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The Day Tiger didn't just take out a few Winged Ones—it also blasted several distant mountains into rubble. The deafening boom shook the skies and earth. The land itself groaned under the weight of that blow.
"Damn it! Don't stay in one spot—spread out and attack from range!" Azriel yelled, her face ashen from Riku's overwhelming strength.
In an instant, the Winged Ones formed a special battle formation and started hurling powerful magic.
Gravity fields, freezing spells—anything to slow him down. Meanwhile, Azriel led the rest in launching high-power single-target spells.
These weren't massive area attacks, but in terms of pure lethality? These spells were the deadliest.
The sky lit up with all kinds of dazzling spells, wild and chaotic.
Riku suddenly felt a massive weight press down on him—a heavy gravity spell had locked onto him.
"Nice strategy. Too bad... I can Sky Shift too."Riku's tone stayed casual. He vanished instantly, letting all the spells slam into empty air.
He reappeared right in front of a Winged One, punching with such crushing force that it created a sonic boom.
BOOM———!
Azriel jumped in front of her comrade and threw up a shield. It cracked like a spiderweb under the force, then shattered.
But using that opening, she and the other Winged One managed to teleport away just in time to avoid being hurt.
"This guy somehow learned our Sky Shift. Normal tactics can't pin him down. What a pain..." Azriel stared at Riku, biting her lip.
"Boost!"The gem on Riku flared again, and his aura surged with even more intensity.
"What is that power...? We can't let this drag on. If he keeps powering up like this, we're screwed." Azriel's expression turned grim under the pressure of Riku's presence.
"Seal the space!!!"Suddenly, a Winged One teleported right in front of Riku and used up all their energy to lock down the space around him. "Azriel, now! Take him out!"
Clearly, this Winged One was ready to sacrifice themselves to give the others a shot at killing Riku.
"Attack!!" Azriel roared.
And then—it all hit at once.
The space around Riku was locked down by layers of restraining spells. Twenty Winged Ones began charging up Sky Lance, while the rest readied their strongest single-target spells.
Energy shook the heavens, trembling the earth below. Cracks spiderwebbed across the land from the pressure.
"A suicide tactic, huh? Not bad. Then let me show you something more fun."Riku didn't even try to break free. He just looked at the Winged One sealing the space around him with an almost amused expression.
The Winged One's heart suddenly sank. Something felt very wrong.
Elsewhere, Shu Yue was still battling eight Winged Ones. The skies above them roared with clashing energies, and storms surged into being from the chaos.
"Little J (Jibril), looks like that human's done for. We'll have you back safe in no time."
Two Winged Ones hovered beside Jibril, facing off with her and Zhu Bi. The four hadn't started fighting yet—they were locked in a tense standoff. One of them, clearly more mature-looking, glanced at the distant battlefield and smiled at Jibril.
To them, Jibril should've come back with them willingly. But she wouldn't budge. She was still protecting the machine-clad human, and in their minds, that had to mean Riku was threatening her somehow.
"How many times do I have to say it—can you guys just leave already? Otherwise, if Master gets mad... it won't be pretty." Jibril shook her head.
"Failure? Master would never fail. Even the old man will fall before Master eventually," she added with a peaceful smile, like she truly believed it.
That calm tone—that was absolute trust in Riku.
Defeat Riku? Defeat her Master? What a joke. He hadn't even used illusion magic or his absorption-type powers. That strange burst mode he had? He'd barely shown a sliver of it. Not to mention the trump card he used to beat Cong Long.
Right now, Riku was just testing out his new strength. That's it.
And just testing... was already this overwhelming.
What did the Winged Ones even have to beat him with? Where was their confidence coming from?
Jibril, Shu Yue, and Zhu Bi understood this well. But the Winged Ones didn't.
They didn't realize they were nothing more than practice dummies for Riku.
"Little J, even if you're the one saying it—I can't let you insult Lord Artesius like that. He is the one true ruler, god among gods, king of kings, the strongest of all! There's no way he could lose to a human. And besides, that human's about to be destroyed!" snapped the mature Winged One, clearly upset at Jibril's words and brimming with devotion.
"Yeah? Then watch closely. Watch how this battle ends." Jibril shook her head slightly, her dazzling eyes never leaving the battlefield.
Over there, the situation had already reached a boiling point. And her master—he still wore that calm, all-controlling expression.
"..."Seeing that trying to persuade her was pointless, the two other Flügel also turned their gazes to the battlefield, staring hard—as if willing Riku to fall.
At the same time, all the Flügel had finished charging their energy. At Azril's command, they launched their attacks all at once.
In an instant—thunder spears, fire dragons, twenty divine strikes—an overwhelming flurry of different attacks surged toward Riku, shaking the sky with terrifying power.
The force was so intense that it ripped the air apart, causing visible cracks in space and making the entire area dangerously unstable.
But even as all those insane attacks closed in, Riku stayed calm. He simply raised the Boosted Gear's crimson gauntlet.
BOOM—!!
A devastating explosion swallowed the sky, energy waves blasting out from where Riku stood like a bomb had gone off. The shockwave spread across several million meters in every direction.
Thankfully, the fight was happening high in the sky. If it had been on the ground, the entire landscape would've been obliterated—a massive crater left behind like the aftermath of a natural disaster.
The Flügel instantly used teleportation to escape the blast radius. Even Juzuki and the others who were in the middle of fighting stopped everything to defend themselves from the shock.
As for the Flügel who had sealed the space around the battle earlier… she was the first to be completely annihilated by her own allies' attacks—wiped from existence, not even dust left behind.
"....."