As the cloud of kicked-off dust slowly dissipated, the clashing silhouettes of Aiden and his 4 armed shark-head opponents were slowly revealed. The beast's upper limbs clenched up into a fused fist, was trying to push against the sturdy barrier that Aiden's forearms formed.

Still, the monster could not gain any ground, to its surprise this fragile-looking opponent could match its strength seemingly with ease. No matter how hard it tried to exert more of its strength, it could just not gain even an inch more.

Still, it was not completely out of options. His second set of rams were swiftly clenched into fists, the creature cocked both of his arms back and swiftly launched a punch aiming at both sides of the boy, whilst keeping most of his strength on the upper arm's relentless push.

Seeing the incoming attack, Aiden merely smirked, vanishing from his spot and emerging a couple of steps behind. The sudden disappearance of the obstructing force caused the beast to not be able to react accordingly, its upper double fist suddenly freed from the resistance struck down, hitting his own arms with all of its inertia and power. Its lower arms flung away, the beast began to sway due to the sudden shift of his weight, stumbling forward a couple of steps before finally, it was able to regain its stability.

As the sight looked rather comical, Aiden couldn't help but snicker at the shark-headed creature.

"You are quite the stupid one are ya? All brawn, no brains? Kinda disappointing.." He mocked the creature, looking afraid, and even slightly disdainful at it.

Seeing the scrawny little human's look, and processing the meaning behind his words, the beast stared at Aiden for a moment. Surprisingly, or shockingly even, it showed signs of higher intellect than a mindless beast. Its face reacted to the boy's words, his facial muscles began to contort, showing an expression vaguely resembling a scowl.

It began to growl, emitting a sound vastly different to the strange tongue-clicking noises that its lower, primitive brethren could let out. While it was only a growl, it was induced with emotion that the others were just incapable of: anger, rage, and strangely, wariness.

Whilst the first two were easy to understand, as although it probably had a higher level of intelligence, at its core, it was still merely a beast, a monster. However, for wariness, that was not something that a creature like this should have.

The loud cry it emitted carried a strange tint of emotion, it seemed to understand that this opponent in front of him was far from the average, weak prey they took below the depths to feed their kin.

No, this one was clearly dangerous, the beast realized after their first clash that a frontal attack might not work anymore.

Still, coming to this conclusion, merely took him the time it finished with its battle cry. Steading his stand, he planted his legs firmly on the ground, spreading them and creating a steady stance.

It looked at the golden-eyed human with anger and hate shining in its full, murky, yellow-colored eyes. It suddenly released a snarling, guttural cry again, its four hands began to sway to a mythical rhythm, looking as if it was trying to caress an invisible ball in between them.

Before Aiden could even guess what it was about to do, suddenly the surface of the river behind them began to boil, and in the next moment, four thin appendages made out of pure water shot out. They flew towards the shark-headed sahuagin, or to be more precise, they converged towards the empty space between its four hands.

The liquid continued to flow unnaturally in the air, converging to the small watery seed that began to sprout in the air and continued to grow at a rapid pace.

The beast continued to frantically snarl, growl and even shout. While the sound it made was gibberish to Aiden's ears, there was a definite tune, a rhythm to it, making him quickly realize that whatever it was doing and screaming had a definite meaning to it.

As the seconds continued to pass, under the constant caress of the shark-headed sahuagin champion, the slowly but constantly converging fluid formed into the shape of a ball made out of water.

Seeing as the magic slowly formed into a fitting shape, Aiden wasn't afraid, scared, or wary by any means. No, instead, the already dominant smile on his face curved higher. He cracked his knuckles, filled with excitement, he was looking forward to this special attack filled with furore.

"Come on! Show me your best!" He exclaimed with elation as his hands were pulled together in front of him, his palms joined together at their base, facing the still birthing ball of magic.

Another second passed with choked silence. The battlefield turned eerily silent, all the previous clashes turned irrelevant in front of this ferocious battle between these inconceivable, incomprehensible existences.historical

Still, although the silence could be a warning sign, neither Aiden nor the shark-headed creature seemed to care. All their attention, their focus was on the other one: while Aiden was eagerly waiting, anticipating the incoming magical attack, his opponent had finished gathering the necessary mana and magical elements and was in its final stages of forming them the ball-like shape.

Its frantic guttural gurgles reaching its last stage, it released the recognizable tongue-clicking noise as thrust all of its arms forward, releasing the floating ball from its shackles, acting like the cannon whose fuse had been lit.

In the next instant, the swirling ball formed with the fusion of mana and water shot forward with abruptly huge momentum, throwing its caster back on the ground in the process.

Already anticipating the attack, Aiden's face turned fierce, his already prepared palms instantly lit up, with the converging [Soul Power] that continued to converge to it. At the same time, his eyes also lit up, showing that he was fully utilizing all of his cards. His aura flared up, winds whistled around his body chaotically.

The whole scene took barely a fraction of a second, yet it felt as if time suddenly slowed down, stretching the single instant into a span of minutes. The illusion engulfed the entire battlefield, several eyes looked with a mixture of worry, dread.. hope, and even an expected victory-fueled erupting happiness.

The ball collided with the glowing golden energy layer covering Aiden's draconic hands. Its surface tension instantly reaching the threshold, it broke, releasing all the stored energy and power inside in a vigorous explosion of force. The sudden synthesis between Primal Power and Worldly Magic entered into a violent chain reaction, activating the surrounding lingering essences in the air, further fueling, adding their own power into the growing explosion.

A huge, powerful shockwave swept all the living off their feet, throwing all living beings up in the air before they all tumbled on the bloodied ground. The shark-headed beast that just stood back up, was the one that suffered the most, he was caught unprepared, flung back in the air like a helpless, broken kite several meters before its body violently crashed into the ground.

Aiden's figure was completely gone, the bright ball of emerging light followed by a flaming, fiery mushroom-shaped cloud wrapped its entire being at its core.

The reaction was unexpectedly fierce and powerful, swaying the hundreds of mutilated bodies far away.

Even Aiden's group had a hard time, the released torrentuous energy was leagues above what they could withstand, they were helplessly tumbling, rolling on the ground, desperately trying to latch onto the ground.

The explosion was so incredibly powerful that even though their battle was several dozen miles away from the city, the residents could feel the tremors. The walls of the buildings shook, the nearest houses had their windows shattered even. The city guard was alerted, a group of soldiers quickly reacted, formed into a battalion, already awaiting the marching orders from their captains to march out and investigate the source of the disturbance.

—

Somewhere in the city, atop the rooftop of a building, Number 3 looked sternly towards the distance, her eyebrows furred at the sight of the growing mushroom cloud. She was gripping, tightly holding onto a small transparent crystalline object that had a black smoke-like gaseous substance swirling inside of it.

This was the strange communication crystal that she used before and made sure that both Lily and Aiden had one at all times. Although she was worried, she did not move from her spot, she just kept looking in their direction with worry. Even though her face was safely tucked away, hidden behind her faceless mask, her trembling hands and heavy sighs easily betrayed her true feelings.

However, before she lost her composure and charged towards the scene, a familiar, aged voice reached her ears coming from behind. Despite knowing that the children might be in danger, Granny's voice was calm and composed.

"You don't need to worry. They are all fine. Both Aiden and Lily.. and them."