Ethan clenched his teeth until his jaw ached.
He could feel the pressure coming off the other man’s power—like an invisible mountain was slowly pressing down on his body, inch by inch.
Inside the Powered Combat Armor, the energy regulation system was running at full load. Cold warning prompts kept flashing at the edge of his awareness, telling him his output was pushing the limit.
Shit... Ethan cursed under his breath.
He’d thought he was already strong enough. But the power this middle-aged man was showing was way beyond what Ethan had estimated.
That Black Rose’s aura felt like it was directly linked to the deeper layers of the Dark Abyss. Every rotation devoured the surrounding power, shaving away at Ethan’s montum.
And then the middle-aged man suddenly laughed.
"Didn’t expect you to be this good!" His voice echoed through the ravine, excited and arrogant at the sa ti. "Not many people can block my Black Rose."
As he spoke, his hand slipped toward his chest.
The next second, he pulled out a snow-white sphere.
It didn’t look special—until his fingers tightened.
A pure surge of energy exploded from inside. With a dull cracking sound, the sphere was crushed to pieces in his palm.
Power released in an instant.
A blinding white flare burst outward. The air was forcibly compressed, and the entire ravine felt like it had been swept by a storm no one could see.
The force gathered overhead, as if so ancient creature was slowly waking.
A few seconds later—
A gigantic bird took shape in the sky.
Not a real living thing, but a being ford from pure energy.
When it spread its wings, sharp light glinted along the edges, like every feather had been condensed from abyss power. It circled slowly above, its massive shadow swallowing the ravine.
Ethan’s pupils contracted.
He hadn’t expected the man to have sothing like this in reserve.
The bird’s aura was even more dangerous than the Black Rose. The pressure in the air turned heavier and heavier until even loose stones on the ground began to tremble.
Ethan ran the situation fast.
Right now, he could maintain this level of combat only because of the Powered Combat Armor’s amplification.
The consecutive bursts he’d already used had chewed through a huge amount of stored energy. If he kept forcing a frontal clash, it wouldn’t be long before he got suppressed completely.
And worse—
His team behind him had almost no one who could fight at this level.
The only things that even counted as combat power were those few goblins.
But Ethan knew that if the battle truly escalated, the goblins wouldn’t last more than a couple minutes. Once they were burned out, Ethan would lose his only buffer.
His gaze sank.
His eyes flicked, thinking hard.
Then he stepped back—two quick paces.
White lightning tightened and withdrew. The thunder sphere in the sky began to fade.
Ethan didn’t push another attack. He cleanly disengaged from the fight altogether.
"Withdraw," he ordered, low and sharp.
At nearly the sa instant, the team turned and moved. They retreated fast along the ridgeline skirting the ravine, vanishing into distant rock and shadow.
The middle-aged man blinked at that.
Then he threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahahaha!"
The sound bounced around the ravine, dripping with contempt.
"I thought you were sothing special. Turns out you’re just a bunch of nobodies." He waved a hand like he was shooing flies. "Get lost. Next ti I see you, I’ll tear you into pieces."
The energy bird circled once above him, then slowly dissolved.
But the violent fluctuations from that fight had already raced deep into the Dark Abyss.
It didn’t take long before the ravine filled with the sound of bodies slicing through the air.
Figures shot out from the depths.
They were fast—so fast that in only a few seconds, they’d gathered at the ravine entrance. Each one radiated a powerful aura. These were clearly elites from the Dark Abyss.
Their faces were tense with vigilance.
And at the center of them—
A massive roach-man stepped forward slowly.
Zerathrax.
His carapace reflected a dark red sheen in the gloom. Cold killing intent flashed in his compound eyes. When he stopped, a heavy presence spread out from him instantly, making the air feel even more oppressive.
"What exactly happened just now?" Zerathrax’s voice was low, dangerous.
His gaze landed on the middle-aged man, and at the sa ti his power began to leak out. The pressure rolled outward like an invisible tide, making several nearby elites unconsciously step back.
The middle-aged man looked smug as hell.
He lifted a hand and thumped his own chest, pride written all over his face.
"A bunch of idiots ca looking for death," he said. "I already chased them off."
He raised his chin, confidence overflowing.
"Don’t worry. With here, no one’s getting into the Dark Abyss."
Zerathrax nodded in satisfaction.
He reached out and gave the middle-aged man’s shoulder a light pat, like he was about to offer a few words of praise.
But right then—
A burst of hurried footsteps ca from the side.
A Stone Golem rushed over.
It had clearly only just arrived. Cracks from the recent battle still ran across its rocky body. The mont it spotted Zerathrax, it dropped to its knees, voice trembling with nerves.
"Your Highness!"
Zerathrax frowned slightly.
"What is it?"
The Stone Golem sucked in a breath, then forced the words out.
"The people who ca just now... they’re the ones who killed The Nexaris Overlord Xarathos."
The air went dead quiet.
Zerathrax’s compound eyes snapped wide.
He clearly hadn’t expected the enemy to show up at the Dark Abyss entrance on their own.
"What did you say?" His voice sank, dangerous and heavy.
The Stone Golem bowed its head, tone grim.
"My leader... was killed by them."
After a few seconds of silence, Zerathrax let out a furious, guttural growl.
Power exploded out of him in an instant, a terrifying aura sweeping through the entire ravine.
"They actually dared to deliver themselves to my door!"
His voice detonated like thunder.
"Rally everyone—now. Chase them down!"
The mont the order went out, the entire Dark Abyss boiled.
Countless figures shot out from deeper regions. Alarm signals echoed across sector after sector. Even presences that had been sleeping in the lower layers began to stir, ancient and terrifying auras rising slowly out of the black depths.
Like the whole abyss—
Had been fully provoked.
Ethan sensed sothing wrong while he was still withdrawing from the ravine.
That presence spreading from deep within the Dark Abyss was rising fast, like a colossal beast that had been asleep for ages had finally been jolted awake. The air grew heavier with every minute. In the far sky, dark-red ripples of energy began to appear, and every pulse made his heart tighten.
Ethan didn’t dare waste a second.
He drove the team forward at full speed, and before long they were back at the mining range they’d discovered earlier.
All around the mountains were still huge amounts of unmined special ore—stable, dense energy packed into every vein, perfect material for building large-scale energy structures.
"Bring all weapons to one place," Ethan ordered, voice low and hard.
In no ti, piles of equipnt were dragged in and stacked in the center of the mining site.
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