Before the monster could change anything about its approach, Rieren threw herself at it.

Her position was awkward. Lying flat on the ground did not grant one a spot from which one could launch oneself at enemies. Thankfully, she had summoned her Domain. The steam that burst from underneath her propelled her straight upwards faster than the monster could react.

Rieren’s slash was also too quick for it to evade or block. Her sword cut through its mouth, and its resultant shriek was lost in the roar of the geyser lifting her into the air.

She twirled in the air to right herself. Something strange shifted inside her, which was rather alarming for it wasn’t accompanied by any agony thanks to Reaver Stance’s pain suppression. But it did emphasize that her injury was severe, that even Divine Resilience would have trouble healing it.

Rieren forgot about it. She had a monster to show what she was truly capable of, so she bent her focus on it.

The Shifter hadn’t simply been still after Rieren’s surprise attack. Though its mouth sported a grisly wound that was spewing a great deal of black blood, it had thrown itself into the air with its massive wings. It even reached her before she could properly reorient herself to counter it.

But a quick use of Earthfall Blade was enough to send it careening past her. At the same time, Reaver Stance had boosted all her strength and reaction times. As such, she was able to leave a parting slash across the monster’s side even as it flew past, her blade cutting through its metallic scales. The Shifter screamed out in frustration.

Rieren was momentarily free from any retaliation. Gravity was already pulling her back down to where her Domain stood. She landed with a splash, readying herself for the monster’s next move.

Its attack came in just the manner she was expecting it to. As before, the Shifter slammed down from high above with incredible momentum, landing with the impact of the meteor. The moment it landed, a shockwave ripped outwards, taking along with it all her Domain’s water and a terrific number of rocks.

Rieren was ready for it. She had already sidestepped so as not to be crushed directly under the Shifter. A quick deflect with her sword was enough to ward off the rock-bearing shockwave too.

Granting her the opening for her counterattack.

She couldn’t do anything fancy, unfortunately. With how fast the monster was, even the tiny time it took to activate a skill would be enough for the Shifter to react and prepare. Instead, Rieren lunged forward with as powerful a stab as she could manage. With her strength greatly boosted by Reaver Stance, it dealt a heavy blow to the Shifter.

Rieren cursed as she quickly jumped back, using Fray Passage to put some distance between them. The monster was able to reduce the injury’s effect. Just before her blade had connected with its chest, the monster had expanded its torso. That meant the lash that should have been wide and devastating was only a minuscule wound when the chest contracted again.

“You…” The reptilian head licked its sharp teeth as it arose. “I know not what you are, but I can tell that you are a special breed. Are there more of your kind in this land?”

“You will not be finding out,” Rieren said. “Your death is assured.”

Instead of being insulted, the Shifter actually laughed. “Then deliver it, if you can.”

A challenge Rieren was well aware she might fall short of. But never let it be said that she hadn’t tried.

She charged. Fray Passage didn’t have many charges left. Twice more, and she would no longer be able to use it. She was going to have to be careful.

The Shifter had launched itself at her. It seemed the monster hadn’t learned that the dynamic of their physical altercations had shifted. When it tried to launch a barrage of attacks upon her, a short burst of Fray Passage took her to its side and a pace forward. Just enough for Rieren’s Earthfall Blade to deflect its left arm and send it careening again.

Then she launched Gale Blade again.

Fast as the Shifter was, it wasn’t able to keep up with her Reaver Stance-boosted skill. Her first slash couldn’t take off the arm altogether as she had been aiming for, but it certainly left a powerful gash across it.

Unfortunately, when she turned to continue with the next Gale Blade slices, the monster had come up with a different counter. It had once more expanded its body to several times its regular size. The only bit of that remained the same was the arm she had just sliced through.

As such, Gale Blade was almost entirely nullified. Rieren might have left several long cuts across the Shifter’s enormous body, but none of them were as deep or severe as she needed them to be. As was proven when it pulled itself back into its regular size. All the wounds looked like they had been delivered by thin daggers, not a longsword capable of severing limbs.

“Enough!” the Shifter shouted.

She would have continued her attacks, see how it liked being the subject of a relentless pummelling of powerful blows, but it had taken itself several paces into the air. Rieren had difficulty reaching that high.

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Which, it would seem, the Shifter was depending on.

Without warning, both of its legs expanded until they were each as large as Culvert trees, standing almost two dozen paces high. Then it launched itself at her.

The attacks weren’t the kind Rieren could deflect easily. Even with her temporarily improved strength and reflexes—which was slowly going down as Divine Resilience healed her internal wounds—the monster’s assault was difficult to parry. The staccato crush of blows came in too fast and furious.

Thankfully, Rieren was able to use Fray Passage to get away from the worst of the danger. The ground shook with each impact, Rieren had pulled herself back far enough not to get caught in it.

Apparently, catching her with its furious steps wasn’t even the Shifter’s main intention. It had lasted mere moments, the cavalcade of stomps powerful enough to send a veritable rockslide flying into the air as the ground was shattered by the Shifter’s power. With that done, the monster zipped to the ground before the rocks could return to the earth.

Then it expanded its wings until each was as large as a sail. One quick, incredibly powerful beat was all it took to send a rippling shockwave blasting out.

Rieren’s eyes widened at the same moment. So that had been its intention all along. The Shifter had never sought to crush Rieren under its feet. It knew she was fast enough to evade the worst of that. No. It had simply thrown up enough rocks to create a floating landslide and then thrown them all forward in a devastating meteor shower to obliterate her.

There wasn’t much time for Rieren to observe and plan her defense. Her instincts took over, guided solely by the reaction time afforded by her Mind.

The first blast of the attack was much like the one that had occurred when the Shifter had landed so crushingly in the middle of her Domain. It was the shockwave itself, the rocky brunt of its force borne along at an incredible pace.

Rieren simply jumped right over that. All she had to do was use Fray Passage momentarily to get out of its range. But when she landed down, the rest of the rocks were sailing overhead to land like meteors. That was where her Earthfall Blade skill took over, slashing aside stone after broken stone so that she wasn’t struck down.

There was no time for her to relax, not even a moment’s breather, for the Shifter had already launched itself in another assault.

Once again, the monster charged at her physically, its arms outstretched as though to catch her if she attempted to dodge away. Rieren grimaced. She didn’t have any more Fray Passage uses left. She couldn’t have dodged even if she had wanted to. Deflections were all she had.

When they finally connected, Rieren was able to parry the Shifter’s first strike and let it blow past her without suffering much damage. But she was pushed back a bit.

She swallowed in realization. Reaver Stance was finally coming to an end. Both the skill’s time of effect and her perk healing up the injuries that was powering it. Not good.

The Shifter seemed to realize innately that its superiority was reasserting itself. It had turned again, reptilian mouth bared in a rictus grin promising death. Rieren was barely able to deflect each and every hammering blow that it landed upon her, somehow able to keep her footing.

With Reaver Stance fading, pain was returning as well. Her stomach area felt like she had swallowed a burning anvil. If she had tried, she probably could have vomited out lava.

There was no doubt that one more blow from the monster, if it connected, would be the end of her.

So it was a rather good thing that their battle had strayed to where others had caught sight of it. Namely, the Elders.

As Rieren fell back, she realized she was stepping backwards on what felt like grass or some other kind of small plant under her feet. That was supposed to be impossible within the dungeon, which had nothing even remotely similar to sunlight. Well, not before the mountain’s destruction had opened up many of its hallways and tunnels.

The only other possibility was that she had stepped into someone’s Domain.

As if sensing the same thing, the Shifter disengaged from Rieren, pulling itself back just in time. Elder Alm came in from nowhere. His fist landed a crushing blow on the monster’s upper arm. Though the Shifter had blocked the attack from landing somewhere worse, the force behind the Elder’s blow still sent it flying backwards.

“Take this,” the Elder said, throwing her a flower. Rieren barely caught the tiny plant with the blue petals. “And get away from here.”

As the Elder ran off, leaving a faint odour of fresh bloom, she barely caught several different flowers wreathing his bald pate, his wrists, and even popping from his robes.

Rieren looked down at the little blue flower. She recognized it. A healing plant. The different flowers Elder Alm summoned in his Domain held different properties. This one had the ability to heal most wounds on a person.

Swallowing her distaste, Rieren put the flower in her mouth. Some quick chewing—which brought on the very taste she had feared—and she swallowed it down with a bit of difficulty. She tried not to gag. It took only a few seconds more before her pain began disappearing.

The flowers were immensely strong, not least due to the fact that Elder Alm was at the Early-Exalted realm. Quite a few realms away from Rieren’s own. Her Divine Resilience would catch up one day before long, but for the moment, it would be silly not to take the opportunity of faster healing.

Rieren looked around. Now that she had been afforded a moment of peace, she could take a bit of time to actually figure out what was going on in her surroundings.

The battle was still raging everywhere, of course. Monsters, both dead and alive, still filled the chamber. Thankfully, she didn’t spot too many corpses of cultivators or guards or soldiers.

If she wasn’t wrong, some of the Abyss Rents had actually closed too. Amalyse and Silk had been successful in diverting the Abyssals’ attention to themselves while the Arteroth soldiers used their clan’s technique to seal off the various rents. Not all of them, though. Not even close. There were still far too many all around them.

“Thanks for saving my hide,” Cerill said as he staggered over.

He looked like he would be happy to drop then and there, and not rise back up again. There were no serious wounds as far as Rieren could see, but the exhaustion written in the way he held himself was far too obvious.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Thanks to you.” He shook his head. “How can you survive that long against a B-Grade Abyssal all by yourself? You’re insane, you know that?”

She ignored his line of thought. “We need to close the rest of the Abyss Rents.”

“That we do. But…”

But there were too many. Even a cursory glance was enough to reveal that. By the slow time they managed to close each and every Abyss Rent, they would long have run out of the Essence and energy needed to defend themselves against the hordes of Abyssals, even if they were capable of defeating them.

As Rieren looked around, however, a new idea popped up in her head. She had spotted familiar, earthy roots she had seen before. More evidence that Serace’s power—or perhaps the Anachron’s—was spreading throughout the dungeon.

And that was going to be their path to victory.