"Can we kill them?" Reidar asked.

He didn't look at the monsters; he looked at Lena. He needed her appraisal of the risk since she always knew what was possible and what was not when it had to do with monsters.

Lena hesitated for a second, weighing the variables.

"The level gap isn't insurmountable," she said. "You are at level 339. They are around levels 340 and 355. Your summons have levels similar to yours, and with the Void-Caller's Baton, you have the firepower."

She paused, watching a Colossus snap a tree trunk in half with a casual twitch of its mandibles.

"But these things are tanks. Look at that armor. Physical attacks are going to struggle to penetrate unless we hit the joints. And that gas… if it's toxic or psychoactive, it could mess with us."

She looked back at Reidar after a brief pause. "We can do it. But we have to be perfect. If they surround us, we're dead. These aren't Zealots. They are monsters."

"I know," Reidar said.

He stepped back from the tree line, giving himself space.

"Jake, you're on the front line with the Titans. Lena, pick off the stragglers and disrupt their coordination. I'll handle the heavy lifting."

Reidar raised the Void-Caller's Baton.

The violet crystal at its tip pulsed, reacting to his mana.

He didn't hold back. He couldn't afford to, and didn't even have the intention of doing that.

The first thing he summoned was the Undying Legion. The surrounding ground turned gray and necrotic. Soil deadened as hundreds of skeletal hands punched through the earth.

The Dead-Eye Marksmen and Shadow-Stalkers pulled themselves free, making their bones rattle.

Next, Reidar summoned his Apex Menagerie. Reality tore open, and Ten Death-Stalker Scorpions, each the size of a tank, materialized out of mana while swinging their massive neurotoxin-dripping tails.

Next followed the Spectral Quadraginta. Forty elite spectral warriors materialized in a flash. Knights, archers, and mages formed up in disciplined ranks.

"Summon Archon Rift-Lords."

The sky above the clearing cracked. Eighty rifts opened, spilling elemental energy into the forest.

The Archon Rift-Lords descended, stomping the ground with crackling elemental power.

In theory, that should have been enough considering that the Apex Menagerie and the Archon Rift-Lords were all above tier 30, but Reidar still decided to share Summon: Cinderheart Efreeti, Summon: Terran Bulwark, Summon: Tidal Saint, and Summon: Zephyr Muse with not only his other summons but also with Jake and Lena. He couldn't share much else since most of his skills were now at less than 50% proficiency. But it didn't matter; the skills he bought from Zix were still potent enough.

<Well spent survival points.>

Reidar's army filled the space behind the tree line, a legion of nightmares ready to face the alien titans.

"Attack."

The Undead charged first and crashed into the nearest Hive Colossus.

The impact shook the ground, but the skeletal warriors were little more than chaff against the biological tanks.

The Colossi didn't even slow down; they simply walked through the wave of bones, crushing skulls and ribcages under their spiked legs with sickening crunches. It didn't matter that they were around Reidar's level. The summons still were tier 29 creatures, which, frankly speaking, was weird.

Reidar had thought about this for a while. Shouldn't level determine tier? Maybe at lower levels, where tier and level overlapped. But from what he was seeing now, tier represented a creature's overall qualities—its innate characteristics—while level only showed combat effectiveness.

But quality and battle effectiveness were two different things. Compare a human to a gorilla. Humans were smarter and could use tools, but in purely physical terms, which was better suited to fight? A gorilla, of course—and that was what Reidar assumed the tier represented.

But of course, he could be wrong. Regardless, the skeletons were just a distraction, so he didn't care about them that much.

"Now!" Reidar said, his will spreading through the Overmind Consciousness skill.

The Archon Rift-Lords flared with power.

Some Fire Archons raised their arms, and the earth beneath them split.

It wasn't summoning fire; it was channeling the Summon: Twin Boulderback Behemoths skill Reidar had shared.

Simultaneously, the Spectral Mages of the Quadraginta slammed their staves into the ground, activating Summon: Terran Bulwark.

The forest floor erupted.

Massive stone giants clawed their way out of the dirt, summoned not by Reidar, but by his army.

Dozens of Terran Bulwarks rose like fortifications, and the Twin Boulderbacks roared.

The Hive Colossi screeched as the sudden appearance of the Titans blocked their path.

The leading Colossus was shoved back, its legs gouging deep furrows in the earth as a Boulderback—summoned by a Lightning Archon—slammed a fist into its faceplate.

Reidar stood back, waving his baton and casting Mark of Frailty.

A sigil burned itself onto the lead Colossus, severely decreasing its magical and physical resistances.

"Focus fire!"

The Archon Rift-Lords, having finished their summoning duties, unleashed hell. Bolts of lightning, spears of ice, and beams of fire converged on the marked monster.

The creature thrashed as its exoskeleton cracked under the thermal shock and arcane pressure. The stone giants held it in place.

Lena moved like a wraith. She darted between the legs of the monsters, using Predator's Echo to find the weak points in the Colossi's armor.

She saw the soft tissue behind the knee joints and the thinner plating around what she assumed was its neck, or something similar.

She leaped, using the back of a Terran Bulwark, one that had been summoned by a Spectral Mage, as a springboard.

The woman drove her dagger into the neck of a distracted Colossus. The blade went down deep, but Lena didn't stay to watch the monster bleed; she kicked off, landing in a roll and disappearing before the monster could retaliate.

Jake activated Augmentation. He dumped mana into his S.H.I.E.L.D. attribute, and his muscles swelled while his skin hardened to the density of iron.

He didn't just look strong; he could punch a mountain apart.

"Summon War Mastiffs!"

Massive hounds materialized around him, and there were quite a few of them.

"Get them!"

Jake charged a Colossus that was trying to stomp on a group of Spectral Archers.

He didn't use a weapon; he used his shoulder and slammed into the creature's leg with the force of a wrecking ball.

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