Lilian, Aetheris, and Velyra positioned themselves in front of the giant lion, waiting for Alina to make her move. She had, in a way, delivered on her promise by sneaking them around using the secret pathway.

This made Lilian and Velyra wonder just how miserable they would have been if it had been a hide-and-seek game between Alina and the rest of their sisters.

Alina would have remained hidden for as long as she wanted without anyone finding her. Thankfully, they were now in on her scheme, so things wouldn't be too disadvantageous to them.

But for now, the pathways had helped them get close to the beast, and in less than a minute, they would attack. Naturally, that was a good use for Alina's shamelessness.

Just as the lion continued to rampage, the green formation that was previously raining down daggers appeared again. However, instead of manifesting daggers, this time, nine 5-meter-long spears appeared, each locked on a head.

The moment they locked on the lion, it sensed them and focused its full attention on them.

Alina smiled despite pouring almost half of her energy reserve into creating the nine spears. "Be ready."

She transmitted to her teammates. Then, when all of the lion's focus became rooted on her attack, she gestured forward, and the spears moved, each travelling with so much speed.

In under a second, the spears arrived before the nine heads.

"Now..."

The ground shook, and another spear, made from fire, erupted from the ground, shooting toward one of the nine heads. Lilian made her move, creating a bang. The spear moved, aiming for one of the eyes on the nine heads.

But she wasn't the only one who attacked. Aetheris also teleported and appeared in front of one of the heads just when the spear from Alina landed on a metallic coating on the lion's forehead.

His sword stabbed forward, aiming to pierce one of its eyes.

In that same moment, Velyra also appeared, aiming for yet another eye. All three, including the nine spears manifested by Alina, were aimed to injure the lion through the eye.

However, against all odds, the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion managed to defend against all the attacks, not even a single one finding its mark as they intended.

ROAR

The Nine-Headed Flaming Lion released a powerful roar as it was moved back from the bombardment Alina and her team had rained down on it.

Velyra and Aetheris, who went in for the attack, were blasted back. However, before they could crash into a mountain, a path opened, and they fell in.

Their one chance had been missed; however, they didn't seem to care. That was because just when they were blasted back, Veydris suddenly appeared from the void, and before the lion could make a move to stop him, his sword moved, coated in thick void energy.

The sword moved toward one eye, and before the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion could create countermeasures, a deep cut appeared on just one of its 18 eyes.

From within, blood gushed out, spraying into the air. Veydris was long gone by then.

"Velyra, the rest is on you."

Inside the fake mountain, Velyra and Aetheris ran back, escaping the fury of the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion, who had just sustained its first injury.

It had played its attacks and defence so well that, while it could have sustained many injuries from previous attacks, none of them managed to achieve their goal.

But unexpectedly, out of nowhere, a nobody left one of its eyes blinded, blood spraying out like a fountain.

Soon, however, it sensed why the bugs it was fighting were aimed at its eye the entire time.

A very dangerous sensation moved through its blood, then through the blinded eye, and before it could create any mental defences, it found itself battling brain assaults.

Velyra had moved 3 km back and tapped into the blood, moving it into the lion's brain and using its own blood to attack its brain.

She formed small needles from the blood and started poking its large brain.

It may have nine brains, but the moment one is affected, Velyra begins to slowly gain access to the other eight.

"Velyra and Aetheris, don't hold back your attacks," Alina instructed, and as she expected, the bombardments from Lilian and Aetheris grew even more devastating.

Slowly, as the minutes passed, one could tell the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion was slowing down. Aetheris had even taken on his giant form again, so his attacks were loaded with so much strength.

It's now bleeding in more than one place. Naturally, that allowed Velyra to increase her assaults. She even managed to blind a few eyes, allowing Aetheris and Lilian to have more blind spots to attack from.

Though it was extremely draining, the more blood that flowed out, the less energy Velyra needed to keep her attacks going.

Eventually, as Velyra's mental assault grew more ferocious, the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion was pushed back even further. But that didn't do much to show it was in danger.

That was the case until the sudden appearance of the Lost Knight Veydris caused it to lose one head.

Aetheris managed to leave a cut on the neck of one of the heads, so Veydris timed it, and when the opening presented itself, he attacked. Its head came clean off its body.

The moment that happened, Velyra let a smile appear on her beautiful face. With so much blood coming out from the severed neck, she basically had only one thing left to do.

"Blood Poison."

She activated the insidious innate talent she had awakened after her True Name awakening. It took effect the next second, causing the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion to start slowing down considerably.

In no time, its legs stopped moving. Then one of the heads rapidly swelled, becoming larger and puffier.

BOOM

Before long, the head exploded, leaving it only seven.

But in the next minute, those heads also exploded like a bunch of melons. Before long, all nine heads exploded, or more like the brains exploded, taking the heads with them.

When the last head exploded, the 120-meter-long, colossal body of the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion dropped, creating a powerful thud that sent a shockwave several km wide.

Far away, Vexthra and her sisters, along with the legion, cheered. But they weren't the only ones who did; the various warriors who came to support the fire country also cheered, seeing the behemoth drop dead.

While it pained many for not being the ones who brought down the Nine-Headed Flaming Lion, the fact that it is dead made them happy.

To most, protecting civilians' lives is all that matters. The rewards are nothing if the people are safe and sound. So the lion's dying was a good thing to them.

Alina deactivated all her formations, causing the playground she had built to crumble and return it to the barren ground it had been from the start.

Aetheris, on the other hand, walked to the beast's body and took the basketball-sized core radiating intense heat, storing it in his space ring.

When the people saw this, they became jealous; however, considering they had just witnessed what Alina and her team were capable of, they kept quiet and only continued to watch what they would do next.

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