Just after the burst of blue flames erupted from Akira's body, another surge spiraled around him, twisting into a towering tornado. The fire wrapped itself into the massive divine being Ophitigris, its shape hovering behind him like a guardian born from pure fury.
Akira's weapon also transformed, looking colossal with the engravings of fiery snake on the handle of his axes.
Then a pillar of golden light stabbed through the sky, swallowing Akira and the other five friends. Similar pillars lit up the horizon across the world, but none shone as fiercely as the ones blazing over Arcanis.
The hunters around Akira felt the same phenomenon, though their light was dimmer. Even so, their bodies pulsed with new strength. Those whose glow was weaker could tell right away that they were nowhere near the level of the six who stood at the center of it all.
"Charge!" the hunters roared.
Akira stepped forward. Each footfall sank into the earth, melting the ground like molten metal dropped onto soft plastic. A bull-like creature lunged at him, but the man it aimed for was no longer the same hunter from moments ago.
Akira lifted his right arm. The blue flames coiled around his axe flared in response, almost hungry.
He swung once. A crescent of compressed flame shot out, distorting the air around it. In the blink of an eye, the creature was split cleanly into two, its halves falling away before it even realized it had died.
Kenzo moved first. Lightning crackled along his katana as he dashed forward, a massive lightning wolf manifesting beside him, sparks dancing across its fur. The fangs of the lightning wolf engraved on his sword's hilt and guard pulsed with energy. Every strike sent thousands of volts surging through the creatures, killing them instantly. His power, now beyond comprehension, made him unstoppable. He called his beast manifestation Keraunolyx.
Renzo followed, summoning a colossal scorpion wreathed in thick, black mist. Its armored body glinted with deadly sheen, and its poisonous stingers left trails of corrosive fog that devoured anything they touched. His chain, now shaped like the beast's stingers, struck with the same lethal precision, every graze or cut inflicted instant poisoning, reducing his victims to nothing in seconds. His manifestation was named Mortisca.
Kaelia moved silently, shrouded by a massive black-mist panther that concealed and protected her simultaneously. Any creature touched by the mist corroded into nothingness. Her dagger, now fully black, exuded the same destructive aura as her panther. She called her beast Nullath.
Kaito loomed over the battlefield, transformed alongside his power. A colossal red-furred gorilla manifested beside him, its fur matching Kaito's own, golden bangles on his wrists, and a crown atop his head. Majestic to humans, demonic to the beasts, the gorilla, Ignis, bent the wind to its will. With a swing of his golden staff, Kaito unleashed a tornado that didn't just sweep creatures aside, it obliterated them instantly.
Lyra soared above on her ice phoenix, Glacynth, her bow transformed into indestructible ice pulsing with blue energy. She no longer needed arrows; the pull of her bowstring conjured ice projectiles that pierced anything she targeted.
The battlefield had shifted entirely. What had been a desperate struggle now felt like a storm unleashed.
Akira tightened his grip on his axes as more beasts poured through the dissolving mirrors, snarling and trembling at the sight of Ophitigris towering above the flames.
He stepped forward.
"Come," he muttered, eyes narrowing.
This time, the flames didn't wait for his command.
They roared.
Akira surged forward, faster than the speed of sound. Before the creature could even react, it was already cleaved in half.
The assault raged on. The other hunters worked alongside Akira and his companions, clearing the creatures that slipped through, but despite their courage, they were slower and fatigue was starting to show. Still, they pressed on, filling in the gaps left by the six heroes.
For a while, it seemed they might triumph. Every kill brought a fleeting sense of victory, a spark of hope. But after five relentless hours of fighting endless creatures pouring from the mirrors, the limits of human endurance became painfully clear. Exhaustion gripped them; their movements were sluggish compared to when they first awakened their powers.
Only the six friends pressed forward, their steps still quicker, more precise, more graceful than the ordinary hunters. But even they were not immune to fatigue; sweat streamed, muscles burned, and breath came in ragged gasps.
Then, the air shifted. A presence unlike any they had faced before rippled through the battlefield. The final moment had arrived, the ultimate confrontation every warrior had anticipated: the final boss..
The largest mirror in the middle of the battlefield shimmered violently, distorting the light around it. From it, a shape emerged: massive, armoured and more horrifying than anything they had ever faced.
It was a tiger-like beast of pure chaos, easily three times the size of any creature they had encountered.Its limbs were shattered like black glass, its eyes glowed with a sickly, green fire, and its roar carried a resonance that made the air itself vibrate. Tentacle-like appendages whipped around it, leaving scorched and frozen streaks where they passed. Even the lesser beasts that had survived fled in terror.
Kenzo's grip on his katana tightened. Keraunolyx's fur crackled violently, sparks leaping higher than ever. "This one… isn't like the others," he muttered.
Renzo's eyes narrowed, Mortisca rearing, its black-mist tail lashing in anticipation. "Then it dies like the rest."
Kaelia's panther growled low, Nullath's mist swirling with even darker intensity, her dagger emanating a corrosive aura that seemed to make the air itself decay.
Kaito stomped forward, Ignis's roar tearing through the battlefield, the wind bending to its will as the red-furred gorilla smashed his staff into the earth, creating a shockwave that split the ground.
Lyra soared higher, Glacynth's wings slicing the sky, her ice bow pulsing like a beacon of deadly light. She let loose a volley of self-formed ice arrows that pierced through the creature's massive limbs, barely slowing it.
At the center, Akira's blue flames flared with intensity bordering on sentience. Ophitigris coiled behind him, massive and radiant, its heat warping the air. The ground melted beneath Akira's feet, but he didn't falter. His axes lifted, flames spiraling outward.
The creature roared, a sound that seemed to split the heavens, and charged. Its tentacles whipped like whips of living metal, smashing everything in their path. Kaito met one head-on, spinning his staff to redirect the impact into a controlled tornado. Kenzo and Renzo struck from the flanks, lightning and poison intertwining with black mist, cutting across its limbs but the beast barely flinched.
Kaelia leapt onto its back, Nullath's shadow curling around the creature. She slashed her dagger, sending corrosive mist into its joints, but it shook violently, nearly throwing her off.
Lyra dove from above, ice shards forming around her bow into a lethal hailstorm. The creature howled, recoiling only briefly as the ice splintered against its armored hide.
Akira roared, stepping directly in its path. "Ophitigris!" he bellowed. The divine beast unleashed its full form, fire spiraling into a massive vortex around the chaos beast. Blue flames and concentrated energy licked at every surface, warping the air with the heat of pure destruction.
Then it happened again. This time, Akira wasn't in some other world with distant voices fading into the background; time itself had stopped.
Ophitigris' voice rang out, calm and commanding:
"There are abilities we call skills, far more effective than the usual slashes and cleaves you channel with our energy. Think beyond that. Create something unique. Make it your power."
Time snapped back. The beast manifestations had ceased, but Kaito didn't hesitate. A wild grin split his face as he charged forward. He tossed his staff vertically, just above waist height, and kicked its base, sending it soaring into the sky.
"I'll start!" he shouted, leaping after it as though the wind itself pushed him upward. He passed the staff midair, then kicked it downward. It spiraled like a supersonic spear.
"First move: Ignis' Landing!"
The staff slammed into the beast's backbone with bone-crushing force. Kaito landed on it with one foot, perfectly balanced. The creature faltered, just enough time for Kenzo and Renzo to act.
"First move…" Kenzo vanished and reappeared elsewhere, moving faster than the eye could follow, giving the illusion of teleportation. "Phantom Pace."
In a flash, he was under the beast's belly.
"Second move: Keraunolyx's Charge!"
Lightning coursed through the creature, freezing its limbs in place. Then came Renzo, dashing in scorpion-like patterns. His strikes tore through each eastern tentacle, the corrosive, poisonous power leaving them in ruins.
"I don't think I'm creative enough to make a skill yet… maybe later, with Mortisca," Kaito muttered.
"Let me finish this," Akira growled, plunging his axes into the ground.
"Hell's Veins!"
Blue veins ignited across the earth. At first, they were breathtaking, but then flames erupted, consuming every creature including the colossal one, reducing them to ash. The fire never died.
Lyra stepped in next. "First move: Ice Rain." She loosed an arrow into the sky, and instantly shards of ice rained down, quenching Akira's flames wherever they struck.
"I guess—" Akira began, but before he could finish, the team moved in unison, they all fel to the ground, passed out and completely drained of energy