—


    Ezra was the first person to make contact with the Colossal Mother Worm. Per Kieran’s instructions, she added trace amounts of Condensed Sword Force to each of her swords. This made the two slender des release soft, dazzling brilliance.


    Shnk!


    Ezra’s de drifted across the Colossal Mother Worm’s underside, dealing 4,000 to 5,000 damage. Although her two swords seemed identical, they weren’t. Each sword had a different Attack Power.


    After executing twelve fluid strikes, Ezra’s movement and attack speed increased considerably due to the passive effects of Flowing Sword Steps. Only once her attack and movement speed doubled did she activate the Flowing Sword Wind effect.


    All of a sudden, Ezra performed an explosive lunge where she followed up with her rear arm executing a fluid, circle-shaped upward arc. The result was a gathering of revolving sword energy that expanded into a breathtaking wheel.


    The Condensed Sword Force injected into the Sword Wheel refined its presence, creating an attack Ezra inwardly praised.


    Kieran cracked a faint smile as he witnessed Ezra’s realization of his pointers. Pairing Sword Wheel with Sonic Thrust generated unbroken momentum.


    Even when the Colossal Mother Worm retaliated, Ezra stepped off her back leg, dodging the sand spears that sprung from the desert floor and the sand bullets the boss released.


    A few secondster, Bastion rushed past Ezra and lifted his massive shield.


    Bang! Bang! Bang!


    Countless Sand Bullets from the Colossal Mother Worm bombarded Bastion’s shield, driving him back. However, he all of a sudden stopped sliding as he felt a firm hand on his back.


    From the corner of his eye, he caught Kieran’s indifferent smile.


    Kieran gave a subtle nod before mimicking Ezra’s Sonic Thrust lunging motion. The only difference was that his thrust was apanied by three fearsome crimson tempests, seemingly created in an instant._.


    Crrr! Whoosh!


    The three crimson tempests ripped through the air while gradually forming a spiral. The head of each tempest converged to a single point while their rotational speed elerated by 50%.


    ‘So this is the effects of Blood Strengthening. Increasing the effects of an A-Rank Skill required a 15% Health sacrifice, but….’


    Boom!


    The condensed Sanguinem Tempest collided against the Colossal Mother Worm’s torso.


    -503,164


    Although there was no Critical Hit, Sanguinem Tempest dealt tremendous damage due to all the strengthening effects Kieran applied. Furthermore, the tempest merged into one powerful attack instead of three separate attacks.


    ?[0)??? Nemean whistled after he watched slightly less than 20% of the Colossal Mother Worm’s Health vanish.


    However, while the others felt some astonishment towards Kieran’s damage without a Critical Hit, his eyebrows rose as intrigue shed in his eyes. ‘Interesting, its Damage Reduction should be between 50 and 60% based on this number.’


    Kieran calcted the damage in his mind prior to the impact. With Blood Strengthening applied to the attack, Sanguinem Tempest should have dealt well over 1.2 million damage. But, that wasn’t the case.


    “Scatter,” Kieran suddenly instructed.


    Everyone dispersed from before the Colossal Mother Worm as a dense gathering of sand and Mana collected before its maw. Arge fissure opened in the sand once this Sand st pierced through the desert floor in a straight line.


    At the same time, the giant des on its back disconnected from its body and broke into smaller pieces, piercing through the sand with incredible momentum.


    One of these shards mmed against Bastion’s shield, which sent him flying back at a frightening speed. However, as Cam and Sera used Mending Aura simultaneously, two soft glows epassed his body.


    The two healing skills quickly healed Bastion’s rapidly draining Health. Bastion’s gaze gained an intense light as he rolled in the air so that his body faced the ground.


    Bang!


    Bastion mmed his shield into the ground, forcibly stopping the momentum. His body jerked, but he held the handles of his shield tight and nted his feet on the ground.


    “Pua!” Bastion spit out some sand remnants that flew in his face. “You can’t get rid of me, you nasty-looking worm!”


    Bastion sped toward the Colossal Mother Worm with heavy steps, sounding more like thuds rather than steps.


    Altair and Luna returned to the beast first, unleashing a flurry of attacks from different angles. Before moving, Luna would nce at Altair for an indication of his following action.


    This way, Luna and Altair moved in matching patterns but opposite directions.


    The Colossal Mother Worm grew furious after indecisively shifting its gaze between Luna and Altair. Eventually, it released an ear-piercing screech. The sound undtions created spiraling sand pirs that snaked around as if they were alive.


    These numerous pirs whipped around, but Bastion didn’t allow this to disrupt the party’s momentum.


    “Guardian’s Embrace!”


    “Boundless Aegis!”


    Bastion activated tworge-scale protection skills. The first skill seemed like giant arms coalesced from Mana that shielded the party from damage, while the second skill looked like an ancient and mighty shield with a somewhat feeble exterior.


    Due to Bastion’s low skill level, hisrge-scale protection skills were far from perfect.


    Nevertheless, the two skills activated together acted as decent protection. In fact, Bastion’s eyes widened when he witnessed a marvelous interaction between his skills.


    The two immense arms grabbed ahold of the shield as if it mimicked Bastion’s shield action. All of a sudden, an outburst sounded from Bastion.


    “WHAT?! A Combination Skill? No way, I created a Combination Skill!” Bastion was baffled by the situation and couldn’t help butugh merrily. His sudden inspiration inadvertently created a unique skill.


    “Oh my gosh! An A Rank Skill!” Bastion howled.


    It was his highest skill rank to date. The two skills used to protect the team were C Rank skills, but after their fusion, their potential skyrocketed to an A Rank.


    “My brother! That’s amazing! But focus!” Nemean shouted back. While he was delighted about Bastion’s progress, it wasn’t the time to celebrate. The boss before them was plenty difficult.


    “Right, right, my mistake,” Bastion chuckled sheepishly while saving the notification forter.


    The sand spirals barraged Bastion’s newly created skills, creating numerous cracks after three seconds.


    In that span, everyone adopted ideal positions, with Kieran in the center right beside Bastion.


    When the Colossal Mother Worm realized its attack was ineffective, it iled its head with even more violent shrieks. The shrieks created tremors in the sand beneath their feet as Kieran squinted.


    ‘I’m not sure what happening because of my reduced Perception, but….’


    Kieran nted his hand on the ground, sending a pulse of vitality underneath. After unleashing Sanguinem Tempest earlier, he regained enough Health to reach full capacity, but he decided to control it.


    A symbol expanded from Kieran’s palm at the blood pulse traveled underneath the desert floor.


    “Wrath Eruption!”


    “Blood Bind!”


    Kieran first activated Wrath Eruption, creating an intense geyser of blood. However, he was far from done. Kieran controlled the activation range of Blood Bind and employed the present blood to strengthen Blood Blind’s restrictive effects.


    The Colossal Mother Worm naturally didn’t appreciate the restraints, but Kieran smirked and kept his hand against the ground. After deepening his understanding of Blood Mania, he learned that Blood Blind could be turned into a channeling skill to increase its effectiveness.


    However, the downside of this action was that Kieran could no longer move. He’d have to supply and control the excess blood. After all, Kieran always wondered why a pool of blood remained after the Blood Binds manifested.


    Kieran had no issue with adopting a passive role. He had faith in his party’s capabilities while he became the crowd controller.


    Lux drew back on his bow while Alice angled her staff and chanted a new me spell.


    “el Shot: Triple Puncture!”


    “Inferno Sphere!”


    While Lux used another charge of Velocity Charge to enhance his attack, Alice unleashed a new me spell—one that produced frightening heat fluctuations.


    Judging by the raging Mana in her vicinity, it was clear Inferno Sphere was a step above Firestorm Burst.


    Kieran noticed a few sparks of blue mes after analyzing the growing Inferno Sphere.


    ‘Blue mes burn far hotter than red mes. Alice’s Fire Affinity must be approaching S Rank if she’s producing blue mes already. Excellent. I knew her talent with magic was exceptional,’ Kieran thought.


    Whoosh! Crrrr!


    Lux and Alice unleashed their attacks simultaneously. Lux’s arrows, which possessed two mirage images, pierced through Alice’s Inferno Sphere. The wind shell epassing the fired arrows assimted some of Alice’s mes before puncturing the boss.


    Szzt! Pssh!


    The violent me crackled before engulfing the boss in a condensed sphere of sweltering mes.


    The Colossal Mother Worm’s Health soon dropped below 20% with the team’s exceptional teamwork. A monster that possessed nearly 2.8 million Health in the beginning now possessed less than 360,000 Health.


    “Everyone, unload your skills!” Kieran said while suddenly releasing Blood Bind. The boss entered a Berserk state, so control skills would no longer affect it.


    Kieran activated el Shift after releasing his control and shifted 20 meters instantly.


    Once he stood before the boss, Crimson Ashrune’s sharpened edge crackled with a wild presence.


    Crrrck! Bang!


    A gruesome noise urred as Kieran leapt and shed down with an enhanced Wild Crash. The crystallized blood formed a bloody image of arge spiked hammer moments before the skill made contact.


    The attack reduced the Colossal Mother Worm’s defense, symbolizing the beginning of the party’s final onught.


    Thirty secondster, the Colossal Mother Worm mmed against the desert’s floor and exploded into a decent collection of loot.


    Everyone sat back on their butts and heaved a sigh of relief. The battle wasn’t overly long, but it required extreme focus, which was mentally exhausting.