Endless Evolution: Last Star

Now, this was the first time she had seen a Scarlet Pyromancer in person rather than through the prism of a video or monitor.

The monster’s entire body was covered in dark red armor, two massive wings releasing a wave of flame trying to burn everything around it. The beetle’s long thick horn looked like a spear covered in scarlet flames, capable of piercing even the heavens if necessary.

A multitude of petals on six legs constantly releasing flames, four formidable eyes hidden under the armor, and two fat glands filled with dense liquid flames at the monster’s jaw. All of this could instill fear and terror in anyone who encountered an Essence Scarlet Pyromancer.

Unlike the Essence Thunder Demon that Adam had fought against in Salt Village, this Essence Monster had absorbed its artifact long ago, so Scarlet Pyromancer had no exposed core, which was the weakness of the Thunder Demon.

Its core was somewhere inside, perhaps in the darkness and complete silence, someone might be able to tell where it was by seeing the light under the beetle’s solid armor, but in this chaos, it was impossible to do so.

Katrin was the first to realize that it was the Essence Scarlet Pyromancer, and from some scratches on the monster’s body, she was sure that it was the Scarlet Pyromancer they were hunting today.

Katrin couldn’t be wrong, she was completely sure of it.

Whooooooooooooosh.

Before Katrin or anyone else could draw any conclusions, a powerful shockwave reached them.

Flames mingled with the ash, partially becoming dirty and dark, like a harbinger of a violent death.

The impact, threw Erla, Oskar, and Katrin aside, causing them to crash into a massive black tree that cracked and collapsed its powerful trunk to the ground, becoming a wall for them.

Adam and Osana with Lero on his shoulders barely managed to escape the shockwave by moving a safe distance away.

Realizing what the situation was, Adam glanced at Katrin and headed towards them, soon finding himself next to the black tree.

"Fuck! What’s going on here? Is this an anomaly?" Oskar exclaimed in disbelief.

Katrin, holding her hands out in front of her in an attempt to protect herself from the dust flying in her direction said:

"Not likely. Anomalies can’t move that fast, moreover, the original part of the anomaly would have stayed in place. It’s a monster. That’s the Essence Scarlet Pyromancer we came for!" Katrin exclaimed, trying to get up off the ground.

Oskar’s and Erla’s eyes went wide. Not only from the realization that a Top-8 monster had suddenly appeared right before the night was supposed to fall, but that the Scarlet Pyromancer had destroyed the fighter!

The crashing Scarlet Pyromancer caused an explosion comparable to the fall of a huge meteor, but... it wasn’t the monster’s cunning plan. Thunder Demon was capable of coming up with such a plan, but not Scarlet Pyromancer.

This was clear from the first roar or rather furious growl that came from the depths of Scarlet Pyromancer’s throat.

"RRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTSSS!!!"

The strange sound that the beasts were incapable of emitting, but could easily be produced by insects.

Then, Adam, Katrin, Oskar, and the others first noticed the three silhouettes that clung to Scarlet Pyromancer’s massive body.

Whoooooooosh.

Scarlet Pyromancer’s wings began to move faster, throwing away two of the three silhouettes with wind streams mixed with air.

The third silhouette, which was a wolf-sized monster with gray skin and an elongated jaw managed to stay on the ground, ending up in front of Scarlet Pyromancer’s jaw.

"What the hell...?" Lero muttered while waves of shivers passed through his body. His eyes traveled from one monster to another in panic. Everyone else had the same reaction.

The reason for their behavior was simple - none of them recognized these monsters.

Adam stared intently at the monster held on the ground. Its body was muscular and completely devoid of fur. Sharp spikes that were part of its spine protruded from its back right through the taut gray skin. The creature had no tail.

It had two elongated ears, two amber eyes, and four long paws with many phalanges. Its paws were more like human palms, with thin fingers and claws as sharp as blades.

Goosebumps went up Adam’s spine. There was a dissonance in his mind, for these monsters didn’t look very strong, yet their auras were threatening.

Moreover, he already realized that these three identical monsters were the reason why Scarlet Pyromancer had to collapse on the ground.

On Scarlet Pyromancer’s part, it was a forced measure to deal with these monsters.

It seemed to Adam that although these monsters were strong, they were very weak in their league. He couldn’t explain it, but it would become more than clear very soon...

Erla’s eyes went wide.

"What kind of monsters are these? They’re definitely not Top-10, Top-20, or even Top-30, but... weaker monsters simply aren’t capable of making Scarlet Pyromancer, a Top-8, fight so fiercely for its life." Erla muttered in a trembling voice.

This was already realized by each of them. Gradually, their minds were coming to conclusions that they were simply afraid to hear.

Crackle.

Four of the six legs of the Scarlet Pyromancer grabbed the gray monster, pinning it to the ground. Then, the glands in Scarlet Pyromancer’s maw began to shake vigorously and turn a deep red color.

Whoooooooooooooooooooosh.

A powerful stream of flames burst out of Scarlet Pyromancer’s jaw, raining down on the head of the gray monster that was only two meters away from Scarlet Pyromancer, chained to the ground by the long legs of the huge beetle.

Adam’s eyes went wide. He realized that if he were in the gray monster’s place, he would have been turned to ash by now. Even from this distance, he could feel the painful heat.

But... only after a few seconds, the gray monster’s skin began to ignite. It took more than ten seconds for the flames to reach the monster’s flesh and burn its head along with its eyes and brain.

’Adam!’ Silvana exclaimed while the other two gray monsters prepared for their next attack, eager to avenge their fallen fellow.

At the same time, the Operators of all the other Phantoms began to say the same thing. There was alarm and slight panic in the voices of each of them, whether it was Silvana, Alan, or Oskar’s Operator.

’These are Gray Scavengers, I don’t know where they came from here, but these aren’t monsters of the Purple Threat Level, these are Light Yellow Threat Level monsters!’ Silvana exclaimed quickly conveying the information to Adam.

"Light Yellow Threat Level...? Light...? What the hell does that mean?" Adam gulped.

’You need to get out of there right now! Not only because of the danger from the Gray Scavengers, but since I can’t figure out how they got here!’ Silvana shouted.

At the same moment, everyone else nodded, accepting the information from their Operators.

Only Adam remained silent as he looked up into the sky, where light shudders were passing through the dark veil.

He could spot them, for he had seen something like this once before.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Then, in the sky above their territory appeared a huge transparent sphere whose surface was actively trembling.

Before anyone could realize it, the sphere shrank, disappearing completely, as did Scarlet Pyromancer, Gray Scavengers, and... everyone else.

Next to the black tree where Adam, Katrin, and Golden Light Squad were standing, there was no one now... only their footprints remained.