'...It was too easy.'
Amaniel narrowed his eyes behind the white vortex. He turned his gaze toward the stunned Nemo, but his attention remained locked on the frozen crater.
'It's not over, right?'
He knew the archetype well. Main antagonists like Bane always had a second wind. They always had a hidden trump card or a berserk state waiting for the moment of defeat. Just like those bosses in games.
Woom.
The next moment, the ground and air trembled.
A massive pillar of black aura erupted from the crater, shattering the ice hammer into a million sparkling dust particles.
'Crap.'
Amaniel cursed inwardly.
'I really jinxed it. He really had a hidden last phase!'
The pillar faded, revealing the figure hovering within.
Bane had changed.
The pale skin was now covered in jagged black markings. Two curved, obsidian horns jutted from his forehead, curling back like a crown of nightmare. The exhaustion from before was gone, replaced by a suffocating, dense pressure.
