Seeing both soulless thralls locked down, Ethan couldnât keep the worry off his face.
Dopey was fine. Dopeyâs body was absurdly tough, and his base strength was ridiculous. They could restrain him, sure, but their attacks werenât really doing meaningful damage.
Rocky was different.
Rocky was only peak Tier 29.
After being turned into a thrall, heâd gotten a major boostâclose to S-Stage strengthâbut "close" wasnât the same as actually crossing into Stage S (Tier 30). He didnât have the true Tier 30 toolkit, and against a lineup like this, he was clearly starting to strain.
At least the Winged Clanâs Tier 29 heavy hitters were focusing Dopey. Rockyâs side was a little lighter. If those top-tier monsters had piled onto Rocky too, he probably wouldâve folded already.
Even so, Rocky was in bad shape.
Dozens of
Gale Binds
had him cinched tight. Wind-type attacks kept crashing into him like endless blades. All he could do was keep stacking and reinforcing
Earth Ward
, pouring everything into defense with no room to counter.
If this kept up, something was going to give.
Ethan wanted to helpâbadlyâbut this was a tier of battle he couldnât physically enter.
There were over two hundred Winged Clan elites, and basically all of them were stronger than him.
He might have the burst damage to one-shot a Tier 26, but his defense was still stuck around Tier 23. If he got dragged into that mess, heâd get deleted in seconds.
Even
Absolute Stasis
wouldnât let him pull Rocky out under dozens of Gale Binds.
Thenâ
Dopey tore free.
His silhouette ripped out of the storm like it had never mattered, and in the same breath he blinked right in front of a Tier 29 Winged Clan elite.
Dopeyâs fist drove forward.
The Winged Clan eliteâs heart lurched. He didnât dare block. With a frantic wingbeat, he tried to retreatâ
Dopey was faster.
Dopey grabbed him by the wing and yanked.
Hard.
The wing came off with a wet rip. Blood sprayed.
"Aaaghâ!"
The Winged Clan elite dropped out of the air like a stone.
Boom.
Dopey came down on him and stamped once.
Not a dramatic stompâjust a simple, brutal one.
It crushed everything inside. The body went limp instantly.
"Good shit, Dopey!" Ethan shouted, relief and excitement punching through him.
Yeah. Dopey was still Dopey.
The surrounding Winged Clan fighters visibly flinched. Their fear of Dopey spiked, fast.
"Send more people!" the winged woman ordered, face tight. "This oneâs too strong!"
One of her subordinates spoke up urgently. "Captain, we should kill the human first. Heâs probably the master controlling the thralls. If he dies, the thralls fall apart!"
"That makes sense." She nodded once.
Then she turned and said, "You handle this. Iâll go kill him."
And she shot off toward Ethan.
"..." The one whoâd suggested it went blank in the face.
Heâd meant
someone else
should goâpreferably him not included. Fighting those two thralls was a great way to die. Chasing down a human who wasnât even Stage A yet? That was supposed to be the easy job.
Instead, the captain took the easy job for herself.
"Captain, please hurry!" he yelled after her backâthen swallowed his resentment and started barking orders, doubling down on full-spectrum control against the thralls.
The winged woman appeared in front of Ethan like a teleport, closing the distance in a blink.
No warning. No posturing.
She simply swung her hand and launched a
Cyclone Blade
straight at him.
Ethan teleported away instantly and shouted, "Hey! You psychoâdidnât you say youâd kill me last? So the Winged Clan are just a bunch of liars!"
"Lies!" Her expression turned sharp with offense. "The Winged Clan always keeps its word!"
"Then what do you call this?" Ethan snapped back. "You havenât killed those two yet and youâre coming for me. If thatâs not breaking your word, what is?"
"Theyâ" she started.
Then forced it out like it was obvious. "Theyâre just soulless thralls. They donât count."
"Theyâre still up and moving, arenât they?" Ethan shot back. "Donât make excuses for being full of crap."
"You...!" For a moment, she actually didnât have an answer.
Only then did she realize what had happenedâEthanâs "giving up" act earlier had been a trap. Heâd maneuvered her into a corner where her pride had to answer.
A human mightâve ignored him. Weaklings didnât get a vote.
But the Winged Clan were proud to the bone, and they treated their "honor" like a law of nature.
And now she was hesitating.
Ethan pressed while he had the opening. "Go help them. If you can kill my two âcompanions,â killing me will be easy, right?"
She looked back toward the chaotic fight... then back at Ethan.
And after a beat, she actually turned and flew back.
"Hmph. Iâll kill those two thralls first, then come back for you," she said coldly. "Donât think about running. Iâve placed a mark on you. Wherever you go, Iâll find you."
She vanished toward the battlefield.
Ethan stared after her, stunned.
"Seriously... she fell for that?"
Then his surprise sharpened into unease.
"Wait. Mark?" he muttered. "When the hell did she mark me?"
He activated
True Sight
and scanned himself inch by inch.
Finally, at his chest, he caught itâa thin, invisible smear of energy, like a brand you couldnât see unless you knew exactly how to look.
"...Itâs real." Ethan frowned. "And I didnât even notice when she did it."
He exhaled.
"Whatever. Not touching it right now. Last thing I need is her suddenly coming back."
He didnât like admitting it, but the truth sat heavy in his gut:
If that woman truly committed to killing him, he wasnât sure he could escape her.
On the other side...
When the captain flew back, the Winged Clan fighters all looked a little dazed.
"Captain... whyâd you come back?" the one whoâd spoken earlier asked, genuinely confused.
"We kill these two soulless thralls first," the woman said, face like ice.
"But wouldnât killing that human be easierâ"
"I said," she snapped, voice slicing, "we kill the two soulless thralls first. Do you not understand me?"
Her eyes flashed. "Or whatâdo you think all of us canât kill
two
soulless thralls?"
She was already furious, and that question lit the fuse.
"Okayâokay," the Winged Clan fighter said immediately, backing off. He didnât dare argue another word.
Dopey was dragged back into the stormâs core, the cyclone chewing at him from every angle.
Rocky, meanwhile, hadnât managed to break free even once. Not from the beginning until now.
The battle ground on.
Every so often, Dopey would rip himself out of the storm, flash to the edge, and smash one or two Winged Clan elites into pasteâonly to get sucked right back into the cyclone a moment later.
Rockyâs condition just kept worsening.
Watching it, Ethanâs mood sank like a stone.
He
could
use
Absolute Stasis
to pick off one or two targets, but it wouldnât change the overall situation.
At his current level, even if he went all-out with
Annihilation Strike
, he could maybe kill a Tier 27â
maybe
âand even then it wasnât guaranteed to be a clean one-shot. Heâd never actually killed a Tier 27 powerhouse before.
And Tier 27-level opponents? There were plenty of them here.
He simply couldnât shift the balance.
Right now, the only real hope was Dopey.
At least Chris and the others shouldâve already gotten away. If this turned into a loss, Ethanâs only option would be to run.
Dopey could probably escape.
Rocky... Rocky might not.
But Ethanâs eyes narrowed, a colder thought sliding into place.
If Rocky really went down here, fine.
Heâd just use this winged woman to replace him.
She was stronger than Rocky, and she could fly. If Ethan turned her into a soulless thrall... sheâd even double as a flying mount when he felt like it.
Honestly?
That didnât sound bad at all.