Chapter 75: Mysterious Powerhouse

Evelyn stumbled on the cracked pavement, her center of balance completely thrown off. Her boot caught the edge of a rusted pipe, and she fell hard onto her knees.

The metallic behemoth was almost ten meters away, its massive, four sharp horns lowered directly at her torso. Thick steam violently expelled from its flared nostrils.

SWOOSH.

She wasn’t crushed. Instead, a strong hand gripped the collar of her shirt. Before she could even scream, she was violently yanked upward, her feet leaving the ground entirely as she was pulled backward through the air.

The Armored Buffalo missed her by an inch. Unable to stop its massive momentum, the beast slammed headfirst into the rusted, structural pillars of the collapsed Ferris wheel.

Thousands of tons of rusted metal and broken carriages came crashing down directly on top of the beast in a spectacular, suffocating cloud of dust and debris.

"You can open your eyes now," Hide said, his breathing slightly heavy. Pushing his Agility to the absolute limit while carrying a person was taxing.

She slowly turned her head, looking at Hide’s dark, scaled hands and the glowing blue eyes staring back at her.

"Don’t just stand there staring," Evelyn snapped turning around. "Cut these damn bindings off me!"

Evelyn immediately rubbed her sore wrists, her hands trembling slightly.

"I have no idea," Evelyn gritted her teeth. "I was maintaining the comms link when some weird guy wearing a Joker mask just... appeared."

"He attacked me out of nowhere," Evelyn continued, her voice trembling with a mix of anger and lingering fear. "Shiro tried to protect me, but that masked freak... he killed him instantly. He just crushed his throat. I didn’t want to lose Yuki too, so I forced her back into her seal."

"Then, that guy caught a normal Armored Buffalo that was wandering nearby. He just touched it... he did something to it. The beast started growling in agony, and its body just... exploded in size. It grew massive and its... armor pierced out of its own skin, and it went completely feral. Then he tied me up and just left."

The mystery of this Joker was getting deeper and significantly more dangerous. Who the hell was this guy? He possessed a talent that could make him faster or teleport him, completely masking his presence, he could even create gates, and now... he could forcefully mutate Calamity Beasts into feral giants?

BANG.

"Watch out!" Evelyn yelled.

But its face was a horrific sight.

Its single remaining red eye locked onto the booth.

"Move!" Hide shouted.

Hide landed on the cracked pavement, his boots skidding slightly.

Suddenly, a black blur shot through the air.

The short blade of Night Singer buried itself completely up to the hilt directly into the beast’s right buttock.

Hide, who had dashed in to throw the sword, immediately jumped back, the massive steel hooves missing his jaw by a fraction of an inch.

It scraped its hooves against the asphalt and dashed straight at him like a freight train.

Instead, he smirked. It was exactly what he wanted.

Hide ignored her. He planted his boots firmly into the ground and raised both his hands, palms facing the charging behemoth.

He channeled the dense energy from his surroundings directly to his palms. The mana compressed rapidly, forming a swirling, volatile ball of dark violet energy that crackled with destructive power.

Hide thrust his hands forward, sending the ball of compressed mana directly into the beast’s mangled face.

The explosion was catastrophic.

The beast turned into a grotesque, expanding rain of dark blood, shattered bone, and liquefied organs.

Hide stood at the edge of the crater, lowering his hands. The dark scales of his Carapace smoked slightly from the heat of the blast.

Standing opposite of him, Evelyn stared at the smoking crater, and then looked at Hide.

"Did..." Evelyn muttered, her face turning entirely red. "Did he just wink at me?"

It wasn’t a normal tremor, it felt as though the entire world shuddered.

He touched his upper lip. His fingers came away slick with warm blood. A nosebleed.

"Hide..." she whispered, pointing behind him.

The other section of the ruined city—the area he had just flown over, and where Elara was fighting—was violently tearing itself apart.