Fortune was often intertwined with misfortune. Yes, Shandler kicked the hornet's nest and offended the one man who could send both heroes and anti-heroes retreating. This was balanced by the fact that the event in the Conference Center was going opposite of ‘okay.’

Correction, that was an understatement. The stomp which happened was legendary.

…

Ruho watched the carnage from the enviable position underneath the well air-conditioned Adamakles of Orwell Mehest.

They were flanked by the flaming tree stump and the pool of blood, but the slight threatening high-frequency vibration from Orwell was keeping the threat at bay. The B — Blood was surrounding Orwell with a body of bloody liquid. Its partner — Fellsbane — radiated heat to counter Orwell’s cold.

It was a stalemate that would keep going as long as nobody escalated.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party didn’t need escalating.

It only took the first move for things to go wrong. The C — Caster — expanded his domain of influence. Gems embedded in the Fairy glittered and Mana filled the sky, painting the color of black, white, green, red, and violet. The purple lightning and beam of light struck down from the sky, ripping apart the battlefield. 

Ophelia summoned the dome of rock to block the attack. Thalia Holysworth produced dozens of rods inscribed with holy language--the Sacrament.

A skyscraper shook in the distance. Something shot from the rubble.

Shandler’s attack had put Red Blade Rubric down, but he wasn’t out. The S-Ranker’s vitality was enough for him to quickly recover and rejoin the battle. The strongest man among the Conference’s attendees swung his sword down at Caster. Red power enriched the blade with such momentum it could cleave apart a fleet of tanks.

Unfortunately, the blade never landed. Caster redirected his attack to the returning S-Ranker, showering him in the combination of the five attributes with the volatility to scar Rubric’s body.

Ophelia Runesea saw what was happening, and it blew her mind.

It was theoretically impossible for one being to wield so many element attributes. The Mystic Core inside the user’s body wasn’t designed to cope with that kind of stress. Yes, a natural form Core might, but five elemental cases were rare even among the Divine-race.

Shocked as she was, Runesea was observative. She noticed five glowing spheres embedded in the feline Fairy and came to a conclusion.

“You are augmented with multiple Mystic Cores,” Runesea summoned several golems to aid in her defense. “That is how you can wield multiple elements.”

The Caster turned toward Runesea.

“That is correct,” the cat gave his prey a toothy grin. “But you are missing the point. Unlike you weak little human, I am designed to use magic!”

Caster capped his declaration by launching a massive streaming of lightning that Ophelia barely blocked with a wall of earth. He hammered her with a column of fire, smashing her golems to molten rock. Caster then squeezed his victim with wind. Each attack was done in a barrage with no pauses. Caster didn’t even have to think to unleash his mystical might.

Ophelia Runesea wasn’t a weakling. She was the dual wielder of earth and water. Her earth magic, specialized in Golem creation, could create answers to all the Grand Sage problems from being a meat-shield and muscle to projectile launcher. She could even create a gigantic golem the size of a skyscraper given enough time. Her water magic was a thing of sophistication; honed by years of research. After tinkering with many spells for years, she created the new branch of water spell-casting by mixing the properties of light and water spell together. The resulting style — dubbed the Lunalight — contained a light base energy containing the mass and fluidity of water.

The problem was the nature of her enemy. As a mere human, Ophelia must formulate the script of each spell mentally and channel her Mana to perform said work. It was a task requiring concentration, which a pro like Ophelia could do within mere blinks.

Caster didn’t operate on the same rule; none of the Beast Tribunes did. The Fairy never trained or struggled to use their power. That privilege was handed to them on a silver platter. Aside from multiple Mystic Cores granting him an unfair tank of Mana, his body also composed a highly honed channeling circuit linked directly to his mind. Caster could fire multiple elemental attacks at the speed of a supercomputer with mere thought and recover his energy faster than his massive tank could be empty. He could keep spraying expensive flames, lightning, light, wind and gravity killer moves for hours on end.

Ophelia was strong, but she was being outgunned with no breathing-room.

The Lunalight mystic barrier that held up against wind and fire was shattered by the massive beam of light the cat fired. A gravity bomb detonated on top of her mid-flight, smashing Ophelia to the pulped earth.

The Grand Sage tried to rise back, but a blast of lightning crackled through her body. Its immense power coursed through her, lighting her from the inside.

It was Thalia who jumped to support Ophelia. Producing two shining holy blades of light with her Sacrament, she tossed a blade of light to smite Caster. She couldn’t get far. The mass of black that was Enigma wrapped around her in the air and smashed her back to the earth with a sickening crunch. Her blade of light shattered harmlessly against a dark spatial barrier surrounding Caster.

Despite getting interrupted, Thalia succeeded. The semi-second of distraction was enough for Ophelia to counter-attack and fling a wave of mystical cutter at Caster. The C easily brushed aside the spell with another bout of lightning, but Ophelia had regained her distance.

Ophelia resummoned her golems, and turned the defensive property of her construct to the maximum. She was under no illusion that she could beat Caster. Hard as it was to admit. Her forever young pretty-face produced by the longevity product and Elven ancestry were about to get kick-in until another representative found an opening to help her.

…

Thalia might be able to give the Grand Sage a breathing room, but that came at an annoying personal cost.

She was getting tossed around like a pinball by Enigma. Her face and back greeted the ground like a metronome. She tried to cut through the mass of muscle holding her with the light blade, but it was futile.

Each Tribune of the Beast Clan was purposely designed with a task in mind. If Caster was the ultimate magic-slinger, Enigma was the Fairy’s answer to adaptability. Its entire body was composed of a mass of shifting cellular units capable of rearranging and repurposing themselves in any kind of magic enhanced tissue. It had no organ to target and no bone to break. Virtually, the E had no blind spot.

As a member of Holy Grace Church, Thalia was the practitioner of the Sacrament. The art was considered a fusion of light-base mystic, magical tool, and ritual. Mystic Art was correlated to mental state and the forefather of the Church practiced chant and prayers. The genocidal war with the vampire forced the organization to develop its own form of mystic — pre-prepared rods and capsules ritually inscribed with chant and loaded with sacred light. They even developed a subset of the rite done with holy water for cleansing and enchanting weapons.

Once activated, these Sacrament produced a ritually enhanced Holy Grace Church staple magic. This ranges from simple weapon creation to massive extermination spells.

Thalia knew all of this, and it was raising alarm how Sacrament’s blade failed to scratch Enigma’s skin even when she tried her best sawing into those flesh with her sword.

It was a futile effort for the girl being flung around like a body pillow. She didn’t even have a good leverage.

Thankfully, that was about to change.

A trail of flames roared, engulfing the black of Enigma. From up high, the tan Amazonian body of Sonovia Elyptus crashed down on the black mass and bounced off like she was leaping out of the bouncy castle. Charon Sol then took the opportunity to resume her fiery attack, unleashing the flames of such intensity it carried Enigma away, forcing the monster to drop Thalia to the ground.

“Where the hell did you come from?” The frazzled and battered Thalia said to her newest back-ups.

“We are here from the very start,” Charon tossed out a few more fireballs. “To be fair, we barely survived the blast.”

“Less talking, more attacking!” Sonovia yelled, rushing into the flames.

Sonovia’s action could be taken as reckless. Her recent track record of running head-first into the dangerous enemy might inspire the negative value of confidence, but Sonovia had a good reason for thinking herself as invulnerable. The general principle of the [Golden Core] allowed her to tank massive amounts of damage with the mystic shield stretched over her epidermis and generated the wind of [Golden Force] to empower her strike. It was an art adapted from the ancient technique practiced by the Titan.

Problem was Sonovia wasn’t invincible. Her recent scoreboard  more than proved a simple force field over her skin wouldn’t stop a seasoned opponent. Orwell took less than thirty seconds to find the counter over the thick skin. Enigma was no different.

The Fairy let Sonovia struck it. It contorted around the girl’s sword. Its body resisted against the raw force generated by Sonovia and wrapped itself around her body. Like play dough from hell, Sonovia was bound by Enigma’s ebony flesh. Muscle with the grip of diamond wrapped around her tightly.

Enigma squeezed.

Sonovia felt her bones creaked and her organs being squished by the muscular vice. Pain racked across her body in the way she had never felt before. The girl screamed. This was bad. Unless something was done, she would be crushed to death.

Something was done. That something was a concentrated flaming bolt striking with such forces caused the Beast Tribunes to recoil. Its caster, Charon, prepped for another blast. At her fingertip were the flames to rival the S-Ranker.

It wasn’t enough to freed Sonovia from Enigma, but an additional attack might do the trick.

Light filled the area. Black rods of Sacrament, 36 in all, lined around the Enigma in a perfectly drawn and even circle. Ritual magic hummed and charged.

“Sacrament Punishing Conflagration,” Thalia chanted, “Cleanse and burn.”

The golden flames lighted inside the circle. The holy fire burned Enigma, but left Sonovia unharmed amid the holy flames. Seizing this opportunity, Sonovia extricated herself from the Tribune and battered it with another [Golden Force] empowered blade.

Despite getting hammered by the best of the trio, the mass of highly adaptable tissue wasn’t taking the damage. Instead, it was getting annoyed enough to take the battle with mediocre passion.

First, it destroyed the Conflagration, burning it with a massive explosion of Aura and blasting Sonovia flying into the girls’ direction. Second, it entered its true combat form.

The girls only saw the dust obscuring the creature until it reemerged. The mass of black muscle now resembled a pure black humanoid with an oversized arm and feet. The three knew an attack was coming.

They couldn’t react in time.

The mass of tissue was the most versatile creature in the Beast Clan. It quickly grew a propulsion unit in its leg and back, which allowed it to travel in a burst of hypersonic speed. The acceleration was so rapid that it reappeared among the girls in the blink of an eye.

Still, all three were high-level A-Rankers. They responded to the hypersonic approach, but they couldn’t gather the firepower to respond well.

All they could do is fail to defend against it.

Enigma’s fist warped into a giant hammer, colliding with Sonovia. The burst of Mana behind his fist ignited and blew Sonovia into a far off distance. The Tribunes’ other hand warped into a barrel and pointed at Thalia. Knowing she was up against a cannon in the face, the Holy Church’s representative tossed several Sacraments into the air, creating the shining wall of light.

The blast eclipsed the shield and Thalia. It reached into the sky like a reverse waterfall rising above heaven. The attack carried Thalia across the burning air, crashing through the wall of the crater and digging a crack into the earth.

Thalia came to rest within that crack in a bloody and battered mess. Her vision blurred.

Not wasting any time on the defeated opponents, Enigma spun the hammer to knock off the head of Charon Sol.

He was stopped by a burst of water blasting at him from above in an attack unleashed by a woman very familiar to Charon.

“Sorry, I am late,” Aquila Enma, who had rushed through the nearby accommodation, landed from the sky to help the girls. The Wolf-woman black hair churned in the wind. “How is Xerxes?”

…

Xerxes Enma wasn’t doing well.

The first major problem was the crying Albert Starling who was crying over his severed leg. The problem solved itself when the pressure of Aura and flight knocked the sobbing man out cold.

Xerxes believed Albert would never wake up again.

The second major problem was that Xerxes didn’t have a chance.

He activated the [Dance of the Divine Beast] and lighted himself up with divine flames. His superior sense functioned better than any sensor did its best to track this elusive enemy. As a candidate to carry on the main family of the Enma Clan, he was trained from birth. His body could move faster than sound and normal high-caliber bullets wouldn’t do a thing against him. As S-Rankers, his firepower was comparable to ICBM.

Apex was simply better.

The Fairy was faster, stronger, and ridiculously more powerful. Nothing Xerxes did work. The Apex had evaded every attack Xerxes threw at it. He out-muscled every fist, and simply brushed aside the huge Lion-man with a slap of his hand.

Xerxes tumbled, kicking dust, and dirt as the fight descended.

Never bothering to close the gap, Apex pierced him with a pencil thin blast of green energy from his fingertip as soon as Xerxes got up. Two more flashes occurred and two extra-holes emerged on the Lion-man’s chest.

Xerxes coughed blood, but still gathered enough bravado to give the Fairy a glare.

Some distance away, Alexander Stride was having a better time. His enemy wasn’t as overwhelming as Apex. The G — Glint — boasted another set of skills. Namely, it possessed an unbreachable defense.

Glint’s shells were made by stacking a bio-magic alloy sandwich with a protective layer of spells. The monster possessed a shell immune to magic and physical attack. Its joints were coated with lubricant, causing anything that could possibly by-passed its mighty armor to slip off.

Stride’s slash could cut through battleships. Each strike of his sword had the power of an ancient sea beast, but it wasn’t enough to penetrate the most durable of the Beast Tribunes.

Within minutes after engaging with the crab-like Fea, the representative of the Grand Empire was getting tired. The final decisive blow happened when Stride stabbed toward the three beady eyes that were seemingly unprotected by the hard exterior.

That move was a mistake, Glint’s black skin parted vertically, revealing a gaping maul. The monster bit into the lunging sword and began crunching the weapon like a hard-candy.

Stride pulled his blade back and found only a hilt with a broken blade.

As a final insult, Glint’s eyes glowed with white light and unleashed the magical light that blasted the General at point-blank range.

…

Ruho witnessed the event that could barely be called a fight, and gulped.

If things were this bad here, how was the rest of the city?

Orwell was still maintaining his cold exterior. He absorbed the progressing decimation of the resistance, unperturbed by the fact that the invasion’s head honchos were chilling beside him.

“Aren’t you going to join in?” Jester said.

“Someone needs to keep an eye on you,” Orwell mentally calculated the chance he had at taking out those two. He was confident in taking the pool of blood and the burning stump. However, he suspected Jester and the Preator of the Beast Clan would demand too much resource. It was unlikely he could take on all four with Ruho weighing him down.

He needed to wait for the right opportunity.

The Beast Clan’s Praetor looked at the battle his force was winning. An emotion swelled from within Kane’s psyche.

Disappointment.

The battle was taking too long. What he had witnessed so far discredited the word failure. He bristled finally at his limit at tolerating this farce.

Kane stood, “Jester, I will leave the Anomaly to you. I’m ending this farce of a performance.”

The Beast Preator finally moved.