A few yards away from Karma's miraculous awakening, Kanha was sitting silently on the cracked obsidian ground. His body was completely empty of Pran energy, and his vision was blurring. He thought this was the end.
Suddenly, a weak, trembling hand grabbed Kanha's ankle.
It was Sambhab. The tactician was lying flat on his stomach, coughing up blood. With agonizing effort, Sambhab pointed a shaking finger toward Kanha's oversized survival backpack, which had been thrown near a dead tree.
"Bag..." Sambhab choked out. "The side pocket... emergency stimulant..."
Kanha's eyes widened. He remembered. Before they entered the portal, he had packed a high-grade military Pran-stimulant pill his grandfather had given him for absolute emergencies. It would destroy his muscles for a week, but it would give him a temporary, explosive burst of power right now.
Kanha dragged himself across the sharp rocks, ignoring the pain. He ripped open the bag, ignoring the packets of spicy chips, and grabbed a small metal vial. He popped the red pill into his mouth and swallowed it dry.
Instantly, Kanha's veins bulged. A violent, artificial orange aura erupted from his body. "Aaagh!" Kanha roared, feeling his muscles tear and repair simultaneously. "I'm back!"
Meanwhile, the Elite Mutant Stalker Shadow realized that the boy it had just "killed" was standing up again. The beast let out an ear-piercing shriek. Its stomach-jaw unhinged, and the dark-gold corruption began to gather once more.
VWOOM!
The monster fired a second, concentrated Shadow Beam directly at Karma's head.
But Karma was no longer the boy with the cracked core. With his 2nd Chakra awakened, his body felt impossibly light. His Kinetic Vision locked onto the beam. He didn't even use his sword. Karma simply tilted his body and took a single, fluid step to the right.
The deadly beam missed him by an inch, completely vaporizing the dead tree behind him.
Karma let out a calm breath. He noticed something crucial. The moment the monster finished firing the massive beam, the dark-gold glow on its thick bone-armor completely faded. The beast stood completely frozen, panting heavily for exactly three seconds to recharge its internal core.
A cooldown window, Karma's tactical mind realized.
"Kanha! Sambhab!" Karma yelled, his voice clear and commanding, cutting through the chaos. "I found its weakness! Every time it shoots that beam, its armor shuts down, and it freezes for three seconds! That is our only window to strike!"
Kanha, completely pumped up on the stimulant pill, spun his iron stick. "I'm ready, brother! Tell me where to hit!"
"The eyes!" Karma commanded.
The beast recovered from its cooldown and roared, charging straight at Karma with its massive bone-claws raised.
Karma closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. He remembered the training arena. He remembered Sambhab's flawless, lightning-fast roundhouse kick that had shattered the Fire Wolf. Karma didn't have a sword anymore. He had to become the weapon.
Karma channeled every single drop of his newly awakened, dense teal Pran energy directly into his right leg.
"Storm Hand Style: Variant!" Karma roared.
He lunged forward, moving faster than the wind. He leaped high into the air, spinning his body just like Sambhab did. But instead of blue fire, Karma's leg was wrapped in a concentrated, violent teal hurricane.
"STORM KICK!"
Karma's heel slammed directly into the center of the Elite Mutant's glowing red eyes.
CRACK!
The sound of shattering bone echoed through the Deep Zone. The beast's impenetrable armor cracked under the concentrated, piercing force of the 2nd Chakra. The monster shrieked in absolute agony, stumbling backward and clutching its face.
But the attack wasn't over.
"My turn, you ugly freak!" Kanha screamed, leaping off a nearby rock.
While the beast was blinded and screaming, Kanha thrust his small iron stick forward. He activated his 3rd Chakra with the explosive power of the stimulant pill.
"Matter Manipulation!" Kanha yelled.
The iron stick elongated instantly, shooting forward like a harpoon. It pierced straight through the crack Karma had just created, burying itself deep into the monster's eye socket.
The Elite Mutant let out a roar so loud it shook the dimension. It violently swatted Kanha away, ripping the stick out of its eye. Dark, corrupted blood sprayed everywhere.
The beast was dying, but it wasn't going down alone.
Its entire body began to swell. The dark-gold energy inside its chest became violently unstable, glowing brighter and brighter. The surrounding air began to burn.
"Karma... run!" Daizy screamed weakly from the ground. "It's going to self-destruct!"
Karma landed on the ground, his legs giving out. Kanha was thrown into the dirt, the stimulant wearing off. They had no energy left to run. They could only watch as the beast prepared to blow the entire clearing to dust.
FWOOOOOOSH!
Suddenly, the dark purple sky was illuminated by a blinding, brilliant white-orange light.
A colossal pillar of pure, concentrated 5th Chakra fire crashed down from the heavens like a meteor. It struck the self-destructing Elite Mutant dead center.
There was no explosion. The heat was so intense, so absolute, that the massive monster didn't even have time to scream. In a fraction of a second, the beast was completely incinerated, reduced to a pile of fine, smoking gray ash.
The intense heat wave washed over the freezing Deep Zone, bringing a sudden, shocking warmth.
The Core Four shielded their eyes. When they slowly lowered their hands, they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Standing right in the center of the smoking ash pile was Professor Agni. He was casually adjusting the collar of his military uniform, not a single scratch on him.
Agni looked around the destroyed, cracked obsidian clearing, then looked down at the four battered, bleeding, and half-dead first-year students. He raised a thick eyebrow in genuine confusion.
"What on earth are you four doing lounging around here in the Deep Zone?" Professor Agni asked, his booming voice sounding completely casual. "The Aether Hunt competition started thirty minutes ago in the Outer Zone! You're losing points!"
The sheer absurdity of the statement hung in the air.
Kanha's jaw hit the floor. His eye twitched violently. Lounging around? Losing points?! Kanha looked like he was about to start sobbing out of pure frustration.
Sambhab just dropped his head back onto the dirt, completely giving up on logic. Daizy let out a breath that was halfway between a laugh and a cry of relief.
Karma, however, didn't complain. His entire body was screaming in pain, his clothes were burnt, and he was covered in blood. But he pushed himself up onto his knees.
He slowly crawled over to the pile of ash where the Elite Mutant used to be. Reaching his trembling hand into the hot ash, Karma pulled out a solid, heavy crystal.
Unlike the normal dull Pran cores of regular beasts, this core was incredibly large and glowed with a pure, brilliant gold light. It was an Elite Gold Core something even senior students rarely ever saw, let alone defeated.
Karma gripped the Gold Core. He slowly looked up at Professor Agni, his teal eyes half-closed from sheer exhaustion.
He held the glowing core up to the Professor.
"Sir..." Karma wheezed, a weak, badass smirk forming on his bloody face. "can….we use...th..i.s
Before Agni could even answer, Karma's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed face-first into the dirt, passing out completely.