Chương 409: Chapter 398 - Valkyrie

The battlefield had changed. Leonie's presence expanded across the clearing like a rising pressure front, her Will pressing down on the Spawn's dark aura while feeding strength into her allies' manifestations, tightening their focus and sharpening their edges. Imani swallowed the metallic taste of blood and planted his boots deep into the soil, his tower shield locking into position as he drove a heavy step forward that shook the earth beneath him. Guardian Star blazed brighter.

The air thickened around him as gravity coiled inward, the skeletal stag's aura flickering as the pull dragged at the Spawn's elongated frame, forcing its grip on the tree to splinter bark and tear grooves into the trunk. The creature shrieked and released. Instead of resisting, it hurled itself along the vector of Imani's pull, accelerating unnaturally as the tomahawks tore free from the soil and snapped back into its hands mid-motion, drawn by its Will.

Twin arcs of dark steel split the fog as it closed the distance. The impact slammed into Imani's shield with concussive force. The shockwave rippled through the clearing, roots snapping and nearby trunks shedding bark in dusty cascades as he was driven a full step back, armour plates groaning under strain. Pain flared through his ribs. He roared and answered with it.

His biocapacitors discharged in a contained surge as he twisted his hips and smashed forward with the shield, the stored force detonating outward in a blunt shock that rattled the Spawn's stance and cracked the soil between them. The creature recoiled, sliding back with impossible flexibility— —and Ayu was already there. She moved low, weight shifting from heel to ball in a fluid sweep, her stance narrow and coiled.

Her shin snapped into the Spawn's elongated leg with a cracking impact that echoed like timber splitting, her rhythm igniting as heat shimmered faintly around her. She pivoted without pause, elbow rising toward its ribbed torso, knee chambered mid-spin as her tempo climbed. Strike. Pivot. Step. Drive. Her rhythm was no longer a song but a drumline, her hips rotating seamlessly within her flow as she targeted joints and leverage points, forcing the creature to retract and reset.

The Spawn retaliated in fury, tomahawks flashing in brutal diagonals while its long leg whipped sideways in a sweeping arc meant to break bone. Ayu dipped under the blade, rolled through the sweep, and came up inside its range again, but every counter was met with another impossible adjustment from its elongated frame. Momentum hung on a razor's edge. And that was when Pablo's summon struck.

The mutated construct lunged from the flank, adhesive tendrils bursting from its vine-laced torso and snapping tight around the Spawn's limbs, clinging and constricting to restrain its motion. The creature ripped through the bindings with raw strength, tearing sap-slick strands apart in sprays of dark resin, yet the heartbeat of delay was enough. Imani intensified his pull. Gravity thickened.

The Spawn's footing wavered as Ayu drove another low kick into its support leg, fire flaring along her calf as she committed fully to the strike, reinforcing it with her Will. The ground fractured beneath them. Roots burst upward and snapped under the combined pressure. Fog tore outward in violent spirals as their forces collided, pressure fronts crashing and rebounding through the clearing. Ayu's tempo climbed higher, footwork tightening, hips rotating in sharp arcs as heat shimmered faintly along her limbs.

Imani's star burned like a compressed sun, gravity thickening until the soil buckled beneath his boots and loose debris skidded toward him in grinding lines. Pablo's construct widened its stance, tendrils lashing and retracting in coordinated bursts, binding and releasing with predatory timing. The Spawn twisted between them with elastic precision, tomahawks carving crescents through the fog, long legs snapping down and rebounding like whips— —and still every attempt to finish found resistance. Rage overtook it.

Both tomahawks swung in savage arcs, detonating the air in concussive bursts that shattered one of the towering trees into a spray of splinters and fractured stone. Its elongated legs drove deep into the soil, joints flexing as it coiled to lunge toward Ayu— —but adhesive tendrils snapped around one ankle and cinched tight. The push misaligned. Its balance broke. The massive frame stumbled, carving a trench through the dark earth as clods and roots exploded outward. Ayu was already airborne.

Her body compressed and released in one fluid sequence, torque rising from heel through hip into a snapping arc. Her high kick connected against its ribbed torso with a crack that rippled through bark and bone alike. The Spawn countered instantly, tomahawk flashing toward her centreline. Ayu converted the strike into displacement, pushing off its frame and spinning free, the blade's edge slicing past her jaw as she flipped clear and landed light on the balls of her feet.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Then the air screamed. A line ripped through the clearing. Chiara's projectile cleaved forward at impossible speed, compressing atmosphere into a razor corridor that hummed with ionised discharge. The Spawn twisted, instincts flaring, its skull snapping aside as the filament skimmed past, leaving a pale wake that shimmered faintly with unstable decay. For a fraction of a heartbeat, it believed it had escaped.

Chiara smirked. The projectile detonated behind it. BOOM!!! Space ruptured. A sphere of compressed force erupted outward, white-blue light bursting at the core as a violent halo tore through the clearing. Shockwaves rolled across the ground in layered pulses, roots ripping free, soil erupting, fog blown apart in spiralling walls of pressure. The Spawn took the blast across its spine. Bark plating shattered.

Its elongated frame pitched forward as the inversion of force hurled it directly into Imani's gravitational pull. Guardian Star surged. Imani stepped into the motion and abandoned his hammer. Both hands locked behind his tower shield as he drove forward in a full-body bash, biocapacitors discharging in a thunderous pulse. BAM! The collision cratered the ground beneath them, shock rippling through soil as the Spawn's torso cracked under the compounded forces.

Before it could stabilise, Pablo's tendrils swarmed again, layering over limbs and torso in tightening coils, sap bursting in dark sprays as the bindings constricted. The creature thrashed. Ayu closed in. Her tempo peaked, breath sharp and measured as she stepped inside its collapsing guard, knee rising to break posture, elbow chambered to force its head to turn. It tried to pivot away— SLSH! Lightning split the clearing.

A blade traced a white arc across the charged air, too fast to follow, leaving only the echo of thunder and a line of brilliance suspended for an instant. The Spawn's skull parted cleanly along that path. Antlered bone sheared in two, dark sap hanging in the air before descending in heavy droplets. Half the skull struck the earth. A single feather drifted beside it, turning slowly before settling upon the fractured soil. Stormlight dimmed to a controlled glow.

The manifestation of the dark stag unraveled as the towering frame disintegrated into drifting motes that dissolved into the charged haze. Leonie stood just beyond the fallen form, blade lowered, remnant sparks crackling along its edge as the image of the Valkyrie slowly faded behind her. Another foe weighed. Another foe claimed.

Alonso had watched the entire fight with sharp focus and genuine interest. He had to admit… he had underestimated them. The synergy of their Wills and fighting styles in this second phase had rendered a creature of that Power Index nearly helpless. The phase that should have been overwhelming had unfolded cleaner than the first, even after the Spawn flared its own Manifestation and revealed its full strength. And through it all, Leonie had made a single move. One strike. The ending stroke.

Yet he understood where the true shift had occurred. Her Will Manifest had blanketed the battlefield, suppressing the stag's domain while intensifying her allies' manifestations. Alonso knew better than most how rare and valuable enhancements to Will were. So far, he had only seen such benefits granted through high-grade titles. An aura capable of amplifying allies while diminishing the opposition… That alone altered the structure of battle. In that moment, he no longer saw only strength and potential in her.

He saw command. He saw a leader whose very presence elevated the team's output and cohesion the instant she stepped forward. If earlier Leonie had taken command simply because no one else had cared to, and he had let it pass without much thought, now she had truly earned it. Yet while Leonie's manifestation impressed him, he could still grasp it—the nature of it, the way it interacted with reality. Chiara's… He had no idea.

As he looked toward her, cane already concealed beneath her coat, he narrowed his eyes slightly. It was the first Will manifestation he had witnessed that carried no suppression, no dramatic field distortion, no visible force pressing outward. If not for the faint spectral symbols orbiting her in disciplined silence, he might have missed it entirely. She caught his stare. Her lips curved.

"Curious?"

"You got me." She laughed lightly.

"Even if I explained it, I'm not sure it would help," she said calmly.

"As you said, we all walk different paths. Mine is built on hardcore science. My belief doesn't rest on gods, concepts, or abstractions. It rests on what I can derive, what I can model, what I can prove. And what I can prove… becomes my strength, and the source of my Will." She turned and walked toward the scattered loot, a faint smile lingering at the corner of her lips.

"What do you think?" Lukas said casually as he stepped beside him, watching the others regroup.

"We've got a tank who can drag aggro, a close-range striker who's impossible to hit, a summoner who can rewrite the roster mid-fight, an aura-commanding Valkyrie, and a mage who just weaponised physics. If I were the Dungeon Master, I'd be sweating right now." Alonso chuckled.

"What about you, by the way? You're the only one whose Manifestation I haven't seen." Lukas tilted his head slightly.

"You're assuming I have one," he said with a soft laugh.

"Don't you?"

"Where's the fun in revealing all the cards at once?" Lukas replied with a grin as he stepped forward, a faint, unreadable smile lingering on his lips. Alonso smiled. Those two made quite the pair. He stepped toward the last of the red orbs and absorbed it. Stage 1 – 38. 630% ➤ 39. 420% Before he could properly inspect the rest of the loot, Leonie handed him a pair of dark leather boots, a faint engraving of a hanging oak etched along the sides.

He gave her a short nod in acknowledgement and swapped out one of his Grade 2 pieces. The moment the boots settled into place, he felt the difference. The fit tightened around his calves, lighter yet firmer, the balance shifting subtly beneath his stance. And then he blinked. The set bonus had already begun to activate.

Grade 04 - Hanging Judge's Boots [Set] Tempering State: 0 Physical aptitude +4% Pillar aptitude +4% Reaction speed +8% Set Bonus (2/5): +14% health, stamina and mental fatigue regeneration Regeneration, huh? More than combat, he felt the regeneration would do wonders during training sessions. Around him, the others began replacing parts of their remaining Grade 2 equipment with the newly acquired Grade 3 drops, small yet meaningful improvements stacking quietly across the team.

"That was a good fight," Leonie said once everyone had settled.

"However… compared to what lies ahead, it was little more than a warm-up."