"I can't glide this high!!!" Isha screamed in horror as she looked down beneath her feet, seeing the entire forest reduced to nothing but a tiny dot from such an unimaginable height.
Even her wings failed her, as the air pressure was nothing she could handle. She plummeted from the sky, but barely fell for 20 meters before—
Her huge, wobbling stomach landed on something hard in the air, causing a loud gulp to escape her lips.
She unconsciously stared down, her spine tingling as she realized she was still incredibly far from the forest floor.
"I... How!? I'm hovering in the air?"
"I can fly now!?" Isha muttered in surprise, but as she looked at her wings, she found them tucked in her arms.
Instead, she saw a foot just beside her.
"Now tell me, Isha. Which of these Cataclysm Beasts is the strongest?" Ryuk asked, looking down beneath his feet.
Isha turned her shocked gaze to him but narrowed her eyes as she extended her claw and tapped beneath her feet.
"Glass!?" She ask before staring at Ryuk in surprise.
Now, she finally had an explanation for why she and Ryuk could stand in the sky. The ground beneath them had somehow turned to glass.
She asked him about it, but he remained silent, his predator-like gaze fixed on the beasts below.
"Don't tell me, Ryuk… that you're really serious about taking on the Cataclysm Beasts. Just to remind you, I am only a Grade B upper-tier beast, which you might know as the Peak Stage of the Plane of Dominion. But these beasts... they're all at Grade A—the Initial Stage of the Plane of Cataclysm! There is no way we're surviving this!" Isha stated firmly.
But Ryuk only chuckled.
"Do you not trust me, Isha?" he asked, his runic blue eyes locking onto hers.
She was about to retort, but her maw remained open in the air, words failing to come out.
Slowly, she rose up properly, and in the next second—
Two slit-like lines appeared on Isha's forehead as gleaming blue horns, pulsating with intense frost energy, emerged from her head.
Her wings and scales crystallized, growing razor-sharp like blades, while her claws elongated close to half a meter in length.
A fearsome ice aura spilled out from Isha, her runic eyes flashing dangerously.
An incredible beastly presence surged outward, causing a thump in Ryuk's heart.
"Isha… she's grown stronger," Ryuk realized in astonishment.
'She was previously at the Initial Plane of Dominion when I had entered slumber, but now… she's at the peak of the stage.'
'No—her power feels even stronger than that! Right now, Isha should be at a pseudo-Cataclysm stage. Just one step below Grade A Beasts!'
Isha turned her beastly blue gaze toward him.
"All of the Cataclysm Beasts are nearly equal in strength. It's the only reason they maintain their peace. You decide which one we take on first," she said.
Ryuk stared at her, still slightly surprised.
He had thought he would need to reveal his power to ease Isha's fears, but her instant change had more or less stunned him. And he couldn't help but feel something warm rising in his heart.
A feeling born from being trusted—without needing to prove himself.
What Isha had demonstrated just now was something humans often referred to as blind faith.
Something exceedingly rare in this devil-forsaken world.
"Good, my Isha. Really good," Ryuk said, patting her forehead before shifting his serious gaze downward.
"We take on the Lava Crocodile first!" he declared.
In the next instant, the glass beneath Ryuk's feet shattered into pieces as he and Isha soared downward at blinding speed.
Their trajectory visibly shifted toward the edge of the forest, where Ryuk hardened the surrounding space, turning it to a slide to create a direct path above a gigantic mountain.
Atop that mountain, an equally gigantic, monstrous crocodilian creature lay in deep slumber, waves of intense heat oozing from its nose and lips.
But the moment it sensed two presences approaching, about 100 meters above, its massive eyes snapped open—
Only to be met with an enormous pillar of frost blasting down toward its head.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!
A powerful roar erupted from the crocodile's maw, the mountain beneath it sligthly crumbling into shards as an unshakable aura of destruction exploded outward from its body.
Lava spewed violently from the cracks beneath the mountain as the beast opened its gigantic mouth, a molten lava sphere surging forth like an erupting volcano.
The moment the sphere left its mouth—
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
A horrific explosion tore through the sky, sending a powerful shockwave ripping through half of the forest.
Frost and lava clashed, the very space itself burning and freezing simultaneously, creating a loud sizzling noise as thick smoke covered the entire area.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
A snow-white hand, clenched into a fist and covered in runic tattoos, through the heavy smoke, and smashed directly into the Lava Crocodile's skull.
The beast crashed downward, completely obliterating what little remained of the mountain. The impact left behind a massive, 10-meter-deep crater in the earth.
"Nice obstruction..." Ryuk praised Isha as he descended from the air, hardening the atmosphere into a staircase to gently walk downward.
Isha followed behind him.
An insane, enraged growl rang out from the darkness of the crater.
A massive claw suddenly latched onto the edge of the abyss, and the Lava Crocodile slowly rose back into the air.
Its monstrous gaze locked onto Ryuk and Isha, and runic red lines began glowing all over its skin, lava visibly swirling beneath its armored hide.
A wild aura of fury erupted, the temperature skyrocketing thousands of degrees, burning even the surrounding space.
An unbelievable, murderous aura burst forth from the Lava Crocodile, shaking the entire forest area.
"My first battle with a Grade A Mutant Beast… Now this will be very interesting!"
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In and Out_SnowySmoos