singular opponents, but these types of competitions always had something nasty working in the background. You never know when someone’s cheating to get the upper hand while the hard-working ones would get left behind. She put that aside as she forced herself to keep moving forward.

Her battle with Zyler left her wanting, but she had plenty of energy left. She may not be a good competitor, but she can certainly fuck up some of the other competitors around her, especially those to which she doesn’t sympathize with.

The three headed towards the fortress, their bodies surging with kinetic energy to run faster.

…..

The Weaver roared in defiance against the attacks, each one barely denting its metal-clad hide and just scratching the thing. The monster was too powerful, perhaps way more powerful than its level suggested. Zeke did consider that the monster might be more of a raid-level boss than just a normal dungeon boss, different from the Commander they faced earlier.

There were separate levels of power, each one requiring more preparation and teamwork than actual strength. Sure, they could just add in their own Master-staged person into the mix, but he feared that even a Master won’t get off from that fight unscathe.

Forget about his own abilities, he wondered how many seconds he would last against it even with his most powerful barrier with all his Mana poured into it. That’s what the pressure of it was telling him. He shook that fear off, focusing more on getting to his teammates.

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The information he pried off from the hack he faced before said that the entire Bastion army was consisting of those fake Journeymen. He was right to consider that the soldiers were in fact just ghosts of themselves, not truly Journeymen, but that wasn’t the point.

The one he truly worried about was the actual Master, the Lord of Bastion being here. He was also the one responsible for sending an army to their town to kill their people.

It made him angry at the thought that the guy had the audacity to come to their territory again to take their biodome that was so close to them, but he also considered why the hell would the Lord come to such a place that could be dangerous. Sure, he was a Master, but wouldn’t his people be nervous to have their Lord leave them like that in case something did happen? It seemed to Zeke like the guy was desperate, and he hoped that might get in the way of their plans.

The winds were whipping against him as he raced across the biodome, ignoring the monsters that would prove pointless. He was running pretty fast, thanks to the infusion of his Dexterity with barrier skates. He needed to preserve as much energy as possible, but he was having a pretty shitty time finding his comrades. He swore that when they eventually leave, he would put his efforts into fine-tuning the rune stone to make more calls. Then again, it wasn’t about the runes put into it, but the cost of the material that held him back, leaving him to grumble inwardly.

He landed on the nearby ground, mostly surrounded by the stones of the fortress. It was farther away than normal, hoping that perhaps his team was separated farther. Now that the boss appeared, he was trying to get back into the fortress’ range. There were some rubble of crystal shards, done so by the nearby battles that have occurred. The entire biodome was in such a mess, especially now that the boss appeared thanks to Bastion’s interference.

Just as he was ready to expand his senses again with stamina, his eyes widened to find that someone was approaching him.

An individual racing across the field faster than he ever could. Before he could make sense of it, the figure landed a few feet across from him. His clawed feet dug at the ground, creating a small crater from the impact. It didn’t disturb Zeke as much, getting used to mostly everything disturbing his surroundings.

What really disturbed him was the creature that appeared in front of him. A tall wolf, muscular in every form wearing only extremely fine clothed pants. They looked like they were ready to bulge, the muscles turning taut from the effort of landing from the sky itself.

It stood upright, becoming even taller than Zeke imagined. His shoulders were broad, his abs cut into his chest like chiseled stone, flashing white fangs that could pierce through steel.

His glowing red eyes flashed, tilting his head as his ears flopped up and down at the new person in front of him.

“Well, lookey here,” The wolf man literally spoke, ignoring the prolonged snout as he spoke with perfect clearance. “I didn’t expect a little fledgling to be around here.”

Zeke gulped, not answering to the wolfman’s words. He could already guess that the wolf in front of him was in fact Zyler, the true Journeymen and son of the Master-staged Lord. If his Identify wasn’t enough, just the mere presence of him was enough to tell how dangerous he was.

Zeke faced him in his entirety, glaring at the man. Why was he here? Wasn’t he supposed to be near the fortress, helping his father defeat the boss?

Zyler tilted his head back into position, crouching slightly. “You’re heading over to the boss, huh? Well, I wouldn’t if I were you. It’s becoming a shit show over there.”

Zeke raised a brow involuntarily. Was the man actually giving him advice?

“Then again, that would just make it harder for me to hunt you townies down. Your soldiers were pretty good, so I knew they would have some surprises lying around just in case.”

Zyler grinned, flashing his fangs at Zeke.

“And look at what I found–a hidden weapon… but then, you’re not all that impressive, huh?”

Zeke stayed quiet. His heart was racing at his words, even when his words felt scathing to hear. The wolfman actually looked disappointed, crossing his furry bulging arms across his massive chest.

“Seriously, why the hell are you alone? A Runist, of all people, and you got no weapons or guards. You got no traps here–as far as I can smell it. Hell, you don’t even smell like you got anything of note. Why the fuck are you here all by yourself?”

Zeke hung his head back in incomprehension. It’s not like I did this on purpose.

“You lost or something, little boy?” Zyler emasculated, tilting his head again in confusion. “If so, I suggest leaving and going back to your Momma’s–”

Just as Zyler was probably going to make another scathing comment, his snout flinched and flared. His head tilted too quickly for Zeke to perceive, then he spoke, more surprised than confused.

“You… you smell like the girl,” Zyler said. He grinned. “Oh, what? So you know that Mikella girl or something?”

That was when everything around Zeke turned still. His eyes widened, and he felt his chest tighten up. He heard about Zyler from the other soldiers, but he hadn’t heard about Zyler meeting up with Mikella.

What did he do to her? His thoughts raced, his mind nearly turning blank.

“Shit, and here I was hoping she was single,” Zyler laughed. “Man, she’s quite a girl, ain’t she? All tough as nails and got that spark in her eyes–literally! You have no idea how much of a bruiser she was, man.”

Zyler shook his head, still grinning. He still had his arms crossed before opening them wide. “It made it all the more satisfying when I beat her down and showed her her place. And even then, she was definitely a fighter. But here you are, all by your lonesome. I don’t know why you smell like her, but it’s clear she’s beyond your grade. Poor girl’s already taken by a beta like yourself, hah!”

Zyler let out an exasperated breath, sounding more disappointed at the news of Mikella being taken. All the while, Zyler didn’t realize that Zeke’s mind stopped working after he mentioned him beating her down.

His heart slammed against his chest, and his mana surged beyond anything he ever felt before. Without realizing, his collar began to fizzle with blue sparks, covering it entirely. Zyler didn’t even notice the changes occuring as he kept speaking.

“It really is a shame, ah well,” Zyler stood upright. He shook off his body to flex it further. “Better to just get it over with. Probably lots more soldiers around here. But hey, don’t get me wrong–you got guts for going so far to get to her level and–”

When Zyler turned to find the weak Runist in front of him, he paused. Before he could realize it, Zeke was already there, right in front of him. His fist was extended far behind him as he swung with all his might, his veins popping like cables and blue electricity forming around his neck. His fist was glowing with greenish energy as he slammed against Zyler’s abdomen.

His punch bent the stomach, flowing deeper into the center of his body as Zyler’s expression distorted into massive shock and pain. It all happened slowly, as if time was fixed to a simple crawl. Soon everything exploded as a burst of air pumped throughout the surroundings, every single debris and clutter around them scattering to the air as Zyler’s body flew across the stony area, slamming against several pillars of stone that were in his path.

Several meters away, Zyler landed on the ground into a meaty heap, his body contorted as he breathed heavily. His red eyes flashed in pain as he stood up quickly to find Zeke still extending his fist high.

He returned back to his posture, his eyes glowing bright blue-green as he glared at the bastard in front of him. His runes on his arms flashed as he poured his mana into his body, his voice echoing out.

“What the hell did you do to Mikky?” He growled, his voice becoming primal.