From the fragnts, a half-ford torso rosee, barely held together by wild magic and spite.
Its six eyes locked onto Draeven as it snarled, voice a grinding whisper of stone and hatred.
Draeven doesn't understand what he say but he could guess.
"If I die… you're coming with !"
Draeven growled, struggling against the grip. Flas burst along his body, but the tendrils held firm, the mana within them refusing to burn.
Then—BOOM.
It detonated.
A blinding light swallowed everything.
The cavern quaked as the explosion erupted outward, vaporizing the remains of Earth's body in an instant.
A wave of raw energy scorched stone, liquified stalagmites, and sent shockwaves echoing down every tunnel.
When the dust settled, there was a crater. And at its centercharred, steaming, and half-buried beneath molten rubble stood Draeven.
His armor was in tatters, his skin cracked and , but he stood.
Still breathing.
Still grinning.
"Nice try," he muttered hoarsely, lifting his shovel once more. "But I don't die that easy."
A mont later, footsteps echoed through the haze—T'zarek and Vek'tal cutting through the smoke.
Behind them, the battlefield lay littered with corpses. The few Ravagers that remained were already escaping. They didn't bother chasing, as there's no point.
T'zarek knelt beside Draeven. "You good?"
Draeven grunted. "Nothing a few second won't fix."
Vek'tal scanned the surroundings, then turned toward the main nest. "Let's start looting. Who know there's sothing good."
"Good idea," Draeven muttered, pulling himself free from the rubble. "Let's make this fight worth it."
***
anwhile, miles away atop the reinforced walls of his base, Ben sat cross-legged, arms resting on his knees, eyes locked on the distant.
"All set," he murmured, "Now we wait."
Every defense chanism was loaded. The traps were prid. The Krell stood by in layers, prepared to move at any mont.
'If it's just one strong bastard, no need to send them all,' Ben thought, checking the information.
The last battle taught him sothing important— Against really strong enemy number an nothing. Losing a hundred Krell in one blow wasn't defense. It was waste.
Now, his plan was different. Let them co. Let them show what they can do. Then he'd strike with everything he had. Or if things went south he'd make use the krell to buy so ti.
And it's not like they're useless. Ben could order a few krell to shoot arrow or attack his enemy to create a gap for him to attack.
A small opening wouldn't matter to most.
But for Ben?
One swing of his pickaxe could end it all.
anwhile the enemy he was waiting for, the Magus wasn't heading toward his trap. He was busy hunting for Relic.
Inferno tore through the cavern like a living wildfire, his body a blazing mass of molten armor and fla-soaked limbs.
Every footstep scorched the ground, every breath boiled the air. Lava pulsed through the cracks in his shell like blood. And yet, the Magus didn't even raise his hand.
He stood still, cloak fluttering gently in the heatwave, eyes half-lidded with disinterest. "Pathetic."
Inferno roared, flas erupting from his maw in a blinding column. The blast swallowed the Magus whole, turning the cavern into an inferno.
For a mont, there was nothing but fire.
Then—snap. A single, sharp sound.
The flas parted.
The Magus erged unscathed, brushing soot from his shoulder as if wiping away dust. "Cute. You remind of a salamander I once stepped on."
Inferno charged, claws igniting with compressed fla, carving glowing trails through the air. He struck like a hamr—savage, relentless.
The Magus weaved between the blows with lazy grace, each step placing him inches from death, yet never touched.
A claw slamd into the stone wall behind him, vaporizing it on contact.
The Magus yawned. "You know, I fought sothing much like you... mont ago. Stronger, but in the end He was turned into ash."
Inferno's tail whipped forward, wrapped in a spiral of fla. It crashed toward the Magus like a burning whip.
Clang!
It stopped—caught mid-air by a hand made entirely of lightning, crackling and alive with coiled energy.
The spectral hand sizzled, fingers tightening around Inferno's flaming tail as smoke rose from the clash of elents.
The Magus tilted his head. With a casual snap, the lightning hand whipped forward, flinging Inferno overhead like a ragdoll.
The Ravager's body flipped twice through the air before crashing hard into the cavern wall, stone exploding outward on impact.
Before Inferno could even growl, the Magus was already moving—blurring across the battlefield in a streak of white-blue sparks.
ZAP!
A bolt of lightning split the ground as he reappeared in front of the Ravager. He drove it into Inferno's gut like a piledriver.
BOOM!
The impact created a shockwave that flattened nearby rocks and cracked the cavern floor. Inferno staggered, spitting fire from his jaws as he tried to retaliate, swinging both claws at once in a cross-slash.
But the Magus vanished.
CRACK!
He reappeared above, descending in a spiral of lightning, heel-first.
BAM!
His boot collided with Inferno's skull, slamming the Ravager back into the ground.
Inferno roared, erupting in a blast of desperate fla that created a firestorm around him. The cavern filled with heat, molten air shimring.
The Magus floated above the blaze, completely untouched, lightning coursing around his form like a storm given shape.
"Is this all you can do ?" he said calmly, voice echoing across the chamber. =
Inferno howled, launching himself upward—horns blazing white, claws glowing hot enough to lt steel. He aid straight for the Magus's throat.
The Magus raised one hand lazily.
FWOOM!
A lance of lightning shot downward, eting Inferno mid-air.
The explosion turned night into day for a split second. And when the light faded, Inferno was on the ground again—charred, burned, twitching… but still alive.
The Magus landed beside him, gaze cold. "Entertain more," he whispered, "or die quietly."
At this point, Inferno was cursing every god and ancestor he could think of. He hadn't even wanted this fight.
He didn't know what happened back at the nest—only that it was bad. Very bad.
First the base had gone silent. Then the blood-scent hit him, sharp and fresh. It was Alpha's. And now this... thing sudenly like a living disaster.
Inferno hadn't needed much to put it together.
The man in front of him reeked of the Alpha's blood. It clung to his skin, faint and faded, but unmistakable. This was the one who ended their leader.
He never wanted to fight.
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