When Zolton saw the Treant, shock froze him in place. But the moment black lightning crackled through the air, landing on the ice bear like a corrupted lance, that shock turned into fear.

He turned sharply toward his Ashfang Hyena—only to see it already retreating, its claws scraping against the ground as it fled the vicinity. In that instant, reality struck him hard. He would never get Lily for himself. Forget his brother—he couldn't even subdue the girl he desired so desperately. As that realisation settled in, his eyes caught the Treant's form beginning to dissipate, its towering body breaking apart into fading motes of energy.

"She is out of mana!" Zolton shouted, the words bursting from his throat before his mind could catch up.

Without thinking, his body moved on its own.

Fueled by a twisted urge to destroy what he could never possess, Zolton charged forward, sprinting straight toward Lily with murder in his heart. It only became easier when both Lily and Miho were distracted, their attention drawn elsewhere, their bodies turned away from his approach.

"If I can't get you," Zolton snarled, his eyes warped with obsession, "no one's gettin' you!"

He was only a few meters behind Lily—

BAM!

"FAAH!" Zolton spat blood midair as his body was launched sideways like a cannonball. His momentum snapped at a brutal ninety-degree angle, sending him flying more than fifty meters in a single second.

The Treant—its form already fading—had sensed Zolton's intent. With its still-visible arm, it delivered one final, merciless smack. In the very next moment, the Treant vanished completely, as if it had never been there at all.

"Huh?" Lily turned around, blinking as she saw nothing behind her.

"What happened, big sister?" Miho asked, confusion clear in her voice.

Lily shook her head slowly.

"I sensed Leo!" she exclaimed, her face lighting up with unrestrained joy, as though it were the happiest moment of her life. She completely forgot the strange sound she had heard just a second earlier.

A bit farther away, a crumpled piece of wreckage lay smashed against a tree. Zolton's body was twisted at unnatural angles, his limbs bent grotesquely. Blood poured from his mouth as he vomited continuously, his eyes bloodshot, crimson leaking from every orifice. His body trembled violently as he tried to groan in pain—yet not a single coherent sound escaped his lips.

The Ashfang Hyena quickly rushed to his side, nudging him repeatedly, trying to keep him conscious. Not out of loyalty, but necessity. If its master died while it was outside, it would suffer a painful backlash. And if he died while the Hyena was inside… its very existence would be erased or something else...?

Lily checked the scoreboard once more. Seeing her name right beside his, she giggled like a child.

—Leo's POV—

Leo was already running on foot while the Colossus continued to walk. A professor had arrived to inspect the Colossus—the very one that had previously housed the ape. The moment he realised it was a tamed Colossus, his mouth fell open. And when he learned that it had been tamed by a candidate, he nearly fainted from the sheer absurdity of it all.

"How the fu—excuse me—how in the world did you manage to tame a fucking Colossus!?" the professor demanded the instant he reached the Colossus's head. In his shock, he forgot that even after correcting himself, he had still sworn.

He was already preparing to smash Howl's head to slow it down, but Leo stopped him in time.

At that moment, Leo simply scratched the back of his head and tilted it innocently."I… just did it somehow?"

What Leo didn't know was that, aside from the immense pain he had already inflicted on the Colossus, his talent—[Primordial Beast Taming]—made the act of taming beasts far easier than it should have been.

"Wait—leave that. What's your candidate number?" the professor asked, his tone sharp, clearly intent on taking Leo in.

"Hm? It's KEo311," Leo replied simply.

Once again, silence fell.

"You… aren't dead?!" The professor froze, instantly recognizing the number. Of course he would. KEo311—ranked first, holding an overwhelming lead with 390,200 points.

Leo blinked, taken aback by the statement. Dead? Then it clicked. With a casual wave of his hand, he summoned a crumpled piece of metal into his palm.

"My metal plate got destroyed while taming this thing. Guess that's why it shows me as dead," Leo said, lifting it slightly before smirking. "But I'm alive and kicking. See?"

The instructor finally let out a long breath, the tension draining from his shoulders. After sprinting, leaping, and pushing himself for nearly eight kilometers just to stop the Colossus here, he needed it. Since the Colossus was smaller, he had been confident he could stop it single-handedly—but in the end, there was no need.

"It won't attack the city, right?" he asked, cautiously eyeing the massive, unblinking eyes of the Colossus.

"No. I've got it completely under control—it won't attack," Leo said, thumping a fist against his chest. Old habits from his days as a soldier kicked in without him realising it.

Just then, two consecutive bolts of black lightning tore through the sky near the city.

Crack—crack!

"That skill!" Leo muttered, recognizing it instantly.

He turned on his heel. "Excuse me, professor, but I need to go—now!" Even Leo couldn't hide his impatience at the thought of seeing Lily after so long.

"Alright, I'll head back too—wait!" the professor shouted as he watched Leo leap down from the Colossus and sprint toward the city. "At least unsummon the Colossus!"

Leo didn't even slow down.

"IT'S DANGEROUS! TAKE YOUR BEAST WITH YOU!" the professor roared at the top of his lungs, but Leo had already vanished into the distance.

Leo was confident that no beast around was dangerous enough to threaten his life, so unsummoning never crossed his mind. Even Shyra, Nyxa, and Niri were still atop Howl's back, guarding the Titanbreath Lotus.

By the time Leo reached the location of the lightning strike, the air was still cold because of bear.

And then he saw her.

"Lily!" he shouted.

Lily turned sharply, her face blooming with pure joy the instant she spotted him.

But then—

as if time itself froze—

Leo's eyes widened.

Piirrchhhh—sprut--shinggg!!!!

Lily's expression twisted into horror, her pupils shrinking.

"LEOOOO!!!!" she screamed.

But Leo's vision was already shaking as he looked down. A super-fast jet stream of blood red liquid blasted straight through his chest, right through the area of his heart.

"Oy, oy," a voice drawled lazily but amused from behind, "isn't he a bit too strong for a candidate?"

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