Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday-Chapter 307: The One in the Darkness

By the time the battle ended, the ruins were littered with the corpses of monsters.

The warriors were standing among the carnage, breathing heavily and with their weapons dripping with black blood. Their were exhausted after the long battle, but their eyes were filled with satisfaction of the victory.

They had won.

The dragon landed gracefully beside Grace, its stormy eyes watching her with something akin to happiness.

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"You had fun?" she asked as she stepped closer and stepped a hand on its scales.

Instead of answering through the mindlink, the dragon let out a deep, rumbling sound. It wasn't quite a growl, not quite a purr. But through their bond, she felt its answer loud and clear.

Yes.

One of the warriors decided to ask the question that was burning through all their heads. "Boss…" he hesitated before finally asking, "What… exactly is that?"

Grace smiled as she glanced at the dragon. "A partner."

The warriors exchanged glances, but none of them dared question her further. Because in the end, it didn't matter what the dragon was. What mattered was that it was on their side.

Grace then turned to them, observing and assessing. "This was just a test run," she said in a steady and clear voice. "The real battle starts now."

The warriors straightened at her words.

"We are not here just to kill a few beasts and leave," she continued. "We are here to push forward. To hunt. To cleanse this land of the filth that took it from us."

She let her words settle before adding, "Are you ready?"

A moment of silence and then - "Yes, Boss!"

Their voices rang through the ruins, echoing against the hollow buildings.

Satisfied with their energy, she turned to the dragon. "Scout ahead," she told the it through their bond. "Let me know if you sense anything unusual."

The dragon rumbled in response before launching itself into the sky, disappearing beyond the shattered skyline.

With that, the warriors regrouped, took elixirs to regain their lost energy, checked their gears, and prepared to move deeper into the ruins.

As they moved forward, the streets became eerily quiet. The ruins were stretched endlessly before them. They were now a mixture of nature's reclamation and the remnants of human civilization.

The deeper they ventured, the thicker the darkness felt.

Grace's instincts sharpened as she sensed that something wasn't right about the quietness and the darkness.

She raised her hand, signaling for the group to halt. The warriors immediately obeyed, falling into a defensive stance.

"What's wrong?" Rune asked in a hushed voice.

She narrowed her eyes as she felt a presence. No... many presences. "Shadow Beasts," she murmured. "A lot of them."

Just as the words left her lips, the air shifted.

The once-quiet ruins came alive with movement. From the shadows of the buildings, the horde appeared. There were dozens of them, all above Class 5.

The warriors tensed, their grips tightening on their weapons. "This many at once…" one of them whispered. "It's not normal."

Grace exhaled sharply. She knew exactly what the warrior was talking about. Unless it's a family of the same type of Shadow Beasts, this many Shadow Beasts of different types never attacked together. There could three or four, but never in dozens.

This wasn't just a random encounter, but an ambush. And it meant only one thing... the Shadow Beasts had been watching them all along.

"Formation!" Grace commanded. "Don't break your ranks!"

The warriors immediately moved into position, forming a defensive perimeter right before the beasts attacked.

The battle erupted in an instant.

A monstrous beast lunged at Grace, its body warping unnaturally as it moved. She met it head-on, summoning a spear of ice in her hand before driving it straight into the creature's chest.

The beast let out an ear-piercing shriek before disintegrating into black mist.

To her left, Rune unleashed a wave of fire, setting the darkness ablaze. To her right, another warrior struck down a Shadow Beast with bullets.

But for every beast they killed, more kept emerging from the shadows. It was becoming an endless pattern.

Rune gritted his teeth as he spoke, "We are being overwhelmed."

At that very moment, a deafening roar shook the ruins. And a golden light descended from the sky like a falling star. It was the dragon.

With a single breath, it unleashed a devastating blast of ice, freezing an entire wave of Shadow Beasts. The ground shook as its massive claws crashed down, crushing the creatures beneath.

The battlefield changed in an instant.

Where once they had been outnumbered, now the tide had turned.

With renewed vigor, the warriors pushed forward, cutting down their enemies with newfound ferocity and the cries of the dying beasts filled the ruins.

The battle that might have continued for hours, ended within next twelve minutes because of the dragon. The place became silent once again as the last of the beasts collapsed, dissolving into nothingness.

It was over.

Grace wiped the sweat off her brow and surveyed the battlefield. The corpses of the Shadow Beasts had already begun to dissolve into mist, leaving behind only the Spirit Stones.

"Gather the stones," she ordered.

The warriors immediately got to work.

As Grace bent down to pick up a dark purple Spirit Stone from the ground, the system notified her that it was the only second purple stone they had found in all these years. And this one was a Level Six.

Once the last of the Spirit Stones had been collected, she called out, "We are leaving."

The warriors quickly moved toward their aircraft that appeared there out of the blue. As the last of them boarded, Grace turned to the dragon.

"It's time," she said through their bond.

It let out a low, rumbling sound before its massive form began to glow. A faint shimmer enveloped its body, and within seconds, it disappeared, returning to the Infinite Realm where it could rest until she summoned it again.

With that, Grace stepped onto the aircraft. The engines roared to life, and within moments, they lifted off, soaring above the ruined city and heading back to Starfall after a successful hunt.