Omniscient POV
The monster stopped and stared at Alan. Its head tilted slightly, as if analyzing him.
Its mouth opened.
"You…"
Its voice was like a rock grating against chalkboard.
"Are strong."
The pipes on its head started to shake violently.
It let out a low growl that sounded almost like laughter.
The next moment, the special Elicoras Warrior vanished completely.
Its speed was far faster than before, almost as if it was a different person.
Alan opened a portal behind him.
The Elicoras warrior appeared there, sword ready to pierce his back—
But before the blade could strike, another Elicoras warrior appeared in front of him.
Yuna, who saw the scene, froze.
The monster behind Alan flickered and vanished, it had been an afterimage.
The real one was right in front of him, sword already mid-swing, aiming straight for his neck.
Alan couldn't react in time.
The monster's movement was so fast that Alan should have only just realized the afterimage was fake.
There was no time to dodge, or block.
The Elicoras warrior took another step forward, its glowing eyes locked on him.
Its sword whistled through the air, ready to slice through Alan's neck.
But then, its balance crumbled.
It looked down, confused, noticing a silver circle spread beneath its feet.
Since when has the portal been there?
The creature tried to move back, but its body was already sinking into it.
In the next second, the Elicoras warrior vanished into the portal. Since it had been moving too fast, it couldn't stop its own momentum, and fell into the portal.
A loud whoosh followed as the same portal opened high above the jungle.
The creature fell out of the sky, its sharp tubes whipping around like angry snakes.
It wasn't panicking.
The pipe-like tubes on its head extended, twisting and slithering through the air as if alive.
Some of them stabbed into the ground, and acted as pillars to keep the monster afloat in the air.
The others aimed straight for Alan.
Alan opened another portal behind him and stepped through.
He appeared several hundred meters away, landing on wet leaves.
His breath came out uneven.
He was exhausted, but his eyes stayed sharp.
The Elicoras warrior turned its head toward him.
It realized catching Alan wasn't going to be easy.
Or so Alan must be thinking.
The special Elicoras warrior was created to test Alan, and it had abilities to deal with his tricks.
Its tubes stopped moving for a moment before they coiled again, ready to strike.
Alan stared back, his body tense.
The creature opened its mouth and let out a roar that shook the ground.
More tubes began to grow from its head.
Dozens, then hundreds.
They spread across the air like a swarm of black tendrils, pointing down toward the ground.
It looked like rain made of metal.
Alan's heart pounded.
But his emotions remained as calm as a lake.
His mind worked on overdrive to predict where the monster would strike from next.
The monster also knew Alex could predict its move, and use portals to dodge or redirect its attack.
That's why…. it didn't care about aiming anymore.
It decided to crush everything around them, leaving Alan no place to run away to.
The first wave of tubes slammed into the ground, leaving deep craters.
The forest floor trembled.
Alan opened portals in every direction, using them to dodge as the tubes stabbed and slithered after him.
They were fast. Too fast.
Each time he stepped through one portal, another tube lunged at him from behind.
They moved like living things, bending and adjusting their aim mid-flight.
Alan's body was drenched in sweat.
He could feel the strain every time a new portal formed.
His mana stars pulsed painfully, struggling to keep up with his demands.
Still, he kept going.
The Elicoras warrior's tubes surrounded him completely now, forming a cage of black tendrils.
Alan raised his hand, ready to open one more portal—
But nothing happened.
No glow. No portal. Nothing.
Blood dripped from beneath his mask, running down his chin.
"Alan?!" Yuna cried out.
The tubes slammed into him before he could recover.
One struck his stomach with bone-crushing force.
Alan's body flew across the jungle, crashing through trees before shooting out over a cliff.
Yuna screamed, darting after him.
"Alan! Use your portals! Alan!"
She flew alongside his limp body, panic clear in her voice.
He wasn't moving.
She could sense several of his bones were broken, but that shouldn't have been enough to knock him out.
Something else was wrong.
Her eyes widened as she remembered the blood under his mask.
He hadn't been hit until a few moments ago.
So why was he bleeding before that?
Then it clicked.
"Internal injuries…"
He had cast too many spells too quickly.
His mana core must have been overloaded.
The backlash knocked him out.
Luckily, the backlash hadn't been strong enough to kill him.
But…
Yuna's heart sank.
'He lost.'
It wasn't his fault.
No Rank 1 Exorcist could stand against a Rank 3 Cursed Spirit.
Even several Rank 3 Exorcist working together would've been crushed.
Still…
She couldn't shake off his earlier words. That confident tone, that stubborn determination.
He never gave up.
He never cowered.
So…
Why?
Why was Yuna thinking they couldn't win if a child had the courage to say they could win?
Her hands clenched.
"Alan!" she shouted again.
The Elicoras warrior's tubes began tearing trees out of the ground, flinging them like spears toward Alan's flying body that was about to crash into a cliff.
Although hitting the cliff would flatten him and kill him, the monster wasn't taking any chances.
It uprooted more and more trees and threw them towards the location Alan would crash.
As soon as Alan hit the cliff, the tress would fall on top of him and end the battle.
Yuna's wings flared with bright light.
"Wake up!" she cried. "You still have to show me your victory like you promised! Wake up!"
Her body shone brighter, the glow spreading like wildfire.
The light flowed into Alan, wrapping around him in waves of warmth.
The moment before his body hit the cliff, his eyes snapped open.
He grinned through the pain.
"Thanks for the heal, Yuna. Love you!"
"W–what?!" she stammered, face turning red. "What do you me—!"
Before she could finish, a portal opened behind him.
Alan twisted mid-air and fell through.
The other end opened right next to the Elicoras warrior.
The creature was floating in the sky, held up by hundreds of its tubes that dug deep into the ground.
Its eyes searched, still tracking Alan's mana signature.
It thought Alan would teleport far away.
Then, Alan came out of the portal like a bullet.
He appeared in front of the monster directly. Falling upside down.
His arm shot forward, two bright piercing Magic Bullets forming.
They were aimed at its unprotected eyes.
…
Real World
Nisha POV
The room shook as Adrian's bloodlust burst out.
The walls cracked, and the floor trembled beneath their feet.
Bloodlust rolled through the air like a wave, heavy enough to make breathing difficult.
"Adrian!" Nisha shouted, trying to hold him down.
Her hands pressed against his chest, but his strength was nothing like before.
His eyes had become completely dull gray.
Having gone insane, he was trying to use his Hollow Eyes to kill everyone in the room.
"Stop it! You'll destroy everything!" she yelled again.
Adrian didn't seem to hear her.
His body jerked violently, veins darkening under his skin.
Oliver moved beside Nisha, trying to help. "He's going to cause serious damage at this rate. We need to seal his Aura flow, now!"
"He doesn't have any Aura! This is just pure physical strength, and bloodlust!" Nisha snapped, forcing her mana through his body.