Ana, in rage, closed both palms tight. Her voice thundered across the hall as she chanted:

"Fury Forest!"

The ground cracked. Around her, in a perfect circle, trees erupted from stone, clawing toward the ceiling. Branches twisted, vines snapped into existence, and flowers danced like maniacs in a storm. From their frenzy, Ana tore a living branch, and when she swung it, a faint green shimmer bled from its bark — trailing behind like glowing veins of the earth itself. She charged at Auren mid-air, and behind him, a miniature forest charged too, alive, breathing, rushing like an army at her command.

Auren's toes brushed the ground — fuuush! He vanished.

Ana spun, breath sharp."You can't escape me, not here!" she cried desperately.

Her palms clapped, the echo booming through the ruined hall.

Meanwhile, the tornado still raged, surrounding the black energy sphere where Aazin and Ryzin fused into one abomination. Inside, the storm roared louder, and within it something else stirred.

Vaslimo and Dax clashed within the storm, hammer against terminator. Sparks exploded. Every strike tremored the stone beneath. Dax's red eyes glowed like burning coals, his body jerking like a maniac as he dodged hammer strikes with unnatural speed. Vaslimo swung downward — Dax leapt, boots slamming the hammer's head, and charged at Vaslimo's face with reckless fury. Vaslimo's nostrils flared. His counterblast sent Dax crashing out of the tornado.

Landing hard, Dax's crimson eyes flickered toward Nyra and Nova — a silent signal. Break the sphere.

Vaslimo followed, landing opposite. The two maniacs faced each other, chests heaving, grins stretched too wide.

Back with Ana — her forest branches extended further, chasing Auren from every direction. As a hunter, Auren danced through them, dodging with ease, slicing stray vines. But the forest's rhythm grew faster, branches snapping like whips. Auren slashed left, rolled right, but the walls of nature pressed closer.

Then, mid-dodge, his eyes narrowed.

Everyone here has a name attack… he thought. Does it give them strength… or reveal their technique?

Lyrax's words burned in memory: Each ability has its stages. Each stage reveals its own truth. Understand them, and the power bends to you.

Two things coin-flipped inside him: his name attack and his third stage.

When I reached this form… he remembered the whisper echoing through his skull: Lunatic Predator.

This stage itself… It's already telling me what it is. But what can I do with it?

Memory flashed. Aazin's body split clean in half. That room he created in no time. His ability sparked like forbidden fire.

Yes. This stage can bend reality. It's not rage, it's… magic. Just feel it, Auren. Feel it, and it will answer.

Closing his eyes amidst the storm of vines, Auren chanted, voice low, trembling with madness:

"Lunatic Predator… Lunatic Predator…"

Then he saw it. The answer. His lips curled.

"Yes. I know what I can do."

He raised his sword. His voice bellowed, deep and unholy:

"Moonlight Slashes!"

From his left eye, a tiny purple flame flickered alive — burning like a candle, steady yet eternal. From it, thin strings of violet unraveled, weaving into the air. Then, sparks of crimson joined — red flame strings, the same power he held from the beginning. The two merged, entwining into a deadly tapestry of light.

Ana's forest surged from all sides, branches lunging, vines whipping, a storm of green from 360 degrees. But before they reached him, they froze.

Auren's sword swung once.

And the world tore apart.

A hundred slashes ignited at once, moonlight streaks mixed with violet fire and crimson strings, raining across the hall like meteors. The forest split. Branches shattered. Trees fell to nothing. Something carved the Fury Forest into silence in one breath.

The energy of his cut wasn't just power — it was something deeper, primal, a presence that commanded destruction itself.

Ana's eyes went wide. Too wide. Her pupils shook as her forest crumbled around her feet.

She whispered, broken, trembling:"…Impossible…"

Her gaze locked on him — Auren, standing amidst the ruin, his purple flame still glowing faintly from his eye.

The first genuine attack of the Mad Hunter, which reached its peak by the vitara of Auren.

The first taste of the Ash Phantom.

Ana breathed heavy, chest heaving like a bellows. Her breath came in short, wet gasps that fogged the cold air, and her leafy robe clung to her like a second skin, slick with dust and sweat. Around them the hall still smelled of ozone and burned stone; snow drifted in from the broken arches, tiny crystals catching on fallen banners. The world felt stretched thin — as if the next noise might snap everything.

Auren, by contrast, was unnervingly calm. The purple flame in his eye guttered and flared like a small, mischievous candle, shadows dancing over his face. He tilted his head, the amused calm of a child watching ants, and his voice slipped out soft, patient, almost bored:

Are you tideborn, are you with those 2 people, who don't belong to Ramuza's family? If you don't belong to the Ramuza family, then you guys are not my enemy, do not fight me, I am here to take down their leader. Pls be side,?

His words were strange in that hush — as if he were reciting a rule from a game rather than speaking in the middle of a battlefield. The carpet of fallen leaves at Ana's boots lifted slightly in the tornado's tail, and even the air around her seemed to lean toward him, listening.

Ana didn't flinch. The lunatic glow and the way he addressed her did not soften the iron in her gaze. That little kid — Auren, only fifteen — carried the kind of terror that made seasoned Vaiven crewmates step back. Her fingers twitched at her side, knuckles white.

She tried to act normal; she forced her face into the vacant mask of a professional. Her voice came flat, measured — a soldier speaking duty:

I am from Vaiven Tideborn, and those 2 are my crewmates. You might win me. bButyou can't live survive wave of vaiven which will came after this. Who dares who show their gaze to Vaiven? Ready, in her words, there was confidence confidence one pride, the vaiven.

There was a thrum under her words — a history, a legacy; a storm waiting beyond the present clash. The hall felt thinner where she stood, as if reality were holding its breath for the wave she promised.

Auren laughed then, bright and childish, bouncing like a puppet with a wire. He leapt on scarred marble, his movement all play and menace, and his giggle unfurled like a ribbon through the noise:

Haha, like I care, you all are badd guys, I know, I know

He sounded pleased—delighted at being seen as the villain by a whole world. The purple flame winked, and for a moment his lunatic smile looked almost innocent, which made the scene feel worse: a child smiling before a storm.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.