'Compared to him… I'm nothing.' Gunther thought with a bitter smile.

Never once in his twenty-five years of existence had Gunther believed a class more monstrous than his own could exist. Never once had he imagined someone several years younger would reach a realm so far beyond him that even comparison felt laughable. He had always been the one others measured themselves against.

And now,

It was him doing the measuring.

It hurt.

There was no denying that.

Being overtaken like this should have filled him with resentment, jealousy, even rage. That was the natural response. That was what pride demanded.

But instead,

Excitement stirred in his chest.

Gunther frowned internally.

'…This isn't normal.'

He should hate this feeling. Yet he didn't. The thought that someone like Bruce existed, someone who shattered his understanding of power, made his blood run hot in a way he hadn't felt in years.

Which only made it stranger.

He opened his mouth, about to ask the obvious question, whether the dungeon had been fully cleared,

When Bruce's voice cut through the air.

Cold.

Sharp.

Absolute.

"Get out."

Gunther blinked. "What?"

Bruce didn't turn around.

"MOVE! NOW!!!"

Gunther's eyes widened in shock, confusion flashing across his face as he took an instinctive step forward.

Then,

A sound echoed from the far end of the dungeon.

A shriek.

Loud and deafening. It sounded weird and wrong...

It pierced straight through the air and into the soul, scraping against Gunther's mind like rusted metal dragged across bone. In the same instant, an overwhelming aura descended upon the dungeon, crashing down like a collapsing sky.

Gunther froze.

His body locked up completely.

Sweat poured down his face in thick rivulets as his heart began to pound violently against his ribs. His lungs felt tight, each breath shallow and strained, as if the very act of breathing had become dangerous.

'Move… body move, I have to get out of here!' he screamed inwardly at his body.

But nothing happened, he was frozen.

Gunther willed his body to move with everything he had. His will, something he had always been immeasurably proud of, pushed and strained against invisible restraints.

But it didn't matter.

He couldn't move.

Only then did he realize the truth.

He wasn't forcing his body to act.

He was begging it.

This was fear.

Pure. Crippling. Absolute.

The aura of the Invader was simply too insane.

Then he saw it.

From the far end of the scorched dungeon, cutting through the heat haze, a figure emerged.

A mantis. It was different from the others.

Jet-black exoskeleton that swallowed light. Wings unfurled behind it with effortless grace, the air distorting faintly as it hovered above the ruined ground. Its eyes glowed with an ominous, red intelligent glint, cold, ancient, and utterly predatory.

The moment its gaze locked onto Gunther,

His knees nearly buckled.

He shrank inwardly, drenched in sweat, terror flooding his senses so violently it drowned out all thought. He tried to scream.

No sound came out.

His throat refused to work.

Bruce had sensed it long before it appeared.

His jaw clenched as the oppressive aura pressed down harder, sharper, focused now.

Without hesitation, Bruce pivoted and drove his leg backward with brutal precision.

The kick landed squarely in Gunther's chest.

The impact sent Gunther flying like a cannonball, his massive body tearing through the air and slamming straight into the dungeon portal behind him. Space warped violently as the portal swallowed him whole, ejecting him back into Velmora in a flash of distorted light.

Gunther was gone.

The portal snapped shut.

Bruce straightened slowly, eyes lifting to meet the hovering black mantis as the dungeon trembled faintly beneath their combined presence.

The real fight was about to begin.

And then...

SCREECH!

The sound tore through the dungeon like rusted metal dragged violently across glass.

The mantis' wings snapped open fully, jagged and jet-black, their edges vibrating so violently that the air around them fractured into visible distortions. With a single beat, the creature vanished from its position, reappearing mid-charge as it shot toward Bruce with insane speed. Its wings fluttered wildly, each vibration producing a grinding, scraping shriek that clawed at the mind rather than the ears, filling the dungeon with raw predatory intent.

The pressure spiked.

The dungeon walls groaned.

Reality itself seemed to recoil.

Before Bruce could even fully process the movement, translucent blue panels detonated into existence before his vision.

[WARNING!]

[Extreme Hostile Entity Detected]

[Threat Level: UNKNOWN]

[Multiple Soul Signatures Confirmed]

[Foreign Authority Interference Detected] [Dungeon Stability: CRITICAL]

[Recommendation: IMMEDIATE RETREAT]

Another warning followed, harsher, almost frantic.

[WARNING!]

[Entity Classification: INVADER-HOST]

[Authority Overlap Detected]

[Existence Level EXCEEDS LOCAL PARAMETERS]

The panels shattered as quickly as they appeared.

Vaelith's voice slammed into his mind next, no longer calm, no longer analytical.

[Bruce!]

For the first time since he had met it, Vaelith sounded afraid.

[You know what to do, if it touches you its over...]

The words carried urgency, panic tightly restrained beneath forced composure. Of all outcomes, this was the one Vaelith feared most. If Bruce died here, everything ended. Evolution. Velmora's future. All of it.

Bruce didn't hesitate.

No ceremony. No buildup.

He raised his palm.

The mantis was less than three meters away.

The instant it saw that palm, felt the familiar, absolute threat radiating from it, the creature reacted.

Its wings spasmed.

Its charge halted mid-flight as if it had struck an invisible wall. For the first time since its appearance, hesitation flashed across those glowing, intelligent eyes. The mantis twisted sharply, wings angling as it attempted to turn away, to retreat, to escape.

'Too late.' Bruce smiled.

"Where do you think you're going," he said calmly. "Come to papa, Stupid Invader."

He could feel it now, clearly.

Two souls.

One was the mantis itself, powerful, refined, honed to lethal perfection.

The other,

Red.

Foreign.

Terrifying.

Coiled tightly around the first like a parasite wearing flesh.

There was no doubt anymore.

This was it.

'Heal: Vitality Collapse.'

BOOM!

The explosion didn't expand outward at first.

It imploded.

The mantis' body convulsed violently as its internal vitality was crushed inward, compressed beyond stability. Cracks spider-webbed across its jet-black exoskeleton from the inside, glowing a blinding white as impossible amounts of energy tried to escape containment.

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