God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

A strange looking helmet appeared on Floki's head, and a few seconds later, the huge, nearly seven feet tall human dashed forward towards the behemoth faster than the eye could follow.

A deep growl sounded from the depths of his throat as he caught the Aether Creature's attention.

"Come on! I'm right here, beast!" He roared at the thing.

As though it could hear and understand his words, the giant Collosus dove down towards him. Thicker than a couple buildings combined, it was hard to believe one man would be able to stop the moment of suck a gigantic creature.

And that was the case.

However, Floki's intention was not to take the beast head on. He didn't want to die. Instead, he had done this seemingly suicidal action for the sole purpose of seizing its attention for just for a few moments.

And it paid off wonderfully.

Feet lightly tapping against the ground, Rollo and Luke closed in from one side of the beast, while Lukas and Manny closed in from the other.

A deep, blue glow enveloped Rollo and his sword,

"Mass Infinity."

The glow on his blade became deeper. The arm gripping the sword began to change, a layer of thick, viscous black energy surrounding it, turning it into a Devilish Beastly claw.

Rollo let out a steamy breath of air as he shot forward like a beam of light.

"Grasping Devils!"

This clawed hand gripped the sword hard, and with a grunt, he swung forward.

A ray of condensed Sword Ki traveled forward like an arrow, smashing down on the neck of one of the creature's heads.

Rollo 's eyes widened, "That barely did anything!"

That head let out a long hiss that traveled through the air like a piercing knife. It immediately lunged at Rollo, maw opened up to swallow him whole.

His heart beating out of his chest, Rollo was quick to swing his sword again, smacking it against the beast's teeth.

A wave of horrid stench washed over him. The Aether Beast didn't even move.

'Fuck!' Was the only thought in his mind.

Just when things were looking grim, Luke appeared at the nick of time.

His arm had also been mutated by Devil Essence. It was black and corroded, firmly holding the {Black Obsidian} sword.

"Cross Severance!" He swung his blade twice, drawing two thin black lines in the air that flew at supersonic speed towards the angry Hydra head.

He managed to draw blood, causing the Hydra head to recoil a bit. However, not even a second later, the injury was healed up.

Luke frowned, "What a terrifying regeneration ability."

Rollo, having just having escaped death was relieved on the inside, but didn't show anything on his face.

"Thanks." He muttered.

Luke chuckled, "If you die, I'm next. Let's attack together this time."

A grin look on his face, Rollo nodded, and the two of them dashed forward once again.

On the other side, Manny and Lukas blitzed forward, both faster than what could be seen.

With the element of light powering his abilities and skills, Lukas' movement speed was beyond what even the average enhanced human could follow.

He darted from left to right, up to down, his blade drawing lines across the creature's flesh, leavjng deep grooves.

Manny on the other hand relied of his insane attack speed to shred through the Hydra's defenses.

Luka phantom drifting in the wind, his blades moved so quickly barely an afterimage was left.

With all of them being Tier 1, they managed to keep the Hydra at bay for a moment.

Despite their attacks not dealing a lot of damage, they could hold out for a moment.

But that was an illusion.

A mirage caused by a lack of perspective.

Cain, observing the seemingly Cataclysmic battle from a distance could see something those actively participating in the battle couldn't.

His grip on his staff tightened,

'It's still playing around.'

The Hydra has barely made any aggressive attacks. In fact, it had made none whatsoever. It was toying with them. He didn't want to know what would happen when it decided to stop playing around.

All this time, he hadn't been idle.

Waving the staff in the air, a single layer of red flames surrounding him. He pointed his staff skyward.

A magic circle appeared at the center of the brewing sandstorm. It continued to spread and grow, gathering more and more mana.

However, Cain knew this would barely be enough. So he opened the gates of his {Elemental Vault}, letting all the elements of lightning stored within it flow out.

At the same time, he began chanting another spell.

A magic circle manifested above him with a similar one appearing beneath him as well.

Although {Wilted Tears} allowed him skip the process of chanting, it could only do so for a single spell at a time. If he wanted to cast another spell, he would need to chant.

So he began with;

"Vampiric Star."

An orb of glowing red flames began to gathered above him, smoldering in the sandy wind of the desert.

The element of fire was not as prevalent here compared to the lightning and earth elements, so he let the {Vampiric Star} steal the mana from the {Elemental Vault}.

As the lightning was being gathered in the sky, the smoldering star of flames grew in size above him.

Layered in the magic of these two violent elements, Cain found it difficult to retain control.

However, it wasn't over yet...

Slamming the butt of his staff into the Nexus of the magic circle beneath him, he spoke, his voice a bit hoarse,

"Flame of Darkness."

A bolt of darkness appeared in the star of smoldering flames, consuming it until all the flames were dying in black.

The dark light of the black sun was especially ominous in the darkness caused by the sandstorm.

Having timed the two spells perfectly, Cain let go of the reins at the same time,

"Heavenly Blue Lightning."

"Infernal Celestial Art: Supernova!"

The world was momentarily washed in light produced by two different energies.

On one hand, it was dyed white by the pillar of lightning that fell from the heavens onto the body of the {Stone-Blood Hydra Collosus}.

On the other hand, it was dyed black by the catastrophic explosion caused by the impact of the dark sun.

The combination of these two powers birthed an explosion that sent them all flying away.

Stabbing his sword into the ground, Lukas managed to keep himself from being blown away.

"Damn it!" He said through gritted teeth.

The explosion died down rather rapidly, revealing the burnt body of the collosal beast.

Cain staggered backward,

"I... I used too much mana." Blood dribbled down his nostrils, but he quickly wiped it away.

Hunter, who had been calmly standing beside him let out a sigh,

"It's not over yet."

The Hydra has been still only for a moment.

It's eyes cracked open. It's gaze seemed a bit more focused now.

Cracks ran through its blackened hide until it all began to fall off like the beast was molting.

Cain sighed, "So that wasn't enough, huh..."

Hunter shrugged, "Of course it wasn't. What do you expect. This is a Level 160, Deadly Grade, Tier 1 Aether Beast we are dealing with here."

The changes happened almost immediately. Hunter's body began swelling until he turned into an eight foot tall wolf-man creature.

Power radiated from his body in waves as he let out a piercing howl to the sky.

He looked back at Cain,

"Let's begin round two." He said, his voice deep and rough.

Cain chuckled.

The rest picked themselves up from the ground one by one.

Cain had used the {Fallen Stars of Orion} to transfer them away from the hydra just before collision with the two spells, so they weren't hurt too bad. Still, they had to bear a decent amount of damage from the shockwaves.

The blackened shell had fallen off completely, and the true body of the collosal Hydra was exposed.

Cain dismissed {Wilted Tear} and summoned the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame}.

The familiar weight in his hands calmed his rapid heart. Although his long range spells were powerful, he still felt most comfortable tearing the enemy down with his sword.

'Before that...'

He decided to make the choice of quickly splitting the rest of his free attribute points between his strength and agility stats.

This was akin to doubling them both in the span of a second. He currently had thirty thousand free attribute points. Using them all at once for a major boost in power was why he hadn't used them up all this time. It would have been better to distribute them more balanced.

But what he.needed the most right now, was speed and power.

The changes were instantaneous.

The change in his aura was very obvious. For him, the {Scale of the Abyssal Flame} had a bit of weight to it before. Now, it was almost weightless in his hands.

He had to pour in a considerable amount of Ki into it before he could feel anything.

His body seemed to swell as the stat points kept pouring in. He almost grunted from the ecstacy of having so much power flood his body all at once.

With its body now reformed, the {Stone-Blood Hydra Collosus} slithered forward, moving so fast it seemed to.ignire the weight of its massive body.

Luke and Rollo dashed to the left again, while Lukas and Manny dashed to teh right.

Floki stood in front like an immovable shield, while Hunter and Cain stood behind him.

They both exchanged glances.

Floki braces himself.

The scream arrived a split second later, crashing into them all like a meteor striking the world.