Low-Fantasy Occultist

The time Elia and Gaelen bought him was exactly what Nick needed.

He pressed his boots into the cracked ground, channeling his mana into the Shard of Human Ambition as he crafted the intricate matrix of [Bolt of Wrath], drawing on the crackling power of lightning mana and blending it effortlessly with the spiritual weight of his fury—something that was quite simple given the circumstances. The wood of his staff hummed, vibrating with barely contained potential.

He aimed the tip at the towering amalgamation of petrified wood and quartz, framing it as the rightful target of his anger, and released.

A huge bolt of crimson lightning shot from the Shard, ripping through the air and hitting the monster right in the chest.

The impact shattered the outer layers of stolen crystal and gouged a crater into its woody core, drawing a shriek as timber and glass broke.

The pure power of the spell pushed the monster back, violently breaking its immediate ties to the surrounding quartz trees, while the spiritual aspect overpowered its coils.

Any mortal beast would have fallen or at least been crippled by it, especially considering how much of his own emotion went into the blow, but this was a Prestige-tier entity.

Though it was damaged, it wasn’t enough to stop it or even significantly slow its movements.

The monster quickly changed its tactics. Knowing it couldn’t sustain many more spells like that, it dropped its aggressive stance and curled inward. Thick slabs of iron-hard wood and layers of dense crystal slid over its glowing green core, creating an impenetrable, dome-shaped shell.

At the same time, it drove its four trunk-like legs deep into the earth, desperately trying to draw fresh mana from the soil to heal the damage.

"Keep it isolated!" Nick shouted as he recovered from the drain on his coils by pulling more from the ether. "Don't let it root!”

Rhea dashed around the beast, launching a quick series of glass flasks that shattered against the monster's armored dome, coating the petrified wood with a corrosive acid that hissed and bubbled with acrid green smoke.

As the beast attempted to retreat from the burning chemicals, Rhea pressed her palms into the ground, channeling her transmutation alchemy through the soil. The solid rock beneath the monster’s legs instantly turned into a pool of viscous tar, causing the creature to sink a foot. Its roots, faced with the now hostile ground, flailed but failed to gain any hold.

A flood of divine foxfire from Elia’s hands as the monster tried to shake off Rhea. The golden flames actively targeted the parasitic skill the beast relied on to drain into the environment, burning through the invisible tethers and depriving the monster of the ambient mana it needed for regeneration.

It thrashed, trapped in the tar and burning with holy light. Lashing out blindly, it swung a crystalline appendage toward the Miko in a desperate attempt to break free from the suppression, but Gaelen was there to intercept it.

He gripped his cursed blade with both hands as he deflected strike after strike and drew the dark, oily mist surrounding the steel deep into his own coils, something that Nick had no doubt would come at a price.

Yet the power such a thing gave him was undeniable, as his mana more than doubled, and new strength surged through his limbs.

A crescent wave of dark magic burst from the blade. While Nick continued his work, he realized it wasn't just raw energy, but the physical manifestation of Gaelen's pent-up grudges, sorrow, and simmering hatred for those who had destroyed his family.

The black wave washed over the monster, crashing heavily against its armored dome and seeping deep into the petrified wood, infecting it with a decaying weakness.

The crystalline armor dulled, its vibrant inner light fading to a sickly gray, and the beast's frantic movements slowed to a sluggish crawl as the curse drained its unnatural vitality, weakening its defenses from the outside in.

If it had been old enough to build its own reservoir, that would have been just a minor annoyance, but they had already disconnected it from the crystal forest, and it was clear the monster still hadn’t fully adapted to all the changes Prestige brought.

A few more weeks, maybe a month, and this would have been so much harder.

Power, it had in spades, but control was something that came with time, and Nick had seen his own father struggle with that after his rank-up. For a beast with no instruction, this was the most vulnerable it had ever been.

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Gaelen dropped to one knee, coughing violently as the recoil struck him, but he had completed his task perfectly. The carapace was breaking apart, with the wooden slabs turning brittle.

The bright green core finally peeked through the decay, even as the monster tried to reinforce its outer shell.

Nick didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity, channeling all the power he’d drawn from the ether through the Shard and filling it with his own supreme confidence.

“[Hubris’ Reach]!”

Across the battlefield, space itself twisted violently. An unseen, crushing force ignored the outer layers of petrified wood and crystal, acting directly on the exposed heart.

The beast let out a panicked wail, realizing it had been outmaneuvered.

Before it could do anything about it, Nick clenched his fist.

With a deafening crunch, the core collapsed under the spatial compression, and the green light burst out, sending a pulse that knocked everyone back.

Nick grunted as he used [True Flight] to return to his position and saw the towering mash of wood and quartz freeze, drained of its life force.

For a long moment, the forest remained completely silent. Then, the dead monster collapsed, breaking into thousands of lifeless fragments across the tar-soaked ground.