The golden-haired Calamity Lord hovered above, but the immediate threat was on the ground.

"YOU DARE?!" the insect-man shrieked.

The man billowed, entirely losing its shape as the horrific mass of millions of black centipedes, cockroaches, and beetles lunged not at Garret, but directly toward Claire once again.

Claire raised her greatsword, her red aura flaring to blast the swarm away.

But Garret was faster.

"Not today, you disgusting piece of shit!" He roared.

The giant Warrior slammed foot into the cracked earth. Dark brown mana erupted from his core and crystallized.

he mumbled some words, and four towering, translucent walls of dense, energy shot upward from the ground, violently slamming shut from the top and trapping them all in.

The insect swarm smashed into the wall, bouncing off it like water.

Garret had trapped the insect-servant inside a twenty-by-twenty-foot fighting box. He, Elara, and Hide were locked inside with it. But Evelyn, still unconscious on the grass, was safely left outside the barrier.

The only problem with the barrier was that something inside could not go out, but something out could come in.

"Elara! Freeze it!" Garret yelled.

Elara forced herself to her feet, her hands trembling wildly. "I’m almost empty! Glacial Burst!"

She funneled the very last dregs of her mana through her wand. A massive wave of pale blue frost erupted across the enclosed space, washing over the tidal wave of bugs.

For a second, it worked. The outer layer of the swarm froze solid, thousands of insects locking into a jagged ice sculpture.

But then, the sound they were making became stronger and stronger.

Chit-chit-chit-chit-hiss.

It was the nauseating sound of millions of microscopic legs and mandibles vibrating violently against each other. The swarm was moving underneath the ice. The friction generated by the densely packed mass of insects began to rapidly produce heat.

The temperature inside the box spiked. The frost hissed, slowly starting to melt.

Garret threw a devastating punch at the ice and tore a massive hole through the swarm. Thousands of bugs were pulverized into green paste. But the ocean of insects simply flowed around the wound, sealing it shut a second later.

They weren’t normal bugs. They were a singular, hive minded organism. Physical damage was like trying to punch a river to death.

Hide stood near the back edge of the barrier. He didn’t yet join the fray immediately. His chest was heaving, his ribs screaming in agony from the lingering effects of the Calamity Lord’s crushing gravity.

His glowing blue eyes were locked onto the system window hovering in his vision.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Gravity Manipulation

Location: Whole Body

Source: B-Rank Calamity Lord (Vora)

Severity: High

Vora. That was the Golden Calamity’s name. Hie winced at that name, it sounded too much human for a beast.

But he didn’t hesitate.

’Evolve.’

[Adapting - 10%]

[Adapting -...]

While the system processed the immense data of the B-Rank’s gravity manipulation, Hide switched to the main screen of his system.

He had killed the Brochio Fiend and the Slaughter Doll and had leveled up four times since entering this gate.

He had twenty non-allocated stat points.

He didn’t think much about it, speed was necessary then his perception, because of fighting such a large horde and mainly his Vitality to counter the bugs.

’5 to Agility. 5 to Perception and 10 to Vitality._’ 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Agility : 27 - 32

Perception : 15 - 20

Vitality : 15 - 25

The effect was instantaneous. A rushing, burning wave of pure life force exploded from his heart. The exhaustion bleeding into his muscles was violently washed away. His vision sharpened and the chaotic, fast-moving blur of the individual bugs suddenly turned into hyper-focused clarity.

He took a breath. He was ready.

"Repent!" the insect-servant hissed.

The swarm surged around Garret’s massive frame, targeting the weakest link in the room. A thick, whip-like tendril of centipedes lashed out at Elara but she jumped away, suddenly another one came from different direction wrapping violently around Elara’s ankle.

Elara shrieked as she was violently yanked back. The swarm threw her through the air like a ragdoll, sending her crashing hard into the corner of the mana wall.

She slumped down, her glasses flying off her face.

The swarm reared up, forming a massive, hardened fist of densely packed chitin, and brought it slamming down toward Elara’s fragile body.

A shadow eclipsed her.

CRUNCH.

Garret threw himself in front of the girl, crossing his thick arms. The hardened insect-fist slammed into Garret’s guard. The weight of the strike drove the giant Warrior down to one knee, the metal plates on his forearms groaning under the pressure.

Garret ground his teeth together, his eyes bloodshot. He dropped his guard and unleashed a vicious, upward uppercut that ripped entirely through the beast’s chest, leaving a massive, deep scar that exposed the empty air behind it.

But the bugs just crawled around the edges of the canyon-sized wound, unbothered.

The action costed Garret two small cuts on his chest, but they were nothing much to worry about.

Hide moved too.

With his newly enhanced Agility, he closed the distance in a second, grabbing Elara by the collar of her jacket and forcefully yanking her out of the corner, throwing her safely behind his back.

"I’ve got her!" Hide shouted to Garret.

But he had miscalculated one thing. He had forgotten that he was standing on dirt.

The ground beneath Hide’s boots violently erupted.

Thousands of black, sharp-legged centipedes burst upward from the soil like a geyser.

Hide’s Abyssal Scale Carapace was thick, but it was not thick enough. The microscopic mandibles and razor-sharp legs found the infinitesimal gaps between the shifting black scales.

SHLUK.

"Guh—!"

Hide’s eyes blew wide open. The breath violently left his lungs.

A hardened spear of condensed bugs had completely pierced through his stomach.

Hide fell forward, crashing heavily onto his hands and knees. He violently vomited a mouthful of dark, thick blood onto the dirt. The pain was blinding.

He gasped for air, but his diaphragm spasmed violently.

The world began to spin.

Suddenly, his vision was entirely eclipsed by a flashing, blood-red system window.

[WARNING: Host in Extreme Danger.]

[Executing Auto-Adaptation...]

The golden light flared violently in the dark.

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

[Abyssal Scale Carapace — Level 2 → Level 3]

– Vulnerability to micro simultaneous attacks reduced by 100%

– Coverage reformation speed: increased

– Physical Capabilities enhancement, 100% → 150%

[Abyssal Flame — Level 1 → Level 2]

Counter-Skill Generated.

[Weightless - B (Active)]

Allows the Host to perfectly manipulate the internal mass and gravitational pull of their own body.

Negates the effects of external gravity manipulation fields.

The black scales covering Hide’s body suddenly thickened, shifting rapidly to lock together perfectly, violently severing the centipedes that were drilling into his gut.

The pain suppression system flared, dulling the agonizing spike in his stomach to a dull, manageable throb.

[Abyssal Scale Carapace — Active]

Damage absorbed: Max

Pain suppression: 80%

Hide took severe long breaths, finally coming back to his senses. He had been completely out of it. Then he saw Garret.

The giant Warrior was standing completely still. His massive hands were trembling.

Then he fell heavily to his knees. The dark brown mana walls surrounding them flickered violently.

"Garret?" Elara whispered, her voice trembling in absolute terror.

Garret brought a shaking hand to his mouth. He coughed. It was a wet, horrific sound.

He didn’t cough up blood. He coughed up a handful of twitching, black cockroaches.

During the initial clash, when Garret had thrown his body into the swarm, the microscopic insects hadn’t just bitten his skin. They had crawled into his body through the wounds in his chest.

They had eaten his lungs, heart and multiple organs from the inside out.

Garret’s eyes rolled back into his head. He let out one final, ragged gasp as his massive body slumped forward, crashing face-first into the dirt.

He lay completely motionless.

The towering walls of the mana box shattered like broken glass, dissipating into glowing dust in the pitch-black air.

The dome had fallen.

Cold air swept across the field and the strongest physical fighter, the shield of their team was dead.