“What happened to you?” Cateto asks worriedly.

  “I thought you cats couldn’t show emotions,” Wyn says.

  Cateto jumps onto Wyn’s shoulder, then makes his way down to lick the severed limb. He proceeds to lick the minor wounds on the other members as well.

  “Thank you, Cateto!” Mira says, as she smothers the poor cat with her breasts, almost suffocating it.

  “Is that a fox sticker? Was it strong?” Cateto asks.

  “Foxhydra? It was strong, alright!” Yu replies, seemingly proud.

  “Mind you, it’s now foxymoron,” Wyn says.

  “Unbelievable…,” James responds.

  At Wyn’s request, Cateto puts him into a deep sleep with a boink to the head inside his tent. The rest of the team seizes this chance to rest as well, allowing Wyn’s hand to fully regenerate. While Wyn is asleep and the others are awake, Mira pulls James aside, leading him to her tent for some “private bonding” time.

  The moment Wyn awakens, he gathers everyone for a team meeting to discuss their next move. Unsurprisingly, Wyn is eager for a rematch with the Legion Of The Fallen Souls, confident they’re now much stronger. With renewed determination, the team heads straight to Hell’s Ride.

  “Why didn’t you summon spiky ice from the ground during the foxymoron fight?” Wyn asks James while they wait for the next rolling coaster.

  “The fox was light, eh. Didn’t think they’d pierce.”

  “Fair enough.”

  After taking a moment to recover from the lingering nausea, they press on toward the slaughterhouse, now heavily guarded by demon cats.

  “Are you guys right in the head?” a demon cat asks.

  “Why not?” Wyn responds, flashing the foxymoron sticker.

  “You defeated the fox? Hmmm…interesting,” the same demon says. “We cannot stop you from entering anyway, but let us call the nerds first.”

  Confused but compliant, the team waits patiently at the entrance. As soon as a group of nerds appears, Wyn immediately bombards them with questions.

  “Slow down! We want to observe this new champion and collect data. You’re our lab rats.”

  “How did you know how much essence it’ll give?” Wyn asks, showing the creature’s information on his screen.

  “We can scan creatures. We had to use drones for this one.”

  “Oh? Then can you tell us where it is now? We want to fight it in a hall.”

  “Better yet, we’ll use the drones to lure it there, but we’ll have them deliver you first.”

  Inside the maze, tendrils stretch out in every direction, ready to ensnare any unsuspecting prey. They’re especially dense around the hall where the team previously encountered the creature. Under the careful guidance of the nerds, the drones weave through the labyrinth, avoiding the writhing appendages as they transport the team back to the hall. Once dropped off, Wyn and team settle into position, recounting the plan to approach this battle.

  The tendrils around the hall retract in reaction to attacks, seemingly drawn back to the creature's main body. The team then opens a total of five portals side by side near the wall behind them, readying themselves for the upcoming battle. Slowly, the creature makes its way into the hall, rising to its full, menacing height as it takes on a humanoid form. The familiar blue patches reappear in the same spots – shoulders, chest, and knees.

  “We…remember. The…ones…that…got…away.”

  In an instant, a barrage of icicles erupts from the ground. Anticipating this, Wyn swiftly summons a rock pillar for his team to stand on, letting it shatter as the icicles pierce through. He quickly conjures another for them to land on, then another, each one rising above the spikes and forming a direct path toward the creature's eyes. The shoulder patches shift to yellow, and as the creature lifts its arms, thunderbolts launch forward from them. Wyn and James swiftly fortify themselves with rock and ice, while the others duck behind them, shielded from the onslaught. Despite the power of the strikes, only minor dents appear on their fortifications. As the chest patch shifts to red, Wyn commands rocks from the ceiling to crash down onto the creature, effectively redirecting a searing laser beam that fires from its chest.

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  Halfway to the creature, Wyn summons smaller rock pillars, each still towering above the icicles, forming two parallel paths. Wyn and Mira take one path, while Yu and James take the other, leaving Lisa alone on the central pillar, aiming her gun at the creature’s eyes. As she fires, four electrifying lasers hit both eyes, causing the Legion to jerk its head back. It swings backward before returning, eyes now crackling with electricity.

  Seizing the opportunity, Wyn hurls the fiery chakrams at the left eye, while Yu spins the blade tip in preparation for a strike at the right. At the same time, James launches a barrage of icicles toward the right eye. In an unexpected turn, the Legion’s black eyes disappear into its shimmering body. Seemingly black fluid blobs travel through its form before suddenly reemerging; one eye appears on its stomach, while the other takes position at the end of the limb on its arm.

  “Oh shit! We didn’t account for that!” James remarks.

  As the team shifts its focus to the new eye locations, the patches on the creature’s legs turn red, while those on its shoulders shift to gray. Below them, a field of lava erupts, and the creature’s arms launch a series of ascending cyclones, systematically shattering Wyn’s rock pillars, one after another. The team retreats to Lisa’s location, clinging tightly to Wyn as he propels them away from the attacks, maneuvering to stay above the creature’s head. Once there, Wyn conjures mini cyclones for the team to stand on, holding steady as they wait for the onslaught to subside.

  Having lost sight of its target, the creature aimlessly summons thunder strikes from the ceiling then halts its attack, its eyes relocating to scan the area in search of them. As soon as an eye emerges on top of the creature’s head, though startled, the team unleashes a relentless barrage of attacks. The onslaught forces the eye to swiftly relocate, but before they can catch their breath, the entire body liquefies and shifts to the center of the hall.

  Wyn summons pillars from the wall, providing a resting place for his team. As the humanoid form completes its transformation, the eyes reemerge on its face. With the shoulder and chest patches glowing red, laser beams fire across its width. Anticipating the attack, Wyn desummons the pillars, allowing the team to drop onto a lower pillar to evade the incoming beams. He quickly conjures two new paths with the pillars, curving around the creature and converging behind its back.

  Mira and Lisa take one path, while the others remain behind. Just as the Legion’s shoulder patches shift to yellow, Wyn launches two freezing cyclones that curve to strike the shoulder patches. They turn black, preventing the anticipated thunder strikes. Meanwhile, the creature sends tendrils from its body, trying to ensnare Mira and Lisa. The sisters fend off the tendrils, but they prove tricky, curving around to encircle them.

  On the other path, Yu and James keep moving while Wyn propels himself directly at one of the creature's eyes. The impact is solid, with both chakrams embedding firmly in place. In response, the Legion retracts its tendrils before extending them toward Wyn, who hangs from his weapons. He unlocks the blades to descend, then flips around and jets himself back toward the wall. It seems the lodged eye can no longer relocate.

  As the shoulder patches shift to gray, the creature raises both its arms, attempting to dislodge the blades with a gust of wind. Seizing the opportunity, Lisa halts her advance and unleashes electrifying laser beams at the arms from the side, disrupting the creature’s effort. Meanwhile, Yu and James focus on freezing the creature’s entire body from the ground up. However, their attempts prove futile, as the Legion quickly counteracts with fire pillars that spring up around its legs. As this unfolds, Mira continues her approach toward the back of the creature, relentlessly whipping the chest patch with the explosive metal tip of her weapon.

  Wyn takes aim at the other eye, now positioned on the upper part of a leg. As the Legion is distracted, he recalls one of the blades and launches it at the eye. However, it swiftly eludes him, moving to the other side of the stomach, now facing Mira. Unaware of its new location, Wyn continues to hack away at a leg patch. Meanwhile, Mira grins as she successfully lands an explosive whiplash on the eye before it shifts back to the top of the head.

  As Yu and James do their best to prevent the Legion from dislodging the embedded blade by attacking its arms, Lisa stealthily maneuvers back to the center. Her fully-charged electrifying laser shots strike the arms, forcing them to swing toward the face with such force that the blade is driven even deeper into the eye. The Legion reacts with a cacophony of screams, releasing tendrils that lash out aimlessly from its body. Due to their sheer number, everyone becomes ensnared – everyone except Wyn. Each tendril, thin and numerous, allows Wyn to navigate through the air, slicing through them to free his friends.

  The Legion liquefies once more, slithering toward a side wall. It reshapes into a single thick vine, creeping along the surface before splitting as it reaches the ceiling. With its rapid movement, Wyn and team struggle to locate the eyes. As a precaution, they gather in the center of the hall, taking their positions on the ground. Suddenly, tendrils begin crawling along the walls, their presence overwhelming. There are no patches this time; instead, a single large eye sprouts from a tendril dangling above, glaring down at them in anger.

  “We...will...grow. We…will…be…whole,” the Legion declares, its cacophony of voices resonating from the eye.