On the western side of Stellar, the dungeon entrance split open with a warping shriek.

  Zzzzrrrshhhh!

  From the swirling portal emerged a massive shadow, wings stretching wide, scales glinting obsidian under the light.

  ROAAAARRR!

  The wyvern’s roar shattered the air like a crashing wave, blasting players back like leaves in a storm. Dozens of them were flung across the dirt, tumbling nearly all the way to the base of the town’s wall.

  Coughing, groaning, and struggling to stand, the players stared up at the beast as a glowing red health bar appeared above its head:

  ? B-Rank — Wyvern ?

  The monster flapped its wings once, twice, sending gales tearing through the ruined formations, and charged forward, its talons carving furrows into the earth.

  “W-Wyvern?! Are you serious?!”

  As the players stood frozen, stunned by the scale of the threat, a single figure broke through the panic.

  A blur of cream-colored hair, slicing across the battlefield with purpose.

  “Attack before it flies!”

  It was Silica, her voice ringing like a blade drawn from a scabbard.

  She sprinted across the field, twin daggers flashing at her sides, her cream ponytail trailing behind like a streak of sunlight. Her feet barely touched the ground as she closed the distance between herself and the rising beast.

  The others hesitated, then, rallied by her voice, surged after her.

  The wyvern reared back, jaws wide, ready to unleash a shockwave.

  But Silica didn’t stop.

  She leapt straight into its path.

  “Whirling Petals!”

  FWOOOSHHH!

  Her twin daggers glowed with a sharp wind aura, and her body spun mid-air like a blossom caught in a storm. A tornado of slashes rained down onto the wyvern’s armored head.

  SLASH! SLASH!

  The blades scored against the thick black scales, not deep enough to break through, but enough to make it shriek in pain.

  RAWWRRR!

  The wyvern thrashed its head violently, flinging Silica high into the sky.

  But she didn’t scream.

  She twisted midair, arms spreading as if embracing the wind. And then, just before gravity brought her back down—

  Her blades pulsed green again.

  “Blade Rush!”

  SLASH! SLASH! THWACKK!

  The blades struck true. But so did the wyvern.

  Its head slammed into her midair.

  “Ugh!”

  Silica flew like a comet, skimming past her teammates, then slamming hard into the stone wall with a painful crack.

  Gasps echoed.

  More screams followed as the wyvern, unbothered, beat its wings and lifted off the ground.

  FWHOOOOOOM!

  It took to the sky, heading straight for the town.

  And the players could only watch, helpless from below.

  Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier… atop the western wall.

  Yuki stood with her white-sky blue robe fluttering in the wind, gaze fixed on the battlefield below.

  Panic surged through her as the urgency of the situation hit.

  The players couldn’t bring it down.

  The knights of the Starlace Order were stationed inside the city, but if the wyvern kept flying, they wouldn’t get a chance to stop it.

  And among the front lines… she was the only mage.

  “…The town’s safety lies in my hands.”

  Her fingers gripped the shaft of her sky-blue staff tighter.

  “Miss Frostina told me I could become strong too.”

  And back then… she hadn’t believed her.

  But now, standing here… there was no one else to believe in but herself.

  She raised her staff to the sky.

  The crystal at its tip began to glow, faintly at first, then stronger.

  “Ice Spear.”

  An arm-length shard of crystal-blue ice formed above her staff.

  “...No. It’s not enough.”

  She closed her eyes and remembered Frostina’s teachings.

  —Feel the mana inside… let it flow.

  Yuki reached inward, toward her mana core. She found it pulsing, thudding like a second heartbeat.

  She guided it outward.

  Down her arms.

  Into the staff.

  And into the ice spear.

  The magic pulsed, shuddered, then expanded.

  The spear widened, thickened, and grew.

  Bigger.

  More.

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  Her body trembled with strain, but she didn’t stop. Mana poured from every vein in her body, flowing like a storm into the spell.

  When she opened her eyes again—

  The spear floating above her was the size of a two-story house.

  Down below, Silica had just struck the wall and collapsed into a crouch. She blinked up, stunned, as a gentle, clear voice echoed from the top of the wall.

  “You’ve done well, heroes.”

  She looked up and gasped.

  Floating above the battlement, the enormous Ice Spear glimmered like a diamond suspended in sunlight.

  Every player below turned to stare in awe.

  The wyvern soared through the air, its massive wings churning the sky as it hurtled toward the town. Its eyes glowed with feral fury.

  A hellish light built in its throat.

  From atop the wall, Yuki saw the blazing fire gather. Her grip on the staff didn’t waver.

  They were at the same height now.

  The wyvern's jaws stretched wide, a vortex of fire swirling inside.

  But her spear,larger than any she’d ever formed, ignited with a roar of its own, vibrating with condensed mana. Nearly the size of the wyvern itself.

  Then both attacks launched at the same time.

  FWOOM!

  The wyvern unleashed its fire breath. A torrent of blistering flame howled toward the wall.

  But the Ice Spear didn’t falter.

  It slammed into the fire head-on.

  BOOM!

  The air exploded with steam. A wall of white vapor burst between them, swallowing the battlefield in a blinding cloud.

  For a heartbeat, no one could see a thing.

  Then, the spear burst through the fire.

  It didn’t just survive.

  It overpowered it.

  The wyvern’s breath vanished in a hiss of boiling air.

  And the spear kept going.

  SSSHHHKKK!

  It drove straight into the wyvern’s gaping mouth, tearing through the back of its throat, down its body, and erupting out the other side in a spray of frozen blood and shattered scales.

  The wyvern didn’t even scream.

  Chunks of ice-coated meat and scales rained down onto the battlefield like hailstones.

  The sky fell silent.

  Every player below stared in awe.

  And atop the wall, Yuki lowered her staff slowly, expression unreadable.

  Silica, still slumped near the base of the wall, stared up with wide eyes, and finally reacted.

  “…What was that?!”

  …….

  On the eastern side of Stellar, the dungeon gate pulsed violently, then tore open with a shriek.

  And from within it, the wyvern emerged.

  A jet-black monstrosity with massive wings, jagged scales, and an earth-shaking roar.

  ROAAAARRR!!

  It charged forward at the same time the western wyvern had taken flight, its eyes burning with primal fury.

  And right in its path… was Hiro.

  The streamer.

  The self-proclaimed “Hero of Defeat.”

  “Alright, guys, this is it!” he yelled, sprinting straight at the oncoming beast.

  “First hit on a wyvern, let’s gooo!!”

  His livestream chat exploded:

  [light_bullet]: IT’S TIME TO SHINEEEE!!

  [cheesebeard]: he will die again.

  [mimimi]: why is there no death count leaderboard

  [romancelover]: devs too scared he’d win

  [cuteglitch]: hiro the loser hero returns

  [coffeecow]: rest in peace, brother

  Mockery filled the screen, but Hiro didn’t care.

  It was part of his brand.

  He sprinted forward with dramatic flair, raising his longsword high. The sunlight gleamed off his blade, casting a brilliant glow across his black hair.

  Just before impact, he leapt high into the air while grinning.

  “GLIMMER CUUUTTTTTTTTT!!!”

  His sword lit up with radiant energy as he brought it down toward the wyvern’s skull.

  CRACK!!

  The sound echoed.

  But it wasn’t the wyvern’s head that broke.

  It was the sword.

  The blade snapped clean in half.

  “...Huh?”

  Hiro hovered in confusion for a half-second, then dropped.

  Straight into the dirt.

  And the chat went feral.

  [nekodraws]: Tell me you forgot to repair it

  [cheesebeard]: yoo bro didn’t check its durability

  [sofasmasher]: I can’t breathe HAHAHAHA

  [404heart]: I SCREAMED. LMAOOO XD

  [shrimpgun]: I supported you for THIS?!

  [light_bullet]: GIVE BACK MY HYPE

  [nocturnyx]: RIP Excalibur v7

  And then—

  THWACKK!!

  The wyvern casually backhanded him with its wing.

  Hiro ragdolled across the dirt, skipped twice, and landed face-down in a puff of dust.

  [cheesebeard]: wow he didn’t die

  [mimimi]: give it a second.

  The wyvern ignored the other players as it flapped its wings and took to the skies, gaining altitude rapidly.

  It locked its eyes on the town.

  Charging forward.

  Just above the battlefield, on the eastern wall, stood a lone figure in silence.

  Glacia.

  She raised her sky-blue staff, her robe billowing in the wind.

  “Ice Step.”

  Crystalline stairs materialized in the air before her, each one glowing with faint frost. She ascended slowly, step by step, until she stood high above the battlefield, eye level with the wyvern.

  The sunlight caught her pale ocean-blue hair, glinting like frozen rivers.

  Her robe fluttered, its left sleeve empty, swaying in the wind.

  One arm.

  One staff.

  One chance.

  Her cold gaze locked onto the beast.

  Glacia raised her staff with her remaining hand. The orb at its tip glowed like the noonday sky. It was brilliant, clear, and cold.

  Mana surged outward.

  Below, players stopped in place and watching.

  The wyvern paused mid-air, sensed it.

  The threat on Glacia’s staff.

  The wyvern opened its maw, fire swirling inside.

  But the temperature plummeted.

  Frost spread like spiderwebs across the air.

  And just as the wyvern unleashed its fire…

  She spoke.

  “Begone. Absolute Zero.”

  Both forces launched.

  FWOOOOOMMM!!!

  The wyvern’s fire breath surged forward.

  But it never reached her.

  A wave of white mist collided with the flames, and froze them solid.

  Its blazing heat crystallized midstream as frost devoured it. For a heartbeat, even flame bowed to cold.

  The mist didn’t stop.

  It rushed forward and wrapped around the wyvern like a death shroud.

  Head, wings, fire, it all froze in place mid-air.

  The wyvern’s body froze solid, turning crystal-clear blue.

  Then it fell.

  CRASSSHHHH!!

  The frozen beast hit the earth with a thunderous crash, breaking apart in massive chunks of glittering ice.

  Silence swept across the field.

  Then, slow awe.

  Hiro, still lying next to the wyvern’s now-shattered remains, looked up.

  His mouth hung open.

  His chat was silent for once.

  He glanced up at the sky.

  There she stood, balanced on a single step of ice in mid-air, her dark blue eyes fixed on the fallen wyvern like it had been no more than a bug.

  And then…

  His stream chat exploded.

  [maid_slasher]: WHAT WAS THAT?!

  [shrimpgun]: press F for Hiro

  [light_bullet]: WHO SAID SHE IS A CRIPPLE BEFORE?!

  [mimimi]: OH MY GOD

  [nocturnyx]: I think I saw Goddess

  [cuteglitch]: MY QUEEEEENNNNNN

  [coffeecow]: she looked at the wyvern like it owed her rent

  [cheesebeard]: BRO THE FIRE LOOKS COLD

  [romancelover]: The fire become ice cube

  [nekodraws]: my physics teacher gonna complain

  [light_bullet]: ICE MOMENT OF THE YEAR

  Back in the sky, Glacia turned slowly, her expression calm and impassive.

  Then she descended step by frozen step back toward the wall, as if what she’d done was nothing at all. Each step vanished behind her as it melted into mist.

  Hiro stared up at her from the dirt.

  “...Remind me to never trash-talk a one-armed goddess ever again.”