While the Dhaevrak's warriors battled against the overwhelming horde of humanoid monsters, everything within the Redwood Basin was on the verge of collapse.

Inside the chieftain's hut, Valak's three wives lay unconscious upon the wooden floor.

The skull hanging upon the wall was etched with strange, glowing marks that pulsed faintly, and those very markings appeared to be the source of their unnatural slumber.

Without warning, the marks intensified in brilliance. Purple flames ignited within the eye sockets and the maw of the drake.

The skull shuddered violently, its jaw creaking open as it released a thunderous roar. The hut trembled under the sound, and streams of purple flame erupted from the drake's maw. Those flames slammed into the bone pillars supporting the chieftain's hut, and identical glowing symbols rapidly spread across them.

The bone pillars quaked as fractures spiderwebbed along their surfaces. The walls of the hut began to convulse, and moments later, both the pillars and the structure itself collapsed in a deafening crash.

Flames engulfed the scattered bones, reshaping them and fusing them, forming the body of the drake.

The headless body strode toward the fallen skull, lifted it, and seamlessly reattached it to its neck. Once whole, the bone drake unleashed another deafening roar.

Lowering its massive head, it surveyed its surroundings. Former hunters stood encircling it, their expressions tense, eyes sharp with vigilance, and hands clenched firmly around their weapons.

"What is this thing?" Asked one of them.

"It doesn't matter! We have to stop it!" Another yelled in answer.

The former hunters were the same individuals who had once fought the purple decades ago, some even more than a century prior, yet they were no longer the warriors they had once been.

With advancing age, a person did not merely lose the raw talent they once possessed; their experience dulled, their instincts slowed, and their will — which once ignited and sustained their aura — had weakened as well.

Their only advantage now lay in their numbers. However, the bone drake was neither human nor truly alive. Its very existence served a singular purpose: to tear away Haden's focus.

The Remnant had never used it before because, unlike the necromancy he practised through the creation of cores, this construct demanded a constant supply of energy drawn from the purple flame that he had under his control.

Centuries earlier, he had placed the bone pillars and the drake's head within the Redwood Basin, waiting patiently for the day he would put them to use in his schemes.

Because of this preparation, he had been unable to form a core and was instead forced to rely on an advanced form of elven sorcery, one he could wield without ether.

The red and black mountains held almost no ether at all, and even the scant traces that existed were consumed by the elven barrier shielding the purple fog forest.

The bone drake did not move immediately. It merely scanned its surroundings in apparent confusion, but then the glowing marks flared to near blinding intensity, and it lunged toward the former hunters.

Aura wrapped around their bodies as they confronted the colossal beast, yet even their enhanced strength proved useless against the overwhelming might of a creature dragged back from the depths of hell.

Its tail swept through them with terrifying force, reducing several nearby huts to rubble.

The former hunters retaliated with axes, spears, hammers, and whatever weapons they could wield, but their strikes failed to leave even the faintest mark upon its bones.

One of the former hunters hurled a chain around the bone drake's neck and pulled with all his might. The others quickly seized the chain as well, joining their strength together as they strained against it.

Feeling the resistance, the bone drake lifted its left leg and brought its massive claw crashing down toward them.

The former hunters stared in horror as the enormous claws descended, yet none of them released their grip on the chain. They understood that if they let go, the ones who would perish would be their children and their wives.

They squeezed their eyes shut and roared as they pulled with desperate resolve, "Glory to the Gods!!"

The claw struck the ground. The earth shook violently, and several nearby huts were torn from their foundations, yet the former hunters remained unharmed.

They opened their eyes, stared at the halted claw, and slowly shifted their gaze toward a figure that appeared human but was covered in short, dark fur. The feet bent in a manner more befitting a beast than a person, and a dark tail swayed behind her.

From that alone, they immediately recognised who she was.

She was none other than the Descendant of Fury — Haria, the Panther.

Haria, holding back the bone drake with both arms, glanced at the former hunters and growled, "Get everyone out of here!"

The former hunters did not dare argue with a god's descendant. They released the chain and sprinted away as fast as they could.

The moment they cleared the area, she hissed.

"Let's play somewhere else."

Yellow, bestial aura surged from Haria as she released a furious roar and hurled the bone drake toward the east.

The huts in that direction had already been evacuated, making it the safest place to continue the battle.

The ground trembled as the bone drake crashed down. Its bones rattled loudly as it struggled to rise, but before it could move even an inch, something black shot toward it and delivered a devastating punch to its side.

The bones exploded into fragments, yet instead of scattering away, they were drawn back together, stitching themselves into place, though a visible gap remained where the blow had landed.

Haria grinned and muttered, "So I just have to grind it to the dust?"

She turned toward the direction where she could feel Haden's gaze and shouted with gleeful confidence, "I got this... Father."

Haden, who had been observing everything, allowed a faint smile to surface before turning away to resume his own battle.

At that moment, an eerie laugh reached his ears.

The Remnant's sinister laughter echoed through the area, and he muttered, "I shall meet thee again… though next time, it shall be in a newer body."

Haden frowned, and suddenly, the Remnant collapsed to his knees. Purple flames erupted from his body, spilling outward and flooding the strange circle carved into the ground, its surface etched with countless unfamiliar symbols formed by their clash.

From the very beginning, Haden had only moved in the way The Remnant had intended him to move.

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