A humming, distorted field wrapped around the pitch-black blade of Night Singer. Hide violently swung the short sword upward, meeting the descending dark bone spear head-on.

CLANG!

The impact was catastrophic. But this time, Hide didn’t go flying.

The moment the beast’s immense physical force hit the sword, the mana field swallowed it entirely.

The kinetic energy was violently redirected, completely bypassing Hide’s body and entered the ground beneath him. A shockwave moved outwards from his body and suddenly the ground beneath him shattered.

Hide suddenly had an idea... what if he could redirect the force back at the beast. He retreated his weapon back, but the beast pressed on and swung the spear again.

The spear arced from Hide’s left side, Hide intercepted it and thought really hard about sending the force back to the spear, and it did. His hand did feel a bit weird as a lot of energy entered it and then left.

The Slaughter Doll let out a horrific, garbled screech, its right arm violently jerking back as its own internal muscle fibers tore themselves apart from the inside out.

The beast kicked off the air again, retreating high into the sky.

It was a success!

"Hide!" Elara screamed from the sidelines.

She had rushed to the unconscious Evelyn, erecting a thick, glowing dome of pale blue ice over both of them to protect her friend from the shockwaves. "Where are you? It can control air, watch your surroundings!"

"I know!" Hide shouted back, keeping his eyes locked on the beast. ’Better than you at that.’ He added inwardly.

The Slaughter Doll was furious. It wiped a spray of dark blood from its faceless visor, its bio-mechanical armor hissing with steam. It lunged again, this time utilizing its aerial supremacy to its fullest extent.

For the next two minutes, the ruined street turned into a chaotic, suffocating death trap.

The C-Rank beast darted through the sky like a pinball, kicking off invisible, solidified air-steps to attack Hide from impossible angles. When Hide tried to retaliate with a Mana Blast, the beast simply solidified the air in front of it, creating an invisible, compressed-air shield that absorbed the explosion before leaping over the smoke to strike again.

Hide was forced entirely on the defensive, his boots sliding across the broken pavement as he desperately parried flurry after flurry of spear thrusts. Every block drained his stamina, and he had to time his Damage Inversion perfectly to avoid having his bones crushed.

’I can’t hit it if I can’t predict its movements,’ Hide thought, his breath coming in ragged gasps. ’It has complete control over the 3D space.’

But then, Hide’s True Sight picked up on something.

He stopped trying to track the physical movements of the beast and focused entirely on the flow of mana in the environment.

Because the mana density in this mutated gate was so incredibly thick, the beast couldn’t solidify the air without leaving a trace. Hide noticed that a fraction of a second before the beast created an invisible step or wall, the mana in that specific patch of air would violently condense and swirl.

It was a microscopic tell, but for someone with True Sight, it was a glowing neon sign.

Hide narrowed his eyes. It was time to end this.

The Slaughter Doll leaped into the air once more, preparing to rain down a lethal, descending strike. Hide watched the mana violently pool in the empty space directly behind the beast’s left foot.

’There.’

Hide didn’t block. He dropped his stance entirely, turning his back to the descending beast, and sprinted toward the collapsed house.

"Fool," the beast grated. It kicked off the invisible air-step, launching itself at Hide’s exposed back with terrifying speed, aiming to impale him through the spine.

But Hide was already moving.

As the beast flew toward him, Hide abruptly spun around on his heel. He channeled his dark mana directly into his left hand.

"Abyssal Frost!" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

He didn’t fire the freezing energy at the beast. Instead, he gripped the blade of Night Singer with his left hand, perfectly coating the metal in a dense, jagged layer of pitch-black ice. The short sword instantly elongated, transforming into a massive, jagged ice spear.

The beast sneered, intending to create an invisible wall of solidified air right in front of the spear to shatter it.

Hide saw the mana condensing in the air exactly where the beast thought he would strike.

Instead of thrusting straight forward, Hide violently swung the ice spear in a wide, upward arc, completely bypassing the spot where the invisible shield was forming.

The beast’s red visor brightened in panic. Its absolute defense materialized exactly where Hide wasn’t attacking.

Unable to change its trajectory in mid-air without creating another step, the Slaughter Doll fell right into Hide’s trap.

SHLUK!

The massive Abyssal Frost-coated spear violently pierced the side of the beast’s faceless head. The dark ice shattered the metallic visor, tearing through the glowing red slit and burying itself deep into the creature’s skull.

The beast convulsed violently, its body dropping out of the air and crashing heavily onto the asphalt right at Hide’s feet.

It let out a horrific, garbled scream, its hands frantically reaching up to pull the ice spear out of its head.

Hide didn’t give it the chance.

He let go of the spear entirely, leaving it embedded in the monster’s skull. He dropped to one knee, pressing both of his palms completely flat against the dead center of the beast’s chest plate.

The dark, volatile violet energy of his mana violently condensed between his hands.

"Die," Hide whispered coldly.

"Mana Blast."

BOOOOM!

The point-blank explosion shook the entire mountain.

Because the beast’s brain had been impaled and frozen, its Muscle Authority had completely deactivated. The compressed energy tore straight through the chest plate, completely obliterating its internal organs and blowing a massive, smoking hole entirely through its torso.

The C-Rank Calamity Lord spasmed once, its limbs locking up.

Then, it went completely still.

[Calamity Beast (Slaughter Doll) - Eliminated]

Experience points gained: 9000

[Level Up]

Level: 15 → 16

Exp: 7220 / 3500

Level Up reward has been added to inventory.

[Level Up]

Level: 16 → 17

Exp: 3720 / 3700

Level Up reward has been added to inventory.

[Level Up]

Level: 17 → 18

Exp: 20 / 3900

Level Up reward has been added to inventory.

Hide fell onto his backside, gasping for air. His lungs burned like fire, and his entire body ached from the sheer stress of dancing on the razor’s edge of death. Beating a Lesser Calamity Lord had pushed him to his absolute limits.

He slowly forced himself to stand and walked over to the ruined corpse.

The body of the Slaughter Doll was rapidly disintegrating into dark, coarse ash. Resting perfectly in the center of the remains was a smooth, deeply crimson crystal that pulsed with overwhelming power.

A C-Rank core.

Hide knelt down and scooped it up, immediately tossing it into his spatial inventory. His Dark Abyssal Core was still on lockdown, preventing him from turning this powerhouse into a phantom right away, but the core itself was incredibly valuable.

"Hide!"

Elara dissolved her protective ice dome and ran toward him, her oversized glasses askew. She stared at the pile of ashes, her mouth hanging wide open in disbelief.

"You... you just killed a Lesser Calamity Lord," Elara stammered, pointing a shaking finger at him. "By yourself! You’re supposed to be an F-Rank! How the hell is that even mathematically possible?"

Hide wiped the sweat and blood from his forehead, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.

"I’m just built different," Hide muttered dryly.

Before Elara could interrogate him further, the ground beneath their feet violently lurched.

The entire mountain range inside the gate violently shook. The pitch-black sky above them seemed to physically crack, as a suffocating, terrifying wave of pure, crimson mana washed over the ruined city.

The pressure was so intense it instantly forced Elara to her knees, making her gasp for breath.