Ethan was caught in the pull of the skill, his body moving without his consent, yet his senses remained painfully clear. A sharp jolt of shock ran through him, cold and electric.

'What the hell is this?'

He lifted his gaze to the sky. The ink-black clouds overhead had shifted into a deep, ominous crimson in the blink of an eye, thick and oppressive, as if the world itself had been stained with blood. He did not remember this happening the last time he had used the spell.

Now the crimson clouds churned violently, folding in on themselves as they gathered into a single shape high above. Slowly, unmistakably, the outline of a massive panther's head emerged from the storm, its eyes shut tight, calm and regal, like a great lion sleeping beneath a blood-soaked sky.

On the ground, the Fortress Commander was almost upon Lyla, less than ten meters behind her. Its massive weapon, nearly three meters long, was already raised, the blade angled forward, ready to close the final distance with its next step.

"Ahhh!" Lyla cried as she dodged wildly to the side. The gap between them was far too small, close enough that she could feel the pressure of the commander's presence behind her. Even so, she did not panic. First, her trust in Ethan was absolute, rooted deep enough that it did not waver even now. Second, she still held a final life-saving card she had yet to use, the archer's disengaging leap.

That skill shattered all movement-restricting effects, launching her thirty meters backward in an instant, then granting her a full hundred percent movement speed increase for seven seconds after landing. It was her last resort, the move she saved for moments when death was only a breath away.

As Lyla bent her knees, muscles tensing as she prepared to twist and hurl herself backward, Ethan suddenly shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos.

"Lyla, attack!"

She turned instinctively at his command, and in that single instant, she saw it too. Awe hit her like a physical blow, and her body froze in place.

Ethan's panther form split apart without warning, dividing into eight identical specters. They appeared in a perfect ring around the Fortress Commander, surrounding it from every direction. The commander's arm, frozen mid-swing with its enormous axe, locked in place as if time itself had seized hold of it, trapping the killing blow inches from completion.

Then the eight panther phantoms moved.

They erupted into a storm of slashing claws, their movements frantic and merciless. Every swipe tore through the air, leaving behind streaks of blood-red light, violent and overwhelming.

Ethan was Level 68 now, and the dynamic skill embedded within the Twilight War Spear had awakened a new property. The Forbidden Spell he was unleashing at this very moment belonged to the fourth dynamic attribute of the weapon.

Equipping this item grants Panther Form the skill "Forbidden: Frenzied Onslaught." Lock onto your target for 6.8 seconds, unleashing chaotic fury as you attack with your claws. Each strike deals damage equal to 2% of the target's maximum HP. Final damage is determined by your attack speed. Cooldown, 30 days.

However, since his return, Ethan had never taken the time to carefully review his own stats or skill descriptions. Originally, the final line of that attribute had read that using this skill would place the other form-specific Forbidden Spells on the weapon into cooldown.

That line was gone.

The same was true for the others.

Bear Form, Forbidden: Roar of Wrath.

Owl Form, Forbidden: Starfall Barrage.

The final restrictions on those skills had vanished as well, leaving behind a quiet, unsettling absence.

Dragged forward by the momentum of the skill, Ethan attacked without restraint, his claws moving faster than conscious thought. The skill lasted roughly seven seconds this time. As the damage numbers exploded from the Fortress Commander's health bar, he realized something strange. The surrounding phantoms were not dealing any damage of their own. The massive chunks being carved out of the commander's HP came solely from his real body, his true attacks.

The phantoms, then, were likely nothing more than a locking mechanism, or perhaps just an elaborate visual effect layered over the skill.

Yet he clearly remembered using this same ability back in the Sea of Death. At that time, it had felt entirely different. All eight phantoms had dealt damage together. Every strike had left eight separate wounds, cut deep into bone, tearing apart that Blood Clan puppet until it bled uncontrollably. Back then, he had even felt as though his consciousness could flow between the eight forms, as if each phantom were a true extension of himself.

Using the skill here in Ethereal felt different, subtly but unmistakably so.

Seeing the Fortress Commander locked in place, Lyla continued retreating backward, but she did not waste a single step. Her movements were fluid and precise, her fingers flying across the string of Frostbound Reverie as she unleashed a rapid succession of attacks, chaining together every offensive skill she had without hesitation.

Above the commander's head, damage numbers exploded one after another.

-15466

-2,298,542

-2,298,542

-5466

-2,298,542

-9466

The devastating hits in the two-point-two million range all came from Ethan. Each strike ripped away an enormous, visible portion of the commander's health bar, the loss occurring in massive, clean chunks that made Ethan's heart pound.

The Fortress Commander had a total of 114,927,100 HP.

Every one of his attacks was dealing exactly two percent of its maximum health.

'This thing's health pool is insane.'

A cold sense of dread crept into Ethan's chest. He had expected the fortress commander to be strong, but not to this extent. He did not even know its attack power yet, but this health alone would already be a nightmare for any raiding guild, even a top-tier one.

His thoughts immediately jumped to Leo and the others. The fortress he had sent them to attack was also classified as a high-tier target. If this commander had over a hundred million HP, what about the one they were facing? And that was not even counting the other elite NPC defenders stationed inside the fortress.

What if they were already being wiped out over there?

The anxiety dug deeper, tightening his chest. His claws moved faster, his attack speed climbing even higher as he pushed the skill to its limit.

"Lyla, go get Celia!" Ethan shouted. Lyla's damage was solid, but against this kind of health pool, ten or twenty thousand per hit meant almost nothing.

"Got it!" Lyla replied instantly.

She activated her disengaging leap without hesitation, her body snapping backward as the skill triggered. Distance opened up between her and the battlefield in an instant. The moment she landed, the one hundred percent movement speed buff kicked in, and she sprinted straight toward the fortress gates, her figure blurring as she vanished into the chaos.

Ethan stayed locked onto the commander, his mind chanting desperately in rhythm with his strikes.

'Faster, faster, come on, faster. Almost. Almost there. Faster, damn it.'

His eyes flicked constantly between the shrinking duration of his Forbidden Spell and the rapidly falling health bar in front of him, every second stretching painfully long.

Then, without warning, a sharp sound echoed across the world.

[DING… Global Announcement: The world's first Advanced-Tier Fortress Commander has been slain. Slayers: NotADruid, Lyla Silverwood, Tears of the Fallen!]

…

'What?'

In that single moment, the entire game world froze.

Player concurrency in Ethereal was at its absolute peak. The new expansion patch had just gone live with a real-time in-game update, and countless players had logged in early, waiting eagerly for this exact moment. Every major guild across the globe had selected their own target fortress, and battles were already raging everywhere.

This included the Renegade Alliance.

Leo, Victor, and the rest of them froze for a heartbeat, their movements stopping completely.

Across countless battlefields, thousands of players suddenly forgot to dodge the boulders, arrows, and spell fire raining down from fortress walls. Bodies dropped instantly as stunned players were crushed or pierced where they stood.

"Eyes on the prize, people!" Leo's voice thundered through the raid channel, the first to snap out of the shock. "The boss, the boss lady, and the Honorary Leader just three-manned a high-tier fortress! Are we here to eat shit?!"

That furious shout ripped through the haze clouding everyone's minds. In just those few seconds of stunned hesitation, over two thousand members of their own alliance had already been wiped out.

Similar scenes were unfolding across other battlefields. Many guilds that had been barely holding the line collapsed entirely in those brief moments of distraction, their raids ending in total annihilation.

Williams and Victor recovered right after Leo, quickly barking out commands, while Leafshade scrambled to reorganize their forces and stabilize the frontline.

As for Leo himself, he leaned casually against a nearby cask of wine, striking the pose of a carefree master, his staff resting over one shoulder. Dressed in practical combat gear and wearing an oversized hat, he looked oddly impressive from a distance.

But beneath the shadow of that wide brim, his expression was anything but relaxed.

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.