Faced off against the wind eels, Rory reconjured his knives, flying through the air after the partially incorporeal summons. As fast as his knives were, the eels seemed to know precisely when to spin or twirl through the air to evade the knives. Had Rory had the room to focus entirely on the eels, they wouldn't have been a problem, but the issue was that he was splitting his focus between laying down covering fire for Zoey and defending himself.

She's not going to like this, but… oh well.

Mentally shrugging, Rory stopped projecting the exploding lances, instead focusing entirely on handling the eel problem. In the distance, he saw as Zoey cast a single glance over her shoulder, noticing the lack of spears incoming. She only had time to spare for the single glance, though, as the ape, no longer facing constant bombardment, began to rain down a flurry of enraged blows across her shield, treating her like a stress ball.

She'll be fine.

Focusing on the flying eels, his knives tripled in volume as they spun through the air like makeshift chakrams. It was an impressive display, if not for the fact that the eels were still dodging out of the way, only kept at bay by the sheer volume of flying weapons.

How did they know exactly when to dodge?

It was beginning to bug Rory something fierce that even with more knives flying through the air, the eels still couldn't seem to be touched.

Wait…. Duh. It's because they ARE air.

The eels were summoned from the air, so when the knives passed through the air, they sensed it instantly, reacting even without needing to see or assess the path of his flying weapons.

If that's the case, I need to hit them with something that the air can't predict.

With that in mind, the number of knives projected began to dwindle, relenting until there were barely as many knives as there were eels. Seeing their chance, the eels shot forward like, well, eels, darting after a fish in the sea.

Except the moment they closed in, a circle appeared beneath Rory, and instantly, a blast of energy overcharged the ions surrounding Rory. As fast as literal lightning, jets of electricity began thundering about in a mish-mash web of chaos, the eels eviscerated by the lightning blender that surrounded Rory.

Even Rory wasn't spared. Still, having been the one to come up with the attack, he'd readied himself, a thin filament of shielding surrounding him that was just enough to protect him from the worst of the electrical discharge.

Which meant by the end of it, his hair was still standing on end and smoldering, but that was the least of his problems.

Damn, that is still not easy.

The reason he had needed to lessen the projection of his knives was so that he could use that extra mental bandwidth to focus on formulating the freeform magic required to create the electric spiderweb of crisscrossing lightning strikes.

Honestly, that was more effective than I expected.

Someone like Zoey would probably pass through the conjured electrical storm like it was nothing more than a bit of static electricity, but it wasn't meant for use against durable foes like Zoey; instead, it was meant to handle a mass of weaker opponents all at once.

Speaking of Zoey.

Sparing his attention to the primary battle, Rory winced as he took in the sight. Zoey was… not having fun. In the short period that he had been handling the summoned eels, Zoey had been hammered away at relentlessly and vindictively. Her shield was barely a crumbled mass, and even her armor looked like a golf ball with all the dents throughout. She was visibly bleeding, and not a small amount either, which said something about the might of the monster ape that it had managed to inflict so much damage even with her insane durability attribute.

Well, she's at least good at her job.

"Alright, no more playing around," Rory muttered to himself. Having handled the eels, there was no reason to sit back and watch, and besides, they didn't have the luxury of fooling around.

And by they, what Rory really meant was that he didn't have the luxury, because if the ape had managed to inflict that much damage on Zoey, he would have been little more than a red smear in the snow.

Focusing three mental threads in tandem, three magic circles appeared beneath Rory, power rapidly gathering.

I could add a chant, but probably better to play it safe and not burn myself out by chanting on top of a Dragon's Fall.

Again, the ape attempted to get around Zoey, only for it to turn back toward her, an unnatural rage in its eyes focused entirely on the woman.

Oh, she's got some taunt skill, it looks like.

Whatever the case, it gave Rory enough time to finish drawing the power as the circles shattered, reaching the maximum. At the exact moment, a giant golden circle appeared overhead the oversized ape, and from it emerged a massive stone statue of a dragon's head.

"Dragon's Fall!" Rory shouted. At the same time, Eia appeared around Zoey as she suddenly whipped down two gems, which exploded around her, forming a warbling barrier in the air. It wasn't enough to withstand the full force of Dragon's Fall, but it would hopefully prevent her from having to rely on her once-a-day damage nullification skill.

Noticing the giant dragon meteor, the ape did something Rory hadn't expected.

It faced the meteor, cocking one of its arms back as the same green winds began to circle its fist, faster and faster as its own energy surged.

Is… Is it going to try to punch through a meteor?

Now, it was entirely stupid of Rory, but part of him wanted to see that happen.

Why?

Because that was just plain fucking cool.

Perhaps it was the peanut-sized male brain in him that suddenly found itself presented the coolest damn contest he'd ever been offered before, but Rory was grinning viciously as he brought his hands together, surging his aura as several more rings appeared above the meteor.

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Was the smart move to sucker punch the ape, so that it could face the meteor head on with its full might?

Yes.

Was that as cool?

Hell no.

Roaring out in defiance, Rory forgot entirely about sparing Zoey from a chant-boosted Dragon's Fall as his lips began to move on their own.

"From my mind, all things imagined,"

The pressure bearing down on the meteor suddenly increased as if gravity had doubled.

"From my body, all paths are possible."

Ordinarily, going head-to-head with a level seventy-five monster in a direct clash of attacks was stupid. Still, Rory was benefiting from his genesis-bound ring, magic circles, and his chant; the magnitude of attack he could drop with those three in conjunction was no small thing.

"From my hands, even stars may be forged."

The force of energy rolling out from the monster gorilla intensified, the energy contained by its cyclone fist dense as anything else Rory had felt before.

Altering his chant slightly to something more thematically fitting, Rory gave one last cry.

"And from stars forged, may Dragon's Fall!"

Slamming down like a falling star, the oversized dragon's head bust crashed down upon the monster ape, whose fist exploded forward, a punch to shatter stars.

Alright, maybe that's a little dramatic.

Either way, as the giant fist struck the falling meteor, the entire world seemed to shake as the shockwave blasted Rory back, tumbling through fire and snow alike, only the speed of his cognition keeping him oriented.

Arresting his momentum, Rory attempted to jump back up, only to perform more of a drunken stagger as he found himself seated on his ass, his head hammering.

Oh, yeah, definitely overdid it.

Pneuma-wracked, and a rather rough case of it as well.

No surprise there.

Feeling not all that different from some nights during his younger years when he'd drunk far too much, Rory could only watch as the dust settled. For two hundred meters in any direction, a crater had been created within the crater they were already in. Somehow, there was still a layer of snow at the bottom of the freshly created crater, something which Rory made a point of not questioning. Also within the crater was a giant ape, its fist held high.

Holy shit, it withstood that?

It reflected just how insane the gap between a regular, low-tier monster and a powerful, mid-tier monster could be. That same attack could have flattened several regular level seventy monsters at once.

Insane as the accomplishment of withstanding his attack was, that didn't mean the ape was in tip-top condition. In fact, the ape was barely even moving; the only reason he knew it was alive was the gentle rise and fall of its chest.

And, as if to add salt to the wound, suddenly a blur of motion appeared from beneath the ape as a giant snake lunged upward, her fangs latching onto its neck, the monster gorilla never having a chance even to catch its breath before it was being attacked once more. Having expended so much in matching a chant and a magic circle boosted Dragon's Fall, the titanic gorilla was in no state to push back against Eia's aural toxin.

An utterly bullshit, dishonorable cheap shot… Proud of her.

It was a rather anticlimactic ending to what had been an otherwise ridiculous battle, but in the end, a win was a win, so Rory wasn't about to-

Ah fuck, there I go doing it again. Spoke too soon once more.

Subjected to Eia's aural toxin, the dying ape had begun to fall apart, literally fall apart, its flesh and blood slopping to the ground in a rather grotesque sight.

Except rather than being the end of the story, as the flesh sloughed off from it, what was revealed was a considerably smaller ape, only a few times larger than they were, instead of the size of a bus. Unlike its flesh and blood form, this version of the ape was made of the same green winds as the summoned eels.

Examining it, Rory winced. It could have been worse, but it could have also been a hell of a lot better.

Ape Icon of Auster

Level: 71

The afterimage remains of a monster attuned to the verdant winds. Empowered by energies inverting the bindings of reality, even the dissipation of its physical form was unable to erase the will of the originating monster. Unwilling to cease existence, it temporarily anchors itself in the pursuit of accomplishing one final act.

Assuming his understanding of the description was sound, it was a vengeful ghost that existed solely because the inversion properties of the Trial allowed it to linger when it should have dispersed.

Interesting, but also, fuck.

Having been slain once and subjected to Eia's aural toxin, the phantasmal wind spirit of the former ape had been weakened considerably, now only level seventy-one.

The problem was that Rory was currently unable to move a muscle, uselessly plopped on the ground like an overdrunk frat boy.

I'm tagged out… So, good luck to you two.

Eia had mostly gone unscathed, playing a role closer to that of an assassin during the fight, rarely facing the monster ape directly. It was Zoey he was more worried for, who appeared as if summoned by his thoughts. She was limping to the crater edge from a tree line she had been launched into after the shockwave created from the collision of its fist and his Dragon's Fall. Her ears were bleeding as was her nose, and there was a grimace on her face, but she was otherwise whole.

Hah, I can't say the same for me. Rory mentally giggled, brain still fried after overloading with pneuma.

As banged up as she was, apparently having a set of far superior armor was enough to overcome her prior limitations as her gait strengthened, confidence rapidly regrowing.

Wow, she recovers fast as hell.

Going from a limp to a haggard walk to a jog, soon she was sprinting directly at the wind-born ghost, her speed accentuating the fact that for the first time during the battle against the ape, she had inverted her attributes. Her face was covered in blood, but it didn't seem to slow her one bit. While the scale of her boost was less than any time that Rory had seen it used prior, due to the damage she'd already accrued, it was still more than Rory could have matched without the use of float gems.

Getting to do nothing more than observe, Rory watched the ensuing fight play out like the good little bystander that he was. Fists blurring, she wove in and out of its range, her fists striking like a well-trained boxer. Eia had likewise joined the fray now that the ape had been reduced so severely, as the ape wasn't the only one that turned partially incorporeal, Eia taking the form of a living streak of energy.

Between Zoey's blurring fists, Eia's energy form, and the fact that the ghost-ape was already playing with borrowed time, it was only a short bit later that at last the vengeful spirit dispersed. As soon as it did, Rory saw as Zoey dropped her boost, dropping to her ass much like Rory had, leaving Eia as the last one standing.

Though, considering she's a snake and she's technically always lying on the ground because, no feet, I feel like that's cheating.

Either way, it was a good few minutes before Rory finally recovered enough to stagger to his feet and slowly trudge over to where Zoey was seated.

"How 'ya feeling?" Rory asked, having a pretty good guess of it.

"Shit," Zoey answered. "Inverting my attributes after I've taken damage like that is never a good idea. Burns me out for a while after, where my durability essentially goes offline for some time meaning a recover for shit."

"We won."

"Yeah, noticed," Zoey snorted. "I thought you weren't into dick measuring contests?"

"I have no idea what you mean," Rory lied.

"Hah. The moment it looked like it was planning to punch your meteor, I sensed the surge of energy coming from you. You got carried away."

"No, I didn't," Rory said, lying once more.

"You know, you act like you don't get that invested, but you're a closeted ego beast."

"What the hell is an ego beast?" Rory questioned, perplexed.

"Someone who gets competitive the minute their ego gets involved. When I was younger, I always made fun of my younger sister for being an ego beast."

"Oh," Was all Rory said, a hint of a frown on his face. He wasn't unaware of the fact that sometimes he was a little more competitive than he liked to tell himself, but it was always a bit jarring to have someone else point it out. Perhaps because he at least wanted to think he wasn't competitive in the regular sense of the word.

Ehh, who cares, honestly speaking.

"How are you?" Rory asked Eia, turning to face the serpent, who seemed rather pleased with herself.

"Better than the two of you combined," She responded smugly.

"Uh huh, considering I was being punched in the face by a monster the size of a bus for the better part of… for that entire fight, while you got to hide in the shadows, I think that's not a fair comparison," Zoey shot back.

"I do not know what a bus is."

"Annoying," Zoey rolled her eyes before she looked at Rory. "So… monster has been slain. Shouldn't we be getting rewarded about now?"

"About that," A new voice suddenly spoke up as the two of them slowly turned their heads, only to see a rather cross-looking Aelia staring at them with her arms folded one over the other. "I think we have some things to discuss."

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