The Glorious Evolution

”War is no place for children.”

One of them uttered indifferently as he aimed his crystal blue arm in Nurah’s direction... It was filled with pointy, sharp crystals.

”Huh?”

However, just as he was about to fire them, Nurah disappeared, leaving him looking around in confusion.

Slice.

But then, he found his world suddenly turning upside down until his eyes noticed a gleaming, shadowy dagger retracting in slow motion... It wasn’t a normal strike, as the dagger seemed to be empowered by a shadowy layer of mist.

It targeted the energy vein connecting his head with the core... slicing it off was the same as decapitating his head.

Thud.

His head fell to the ground, but he was still alive, as golems could only be killed by destroying their energy cores.

Nurah knew this beforehand.

The moment she crippled him, she dove into his shadow, the gigantic illuminating tree helping her immensely... Without it, it would be difficult for shadows to be sustained.

Then, she uttered as she somersaulted away from him, ”Shadow Blackthorn Arts: Shadow Spike!”

A singular shadow spike emerged from the elite’s back and pierced through the chest, emerging on the other side.

The elites were taken aback at first by Nurah’s assault, but as they watched the shadow spike, they couldn’t help but laugh.

”You think a mere shadow can kill me?” Even the assaulted elite mocked, his head still on the ground, ”My body is made out of hardened crystal. Girl, I am unbrea...”

”Unfortunately for you, my shadows are a bit different...” interrupted Nurah coolly, following with an order for the spike to harden.

The intangible shadow suddenly hardened with the energy core in its path, imploding it at once!

The elite’s supposedly unbreakable body turned into shattered fragments, flying everywhere, stunning the other elites.

Nurah took advantage of their daze to appear behind another elite, wanting to replicate the same strategy... However, she wasn’t dealing with brainless nightcrawlers.

The instant her presence disappeared, all the elites were prepared.

Tiiing!!

The shadowy dagger was blocked by an arm, and then a crystallized blue spike followed from underground, forcing Nurah to twist her body and evade it.

But what awaited her was a rain of projectiles as the elites put her in a sealed circle, uncaring about landing some on their ally.

Nurah swiftly sank into her shadow and appeared behind Jojo... Then, she offered with a giggle, ”All of you are free to join.”

Before Jojo could turn around, Nurah was already gone, appearing behind the shadow of a tree next to an elite and sliding between his legs, using her shadow dagger to slice up his energy veins.

Thud!

The pissed-off golem fell to the ground, his legs detached... akin to Lego pieces. But before he could retaliate, Nurah was gone again.

Jojo and the others glanced at each other in a daze, incapable of believing that Nurah was powerful enough in her current rank to play with this many Tier 3 nightcrawlers.

This sight had given them the confidence to join the fight, realizing that although they were outranked, as long as it was within reason, everything depended on their prowess.

Unbeknownst to them, Nurah had evolved with a perfect evolution... Her nightcrawler possessed a well of knowledge related to her species, while her family was rich enough to obtain whatever materials she requested.

When added to her already freakish fighting skills, her strength was no different than a Tier 3 nightcrawler.

Once they joined the fight as well, they realized it in an instant.

Omar and Kiara were the first to learn a tough lesson as they failed to deal with a single elite.

Omar acted as a tank, engaging with the elite up close, but each blow traded resulted in him getting thrown backward, even though he was using his most powerful abilities.

As for Keira? Her surgical knives bounced off his crystallized armor, merely leaving slight grazes... failing to pierce their protected energy veins.

She knew they were his weakness... but unlike Nurah, she couldn’t get that dangerously close and survive.

As for Melissa? Her arrows were suffering from the same problem as Keira’s. To make it worse, her powers were related to bones and decay, which were ineffective from a distance against gemstones or their hardened rocks.

Rayan wasn’t having it any better. He was speeding across the field, using enhancement-based blood ability to double his speed.

Although he was annoyingly quick to get caught by anything, his kicks, merged with his retractable blades, were failing to cause any real damage.

If it wasn’t for Jojo acting as a support and saving them with telekinetic barriers or pulling them from danger with her praying beads, some of them would have died in less than a minute.

”I will get rid of the flying egg, and the weaklings will die after... Then, we can rescue our captain!”

When the elites noticed Jojo’s importance, one of them took the lead and switched his focus to her... She was floating above the battlefield on top of a signal prayer bead.

He extended his arm in her direction and fired a barrage of sharp shards, wanting to shred her apart.

Jojo exhaled slowly, manifesting a circular invisible telekinetic barrier between six spinning praying beads... The shards bounced off the barrier, failing to break it apart.

When the elite wanted to increase their pressure, Jojo recalled the rest of her praying beads until all of them were spinning in a single circle.

Their speed kept accelerating until the beads disappeared, replaced by a single connected brown circle.

As golden etchings lit up along her forearm, flowing into the spinning prayer beads, the same light surfaced in their center.

Then, the light got more intense until the golem sensed some danger from it. Not waiting to find the result, the golem lunged in the direction of Jojo... his arm morphed into a crystallized blade.

”Bald-headed human, die!”

Jojo’s eyebrows twitched at his insult, her other suppressed persona surfacing at once.

”Karmic Pendulum Arts: Dharma Cannon... Fire.” She muttured, her tone chilling.

The Dharma Cannon shot forth not like a beam, but a blazing spiral of golden compressed spiritual force, tearing across the field in a flash!

The beam hit the golem’s chest... directly over the energy core.

For a split second, all fell silent. Then...

BOOM!

The core didn’t explode outward... it imploded, folding into itself as light and energy got crushed into a single collapsing point!

”It can’t be...”

The golem’s armor shattered inwards, fragments vanishing into the vortex before the whole thing collapsed in a flash of white.

When the light faded, only scorched stone and fragments of molten gemstone remained.

Jojo exhaled again, trembling... her hands remained clasped.

”Dharma delivered... Namaste.”