Elias placed both hands on the cold, black obsidian doors. He didn't push. He simply let a surge of his newly enhanced, Level 20 mana flow into the stone. The ancient mechanisms groaned in protest before the massive doors slowly ground open, revealing the true nightmare of the Irregular Gate.
The chamber inside wasn't a tomb—it was a nest.
The walls were coated in a pulsing, fleshy purple webbing. The air was so toxic and thick with dark mana that Aria immediately started coughing, her vision blurring.
Hanging upside down from the center of the cavern ceiling was a creature that defied logic. It possessed the lower body of a massive, heavily armored arachnid, but the upper torso of a grotesque, winged gargoyle. Its six eyes burned with a sickly yellow light, and dark, corrosive acid dripped from its mandibles, melting the stone floor wherever it landed.
[Dungeon Master: Void Chimera (Lv. 28 - Irregular Boss) has awakened.] [Warning: The Boss is enraged. All stats increased by 20%.]
"Level 28?" Aria gasped, her daggers trembling in her hands. "Elias, we can't fight this. The level gap is too high! Its armor is reinforced by spatial magic!"
Elias didn't retreat. He stepped fully into the chamber, his eyes locking onto the monstrosity.
The Void Chimera shrieked, a sound that threatened to rupture their eardrums. It didn't cast a spell. It simply vanished.
"Above you!" Elias barked.
Aria's assassin instincts kicked in a millisecond before the creature materialized directly over her, its massive scythe-like legs crashing down. She barely managed to cross her daggers to block. The impact sent her flying across the room like a ragdoll. She slammed into the stone wall, coughing up blood, her arms completely numb.
The Chimera turned its yellow eyes toward Elias, preparing to pounce.
"You're fast," Elias said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "But in here, I make the rules."
Elias activated his new skill.
"Domain of the Monarch."
A pulse of absolute, pitch-black energy erupted from Elias's feet. It spread across the massive cavern in a fraction of a second, painting the entire floor in a swirling, ink-like shadow. The temperature dropped so drastically that frost formed on Aria's eyelashes.
[Skill: Domain of the Monarch (Lv. 1) activated.] [Effect: All Shadow Soldiers within the domain receive a 50% boost to all stats. Enemies within the domain have their movement speed reduced by 30%.]
The Void Chimera shrieked in confusion as its legs suddenly felt as though they were submerged in thick mud.
"Arise," Elias commanded.
One hundred shadows erupted from the black floor simultaneously. The sheer density of the dark mana in the room was suffocating. The Shadow Trolls, Knights, Mages, and the newly acquired Skeletal Warriors formed a massive wall of darkness between Elias and the Boss.
"Tear its wings off," Elias ordered.
The shadow legion swarmed the beast like angry ants on a scorpion. The Chimera thrashed wildly, its scythe-legs cutting dozens of skeletal warriors in half. But inside the Domain, Elias's shadows regenerated almost instantly.
Iron leaped onto the Chimera's back, driving his heavy axe into its armored shell. Blood, the Death Knight, moved like a crimson blur, slashing at the creature's thick legs.
But a Level 28 Irregular Boss was not going to fall easily.
The Chimera let out a guttural roar. Its chest began to glow with a blinding, toxic purple light. It was preparing a massive area-of-effect breath attack—a blast of concentrated void-acid that would vaporize anything it touched.
"Elias! It's going to wipe out your entire army!" Aria screamed, struggling to stand. "Pull them back!"
Elias's eyes went cold. "No."
Instead of retreating, Elias gave a command that made Aria's blood run cold.
"Skeletal Warriors. Jump into its mouth."
All fifty of the newly extracted Shadow Skeletal Warriors abandoned their weapons. Without a single moment of hesitation, they threw their shadowy bodies directly into the Chimera's glowing, open maw.
The Chimera choked. The sudden influx of fifty solid shadows wedged deep into its throat caused the massive, volatile magic inside its chest to violently destabilize.
"Blood. Now," Elias commanded.
The Death Knight didn't miss the opening. Using the chaotic, choking beast as a stepping stone, Blood leaped into the air. He channeled every ounce of his crimson aura into his massive claymore and drove the blade directly into the center of the Chimera's glowing chest.
BOOM!
The contained void-acid exploded internally. The blast shattered the Chimera's impenetrable armor from the inside out. The massive beast let out one final, pitiful gurgle before collapsing onto the cavern floor, its body completely destroyed.
[You have slain the Void Chimera (Irregular Boss).] [You have leveled up!] [You have leveled up!] [You have reached Level 22.] [Title Effect Applied. Extra Experience Gained.]
Aria limped forward, clutching her ribs. She stared at Elias in sheer horror. The fifty skeletal shadows had been completely vaporized by the internal explosion. They couldn't be regenerated. Elias had just sacrificed half of his entire army without blinking.
"You... you just threw them away," Aria whispered, her voice trembling. "They were your soldiers."
Elias turned to look at her, his expression entirely devoid of empathy.
"They are tools, Aria," Elias said smoothly. "And a craftsman doesn't mourn when a hammer breaks. I told you, I will do whatever it takes to survive."
Aria realized then that Elias wasn't just a powerful Hunter. He was a ruthless tactician who viewed everything—and everyone—as pieces on a chessboard. She wondered, with a sickening feeling in her stomach, if he would do the same to her.
Elias ignored her fear. He walked up to the mangled corpse of the Void Chimera. The dark, electric-blue smoke rising from it was the thickest he had ever seen.
"Let's see what a Level 28 Irregular soul looks like," Elias smirked.
"Arise."