The moment stretched, taut as a bowstring. Resmond saw the serpent's maw move, heard the deep, subsonic rumble, but the words that formed in his mind sounded clear and foreign. «Welcome. We've been expecting a delivery.»

His blood turned to ice, then fire.

"Tia! Species! Analysis, now!" he barked, not taking his eyes off the galactic orbs staring him down.

Beside him, Tia's diagnostic crystal was humming at a fever pitch, its light stuttering erratically. "I—I don't know! It's not in any registry! The mana signature is… it's draconic, serpentine, elemental, and something else entirely! It's a new species, or a rare evolution! The crown… the crown is radiating artefact-level energy!"

Adam watched the humans' startled, fearful reactions. 'Ah. The telepathy is one-way unless I force a link. They didn't understand the 'delivery' joke. Pity. But the sight of them well-armed, armored, glowing with potions and magic was too tempting. After the pathetic Corpse-Eaters, this was a true feast.'

"No matter. Alice, Ignis, Lilith—harvest time," he broadcast to his team, a spike of predatory glee cutting through his annoyance. "Fresh, powerful points. And they brought their own containers."

With coordinated suddenness that belied their lack of formal training, Adam's family attacked.

"They're moving! Aggressive! No communication intent!" Derek the ranger shouted, loosing an arrow that Alice phased through with Void Step.

"What in the abyss is that crown?! Since when do monsters wear artefacts?!" Glock roared, his crossbow-arm whirring as he fired a bolt sheathed in null-stone at Adam. It pinged harmlessly off Monarch's Aegis.

"It's intelligent! It's using the artefact! Eliminate the supports, capture the serpent if possible! It might know what happened here!" Resmond commanded, his voice cutting through the chaos. His order was cold, tactical, but his eyes kept darting to that serpent.

"You heard the man! Diamond wedge, suppress and destroy!" Adel yelled. The team moved with terrifying synergy.

Ignis, with a joyous roar, opened with a Solar Flare at the center of their formation. «BURNY TIME!»

"Barrier: Frostward Aegis!" Pix chanted, slamming her hands together. A dome of shimmering ice erupted, deflecting and dispersing the fire blast into steam. The temperature in the clearing plummeted.

"Thanks, Pix!" Jeff called, already blurring forward, knives aimed for Alice's legs. "This panther's mine!"

Alice merely hissed, Void Bolts peppering the ground around him as she danced away, her form flickering. «Annoying gnat.»

Lilith chose a more insidious approach. Umbral Silk, nearly invisible in the low light, shot out not to bind, but to slice. It wrapped around the ankle of Tama, the arcanist, who was preparing a binding spell. With a psychic yank, Lilith pulled, intending to dismember.

"AHH! My leg!"

"Silk-cutter!"Zen bellowed, his nullification-glowing fists slamming down on the silk strands, severing them before they could cut to the bone. The force still tore flesh. "Tama, potion, now! Derek, cover her!"

Derek's arrows, enchanted to pierce darkness, streaked towards Lilith, forcing her to retreat behind a fungal pillar.

Meanwhile, Max the shield-bearer had planted himself in front of Resmond, his tower shield glowing with holy light. "The serpent is focusing on you, Resmond!"

Indeed, Adam had decided to test the leader. He ignored the others for a moment, using Abyssal Glide to circle with blinding speed, then unleashed a volley of Ember Shard Shots at Resmond.

"Radiant Parry!" Resmond's longsword flared with golden light, not blocking the shards, but deflecting them in a shower of sparks. The impact still drove him back a step, his boots digging furrows in the soft ground. Strong. So strong.

"Binding spell: Chains of the Mountain!" Ken, the other heavy infantryman, roared from the side. Thick, stone-like chains erupted from the ground, aiming to coil around Adam's massive body.

Adam felt them snag, his speed faltering for a crucial second. Earth magic. Clever.

"Now, Resmond!" Adel screamed, darting in from the flank, her lightning swords aiming for Adam's eyes.

Resmond saw his opening. With a cry that held all his grief and fury, he channeled his mana into his blade, the steel turning white-hot. "Solarius Cleave!" He leaped, bringing the sword down in an arc meant to bisect the serpent's skull.

Adam's galactic eyes narrowed. He didn't dodge. Instead, he met the blade with the armored crown of his head, activating Monarch's Aegis to its fullest. His obsidian scales hardened further, glowing with a deep, volcanic light as they prepared to repel the holy strike.

CLANG-SSSHHH!

A cataclysmic sound erupted as sun-forged steel met legendary defense. A wave of searing light and concussive force exploded outward. Resmond's blade did not bite deep; instead, it met a barrier of near-impenetrable scale, volcanic heat, and earthen resilience. Worse, a portion of the kinetic and holy energy rebounded, transmuted by Monarch's Aegis into a wave of fiery feedback that rippled up the blade.

Resmond was thrown back, his arms numb, his gauntlets smoldering. He skidded across the ground, his perfect strike utterly negated. The serpent's head hadn't even been cut. A faint, glowing line on one scale was the only mark.

Adam grinned, a terrifying sight. «Good swing,» the serpent's voice echoed in Resmond's mind, intimate and mocking. «But your delivery is… lacking.»

"Resmond!" Tia cried out, her diagnostic crystal flashing with alarm as she read the spike of energy from the serpent's defensive backlash.

The other team members faltered for a split second, their disciplined focus shaken by the sight of their leader's ultimate technique being repelled without visible injury.

Resmond pushed himself to his feet, his breathing heavy but his gaze burning with renewed intensity. He shook out his numb arm, a grim smile touching his lips. "Don't just stand there! I'm fine!" he barked, his voice cutting through their concern. "Its hide is harder than I anticipated. I underestimated it. It won't happen again."

"Then get serious, Knight of Solaria!" Adel shouted, parrying a Void Bolt from Alice with a crackle of lightning.

"Right," Resmond muttered, his expression hardening. He raised his longsword before him, point towards the sky. Golden light, purer and more intense than before, began to coalesce around him, not just on the blade, but engulfing his entire body. "Blessing of the Dawn's Vanguard!" he chanted. His aura sharpened, his muscles coiled with enhanced power, and his speed seemed to visibly increase. The skill wasn't just an attack; it was a comprehensive stat booster.

With a roar that was more a shout of focused will than anger, he vanished from his spot. Not teleportation, but pure, enhanced speed. He reappeared beside Adam in a blur of golden light, his sword already in a devastating horizontal slash aimed at the joint where the serpent's wing met his body—a perceived weak point.

Adam's Celestial Calculus processed the threat instantly. He was fast, but Resmond was faster now. He couldn't fully dodge. He twisted, taking the brunt of the empowered strike on his heavily scaled flank. Monarch's Aegis flared again, dispersing and reflecting a portion of the holy-aspected force, but the sheer kinetic impact was staggering. A scale cracked, and a line of searing pain laced across Adam's side.

'He can hurt me.'

While Adam was momentarily preoccupied with Resmond's assault, the rest of the human team capitalized.

"Ignis, watch out!" Adam warned, but it was a fraction too late.

Pix, having neutralized Ignis's opening flare, wasn't finished. "Coordinated assault! Derek, now!"

Derek nocked a special arrow, its tip crackling with captured storm clouds. "Shockwater Piercer!" He fired. At the same moment, Pix chanted, "Aqua Lens: Amplify!" A sphere of water formed around the arrow mid-flight, merging with and supercharging its electricity.

The enhanced projectile struck Ignis square in the chest just as she was about to unleash another Solar Flare. Water doused her flames and the amplified electricity coursed through her scales. She let out a pained, surprised yelp, her body convulsing as the current locked her muscles. She crashed to the ground, steam rising from her body, momentarily paralyzed.

"IGNIS!" Adam roared, trying to turn to help, but Resmond was on him again, a relentless barrage of golden slashes forcing him to defend.

«Do not underestimate these humans, Adam!» Lilith's urgent psychic voice cut through. «They are not like ordinary humans! They are coordinated, and they are targeting our weaknesses!»

As if to prove her point, Jeff the rogue had circled behind, not attacking Lilith directly, but throwing a handful of alchemical pellets at the base of the fungal pillar she was using for cover. "Flashpowder Incendiary!"

The pellets exploded in a burst of intense heat and blinding light, specifically designed to burn and disorient. Lilith's Umbral Silk, vulnerable to intense heat, sizzled and recoiled. The flash seared her sensitive eyes, and she let out a sharp psychic hiss of pain, retreating deeper into the shadows but now visibly hampered.

«They are exploiting elemental advantages with precision!» Lilith reported, her voice tense. «The drake is weak to combined water and lightning! My silk and eyes are vulnerable to intense flash-fires!»

Tia, observing from a protected position, was rapidly analyzing. "Their coordination is instinctual, not drilled! Exploit the gaps! Max, pin the serpent with Ken! Keep it off Resmond! Zen, you're with me on the panther—nullify its void phasing! Glock, suppressing fire on the spider, don't let it weave! Leo! Scroll of Mana Weave Disruption and High-Grade Mana Potions, now! We're burning through reserves!"

At the rear, the young porter Leo, his face pale but set in determination, didn't fumble. His two years of life-or-death dungeon runs shone through. In one smooth motion, he dropped his pack, ripped it open, and pulled out a specific, rune-sealed scroll and three vials of deep blue potion. He slapped the scroll into Tia's waiting hand and began distributing the potions with practiced efficiency to Pix, Kael, and Derek—the heaviest mana users.

"Here! Don't drop it, Sir Derek!" he said, his voice steady despite the chaos.

"Good work, kid!" Derek said, downing the potion in one gulp and immediately nocking another arrow, his mana reserves visibly refreshing.

Tia unfurled the scroll, its runes glowing. "Disrupt the unnatural bonds!" she incanted, and a wave of pale green energy rippled outwards. It didn't cause damage, but Adam felt a strange static interfere with his telepathic link to his companions for a moment, and Alice's Void Step flickered uncertainly on her next dodge.

The battlefield had shifted. The initial surprise and Adam's overwhelming defense were now countered by the humans' superior tactics, versatility, and item usage. They were adapting, exploiting weaknesses, and managing their resources like a well-oiled machine.

The "walking points" had transformed into a formidable, thinking enemy.

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