Chapter 107: Testing Epitaph with Snow (2)

"There," Leon pointed.

Directly below them, the main cobblestone transit road converged in a massive, bowl-shaped intersection surrounded by sheer, two-hundred-foot cliff faces. The road was entirely blocked. Dozens of massive, bear-like creatures the size of armored transport vehicles prowled the intersection.

The Iron-Spine Ursas were terrifying to behold—their thick, matted black fur was pierced by hundreds of jagged, natural iron spikes protruding from their spines and shoulders, acting as both impenetrable armor and lethal weaponry.

They were tearing into the overturned remains of a destroyed supply carriage, their guttural roars echoing up the canyon walls.

"Auris," Leon commanded, his voice cold and precise. "Make an entrance."

The Glacial Sovereign did not bank into a slow, spiraling descent. The massive beast simply folded his steel armored wings tightly against his body and dropped like a localized extinction event.

They plummeted from the sky at supersonic speed, a terrifying missile of dark metal and sapphire scales hurtling directly toward the center of the monster pack.

The Iron-Spine Ursas didn’t even have time to look up.

Auris slammed into the absolute center of the canyon intersection.

The impact was apocalyptic. The cobblestone road violently shattered, instantly turning into a massive crater. The sheer shockwave of the Level 100 High-Dragon hitting the earth launched half a dozen Level 50 Ursas entirely off their feet, sending their massive, armored bodies tumbling end-over-end until they slammed sickeningly into the sheer cliff walls. A plume of dust and pulverized stone erupted hundreds of feet into the air.

Before the dust could even begin to settle, Auris unfurled his massive wings, letting out a deafening, draconic roar that actively applied a localized fear debuff to every surviving monster in the canyon.

Leon and Snow didn’t wait for the beast to lower its neck. They both vaulted off the dragon’s back simultaneously, descending into the swirling dust cloud like two executioners descending upon a scaffold.

Snow landed on the left side of the crater, her heavy black boots cracking the fractured cobblestone. She didn’t pause for a dramatic standoff. The moment her feet touched the earth, she hoisted her massive Legendary buster sword and charged directly into a cluster of recovering Ursas.

"Come here, you ugly bastards!" Snow yelled, a wild, exhilarating grin on her face.

An Iron-Spine Ursa, recovering from the initial shockwave, reared up on its hind legs, towering nearly fifteen feet tall. It swiped a massive, iron-plated paw down at the white-haired girl, aiming to crush her into paste.

Snow didn’t dodge. She planted her leading foot, utilizing her elite martial arts instincts to perfectly align her skeletal structure with the ground, creating an unbreakable kinetic chain. She swung her massive silver sword upward in a brutal, diagonal parry.

Because her SS-Rank talent forcibly scaled the weapon to Level 70 base strength, the blade didn’t just deflect the monster’s paw.

The silver buster sword cleaved straight through the dense natural iron plating of the Ursa’s arm, cleanly severing the massive limb at the elbow. Black blood erupted like a geyser. The monster roared in agony, but Snow was already in motion. She used the momentum of her upward swing to seamlessly pivot, transitioning into a devastating, full-body horizontal spin.

The heavy, flat edge of her buster sword slammed directly into the monster’s ribcage. The sheer concussive force shattered the beast’s internal structure instantly, launching the three-ton monster sideways into two of its packmates.

"That’s one!" Snow cheered, laughing as she dragged the tip of her massive sword across the cobblestone, sending sparks flying as she rushed the next target.

On the right flank of the crater, Leon’s entrance was decidedly less chaotic, but infinitely more terrifying.

He landed smoothly, the long, dark haft of Epitaph resting easily in his right hand. The dust swirled around him, parting against the invisible pressure of his steadfast rank.

Three Level 50 Iron-Spine Ursas immediately locked onto him. Their primitive instincts recognized the profound, catastrophic threat he posed, overriding their natural fear of the dragon. The three beasts charged in unison, lowering their heads to point their massive, jagged iron shoulder-spikes directly at him, attempting to gore him in a coordinated rush.

Leon stood perfectly still. He didn’t drop into a defensive stance. He didn’t cast a domain.

He waited until the leading Ursa was exactly ten feet away.

"Phantom Weight," Leon whispered.

He moved. His 235 Agility allowed him to slip seamlessly through the microscopic gaps in their coordinated charge. He didn’t aim for the unarmored underbelly or the eyes. He intentionally targeted the thickest, most impenetrable iron plating on the leading beast’s shoulder.

He swung Epitaph.

During the swing animation, the Legendary axe weighed absolutely nothing. It cut through the air faster than sound, generating no drag and providing the Ursa with zero visual warning to brace for impact.

The razor-thin, crescent-moon blade tapped the iron plating.

At the exact microsecond of contact, the weapon violently, and instantly regained its true, catastrophic Level 150 mass.

The Absolute Edge ability triggered flawlessly. The blade completely ignored the density of the natural iron armor, cleanly slicing through the protective plating as if it were passing through water, biting exactly two inches into the monster’s flesh.

Leon didn’t follow through with the swing. He immediately disengaged, utilizing a fractional burst of Storm-Strider to slide effortlessly past the charging beast, leaving it behind him.

The Ursa didn’t register the lethal strike. The blade was so thin, and the strike so fast, that the beast’s nervous system hadn’t even processed the pain. It continued its charge, turning aggressively to pursue Leon.

Zero point five seconds.

Leon was already engaging the second Ursa, effortlessly parrying a massive downward swipe with the haft of his axe, when the first monster’s timer expired.

The Kinetic Rupture detonated.

The compressed kinetic shockwave that Epitaph had injected directly into the Ursa’s shoulder violently exploded inward. The heavy iron spikes protruding from the beast’s spine were instantly blown outward like shrapnel. The monster’s entire front-left quarter—its shoulder, its heavy iron plating, and its internal bone structure—imploded into a cloud of pulverized meat and metal dust.

The beast didn’t even have time to roar. Its momentum carried its ruined body forward, crashing violently face-first into the cobblestone, instantly dead.

Leon didn’t even look back to confirm the kill. His icy blue and golden eyes remained locked on the two remaining monsters in front of him.