Cracks spread across the Alpha's shell.
It reeled back.
Ben did not give it time.
"Break already, damn you!" he shouted.
He gripped the pickaxe buried in the Alpha's ribs and twisted hard.
Then he raised it high above his head.
BAM.
The pickaxe came crashing down and pierced straight through the Krell Alpha's chest.
The ground trembled as cracks rippled outward.
The blow crushed its core.
Ben did not stop.
He roared and slammed the pickaxe down again and again until the Alpha's body broke apart under him.
Flesh and shell turned into broken scraps around his feet.
A moment earlier, on Elvira's side of the battlefield, the darkness still clung to the air like thick smoke.
She could feel it, her light spells were clashing with the Alpha's shadows.
Her eyes narrowed.
"There."
She gathered mana and formed a glowing sphere of compressed light in her hand.
With a flick of her wrist, she threw it toward the source of the pressure she felt.
BOOM.
