Chapter 278: Rose in Peril

"Sha Sha!!" Go, little sister!! Turn them all into dried jerky!! ?(≧▽≦)?

And then came the most terrifying part of Rose’s arsenal.

Instead of draining the Frost-Claw Grizzly and the ten-meter Stone Golem’s partner beast, a Platinum Armoured Rhino that had just charged in from the right flank, Rose shot twenty hair-thin crimson threads straight into the open cuts on their bodies!!

The threads burrowed directly into their bloodstream like living parasites, racing up their veins and straight into their brains and muscles.

"ROOOAAAR... GHHK?!!"

The Frost-Claw Grizzly’s eyes suddenly turned blood-red. Against its master’s frantic mental commands, the bear’s massive body jerked like a marionette on strings, spun one hundred and eighty degrees around, and slammed its frost-covered claws straight into the face of Lola’s Diamond-Tier Steel Spider!

BANG!!!

Right beside it, the hijacked Armoured Rhino lowered its horn and rammed full-speed into the side of Trevor’s Diamond-Tier Shadow Panther, sending both beasts skidding across the concrete in a tangle of limbs!

"What the hell?! You muscle-brain idiot!! Why is your bear attacking my cutie?!" Lola shrieked in fury, nearly biting her own tongue off as her spider was knocked off balance.

"I’m not controlling it!!" the burly man yelled back in panic, coughing up a mouthful of blood as his mental link was forcibly overridden by sheer bloodline tyranny. "It’s that snake!! She is controlling the blood inside its veins; she’s using our beasts as puppets!!"

"Damn it!! We need to take her down fast before she causes any more harm to us!!" Trevor cursed, his face twisting with alarm.

On the left flank, Woolie and Raiden were fighting like madmen of their own.

Without his lightning, Woolie couldn’t fire ranged blasts or summon thunderclouds, so he simply compressed every ounce of his monstrous, gravity-trained physical strength into his four legs and golden horns. When Bai Zheng’s Platinum Wolf lunged at Raiden’s blind spot with jaws wide open, Woolie launched himself off a stacked crate like a black cannonball.

"Woolie Woo!!" Get squashed, you fake wolf!!

CRUNCH!!

Woolie’s golden horns caved the Platinum wolf’s ribcage in with a single devastating headbutt, sending it crashing halfway through the reinforced warehouse wall while Raiden spun alongside him, his dual blood scythes carving a deep, spraying gash across the flank of Trevor’s Diamond-Tier Shadow Panther as it tried to recover and strike from the shadows.

Every swing of Raiden’s scythes was fueled by pure desperation. His broken ribs ground together with every twist of his torso, and his lungs burned like he was inhaling broken glass, yet his eyes never left the gaping hole in the back wall.

In less than forty seconds, all six Platinum-Tier beasts had either been drained dry, trapped in slicing blood cages, smashed by Woolie, or turned into blood-controlled puppets!!

Yet Raiden wasn’t smiling.

Because every second that ticked by felt like a century, and blocking the rear exit stood the six Diamond-Tier Terra Beasts, finally shaking off the shock and fighting in deadly synchronisation.

"Enough of this farce!!" Lola’s face twisted into a demonic snarl as her three Diamond beasts, the Steel-Spear Spider, the Smoke Serpent, and the Acid-Jawed Hound, erupted with full Diamond-Tier pressure alongside Trevor’s Giant Eagle, his Shadow Panther, and Bai Zheng’s Alpha Wolf.

"She’s still sealed at Gold Tier! I refuse to believe we can’t beat her together!! Her body can’t handle six Diamond-Tiers at once! Rip her scales off for me now!!"

BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!!

With a single furious swipe of its spear-like legs, Lola’s Diamond Spider tore both of Rose’s puppeteered Platinum beasts clean in half, showering the floor in viscera!!

At the same time, the Smoke Serpent coiled around Rose’s neck like a suffocating noose, the Acid-Jawed Hound clamped its corrosive fangs onto her midsection, Trevor’s Giant Eagle raked its talons across her back, and Bai Zheng’s Diamond Alpha Wolf slammed its massive claws down onto her crown of blood!!

"HISSSS!!"

Rose let out a sharp, pained cry as her blood barrier shattered under the simultaneous impact of six Diamond-Tier monsters! Acid sizzled against her ruby scales, melting through her defences, and deep gashes opened along her twenty-meter body, sending her crashing hard into the concrete floor right in front of Raiden.

"Rose, no!!" Raiden’s eyes went bloodshot as he caught himself on one knee, feeling the crushing weight of six Diamond-Tier beasts bearing down on them while Sylvia was slipping further away into the night.

"Woolie, go save her now!!"

Even before Raiden finished speaking, Woolie was on the move. His compact black body moved like a blur across the cracked floor as he slammed headfirst into the Acid-Jawed Hound, driving the Diamond beast several meters back with a pained yelp and giving Rose a tiny window of time to breathe.

But against six Diamond-Tier monsters, it wasn’t enough.

Trevor’s Shadow Panther and Giant Eagle immediately pinned Woolie down from both sides, forcing the little sheep to brace all four hooves into the concrete just to keep from being crushed, while Rose tried to force her battered head back up, her golden eyes trembling with frustration and pain as the remaining Diamond beasts raised their claws for the finishing blow.

Rose is still too weak... Rose can’t protect Rai Rai and Sister Sylvi like this...

And right at that moment, deep inside Raiden’s chest, where the silver-streaked power had just been suppressed, his newly awakened bloodline gave a violent, deafening throb.

{Ding!! Detecting that Partner ’Rose (The Divine Blood Empress)’ is suppressed by an incomplete mortal seal while facing fatal hostility!}

{Host has awakened [The Ashen One Bloodline]. Would you like to channel the Primordial Ashen Bloodline into Rose to purify her blood and forcibly break her potential limits?! [YES / NO]}

Raiden looked at the glowing prompt in front of his bleeding eyes, and he didn’t even hesitate for a fraction of a second as he mentally slammed "YES!!"

BOOM!!

A towering pillar of crimson and ashen-silver blood erupted over Rose, blasting every single beast back across the warehouse!!