As soon as Sora reunited with Kara, he felt their Soul Link reed sent her a telepathic message. “Long time no see… How have you been? So, you’re in the Fox group with the guild leaders.”

  “I’m doing fine. From our Soul Link, it seems you’ve really pushed yourself. Did you raise your talent? The feedback I’m getting is incredible.” Kara replied, her tone filled with genuine surprise.

  Sora, equally impressed by the surge in her life force, level, and aura, responded, “Don’t give me too much credit—I was taken down in seds in one of my earliest fights here… And it seems your progress is just as amazing. I wao tell you I’ll keep an eye on you, so let’s help each other when necessary.”

  Sora exged a look with su, preparing for the ing battle and sharing buffs with nearby pyers. Cheg the map, he noticed a cluster of yellow and red dots moving closer at a slow pace. Since pyers from his own fa didn’t appear on the map, he suspected even more enemies were approag.

  As enemies began encirg them, tension in the group rose. Kara’s sigh echoed in his mind. “Looks like they’ve formed a coalition based on groups, not races… This isn’t good for us.”

  He uood her point. While they could manage against enemies from a single race, fag a coalition of pyers from multiple groups made the situation far riskier.

  Soon, three groups appeared in the sky from different dires: Foxes, Vipers, and Chis. The humans immediately repositioned, each group moving to face their weaker terpart.

  ‘This is going to be chaos. No way they’ll let us pick matchups without fighting back,’ Sora thought.

  Just then, a werewolf pyer from the Fox group, floating in the sky, s them.

  “You humans really are naive. Did you think you could use a team event to hunt the other races without aurning the tables on you? Today, we’ll make sure yroup is the first to fall,” the level 163 werewolf decred, his fidence radiating as he stood alongside his temporary allies.

  Looking around, Sora observed three groups of about 25-27 pyers each. He reized many—some from his own fa, others enemies he’d hunted down earlier. However, he he absence of Demons and Dragonborn in the coalition.

  Iing the enemy lineup, Sora noticed around ten pyers from the Spirit and Elemental Golem races. ‘I o stay away from these pyers—they’re almost immuo physical damage which is my specialty. Both are a pain to deal with,’ he thought before sending a message to su. ‘Focus owo Is, levels 145 and 138, sihey’re vulnerable to fire. Avoid the level 152 Water Golem; fire won’t damage it. After that, target the Spirits from a distahey’re weak to elemental attacks.’

  From an earlier fight, Sora had learhat Spirits were highly vulnerable to elemental damage but had stroal attad defense capabilities. Their presence gave him a bad feeling. They appeared fragile but skilled Spirit pyers could break through his mental defenses in seds if he wasn’t careful.

  He quickly assessed the enemy lineup, identifying targets he could eliminate quickly and species with exploitable weaknesses. Dark Elves were banced like humans, while orcs had overwhelming physical strength but limited mana trol. From Pedro, he had learhat the Beast, Werewolf, and Dwarf races relied heavily on their bloodlines, fog more on ied abilities than traditional css skills.

  Clémehe highest-level human, smiled and taunted, “You’re all a bunch of trash we killed today… It’s fio feel frustrated, but did you have to e bad give us more points?”

  Sora chuckled at her words, finding her savagery refreshing. Watg many ewitch at her provocation, he raised his on, ready for battle. His new boots, enhang his speed, would give him an advantage over his oppos. Nearby, su was densing aremely dense orb of fire, ready to strike.

  The moment a Dark Elf from the Fox group released a skill, chaos erupted.

  Sora, fog on she bat, stayed near his group, ready to wele the orcs leaping down from the sky, his sledgehammer in hand.

  Just as the level 150 Orc reached the front line, Sora appeared between him and a woman who reparing an incredibly powerful ability to support the human side.

  The Orc was startled to see someone appear beh him just as he directed his mace down toward the woman releasing a dangerous aura. The small human seemed to be swinging a on directly toward his… lower body.

  Sri the Orc’s slow rea and, with calcuted timing, gently swung his Sledge Hammer upward, obliterating the Orc’s precious area with a brutal, merciless strike that sent chills through everyone who wit.

  The Orc was sent flying in the sky, his fate unknown.

  [You have eliminated a Fox: +1,000 points (Eliminated)]Sora hat the Orc had been fully removed from the trial. ‘Why would this idiot charge ahead, with one life left, into a group of Vipers... when he’s a damn Fox?’

  Still amazed at the "brilliant" move by the Orc pyer, Sora watched as the woman beside him teleported all pyers and familiars who had been charging an attack. In an instant, they appeared in the sky, directly behind the enemy lihe enemies barely had time to react before a barrage of attacks rained down oaking out several pyers.

  [You have eliminated a Fox: +1,000 points (2 lives left)][You have eliminated a Fox: +1,000 points (1 life left)]su, who had been among those teleported, reappeared beside Sora, fatigue etched on his face. The woman had positioned him perfectly, directly aligned with two Is, getting two elimination iack.

  ‘Mass teleportation, telepathy, fwless timing, uanding of her allies and spatial awareness… So this is what a true mage genius looks like,’ Sora thought, genuinely impressed.

  As Sora focused on proteg the woman, a few more enemy pyers charged in, following the 'smart' Orc’s lead. They quickly outnumbered Sora’s group of ten Vipers. Many of the enemies radiated a red aura, clearly i on maximizing their buff by targeting the group they had an advantage against.

  He summoned es, sending them to intercept his enemies and buy himself time.

  The [Blood es] held a fourth of his physical power, limited to brute strength or self-detonating with the mana stored within them.

  With [Lava in My Veins] active sihe beginning of the fight, Sora felt incredible as life force rapidly repaired his body. bined with his [Adaptive Regeion], he could feel the strain on his body lessening, and the power he could tap into grow.

  Grateful for Kara’s support, he pushed his body even harder, gd that his frequent use of the skill had built resistance—even in his heart, which had been his weakest point during earlier usages.

  Using slightly rger [Crystallized] mana, the solid mana had bee so hot that it started burning the blood it flowed near. The scorched blood was expelled through his skin, repced by newly formed blood.

  His body, oing bck smoke and intense heat, underwent further ges as the smoke turned red, blood seeping from his pores before evaporating almost instantly. The temperature around him rose to suffog levels, and the whites of his eyes turned blood-red.

  ‘It’s the same teique, but the effects are even more exaggerated than before… This might be overkill. I feel like a human torch,’ Sora thought, feeling so hot that he sidered stopping the transformation and summoning a waterfall to cool himself.

  Sensing the abnormal phenomenon, his allies instinctively distahemselves, eagaging an oppo distracted by one of his es.

  Sora didn’t have the luxury of choosing his own oppo, as he’d spent too much time taking his new form. A Werewolf pyer, surrounded by a red aura, charged toward him.

  Sora tightened his grip on his hammer, his entire body trag before unleashing all his power in a devastating downward swing. The Werewolf, too eager to catch him off guard, had no time to dodge. The Sledge Hammer smashed through his skull, neck, and chest, smming him into the ground with a shockwave that tly halted by a barrier appearing out of nowhere.

  Some pyers gulped in fright at the savage se. It was clear this ally wasn’t holding back.

  Surprised by the absence of a notification and notig the shockwaves being deflected, Sora spotted an ally summoning barriers to ehat others could fight freely, defleg any stray skills that might interfere with nearby battles. The short man gnced back at him aured toward the sky.

  Sora looked up to see the Werewolf he had just crushed, gring at him with fear in his eyes. He was holding his head, visibly in pain.

  ‘What was that? A save point? A sed life? Just hoowers am I going to enter today…’ Still baffled by his oppo’s survival skill, he dashed toward another battle, where a teammate was surrounded by two dwarves mounted os, one of whom he reized.

  Spotting Brodus on a [Bck Tortoise], Sora was reminded of the Beast Race’s relian familiars. Many dwarves could “fuse” with their mounts, creating a bined creature with the dwarf ied into the beast’s back, multiplying both attad defehe strength of this teique depended on their mastery and the amount of bloodline essence fed to the familiar, making them formidable enemies based on their mount choid nurturing.

  As Sora approached the dwarves, he suddenly noticed everything around him accelerating. ‘Someone is maniputing time!’ Realizing the danger, he celed his [Lava in My Blood] form, instantly releasing all the [densed] and [Crystallized] mana he had accumuted, maniputing mana from his surroundings to exhaust the time maniputor's mana.

  The accelerated world around him began to slow as cracks appeared iime bubble, shattering it. With his [Crystallized] maed and his stro form unusable, he prepared to escape using [Lightning Movement]. Just then, a searing pain cut across his back.

  Turning in shock, he saw Rachel standing there, sword in hand.

  ‘Fuck.’ That was Sora’s final thought.

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  Thanks for the support ! I'll see you guys tomorrow !

  Hello everyone,

  I'm back after a few days of rest. I've exhausted myself this first half of december, and I was fory PC by my wife.

  She says I 't keep going at this pace.

  I was hoping this could bee enough to sustain living, but being so far from the mark has beeally draining.

  I'm really sorry for the few days without chapter releases. If I feel like something like this is about to happen again, I'll annou on discord, and tell everyone ahead of time before I take time off.

  This is sunday's chapter (15th of December). All chapters that weren't released in time will be released sooner or ter.