Chapter 61: End [ 2 ]

That did not make Adesewa careless. She moved through the battlefield with controlled efficiency, never wasting Hunter’s Crossing on an enemy she could reach normally and never throwing elaborate abilities at creatures that died from one clean strike.

She intercepted monsters threatening injured Walkers, destroyed anything attempting to break the formation and left targets already contained by capable groups alone. Every swing had purpose.

One spear thrust entered a monster’s open mouth and burst through the rear of its skull. Another downward strike crushed the spine of a six-legged predator. When two creatures rushed her together, she pivoted between them and swung through the first monster’s neck before reversing the spear into the second one’s skull.

Blood washed across the ground.

Frey stared while fighting and muttered, "That woman is turning them into meat paste."

Jet parried a claw and answered while forcing his attacker backward, "Then stop watching before you volunteer to join the pile."

Frey grinned as he sent a Vritra Coil around the monster’s neck and dragged its head sideways. "I’m appreciating the educational demonstration."

Jet used the opening and cut through its throat. The monster stumbled several steps before collapsing, while Frey released the Coiland immediately sent another around the ankle of a charging predator. Instead of crushing it, he yanked its leg backward.

The beast lost balance, slid through the bloody grass and arrived directly in front of two waiting Walkers, who buried their weapons into its exposed side.

The remaining battle collapsed rapidly after that. What had been a dangerous horde became isolated pockets surrounded by organized Walkers.

Cassian redirected the charge of a horned beast just enough for Safiya’s spear to enter beneath its foreleg. Odhran stood atop a fallen trunk and fired into monsters attempting to flee uphill.

Bastian used his shield more conservatively now, blocking and controlling rather than storing impacts with his injured arm. Marcus moved from group to group, using the King’s Measure to ruin charges and create openings without exhausting himself after his earlier fight.Everywhere Jet looked, the number of standing monsters was shrinking.

The woman controlling pale disks sent one curving beneath the jaw of a wounded beast while her partner drove a sword through its chest.

The chain-Rune Walker pinned another monster long enough for three others to surround it.

Near the shoreline, the Cinder Maw Awakener burned through the hindquarters of a reptilian predator trying to reach the pool. Adesewa reached it before it could crawl another meter and brought her spear down.

SPLAT!

Its head disappeared beneath the strike.

Five monsters remained.

Then four.

A winged Lesser attempted to escape over the eastern slope. Odhran’s arrow clippedits wing, and the wind-Rune Awakener blasted it downward. Three Walkers were waiting when it crashed, and their weapons descended together before it could unfold its wings again.

Three remained.

One rushed the pool in complete desperation. Frey’s Coil caught its rear leg and ripped it backward. Jet met the falling creature halfway, opened its neck with the Vorpal Blade and stepped aside as another Walker drove a spear through its chest.

Two.

The final pair had retreated beside a shattered boulder, their bodies covered in wounds. One resembled a muscular wolf with plates growing over its shoulders, while the other was a squat reptile whose remaining horn had beenbroken halfway down.

They stood almost back-to-back, snarling at the humans surrounding them. Neither had anywhere left to run. Adesewa could have ended both herself, but she remained outside the circle and watched as six exhausted Walkers advanced together.

The wolf attacked first.

A shield received its claws. Two spears struck from behind the shield, forcing it sideways, where the pale disks cut through its hind leg. The reptile charged simultaneously, but spectral chains caught one forelimb while compressed wind struck its flank.

It staggered. The stone-fisted Walker stepped into range and drove a punch beneath its jaw.

BOOM!

The reptile’s skull snapped backward.

The wolf tore itself from the spears and tried escaping through the opening, only for Safiya to appear there. Her spear entered through its chest and emerged behind its shoulder. The creature collapsed at her feet.

Beside it, the reptile attempted to rise until Marcus drove the crescent blade of his polearm through the back of its neck.

Silence arrived strangely.

For several breaths, nobody seemed to trust it. Jet stood with the Vorpal Blade lowered beside him, chest rising steadily as his eyes traveled across the valley.

There were no more charging bodies. No roars answered from the trees. No wings circled overhead. Only the groans of injured Walkers, the hiss of small fires and the sound of disturbed water remained.

Around them lay the result of the operation: dozens of Lesser-ranked corpses, five peak Lessers and two enormous Greater-ranked Regal Coil Lions.

They had done it.

The Raid Team did not celebrate immediately. The wounded came first. Support members moved across the battlefield checking injuries, binding cuts and deciding who required serious treatment once they returned to Zenith. Fortunately, nobody had died.

The Walker Frey had saved earlier had several broken ribs and would not be fighting again today, while others carried fractures, burns, deep cuts and Mana exhaustion. Considering what they had faced, the result was better than anyone could reasonably have demanded.

Only after Adesewa confirmed the perimeter was clear did she order everyone toward the island.

Jet wiped the Vorpal Blade clean before sheathing it and followed Frey across the shallow section of the pool. Cassian, Marcus, Safiya, Odhran and Bastian joined them, along with the remaining members of the Raid Team.

Their boots splashed through water clouded faintly with golden blood from the dead Regal Coils, and nobody spoke much as the silver tree rose before them.

Up close, the Palladium Tree was even more extraordinary. Its silver bark looked almost metallic, while luminous blue veins moved beneath the surface like slow currents.

Mana gathered around its translucent leaves in visible motes, drifting through the branches before dissolving into the surrounding air. Above their heads hung the white fruits they had spilled so much blood to reach, each one glowing softly with concentrated power.

The entire Raid Team gathered beneath the Palladium Tree.