Limitless Evolution: The Path To Immortality

With the transformation complete, Siltheria had become an embodiment of her heritage, a true serpantkin in form and power. The momentary shock of her allies was replaced by an understanding of the direness of their situation. No matter how marvelous the serpantkin looked in the moment, their objective of getting out of the encirclement alive was all that mattered.

"Focus!" Alcraz called out, snapping everyone out of their astonishment. "Use whatever you have. We must break through!"

Gigi, having seen similar transformations in the past, though none quite as dramatic, nodded and readied herself, her blade humming with renewed energy. Deton, his song cut short, now began a different tune, one that seemed to pulse with the heartbeat of the very earth.

The creatures, sensing the change in their prey, hesitated. It was not fear that gripped them but an instinctual wariness of a now even more formidable opponent. Of course, that only went for the weakest ones there. After all, while they were stronger than the average monster of beast the students had fought before, they were stills monsters and beasts.

Even if a pack of wolves can overthrow their alpha, in most circumstances, they don't due to how fearful they are of him. The same went for this instance. Siltheria, while clearly not strong enough to kill all the creatures before her, ingrained the feeling fear into their very souls, causing them to fall back slightly.

However, the strongest pristine amethyst cores did not fall back as easily, as many of them growled back.

"The rest are approaching from behind." Gigi suddenly called while sending a sweeping arch toward them. Of course, after only killing a few, it disappeared, allowing the rest of the forces to push forward again.

"There's something wrong with this situation." Alcraz suddenly spoke out while holding back a horde of weaker beasts. 

"The stronger beasts aren't moving. It's like they're waiting for something." Gigi completed Alcraz's thoughts.

After Gigi's words rang into each teammate's ears, no one said anything for a significant portion of time as they all focused on the battle on their hands. They couldn't afford to divert the focus.

The group were a force unto themselves, cutting swathes through the weaker amethyst core beasts that snapped and clawed with feral ferocity. Yet, their tenacity was barely enough, each beast falling only to be replaced by another, as if the very ground spawned them.

Siltheria, in her serpentine majesty, tore through the ranks with deadly grace, her strikes not just attacks but a dance of death. Each motion was precise and lethal, her instincts honed to a razor's edge. 

But the tide turned. From the ranks of frenzied creatures, a dull glow began to emanate, signaling a presence that dwarfed the others in both aura and menace. A creature coated in fur stood up on its hind legs, its arms muscular, and their hand crawling with bustling veins as it tightly wrapped its fingers around a mace.

"Is that…" Siltheria suddenly froze, her blood suddenly running cold.

"A giant." Gigi completed Siltheria's sentence with knitted brows and a raspy voice.

"The sapphire cores seem like they're going to start partaking in this battle…" Alcraz muttered through gritted teeth. 

"I'm sure you guys can fight them. Didn't Deton kill one with ease last time!" Game suddenly spoke out with a shaky voice.

"That was different. Not only do the sapphire cores outnumber us now, but it seems like they are much stronger than the last ones. Plus, they now have an army, so we have to deal with that too…" Gigi sighed before inwardly adding 'Plus, that giant doesn't seem to be a sapphire core yet, but it's exuding the power of one. This situation's only getting more dangerous as we go on…'

Out of the corner of her lips, a smile could not help but crawl up Gigi's lips.

'I've really done it now. This time, I actually don't think I'll be getting out of this one alive.' 

"Don't breath." Siltheria suddenly spoke, yet, despite the fact that her demand came out of nowhere, everyone closed her mouths and nose.

Reeling her head back, Siltheria stretched her mouth. Her maw suddenly began to crack and morph slightly as scale covered a portion of her face as well as her neck. Out of nowhere, a gust of pink mist erupted out of her mouth and coated the monsters before them.

Seeing this, Alcraz knew that it was his moment to stabilize their retreat plan. In that moment, the that powered a portion of his armor erupted into light as cracks spread throughout it in a cobweb-like pattern. 

Shattering into a hundred pieces, the core became a spark of mist that shone light a nebula filled with a stream of stars. That nebula quickly surged into Alcraz' blade a moment before he swung his blade with everything he had.

The moment Alcraz's blade touched the ground, an aurora of light erupted through the battlefield, splitting it in half and parting it as the sea was once said to part before the will of the divine. The monsters recoiled, not just from the light, but from the raw power that now emanated from Alcraz. 

Alcraz did not even wait for the dust of his attack to settle. In the next breath, he moved like lightning, striking not to kill but to open a path, his blade a guiding star amidst the chaos. It sang a high, each swings a symphony of force that held the encroaching beasts at bay.

Behind him, he left a glooming melody. A graveyard of carcasses and ash that could not handle the power of his trump card.

The others did not waste this opportunity. Gigi, with swift strikes, cleared those stunned by Siltheria's toxic breath. Deton's music rose above the din, a resonant harmony that invigorated and spurred the group forward. Siltheria herself slithered and struck with a deadly precision that left no room for counterattack.

The creatures, even those of pristine amethyst core, seemed to sense the shift, their ferocity waning as if doused by an invisible chill. The formidable giant with the mace, exuding the latent power of a sapphire core, hesitated. Its eyes, filled with a primal cunning, locked onto Alcraz. The ground between them became a chessboard, and every creature was a pawn in the battle of wills that ensued.

"NOW!" Alcraz suddenly roared, his voice booming with so much force that it caused some of the heads of the creatures around him to erupt into mists of crimson blood.

Siltheria, Gigi, and Deton did not hesitate for a moment to move. They didn't dare look behind. Well, everyone except Gigi, of course. 

"Wait! Game-" She looked behind just to see Game Evergreen on the ground, helpless and motionless. His body did not move, sat at a slightly upright position. His hair covered his eyes, creating a shadow underneath that didn't allow her to see if he was conscious or not.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed her and dashed for the partition in the monster hoard.

"He breathed my poison mist in. There's no point of going back." Siltheria explained in a hurried manner before blitzing past every single carcass, beast, and monster with ease.

With the forest's embrace a mere breath away, the team plunged into the green sanctuary.

The forest closed around them, a shield against their pursuers, and they did not stop, not until the cacophony of trees encapsulated their presence.

***

"Hm?" Lochras hummed while twisting his neck to look into the distance. His narrowed into slits while goosebumps ran through his skin, pricking at every inch like the legs of a centipede.

"Is there something wrong, commander?" A man clad in glimmering black armor from head to toe asked while turning toward Lochras. There were two such individuals around Lochras, both of them covered in the same armor. The only thing that looked out of place was the spiraling fire emblem on the armor's chest piece. This was the crest of the Xylem kingdom and was something that even Lochras had painted onto his clothes.

"There's a curtain around us shielding my senses…" Lochras muttered under his breath, but with the use of toki, his voice trickled into their ears as if they were being muttered from inches away.

The two men didn't show any reaction to the sudden revelation. Or not through their movement, at least. 

Lochras didn't waste another second and raised his hand toward a particular direction. Suddenly, his toki flared before calmly coating his arm like a warm gelatinous substance. At that moment, an instance before releasing his toki, Lochras felt an aura of blood lust and raw power erupt from his side while toki spewed out in every direction.

Lochras couldn't help but freeze. That moment of hesitation would prove fatal as a sword tore through the air at blurring speeds, looking like a normal flash of light to the ordinary eye. 

One of Lochras' comrades had swung at him, with all they had while the other watched in visible shock, unable to react in time to stop the attack pointed at their commander.

"I see." Lochras' moment of shock faded, his eyes narrowing dangerously as a malevolent frown contorted his features.

The blade that had once ripped through the air to decapitate its enemy in an instant suddenly froze, its momentum completely vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Simultaneously, another sword blinked the distance between Lochras and the soldier before returning to its sheath without exuding a melody of noise. In the next moment, the soldier burst into a cacophony of red, white, and yellow as his body burst like an overstretched balloon.

"You." Lochras suddenly pointed at the stunned soldier to the side, who was still processing what had just happened.

"Y-Yes commander?" A feminine voice stuttered out.

"Go to the town and order a code red under my name. Understood?" Lochras asked.

"Y-Yes Commander!" She shouted and turned around without saying another word, dashing into the distance in the blink of an eye. 

Raising a hand, Lochras closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. A whirlwind of toki unfurled out of the click that boomed through the air, swiftly ripping through the air and cutting the "curtain" around him into shreds.

The moment the "curtain" disappeared, Lochras found himself covered in a cold sweat as every pore on his body convulsed rapidly. His eyes widened in horror before his neck snapped to the side while his eyes darted around, eventually locking onto something in the distance.

That was the aura of a hundred or so creatures that really shouldn't have been in the area. Their auras span for hundreds of meters, if not reaching several miles in distance.

"Damnit!"