The sound of approaching paws, a dozen at least, should have filled Adam with dread. But instead, a fierce, predatory grin stretched across his serpentine maw. The fatigue from the battle with the Alpha melted away, replaced by a surge of thrilling anticipation.

They're a delivery service.

"Alice! Ignis!" he projected, his voice sharp with command and excitement. "Don't let a single one escape! This is our chance to farm a massive amount of points! Ignis, your evolution is now!"

The promise of evolution ignited a fire in the Sun-Scale Lizard's eyes. She let out a determined chirp, her body tensing.

'The narrow space. We hold the line,' Alice's thought was a cool, strategic counterpoint to Adam's fervor. She was already calculating, her void-like form blending with the shadows near the cavern walls.

"Exactly!" Adam agreed. "They'll have to come at us a few at a time. Ignis, you're on crowd control. Burn the front lines! Alice, you bind any that try to flank or retreat. I'll be the anvil they break against."

The first of the pack burst into the cavern, three standard Fell Dire Wolves, slightly smaller than the Alpha but no less ferocious. Their eyes glowed with feral rage at the sight of their fallen leader and the three intruders.

"Ignis, now!" Adam roared.

"Solar Flare!" Ignis unleashed her blast, not at a single target, but as a wide-area flash. The leading wolves recoiled, momentarily blinded. Seizing the opportunity, Adam surged forward, his massive obsidian body filling the choke point. He didn't use fancy skills, he used his Strength and Scale Fortification, slamming into them like a living battering ram. Bones crunched under the impact.

One wolf managed to sink its teeth into his shoulder. The fangs scraped against his volcanic hide, and the beast yelped as Volcanic Hide activated, searing its muzzle with reflected fire. Adam shook it off with a contemptuous twist.

"Venom Mist!" He expelled a cloud of toxin into the confined space, the air thickening with the deadly vapor. The wolves caught in it began to choke and weaken, their movements turning sluggish.

Another wolf tried to leap over the melee, aiming for Ignis. But from the shadows, tendrils of absolute darkness shot up. Void Bind. The creature was snared in mid-air, crashing to the ground where Ignis promptly immolated it with a point-blank Cinder Dash.

It was a slaughter. The pack, driven by rage and pack instinct, threw themselves into the kill zone, only to be met with a wall of obsidian, searing sunlight, and binding shadows.

Adam felt his Evolution Points ticking upward with each kill, a satisfying chime in his mind. He saw Ignis glowing brighter and brighter, her form starting to shimmer with intense heat as her own evolution meter hit 99/100... then...

The last of the standard wolves fell. For a moment, there was silence, broken only by the crackle of dying flames and Ignis's panting. Her body was now radiating light like a miniature star, the air around her wavering with heat.

It's happening, Adam thought.

But from the dark tunnel, two new figures emerged. They hung back, studying the carnage. These were the Betas. And they were learning from their pack's mistake.

The two Beta wolves were a tier above the rest. They were nearly as large as the Alpha, their eyes gleaming with a cold, calculating intelligence rather than mindless fury. They didn't charge. They fanned out, one on each side of the cavern entrance, circling just beyond the range of Adam's Venom Mist, which was slowly dissipating.

Their focus wasn't solely on Adam anymore. Their yellow eyes were locked on Ignis, who was now at the center of a swirling vortex of heat and light. Her form was blurring, elongating, her scales cracking and reforming with a sound like shattering pottery. She let out a pained, ecstatic cry as raw power radiated from her.

'They're targeting Ignis! She's vulnerable!' Alice's telepathic warning was sharp with alarm. She materialized between Ignis and the nearest Beta, her fur bristling, a low, threatening growl rumbling in her chest.

"I see them," Adam hissed, his own body coiling, ready to intercept. The Betas were waiting for the perfect moment to strike, the exact second of transformation when Ignis would be completely defenseless.

The Beta on the left feinted a charge towards Adam, drawing his attention. It was a classic pincer maneuver. As Adam shifted to meet the threat, the Beta on the right exploded into motion. It didn't run in a straight line, it zig-zagged, using the corpses of its packmates as cover, its movements a blur of grey fur and lethal intent. It was aiming straight for the glowing, evolving core of Ignis.

"Alice, now!" Adam roared.

Alice didn't need the command. As the Beta lunged the final few feet, jaws wide open to snap Ignis's neck, Alice unleashed Void Bind. Shadows erupted from the ground, but the Beta was ready. It twisted in mid-air, its powerful legs kicking off a stalagmite, and the shadows only grazed its hind leg, slowing it for a split second instead of stopping it.

It was enough.

Adam didn't use a skill. He used his body as a shield. He threw himself in front of Ignis, presenting his fortified flank. The Beta's fangs sank deep into the muscle just behind his head, bypassing the toughest part of his Scale Fortification. Agony lanced through him, but his Volcanic Hide flared instantly. The Beta's muzzle sizzled and smoked, and it released its grip with a pained yelp.

But the distraction had worked. The first Beta, the one that had feinted, saw its opening. It lowered its head and unleashed its Gore-Horn Charge, aiming directly for Adam's exposed underbelly.

There was no time to dodge.

'This is going to hurt.'

The horns slammed into him with the force of a battering ram. Adam felt the air forced from his lungs, and a searing pain erupted in his gut. His Scale Fortification prevented a lethal impalement, but the tips of the horns broke through, drawing blood. He roared in pain and fury, his own Strength the only thing keeping him from being thrown aside.

The Beta, now gored on its own horns, struggled to free itself, its eyes wide with shock at Adam's resilience. They were locked in a deadly embrace.

And in that moment of stalemate, the light from Ignis reached its zenith, flaring so brightly it illuminated the entire cavern like a second sun.

The transformation was complete.

The light collapsed inwards, and where a Sun-Scale Lizard had been, now stood a new creature. She was larger, sleeker, and more powerful. Her scales were no longer merely golden; they were like molten lava, with patterns of brilliant orange and yellow that pulsed with inner heat. A crest of fiery spines ran down her back, and her tail ended in a blazing tip.

[Ignis has evolved into: Solar Drake Hatchling!]

Her eyes, now burning with ancient draconic intelligence, snapped open. She saw Adam, wounded and grappling with the Beta. She saw the other Beta, recovering from its burned muzzle, preparing to charge again.

A new, deeper, more resonant sound came from her—not a chirp or a hiss, but a true draconic shriek of pure, protective rage.

"YOU HURT HIM!"

Without a single command, she acted. Her Cinder Dash was no longer a simple charge; it was a meteor strike. She became a blur of incandescent fury, crossing the distance in an instant and slamming into the Beta that was goring Adam.

The impact was accompanied by a deafening BOOM and a wave of concussive heat that threw the beast off Adam and sent it crashing into the far wall, its fur and flesh on fire.

Adam gasped, free from the horns, his Blooming Vitality already kicking in, knitting his torn flesh. He looked at the newly evolved Ignis, then at the two Betas, one burning alive and the other staring in primal fear.

The tide had turned irrevocably. But the fight wasn't over. The second Beta, though terrified, was cornered and therefore twice as dangerous. It bared its fangs, a low, desperate growl building in its throat, ready to sell its life dearly.

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