"…I wonder how you'll feel when it dies first."

The words hadn't even finished leaving his mouth.

And he was gone.

The air exploded where Bruce had stood, the shockwave tearing apart the ground and throwing nearby beasts off balance. Every Lycan in range reacted instantly, alarms screaming through their instincts as their eyes snapped toward his last position.

But it was too late.

Bruce had already crossed the battlefield.

Not running.

Not charging.

Erasing distance with pure speed.

The beasts spun, claws slashing, jaws snapping at where he should have been, but Bruce was already past them, slipping through gaps that shouldn't have existed, his presence registering only as a fleeting pressure that brushed against their senses.

The Alpha's eyes widened.

It felt it.

That overwhelming killing intent, focused, sharp, absolute, bearing down on it alone.

Bruce's figure flickered into existence directly in front of the Alpha, Red humming eagerly as it shifted back into his grasp, turning into gloves that cooly wrapped around Bruce's palm as he moved.

The surrounding pack surged forward in panic, howls tearing from their throats as they rushed to intercept.

But Bruce had already committed, and this time, he wasn't giving them a chance to interfere.

He seized the Alpha by its werewolf-like hind legs and swung.

The motion was effortless. The Alpha's massive body became a bludgeon in his grasp, sweeping through the onrushing Lycans in a brutal arc as Bruce spun in place. Air detonated outward in a violent shockwave, pressure exploding from the sheer force behind the strike.

The ground beneath him cracked and caved, stone collapsing as dozens of beasts were torn from their feet and hurled away like broken dolls. They didn't even have time to howl.

The Alpha itself never got the chance to resist.

Bruce didn't hesitate. Holy Rupture activated instantly, flooding the Alpha's body with destructive healing energy. Though it was SS-Ranked, on the same tier as Bruce, its existence level was undeniably higher. Perhaps it was because Bruce had yet to undergo his trial, yet to awaken his own Authority.

There was resistance, subtle but real, pushing back against the invasive force tearing through its body.

But resistance like that only meant one thing.

More mana.

As long as one have enough mana to force through the resistance, then the resistance is nothing.

And for Bruce, mana isn't a problem as he had no shortage of it.

BOOM!

There was no outward explosion, no spectacular display for the battlefield to witness. Just silent annihilation. The Alpha's heart and brain, the two most vital organs, ruptured simultaneously from within, their structures collapsing before regeneration could even begin. The massive body went limp in Bruce's grasp, all tension draining away in a single instant.

It was over.

Bruce felt it immediately, and the surrounding beasts felt it too. Something fundamental vanished from the air, a pressure that had been holding everything together.

The atmosphere shifted, subtle yet unmistakable, as though a pillar had been removed from the world itself. Their Alpha was gone, and there would be no coming back from that.

Bruce released the corpse and exhaled softly. As it hit the ground, he glanced upward and noticed it, the blood moon above had dimmed slightly, its crimson glow losing intensity. The misty red aura that had cloaked the Lycans and wolves thinned, its oppressive presence weakened. It was still there, but far less potent than before.

The Alpha had been their king. Their core. Most likely the true boss of this dungeon. Its Authority had dwarfed theirs, binding them together and amplifying them as a unified whole.

Now it was gone.

And with it, the combined effectiveness of their Authority plummeted.

Not that it mattered.

Bruce had already gained immunity. Strong or weak, focused or scattered, their Authority meant nothing to him now.

He turned his gaze back to the battlefield, and the change was obvious. The beasts' eyes had lost their sharp focus, movements hesitating as coordination faltered. Growls overlapped without rhythm, instinct replacing command, chaos seeping into every motion.

Bruce smiled faintly.

"At least like this," he murmured under his breath, "it'll be harder for them to cooperate."

When the Alpha was alive, no matter how many times Bruce shattered their formation, whether through Vitality Collapse detonations or Red's bazooka form, it had always dragged them back into order within seconds. Again and again. An unbreakable anchor.

Now that anchor was gone.

Things were about to get much easier.

Bruce raised his hand and gave a simple signal. Ash, ever attentive, responded instantly, golden eyes burning as power gathered once more.

It was time to go back to work.

While Bruce had been locked in combat moments earlier, Ash had not been idle. Every A-Rank beast on the battlefield was already gone, reduced to scorched corpses and fading mana traces. What remained now were only monsters of a higher tier.

Every living beast left standing possessed S-Rank strength or above.

Against ordinary S-Rank beasts, Ash could still dominate. A sustained release of Soul Flame would eventually burn through their souls. It took time, but it worked. That method, however, only applied to the Shadow Wolves, whose survival relied purely on stealth and evasion rather than regeneration.

The Moon Lycans and Moon Wolves were different.

Their Blood Moon Authority granted them absurd, all-rounded healing. Any damage dealt to their souls by Ash's Soul Flame was rapidly neutralized, washed away as if it had never existed. The flame could still hurt them, but pain alone wasn't enough to kill.

And Ash didn't have infinite mana.

Even as a dragon, even with a mana pool far beyond normal creatures, there were limits. Once its expenditure reached a dangerous threshold, Ash made the correct call. It took to the sky, staying out of reach, supporting Bruce from above instead of forcing a prolonged exchange it couldn't afford.

Soul Flame rained down intermittently. Dragon fire followed.

Not to kill, but to disrupt.

To scatter formations.

To break momentum.

To force hesitation.

Between each burst, Ash focused on recovery, drawing in ambient mana, stabilizing its reserve, regaining as much strength as possible in the shortest time available.

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