Chapter 447

The time Elia and Gaelen bought him was exactly what Nick needed.He pressed his boots into the cracked ground, channeling his mana into the Shard of Human Ambition as he crafted the intricate matrix of , drawing on the crackling power of lightning mana and blending it effortlessly with the spiritual weight of his fury—something that was quite simple given the circumstances. The wood of his staff hummed, vibrating with barely contained potential.

He aimed the tip at the towering amalgamation of petrified wood and quartz, framing it as the rightful target of his anger, and released.

A huge bolt of crimson lightning shot from the Shard, ripping through the air and hitting the monster right in the chest.

The impact shattered the outer layers of stolen crystal and gouged a crater into its woody core, drawing a shriek as timber and glass broke.

The pure power of the spell pushed the monster back, violently breaking its immediate ties to the surrounding quartz trees, while the spiritual aspect overpowered its coils.

Any mortal beast would have fallen or at least been crippled by it, especially considering how much of his own emotion went into the blow, but this was a Prestige-tier entity.

Though it was damaged, it wasn’t enough to stop it or even significantly slow its movements.

The monster quickly changed its tactics. Knowing it couldn’t sustain many more spells like that, it dropped its aggressive stance and curled inward. Thick slabs of iron-hard wood and layers of dense crystal slid over its glowing green core, creating an impenetrable, dome-shaped shell.

At the same time, it drove its four trunk-like legs deep into the earth, desperately trying to draw fresh mana from the soil to heal the damage.

"Keep it isolated!" Nick shouted as he recovered from the drain on his coils by pulling more from the ether. "Don't let it root!”

Rhea dashed around the beast, launching a quick series of glass flasks that shattered against the monster's armored dome, coating the petrified wood with a corrosive acid that hissed and bubbled with acrid green smoke.

As the beast attempted to retreat from the burning chemicals, Rhea pressed her palms into the ground, channeling her transmutation alchemy through the soil. The solid rock beneath the monster’s legs instantly turned into a pool of viscous tar, causing the creature to sink a foot. Its roots, faced with the now hostile ground, flailed but failed to gain any hold.

A flood of divine foxfire from Elia’s hands as the monster tried to shake off Rhea. The golden flames actively targeted the parasitic skill the beast relied on to drain into the environment, burning through the invisible tethers and depriving the monster of the ambient mana it needed for regeneration.

It thrashed, trapped in the tar and burning with holy light. Lashing out blindly, it swung a crystalline appendage toward the Miko in a desperate attempt to break free from the suppression, but Gaelen was there to intercept it.

He gripped his cursed blade with both hands as he deflected strike after strike and drew the dark, oily mist surrounding the steel deep into his own coils, something that Nick had no doubt would come at a price.

Yet the power such a thing gave him was undeniable, as his mana more than doubled, and new strength surged through his limbs.

A crescent wave of dark magic burst from the blade. While Nick continued his work, he realized it wasn't just raw energy, but the physical manifestation of Gaelen's pent-up grudges, sorrow, and simmering hatred for those who had destroyed his family.

The black wave washed over the monster, crashing heavily against its armored dome and seeping deep into the petrified wood, infecting it with a decaying weakness.

The crystalline armor dulled, its vibrant inner light fading to a sickly gray, and the beast's frantic movements slowed to a sluggish crawl as the curse drained its unnatural vitality, weakening its defenses from the outside in.

If it had been old enough to build its own reservoir, that would have been just a minor annoyance, but they had already disconnected it from the crystal forest, and it was clear the monster still hadn’t fully adapted to all the changes Prestige brought.

Power, it had in spades, but control was something that came with time, and Nick had seen his own father struggle with that after his rank-up. For a beast with no instruction, this was the most vulnerable it had ever been.

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Gaelen dropped to one knee, coughing violently as the recoil struck him, but he had completed his task perfectly. The carapace was breaking apart, with the wooden slabs turning brittle.

The bright green core finally peeked through the decay, even as the monster tried to reinforce its outer shell.

Nick didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity, channeling all the power he’d drawn from the ether through the Shard and filling it with his own supreme confidence.

Across the battlefield, space itself twisted violently. An unseen, crushing force ignored the outer layers of petrified wood and crystal, acting directly on the exposed heart.

The beast let out a panicked wail, realizing it had been outmaneuvered.

Before it could do anything about it, Nick clenched his fist.

With a deafening crunch, the core collapsed under the spatial compression, and the green light burst out, sending a pulse that knocked everyone back.

Nick grunted as he used to return to his position and saw the towering mash of wood and quartz freeze, drained of its life force.

For a long moment, the forest remained completely silent. Then, the dead monster collapsed, breaking into thousands of lifeless fragments across the tar-soaked ground.

System Notification!

You have participated in the defeat of

+1,230,000 Exp

Level up!

Nick sighed in exhaustion. The refreshing surge of the level-up washed over him, clearing some of the fatigue from his coils and mending the minor aches in his muscles.

It had been an extremely dangerous fight, but their teamwork was flawless, and even though the Behemoth hadn’t been at full strength, the fact remained that they had managed to kill a Prestige-tier monster, something mortals could barely conceive of.

He had to hide a smile as Rhea, instead of enjoying the success, hurried toward the wreckage, pulling a knife from her belt. She carefully dug through the broken wood and dull quartz, eventually extracting the core's remains. It was cracked, but the inner shards still pulsed with a pure wood-attribute mana.

"Got it," Rhea said with relief as she sealed the catalyst in a lead-lined box. "This is going to be very useful.”

Knowing what she could do with simple ingredients, Nick didn’t doubt her for a second.

Warily, he watched as Elia knelt beside Gaelen, her hands glowing with a gentle, calming light as she carefully pushed away the dark stains remaining in his aura.

To his surprise, the man accepted the healing silently. His chest was heaving, and his face was pale, but the gratitude in his eyes when he looked at the Miko was clear.

"Rest for a minute," Nick said, his eyes drifting from the battlefield to the forest.

His fury hadn’t subsided after the monster's death. If anything, the cold, calculating rage had sharpened into a fine edge. He expanded his senses, brushing against the forest’s ambient mana.

First, he searched for more monsters, not wanting to be caught off guard, but fortunately, Ogden’s words proved true, and it seemed like the Behemoth had truly driven everything else out.

Next, he turned his attention to the east and immediately noticed that, beneath the ambient noise, the repelling artifact the intruders had used earlier left a chaotic trail.

Moments later, Nick found what he was looking for.

A short-range teleport scroll tore a clear hole in space. The ripple it left behind in the ether was distinct, like a heavy stone dropped into a still pond, especially since it wasn’t used by a master of the art.

If it had been in Raphael’s hands, following it would have been nearly impossible, but it seemed none of the adventurers had that talent.

"They didn't go far," he eventually said without any warmth.

Gaelen looked up, wiping a streak of sweat from his brow. “The cunts?”

"Yes," Nick confirmed, turning toward the eastern tree line. "Spatial scrolls are incredibly expensive, even in their most basic form. The one they used was decent, but designed for emergency extraction, not long-distance travel. They are less than two miles from here.”

Rhea packed the last of the loot into her spatial bag and stood up, her expression hardening. “We’ll have to make them pay for trying to feed us to that thing.”

"And they risked creating a monster wave in the process," Nick added, almost as an afterthought. "We are going to talk to them.”

Once everyone was as recovered as possible, they left the crystal forest behind and moved quickly through the dense woods. With the Behemoth gone, the oppressive pressure it had exerted over the sector started to fade rapidly, and the normal ambient mana of the Green Ocean gradually seeped back into the area, easing some of the frantic wildlife.

It took them under twenty minutes to trace the spatial signature to its endpoint.

The idiots had stopped to rest in a small, sheltered clearing surrounded by ancient oak trees. They looked completely miserable, covered in mud and scorch marks, far from the pristine image they had once projected.

The blonde-haired leader paced back and forth anxiously, kicking at the dirt, while the injured member sat against a tree, hurriedly wrapping a bandage around his damaged leg.

Empty potion vials littered the ground around them, but despite all the wealth they seemed to possess, it wasn’t enough to restore them to full power.

"I told you we should have waited for the escort," one of the mages muttered, nervously glancing into the dark woods. "We don't even know if that thing is still chasing us.”

"Quiet," the blonde leader snapped, running a trembling hand through his hair. "The beast was distracted. By the time it finishes chewing on that arrogant country lord and his rabble, we'll be well on our way back to the capital. The Consortium will compensate us for the lost equipment. We just need to stay out of sight when we return to town and leave as soon as we’re recovered.”

"I wouldn't count on that compensation," a cold voice echoed through the clearing.

The four adventurers froze.

Nick stepped out from the shadows of the tree line, his eyes glowing crimson with suppressed rage. Gaelen emerged a second later, his cursed blade resting casually on his shoulder. Rhea and Elia flanked them, looking completely unharmed and intensely dangerous.

The leader stumbled backward, his jaw dropping in utter shock. "You... you can't be here. That monster was Prestige-tier! It should have slaughtered you!”

"It certainly tried," Gaelen said with a humorless smirk. "It also failed.”

The overwhelming impossibility of the situation shattered the intruders' last bit of composure. The blonde man drew his sword, his hand trembling so intensely that the pommel loudly clanged against his breastplate.

"Stay back!" he shouted, his voice cracking with panic. "We are contracted agents of the Valerius Consortium! If you lay a hand on us, our patrons will bury your pathetic little town in mercenaries! We have backing you can't even comprehend!”

Nick finally smiled, but it wasn’t a pleasant one.