The first impact of the monster did not sound like a collision.

It sounded like the mountain itself giving way.

A Tier-100 creature brought its limb down, and the plateau beneath it did not simply crack, it folded. Stone collapsed inward in layered rings, each wave carrying enough force to shatter anything caught within it. The air compressed violently, pressure rippling outward in a visible distortion that crushed debris into dust before it even settled.

Most teams did not survive that first impact.

The Regalons did not retreat.

They adjusted.

Rudra stepped forward into the collapsing ground, his movement calm, measured, completely out of sync with the destruction around him. His fist drove forward, but it did not behave like a strike. The space ahead fractured first, deep cracks tearing open before his hand even reached the target.

From those fractures, the tendrils emerged.

They did not lash wildly like before. They spiraled with intent, tightening as they wrapped around the descending limb of the creature. The moment they made contact, the effect changed. The limb did not shatter outward.

It came apart.

Segments of the creature’s arm unraveled, layers separating as if the force binding them had been removed. The structure failed from within, twisting unnaturally as its own mass turned against itself.

Aryan moved the instant the opening appeared.

His spear did not follow a single line anymore. Multiple trajectories converged at once, each strike arriving at a slightly different moment but targeting the exact same point. The effect compounded rather than pierced.

The creature’s core destabilized.

Maya’s frost spread immediately over that exact point of weakness. It did not freeze the entire body. It locked the collapse itself, crystallizing the unstable section into rigid geometry that prevented recovery.

Rexion’s flame followed.

But it no longer behaved like a single wave.

The fire split mid-flight into branching strands, each one wrapping around the frozen core. They drilled inward while burning outward, consuming structure from both directions at once. The creature convulsed violently, its internal composition breaking apart under opposing forces.

It collapsed.

The ground beneath it gave way with it.

There was no pause.

A second creature surged upward through the fractured terrain.

It did not rely on brute force.

Its body distorted, splitting into overlapping afterimages that moved independently for brief moments before realigning. It struck from multiple angles simultaneously, its attacks layered in a way that made defense meaningless if approached directly.

Marcus stepped forward.

The space around him shifted.

The incoming strikes did not stop.

They bent.

Their trajectories curved just enough to miss their intended targets. The overlapping attacks collided with each other instead, detonating between the creature’s own layered forms. The distortion destabilized its motion for a fraction of a second.

That was enough.

Silvester moved.

His blades cut through empty space, but the cuts did not land where the blades passed. They appeared at the points where the creature’s afterimages would converge.

When the motion resolved, the damage was already there.

The creature’s body separated into misaligned segments, its form unable to reassemble properly.

Hiroshi stepped forward and drew a single line.

It was clean.

It ended the creature instantly.

Around them, the battlefield was collapsing.

Teams were breaking apart under the pressure.

One group attempted to hold formation against two Tier-100 creatures at once. The first impact shattered half their line. The second creature moved before they could recover, sweeping through the survivors in a single motion.

No resurrection triggered.

They were erased.

Another team tried to escape upward.

The ground beneath them split.

A creature surged from below and swallowed them whole.

There was nothing left behind.

"Keep moving," Alfred said.

There was no hesitation.

They advanced.

The path toward the peak was no longer something to follow. It was something that had to be carved through resistance that could erase them in a single mistake.

Pymon rose higher above the battlefield.

Lightning gathered around him again, but it did not spread chaotically. Multiple arcs formed, rotating around him in controlled layers. When he released them, they descended in sequence, each strike landing in precise locations across the battlefield.

The lightning did not simply deal damage.

It marked.

Every target struck carried a lingering charge that did not fade immediately.

Rudra moved through those marked zones.

His pulses interacted with the residual energy, triggering deeper ruptures within whatever he struck. Each impact amplified the next, turning controlled strikes into cascading destruction.

The battlefield began to compress.

Zones formed.

Areas where stepping incorrectly meant immediate death.

Marcus adjusted positioning constantly, reshaping trajectories, preventing overlapping attacks from collapsing their formation.

Maya’s frost no longer spread broadly. It locked specific points at critical moments, freezing motion exactly where it needed to break.

Silvester and Hiroshi moved in tandem more naturally now, their cuts no longer separate actions but part of a continuous sequence that eliminated anything destabilized.

Aryan’s strikes layered into that flow, ensuring that anything weakened could not recover.

Rexion’s flames adapted constantly, feeding off residual energy, turning enemy output into fuel.

Chronavael adjusted time in small increments, never stopping it, but shifting it just enough to allow survival where death should have occurred.

Another team crossed into their path.

There was no warning.

A massive blade descended toward Rudra, carrying enough force to split the ground beneath it.

Chronavael moved first.

Time shifted slightly.

Not enough to stop the attack.

Just enough.

Rudra stepped to the side.

The blade passed him by a fraction.

His fist connected.

The pulse detonated inside the attacker’s chest, collapsing the body inward before the force could escape outward.

A sigil ignited.

The body began to reform.

"Resurrector," Aryan said.

Silvester and Hiroshi moved instantly.

Their blades crossed once.

The body split again before the resurrection completed.

This time, it did not return.

The rest of that team reacted violently.

One deployed a field of rotating constructs that filled the space with overlapping threats. Another attempted to collapse the terrain beneath the Regalons, forcing instability.

Rexion stepped forward.

His flames expanded, not outward, but along the constructs themselves. They consumed the energy sustaining them, breaking them apart and converting that energy into fuel.

Chronavael slowed the terrain collapse just enough.

Marcus reshaped the ground beneath them.

The enemy lost control.

They fell quickly after.

Then the battlefield shifted again.

A Tier-100 creature dropped directly into the middle of the fight.

The impact alone launched everyone outward.

The shockwave tore through the formation.

Marcus was caught in it.

His body broke instantly.

Rexion reacted without hesitation.

His flame spiraled around the point of impact, reconstructing Marcus’s form before the next wave could land.

Chronavael layered time over the process, ensuring the restoration completed fully.

Marcus stood again.

No pause.

No recovery.

He stepped forward immediately.

They pushed forward.

The peak was visible now.

Still distant.

But no longer unreachable.

Between them and it, the battlefield had condensed completely.

There was no separation anymore.

No isolated fights.

Everything collided in the same space.

Tier-100 monsters surged from every direction.

Teams clashed directly.

Abilities overlapped.

Explosions layered over frost, lightning intersected with flame, trajectories crossed and recrossed until the battlefield became a single, continuous system of destruction.

Enemies fell.

Some rose again.

Most did not survive the second death.

The number of teams dropped.

Seven.

Six.

Four. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The climb continued.

Blood spread across the broken stone.

The air burned with residual energy.

And ahead—

The peak drew closer.

While the Tier-100 monsters became faster.

More aggressive.

Less predictable.

The final stretch had begun.