The air on the cliffs of Gazoob was no longer merely heating up; it was boiling, distorted by extreme heat waves tearing through the basic laws of physics. The expanse of sand, usually pale brown, now reflected an unnatural reddish glint, as if Gazoob had just been turned into the base of a giant-scale steel smelting furnace.
At the center of that vortex of heat, Zald stood like a monument of death. He tightened his grip on the hilt of Grattor, the pitch-black greatsword matching the size of a grown man's body. The deadly metal suddenly pulsed, responding to the will of its absolute master. Instantly, a blazing red glow from the Rea Ambrosia magic erupted from within the blade, cloaking its entire surface in dense flames capable of melting the sand beneath Zald's feet into a puddle of molten glass.
From behind the veil of the blazing red flames, Zald's sharp eyes stared straight at the eight fighters standing before him.
Four of them were the main pillars of Orario's two strongest Familias right now. Meanwhile, the other four were living anomalies of the Elven race sheltering under the banner of the God of Wind, Venti. Eight existences were now gathered on the very same stage of battle.
For Zald, this sight reignited the flame of madness burning his soul. Not long had passed since the storm that toppled the Zeus and Hera Familias. But now? Everything felt different.
There was no longer any pain stabbing his chest. Blessed by Venti, Zald's body had been restored to its absolute peak condition. Although remnants of the Behemoth's essence still existed, it had been completely suppressed. He was no longer the dying veteran lamenting the past. He was once again the Gluttony, an absolute wall of Level 7 who once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the legendary heroes of the golden era.
"Eight against one," Zald's baritone voice boomed, cutting through the howl of the wild desert wind and bringing an atmospheric pressure that made the air feel ten times heavier. "A rather entertaining composition for a warm-up. However, before we see how far your wings of freedom can flap beyond limits without the chains of despair..."
On the opposing side, Hedin Selland reacted to the pressure in a highly contrasting manner. The White Elf elegantly pushed up the frame of his glasses with his index finger. Purple electrical sparks from the Ego-Calyx crackled passively on his shoulders, creating a sharp static noise. Yet, instead of charging, Hedin actually took a step back.
"Hogni, Dina, Vena," Hedin ordered, his voice sounding flat yet demanding absolute obedience. "We fall back."
Hogni, who had already half-drawn his sword, turned his head slightly. The pitch-black pyro-darkness flames wrapping his blade rippled wildly, reflecting the murderous intent inside him struggling to be unleashed.
"You want us to hold back, Hedin?" Hogni asked, his voice heavy, his focus locked straight ahead. "My sword has already caught the ripples of this battle."
"Use your brain," Hedin reprimanded flatly, his unblinking gaze analyzing Zald's posture. "Let them take the first step. Our god gave permission for this operation not to let us move without tactical calculation. I want to see firsthand the weight of the power of Orario's Level 5 and Level 6 adventurers when faced against the highest pillar of the Zeus familia."
Hearing that logic, Hogni restrained himself, letting the aura of pyro-darkness around his weapon dim. On the other side, Dina and Vena immediately distanced themselves tens of meters up a sandy cliff mound to secure a position. Without a word, the four Elves from the Barbatos Familia focused their gaze completely, standing by to observe the clash that was about to erupt before them.
Zald glanced at the retreating movement of the four Barbatos Familia Elves. A savage grin that he very rarely showed now spread wide across his face.
"An interesting decision," Zald murmured, his voice trembling with long-suppressed combat excitement. He did not look down on them, but rather with the eyes of a veteran thirsting for a worthy clash of power. "There is no need for you to rush. This stage will remain waiting for anyone brave enough to make a choice. Now, let us see how far your wings of freedom can flap before you are forced to stop."
Without taking a long wind-up or a complicated stance, Zald raised Grattor until it was parallel with his right shoulder. The muscles in his arms swelled to the extreme. Veins popped beneath his skin, pumping pure kinetic energy on a mountain-shattering scale into the giant sword blade.
Then, with a motion far too smooth for a man of his size, he swung it horizontally.
There were no magic chants uttered. No magic circles lit up beneath his feet. It was purely a physical sword swing. However, in the lower world (Gekai), when the raw power of a Level 7 existence merges with the overflow of extreme-temperature red flames from Rea Ambrosia, what is created is not just an ordinary sword slash. What is created is an anomalous phenomenon that cleaves the order of logic.
Afterglow (Zankou).
That was the ultimate technique forged by Zald during his prime in the Zeus Familia, a combat art that had torn apart thousands of monsters in the past. Generally, enhancement magic in Orario was only limited to increasing the user's physical strength or the sharpness of their weapon for close-combat. However, Afterglow shattered those limitations. Zald condensed all the red flames of Rea Ambrosia and the wind pressure from his physical swing into a single focal point, then projected it outward as a giant crescent-shaped shockwave that shot out, tearing through the vacuum of space.
WHOOOSH!! BOOOOM!!
The red slash shot out, cleaving Gazoob with a speed surpassing a cannonball. The screeching sound of the air being split was deafening to anyone who heard it. The target of this deadly shockwave was not just one person, but encompassed the entire radius of the wide formation built by Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ottar.
At the front line of the Loki Familia formation, Finn Deimne's right thumb throbbed with excruciating pain. His absolute danger instincts as a Pallum screamed hysterically, warning that whatever was shooting toward them could not be dodged simply by stepping back.
"Gareth! Hold the line!" Finn shouted in a shrill voice. The Pallum captain didn't waste a single millisecond. He instantly triggered his most dangerous signature magic skill, Hell Finegas.
Instantly, Finn's clear blue eyes turned into a ferociously glowing blood red. A wild and primitive aura of rage exploded from his small body. This skill negated all forms of logic, fear, and self-preservation instincts of the Pallum, replacing them with pure combat drive that pumped his physical stats to a level far exceeding the normal limits of a Level 5. Finn's hands gripped his golden spear so tightly that his gloves creaked.
Hearing his captain's absolute command, Gareth Landrock roared loudly, his voice overpowering the rumble of the sandstorm.
"Hoooooaaaaaaa!!!"
The stalwart dwarf stepped forward with his full weight, planting both his feet deep into the Gazoob sand like two steel pillars anchoring a suspension bridge. He raised his giant axe with both hands, positioning the thick and wide metal blade vertically to become a living shield for his comrades behind him.
CLAAAAANGGG!!
The collision between the Afterglow shockwave and Gareth's axe created a sonic boom that swept across the entire cliff surface within a radius of dozens of meters. The sand around them exploded into the air, forming a giant pillar of dust, leaving a crater ten meters wide purely from the pressure of that initial impact.
"UGHHHHH!!" Gareth gritted his teeth until they nearly cracked. The biceps and triceps muscles in both his arms bulged extremely, his veins popping out as if ready to burst from beneath his rock-hard skin.
Throughout all of Orario, this dwarf from the Loki Familia was famous for possessing raw physical strength (Strength) and defense (Endurance) claimed to be the hardest of his generation. No physical attack from a fellow Level 5 adventurer could make him waver. But right now? He felt as if he were trying to catch a meteorite falling straight down from the sky with his bare hands.
The kinetic thrust of Afterglow not only carried an impossible physical weight, but was also filled with the blazing red temperature of Rea Ambrosia that began to creep up and melt the edges of his axe. Gareth managed to hold back the energy slash from cleaving his body, but its static pushing force could not be ignored. The dwarf was forced to slide backward very roughly. Two deep trenches were clearly imprinted upon the expanse of desert sand as Gareth's feet were forced back five meters without him being able to resist.
"What kind of pressure is this?!" Gareth cursed, his breathing heavy and fast like a blacksmith's bellows. He stared at his palms, which were now trembling violently on the axe handle. That was just one chantless long-range slash from Zald, yet its weight nearly crushed every joint and bone in both his hands.
"Don't stay in one place! Scatter right now!" Finn commanded, his blood-red eyes scanning the battlefield. He darted to the left side to break Zald's visual focus, his spear ready to find a blind spot.
Behind the temporary protection provided by Gareth, Riveria Ljos Alf wasted no time. The High Elf Princess immediately leapt back, taking a safe distance to the opposite side of Finn. Her magic staff, Magna Alf, was raised high into the air, radiating a soothing jade green glow. Her mind, working as sharp and precise as ever, began assembling the lyrics of her large-scale destructive magic.
"O spirits of the forest, hear my call! Breathe the breath of destruction from behind the leaves—"
However, Riveria's graceful chant was immediately cut off by Zald's laugh. A heavy, echoing laugh, full of the absolute domination of a veteran who had conquered the highest peak of adventure in the lower world.
"You are too slow, Elf Princess! In a real battlefield, the enemy will never wait for your long song to finish!"
With an agility completely absurd for a giant man wearing heavy armor, Zald twisted his waist. Using the momentum from his first swing, he spun Grattor and swung it again. Not just once, but three times consecutively in a single breath.
Swish!
Swish! Swish!
Three red crescent-shaped Afterglow slashes shot out simultaneously, crisscrossing in the air to form a net of death cutting across the desert expanse. This phenomenon was the true terror of Afterglow. Because this technique relied purely on the extension of a physical sword swing and completely did not require gathering Mind (magic energy) or chanting incantations, Zald could fire it continuously like an automatic machine gun, without any cooldown pause that the enemy could exploit.
The tactical combination that had always been the absolute pride of the Loki Familia—where Finn organized the formation, Gareth held the frontline, and Riveria executed the glass cannon from the back—suddenly crumbled in the face of this barrage of relentless aggression.
The genius of Finn's formation became completely useless when the enemy possessed area-of-effect (AoE) destructive power that could be executed in fractions of a second. Gareth's absolute defense became an easy target; the poor dwarf was forced to jump, roll, and dodge inelegantly because trying to block those three consecutive slashes was tantamount to suicide.
And most fatally, Riveria was forced to cancel her incantation forcibly for the sake of her own life.
Her magic spell dispersed mid-sentence, causing a slight backlash (a mild mind zero) that made her head dizzy. She leapt backward at the exact crucial second where a red slash destroyed the sand dune she had been standing on a second ago into a sea of boiling molten glass. The chanting time she absolutely required as a rearguard mage was completely denied by Zald.
The three Level 5 adventurers gasped for air, separated from one another with heavy breathing and cold sweat drenching their backs.
The gap between them felt too brutal. Too absolute. This was not just a one-number difference on the Falna status on their backs. Zald's Level 7 was the accumulation of life-and-death battles against monsters in the golden era of the Zeus Familia. His raw physical strength, his instantly reacting combat reflexes, and the depth of his experience far exceeded what the minds of the Loki Familia elite trio could process.
"Is this all the weight of those with ambitions to surpass limits?" Zald mocked, resting the tip of Grattor on his shoulder pauldron with a calm yet condescending gesture. "If you can only dodge a barrage of slashes that haven't even reached my full potential, then you had better go home. Stop dreaming of breaking through limits, and let the harshness of this world crush you when the real threat arrives."
However, amidst the rain of red slashes melting the cliffs and the mentally shattering mockery, a black silhouette shot straight through the billowing dust storm.
Ottar did not dodge. Not at all.
The Level 6 Boaz charged forward like a rampaging steel chariot of death. When an Afterglow slash shot right at his face, he didn't waste energy jumping or maneuvering. Ottar swung his giant sword, smashing the red magic slash head-on, forcibly splitting it into two halves that exploded wildly to his left and right.
The heat from the remaining Rea Ambrosia fire briefly struck his muscular arm, leaving a boiling burn that blistered his skin. But Ottar ignored it completely. His mind was only filled with one image: Freya. To fulfill his goddess's absolute expectations, to become the strongest existence worthy of guarding the goddess of beauty, he could not retreat a single inch in the face of Zald.
He closed the distance of dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, shooting through the thick veil of smoke and appearing right in front of Zald with his sword raised high.
Zald's eyes widened slightly at the sight of that madness, before a grin of genuine enthusiasm spread across his face.
"Extraordinary courage, Boaz! Show me your desire!"
CLAAAAAANGGG!!
The two giant swords clashed directly at point zero. Grattor, coated in red fire, collided with Ottar's pitch-black sword.
The kinetic boom from that clash of pure muscle created a sonic explosion that forcibly sucked all the oxygen around them. The shockwave swept the cliffs with a radius even more terrifying than before, forcing Finn, Gareth, and Riveria to cross their arms in front of their faces to withstand the dust storm and rock splinters flying like live bullets.
The ground beneath Zald and Ottar's feet collapsed instantly, forming a new crater that brought down the structure of the Gazoob cliffs.
Ottar gritted his teeth until fresh blood seeped from between his gums. He could feel every bone in his arms, shoulders, and back creaking in protest, as if ready to crack at any moment. He had exerted all of his Strength attributes at Level 6, pushing his muscles beyond the limits of sanity. But on the opposite side, Zald didn't even look like he was struggling to hold back the vertical slash. Zald only used one hand on Grattor's hilt to hold back Ottar's two-handed push.
However, Ottar hadn't intended to win this physical contest of strength from the start. He knew he would lose if it were just a clash of raw muscle.
As their swords locked tightly in mid-air, Ottar focused all the remaining Mind in his body, concentrating it in his throat, and opened his mouth wide.
"Hildis Vini!"
It was the signature super short-range attack magic of the Boaz from the Freya Familia. A magic specifically designed for lethal execution in the midst of close-quarters combat. With an almost instantaneous chant, a highly dense, wildly pulsating sphere of golden energy, laden with destructive power, formed amidst the clash of their swords.
That energy sphere exploded right in Zald's face with a force equivalent to a small falling meteorite.
KABOOOOOM!!
The explosion was so massive it tore eardrums. A pillar of golden light soared high into the Gazoob sky, swallowing the figures of Zald and Ottar at the center of the pillar of destruction. The ground shook violently like an earthquake of high magnitude, bringing down parts of the remaining sand cliffs around their battlefield.
"He got him!" Gareth exclaimed from a distance, a glimmer of hope blooming in his squinting eyes. A direct magic attack at point zero from the strongest adventurer in Orario should be able to pierce and tear through any defense.
Thick pitch-black smoke billowed from the center of the explosion, hiding the result of the clash.
However, before the dust could settle, before Ottar could even draw breath to recover his drained Mind, a horrifyingly dull thud split the veil of smoke.
BAM!
Zald unleashed a devastatingly precise knee strike, slamming right into Ottar's solar plexus. The speed of the kick completely surpassed the ability of Ottar's eyes to react. The Boaz coughed violently, vomiting fresh blood that sprayed from his mouth. The impact was so brutal it made the muscles beneath his combat uniform feel torn, and his ribs cracked instantly. His giant body, weighing hundreds of kilograms, was blasted backward into the air like a worn-out ragdoll whose strings had been cut.
Ottar flew backward for over a dozen meters, rolling roughly on the hot sand of Gazoob, before finally managing to drive his greatsword into the ground to halt his humiliating slide. He knelt on one knee, gasping for air while enduring the pain tearing through his internal organs, his vision blurring.
As the smoke slowly thinned and was swept away by the wild desert wind, Zald's figure became clearly visible again.
The giant still stood firmly in his original spot, not having shifted even a single centimeter from his cratered foothold. His iron armor was indeed slightly smoking and blackened from the Hildis Vini explosion, but there was not the slightest significant wound on his body, face, or pauldron. The red fire of Rea Ambrosia still burned arrogantly and elegantly on Grattor's blade, completely undisturbed.
"A very nice magic surprise from close range," Zald praised casually, using his left hand to brush dust off his pauldron with a dismissive gesture. "But its destructive power wasn't enough to shift my position an inch."
A suffocating, cold silence, filled with existential horror, now enveloped Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ottar. The four of them slowly closed in, reforming their formation in silence, their breaths heavy.
Finn's blue eyes, having returned to normal, slowly sharpened. His tactical instincts as a commander moved at a crazy speed, analyzing Zald's posture, his post-explosion breathing rhythm, and the density of the Aura radiating from the veteran's body.
The longer Finn secretly analyzed, the paler the Pallum captain's face became. He finally realized a fatal discrepancy that made his blood feel frozen. The discrepancy that had all along been the foundation of their courage to come to this place.
"Our intelligence... the circulating rumors... they are all completely wrong," Finn whispered, his voice trembling to hold back an overflow of despair he hadn't felt in all his years crawling through the labyrinth.
"What do you mean, Finn?" Riveria asked urgently, wiping cold sweat from her elegant forehead. "Does his attack have a hidden effect?"
"Not his attack. But his body," Finn pointed with the tip of his slightly trembling spear toward Zald. "The circulating rumors, the stories constantly repeated... they said Zald ate the flesh of the Land King, the Behemoth. They said the deadly poison from that monster was gnawing at his internal organs, destroying his body cells, turning him into a dying veteran whose strength sharply declined day by day!"
Ottar's eyes widened slightly as the same realization finally hit his mind.
"Look at him!" Finn cursed through tightly clenched teeth. "Look at how he draws breath! His chest isn't tight. His breathing isn't labored in the slightest after unleashing a barrage of Afterglow and taking a Hildis Vini explosion to the face! His muscles are in absolute peak condition, without any signs of atrophy or shrinkage! His red fire is stable, not rippling at all from fluctuations of pain from within!"
Finn swallowed hard, letting reality slap their common sense. "There are absolutely no signs of poison, disease, or weakness! He is not dying!"
Gareth's rough eyes widened. "You mean..."
"Right," Finn closed his eyes for a moment, his face shrouded in pure despair. "The Zald standing in front of us right now is not a fighter fading toward his death. He is a peak monster standing at the absolute point of his prime!"
That fact destroyed the remnants of their mental defenses, leaving an absolute void amidst the reality that had just collapsed before their eyes.
Facing a Level 7 adventurer who had physical weaknesses or a time limit in battle might still offer a spark of hope. They could use hit-and-run tactics, letting time become their ally until the enemy's stamina was drained or finding an opening from their opponent's carelessness.
However, facing Zald fully in his prime condition, possessing a flawless physique and strength that had not diminished in the slightest, was the pure definition of a dead end. They were fighting against a myth standing firm without a crack. How could they, Level 5 and Level 6 adventurers still bleeding in this chaotic transitional era, possibly bring down a giant wall that had even swallowed a Behemoth?
"Done whispering your despair and analyzing reality?" Zald's baritone voice broke their reverie, carrying an increasingly dense aura of death.
The giant again raised Grattor with both hands, preparing to execute a wave of Afterglow with a density of red fire far greater and more destructive than before.
"In that case, show me how strong your will is!" Zald exclaimed, his voice booming. "Prove that your choice to stand here was not a mistake!"
However, at the exact second when the muscles in Zald's shoulders tensed to swing his sword downward, a new anomaly occurred.
An incredibly cool, clear, and unnatural gust of wind forcibly cut through the Gazoob desert air that had been boiling all along. The roar of the wind did not originate from this barren nature, but carried the scent of wet meadows, boundless freedom, and a melody that felt very foreign amidst the hellish battle.
Suddenly, an incredibly melodious conceptual humming sound resonated. The air around Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ottar was instantly enveloped by an emerald green transparent wind dome that spun with mathematical precision.
BZZZTTT!
Zald's giant Afterglow slash, which had already been launched, hit the green dome with full force.
To the surprise of everyone witnessing it, the Level 7 energy slash capable of melting steel was unable to penetrate the wind dome. Instead of exploding and destroying the defense, the power of Afterglow was actually deflected. The wind vortex of the dome caught the momentum of the slash, launched it curving upwards, and let it explode in the empty air of the Gazoob sky, leaving only harmless red fireworks that slowly fell to the sand.
"That's enough of your part, Orario executives," a woman's voice was heard from behind them. A voice that was flat, calm, yet incredibly clear cutting through the roar of battle.
Dina and Vena stepped forward with a highly synchronized walking rhythm, as if they were one entity. They passed Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ottar, who were still frozen in shock.
A clear green glow from the Anemo-Calyx radiated very brightly from Dina and Vena's bodies. The energy did not merely emit light, but solidified into a slowly rotating yet pressurized vortex of air currents around them, instantly distorting the desert heat into a sharp and cool atmosphere.
"We are sick of being spectators," continued Vena, the Dark Elf, her fingers cleaving the air with the wildly whirring current of the Anemo-Calyx forming blades of wind, a sharp grin adorning her face. "Let us take over this stage."
Dina, the White Elf, stood one step in front of Vena. Her calm eyes looked straight at Zald, who was now furrowing his brow. Her pointed Elf ears twitched slightly, in sync with the wind currents around her.
"Ventus Canticum (Song of the Wind)."
Dina activated her magic. Without any mouth muttering a long chant, without any magic staff pointed, the area-of-effect (AoE) wind manipulation magic activated instantly.
The absolute wind dome that had just protected the Orario executives now glowed stronger and expanded. Riveria Ljos Alf widened her eyes as she suddenly felt something impossible. The stinging pain in her muscles slowly faded. Her heavy and tight breathing caused by the smoke of battle became stable and light again. She could even feel her Mind reserves feeling slightly calmer.
Riveria Ljos Alf was stunned, her sharp eyes immediately dissecting the structure of the wind magic enveloping them. This was not merely a defensive shield—which was theoretically impossible to create without chanting—but a magical manifestation constantly distributing energy. With cold horror, she realized that the two Elves' Magic not only deflected attacks, but also restored stamina and stabilized the flow of Mind for anyone within its range of influence.
Before the Loki Familia trio's shock regarding the Ventus Canticum anomaly could end, Dina executed her second magic step without changing her facial expression in the slightest. She triggered the Allure Curse.
An invisible wave of a charm curse shot through the air, hitching a perfect ride on the rustling wind blowing toward Zald. This curse was not a tangible destructive projectile or physical binding magic, but a mental manipulation intervention manifesting as an audio and visual illusion.
Zald instantly pulled his head back and furrowed his brow. Suddenly, he felt a soft buzzing in his hearing, as if a melodious yet deadly lullaby was trying to slip into the deepest parts of his brain. His combat instincts, which usually reacted before his brain could think, suddenly felt dull and sluggish. The passive defense of his muscles and skin (Endurance) felt decreased, as if loosened by a cool breeze slowly numbing his concentration.
It was an incredibly disruptive debuff sensation. This curse forced Zald to exert an extra portion of Mind inside his head just to maintain his sanity from falling asleep or losing focus in the middle of battle.
"Defensive magic, revitalization, and now atmospheric manipulation without a single chant word?" Zald muttered, raising Grattor again with both hands, preparing to forcibly tear open the spatial distortion with a wave of Rea Ambrosia pressure. "Very impressive for those usually bound by the complexity and long duration of conventional magic chanting."
"Vena. Now," Dina said softly. The eyes of the two Elf sisters of different skin colors met in absolute silence.
Dis Resonance.
A ripple of twin soul resonance exploded between them, radiating a circular wave of wind that blew away the sand dust. Being in the exact same line of sight in battle, the conceptual bond of the Falna given by Venti connected their nervous systems and minds into one unity.
The synchronization anomaly phenomenon occurred instantly. Dina's coordination, physical reflexes, nimbleness, and Agility strength skyrocketed, multiplying far beyond her Level 3 limits, as if she could predict and cover every movement through her sister's instincts. On the other hand, Vena's internal Mind and magic execution speed exploded drastically to an extreme point.
Vena grinned sharply, her eyes glinting with combat adrenaline. She focused the pure glow of the Anemo-Calyx directly to the soles of her feet. Ignoring Gazoob's gravity and the laws of physics, she kicked the empty air. The wind energy solidified beneath the soles of her shoes, becoming a solid, invisible foothold.
This absolute-level wind manipulation technique allowed her to hover half a meter above the ground. With those wind footholds, Vena executed a series of consecutive double-dashes in empty air without needing wings in the slightest. She darted forward, maneuvering in the air with a three-dimensional zig-zag trajectory whose speed was nearly equal to the running speed of the Boaz, Ottar.
"Ventus Ruina! (Wind's Destruction)!" Vena exclaimed with a tone full of overflowing destructive enthusiasm.
The super short-range attack magic was triggered in fractions of a second. The massive storm from the Anemo-Calyx that had been surrounding Vena's body forcefully solidified, compressed into hundreds of microscopic wind vortex blades as sharp as surgical scalpels. Vena was very aware she had no intention of directly injuring Zald's hard Level 7 physical skin; she used Ventus Ruina purely to tear at Zald's armor joints, erode the layer of Rea Ambrosia hot air protecting him, and blind the gluttony's field of vision from close range.
While continuing to hover, glide, and circle Zald from above at a dizzying speed, Vena spread her arms. She swung them with lightning speed forming an 'X', triggering a wild resonance from the pulsing Anemo-Calyx.
Without needing to chant, the air pressure around her fingers instantly condensed into sharp, transparent energy blades. Every time she swung her hands, the projection of deadly wind slashes shaped like crossbow arcs shot out cleaving the atmosphere, blending perfectly with the microscopic razor storm she unleashed through Ventus Ruina.
That barrage of combo attacks rained down on Zald from various blind spots impossible to predict—from above, behind, and the sides simultaneously. This storm of aggression forcibly compelled the former Zeus Familia executive to halt his intention of launching Afterglow, switching from a full offensive posture into a tight total defense, parrying every energy slash with the body of Grattor, constantly spinning to withstand the onslaught.
The thud of steel clashing, sparks of red fire swept by the wind, and the roar of a wildly howling storm collided, creating a symphony of chaos that was extremely beautiful yet absolutely deadly atop the cliffs of Gazoob.
Behind the battle lines, Finn, Gareth, Riveria, and Ottar could only stand glued, speechless. Their breaths seemingly stopped watching combat cooperation that completely violated the laws of conventional magic order and the common sense of Orario adventurers.
The Gazoob trial stage had just entered a far more brutal phase. In this place, they were not only demanded to break through Zald's defense which was at the absolute point of its prime, but they were also forced to witness the anomalous abilities of the two Barbatos Familia members manipulating wind currents with deadly precision.
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