"Ethan!"
Xain was ready to charge in but was held down by Cedric.
"Calm down for a bit Xain."
"Ethan is hit! He needs backup-!"
"I know! But charging mindlessly is not how you are supposed to back him up! You know how strong he is right?! So believe him!"
Cedric's words stunned Xain. When he heard no more complaints from him, Cedric created a wall of ice to block the cube from attacking Ethan further. Ethan took that cue to create distance and manipulate his blood to give one last attack to the cube beyond the ice wall. He tumbled on the ground for a bit before crouching down to press on his wound.
The sky that was blue suddenly turned red while the cube that had stood still all this time, floated up. Each of its layers rotated in the opposite direction as if it had its own axis.
"Ethan, should we retreat first? Seems like the gate's rank increased."
Cedric asked through his watch. Though hoarse, he could hear Ethan's words clearly.
"Let's observe for a while, if the gate breaks out in this condition, the casualty can be huge."
Gate break out was a phenomenon where the frequency of the gate was too unstable it manifested in reality – like how a rupture was. The difference was, rupture was a real parallel world clashing into this world, while gate was an imaginary world created from surrounding frequencies – mostly humans' thoughts and energy – that could manifest into the world.
And considering how imagination worked, anything could happen when a gate broke out, especially the SS-ranked one.
"He still wants to fight in that condition? Our captain is fucking crazy."
"Don't curse, Ethan will scold you if he finds out and I will be branded accomplice."
The cube had now floated in the sky. Spinning so fast it created an illusion of a ball. It slowly glowed purple and launched its beam in every direction.
The three espers jumped around, dodging the attacks while regrouping with each other. After the attacks stopped, the three had managed to regroup.
"You okay?" Xain asked, his eyes focused on the wound on Ethan's abdomen. He could see Ethan trying to fix his damaged organ using his ability.
Holding the wound even tighter while crouching, Ethan answered, "It's deeper than I thought but I can manage."
"Don't try to act tough." Cedric said sternly, which made Ethan glance at him. A weak smile appeared on his face.
"I would love to do that if I could, but I'm being really honest here."
His grey eyes redirected back at the boss, it had stopped shooting its beam, but it still spun in place. The mummies rose again from beneath the ground, this time their bandages were loose, revealing dried corpses devoid of organs. They charged mindlessly at terrifying speed.
"Xain."
Ethan called out, after gaining Xain's attention, he clenched his fist and tapped it on the ground three times. Understanding its meaning, Xain nodded and launched himself into the air. His fist punched right in the middle of the mummies' swarm.
Huge crater formed as dust and debris flew across the air. He didn't stop at one punch, he launched himself in the air again and threw more punches in different spots until most of the mummies either got smashed or swallowed inside the crater. Cedric finished off the ones still alive missed by Xain's barbaric punches. It didn't take long for the enemies to be completely obliterated.
But that's when the real deal started.
The spinning cube gathered the bodies of its underling, wrapping them around itself, creating the shape of a lion.
"I hate second phases the most." Xain grumbled, watching how the mummies were collected and formed a solid outer body within seconds.
"Our stamina can't last forever, so let's finish this fast." Ethan stood up and moved his hand. Blood floated around him for a bit before hardening into a thousand needles.
"I'll try to slip in and crack the core, so buy me some time."
Cedric sighed, "You'd better treat me to dinner after this."
The massive lion built on corpses clashed with Xain as the vanguard. Its agility was nothing to scoff at, it managed to scratch Xain while dodging Cedric's attacks at the same time.
Amidst all this, delicate red strings crawled inside the core.
ROOARRRR!!
The boss gave one last inhumane cry and stopped moving. The lion-shaped mummy corpses crumbled, revealing the unmoving cube inside – surrounded by a layer of blood. It had cracked the core into pieces. But the core still blinked dimly, not completely destroyed yet.
Warping the blood around the cube's shattered core, Ethan swirled the core shards inside a blood storm. With a motion of his hand, the blood vanished and the leftover shards turned into dust.
The gate's exit opened as the boss was finally defeated.
.
.
"We are now live in front of the S-Rank evolution gate in District 10. It is now being raided by Team Zero as we are speaking."
Crowds of reporters and onlookers had gathered around the gate, there weren't this many people when the raid first started, but because the gate evolved, the reporters had been flocking to this gate for sensation.
Ilyas was waiting impatiently in front of the gate because of this news. The moment he heard the evolution gate his team was going to raid, his instinct told him to drop whatever he was doing and rush here. And his instinct was always right.
"It is reported that the gate evolved into SS-Rank mid-raid. We are now waiting for the espers to come out- Wait! The gate has finally cleared! Team Zero is now coming out from the gate-"
Gasps of surprise cut off the reporter's voice. The S-Ranks, known for their exceptional combat abilities came out battered and hurt. Xain had scratches and bruises all over his body, though Cedric seemed fine, the man he supported beside him was in the worst state out of the three.
"Healer! We need a healer right now!"
Someone didn't need to be a doctor to know what blood flowing out of a torn abdomen meant.
"Ethan!"
Ilyas rushed to support Ethan with Cedric while Xain was searching for the healing esper nearby.
"I told you already. It's going to be a mess if you don't take care of your body as soon as possible."
"Stop nagging me Cedric, I'll buy you your dinner tonight, so calm down. Ilyas too."
Ilyas was already on verge of tears seeing his captain's condition, but he held it in and gave the most resolute nod when he met Ethan's gaze. He could feel a bloody hand patted his head. His emerald eyes tried as best as they could to stay steady in front of the unfocused grey eyes.
"Can you guys put me down? I'm not going to die soon, so before I lose consciousness, I want to at least tell you this-"
"Haa... You workaholic, if it's about the next mission, you don't need to worry, we are capable of handling it on our own, so rest."
"Glad that you know. Then I'll leave it to you."
Ethan gave one last smile, "Thank... you..."
And soon lost consciousness.