The silence of the Sky-Shatter Ravine was deceptive. Above, the whirlwind of feathers continued its rhythmic, predatory orbit, but the air at the edge of the cliff was thick with a static charge that made the hair on my arms stand up.
"They're here," Li Shen whispered.
Shadows flickered near the base of a jagged obsidian pillar. Emerging from the mountain mist were five figures, their movements disciplined and their mana signatures suppressed to the point of near-invisibility. These were the allies my brothers had coordinated with—a specialized strike team from the Hunter Union's upper echelons, brought in for a hunt that was quickly spiraling beyond the scope of a single family.
"Li Shen," the leader of the newcomers greeted with a sharp nod. He was a tall, wiry man with eyes that seemed to crackle with latent electricity. This was Captain Zhao Feng, a man whose reputation in the Lightning Element was legendary but no one actually know that he and his team had actually died in Dongting lake around same time as my brothers. Now they are loyal to me but my brothers doesn't know about that but I will tell them later but for now....
Behind him stood the rest of his crew: Lin Yao, a woman whose green-tinted robes smelled faintly of bitter herbs and stagnant water; Old Man Mu, a stoic figure leaning on a staff made of living ironwood; Xiao Yan, a younger, aggressive-looking mage with three elemental rings on his fingers; and Su Rou, the team's lifeline, whose presence radiated a soothing, golden warmth.
"Five Commanders," Zhao Feng reported, his gaze shifting to the swirling vortex above. "The Storm-Call is just the herald. There are four more roosting in the crags. They've formed a communal nest. If we don't hit them with everything at once, we'll be swarmed by the thousands of Warrior-level lackeys before we even touch the heart of the flock."
"We're ready," Li Shen replied, his voice dropping into that cold, lethal register. "Han, stay with the boy. Don't let a single feather touch him."
"On it, Brother," Li Han said. He didn't hesitate. He slammed his palms together, the fourth Star Constellation of the Summoning Element completing with a resonant hum.
"Summoning Element: Contract Summon Steel-Hide Commander!"
The air tore open, and a towering, four-meter-tall obsidian beast stepped into the world. Its fur was composed of interlocking metallic plates that shimmered like oil on water. The creature let out a huff of hot steam, its golden eyes locking onto me. It didn't roar; it simply stood over me, its massive body creating a physical fortress of muscle and steel. I sat between its front paws, my Soul Vessel already beginning to thrum in anticipation.
"Go," I whispered, looking up at my brothers. "I'll be fine."
The Assault: A Symphony of Elements
The battle didn't start with a roar; it started with a blackout.
Li Shen and Lin Yao moved in perfect, terrifying tandem.
"Shadow Element: Nyx Region!"
"Poison Element: Miasma of the Abyssal Grave!"
The ravine was swallowed. Shen's darkness stripped the Vultures of their sight, while Lin Yao's poison turned the very air into a corrosive lung-burner. Thousands of Servant-level Vultures began to fall from the sky like rain, their wings melting mid-flight as the toxic fog took hold.
But the Commanders weren't so easily quelled.
Five massive shrieks tore through the darkness. From the crags, four more titans erupted: a Cloud-Ripper Hawk, two Twin-Headed Vulture Kings, and a Gale-Force Skyscorcher. Together with the Storm-Call Commander, they dove.
"Zhao Feng! Now!" Li Wei bellowed.
Zhao Feng didn't disappoint. As the Lightning specialist, his mana was a jagged, violent thing.
"Lightning Element: Sky-Wrath – Nine-Tiered Thunder Palm!"
He thrust his hands upward. Nine colossal bolts of violet-white lightning descended from the heavens, striking the Storm-Call Commander and the Cloud-Ripper simultaneously. The air vitrified. The smell of burning ozone was overwhelming as the sky turned into a web of electrical discharge.
"Fire Element: Sky-Flame Funeral – Lv. 5: Solar Implosion!" Li Wei roared, catching the momentum.
Wei didn't just throw a punch; he threw a small sun. The Lv.5 effect was catastrophic. The vacuum it created dragged a hundred Warrior-level Vultures into its white-hot center, incinerating them into grey ash before the fist even impacted the Skyscorcher Commander. The resulting explosion shook the very foundations of the Qinling range, a mushroom cloud of Crimson Lotus flames rising thousands of feet into the air.
The Ravine had become a blender of elemental fury. The two Twin-Headed Vulture Kings managed to bypass the initial firestorm, their bodies wreathed in protective gale-currents. They dived straight for the mages on the ledge.
"Not on my watch," Old Man Mu grunted. He slammed his staff down.
"Plant Element: Ghost-Claw Vines!"
"Earth Element: Sky-Rock Falling Star!"
Massive, thorn-covered vines erupted from the barren stone of the ravine walls, lashing out like krakens of the sky to snag the Vulture Kings' legs. Simultaneously, Li Jun manipulated the Space Element to reinforce Mu's trap.
"Space Element: Silver Diamond Boundary!"
The air around the Vulture Kings crystallized. They were pinned—halfway between the sky and the ground, trapped in a vise of physical space and sentient flora.
"Fire Element: Flaming Whale!" Xiao Yan followed up, his secondary lightning element dancing across his robes as he funneled every drop of his mana into a supporting strike. His flames weren't as hot as Wei's, but they were numerous, a barrage of fiery projectiles that picked off the Warrior-level stragglers trying to swarm the mages.
Through the chaos, the golden light of Su Rou pulsed rhythmically.
"Healing Element: Holy Spirit—Vitality Ripple."
Every time a mage showed signs of mana exhaustion or took a grazing hit from a stray feather-blade, Su Rou's light washed over them, knitting flesh and replenishing the mental fatigue of maintaining such high-tier Constellations.
The Storm-Call Commander, charred and missing half its left wing from Zhao Feng's opening strike, let out a final, desperate cry. It began to hum, its metallic feathers vibrating to create an localized EMP. It was preparing a suicide charge, gathering the residual lightning in the air to detonate itself.
"It's going to blow!" Li Zhu shouted, his Sound Element picking up the high-frequency vibration before anyone else. "Psychic Element: Panic!"
Zhu's psychic wave hit the Commander like a physical hammer, momentarily shattering its concentration. The hum stuttered.
"End it, Shen!" Wei yelled, his mana flickering.
Li Shen didn't use Ice this time. He used everything.
He leaped from the cliff, his body dissolving into shadow. He reappeared directly above the Storm-Call Commander, his fourth Star Constellation glowing with a cold, transcendental light.
"Ice Element: Frozen Coffin – Lv. 3: Black Ice Ribcage!"
Instead of a coffin falling on the beast, massive lances of black ice erupted around it, locking together to form a spherical cage that suppressed its internal energy.
"Space Element: Silver Diamond Boundary – Compression!"
Shen closed his fist. The diamond-hard space inside the ice cage began to shrink.
CRACK.
The sound of the Storm-Call Commander's core shattering was like a mountain splitting in half. The beast collapsed inward, its physical form crushed into a singular, dense point of matter before it disintegrated into a rain of starlight.
Below, protected by the unyielding bulk of the Steel-Hide Commander, I watched as the sky finally cleared. The thousand-strong flock was gone. The five Commanders were either dead or retreating in shattered pieces.
My Soul Vessel didn't just hum; it was screaming.
[Commander-Level Kill Confirmed: Storm-Call Commander]
[10x Multiplier Activated...]
[Received: 10 Commander Soul Essences!]
[Commander-Level Kill Confirmed: Vulture King (Alpha)]
[10x Multiplier Activated...]
[Received: 10 Commander Soul Essences!]
...and so it went. My vision was swimming in blue light. Fifty Commander-level Soul Essences. Hundreds of Warrior and Servant souls.
To Be Continue.....
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