The Ironsworn Ravager let out another thunderous bellow, tusks tearing a trench through the earth as it charged. Shockwaves rippled outward, a deafening roar of force and momentum. The raid formation fractured at the edges—dust, debris, and panic threatening to break their line before the real clash even began.

  But Jin Saito didn’t flinch.

  He inhaled.

  The world didn’t slow—he did.

  Time held no power here. What shifted was behind his eyes. The air glittered like frozen ash. Every heartbeat around him beat in layered harmony, like distant war drums arranged in patterns he could read and follow.

  His pupils dilated. Faint, silver halos shimmered around his irises.

  In front of him, the Ravager charged—not in real time, but in layered echoes. Jin saw three versions of the future unfold simultaneously: one where it barreled straight through the center; one where it veered left, tusks low; and one where it stamped down, triggering a quake.

  Three futures. Three paths.

  He stepped forward.

  The paths split again.

  He saw Reese hesitate—half a second too long—and get clipped by a tusk.

  He saw Lisa unleash a sharp frequency burst, cracking the stone beneath the beast’s hooves.

  He saw Kei, high above, twitch from his perch—fingers instinctively brushing a needle, Phantom Breeze flickering from some unseen ripple.

  Jin moved through the fracture lines of probability like a blade through silk.

  He wasn’t manipulating time. He was interpreting it. Walking the razor's edge between what could be and what would.

  He raised his leg—just as a spike of earth erupted from the ground. Already gone.

  With a twist, he slipped past the beast’s tusk, palm landing against its flank. His fingers struck—once, twice, thrice—perfectly aligned with disruption points in its aether flow, places he shouldn’t have known.

  And yet… he did.

  The Ravager faltered.

  That hesitation was all the others needed.

  Owen surged in from the left, blade clashing with Kai’s spear in a spiraling combo that cleaved through the beast’s stone plating. Lisa followed with a shock pulse, sound ricocheting off Jin’s earlier strike to disorient its footing further.

  Jin exhaled. His vision flickered.

  He stood straight, breath slow, gaze sharpened.

  Then came the second shift—inward.

  Time didn’t change. But his understanding of himself did.

  He felt it: the subtle torque in his left knee. The micro-tension in his back shoulder. The stiffness in his ankles from standing too long. Each inefficiency lit up in his awareness like red threads straining under pressure.

  And then, he corrected.

  Muscles relaxed. Posture realigned. Breath drew deeper—from diaphragm, not chest. His grip loosened, not from weakness, but from mastery. No wasted tension. No wasted energy.

  His eyes opened.

  The Ravager blurred forward—rage and earth in motion.

  Jin stepped.

  The ground trembled, but his balance held. Every movement flowed, clean and seamless. His feet kissed the soil and left no excess motion behind. Power didn’t ripple from brute force—it rippled from precision.

  Blocks of earth surged upward—each one larger than the last, towering slabs of stone hurled through the air with crushing force, all aiming to bury Jin beneath them.

  Without hesitation, Jin raised a hand.

  “Fall back.”

  Owen, Kai, and Lisa obeyed immediately, retreating at the sharp command.

  Facing the incoming barrage, Jin’s Clairvoyance Force shifted inward. His awareness turned to the architecture of his own body—stat lines, muscles, fibers, everything in motion.

  A rapid redistribution began.

  Strength. Dexterity. Agility. Constitution.

  Each flowed from one to the other like liquid, flowing to where it was most needed. His configuration shifted on the fly, pouring everything into speed.

  His entire body compressed, streamlined for movement—not just fast, but frictionless.

  This was the secret to Jin’s strength.

  Not a flashy force. Not a dramatic burst of energy.

  It was control—a seamless, internal mastery so complete that even after watching him fight, no one could determine his force alignment.

  Much like Kai’s Adrenaline Force, Jin’s strength had always been internal. The ability to glimpse multiple futures and perceive branching paths had only just awakened with his newly acquired Ancient-ranked class.

  But the core of his power—what allowed him to read his body down to the bone and shift his stats accordingly—had always belonged to Clairvoyance.

  He rocketed forward.

  One second, he stood still. The next, he was blurring past falling boulders, twisting between gaps that hadn’t even opened yet.

  His Martial Artist title honed each movement, refining his stride, his momentum, the angle of his pivots and rolls. The Title Hunter title amplified the effects further—compounding the refinement, pushing his mobility to levels beyond natural limits.

  Each time he shifted a stat, the arm guards Kei had crafted responded instantly. They weren’t just reinforced—they were reactive. Tuned to his aether. They allowed finer control, smoother transitions.

  For every point he redistributed, that stat surged—temporarily magnified by 50%.

  One point of agility became 1.5.

  Three became nearly five.

  And Jin had plenty to move around.

  His form danced between devastation. Earthen blocks missed by inches—no, less than inches. He dipped beneath one, flipped over another, angled his body through a diagonal gap that hadn’t even fully formed.

  Each step was an adjustment.

  Each breath was a calculation.

  He wasn’t dodging.

  He was disassembling the attack.

  Every incoming strike was a blueprint—and Jin was already editing it before it finished loading.

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  Flexing his arms, he rotated through one final gap, twisted low, and launched himself forward—aiming directly for the Ravager’s exposed chest.

  BANG!!!

  A thunderous impact rang out as a solid strike slammed into the Ravager’s side like a sledgehammer. The force of the blow sent the massive beast flipping backward, its enormous body crashing into the earth and kicking up a storm of dust and debris. Shockwaves rippled across the battlefield.

  Jin stood at the center of it all, chest heaving, sweat dripping down his brow. His movements had been flawless, but facing an Apex Boss meant his body was pushed beyond its normal limits—every correction, every adjustment forced his muscles to burn hotter than ever before.

  From the front line, Reinhardt saw the opening.

  “Attack!!!” he roared.

  He drew his massive shield in one hand, a double-headed axe in the other. His aether surged to life, flooding through both weapons, reinforcing the dense metal with raw power. With a ground-shaking charge, Reinhardt closed the distance, swinging his axe in a wide arc that carved into the Ravager’s flank.

  The others didn’t wait.

  Spells and strikes flew in from all sides—light, flame, ice, sound, wind. The full might of the raid party collided against the downed Ravager, their combined assault lighting up the field with flashes of elemental power.

  The beast roared in fury.

  It rose again, battered but not broken—more enraged than before. Earth surged around its tusks, forming dense, jagged plating as it locked eyes on Jin. With a deafening roar, it charged.

  But Jin didn’t move.

  Owen did.

  He stepped in front of Jin without hesitation, his Bastion Force igniting as he grounded himself. Stone formed beneath his boots, flowing up to reinforce his stance. His Gaia-aligned skills responded to the surge, threading his body with the strength of the land itself.

  The Ravager struck.

  Owen caught the charge squarely—and nearly buckled beneath the force. The ground beneath him cracked, his shield shuddered, but he held.

  Arrows streaked overhead.

  Each one twisted mid-air, guided by unnatural vectors before slamming into the Ravager’s hide. The bombardment staggered the beast, each impact chipping away at its defenses with unrelenting precision.

  The Ravager roared again, rearing back to flatten Owen beneath its colossal hooves.

  It brought them down—

  And both Owen and Jin vanished in a blur of mist.

  Talia’s mist clone technique.

  The real bodies reappeared just behind the beast, buying a crucial second.

  And in that moment, Kai launched forward.

  His Adrenaline Force surged violently, pumping raw, explosive energy through every fiber of his body. With a burst of speed, he lunged, his spear a blur of silver and fury.

  He drove it forward with a roar—

  CRACK.

  The spear embedded deep into the Ravager’s chest.

  It howled in pain.

  The tide of battle had shifted.

  And the Apex Beast had finally taken a wound it could feel.

  Shrugging off the last attack, the Ironsworn Ravager let out a guttural snort and slammed its hooves into the ground. The terrain buckled in response—jagged stones erupting at awkward angles, the earth shifting beneath everyone’s feet. The battlefield twisted, making it harder to stand, let alone fight.

  Its tusks, now layered with sharpened earth and jagged stone, shot forward in a brutal charge.

  Clank.

  A clean, silent strike met them head-on.

  Kaito’s shortsword intercepted the blow, redirecting the tusks just enough. The impact launched him backward, but he twisted mid-air with grace, drawing his new longsword in a smooth motion. Before touching the ground, he slashed across the Ravager’s face—carving a deep, heavy line into its flesh—then flipped away, vanishing into the shifting terrain.

  The Ravager hadn’t even roared yet when a fiery dragon’s head exploded into its flank.

  From a distance, Draggbane’s gauntlets pulsed with molten heat. He reached behind him, drawing his greatsword, flames instantly spiraling along the blade. With a primal roar, he brought it down in a sweeping arc, unleashing a crimson torrent of fire that slammed down onto the beast like a meteor, bathing it in molten fury.

  The Ravager roared—not in pain, but in annoyance.

  Watching the fire cascade down, Jenny stepped forward.

  Her hair was tied up casually, the tip of her scythe blade resting gently in the rising fire. She watched the flames dance across the steel, smiling sweetly.

  “This looks lovely,” she murmured.

  With a graceful spin, she flipped the scythe low, switching her grip to the bottom handle—and slammed it forward.

  All the kinetic energy from Draggbane’s fire—absorbed and stored within her weapon—erupted outward in a single, devastating release.

  BOOM.

  The energy slammed into the boar’s chest like a cannon, lifting the massive beast off its feet and hurling it backward across the battlefield.

  Stone shattered. Earth cracked. Dust billowed.

  The raid party didn’t stop to celebrate.

  They surged forward.

  Using the remaining kinetic energy she had absorbed, Jenny was the first to arrive above the downed Ravager. Her scythe gleamed in her hands, held behind her like a guillotine waiting to fall. She smiled sweetly at the massive creature below, her expression calm—almost playful—as she activated the effect of her new weapon.

  When Kaito first requested a custom scythe built around the concept of kinetic energy, Kei had been intrigued. The creative potential lit a spark in his mind. He poured himself into the project—testing, refining, and experimenting—until he forged a weapon unlike any other.

  Jenny’s scythe wasn’t just a tool for delivering stored power.

  It was a recorder.

  A mimic.

  A teacher.

  Descending like a reaper cloaked in flame, Jenny twisted mid-air, her body spinning with perfect form as she brought the scythe down in a vicious arc.

  SHNK.

  The blade pierced through the Ravager's side, burying deep into muscle and stone-plated hide. The beast let out a guttural, enraged bellow—

  But that wasn’t all.

  Smoke erupted violently from the wound, not from the cut itself—but from within.

  The scythe still impaled in the Ravager had begun to glow, crimson light pulsing at its core. The weapon's effect had activated—not simply releasing stored energy, but recreating it.

  Kei’s design was deceptively simple: the weapon recorded the kinetic frequency of anything it absorbed. The last thing Jenny had absorbed?

  Draggbane’s flames.

  The feedback loop synced with her Kinetic Force, and Jenny—brilliant in her own strange way—mimicked the flame’s kinetic frequency with uncanny precision. She didn't just copy it—she recreated it from within, the fire taking shape from motion and memory.

  The Ravager thrashed wildly, the smoke turning into bursts of internal flame. Jenny flipped off its back in a graceful arc, landing lightly several meters away.

  And then the blade of her scythe ignited.

  A curved inferno traced the edge of her weapon, a vibrant crimson flame licking along the steel, shaped not by aether, but by sheer kinetic mastery.

  She tilted her head, eyes gleaming.

  “Guess it worked,” she said, twirling the weapon once.

  The battlefield paused for half a breath.

  The Ravager was wounded—deeply, visibly, and enraged.

  Those with healing capabilities took the opportunity to move in, swiftly aiding the injured and stabilizing anyone who had been clipped during the last exchange. The frontline held firm.

  Kai, Draggbane, Talia, Reinhardt, and Reese kept up the onslaught, refusing to let the Ironsworn Ravager catch its breath. Its wounds still pulsed with residual flame and kinetic backlash, slowing it just enough to buy time.

  At the center of the assault, Reinhardt’s Bastion Paragon class ran hot—his Reinforcement Force pushing his armor and weapons beyond their limits. His shield met tusks with seismic clangs, while his massive axe slammed down with punishing weight, striking the boar again and again.

  To his side, Kaito moved like a shadow under moonlight. His Lunar Reaver class shimmered with soft glow, crescent-shaped sword strikes trailing behind him like ghostly echoes. Each step flowed into the next—one moment a blur, the next a burst of silver light as his blade sliced cleanly across the Ravager’s hide.

  High above, nestled in the upper canopy of a distant tree, Kei observed everything.

  Arms folded, presence cloaked by Phantom Breeze, he kept a mental map of the battlefield. So far, they were holding better than he expected. A few close calls, sure—but their coordination had improved, and the gear he’d crafted was being put to good use.

  Still, he didn’t watch everyone equally.

  He kept close track of his own—those he’d equipped or bonded with directly.

  But his eyes also lingered on a select few Wind-aligned force users, quietly tracking their movement, rhythm, and how they manipulated their aether. Like a craftsman scanning through raw material, Kei studied them—not judging, but searching.

  Shopping for inspiration.

  One of them, in particular, caught his attention.

  A violent roar ripped through the battlefield—raw, primal, and loud enough to rupture organs or outright kill those too close to its epicenter. The shockwaves that followed weren’t just noise; they were weapons, slicing through the air with force potent enough to throw bodies like ragdolls.

  Sensing the danger, Lisa reacted instantly.

  Her Sound Force surged outward in a pulse of harmonic frequency, warping and diffusing the roar before it could reach lethal levels. The raw decibel force was bent and broken, its edges dulled. It was still deafening—but now survivable.

  Beside her, Jenny took a different approach. She extended her scythe toward the shockwave and absorbed it. The kinetic energy that tore through the air funneled into her weapon like a storm bottled at the edge of a blade.

  Thanks to their combined efforts, the party remained upright—shaken, but not broken.

  And then they saw it.

  The Ravager stood tall, its body steadily mending beneath the weight of their combined assault. Chunks of flesh regrew. Cracks sealed. Even the deeper wounds began knitting together before their eyes.

  Its Constitution wasn’t just high—it was monstrous.

  But worse than the healing… was the change.

  Massive slabs of stone slammed into the Ravager’s body from all sides, pulled from the earth and compacted by its will. They collided and locked into place with brutal finality, encasing the creature in a jagged, armor-like shell. It no longer resembled a beast.

  It looked like a siege weapon—an earthbound tank with tusks that could pierce mountains.

  High in his perch, Kei narrowed his eyes.

  “After spending so much time with Zeph,” he muttered, “I’ve come to understand why they’re called Apex Creatures. Honestly… if I wasn’t suppressing Zeph’s growth with wind and aether control, he’d be twenty times more horrifying.”

  He exhaled slowly.

  “And now… this is Earth’s Apex.”

  It was starting to show its true might.

  Down below, Jin stood tall, chest rising and falling from his earlier onslaught. He was still recovering—but his eyes never wavered.

  Silver rings spun faintly in his gaze, paths unfolding across his vision like layered maps of what was, what is, and what could be.

  To his side, Jenny landed silently.

  Her scythe pulsed with heat, the kinetic energy she’d just absorbed reinforcing its frame. The flaming edge hissed in the shifting wind, licking at the ground as she stood beside him.

  The Martial Artist and the Dancer stood together—scorched, winded, but unshaken.

  The Ravager roared again, stomping forward with thunderous weight.

  And they didn’t move an inch.

  They were ready.