The Void Hornet was intelligent.

It had known that from the moment it first clashed with the intruders:

Against a single A Rank, it could have won.

Against two, it still had a chance.

But against three...

Its compound eyes flickered between the crimson woman blinking across the battlefield, the purple-eyed monster laughing as she traded blows with it, and the hazel-eyed woman constantly restricting every avenue of escape with shimmering constructs.

Victory was impossible.

Every passing second pushed it closer to death.

The crimson woman in particular was terrifying; her attacks had not weakened with time.

If anything, they only seemed to grow stronger.

It was as though the endless reserves of crimson energy pouring from her body would never run dry.

The beast could not understand it.

No creature should possess such an endless well of power.

But ultimately, it didn’t matter, with its instincts screaming only one thing:

Survive!

A deafening screech echoed across the floating islands.

Immediately, every remaining Void Hornet answered.

Dozens of black bodies turned simultaneously, abandoning their individual fights as they rushed toward their queen. The swarm condensed around the Boss Beast like a living fortress, wings vibrating loudly enough to shake the air.

With its army surrounding it, the Void Hornet finally felt a chance.

A slim one.

But a chance nonetheless.

Unfortunately for it...

It was still facing a clearing squad of elite Titled.

They might have been vastly outnumbered, but every single member understood exactly what they needed to do.

Ethan’s eyes darted across the battlefield in an instant.

’Flare Drive!’

He burst out of the way, grabbing Liora as a volley of stingers erupted toward them.

"I could have shielded myself," she murmured.

Though she may have been able to do so for one of those fired stingers, she honestly would have struggled with so many coming in their direction. And so, deep down, she was grateful and also impressed by Ethan’s diverse abilities.

But the Flaming Man’s mind was elsewhere.

’The Boss Beast, the swarm, their formation...’

Then the answer came naturally.

"Elara!" he yelled. "We need you to land one massive attack on that thing! Everyone else, create a path for her to the Boss Beast!"

It was the simplest but most effective approach, and the fact that the Boss Beast was hiding behind its brethren exposed that it had begun to falter. As such, though Elara hadn’t landed an attack yet with the beast’s speed and sharp vision, she would have a better chance now.

Nobody questioned him or hesitated, and the simplicity meant everyone could execute it immediately. The entire squad burst into action around the man who had somehow become the centre of their squad, despite being an E Rank not too long ago.

Even Ethan had not realised just how much he had contributed until now.

He had effectively replaced the role of several B Rank Titled.

His mobility rivalled specialist movement skills, his summoned beasts fought independently, and his adaptability allowed him to plug gaps wherever they appeared.

He was nowhere near an A Rank.

Not yet.

But he was much closer than he ever gave himself credit for.

Flames exploded from both of his hands.

"Ember Pulse!"

A wave of burning embers swept across the incoming swarm.

The hornets scattered instinctively, yet the sheer density of their formation meant dozens were caught anyway. Black shells ignited, and several hornets spiralled from the sky, trying to free themselves from Spark’s flames.

The surviving insects retaliated instantly.

Another series of stingers shot toward him like black arrows.

But Ethan was unfazed.

’Flare Drive!’

Fire erupted beneath him, his body shooting sideways, narrowly weaving between the barrage. One stinger passed close enough for him to feel the strange void energy radiating from it.

’Yeah... definitely don’t want that touching me.’

His arms flared again.

Instead of landing, he regulated the flames carefully, allowing himself to hover while conserving as much mana as possible.

It was expensive, but incredibly versatile.

Meanwhile, Wolfy had become the embodiment of destruction.

The massive Fenrir bounded between floating islands, its claws tearing through hornets whenever they flew too low. Its crimson eyes gleamed with savage delight as a thunderous howl erupted from its lungs.

Sovereign Howl.

The primal roar rolled across the battlefield.

Nearby hornets visibly slowed, their formations faltered, and their coordination crumbled.

Wolfy immediately capitalised.

It launched itself into the middle of them, ripping apart one hornet before using another as a stepping stone to reach a third.

Blood and shattered chitin rained downward.

Above everything else, Talon continued circling.

The Griffling remained patient.

Whenever isolated hornets attempted to flank the squad, it swooped down with incredible speed, slashing with razor-sharp talons before retreating into open skies.

Together, Ethan’s beasts had become an entire combat unit of their own.

"They’re unbelievable," Rowan muttered as he watched Wolfy tear another hornet apart.

"And they’re smart," Seraphina added, striking another insect away with a pink flurry of punches in an instant. "That’s even scarier."

The hornets continued pouring toward their queen, the battlefield erupting into even wilder chaos.

Elara vanished, not planning on sitting idly while the others did all the work.

A Crimson Flash carved through the clustered insects, vaporising several in a single beam.

Ethan followed immediately.

Another Ember Pulse engulfed a section of the swarm, turning the tightly packed hornets into living torches.

Liora’s hands swept gracefully through the air.

Two razor-thin barriers materialised, before suddenly crossing like the blades of gigantic scissors.

Several charging hornets flew directly into them.

They were sliced cleanly in half before their bodies even realised they had died.

Beside her, Rowan slammed both palms onto a wooden construct.

"Wood Javelin."

Dozens of sharpened spears erupted from behind him.

Unlike ordinary projectiles, each reinforced javelin corrected its trajectory mid-flight through Rowan’s manipulation. They shot into the swarm one after another, impaling hornets before exploding into twisting vines that dragged insects from the sky, even if they survived the impalement.

Seraphina blurred between the falling bodies, finishing off anything that survived.

Even Darius, despite his injuries, wielded his flaming spear with frightening accuracy, every thrust claiming another target.

The entire battlefield became a perfectly coordinated machine.

Nobody interfered with anyone else’s attacks or blocked another’s line of fire, with every movement naturally complementing the others.

Watching it all unfold, Ethan couldn’t help but smile.

’Now this is a clearing squad.’

His thoughts drifted briefly toward the Ant Gate.

Back then, they hadn’t truly been a team, and once they split up and headed deep into those tunnels, their fates were sealed. He had certainly made questionable decisions himself, and ultimately, he was the cause of the Gate Takeover.

But he did what he could, and with some luck and the help of a crazy demon, he came out of that gate stronger.

His current predicament was entirely different.

Ethan was surrounded by skilled professionals who instinctively understood one another even in complete chaos. Elara, who had been wielding her abilities for an even shorter period than he had, was also impressively in sync.

And they had all accepted his idea, even Kaela.

The path slowly opened as they thinned out the swarm, exactly as he had intended.

That’s when Liora acted.

Her constructs surged forward, barrier after barrier forming around the Void Hornet.

It was a shimmering prison.

The Boss Beast slammed into it with his stinger, and each time, the construct would be consumed in an instant.

But Liora would simply produce another.

That was until she couldn’t.

She ran out of energy and lost control before they could focus a final attack on it.

"Kaela!" Ethan yelled.

"Already on it!"

The purple-eyed woman laughed.

She exploded forward like a cannonball, her violet aura flaring violently.

The Riot Valkyrie crashed into the hornet that had just freed itself with enough force to fold its body around her fist before driving it upwards into the sky.

Her attack shook the entire gate and flung the Void Hornet exactly into the line of fire.

Blink!

Elara appeared above it, a giant orb of crimson energy formed in her hands, the air around it distorting. Even from hundreds of metres away, Ethan could feel the terrifying pressure building.

Nobody spoke or moved, as if time itself had frozen, all eyes on the red-eyed woman.

’Now that’s power.’

Kaela burst out of the way, bounding off a construct Liora had formed with the last of her mana, but the Void Hornet wasn’t as lucky.

Elara focused intently and opened her hands.

’Giant Crimson Flash!’

A colossal beam descended from the heavens.

The air screamed as the beam swallowed the Boss Beast whole before crashing through the island beneath it and continuing into the endless void below.

Blood-red light consumed everything.

The explosion was blinding but oddly silent, destroying everything in its path.

And when the light faded, nothing remained.

The Void Hornet had been erased, with not even a fragment left.

Silence settled across the battlefield.

Then the surviving hornets began to panic, losing coordination without their leader. Their instinct to obey was overcome by their will to live now that their queen had been eliminated.

The remaining insects scattered in every direction.

Some fled into the endless distance, others disappeared into cracks between the floating islands, but none of them had any desire to continue fighting.

Ethan lowered himself onto a nearby island, his flames flickering weakly as he let out a long breath.

"We actually did it."

Kaela rolled her shoulders.

"One down."

Liora looked toward the horizon, where four more Boss Beasts still waited somewhere within the Gate.

"But we’re not finished."

"No," Ethan agreed, a grin spreading across his face.

"But now we know exactly how to kill them."

And that changed everything.

The first battle had been the hardest.

From this point onward, the squad moved with complete confidence, blitzing through the Gate with far greater speed than before.

They had discovered their rhythm.

Now it was simply a matter of repeating it until every Boss Beast fell...