Shin was under a lot of pressure as Gut kept attacking him relentlessly. At the sa ti, Zack closed in, his dagger flashing in quick, lethal arcs that gave Shin no room to breathe.
It was especially hard to keep protecting Lara amidst all of that. And just when he thought there was nothing more he could do, Shin felt the ground shake with a surge of power.
Lara’s body glowed even more intensely, and a mark appeared on her chest. From it, Lilel erged, quickly landing on Shin’s shoulder.
"Don’t you dare hurt him!" the woman scread as she charged forward.
Before Zack could even think about reacting, she landed a punch directly on his face, so hard that it was possible to hear the sound of bone being crushed.
"Roar!"
All her muscles pulsed as she roared like a beast, and a wave of magic surged from her body.
Her aura was so powerful that Gut felt his chest tingle and breathing beca harder. Zack, on the other hand, could barely keep his eyes open after that first punch.
The glow from Lara’s chest didn’t just fade; it erupted. A mark, deep crimson and feral, burned through the skin over her sternum, sending cracks of light racing along her veins.
Then her clothes scread under the strain. The delicate fabric of her tunic shredded upward from her hips, pulled apart by the expansion of her form. She was already a tall woman, but she temporarily beca massive, nearly ten feet tall.
Her shredded clothes fell to the ground in tatters.
The girl’s muscles pulsed, growing larger and becoming even more defined, giving her the appearance of an Amazonian death goddess.
Her biceps swelled into thick, veiny peaks. Her shoulders hardened into rounded masses of muscle. Her abs carved themselves into deep ridges, each one highlighted by the magical light.
Her nails blackened, thickened, and cracked outward into hooked claws, each one dripping with residual energy.
Her jaw popped audibly. When she opened her mouth to roar, her canines had elongated into gleaming fangs. Her eyes, once soft, now glowed with a molten amber light, their pupils slit like those of a predator.
Gut tried to activate his own , but it was useless. The mont Lara charged toward him, he beca a dead man walking.
She destroyed his ice with a simple swing of her arm, and a single kick was enough to leave him hovering between life and death.
Gut imdiately raised another wall of ice between himself and the guard dog, but it was completely useless. Lara shattered through it as if it were made of paper and charged at him again without slowing down.
Even when he launched thousands of microscopic ice needles toward her, she refused to stop advancing. The countless tiny blades sliced into her skin, drawing blood all over her body, yet she pushed forward like a relentless monster.
At that point, all Gut could do was desperately try to escape, burning through his mana reserves just to keep her away from him for a few more seconds.
Gut quickly understood one thing: if Lara reached him again, he would die.
Panic overtook every rational thought in his mind.
"Ice Dominion!" he roared desperately.
The entire bunker froze instantly. Massive walls of ice erupted in every direction while countless razor-sharp spears filled the air like a deadly storm.
But Lara smashed through everything.
Her claws tore apart the frozen structures as if they were glass. The icy spears shattered against her hardened body, barely slowing her advance.
Gut’s eyes widened in horror.
"She’s insane..." he murmured, his voice trembling with genuine fear.
Lara lunged at him like a beast unleashed. Her massive clawed hand slamd into his chest and sent him crashing through multiple stone walls. Blood exploded from his mouth as bones cracked violently.
Before he could even hit the ground properly, she was already there again.
BOOM!
Her fist crashed into his stomach hard enough to fold his body in half. The impact was strong enough to lift him off the floor.
Gut vomited blood imdiately.
Then Lara grabbed him by the throat with one hand and slamd him repeatedly against the ground.
Once.
Twice.
Three tis.
Each impact cratered the stone beneath him even further.
"YOU!" she roared directly into his face, amber eyes burning with murderous fury. "YOU DARED TOUCH MY GOD!"
Gut desperately froze her arm, but the ice instantly cracked apart under sheer physical force.
At that point, he beca terrified. There was no way he could win. This was not even a fight anymore; it was a massacre.
Using the last of his strength, Gut activated the , drawing his blood and shaping it into a spear that he launched at Lara.
This ti, the attack was enough to buy him a few precious seconds.
"Fuck!" Gut scread in desperation, using all of his remaining power to create multiple walls of ice between himself and Lara.
Then he made a completely insane decision.
With trembling fingers, he crushed the crystal embedded in the ring on his middle finger.
The mont it shattered, a terrifying wave of mana exploded through the area.
One of the Twelve Seals of the Dark Forest had been broken.
Gut knew exactly what that ant.
After this, he would be hunted by the Tower authorities. Everything he possessed, his status, resources, and position, would be stripped away from him.
But at least there was still a chance to survive.
Maybe the chaos unleashed by the monsters would be enough for him to escape.
Maybe, amidst all the confusion and death, Lara would lose track of him for even a few minutes.
And as long as he stayed alive...
He could always plan his return later.
anwhile, Zack silently retreated into the shadows. His body faded from sight as he activated his stealth skill, abandoning Gut without hesitation.
He only cared about surviving.
Lara suddenly stopped moving. Her nose twitched slightly.
Then her glowing eyes slowly turned toward the darkness behind her.
Zack froze.
How could she sense him?
He should have been completely invisible, but the senses of their guardian dog were simply too sharp.
Without warning, Lara vanished.
Zack barely had ti to widen his eyes before she appeared directly in front of him.
"No!"
Her jaw opened unnaturally wide, far wider than humanly possible. And then... Her fangs tore straight through the side of Zack’s skull.
Blood exploded across the floor. The assassin’s body collapsed violently, twitching as part of his head simply disappeared beneath her bite.
He was still barely alive.
Lara spat blood onto the ground before slowly turning back toward Shin. For so reason, she looked at him with hopeful eyes while striking a strange pose.
She placed both her feet and one hand on the ground, just like a dog.
"She is waiting for orders," Lilel comnted. "She probably wants to toy with Zack and torture him, but she also knows that killing Gut is important. Anyway, she will do whatever you tell her to do."
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