Simple And Direct

*BANG! BANG!*

Niara was punching like crazy, jumping and flying around while dodging a bunch of brutal blows. But she couldn't dodge everything.

*BOOOM!*

She crashed to the ground like a torpedo, but got right back up, healing as she did, roaring almost in desperation and charging again.

Because...

"Block them!"

Several meters back, Ronan shouted while Tarn used her blessing called Mind Puppet. That Summoner and her partner were actually pretty talented — they managed to affect that Risen, and he was seriously weakened.

Unfortunately, they were support-type, and that enemy was way beyond what everyone there could handle.

In just one minute, more than ten had died.

The newbies clenched their fists, covered in wounds. Running wasn't even an option — if they did, everyone would die. The only chance was to go all in, together, and try to survive.

Thankfully, now they could actually use their blessings and activate them right away. The ones with support-type blessings and the tanks worked together to block that Risen, while the others struck from blind spots...

But it was obvious they were just buying time, and in no time at all, they'd all be dead.

'Not yet!?' Niara asked mentally, anxious, as she stood again while being healed.

Darian focused on that duo of Summoners and their partners behind them.

They were standing almost fifty meters from the enemy army, but Darian had managed to grab everyone's attention, keeping them from even looking that far. Meanwhile, Niara fought smart, forcing the enemies to spread out and stay away from the duo.

He did that by using the power of his calamity-level body. At the same time, by pulling in the basic natural elements of the planet, the fire and lightning naturally gathered around those two, adding to their power and making it even harder to control what they already had.

'They've stabilized now. They're starting to burn the power from their rings again. Maybe five more minutes,' Darian answered Niara.

At the same time, screams echoed in the background. More newbies were dying every few seconds.

So far, Niara had killed five of those Risen.

If Darian gave her all his power, she could fight without taking much damage and would kill a few more Risen faster. But there were too many of them — she wouldn't be able to kill them all quickly.

Maybe they could save a few more people. But then what?

They'd be drained inside that nest. They had barely gotten started, and everything would become a thousand times worse if they went all in now.

The traitors were still going to make a move, and Darian and Niara had some hope of stopping them. If they lost all their strength, they'd be useless. In the end, saving just a few more wouldn't matter.

Unfortunately, they were still too weak. They couldn't save everyone. They'd already done a lot — the rest was up to the others now.

Darian took a deep breath. His plan to win was... unusual, and had the potential to be a total disaster. It came from the knowledge in that book. And that book had never been wrong about anything, so it should work... at least, he hoped so.

Two minutes...

Four minutes...

Niara had already been hit and had her body totally shattered dozens of times. But every time Darian healed her, he felt something changing inside her...

It was like her bloodline was shaking, thirsty for more and more of that white power. He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he was dying to see what would happen if he gave her everything. Unfortunately, this wasn't the time to test things.

Suddenly, those two newbies opened their eyes. It was like they were standing in the middle of a spinning sphere of fire and lightning, several meters wide, violently churning.

Darian let out a relieved breath.

'Finally. GO!'

He immediately sent a bit of the black power to her.

"DIE!!"

Niara roared, exploding into full frenzy. Her martial art changed — her fists now wrapped in black flames.

*BOOOOM!*

She punched, unleashing a violent, deafening explosion right in the middle of the Risen. The blast's raw power knocked them all off balance for a second, scaring them. And that was exactly what Darian wanted.

Niara shouted right after: "NOW!"

"Magical Flame Prison!"

Calil and Shecil yelled, directing all the flames. Countless burning chains appeared in the air, wrapping around all the Risen. They poured all their power into condensing that flame prison, forming something massive — hundreds of meters wide.

It wasn't just huge — more and more chains kept showing up. The Risen reacted slowly and started thrashing like crazy. A huge rumble echoed, but they couldn't break free from the flaming prison.

"Zibia, Artesia, pour all your power into the Calil's Flame Prison!"

The two of them nodded, confused, but didn't hesitate. Instantly, the lightning element swirled around them — Crushing Lightning Spears was activated.

Thousands of lightning spears, each two meters long, formed around them. They took a deep breath, then nodded, and everything surged forward.

Darian exhaled hard... now it all depended on him.

Niara felt like her chest was on fire. That slug inside her started pulsing and glowing in all kinds of colors, almost crazy-like.

Darian quickly managed to take control of the fire and lightning from their attacks. That was only possible because the two of them were still newbies and didn't have that much control over their power yet. He wouldn't be able to rob a more experienced fighter of their elemental skills.

On top of that, the entire area inside the nest was covered in miasma. When he pulled in the planet's natural elements, it didn't take long for the miasma to eat away at them, and those two ended up absorbing part of it.

Right now, only those two elements were still usable — and they were getting even weaker thanks to the miasma. It was the perfect setup for Darian to take control — in a normal place, this would've been close to impossible.

And his tactic to win? It was the simplest and most straightforward thing:

"BLOW UP!"

The lightning spears slammed into the flames. The massive prison shook right away. The world went completely silent for a moment, like time itself had stopped.

Fire and lightning...

According to the book, they're the two elements closest to Yang — the element of brute force and raw power. When fire and lightning are used together in just the right way, directed to clash against each other...

**KBOOOM!!!**

The Flame Prison exploded.

A violent shockwave blasted out in every direction.

Niara felt her body cracking, her scales turning to dust. She coughed up blood as she spun around and ran. She managed to reach the two newbies.

They were close to each other. She pulled them in, closed one of her wings, and threw herself in front of them, using her own body as a shield.

All the other newbies fighting farther back got blown away, unable to hold their ground. They were hundreds of meters away — the explosion didn't seriously injure them.

A few seconds later...

As all the newbies scrambled to their feet...

"DIE!"

They saw a Dragoness with a fully healed, untouched body, throwing a punch full of pure violence.

That smart Risen who'd been targeting only the newbies was just getting up when she nailed him off-guard — he blew up instantly, never even had a chance to react.

That was the end...

Darian looked ahead. The explosion had been brutal enough to wipe out dozens of Risen.

Luckily, they managed to kill every single one. But then, Niara looked back and saw the remaining newbies getting up and coming toward them.

They were all completely covered in black lines of corruption. Some were missing limbs, others had huge wounds all over their bodies. Their condition was awful. And on top of that...

Only thirty were left.

The battlefield went dead silent.

Niara ran to them. Darian didn't hesitate and started healing.

While healing, he absorbed more karma from the recently dead. When it was all over, even counting what he'd spent healing his partner earlier, he hadn't lost anything — but hadn't gained anything either.

Everyone was shaking as they felt their bodies heating up and being fully healed within seconds. They looked at themselves with pale faces, too shocked to speak.

What kind of miracle blessing was that?

It took him a minute to heal all of them. Meanwhile, Niara stood watch with a cold look in her eyes, her killing intent obvious. She could barely hold back, but Darian had promised she'd get her revenge soon.

Once he finished healing everyone, Darian turned to those three.

"I'm going to kill people. You guys coming?"

"We're in," the three of them replied, clenching their teeth. How could they not understand why they were in this situation? Only revenge remained!