Ethan watched the Mightkin warriors go berserk, and even he was a little surprised.

"Seriously," he said, almost gleeful. "You had to go and mock enemies who were already backed into a corner. Well? Enjoy that."

The moment Ethan realized the two sides hated each other, he’d started laying the groundwork to make them tear into each other.

He just hadn’t expected the hatred to run that deep. He barely had to push—then boom, they were at each other’s throats.

But watching the battlefield, Ethan could tell how this ended.

The Mightkin were fierce, sure, but they were going to lose.

They were down in numbers, and their high-tier fighters had already been dealt with. The power gap between the two sides was still there.

And the Umbrals’ toolkit wasn’t limited to decay rays and Blades of Decay, either.

The ground itself was rotting—soil and stone decaying underfoot. Up in the air, black fog spread like a stain, and it had the same decay effect.

Meaning: fighting them was like fighting inside a corrosive swamp. You were being decayed every second you stayed in the zone. Give it enough time, and everyone died—no exceptions.

In that situation, if the Mightkin could trade out half the Umbrals, that would already be impressive.

But that wasn’t what Ethan wanted.

For Ethan’s side, the Umbrals were way more annoying than the Mightkin. That decay was disgusting.

If a few thousand Umbrals were left standing afterward, cleaning them up would be brutal—and the price wouldn’t be small.

So Ethan made the call.

"Dopey," he said, voice sharp. "You three—go help."

The moment the order left his mouth, the three thralls shot toward the battlefield.

Aeralon and Aerisara opened with the same move—two massive cyclones hurled straight into the Umbral ranks.

In an instant, over a hundred Umbral elites were torn apart.

The Umbrals didn’t have the Mightkin’s absurd physical durability. Aerisara could shred them easily.

"Stage S soulless thralls...!" The tall Umbral leader’s eyes bulged, like he’d just seen a nightmare walk into daylight.

In that moment, it finally clicked for him why the Mightkin had gotten beaten this badly.

"Split off a unit—deal with them!" he shouted.

The Umbrals weren’t like the Mightkin.

The Mightkin lacked ranged attacks; if something stayed out of reach, they just had to eat it.

But the Umbrals could hit you wherever you stood.

A storm of black light immediately poured toward the three soulless thralls, dense enough that dodging wasn’t even an option.

Dopey didn’t bother trying.

He slammed through the barrage and plunged into their formation anyway, still killing with the same simple rhythm—one punch, one corpse.

The black rays struck him and left decay marks across his body... but they couldn’t rot his skin.

Decay really was a nightmare for most physical fighters.

But it still depended on how strong the body was.

And Dopey’s physical strength was on a level the Mightkin couldn’t even touch.

Even the Mightkin warriors saw it, eyes widening as the truth hit them late—so this is why we got destroyed.

Aeralon and Aerisara both raised Tempest Shields, letting the swirling barrier of wind intercept the black light.

But under the sheer volume of attacks, Aerisara’s shield finally shattered.

Black rays splashed onto her body and began chewing into her flesh.

Too bad Aerisara was a thrall.

She didn’t feel pain.

Her body was corroding in ugly patches, but her movements never slowed. She kept attacking like nothing was happening—brutal, relentless.

With the three thralls crashing into the fight, the Umbrals’ formation instantly broke apart.

For a few seconds it was chaos—

—and their death rate skyrocketed.

But the Mightkin were dropping fast, too.

The more Decay power that built up on them, the faster it ate through them. Mightkin warriors kept collapsing mid-charge, their bodies dissolving into puddles of black, bloody sludge. Even Ethan’s eyelids twitched watching it happen.

"Looks like we need to speed this up," Ethan said. "If the Mightkin all die out, we’re the ones who’ll suffer."

He turned to the squad. "Let’s move. Anyone with AoE—dump everything you’ve got into the pile."

Chris hesitated. "Won’t that draw aggro? That corrosion looks... really not fun."

"It’s fine," Garrick said immediately. "You guys attack. I’ll put up Protective Dome."

"Alright."

Everyone nodded and closed in fast.

Big Mike raised a hand and slammed down a wide-area Blazing Ground, then chained it with Rain of Flames.

Henry followed with Rain of Light. Skinny Pete unleashed Lightning Storm. Mia sent out Ice Blade Storm. Emily’s Vampiric Vines spread like hungry veins across the killing field.

One AoE after another crashed into the melee.

The Fallen Star Squad were all already Tier 25—and they hit harder than most people at the same tier. When their spells landed, Tier 24 and Tier 25 Umbrals simply couldn’t take it.

In a blink, hundreds of Umbrals dropped.

And just like that, a lot of Umbral eyes snapped toward them.

Yeah, the Umbrals were getting mauled by the Mightkin and the three soulless thralls—but seeing a bunch of Tier 25 humans dare to join in anyway lit a fuse in them.

Fury flashed across their sharp faces.

A section of Umbral elites peeled off from the main battlefield and charged straight at the squad. They weren’t even in range yet, and black rays were already flying.

Garrick reacted instantly, throwing up Protective Dome. The black light slammed into it and splashed harmlessly across the surface.

Behind Ethan, over a hundred daggers suddenly burst into the air and shot forward, stabbing toward the incoming Umbrals.

At the same time, everyone else dumped damage into the opening.

Rip rip rip...

After a single exchange, they wiped out another few hundred Tier 24 to Tier 26 elites.

But there were still dozens left—Tier 27 and above—pushing through, sprinting right at them.

Their AoE just wasn’t enough to delete opponents at that tier.

Those high-tier Umbrals reached the Protective Dome and conjured Blades of Decay in their hands, hacking straight into the barrier.

The dome began melting at a visible speed, like acid had been poured over glass.

"Yeah," Garrick muttered, frowning. "That’s disgusting."

Ethan vanished.

Teleportation—then he was outside the dome, right in front of the attackers.

Black light ran along his poleaxe as he swung it in a flat, vicious sweep.

Eight Umbral heads burst apart instantly.

The survivors slashed back, Blades of Decay whipping toward him from every angle.

But the moment those attacks neared Ethan’s body, they simply... disappeared. Like the world had erased them.

By now, Ethan had a clear feel for Nullspace Domain’s limits.

Because of his own strength, his domain could withstand attacks from enemies up to three tiers above him.

He was Tier 25.

With Nullspace Domain active, he could take Tier 28 pressure.

And unlike a normal shield, his domain didn’t have some "total damage cap" you could brute-force with enough bodies.

Take Garrick’s Protective Dome—one same-tier enemy might not crack it, but a crowd could wear it down.

Nullspace Domain wasn’t like that.

If you didn’t have the power to break it outright, then numbers didn’t matter. The void would swallow every strike, again and again.

So when Ethan saw there were no Tier 29 Umbrals in this group, he didn’t flinch.

He went straight in.

That was when Chris moved, too.

A spear appeared out of nowhere and punched clean through an Umbral elite’s skull—then vanished just as fast.

Ethan didn’t look back. "Keep dumping AoE into the main fight. Chris and I will handle the high-tier ones here."

"Got it!"

From there, Ethan and Chris held the line outside the Protective Dome, carving down the stronger Umbrals as they tried to break through, while the rest of the squad kept raining skills into the battlefield.

As for the twenty thousand Fallen Star Guards and the Flamebirds...

They still didn’t need to enter the meat grinder. Their job was containment—hold the perimeter, don’t let anyone slip away.

With Ethan’s side fully committing, the battlefield turned even more violent—every second louder, faster, and harder to breathe in.