As they flew over the Bear-Terror, all of them launched their attacks while free-falling.

Nikki's flames erupted from her feet, streams of fire that poured down onto the bear's back. Scath's spear quickly multiplied into six crimson-purple spears that all rain down simultaneously and pierce through the bear's hide from above, pinning it to the root.

Then Joseph's wind drift pushed them further, extending their flight beyond the Bear-Terror's position.

As they passed, they fully passed Bear-Terror, a shadow spear rushed out from the bark and wrapped around Reinhard's leg. Then he was pulled back onto the roots, making him crash into the bark, and then purple-black energy erupted from him.

The gravity well swept over the others before pulling them back on the root's surface, and then they continued sliding down.

Two Tonothus appeared ahead, standing on intersecting roots that created a wider platform. Their horns lowered before they charged toward the group, side by side, blocking the entire path with their bulk.

"Split again!"

The group divided again.

Reinhard and Scath went left onto a smaller root that branched off, whileJoseph and Nikki went right onto another branch. Marie and Roana stayed on the main trunk, sliding between the two bulls.

The Tonothus tried to split their attention.

The left bull turned toward Reinhard and Scath, while the right bull faced Joseph and Nikki, but none could cover Marie and Roana effectively.

Marie's hands glowed with light gathered between her palms, a light that condensed into a sphere that blazed like a beautiful light.

Purging Lance.

She thrust her hands forward, and the sphere shot out, expanding as it flew, becoming a wave of golden-white radiance that washed over both Tonothus simultaneously.

The bulls bellowed as they were blinded, their golden eyes unable to process the overwhelming brightness.

Roana followed immediately with her hands swept outward. Ice erupted from the root's surface beneath the bull's hooves, and it spread rapidly, offering no traction.

The Tonothus's hooves slipped with their bulk working against them. They crashed down onto their sides with impacts that shook the entire root system while tumbling, spinning, and unable to stop.

The group's three paths converged again and continued moving down. But then they slightly frowned as they saw Bone Wyvern circling the shaft.

Its twenty-foot frame flew in lazy spirals, bone armor plates gleaming in the golden light. It spotted them descending above it before flapping its wings once and rushing up towards them.

"Can't dodge in the air!" Scath's observation was accurate. While sliding, their movement was constrained to the root's surface.

Reinhard frowned as his hand shot out.

Every shadow in the area responded, whether it be cast by roots, by the group themselves, or by the wyvern's own massive form. Black spears erupted from all of them simultaneously and rushed towards the Bone Wyvern.

But the wyvern's bone armor deflected most with it, creating a barrier of wind around it. The spears that got through the wind would be too weak and damaged to pierce through the wyvern armor. The Phantasm Beast's momentum barely slowed, but it kept diving as its jaws opened to reveal rows of teeth.

Nikki leapt from the root before flames erupted from her back and wings of fire appeared as she rushed downwards to the Wyvern. Her hands thrust forward with streams of golden-orange flame poured from her palms, directly into the wyvern's open mouth.

Nikki's flames crashed into the Phantasm Beast mouth and burned it before Nikki then flipped her body. Her leg curved through the air before she hacked down and crashed her leg that erupted in flames into the top side of the Bone Wyvern head.

The impact sent the Bone Wyvern shooting down just as a gray lance rushed past her and pierced into the wyvern's open mouth.

Nikki then landed back on the root as she created a flame wing to glide back onto the root surface and return sliding. The others quickly caught up with her before Joseph narrowed his eyes, and then he saw way down below.

"More Phantasm beasts!"

All of them blinked when they saw Werefangs climbing up, Cheronos leaping between smaller roots, and even a few creatures they hadn't encountered before.

But the pattern was set as the group moved as one unit despite being spread across the descending surface.

Scath's weapons cleared the path ahead, Marie's light blinded threats, and Joseph's wind and lance struck from unexpected angles. Nikki's flames burned anything that got too close.

Roana's ice created obstacles for pursuing beasts and platforms for the group. Reinhard's gravity and shadows controlled the battlefield's flow.

They slid past platforms where Phantasm Beasts gathered.

Some tried to intercept, but those that did met coordinated attacks from at least two or three of them working together. A beast would leap toward Scath only to be frozen by Roana's ice mid-jump. Another would charge Joseph but find itself redirected by Reinhard's gravity into Marie's purging lance.

The coordination was seamless. From knowing exactly what each person could do and how their abilities complemented each other.

The descent continued as they rushed past the second floor or what remained of it. They moved past collapsed laboratories and broken equipment, offices torn apart by roots, holding cells with bars bent and twisted.

The third floor rushed past in a blur of more roots, more golden veins, more Phantasm Beasts that tried and failed to stop them.

Then, the fourth floor or close to it began showing up as the golden light was brighter here, shining from the root's base where it had punched through into the underground chamber.

Their descent slowed as the root's angle decreased. They shifted from sliding to running, boots finding purchase on the increasingly horizontal surface.

And then to their surprise, they saw the main route didn't take them directly to the fourth floor.

Instead, it extended outward at the third floor level, with it branching horizontally through what remained of the walls. This created a bridge of living wood that stretched across the destroyed space.

Reinhard's boots hit the horizontal surface, which transitioned from descending to running forward, in a single stride. Behind him, the others made the same adjustment with the momentum carrying them from slide to sprint without breaking pace.

The root stretched ahead like a tunnel of black wood. Smaller branches curved overhead, creating a canopy that blocked the view of floors above. Golden veins shine along every surface and provide the only light in the enclosed space.

But then they saw two Werefangs burst from shadows between smaller roots. Their golden eyes shone as they charged, but Scath's spear swept out.

The crimson-purple blade caught the first Werefang across its chest, throwing it sideways into a tangle of smaller branches. Joseph's lance followed immediately, piercing the second through its shoulder and pinning it against the root's surface.

They kept running.

The root began angling downward again, but not a slide this time, but as stairs combined with stone. The group rushed down at full speed with a loud sound echoing as their boots slammed down into the bark as they descended.

A Cheronos waited at the bottom with it crouching on the final step, claws digging into wood, ready to pounce. But Nikki's flames burst from her hands and engulfed the beast before it jumped and made it scream out in pain.

They finally reached the fourth floor with an actual platform of stone rather than wood, and ahead, a corridor stretched into darkness.

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