CHAPTER 413: I AM A FREELOADER

Lyrate was the first to move. Her crimson mist swirled around her as she leapt forward, the air rippling with the faint hum of her Essence.

Her eyes glowed bright red, focused and sharp. I could feel the surge of her power as she summoned the Law of Creation.

With a swift motion, her sword arced through the air, leaving a trail of Essence that sprouted massive wooden spikes from the ground.

They shot upward like spears, impaling the first wave of abominations.

She spun gracefully, a blur of crimson and green, each swing of her sword leaving more creations in her wake.

Trees bent unnaturally as wooden whips lashed out, slamming into the beasts with tremendous force. Her body floated over the battlefield, twisting and weaving through attacks as her mist allowed her to vanish and reappear in an instant.

Then I saw her smile as she bought her hands together and whispered.

"Forest’s Wrath!"

The ground trembled as her Law of Creation combined with her control over wood. Trees around her groaned and bent unnaturally, their trunks twisting and snapping, branches weaving together.

In moments, they formed massive, moving wooden constructs—giant tendrils and humanoid shapes, each nearly fifty feet tall.

Dozens of them, at least fifty in total, lumbered forward, their every movement precise and deliberate.

The abominations didn’t even have time to react before the living trees slammed into them, crushing, impaling, and tossing them aside like rag dolls.

Soldiers on the ground froze in shock, watching the impossible scene unfold, their previous fights now dwarfed by this overwhelming power.

I hovered above, eyes widening as I observed the chaos below. "Looks like my summon has summons now," I muttered, a grin tugging at my lips.

Whenever an abomination managed to bring down one of the wooden constructs, it didn’t survive the effort.

With a burst of violet Essence, the fallen construct exploded, sending splinters and shockwaves in all directions, ripping apart anything nearby, including the abomination that had struck it.

The air filled with a rain of wood shards and screams, as enemy after enemy was shredded by both Lyrate’s creations and the explosions that followed.

I focused on Knight.

I could feel his calm, deadly focus as he melted into the shadows and reappeared behind a group of charging abominations.

The first wave didn’t even realize he was there. His claws slashed in a blink, tearing through bodies before they could scream.

His horn pulsed with crimson mist, firing sharp beams that vaporized anyone who tried to escape.

He moved like a living shadow, dissolving into darkness and appearing on the other side of the battlefield, striking from unexpected angles.

His control over space allowed him to warp just long enough to evade attacks while keeping his strikes precise. The abominations were disoriented; some tried to attack him, only to find their limbs cut cleanly by his claws or disintegrated by the crimson beams.

"I call this one... Shadowfall," he whispered, almost to himself.

The shadows under the abominations began to writhe and twist unnaturally.

At first, it looked like the darkness was simply shifting but then I realized the shadows themselves were coming alive.

They sprouted tendrils and claws, grabbing at the abominations’ legs, tails, and bodies. The creatures screamed as the shadows held them tight, dragging them inward in the shadows.

A space vortex, invisible at first, had formed under Knight’s control. The captured abominations were pulled into it, their bodies twisting and stretching as the vortex tore them apart.

Limbs were ripped, bones shattered, and blood sprayed across the shadows and ground. The screams were deafening, muffled yet horrific, echoing as each creature disappeared into the void.

Knight moved like a shadow himself, flowing across the battlefield. Each time an abomination struggled, he flicked his claws, sending new shadows to ensnare it and drag it toward the vortex.

His precision was terrifying—every strike, every movement of the shadows, perfectly timed. Even the larger, more powerful abominations had no chance; they were swallowed whole by the darkness, torn apart from the inside out.

I could feel the cold, silent efficiency of his attack. Where Lyrate’s creations were loud and chaotic, Knight’s Shadowfall was precise, cruel, and final, a perfect execution of his assassin’s art, leaving the battlefield littered with shredded, lifeless forms.

’Now I too have a large-scale attack.’ Knight muttered.

Finally, I moved my head to stare at Silver.

His excitement was palpable, his screech echoing across the clearing. He dove like a missile, claws tearing through chests and necks, his wind laws slicing through wings and limbs. The sound of the air itself seemed to scream with him, carrying the force of his attacks further.

"Try and keep up, Knight!" he shouted, spiraling through a flock of flying abominations. They tried to swarm him, but each flap of his wings became a cyclone.

Then, in a sudden burst, he spun midair, wings beating so fast they became spinning blades, and shouted. "Take my signature move sound plus a wind cyclone."

The air trembled. Vibrations cascaded outward, coiling with the wind into a spinning, horizontal cyclone, its edges shimmering with razor-sharp force.

It whirled faster and faster until it became a drill of wind and sound, then launched forward with a shriek that seemed to pierce the sky.

The first abomination in its path didn’t even flinch in time, its chest bulged, then collapsed inward as the sonic resonance ruptured its organs.

A heartbeat later, the cyclone struck, wind blades ripping through flesh, bone, and scale in an instant. Chunks of the creature spiraled away, drawn into the storm before being flung out in bloody arcs.

The cyclone plowed into the next abomination with even greater force, the vibration shattering its exoskeleton before the wind stripped it apart. For a moment, it was suspended midair inside the storm, body twisting unnaturally, before being ejected high into the forest canopy.

Silver banked above, guiding the cyclone’s path. It tore through the undergrowth, shredding trees into splinters, scooping up debris, and battering fleeing abominations like a predator chasing its prey.

Smaller ones were sucked into its core and shredded before they could even scream; larger ones were thrown aside, broken and lifeless.

By the time the cyclone finally dissipated, the forest lay in ruin. Splintered trunks jutted from the earth like jagged spears, the ground was littered with mangled corpses.

And in just three attacks, barely three minutes, the entire area was not only cleared, it was obliterated. Not a single master rank abomination remained.

Level-up notifications began to chime one after another.

"Finally," I muttered.

I glanced over the three of them—Lyrate at Level 213, Silver at 214, and Knight at 209.

[Level Up!]

[Level 201 → Level 211]

"Awesome." A grin spread across my face as I watched my own level climb and felt the changes of the stat increase in my body as well.