The Vornshade Clan had five bosses, with Varkov sitting on top like a damn mountain.
Each leader under him had a special squad — ten paragon mages trained to kill before breakfast.
The clan mostly focused on mages. Sure, a few of them had learned qi and became paragon warriors, but that wasn't their strong suit. Spells and elements — that's what they were known for.
All the leaders and their squads had been sent out to deal with the chaos spreading through the base. One of them, Kira Vostan, had run into Merrick — and it wasn't looking friendly.
She was short, built like someone who could wrestle a bear and win. Her hair was jet-black, tied into twin braids with little beads and metal bits hanging from them. She looked like she belonged on a battlefield, not in a hall.
"Surrender, or die!" Kira's voice hit like a rock breaking through glass — rough, deep, no mercy in it.
Merrick raised his head and gave a small, cocky smirk.
"You must be fucking joking," he said, voice calm but eyes locked on her like a scope.
His gun had changed — it wasn't the long sniper or his small qi rifle anymore. This one was bigger, louder. A full-blown gatling gun. One of his arms was buried deep inside it, like the weapon had eaten part of him. No trigger. No reload slot. Just one heavy machine built for war.
"Let's see how you intend to kill me," Merrick muttered, pointing the arm forward. The barrels started spinning, whining low like a beast waiting to bite.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The roar of Merrick's gun tore through the air, each shot louder than the last.
Two soldiers reacted instantly — they threw up their hands, and the ground in front of them shot upward, forming a thick wall of earth. Bullets slammed into it with sharp cracks.
The wall held for a second, then holes started tearing through it. Dust burst out. Two screams followed, and bodies dropped behind the wall — dead before they hit the ground.
But the others didn't just stand around and watch.
Kira's squad wasn't made up of weaklings. Every one of them was an earth mage, trained to turn the ground itself into a weapon.
Chunks of rock the size of carts flew toward Merrick from every direction. He moved fast — spinning, ducking, rolling.
The barrels of his gun spun faster, spitting metal and qi. Each shot lit up the air as he blasted the boulders mid-flight. Stone dust filled the space around him.
He kept moving, never in one place for too long. If he stopped, he'd be crushed.
Then, out of nowhere, the ground under him rippled — like water.
A soldier burst out of it, twisting mid-air and kicking toward Merrick's arm. The blow connected with a loud thud.
Merrick didn't flinch. His arm barely shifted. The man's kick had been strong, but not enough.
'Nice try,' Merrick thought, narrowing his eyes.
Before he could counter, the soldier had already sunk back into the ground like a ghost.
"Coward," Merrick muttered and aimed down, unleashing a stream of bullets into the dirt. The ground erupted, dust flying high — but nothing came out.
That split-second focus on the ground cost him.
The remaining mages raised their hands together. Dozens of stone spikes burst from the earth, flying toward him like a storm of knives.
Rocks flew at him from every side, some as big as his head, others shaped like jagged spears. The air hummed with the sound of magic and flying stone.
Merrick braced himself. Qi flared around him, forming a faint shimmering barrier — the same kind of move Tamsin would pull off in a fight.
The stones slammed into it, breaking apart with heavy thuds. Dust and broken pieces scattered all over.
'So far, I haven't taken down as many as I'd like,' Merrick thought, glancing around. 'Yeah... it's time to switch bullets.'
He stopped firing for a second. A mechanical clicking sound came from inside his gun, like gears spinning and plates shifting.
Then, without warning, he aimed again — straight at one of the soldiers.
The man reacted fast, throwing his arms up to summon another wall of earth. It rose from the ground with a heavy rumble, thick and solid.
But this time, when the bullet hit—
BOOM!
The whole wall exploded into fragments. A wave of dust burst outward, and a body was sent flying backward, limp and smoking.
Merrick smirked faintly. 'Yeah, that's more like it.'
But then he felt it — the ground under his boots shifting again, soft and unstable, like something was crawling beneath the surface.
He didn't wait.
He swung the gun down and fired.
BOOOOM!
A sharp, violent blast ripped through the earth, throwing dirt and stone high into the air. A man half-buried in the ground was launched out, his body mangled and torn apart mid-air.
Merrick didn't stop. He moved fast, firing as he went, explosions lighting up the field around him like a storm of grenades going off one after another.
The mages barely had time to react — every time they tried to raise another wall or summon a spike, Merrick's shots tore through it, blowing everything apart before it could form properly.
However, in the middle of the barrage, one of Merrick's bullets stopped midair — caught by a hand.
A hand made of rocks and soil.
The bullet exploded in its grasp, smoke bursting out like a mini firestorm — but when it cleared, the hand was still there. Unharmed.
Then the arm swung.
A chunk of earth followed the motion, flying like a hammer and smashing straight into Merrick's qi barrier. The impact cracked the barrier's surface and sent a shock through his armor.
Merrick jumped back instantly, boots scraping across the dirt. His eyes narrowed as the dust settled.
Standing there was a towering figure — eight feet tall, broad as a boulder. Its whole body was made of compacted rock and soil, shaped roughly like a man but moving with a strange, heavy grace.
Merrick's heart sank a little. He knew that form.
He didn't need to see the face.
It was Kira.
'Look who decided to crawl out of the ground,' Merrick thought grimly.
---
While Merrick was busy dodging a walking mountain, Gwen had her own nightmare brewing.
Ten Paragon Mages had her surrounded — each one holding a different magical signature, flickering like colored stars around her.
And just a few steps ahead stood Dravik. He wasn't even flinching. Gwen's whip was coiled tight around his arm, glowing faintly with energy — but the man just held it there, unmoving.
His grip tightened around the weapon, veins glowing with heat. A faint hiss came from his skin as the burn set in. The whip wasn't cutting through him, but he could feel it.
Soon, Gwen felt the tension on the whip.
Dravik was trying to pull it from her grip, his strength dragging against hers.
'I can't let you do that,' Gwen thought.
"Wrap!" she shouted.
The whip came alive instantly — hissing like a serpent.
Still locked in Dravik's grip, its length extended, twisting around his arm.
It slithered up to his shoulder, then his neck, coiling tighter and tighter.
The whip glowed, pulsing with blue arcs of electricity. Bolts ran through Dravik's body, his muscles jerking from the shock.
Gwen seized the moment. The tension in the whip slackened — just enough.
She pulled hard, swinging Dravik's entire body into the cluster of mages around him.
The impact was brutal. The mages barely had time to react.
Two of them raised their hands, releasing a vortex of fire toward Gwen.
But before it could touch her, a qi barrier burst out from her body — thick, bright, alive. Just like Tamsin's.
The flames shattered against it.
Gwen spun on her heel. The whip followed, crackling with raw voltage. Arcs of lightning danced along its length as she swung it in a full circle.
Each strike hit with blinding precision.
Some mages were sliced clean in half; others who tried to block were sent flying by the electric blast.
One of the mages even raised a wall of earth, but it exploded the moment Gwen's whip struck it. The shockwave sent dirt and debris flying everywhere.
'None of these mages are at Stage Five. Even if they combine their power, they still can't stop mine,' Gwen thought, her eyes sharp as lightning danced around her weapon.
Just like that, the ten mages dropped — some burned, some sliced, and others blasted off their feet.
'Right now, I have to focus on Dravik,' she concluded, narrowing her gaze.
Before coming to the base, they had already studied the intel on the Vornshade Clans and their leaders. Of course, Gwen recognized Dravik. She knew exactly who she was dealing with — a Stage Five mage, dangerous and unpredictable.
She scanned the area where she had thrown him. Dravik was still standing, but he wasn't looking good.
The arm he'd used to grab the whip was scorched black, torn clean from the shoulder. His neck too was burned, skin cracked and steaming from the heat.
"Hell no," Gwen said, her tone dripping with mockery. "I didn't expect you to be that easy."
That single attack had done all this.
"Next time," she added with a smirk, "don't go around grabbing people's whips like that."
"You... You did this to me?!" Dravik roared, staring at his ruined arm. No blood poured from the wound — it was nothing but charred flesh and ash.
"I... I'll make sure you pay for this... I'm going to kill you!" Dravik shouted, voice ragged and frantic.
On his other palm, ancient runic patterns sprung to life — glowing green, crawling across his skin like living scars. He dropped to one knee and slammed that palm into the ground.
The runes transferred off his hand and into the earth where he struck. They spread out in a widening circle, blackening the snow beneath them. The circle looked empty at first, then something wet and sloppy pushed up from the center — a huge, malformed hand, slick with dark ichor.
"Destroy... destroy them all!" Dravik howled.
'Of course — he's a summoner,' Gwen thought, watching the beast take shape.
Dravik wasn't a fighting mage. His talent was control: he called beasts, pulled things from other places, dragged monsters into this world. This was one of those summons.
[A stage 6 beast]
[Beast type: Spike Frog]
"Stage 6?" Gwen froze for a beat.