The world bloomed in slow motion as Idalia watched Genbu's fall. {Oblivion Sight} allowed her to perceive the colossal tortoise being expelled from an exit {Portal} above the battlefield.

  Genbu was hurled toward Cheyin and Zuzie!

  Zuzie shrieked, having peered upward. "I am not a target!"

  Cheyin's eyes widened just a fraction. "Zuzie don't just watch! Move! Genbu, wait—"

  Genbu did not panic. That was the first unexpected thing.

  Mid-flight, with the world rushing past him and Cheyin's startled shout echoing faintly below, the colossal turtle shifted.

  Instead of flailing, the colossal turtle twisted inside his shell. His plates slid over one another with a grinding thunder, locking tight as his limbs and head vanished completely.

  The shell sealed. Then it rotated as Genbu spun. He became a fortress-sized discus, momentum screaming around him as he angled his descent with terrifying precision.

  Meanwhile, Idalia noticed movement in the sky. She saw Qingryu's eyes flashing with mana. "Ah," the leviathan rumbled, amused.

  The air in front of Genbu rippled as Qingryu surged forward. With a smooth, sweeping motion of his fins, the sky itself seemed to liquefy. Water poured out of nothing, cascading downward in a vast, roaring curtain suspended in midair. It was not vertical. It slanted sharply, a gleaming, translucent ramp pouring toward the battlefield.

  A waterfall in the sky.

  Zuzie stared. "You are not serious."

  "I am efficient," Qingryu replied.

  Biakomi was already moving.

  She vanished in a white blur, reappearing at the base of the falling torrent. Her five tails snapped outward as she exhaled. Frost exploded from her breath, racing upward faster than gravity could pull the water down. The entire waterfall froze solid in an instant, locking into a colossal slope of blue-white ice that glittered under firelight.

  Genbu hit it.

  The impact boomed like a mountain striking glass. Instead of stopping, the sheathed titan slid.

  Shell screaming against ice, sparks and shards flying, Genbu accelerated down the frozen slope with horrifying speed. The angle sharpened. The ice guided him perfectly.

  Idalia's laughter died in her throat. The slide was angled toward her.

  "Oh," she said. "That's clever."

  Her instincts screamed as the realization hit her all at once. The waterfall was tilted. Tilted toward her trajectory. This was not chaos. This was coordination.

  She spun, paws scrabbling for traction as she bolted sideways, portals already forming in her throat. But Genbu was already upon her, his speed utterly at odds with his size.

  The ground shook as he reached the end of the frozen ramp and launched.

  Genbu came down like a falling fortress.

  Idalia dove, barely slipping into a {Portal} as his shell slammed into the arena, obliterating the stone where she had been standing. The shockwave blasted her out of the portal early, tumbling end over end before she skidded across the floor in a spray of debris.

  She popped back up, fur singed, ice clinging to her whiskers.

  Her grin was feral and breathless.

  "You can slide?" she exclaimed, half laughing. "Since when can mountains slide?"

  Genbu did not answer. He was already shifting again, legs pushing out his shell as he turned with surprising agility, lining up for another charge.

  Above, Qingryu rumbled, something like amusement threading through the sound.

  "She adapts quickly."

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Biakomi's tails flicked, frost still spreading beneath her paws. "She noticed late," she purred. "Again, Genbu."

  Zuzie folded her wings with a sniff. "She almost hit me!"

  Idalia crouched, heart hammering, eyes blazing as she tracked all of them at once. Her mind raced, instincts screaming, joy bubbling up despite the danger.

  Okay. So they could work together.

  She bared her teeth wider.

  "Fine," she growled. "Teamwork it is."

  Her tail lashed as mana surged.

  "Now let's see if you can keep up!"

  Cheyin released a relieved breath, then smiled, sharp and proud. "Good. Now she understands."

  Genbu moved again, and the stone beneath Idalia's paws did not merely crack. It answered.

  Great slabs of earth tore themselves free and rose at Genbu's silent command, rotating as if caught in an unseen tide. Darkness bled through the seams, not shadow cast by light, but something heavier that clung to the stone like oil. The slabs folded inward, reassembled, then slammed down in waves.

  Idalia yelped and sprang aside as the ground tried to swallow her whole.

  "Rude!" she yelped, skidding across fractured stone as a wall erupted where she had just been standing.

  She twisted midair and snapped open a {Portal}, barely slipping through before a spike of blackened earth speared up through the space she had occupied.

  She reappeared on a floating chunk of land that should not have been floating.

  Her stomach dropped. "Oh no. Oh no no no!"

  The terrain had become a chaotic mess! Massive plates of stone lifted, spun, collided, then shattered. Darkness seeped between them, warping depth and distance until it was hard to tell what was solid and what was waiting to drag her under.

  Genbu stood at the center of it all, unmoving, the world rearranging itself around his will.

  Idalia crouched low on her precarious platform, ears pinned back. "Okay. Think. Think fast!"

  The earth surged again.

  She leapt just as her footing disintegrated, landing hard on another fragment that slammed down at an angle. Pain jolted up her legs. She hissed, scrambled, then jumped again as the slab tilted and broke apart.

  Then Cheyin whistled. Sharp. Bright. Commanding.

  Idalia halted, her head snapping up on instinct. "Oh come on!"

  Biakomi was already in motion.

  The white huntress burst forward in a streak of frost and muscle, bounding effortlessly from one flying fragment to the next. She did not hesitate. She did not slow. Her claws barely touched stone before she was airborne again.

  She struck.

  Idalia barely registered the blur before instinct saved her. She twisted sideways as Biakomi slashed through the space where her neck had been, frost trailing from the arc of her claws.

  "Hey!" Idalia yelped as she landed awkwardly on another slab. "Personal space!"

  Biakomi's snarl widened.

  She vanished, then reappeared above Idalia, dropping down with lethal precision. Idalia threw herself backward, conjuring a {Portal} beneath her feet and tumbling through as ice shattered the stone she had occupied.

  She popped out sideways, slammed into a broken pillar, and bounced to another fragment of earth that was already falling.

  "This is the worst game of hopscotch ever!"

  She barely had time to right herself before Genbu struck again.

  The darkness in the earth surged upward, forming massive grasping shapes that clawed at the air. One slammed into the fragment she stood on, shattering it mid-leap. Idalia screamed and spun, paws flailing, then caught herself by opening a {Portal} beneath her chest and dropping through.

  She emerged upside down, hit the ground hard, rolled, and sprang to her feet just as Biakomi came at her again from the side.

  Idalia roared and countered with a short-range {Atomic Burst}. The shockwave clipped Biakomi and sent her skidding back across a flying slab, ice spraying in her wake.

  Biakomi laughed, sharp and delighted.

  Genbu's eyes glowed faintly as the terrain answered once more. The battlefield collapsed inward, stone grinding against stone, darkness thickening until even Idalia's depth perception faltered.

  She skidded to a halt, chest heaving, mind racing.

  Two opponents. No ground. No rhythm.

  Then Cheyin raised her hand again.

  Idalia's heart sank. "No. No no no."

  Cheyin pointed.

  "Qingryu!"

  The air roared when water burst from every fracture, every crevice, every shadow, flooding the battlefield in seconds. The stone fragments were swallowed as the arena became a churning sea. Idalia barely had time to gasp before a massive current slammed into her and dragged her under.

  She tumbled helplessly as Qingryu's power coiled around her. The water spun faster and faster, forming a towering vortex that lifted her off her feet and hurled her upward inside its spiraling walls.

  Idalia clawed at nothing, disoriented, breath burning in her lungs.

  Then the cold hit when Biakomi froze the vortex in an instant.

  Ice raced across the spiraling walls, locking the roaring water into a massive, twisting pillar of frozen destruction with Idalia trapped inside. The motion stopped. Silence fell.

  Cracks spiderwebbed through the ice as the structure settled.

  For a moment, nothing moved.

  Zuzie leaned forward, peering. "Is she…?"

  Cheyin lowered her hand slowly, eyes narrowed. "That should have done it."

  Genbu remained still. Qingryu drifted back, watching. Biakomi landed lightly atop the frozen vortex, claws clicking against the ice.

  Then something inside the ice stirred.

  A sound echoed from within. Low. Ragged. Growing.

  Biakomi's ears twitched. The ice vibrated. A roar tore through the sanctum.

  It was not playful. It was not curious. It was fury!

  The sound shattered the air itself. The frozen vortex exploded outward in a storm of ice and pressure, fragments vaporizing mid-flight as the roar punched through them. A shockwave rippled across the battlefield, knocking Biakomi clean off her footing and forcing Qingryu back.

  At the center stood Idalia. Her fur bristled wildly, breath steaming, eyes blazing with raw, unrestrained wrath. The ground beneath her cracked under the force of her stance.

  She bared her teeth, chest heaving, voice shaking the air.

  "Okay! NOW I'M MAD!"

  The beasts stared in disbelief as the space around Idalia buckled like glass held too close to heat. Fractures split the air in jagged, invisible lines. The shock rippled outward, cracking stone, rattling bone, bending light.

  [Rage]: activated!