Damien’s voice. Noah glanced sideways and saw it immediately.

Light was rising from Damien’s body. Not just from his sword. From his skin, his clothes, his entire frame, a golden radiance that brightened steadily as his ability came online fully. His speed when he moved next was different.

It was sharper. Like watching a person move at one pace and then suddenly watching them move at another entirely.

He closed on the creature in an instant.

The creature saw him coming and swung its claw.

BOOM!

Sword met claw and the shockwave pushed Damien back several meters. He didn’t fall. His boots dragged across the stone and he stopped, steadied, and looked up.

The creature turned its head toward Noah. Claw swung at him.

Noah blocked it with his blade.

Cling!

The force was too much as Noah was thrown backward from the impact.

A sharp pain shopt through Noah’s arm from the impact.

Then its mouth opened wide.

A red magic circle formed in the air just beyond its teeth. Mana gathered around it visibly, trembling and unstable, concentrating into something dense at the center. A sphere took shape. Red with black lines running through it, pulsing with each passing second as it built toward release.

It was aiming at Noah. But sensing Damien near it, the creature changed his direction.

It adjusted and pointed directly at Damien.

Noah who rolled on the ground pushed himself up, "DAMIEN NOW!" He shouted loudly.

Damien understood without needing more than that.

He moved. Full speed. Straight at the creature’s open mouth and the building sphere in front of it.

His sword arm pulled back and the golden light at the tip of his blade condensed, pulling inward, gathering everything he had left into a single concentrated point.

The creature sensed him and tried to redirect.

But it was too late.

The golden sphere at Damien’s sword tip and the red sphere at the creature’s mouth met each other at the same moment.

The creature’s eyes went wide. Something crossed its expression that had not been there before.

Fear.

"What is—" it started.

The golden light did not collide with the red and explode outward. It swallowed it.

Expanded around it, covering the red sphere entirely, spreading outward past the creature’s body and wrapping around everything in its radius including Damien himself.

Noah turned and ran.

Behind him the light kept growing. Warm and overwhelming, filling the entire chamber, bleaching the crystal glow from the walls into nothing.

Noah threw his arm over his eyes and kept running, the heat of it pressing against his back like an open furnace.

Then it detonated.

BOOM!

The shockwave hit him from behind like a wall. His feet left the ground. He flew forward through the blinding light with no control over his direction and no way to know what he was going to land on.

The ground came up fast.

Then everything was white.

Then nothing.

Noah couldn’t run away anymore.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself back to his feet and charged toward the area of the explosion.

Smoke swallowed the battlefield, spreading across the shattered ground like a dark fog. Burnt dust filled the air, making it hard to breathe or even see ahead.

Still, Noah kept running.

His right hand gripped the sword so tightly his fingers trembled. Frost crawled along the blade, layers of sharp ice forming around the steel as mana poured into it.

Step after step, he pushed through the smoke.

Slowly, the haze began to thin.

And then he saw it.

A massive silhouette stood ahead, unmoving.

"GRRKKK!!"

The creature was still alive—just as Noah had feared.

Its growl was weaker now, rough and strained with pain.

As Noah got closer, he could finally see the monster’s back clearly. Its body was covered in burns and torn flesh. Black scorch marks spread across its skin while green blood dripped onto the cracked ground beneath it.

Noah’s own wound burned fiercely.

The injury across his stomach hadn’t healed completely. Every movement sent sharp pain through his body, but he ignored it and continued forward.

The creature staggered slightly, barely able to move.

Noah’s eyes sharpened.

Mana surged into his legs.

He bent low.

Then exploded upward with all his strength.

The monster slowly began walking forward, dragging its heavy body toward Damien, who still lay motionless on the ground.

But Noah was already above it.

He held the sword tightly with both hands, blade pointed downward toward the creature’s neck.

And then,

THUD!

SHCCKKK!!

The blade pierced deep into the monster’s nape before it even had the chance to turn around.

"ARRRREEEGHHH!!"

A horrifying scream echoed through the battlefield as the sword tore through its neck and burst out from the front side of its throat.

Green blood erupted like a fountain.

"Y-you little pest... ggrkkk—!!"

The creature’s words suddenly broke apart into distorted choking sounds, as if its mind itself was collapsing.

Noah didn’t stop.

With a furious roar, he forced even more mana into the sword.

Ice instantly spread from the blade inside the creature’s neck.

CRACK—!

Frozen energy burst outward violently. Thick ice rapidly covered its throat while countless sharp ice spikes exploded from within the wound, piercing through flesh and bone alike.

The monster’s body trembled.

Then the light in its eyes slowly faded away.

Its enormous body finally collapsed forward.

THUD!!

The ground shook beneath the impact.

Silence followed.

Noah remained sitting on the creature’s back, breathing heavily. His sword was still buried deep inside its frozen nape.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as he slowly lifted his eyes toward Damien.

Damien was conscious.

But he couldn’t move even an inch.

Noah weakly pulled himself off the corpse.

His legs trembled from exhaustion.

"Damien..." he muttered between heavy breaths, looking at his friend.

A tired grin appeared on his bloodied face.

"We did it..."

He glanced back at the lifeless monster.

"...we killed this shit."

He exhaled softly.

Finally they were safe.