Ethan had a much clearer understanding of Dave now.
After using Beast Recovery and tapping into the flow of mana himself, it clicked.
Dave was not just sitting there ditating for the sake of it. He was constantly drawing in mana from his surroundings, cycling it through his body with every breath, refining it, storing it, and then expelling it all at once when he attacked.
He was always charging.
’In ga terms... he’s just spamming ultimates,’ Ethan thought, glancing at him.
It made sense.
As a C Rank, Dave did not have the raw stats to compete with higher-ranked creatures. So instead, he compensated by maximising output. Every attack he used was essentially everything he had at that mont, refined and compressed into a single devastating burst.
Inefficient in most cases.
But with his level of control?
It worked.
Still, there were things Ethan did not understand.
He glanced sideways.
"Are you blind?" Ethan asked bluntly. "And what’s with the floating?"
The Bulldozer nearly choked beside them. "You can’t just-"
"Shut up," both Ethan and Dave said at the sa ti.
The grey-skinned man blinked, offended. "Right..."
Dave opened one eye slightly, the white glow faintly intensifying.
"I’m not blind," he said. "I just don’t see the way you do."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "aning?"
Dave hesitated for a mont, then answered carefully.
"I can see mana, the flow, density, movent, and even disturbances."
Ethan did not respond imdiately, but his interest sharpened.
"That has to be rare, right?" he asked.
Dave exhaled softly. "I don’t know of anyone else who can."
They walked in silence for a few seconds, stepping across uneven stone and broken ruins.
Then Dave spoke again.
"And because of it, my control is better than most people," he continued. "Probably better than so A Ranks too."
Ethan smirked slightly. "So all that flashy beam... is it just a massive release?"
Dave frowned. "No, it’s compression and efficiency. If I ss it up even slightly, it falls apart."
Ethan nodded faintly.
That lined up with what he had felt.
Dave’s attacks were not just powerful; they were precise.
"And the floating?" Ethan asked again.
Dave glanced at him this ti.
"I’m not really flying," he said. "I’m just... reducing how much I interact with the ground."
"That’s not an explanation."
"It’s the only one you’re getting."
Ethan chuckled under his breath.
Dave narrowed his eyes slightly. "Your turn."
"Hmm?"
"That thing you did earlier," Dave said. "How do those flas work, and where did they go? Your eyes also change colour. And the way you copied ... that’s not normal."
Ethan kept walking, hands in his pockets.
"I’m just him," he said casually.
Dave stopped.
"That’s not an answer."
Ethan shrugged. "Neither was yours."
For a mont, the air between them grew tense.
The Bulldozer looked between them again, his head turning back and forth.
"Are you guys always like this?" he asked.
"Like what?" Ethan replied.
"Talking a lot but sohow saying nothing," the Bulldozer said.
Ethan laughed, but Dave wasn’t as amused.
Sothing about the blue-eyed man rubbed him the wrong way. He was hard to read and completely confident in himself, a combination of two things that irked him.
The small man stared at Ethan for a long second.
Then he closed his eyes again, and slowly, his feet lifted off the ground. He rose into the air, settling back into his cross-legged position as if nothing had happened.
But this ti, there was a subtle difference.
He was not as detached or withdrawn, and even with his eyes closed, he remained fixated on Ethan.
-
They moved across the floating island carefully.
The environnt remained surreal: ancient ruins scattered across patches of greenery, broken stone structures that hinted at a civilisation long gone, all suspended in an endless void.
It was also quiet, eerily so.
Ethan’s senses were sharp, even when he wasn’t assimilated with one of his beasts. Every shift in the air, every subtle vibration beneath his feet, it all fed into his awareness.
Still, there was nothing.
And that just unnerved him further, leaving him unable to shake the feeling that sothing was off.
’This gate was clearly designed and is being controlled. I just wonder what’s next...’
-
Elsewhere, other mbers of the Clearing Squad had begun forming small groups as well, pairs and trios mostly. Instinctively gravitating toward survival, even the stronger ones weren’t careless.
Well, most of them weren’t.
Kaela still moved alone, and had even co across a group of C Ranks, but ditched them without so much as a greeting.
She leapt between floating islands without hesitation, her movents sharp, explosive, almost reckless. Each landing cracked the ground beneath her feet, her grin wide as she scanned her surroundings.
"Co on," she muttered. "Where’s the fun in this?"
Her eyes glead with anticipation.
She wasn’t worried or curious... she was excited.
-
Back with Ethan, he had sohow beco the centre of his odd group.
A rhino-human hybrid who could smash through beasts with brute force, a floating, laser-shooting monk with absurd mana control, and him.
’Not a bad lineup,’ he thought.
Though he didn’t say it out loud.
They continued moving carefully, but they never ca across any other beasts. It was unnatural how little activity there was, almost as if they were being lured into a false sense of comfort.
But Ethan didn’t fall into it.
He was one of the few who remained calm when everything suddenly changed.
It started subtly.
A shift in the air, a pressure, like the entire gate itself had tightened.
Ethan stopped walking.
"You feel that?"
The Bulldozer shook his head, but Dave opened his eyes.
"Yeah..." the small man responded nervously.
For the first ti since resuming his ditation, there was sothing like unease in his expression. Then, the sky above them flickered, like the world itself had glitched.
A voice echoed.
The sa hoarse, powerful voice as before.
{Gate paraters adjusted.}
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
"Adjusted?"
{Phase Two initiated.}
The ground beneath them trembled as though sothing deep within the gate had awakened.
"That can’t be good," the Bulldozer muttered.
Ethan exhaled slowly.
A grin tugged at his lips despite himself.
"Yeah," he said quietly.
"Now it’s getting interesting."
He could feel it in his bones; this was just the beginning...
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