At the appointed time, Clustervayne and Bettie were at the gateway portal that would lead them into the breach zone.

While it seemed like everyone did final minute stretches, Percival turned toward Bettie, who had been standing quietly.

"Listen," he began with a more serious tone. "Since you’ve decided to join us for this, you should know how dangerous it is in there. A-rank breaches aren’t just any kind you’re used to. These things kill."

Bettie nodded slowly.

Percival continued. "So make sure you stay close to Ethan, or any of us and you’ll be fine."

Bettie’s gaze turned toward Ethan, who stood a few paces away. He caught her eye and gave her a shrug, as if to say it wasn’t that serious.

But something in Bettie’s demeanor.

One by one, they stepped through the gateway. The cavern walls stretched upward into darkness, and in the distance, the sound of growls echoed from unseen places.

They moved forward cautiously at first, eyes scanning about as the growls grew louder. Then the monsters came, pouring out from the caverns like a flood, screeching and howling as they charged.

These monsters were called Pallifiends, and dozens of them. They had pale skin, and their bodies were and hunched over on all fours with elongated limbs that ended in clawed hands.

Their long, serpentine necks allowed their heads to whip around unnaturally. Their mouths were lined with rows of needle-like teeth, and they had no eyes.

The team had readied themselves to engage but before any of them could move, Bettie took a step forward.

She extended both arms toward the incoming horde, and two massive magic circles materialized side by side in front of her palms.

In front of the left circle, water began to swirl and condense, gathering into a dense, spinning sphere that grew larger until it looked like a miniature whirlpool.

In front of the right circle, bolts of lightning crackled and danced along the edges, arcing between the lines of the circle.

And then Bettie released both spells at once.

The sphere of water burst outward into a massive, roaring torrent that slammed into the front line of Pallifiends with the force of a tidal wave, sweeping them off their feet and engulfing them completely as they tumbled helplessly, driven backward by the flood.

At the same time, the lightning spell discharged into multiple bolts of crackling electricity, following the path of the water and threading through the soaked monsters.

The moment the lightning made contact with the water, the entire area lit up in blinding flashes of white and blue.

The Pallifiends caught in the current convulsed violently, twitching as thousands of volts coursed through them. The sound was horrible, a combination of sizzling flesh, crackling electricity, and the dying screeches of monsters that had no chance to defend themselves.

When the light faded and the water settled, at least twenty Pallifiends lay motionless on the ground, with their bodies smoking and charred.

The entire team turned to stare at Bettie in surprise, and Ethan looked genuinely impressed.

Hayley, however, didn’t waste time.

She saw the opening Bettie had created and dashed forward like a streak of white. With her claws, she tore through the remaining Pallifiends that were still stunned and disoriented.

That snapped the others out of their shock and they quickly got into a raging battle with these monsters.

For the next several minutes, the team fought through wave after wave of Pallifiends. The monsters were relentless, pouring out from the caverns in seemingly endless numbers.

But the team was coordinated, and more than capable of handling the threat.

And through it all, Bettie was the most impressive.

She didn’t stay back like everyone expected. She moved with the team, casting spells at close and mid-range, combining different elements on the fly to devastating effect.

Fire and wind to create explosive blasts. Earth and water to trap groups of monsters in place. Lightning chained between multiple targets, taking down three or four at a time.

At one point, she created a massive wall of ice to block off a flanking group of Pallifiends, then shattered it with an air bomb spell, sending shards of frozen debris through the monsters like shrapnel.

She wasn’t just strong, she was being creative with spells.

Eventually, the last of the smaller Pallifiends fell, and the team took a moment to catch their breath.

Bodies were littered the ground, with streams of weird looking blood flowing through.

Hayley, standing beside Ethan, leaned her head toward him and asked in a low voice, "Remind me again, how did you say this girl got captured back then?"

Ethan smiled, moving his gaze toward Bettie who was a few paces away.

She was breathing heavily, but her face was lit up with excitement. There was a grin on her lips as she looked at the aftermath of the battle.

Percival, meanwhile, stared at Bettie like he was trying to reconcile what he’d just seen with the girl he remembered from the academy.

Was she always this strong? he thought.

What Percival didn’t realize was that his earlier comment, the one where he had told her to stay close to Ethan had pushed her. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Asides from just proving him wrong, she also wanted to prove to herself that she was no longer the Bettie who needed to be protected.

Then, the ground rumbled, and everyone turned the far end of the cavern, where they saw something massive stepping into view.

The boss of this zone.

It was a Pallifiend, but not like the others. This one stood upright on its hind legs, towering over them at easily ten feet tall.

Its body was more developed, with broader shoulders and thicker limbs. The pale, translucent skin was still present, but it was stretched taut over bulging muscle and dense bone.

Saliva dripped from its jaws, and when it opened its mouth to roar, the sound shook the entire cavern.

The team readied themselves, but before anyone could move, Ethan raised his hand.

"Don’t worry," he said in a calm tone. "I got this one."

Percival scoffed. "Pff, he wants to show off."

Ethan glanced back at him briefly with a smile on his lips, and as he returned his focus to the screeching boss ahead, a red oni mask materialized in his right hand, which he lifted and placed over his face.

[Borrow Skill: Active]

This was the Condemned Mask, one of Xylo’s skills. The half-demon summon wore it when he wanted to unleash his ultimate technique: All For One.

The moment the mask settled onto Ethan’s face, the air around him changed. The eyeholes of the mask glowed a reddish white light as he locked eyes with the boss Pallifiend.

All at once, every status effect in Xylo’s arsenal activated.

Burns seared across the monster’s pale skin, and with Exhaustion status effects, the creature’s stamina drained significantly, making its massive limbs feel like they weighed twice as much.

Dizziness effect made the world around it tilt and blur. But stun effect locked its muscles in place, stopping it from moving forward.

And finally, the mark, an invisible brand that settled onto its body, increasing all incoming damage by 15%.

The boss roared in agony, its body convulsing as it tried to fight through the overwhelming assault of debilitating effects.

However Ethan didn’t give it time to recover. Lightning began to crackle along his right forearm, and the sound of electricity filled the cavern with a high-pitched hum.

Then he shot forward with inhuman speed, closing the distance in less than a second, with his charged arm cutting through the air like a blade. He passed the boss in a single motion, like a streak of lightning carrying the sound of thunder.

Ethan was now standing behind the monster, his arm still extended, with sparks fading from his fingers.

The boss Pallifiend stood quiet and frozen for a moment, then its head slid off its shoulders and hit the ground. The body followed a second later, collapsing in a heap.

The breach boss was dead. It hadn’t even had the chance to fight back.