Ejiro’s tiny figure ran up the Bone Mother’s arm, using his wings to balance himself. The creature tried to crush him with her hand.

Ejiro had the reflexes of a fly. The vampire jumped off the Bone Mother and flew the rest of the way up, landing on her shoulder. The skeleton’s third head stared at him with surprise.

The mage raised his sword, casting light out of the end to blind his enemy. He propelled himself with his large wings and was about to strike at the third head’s eye socket when they shone.

“Argh!”

A green glow followed by intense wind pressure sent him spinning and falling to the ground.

Jenna caught him with her spirit manifestation. “Hey, Ejiro.”

The vampire looked around as he caught his breath. The Bone Mother had six legs. Each of her steps caused a flood of dead bodies. Only the quickest vampires and the long-range magicians could fight against the monster safely. However, the Bone Mother’s barrier wrapped around her mass protected her from attacks.

“Do you need our help?” Luo flew next to him, his body hidden underneath a blue fire.

“I just talked to Stephen,” Seth said over the comms. He was climbing the Bone Mother’s back. “Isaac is hurt and the army can’t help us because of a blue barrier at the gate. We have to fight this thing by ourselves for now.”

Ejiro Sani grinned. “Alright, let’s focus on the skull I just attacked. I need you to distract it so it can’t use wind magic on me.”

Jenna catapulted the two young men with her glowing hand. Seth teleported on top of the skull and tapped it with his staff, suffocating it inside a dark shadow.

“It’s blinded!”

Luo touched Ejiro’s sword and covered it in blue flames. “Go for it!”

The vampire first attacked the skull with a light ray, but it bounced off without doing any damage. He kept pushing forward, dodging under the Bone Mother’s hand, and jumping off its other arm. He raised his sword above his head, burning the air, and landed it into the skull’s eye socket.

The barrier shattered! Blue particles evaporated in the air. The fire on his sword reached inside the crevices and melted the skull. “Seth, it’s your turn!”

The old man applied more force to his staff. The shadow spread to the skull’s hollow brain. Applying more pressure on the melted calvarium, the head imploded.

Seth and Ejiro fell. However, their smiles quickly stiffened as the particles in the air suddenly reunited like magnets.

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“What?” Luo blinked. “It regenerated itself? But how? I didn’t see red magic!”

The mages reunited next to Jenna.

Seth sighed. “It wasn’t regeneration, look at the cracks. It reconstructed itself. Plus, that doesn’t seem to have exhausted her because keeping millions of bones together takes much more mana than repairing a third head.”

Jenna pondered. “What if we make her fall over instead? Wouldn’t that be enough to break her bones and exhaust her mana?”

Seth nodded. “Then, we need to attack its legs.”

“But it has six of them!” Ejiro complained.

…

Aaron, Gabriella, Christopher and Anne arrived above Torque’s roof. The concrete ground shook at the rhythm of the numerous explosions up ahead.

Rico’s army hadn’t yet advanced to Torque. Thousands of Topaz soldiers were fighting against the rebels up ahead. Mages and humanoids were also shuffled into the swarm. There was a tall steel barricade to protect the artillery far away.

Bullets swarmed the rebels and explosives carved holes in the ground, causing damage to the land below.

Arriving at the battlefront, the four fought against androids when an armoured mage threw a fireball at Aaron. The wind mage dashed, jumped above them, and planted a bullet in their head.

-Pyuu!

“Ouch!” Despite his swiftness, something scrapped Aaron’s neck. He felt the wound. “Snipers! Be careful!”

Gabriella flew up and protected herself with her wings. “It came from the barricade!”

Aaron took a peak with his sniper before another bullet shot past him.

“I can see that!” Someone was targeting him.

The Vampire Queen landed next to Aaron and shielded him. “Aaron, don’t you remember the prison mission? Use the invisibility cloak to hide yourself!”

“Oh, right!” He unzipped a small bag on his belt. A thin cloth suddenly wrapped around him as he became translucent. “Don’t you also have one?”

Gabriella nodded. “Yes, but I prefer to keep my wings out!’

Accompanied by Anne and Christopher, they split up and slowly made their way to the barricade.

…

“Did you get him?”

Leaning against the barricade, the sniper shook his head. “No, he disappeared!”

A bullet pierced his helmet and startled Rico.

He frowned as he looked at his tablet. The red dot on the map was approaching him. “Aaron, do you think you’re being sneaky? I can see everywhere you go!”

“Aaron? Do you mean Aaron Amon?” A voice surged from behind.

Rico spun around. “Who are you?!”

The reptoid greeted him. “We met virtually before. I am Zephyr Dragos, the Second Seat.”

“You’re that incompetent lizard.”

Zephyr’s eyes were quiet and narrow.

Rico continued, “Jacob gave you a second chance and you failed. The Dark Faction doesn’t tolerate disappointment. You will be replaced after I’ve dealt with this battle.”

‘No matter what I do, all that awaits me is death.’ Trying to stay solemn, Zephyr shut his eyes. “I see. Please allow me to deal with your brother.”

“That’s fine. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to die with a guilty conscience either.”