One person had stayed out of the chaos so far. But that break was over.
Alex was ready to dive back in.
He had patched himself up using qi—not perfect healing, but enough to stop the aches and clear his head. The sharp pain dulled into a low burn, and his qi reserves were back to full.
The base was a wreck. The ground was torn apart, walls cracked and smoking. Bodies—some burnt, some frozen—were scattered across the snow. The air reeked of burnt metal and blood.
Alex walked through the mess, his boots crunching over shattered debris. From the distance, he could hear the sounds of battle still raging—roars, crashes, metal tearing against metal.
'I better see what's happening first,' he thought, narrowing his eyes. 'Then I'll know who needs help most.'
He moved quickly, keeping low until he reached the final section of the base—the fence marking the last defensive ring. From there, he climbed up silently, the cold metal biting into his hands.
Once at the top, he froze. His gaze swept across the battlefield. Multiple fights were breaking out across the compound—flashes of qi, bursts of elemental power lighting up the snowy field.
He was about to decide which group to back up when he saw him.
A tall figure. Familiar. Too familiar.
Lucius.
Alex's heartbeat spiked instantly.
'Lucius?' he thought, gripping the fence tighter.
For a second, he couldn't believe it. But there was no mistaking that face, that stance, that cold aura.
'What is he doing here?'
His thoughts raced faster than his pulse. 'Is he the one leading this place? The boss behind it all?'
Then a darker idea crossed his mind, one that made his stomach twist.
'Don't tell me... are the Wyndhams involved too? Is this their main operation—their real source of power and money?'
Alex clenched his fists, his jaw tightening. The possibility alone made his blood boil.
He started thinking fast.
'The Wyndhams are always tied to Lucius,' Alex thought, his eyes narrowing. 'If Lucius is here, then there's a good chance they're involved too.'
His grip on the axe tightened until his knuckles turned white. He turned his gaze upward toward the cliff in the distance.
Now that he was closer, he could finally make out what sat at the top.
There—half-buried in snow and ice—stood a cluster of buildings. Massive, fortress-like. They weren't decorated or fancy like noble estates, but the size alone screamed power. It looked more like a hidden stronghold than a home.
'So that's where they're holed up,' he muttered under his breath.
A cold wind blew against his face, sharp and cutting, but it didn't stop the fire burning in his chest.
'Guess I've made my choice,' Alex decided, his tone firm. 'I'm heading up there.'
He adjusted his grip on the axe and started moving, step by step, toward the icy slope.
---
Elsewhere on the battlefield, chaos still reigned.
Kira Vostan had returned—and not quietly.
Her reappearance was nothing short of monstrous. Her entire body was encased in earth and stone, her form towering nearly ten times larger than before.
Merrick turned to face her, his lips curling into a half-smirk despite the exhaustion in his eyes.
"Well, would you look at that," he said, voice dry. "A rock woman. Didn't see that one coming."
Kira didn't bother replying. Her eyes glowed a dull amber as she drove both her enormous hands into the ground.
The earth responded like a beast under command.
The ground shook violently. The snow around her burst upward as jagged columns of rock started rising from beneath the surface.
The rumbling deepened, spreading through the entire battlefield like an oncoming quake.
Chunks of ice and soil lifted into the air, circling her like a growing storm.
Without warning, small chunks of earth shot toward Merrick like bullets.
Reacting instantly, Merrick swung up his Gatling gun and opened fire, blasting apart the incoming fragments one after another.
But at that same moment, Kira moved.
She launched herself off the ground, leaping high into the air. Mid-flight, clumps of earth and rock gathered around her arm, wrapping it until her hand turned into a massive stone fist.
She came crashing down.
The punch slammed into Merrick, sending him skidding backward through the snow.
Kira didn't slow down. More earthen shards erupted from the ground, firing toward him like a storm of jagged bullets.
'She's using more than one magic spell at once,' Merrick thought, a smirk tugging at his lips. 'Guess we're not the only ones who can overlap skills.'
He formed a Qi barrier, the faint glow rippling around him as it blocked most of the flying stones.
While holding the barrier with one hand, Merrick used his free hand to form a Qi slash and swung it toward her.
Kira reacted fast. The ground beneath her rose, forming a thick wall of earth. The Qi slash smashed into it — both forces shattered, canceling each other out in a burst of energy and dust.
But Merrick didn't wait for the smoke to settle. He was already moving, bursting through the crumbling wall like a cannonball.
He appeared in front of Kira and unleashed a flurry of punches, each one packed with raw power.
Kira swung back, her giant fists meeting his blows head-on, but Merrick ducked and slipped past each strike with sharp, practiced movements.
'You piece of shit!' Kira thought, her rage boiling as she attacked again and again.
'Just because I focus on ranged combat doesn't mean I'm weak at close range,' Merrick thought, his eyes narrowing.
Before he could take another breath, Kira spun sharply. Shards of rock shot out from her body like spikes, whipping straight toward him.
Merrick's Qi shield flared up on instinct, blocking most of the hits — but the impact dragged his feet sideways through the snow, grinding tracks into the frozen ground.
She didn't waste that moment. Kira stomped her foot.
The earth beneath Merrick rumbled and then surged upward, forming a tall pillar that launched him skyward.
Seeing the ground rise, Merrick gathered a visible pulse of Qi around his leg. He stabbed his foot down hard.
The energy ran through the stone like lightning — and the pillar shattered.
Chunks of rock exploded outward as Merrick dropped back toward the ground. The instant he landed, he swung his Qi cannon up, taking aim without hesitation.
Bang!
The blast tore through the air, a streak of energy that cracked like thunder.
Kira reacted fast, raising a wall of earth in front of her — but it wasn't enough. The Qi shell punched straight through it, slamming into her with a dull, brutal impact.
Merrick didn't stop. He kicked off the ground, leaping forward, closing the gap between them.
Seeing him descending midair, Kira's rocky body suddenly sank into the ground — swallowed up by the earth itself.
Bang!
Merrick's fist hit nothing but solid rock and snow, the shockwave leaving deep cracks spidering across the ground.
He straightened slowly, scanning the field.
'She's not done yet,' he thought, jaw tightening.
Meanwhile, Kira burst out from the ground behind him, her massive rocky form exploding upward with a roar of shifting earth.
Before Merrick could react, she grabbed him by the torso and swung him hard to the side.
He crashed through the snow, rolling as shards of ice and dirt followed. Before he could even regain balance, Kira fired a volley of jagged stones at him — dozens of them, slicing through the air from every direction.
The barrage hit like a storm. Each impact shook the ground, echoing through the battlefield.
But midway through the assault, Merrick's hand shot out. He caught one of the stones mid-flight, his grip tightening until it cracked under his fingers.
'Wait a moment...' he thought, breathing heavy but steady.
'Am I really going toe-to-toe with a fellow Stage 5 Paragon?'
He stared at the crumbling rock in his palm, then tossed it aside like it weighed nothing.
His focus sharpened. Amid the chaos, a familiar ping echoed in his mind — a system call from Tamsin.
'I need to finish this,' he muttered.
His cannon hummed again, Qi gathering and compressing at its core until it glowed white-hot. Being a Stage 5 warrior meant Merrick's Qi pool could handle it — and recharge it fast.
He didn't hesitate. The moment Kira raised her arm for another strike, Merrick leveled his cannon and fired.
BOOM!
The blast tore through the frozen air like thunder, shaking the valley.
This time, the shot hit clean. The impact slammed into Kira's chest, tearing straight through the rocky armor and splitting her from the torso down.
Chunks of her earthen body scattered across the field before dissolving back into the snow.
Merrick stood still, steam rising from his cannon. He stared at what was left of her with a faint frown.
'That was... too easy,' he thought.
He couldn't see anyone inside at first. The place looked empty—silent even.
That was until something clicked in his mind.
'Wait a second... Kira Vostan is a short lady,' Merrick thought, narrowing his eyes.
He was right. The giant humanoid made of rock wasn't her. At least, not directly. It was a construct—massive, towering, ten times her actual height.
He'd hit the shell, not the real Kira.
The ground around the stone giant began to move again, churning like liquid earth. Loose soil and shattered rock flowed upward, gathering back onto the body until the holes he'd blown open were completely sealed.
'Tch... regeneration,' Merrick muttered.
Without warning, the massive figure lunged toward him.
He swung up his gatling gun and unleashed a storm of bullets. Sparks and stone shards burst everywhere, but it was useless. The bullets barely chipped the surface, and the damage healed almost instantly.
'If I drag this out, she'll eventually run out of mana,' Merrick thought, stepping back as another punch cratered the ground beside him. 'But I don't have the luxury of time. Tamsin needs backup now.'
He holstered his weapons and squared his stance, eyes locked on the earthen monster.
He could feel it now—the pattern of her movements, the pauses between her attacks.
'She's stalling me,' he realized. 'She's buying time.'
A grim frown crossed his face. 'Which means she's betting the Stage 7 warrior will finish off Tamsin and come for us next.'
The fight so far had been dead even. Both were Stage Five Paragons. Their Qi levels matched too closely for either side to break through.
Merrick exhaled sharply. 'Damn it. I came geared for support, not demolition.'
He glanced at his cannon, then at the giant.
'I only brought standard weapons. The heavy stuff—the ones that could wipe her out in one shot—aren't stored in the system cache,' he thought bitterly.
Snow blew past them as the tension built again.
The battlefield had gone quiet except for the rumble beneath their feet.
'I just have to finish this quick, one clean strike,' Merrick thought.
He dashed forward.
The ground cracked under his boots as he launched himself at Kira. When he got close enough, Merrick swung his arm in a sharp arc, striking her ribs with full force. His entire hand vibrated, a low hum rippling through the air.
As his palm connected, the vibration spread through Kira's rock armor like a shockwave. A thick layer of earth shattered off her side, breaking away in a rain of debris.
But even before the dust could settle, the soil began to crawl back, rebuilding her armor piece by piece.
Still, Merrick wasn't disappointed.
That one opening was all he needed.
He leaped back, boots sliding against the dirt as he created distance.
Kira froze for a second, confused by his sudden retreat. Then—
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Her eyes widened.
BOOM!
A violent explosion tore through the rock armor, sending massive chunks flying in every direction. The shockwave hit the ground hard, shaking the battlefield and throwing Kira backward.
She crashed into the dirt, rolling across the ground, blood spilling down her abdomen.
Merrick stepped forward, dust clinging to his boots. His eyes stayed on her as he spoke.
"I realized trying to blow you up from the outside only wrecks your armor," he said, voice steady. "You just heal it back right after."
He crouched slightly, meeting her weak glare.
"So," he continued, "I decided to plant the charge inside—attached directly to your real body."
Kira groaned, clutching her stomach, the faint hiss of mana escaping her wounds. Merrick didn't smile.
When Merrick landed the punch, he wasn't just swinging blindly — he used a skill unique to him, one that made a single strike hit like a quake. His hand vibrated violently, every pulse carrying raw destructive force.
The impact tore through the earth armor shielding Kira, shaking loose thick plates of rock that cracked and fell away.
But Merrick's real move wasn't just brute strength — it was precision.
In that same motion, his hand had struck her rib and planted a small device beneath her armor.
Kira, reeling from the blow, mistook the sharp sensation in her side for pain from the hit. She had no idea a small dynamite was now lodged against her skin.
The plan worked flawlessly. The detonation had stripped her defenses, leaving her exposed — the perfect opening for Merrick to finish the fight.
With no more earth armor to protect her, Merrick summoned his Qi gun. He aimed steadily, eyes cold.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Each shot tore through the dust and smoke, echoing across the battlefield.
Another leader of the Vornshade Clan fell that day. Three more remained.