Lord Of Beasts

Time passed quickly.

The group moved steadily, jumping from island to island, using Liora’s constructs when necessary to bridge wider gaps. The lower gravity made movement easier, but it also made missteps far more dangerous.

One wrong jump meant falling into an endless void, and no one wanted to test what happened after that.

Ethan had to pause occasionally and use Beast Recovery so that he could maintain the summoning of Wolfy, and doing so was both relieving and impressive for his companions. On the one hand, it confirmed that he couldn’t maintain a summon infinitely, but on the other, he could restore his mana reserves incredibly quickly.

’What can’t this guy do?’

But in a gate like this, the more abilities he pulled out of nowhere, the better.

They certainly needed it and weren’t complaining.

And after roughly an hour of traversing across the fragmented landscape, they finally saw what they were after: the base of the first Boss Beast they had to face.

In the distance, looming like a dark wound in the sky, was a massive structure, one that was black, ominous, and almost alive. A low, constant buzzing filled the air, growing louder with each passing second.

Ethan narrowed his eyes, but two people beside him instantly recognised it.

And let’s just say they weren’t exactly pleased.

"You’ve got to be kidding me."

Darius’ expression darkened instantly, and Liora’s lips pressed into a thin line.

"It’s a hornet’s nest," she said.

Darius stepped forward slightly, his gaze fixed on the structure.

"We’ve faced this beast before," he added, his tone serious.

Everyone turned to him.

"It’s fast," he continued. "Smarter than it looks, tracks movement through its special eyes, and that stinger..."

He paused briefly, as if recalling something unpleasant.

"...If it even grazes you, you’re dead"

Silence fell.

They spoke from experience, and none doubted them or believed they were exaggerating.

Though Ethan couldn’t help but comment, "So if you guys had beaten the beast that was sent your way in Phase Two, we wouldn’t have to deal with this."

Neither of them got defensive, nodding their heads.

"We just couldn’t," she murmured, lowering her head slightly and feeling like she had let them down as one of the three A Ranks of the squad.

"More fun for me," Kaela said, slapping Liora on the back.

She increased the morale of the squad in a single deranged sentence, and she was genuinely raring to go.

Ethan glanced back at the nest.

The buzzing grew louder, and the structure itself seemed to pulse slightly, as if acknowledging their arrival.

"Now that beast isn’t alone, so there are a lot of other beasts with it, C Ranks and B Ranks, probably," Seraphina added in a single breath.

That made things significantly worse.

Fighting one A Rank beast was already a nightmare, but fighting it while surrounded by a swarm of lesser, yet still dangerous creatures...

That was a death sentence if handled poorly.

Liora crossed her arms, thinking quickly.

"We can’t charge in blindly," she said. "We need to draw the boss out."

Ethan nodded slightly.

"Then focus on killing it," he added.

"And then run," Darius finished.

It was simple in theory.

In practice?

It was a nightmare.

Still, it was their best and only option.

Everyone stood there for a moment, staring at the massive hornet’s nest in the distance, anxiety creeping in as they did. They were all on edge, sensing the chaos that was about to ensue.

Well, not all of them

Kaela leaned forward slightly on Wolfy’s back, her purple eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Finally," she muttered, cracking her knuckles.

Ethan, standing beside, had a very different kind of excitement and was the only other who was relaxed.

’This is going to be good.’

His lips curled into a grin, and while others saw a deadly nest filled with lethal creatures, he saw something else entirely.

’There must be a shit ton of Evolutionary Shards in there.’

His eyes sparkled with anticipation.

But before any of them burst into action, they needed to coordinate.

The fact that they were doing that went to show just how dangerous this gate was.

"So how do we actually draw out the Boss Beast?" Ethan questioned aloud, his eyes fixed on the massive hornet’s nest looming in the distance like a living fortress.

Darius narrowed his eyes, studying the structure carefully.

"We can assume it’s somewhere in the centre of that thing, and-"

"We just smash it all."

Kaela cut him off without hesitation.

All eyes turned to her.

She jumped off Wolfy’s back, her purple aura faint but present, her expression sharp and confident despite everything she had already endured.

"It will have no choice but to come out," she continued. "Wasps are aggressive as hell. They won’t sit around and wait. They’ll come at us the second we hit their nest."

She cracked her neck slightly, as if warming up for what was to come.

"Then once they swarm us, Liora and you guys will keep the rest of those things off our backs while the Blood Demon and I handle the Boss Beast."

There was a brief silence, but they couldn’t deny it.

"That’s actually not a bad plan."

Ethan nodded slightly, having been thinking along similar lines.

As reckless as it sounded, using brute force to draw it out and eliminate it made sense.

Still, there was one concern.

Ethan’s gaze flicked toward Kaela again.

’Is she actually back to full strength?’

She looked fine on the surface: her burns had healed, her posture was steady, and her presence still carried weight.

But no one forgot the state she had been in not long ago.

Even monstrous A Rank Titled had their limits.

Meanwhile, Elara stood nearby, her crimson energy faintly leaking from her body like a second skin. She looked completely fine in comparison and still had more mana than she could hope to use at her disposal.

’That demon really is something else,’ Ethan thought.

As for the others, well, they were in as good a condition as they could be, and thankfully none of them had any major injuries.

Liora and Dave had recovered most of their reserves, and Seraphina and Rowan had come out of Phase Two mostly unscathed. It was Darius and the Bulldozer that seemed to be the most damaged out of the lot.

But one could handle himself, and the other honestly didn’t matter.

Against ground-based enemies, the grey-skinned C Rank was somewhat useful, but against fast, lethal aerial predators, not so much.

That left Ethan, who was fine and the constant mental strain and physical ache that came with his abilities didn’t phase him. He was an anomaly and seemed able to summon a B Rank beast like it was nothing, so unlike his two C Rank counterparts, he could hold his own in this upcoming battle.

On that note, Kaela glanced at him.

"Can’t you just summon that dragonfly I fought?"

Ethan laughed lightly, shaking his head.

"What makes you think I can do that?"

Technically, he could.

Well, a version of that beast she had faced, one that was far younger and weaker - not that he wanted to admit that.

"We aren’t stupid," she replied flatly, glancing at the tattoo on his left forearm.

Ethan locked eyes with her and spoke honestly and directly.

"It wouldn’t be useful yet..."

Then his expression shifted slightly, easing up again.

"But there is one thing I can do."

He smiled, his attention turning to the marking on his other arm that would prove much more useful...