Tension hung over them as they waited for the mini-boss to appear, each person swallowing nervously, gripping their weapons, and scanning the doorways.

Of course, this excluded Marlon, who folded his hands with a bored expression on his face.

He was growing impatient as he grew curious to see what the mini-boss looked like.

What special talent did it possess?

And what skill could he drain from it?

Speaking of talents and skills, he had only gotten a few skills so far, and until now, he hadn't received a single talent.

This was because, for unknown reasons, his clones could not use Drain.

It was the reason their health never increased.

And also, the skills he had gotten were from battles he joined personally, and they were inferior. For example, the ogres gave him C-rank Strength Enhancement, and most of the venom-spitting monsters gave low-level Toxic Resistance, which were lower versions of the ones he already possessed.

There were other fairly interesting skills he hadn't bothered merging and had kept in his inventory as skill books to sell later.

But still, he was pretty satisfied.

And just as he thought about this, the countdown struck zero.

At once, the hall was swallowed by an unnatural stillness as a strange energy spread through the place.

The party swallowed nervously, each of them tilting their heads across the place as they awaited the arrival of the mini-boss.

It was at that moment that a strange noise, sounding human and inhuman at the same time, reverberated across the hall.

It sounded akin to the edgy laughter of an antagonist, sending shivers down their spines.

Even the triplets, who seemed battle-hungry earlier, reacted like the others, scared and unsure of what was before them.

Nevertheless, just as quickly as the laughter erupted, it ended.

But before they could come to terms with the sudden change, out of a doorway, a small humanoid figure strolled out.

Taking several steps forward, it revealed itself to the dumbfounded group, its features illuminated by the torches on the walls around it.

"Small."

It was the only word they could all use to describe what had appeared at that moment.

Except for its unnaturally pale white skin and the tiny black-gold horns protruding from the two sides of its head, it looked like an average eight-year-old kid in terms of height.

Everyone exchanged worried gazes as they observed what had appeared out of the doorway and was now staring at them with a neutral gaze that almost seemed innocent and cute in a sense, especially to Clarissa.

Dagon and the others frowned. Even the triplets were confused.

But not as confused as Marlon, who tried to inspect the strange being with Inspection.

[ Failed to activate on target ]

"What?"

It was unbelievable.

Even on Axel Storm and his immensely talented son, the skill had worked, so why was it failing now?

He tried activating it again, thinking it must have been due to inadequate focus, but he got the same prompt.

After around five attempts, he gave up and admitted that whatever was standing in front of him was not to be toyed with.

He wanted to warn the others.

But it was already too late.

"This danger-zone must be teasing us," one of the triplets let out.

"That looks like a child with some weird plastic surgery. I can't believe I was scared of that," Emma added.

"I can't feel any energy radiating from it. It should be easy to kill."

Dagon spoke as he equipped his sword. Among everyone present, he stood closest to the quiet, inhuman creature.

He took a few bold steps forward.

No one tried to stop him.

Seeing the small and almost innocent-looking mini-boss, the others subconsciously relaxed. At a glance, it did not look threatening at all.

This will be easy, most of them thought.

As the leader, I should at least be the one to kill the mini-boss, Dagon concluded inwardly.

The next moment, he burst into a sprint.

In just a few seconds, he closed the distance between himself and the tiny creature.

Raising his sword high, Dagon poured all the strength he could muster into the strike and brought the blade down with killing intent.

Seeing how easily he had reached it, and how the creature had not even bothered to move, his confidence surged.

It's over, he thought.

The others believed the same.

Even Marlon began to doubt whether the mini-boss was truly as dangerous as he had anticipated.

All eyes remained fixed on the descending blade as it inched closer to the creature's head.

Then—

Just a split second before impact, something unbelievable happened.

It felt as though time itself slowed.

The strange creature's eyes snapped upward, locking onto Dagon's gaze. Its previously neutral expression twisted violently, turning feral in an instant.

Its eyes darkened until they became pitch black.

Then, within that darkness, glowing red pupils formed.

Before anyone could react—

Two beams of red-hot light erupted from its eyes.

They pierced straight through Dagon's eyes before he could even register what was happening.

The creature did not stop there.

It tilted its gaze downward, and the laser beams moved with terrifying precision, slicing through Dagon's body as if cutting through air.

His body split cleanly into two.

He was not even granted the mercy of screaming.

Thud!

Both halves of Dagon's body hit the ground heavily.

The sound echoed across the hall.

Silence followed.

An unnatural, suffocating silence.

The hunters stared at the gruesome sight, their faces drained of all color as terror settled deep into their bones.

"Dagon—!"

"No—!"

"DAGON!!"

Emma, Davison, and Clarissa cried out at the same time.

Shock turned into rage.

The triplets reacted first, their expressions hardening as they raised their hands and prepared their spells.

"That thing—!"

"We underestimated it!"

"Kill it!"

Emma and Davison charged forward as well, their sense of reasoning drowned out by fury.

Davison clenched his teeth and slammed his hands together.

"Come out—ALL OF YOU!"

Summoning every golem he could manage, Davison sent them stomping forward in a violent rush.

Emma followed immediately, conjuring and firing everything he had without hesitation.

Spells, attacks, and golems surged toward the creature all at once.

Behind them, Marlon and Clarissa remained still.

One watched calmly, eyes sharp and focused.

The other trembled, fear written plainly across her face.

As the attackers closed the distance, they remained wary of one thing above all else.

Its eyes.

"Don't look at it directly!"

"Avoid its gaze!"

They instinctively averted their eyes, focusing on movement and positioning instead.

In truth, it was not a bad strategy.

If only they had not underestimated the creature again.

Because it was not just fast.

It was absurdly fast.

To Marlon and Clarissa, it looked as if the creature vanished.

In the next instant, it appeared behind all five of them.

Before they could turn—

The lasers fired again.

The creature swept its gaze in one smooth motion, as if wielding invisible blades, aiming to cut all of them down in a single strike.

Davison's golems took the brunt of the attack.

One after another, they were sliced cleanly in half, their supposedly sturdy bodies barely slowing the beams.

The hunters snapped back to reality.

"Move!"

"Get out of the way!"

Some rolled desperately across the ground.

Bola slammed his staff into the floor, forcing the earth beneath him to surge upward and lift him into the air.

But it was still not enough.

The beam swept past his feet, burning through the raised ground and tearing chunks of earth away.

Bola lost his balance.

"Shit—!"

He crashed down hard, rolling several times before finally stopping.

A scream rang out.

One of the triplets clutched his shoulder as the heat grazed him, flesh instantly charred and smoking. He dropped to one knee, teeth clenched as pain ripped through him.

Emma narrowly escaped death by throwing himself sideways.

The laser passed so close that it scorched his armor, melting part of it and fusing it painfully to his skin.

Davison fared even worse.

He stood frozen, breathing heavily.

He had already spent all his aether summoning golems—

Only for them to be destroyed by a single move.

The small humanoid creature did not seem satisfied.

A strange, distorted sound escaped its mouth.

Then it vanished again.

It reappeared directly in front of Bola before he could even push himself up.

The creature raised its foot.

It brought it down.

Trying to stomp the defenseless man into the ground.

Bola's eyes widened as the foot descended.

Though it was small—no bigger than a middle schooler's—in his vision, it looked like a massive boulder crashing toward him.

His body refused to move.

He shut his eyes.

So this is it…

Then—

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion rang out above him.

Bola flinched violently, squeezing his eyes shut tighter as he waited for pain.

One second passed.

Then another.

Nothing happened.

Confused, he slowly opened his eyes.

His breath caught.

Five figures stood in a tight circle around him.

Five identical figures.

Marlon's clones.

Looking past them, Bola saw Marlon himself clashing with the white creature.

They moved so fast that his eyes could not follow their exchange.

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