CRACK!
The sickening sound of Jin's body hitting the tree echoed through the clearing. It shattered the team's morale like glass.
He crumpled to the ground motionless. One of their best fighters taken out in a single blow.
Cold, paralyzing fear threatened to swallow them whole.
Derek's team was a well-oiled killing machine. Their skills created a perfect trap of curses, gravity zones, and illusions.
They weren't just fighting them. They were dismantling them piece by piece.
Dante's mind raced. It cut through the panic with cold precision.
'A straight fight will get us killed. They're working like a machine. You don't fight a machine. You break the parts.'
"Eric!" Dante shouted. His voice cut through the chaos. "Stop defending! Use everything for Shield Bash! Knock Derek off balance right now!"
It was an order that could get him killed. Dropping his guard even for a second could be fatal.
But Eric didn't hesitate.
With a guttural roar, he channeled all his energy into his shield. It glowed with blinding white light as he charged forward.
He didn't block Derek's next swing. He slammed his entire body into the larger man.
BOOM!
The impact was like thunder.
Derek wasn't prepared at all. He grunted and got thrown off his feet. His greatsword swung wide.
It was only two seconds of vulnerability. But it was all they needed.
"Talia!" Dante yelled. "The gravity user! Now!"
Her face showed strain. Sweat poured down her forehead as she fought against the crushing spell.
But her Kinetic Eye was still active. In the brief chaos, she saw her opening.
She didn't try to overpower the spell. She used it.
She pushed off the ground with everything she had. Used the increased gravity to propel herself forward in a low roll.
Her rapier, guided by her predictive sight, wasn't aimed to kill.
Shnk!
It drove deep into the Graviton user's thigh.
The mage screamed. His concentration shattered. The crushing weight on Talia and on the distant, fallen Jin vanished instantly.
The spell broke.
"Masha, stop trying to find the real one!" Dante ordered. "Cover the entire back line! Use Absolute Zero now!"
It was a desperate call. Masha had been frustrated by the Derek illusions. She gritted her teeth and obeyed.
She stopped trying to target individually. She thrust her hands forward and released her power not as a focused strike but as a massive wave of cold.
The air itself froze.
A storm of razor-sharp ice shards erupted. It tore through the enemy's back line.
The illusions flickered and vanished as the Phantasm user shrieked and dove for cover.
The curse user who had been draining Erica had to drop his spell to avoid getting shredded.
The battlefield descended into chaos. Their coordination was broken.
"Rina!" Dante yelled, turning to their healer who was desperately trying to keep Eric standing. "Stop healing! The one with the snake tattoo, the poison user! Use your life magic on the ground beneath him!"
"What?" she shouted back. Confusion on her face.
"He uses Toximancy! His power comes from decay! Overwhelm him! Pump life magic into the plants around him! Make them grow faster than he can kill them!"
Understanding flashed in her eyes. It was a crazy, brilliant application of her ability.
She slammed her hands onto the forest floor. Not to heal, but to force growth.
Bright green light pulsed from her palms. It surged into the earth.
The moss, vines, and roots around the poison user and his barrier mage exploded with violent growth.
Thick, thorny vines erupted from the ground. They coiled around their legs and arms. Trapped them in a cage of rapidly growing vegetation.
The Toximancy user tried to counter. Black rot spread from his hands, killing the vines.
But for every vine he decayed, three more grew in its place. Rina was pouring more life energy into the ground than he could drain.
His decay couldn't keep up with the regeneration.
"It's not stopping!" he screamed. The vines pulled tighter. "I can't kill them fast enough!"
The Wardcraft user struggled to maintain his barrier while fighting off the constricting plants.
They were drowning in life itself.
"Erica!" Dante yelled. His throat raw. "You're free! Burn them!"
Erica looked up sharply. The draining curse was gone.
Her eyes filled with rage and humiliation as they fixed on the trapped poison user.
'You made me useless,' she thought. Her anger burned white-hot. 'You made me watch while my friends suffered.'
All her fear and frustration condensed into a single point of seething hatred.
She brought her hands together. The air between them distorted and ignited. A brilliant spear of pure concentrated fire formed.
"Burn," she whispered.
She thrust her hands forward. The spear of light screamed across the clearing.
The Wardcraft user was still fighting the vines. He tried to raise a barrier, but it was too late.
The fire spear hit the trapped Toximancy user square in the chest.
There was no explosion. Just a silent orange light that consumed everything.
The boy didn't have time to scream.
His body, the vines, and a section of ground around him vaporized instantly. It left only a smoking crater of blackened glass.
One down.
The psychological impact was as devastating as the attack itself.
The enemy team froze. Their eyes wide with shock.
Derek went berserk. He roared with rage.
"You'll pay for that!" He ignored Eric and charged toward the recovering Jin. His greatsword raised for a killing blow.
But Talia was already there. With the gravity spell gone, she moved like a ghost.
Her rapier was a silver blur. She struck not at Derek, but at the fighters trying to support him.
She slashed one's leg. Disarmed another.
As Derek's blade came down, Eric intercepted it. His shield crashed against the greatsword with a shower of sparks.
He wasn't just defending anymore. He was fighting back.
The chaos reached its peak. Masha's ice storm continued, keeping the enemy mages separated.
The team was wounded but fighting with unified fury.
And in the middle of it all, Dante finally had what he needed.
A fresh body.
He would have stored the dead goblins from before but looking at their broken, weak forms, they were useless to even carry.
But now he had one potential body in front of him.
He stepped out from behind the boulder that had been his command post. He extended his hand toward the smoking crater where the Toximancy user died.
"Rise," he commanded.
From the edges of the crater, darkness began to coalesce.
Ash, charred matter, and blackened earth swirled together. Pulled by an invisible force.
The shape of a person started to form. A silhouette made of pure shadow and malice.
It grew denser. Solidified into a perfect dark replica of the dead Toximancy user.
The process was mesmerizing and horrifying.
The shadow body rippled like black water finding its form. Limbs stretched from the darkness. A torso took shape.
Then a head emerged, features forming from nothing.
Its eyes snapped open. They glowed with the same unnatural purple light as the goblins he had raised before.
But this was different. Stronger. More aware.
The remaining members of Derek's team went rigid. Their blood turned to ice.
The Wardcraft user had just freed himself from the last vines. He stared in absolute horror as the dark copy of his dead friend turned toward him.
The undead Toximancy user tilted its head. A grotesque mockery of curiosity.
Then it raised its shadowy hands. Toxic green mist began pouring from its palms.
"No," the Wardcraft user whispered. "No, no, no!"
The fight wasn't over. But their perfect coordination was shattered.
And now, they would face the twisted echo of their own dead comrade.
Controlled by him.