The scene at Shadowcliff had descended into total chaos.
What had started as a controlled hunt had turned into a bloody skirmish following the explosions from their battle.
Lohan and Lisa had already wiped out more than 20 creatures, but the rest of the swarm showed no signs of retreat.
Ahead of them, the remaining wave of 40 Gremlins was regrouping in the crevices of the rocks.Lohan, using his Instinctive Perception, assessed the threat and finally showed concern...
there were still 5 Level 13 Gremlins left, the leaders of the pack who exuded an unstable and violent mana; 8 Level 12s, who coordinated the flanking attacks; 15 Level 11s and a dozen Level 9s who served as cannon fodder.
Lisa let out a panting growl, her two tails swaying erratically.
The constant use of Spectral Step to dodge the bone spears and the Gremlinsâ traps was draining her stamina and Spiritual Energy at an alarming rate.
Her white fur, though protected by Lohanâs living armor most of the time, now bore smudges of soot and small cuts where Lohanâs defense had faltered for milliseconds due to sensory overload.
"Halon... they just keep coming..." Lisa transmitted through the mental link, her voice sounding weak between heavy breaths.
Lohan, still in his Living Armor form, could feel her exhaustion through their symbiosis.
His own biomass reservoir was steadily depleting as he tried to repair the Obsidian Exoskeleton plates shattered by the Level 13sâ coordinated attacks.
He realized that if they didnât change the pace of the fight, they would be overwhelmed by the superior numbers of their opponents.
"I think we overestimated ourselves a bit, heh... we thought that because of our rare base weâd be invincible, but I think weâre still going to need a few evolutions to get to that point, haha." Despite his exhaustion, Lohan still managed to laugh at the situation.
Considering the many life-threatening risks theyâd faced before evolving, taking this risk now wasnât the end of the world, given that they still had the ability to flee if they really wanted to, so it was good that this reality check came now, but they didnât want to flee.
"Lisa, stop chasing the scouts!" Lohan commanded, activating the Parallel Processing Core at maximum capacity to manage a risky maneuver. "Iâm going to extract our fuel from the ground. Just focus on maintaining the defensive position for thirty seconds!"
Without hesitation, Lohan used Partial Division to expel five clones directly onto the pile of Gremlin corpses lying in the clearing.
The clonesâ gelatin began to boil over the remains.
Lohan wasnât just digesting the brains to gain evolutions; he was disintegrating every ounce of flesh, bone, and residual mana from those high-level creatures, saving only each creatureâs eyes in the Astral Chest after cleaning up everything else.
In seconds, the Gremlinsâ greenish ichor was refined into pure biomass and pulses of mana that flowed through the
[Bio-Synthetic Mana Circulation]
back into the main body.
Lohan then activated the
[Weaver Mother Lv 6]
. Through symbiotic contact, he forced open energy pathways within his own body, injecting the refined biomass and mana from the slain enemies directly into Lisaâs system, just as he had attempted to do in the past.
Unlike when he did this with Natural Energy, which only temporarily boosted Lisa, the injection of Biomass brought not only rapid recovery but also smaller yet permanent gains in her development!
The fox shuddered as she felt the torrent of energy.
The sensation was like diving into a chamber of heated nutrient solution. Lohanâs heat washed the fatigue from her muscles, and with faint traces of Holy Light that Lohan had also injected along with it, it instantly closed the superficial cuts in her fur.
After reaching Level 11, Lohanâs control over the Sacred Light was getting better and better, with him being able to use it in small amounts just as he used to with Natural Energy.
Sure, for now he could only use it in tiny amounts, but given how intense the effects were, that was more than enough for Lisa.
"Thatâs... invigorating!" Lisa exclaimed, feeling her white flames take on an intense blue-gold glow.
"Donât waste any..." Lohan transmitted, feeling his own membrane vibrate with renewed stability. "Iâll keep processing âlunchâ while you clear the cliff. Treat every dead Gremlin as a stamina potion for yourself, right?"
Renewed and fueled by Lohanâs vitality, Lisa let out a howl that echoed through the rocky crevices, charged with a ferocity that made the Level 11 Gremlins instinctively retreat.
She dashed forward again like a blur, but this time, every flaming kick was fueled by the continuous digestion of her own packmates.
The war of attrition, which had previously favored the swarm, had now completely shifted in favor of Lohan and Lisa!
As she dashed like a blur, Lohan, utilizing his Parallel Processing Core, managed the battle across multiple independent threads:
Thread 1: Maintained the flow of [Weaver Mother], monitoring Lisaâs heart rate and energy stability.
Thread 2: Coordinated five clones acting as a biological suction network on the ground.
Track 3: He remained alert for another surprise attack that might arise, not wanting to be caught unprepared again.
Track 4: He carried out support attacks in sync with Lisa.
When the 5 Level 13 Gremlins attempted to coordinate a desperate charge with their mana-saturated bone spears, Lohan acted.
He didnât let Lisa waste energy on defense. Anchored to her back, he projected the Obsidian Exoskeleton again, which absorbed part of the kinetic impact of the Level 13 attacks, even though those spears still pierced his skin and struck Lisaâs body from below.
Although he was strong, the two-level difference with "enchanted" equipment existed, but fortunately he was holding up very well against it.
"Now, Lisa! Focus on the center of the swarm!" Lohan transmitted through the mental link.
The moment Lisa leaped into the midst of the leaders, Lohan utilized
[Vacuum Detonation Lv 4]
.
He struck the air, creating a sudden collapse in atmospheric pressure that pulled the surrounding Gremlins toward a central point, right in front of Lisaâs claws.
The fox, feeling her body grow lighter and the white flames glowing with an intense blue-gold hue, unleashed a massive radial wave of spiritual fire.
The impact was devastating.
AAARRGGHH
GRRRGRR
BOOOM!
The Gremlins, trapped by the suction and unable to dodge, were charred in seconds.
Thanks to Lohanâs Holy Light, Lisaâs flames now possessed a purifying quality that bypassed part of the monstersâ magical protections.
Lohan vibrated his crystalline membrane, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction. Though exhausted, seeing the level of destruction they could cause together made his blood boil with excitement.
"Dinner was excellent, right?" Lohan remarked, laughing at Lisaâs eye-roll upon hearing his joke.
But despite rolling her eyes, Lisa was also feeling incredible.
They would likely encounter stronger monsters with more powerful races in the future, but for now, the dominance they had shown left her very excited.
And seeing the number of corpses and thinking about how much Gold that would convert to, even she, who had never placed much importance on money, felt tempted.
After all, she didnât have unlimited funds in Elysium, and considering that another group of players was coming to the guild today, that money would be very welcome.