With Asphalt's flashing sword strike, the massive magical mirror overhead shattered into countless shards, each dissolving into the air.
The sudden halt in attacks gave everyone a brief moment to breathe—no more pythons swarming them.
"Where is it?" Har asked, scanning the misty battlefield.
"There." Zane pointed casually.
In that instant, a massive python head rose from the ground.
"What happened to its other heads?" Har asked again.
"They're coming out too. There… and there." Zane gestured to two other spots.
Two more pythons emerged, raising their colossal heads and roaring in unison.
"Block your ears. Sound-resonance attack incoming," Zane warned.
They reacted instantly, sealing their ears with basic elemental magic.
A thunderous roar split the air. Even with their defenses, their vision blurred and sharp pain tore through their eardrums. Blood trickled down their ears.
When their hearing returned, the three pythons were weaving through the air, their bodies pulsing with raw mana. The energy gathered, then surged outward—three magical mirrors materialized, hanging vertically above them.
"So they used that roar as a distraction to recreate the mirrors," Asphalt muttered grimly.
The twins frowned—this was no dumb beast.
But Zane and Henry remained perfectly calm. Henry simply didn't care how strong it was, and Zane had already expected an opponent of this caliber.
Asphalt stepped forward, ready to slash at one mirror—
—but one python roared, unleashing a storm of glittering green scales from a mirror. Thousands of them shot forward like flying blades.
Everyone reacted instantly. The twins sheltered under the flaming bulk of their boar, its hide impervious to the attack. Henry moved like a shadow, untouched. Zane slipped between the scales with casual precision. Asphalt spun his blade like a steel fan, knocking every scale aside.
The pythons' first attack had failed.
A second roar, and another mirror rained molten lava. But again, the five resisted without injury.
The pythons roared once more—then, before their eyes, the three bodies twisted and fused back into one massive, three-headed serpent.
It had realized long-range attacks were useless. Now it wanted blood.
The python darted toward Asphalt at blinding speed.
"Oh? Out of all of us, you choose me?" Asphalt grinned, settling into a stance as mana condensed into his blade's tip.
The python's tail lashed like a whip, but Asphalt didn't meet it head-on. Zane noticed something strange—an aura covering him.
"What's that? Not mana… and not a law either."
Ding!
[That is Sword Intent. Like the laws of elements, weapon masters have their own laws—their 'intent.' The history of sword intent traces back to lost civilizations before the Awakening Age.]
Intrigued, Zane's thoughts drifted briefly to the sword on his back.
On the battlefield, Asphalt moved like he knew each of the python's attacks in advance, dodging with surgical precision.
The serpent suddenly reared, firing a storm of scales like razor darts.
"First Law of Brutal Sword Style—Hollow Strike!" Asphalt roared.
A burst of crimson blade energy erupted, vaporizing the incoming scales into dust.
"Nice!" Zane called out.
Asphalt smirked. "So this is all a Two-Star corrupted beast can do? Disappointing. Now take this!"
With a single kick, he launched forward, his blade trailing a reddish-brown arc of destructive energy that slammed into the serpent's middle head.
While Asphalt pressed the attack, Har wove his hands together and bellowed, "Flame of Tusiba!"
A torrent of crimson fire erupted from his mouth, engulfing the python.
They watched its body char and blacken.
"Hah! That was too easy. Did I kill it?" Har grinned.
Dar smacked him on the back of the head. "Focus, idiot! That's just its husk."
With his ocular skill, Zane pierced through the smoke and saw the truth—the python's real body slithering in the shadows, inching closer toward him.
A grin tugged at his lips. "Guys, this beast wants to challenge me head-on. While I'm keeping it busy, you focus on destroying those mirrors. They're boosting its attributes and summoning snakes from… who knows where."
In the next instant, he sidestepped with Luminous Steps. The ground he had stood on erupted as a massive, three-headed serpent burst forth, its forked tongues flicking through the air to taste its prey.
The middle head twitched, then unleashed a storm of venomous scales that sliced toward him.
Zane darted left and right, weaving through the deadly barrage, before leaping to vault over its back. The python coiled and rolled, adjusting its body to block his path.
Again and again, Zane danced around its strikes—light on his feet, unpredictable in movement. Frustration boiled in the serpent's eyes until, in a reckless lunge, one of its heads snapped and bit into its own body.
It released itself with a furious roar, thrashing wildly.
Zane smirked, using the beast's rage against it. His petite frame and short bursts of speed let him dart around its massive coils like a shadow it could never quite catch.
It wasn't that Zane was faster—far from it. The python's movements were actually a touch quicker than his, but its massive body was its own worst enemy, and Zane exploited that flaw to perfection.
The left head suddenly reared back, maw opening wide to release a billowing spray of misty gray gas. In moments, the world around Zane turned into a frigid, winter-like haze. The fog thickened until sight should have been impossible.
Camouflage technique.
Too bad I can still see you. Still… I'll play along.
Zane stood perfectly still, posture tense, pretending to scan the mist nervously. Inside, mana swelled within his body, building to a sharp peak. Every move, every breath screamed that he was blind to the beast's location.
Silently, the python slithered through the fog, circling behind him. When it reached the perfect striking distance, its middle head lunged, jaws yawning wide to swallow him whole.
Zane's grin flashed. In an instant, he activated Luminous Step—and his speed surged far beyond the python's halted momentum.
His fist crashed down on the midpoint of the creature's tail.
The impact detonated flesh and bone, blood spraying like a burst pipe. The severed half flopped violently on the ground, twitching with stubborn life as any snake's tail would.
The python's three heads screamed in unison, the piercing shriek making the bystanders' ears bleed.
"Tch! I thought this wouldn't happen. I only used ten percent of my internal load… guess a two-star beast's body isn't as tough as I expected," he muttered in mild disappointment.
He crouched beside the still-writhing tail.
"This meat is rich in protein. Could boost my health later."
Glancing back at the retreating python, its eyes now filled with wariness, he chuckled. Then, with a playful toss, he slipped the massive tail into his silk pouch.
The python roared in outrage.
"Is that all you've got? Hmph… a two-star corrupted beast isn't even worth the effort," Zane muttered, turning his back as if the fight were already over.
The python's eyes flared with rage. Three glowing sigils blazed to life on the foreheads of its three heads, each pulsing with vibrant light. In response, the three magical mirrors floating in the air ignited with the same resonance.
From the first mirror, a torrent of serpents burst forth—thousands of writhing snakes slithering through the air toward Zane like a living wave.
The second mirror activated next, spewing molten lava in a deadly rain, each drop hissing as it tore through the air, aimed solely at him.
The third mirror followed, unleashing a storm of razor-sharp python scales, each one gleaming like a blade.
Zane's ocular skill tracked everything. His gaze flicked to the beast's status—its health bar had dropped by more than half from his last strike.
"So… one more clean hit and you're done," he smirked. "And judging by your mana… you've burned through three-quarters of your reserve just to control those mirrors. You're throwing everything you've got at me? Good luck with that."
The three waves of attacks descended like a triple-layered natural disaster—enough firepower to rival the combined spells of a dozen students.
"Good. Let's see if my defense spell can block this. After that, I'll end you with a punch," Zane said aloud.
His teammates, hearing his words and witnessing the scene, felt a mix of awe and disbelief. They all shared the same thought—Zane was ridiculously strong.
Zane's fingers blurred as he weaved a rapid series of hand seals, chanting in sync with his movements before shouting, "Sacred Barrier!"
This was only the second time he had activated this skill, the first being during his battle against the Corrupted Mammoth.
A massive surge of mana burst from his body, forming intricate sigils that floated and linked together, shaping a shimmering dome around him.
The first wave arrived—thousands of venomous snakes, hissing and coiling in midair as they lunged toward him.
Zane stood firm, calm as stone.
The moment the snakes touched the transparent dome, it flared to life, greedily draining his mana. A blinding white light erupted, incinerating them instantly. Some serpents tried to retreat, but the second wave had already arrived—molten red lava rained down, vaporizing any survivors before splashing harmlessly across the dome.
None of the attacks managed to breach the barrier, though Zane could feel the toll. The stronger the assault, the faster his mana drained.
Seconds later, a wave of the python's massive scales crashed down, hitting with far greater force than the previous two strikes.
Yet the Sacred Barrier held firm.
With a flick of his hand, Zane dispelled the shimmering shield.
In the same instant, he activated his movement technique at full speed. His figure blurred—
—and appeared midair, right beside the thick neck where the serpent's three heads joined.
A grin spread across his face as his fist was already in motion.
Bang!
All three heads were torn clean from the body in a single, devastating blow.
Yet the python refused to die, its colossal form writhing even without a head.
"Interesting… what a stubborn vitality," Zane muttered.
He dropped down, stomping on the remains three times in rapid succession. The heads shattered under the relentless force.
This time, the python was truly dead.
Above, the three magical mirrors shimmered once before vanishing into thin air.
Zane searched and found the crystal stone through mess up flesh. His green card activated and devoured it.
He saw his rank changed from around 4567 to Rank #7.
The rest of his team hurried over, smiling as they congratulated him.
A transparent doorway appeared on the wall of the city—a clear sign for them to proceed.
"You're really strong, man," Asphalt said with genuine admiration.
Zane returned a smile. "Alright, no point wasting even a second here. Let's go inside."
They all nodded in agreement. A quick glance showed the other five groups still locked in battle with their beasts.
Sharing a grin, Zane's group sprinted toward the wall, stepping through the transparent beam of light.
The moment they entered, the doorway dissolved, and the wall returned to its seamless metallic sheen.
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.