Rudith, who still had her fire alight all over her body and now her sword, stopped for a brief moment to think. Sarah’s death had enraged her even more than she already was, but it also opened her eyes to the real danger that they actually faced.

Rohan and Elane turned out to be far more formidable than she’d expected of the two rookies, and two deaths, Aron and Sarah, already occurring on her side only served to reaffirm this fact even further.

She faltered for a brief moment. ’Should we retreat while we still can?’

She asked herself this question over and over again in that small instance everyone was focused on Sarah, and more notably Elane who’d just taken her down.

However, she quickly regained her composure and let out a dry, course laugh as she watched Sarah breathe her final breath for this run in the Origin Realm.

"Ha... Quite impressive for two newbies, I must say." Rudith hissed, her voice now laden with a new level of hatred that it would have sent shivers down Rohan’s spine if this were just a week prior.

"But you still have to deal with me! And you three — GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER AND ATTACK!!"

Her eyes quickly darted to Joe, Noa and Niko, who so far had contributed jack squat to the current fight due to their shock and slowness in acting.

But the threatening tone filled with authority that Rudith just expelled at them was more than enough to wake them up.

As the other archer of their group, Noa was currently the biggest threat to Elane, and everyone there discerned that the moment their focus shifted back to the fight.

Rohan was forced to retreat from his duel against Rudith to Elane’s front, blocking any potential projectiles from reaching her by using his own body as a shield.

Rudith, feeling the fury welling up inside her, expressed this anger outwardly as he flames flared up and doubled in size. One thing Rohan noticed, though, was that her intense fire didn’t seem to be able to identify friend from foe, so her flames were just as deadly to her teammates behind her.

’Even if she wasn’t intentionally hiding this ability, it’s no wonder she rarely used it in any fight we had with how destructive it is not only on her enemies, but her teammates as well.’

Rudith shot out like a rabid animal towards Rohan, and the others weren’t far behind.

...Well, they followed as close as they could without being scorched by Rudith’s flames.

Which was exactly what Rohan wanted. Creating distance and separation between Rudith and the other three would keep them from interfering in his fight against her. And with Elane behind him to keep them busy with her insanely powerful arrows, they were practically ensured to be too bogged down on their own end to lend Rudith a helping hand.

’I would ideally liked to have dealt with this fight without having to use our consumable Genetic Armaments, but if push comes to shove...’

Rohan instinctively looked down at the Poison Rocksnake Pike in his other hand. He hadn’t taken it back the entire time he’d been facing off against Rudith, as at any moment the tables could turn and she could gain the upper hand against him. This pike was his insurance against that.

Though he was quite frustrated that he couldn’t use his arguably stronger consumable, the Hollow Tide Burst, against her due to the properties of its ability.

If he recalled Stella’s explanation about it correctly, it wasn’t like a normal explosion where combustion is involved, it was one using a rapid change in air pressure, and if he used something like that in proximity to Rudith’s flames...

’Sure, it might kill her, but it would probably take the entire rest of this section of the beast nest out with it!’

An intense rush of oxygen effectively supercharging her ability to something akin to a large ordinance bomb was the last thing any of them needed right now.

’It’s a shame, if we had a gene like that, we might be able to blow the E rank Elite to smithereens without having to go through all the effort of making an opening using the Poison Rocksnake Pike. There probably wouldn’t be much left of the beast from such an explosion!’

Suddenly reminded of the very beast he and Elane had prepared so hard for before re-entering the Origin Realm, Rohan shuddered.

’We still have no clue what happened to it or why it wasn’t in the boss chamber, and there’s no way these guys have any clue either...’

"Hyap!" Rudith didn’t give him much room to wander in his thoughts, as she sent another flaming blade over towards him with even more ferocity.

’Fuck, not again!’

Rohan braced himself, assuming the same defensive stance he took last time. Only now he also had to make sure the attack didn’t hit Elane behind him.

Crash!

Sizzle!

The impact of the flaming blade hitting him sent him backwards a few footsteps, searing off even more of his top layer of skin. Thankfully this attack managed to strike a different part of his arm from the first time he tanked it, so he stopped it from being taking his arms out completely.

But behind him, Elane didn’t look to be in good shape.

Rohan managed to block the attack from hitting her as well, but there was nothing he could do about the sudden lack of air left behind in the instant after due to the flames using it all for fuel.

"Cough..."

She failed to time her breaths properly to prevent something like this from happening, which allowed the other three to gain a momentary respite from her barrage of arrows.

"You’re fucked now!" Joe roared and declared. He, along with Noa and Niko, rushed in alongside Rudith, who’d toned her flames down a bit so that they had more room to operate.

’Shit! There’s no point in questioning it now!’

Without hesitation, he drew back his hand holding the Poison Rocksnake Pike—

And let it rip through the air!