Sasha wiped sweat from her brow, desperation etching lines across her face. "We still have a chance. Right?"
Elias slapped his chest three times before slumping to the ground. "I'm just your bodyguard. Whatever you say, boss." His voice carried a weight of resignation that belied his words.
"Are you not drained?" Buddhist Hand asked, his deep voice cutting through the tension.
"I recovered... thanks for saving me." Elias nodded toward the massive man.
"It's nothing," Buddhist Hand muttered, exhaustion evident in each syllable.
"Guys, we can do this. I have a plan." Sasha's voice faltered as Buddhist Hand struggled to his feet, muscles trembling with effort.
"Calamity Beasts can be overwhelmed, pushed back, contained, and even killed," he said between labored breaths, "but they have something we don't... They have limitless energy. They recover from all injuries."
"I know that," Sasha snapped, electricity dancing at her fingertips. "My lightning is enough to kill it. I almost had it if not for that vile ability it used." She turned desperately to Elias. "Help me here!"
"Boss, I'm your bodyguard. Whatever you say." His tone remained flat, detached.
"Please don't say that." Her voice softened. "I need your mind with me. Just agree. Help me convince him to fight one last time. We can succeed."
Elias looked skyward. "The sun has set. It's night now, but there's light."
Above them, the dome glowed with stars, casting an ethereal illumination over the battlefield.
"One of the top ten magical structures we still don't understand," Sasha explained, a momentary wonder replacing fear in her voice. "It captures minimal light from stars and the moon and amplifies it, making night brighter than day." Her expression hardened with renewed determination.
She rose to her feet. With each blink, electric current flashed in her eyes—brilliant blue-white arcs that illuminated her face from within.
Brand Skill: Internal Thunderstorm
"We can do this," she said, pacing back and forth. "It may have limitless energy, but it can only draw so much at once, with intervals of cooldown. Right now, we're just giving it time to recover."
Her hands sliced through the air as she outlined her strategy. "We can whittle it down. No—we can injure it. Buddhist Hand, you compress rock with your bare hands. I'll fuse them with lightning. Elias, you can launch them like cannonballs."
She fixed them with an intense stare. "This will force it to expend energy. While we do that, Buddhist Hand will charge his Brand Skill: Golden Body and heal his mind." She pointed at Elias. "And you—you love training. This is your chance to master the Launching Skill."
She bent to grab a rock the size of her head but staggered under its weight. "Bodyguard, attract the rocks to us."
At Elias's command, stones of various sizes rose and hovered toward them.
"Big guy. Start." Sasha stood before Buddhist Hand's towering form as he regarded her with his usual blank expression.
"Don't mind her," Elias chuckled darkly. "She didn't experience the death grip we got from that beast."
Elias's reluctance was palpable. The beast had only been toying with them.
"Even so," Buddhist Hand rumbled, "Internal Thunder Storm ranks among elite Hunter skills. Her brother—the only Rank 2 Platinum Badge Hunter—owes much of his success to that skill."
"Wait," Elias's eyes widened. "Platinum is high-tier?"
"Buddhist Heart has a platinum badge," Sasha replied, pride evident in her voice.
Under her relentless stare, Buddhist Hand finally moved. He grabbed a massive rock, muscles bulging as he compressed it with tremendous force. The stone crackled, becoming dense and compact before he dropped it at her feet.
Sasha passed her hand over it, lightning dancing between her fingers. The rock hummed with contained energy—a delayed bomb.
They worked faster. He squeezed, she charged. Again and again.
"This time," she said, her voice gaining confidence, "we go all out. First, one hundred rock bombs. Second, Buddhist Hand clashes with it using the Golden Fist. Third, you'll—"
They had created fourteen rock bombs when she froze mid-sentence. "I don't want to face it," she whispered, color draining from her face.
Elias sprang to his feet. Buddhist Hand's gaze snapped up. Sasha stared toward the alley, mouth agape.
Nothing emerged. No roar disturbed the silence. The ground, shattered by donkey hooves, remained unchanged. But above the buildings, silhouettes of long appendages appeared, writhing against the star-bright sky.
The sensation defied description—like trying to grasp water or recall a dream that slips away upon waking.
Elias and Sasha retreated simultaneously. She clutched his stump, fingers digging into damaged flesh.
Bubble.
"It was... playing with us... all along," Sasha breathed, barely audible.
"Finally, you understand." Buddhist Hand hadn't moved, arms still folded across his chest, but the tremor in his voice betrayed his fear. "It sensed your plan would be effective. It's wary of you."
"What should we do?" The Internal Thunder Storm still crackled within her, but hesitation had replaced her certainty.
"You're the boss. I'm just the bodyguard." Elias's repeated phrase earned him a punch to the chest from Sasha. He winced, but didn't protest when she rested her bloodied face against him.
"I'm afraid," she admitted before straightening her shoulders. "We will atta—"
A boulder hurtled from the beast's location, arcing over the buildings and plummeting toward her with terrifying accuracy. Before it struck, more followed—a barrage of projectiles, each tracking her movements with uncanny precision.
Buddhist Hand whisked her aside just in time, but the subsequent boulders adjusted course, hunting her position.
'It fears her plan? What changed?' Elias wondered.
Despite her panic, Sasha shouted, "We attack back! We can win!"
"Yes, boss!" Elias bolted toward the buildings, leaving both Sasha and Buddhist Hand staring in confusion.
With practice jumps and manipulation of gravity, he scaled the broken structures, distancing himself from the alley. When he reached the rooftop, he paused.
ROAAR!
The sky's color shifted. Lights dimmed. Sound transformed into an unnatural flute-like keening that drove all who heard it to their knees.
Elias froze momentarily before shaking off the effect. He continued, leaping from roof to roof with simian agility.
"He's gone mad," Buddhist Hand muttered, still rooted in place. "He'll get himself killed. I'll need to use Superspeed Brand Skill to save him."
Meanwhile, the projectiles were focusing entirely on Sasha. She sprinted toward the alley where powerful impacts shattered buildings and cratered the ground. Fragments launched toward her with lethal intent.
She reached the alley entrance before Elias completed his journey across the rooftops.
"Stupid girl!" Buddhist Hand flash before Sasha as a massive tentacle descended toward her. But, suddenly, the appendage retracted, faster than sight could follow, and lashed at a shadow above.
Elias hung suspended in the air, eyes blazing ashen gray, a manic grin splitting his face. His stump thrust forward, challenging the beast directly.
'The beast has forgotten about—' Buddhist Hand's attention snapped to Sasha. She ran at full speed, covering ground with supernatural quickness, stopping twenty-five meters from the Beast to begin tracing a circle.
What is happening?
Buddhist Hand was fast in his thinking but the act of the two just didn't make sense to him, they were just attacking headlessly toward certain death.
Dumm!
The world fell silent. The beast's oppressive aura shattered as Elias became the focal point of reality itself.
ROAAR!
Seven concentric force circles emanated from the beast, its body transformed, appendages coalescing into forty hardened tentacles that surged forward to meet the descending absolute threat.
The final clash had begun.