Oliver immediately rushed toward Helton while raising the cannon on his arm.

"Scatterburst Cannon!"

Dozens of explosive bullets blasted toward Helton at high speed. However, the moment the attacks hit him, Oliver’s eyes widened in shock.

The bullets passed straight through Helton’s body as if he were intangible. The impacted parts of his body instantly transformed into swarms of cicadas before reforming again.

At the same time, the black mist released from the lantern surged rapidly toward Nyx. Oliver immediately became frightened. For a brief moment, the terrifying thought of losing another monster appeared in his mind.

But just as the black mist touched Nyx, a barrier of light suddenly covered the giant monster.

[Mysterious force attempting to invade the system.]

[Protective measures initiated. Invasion by mysterious force successfully prevented.]

"What?!" Helton shouted in disbelief after seeing the black mist fail completely.

Meanwhile, Oliver finally let out a relieved breath. It seemed the system had truly learned from its previous mistake.

Nyx himself looked slightly confused by what had just happened. However, his attention quickly shifted back toward Helton standing before him. Then, he slowly raised his cannon and began fully charging it.

The moment Oliver and Aria saw the massive amount of energy gathering at the muzzle, both of their faces instantly turned pale.

"Nyx, no! Don’t use that attack here! We’ll get buried alive if you fire it!" Oliver shouted in panic. But it was already too late.

BOOOM!!!

A devastating blast erupted from Nyx’s cannon and shot straight toward Helton at terrifying speed. Helton’s face instantly filled with fear as he desperately prepared to completely disperse his body into cicadas.

Just as everyone inside the boss room braced themselves for a catastrophic explosion, the Chimera suddenly moved.

The gigantic beast rushed directly in front of Helton and spread its arms wide open as though it intended to receive the attack head-on.

The destructive beam slammed into the Chimera with tremendous force. However, instead of exploding upon impact, the Chimera actually held back the blast. Then, with sheer brute force, it redirected the beam toward the far side of the dungeon hall.

BOOOOM!!

A massive explosion erupted in the distance, violently shaking the entire boss room. Dust and smoke rapidly filled the surroundings while pieces of debris rained down from above.

"It actually blocked Nyx’s blast?!" Oliver was genuinely shocked. This was the first time that someone, or something had managed to stop a full-powered blast from Nyx’s original form without being completely blown away.

"This monster is bad news. I need to deal with it first before handling that masked man and the other guy." Oliver muttered seriously. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

His mind rapidly analyzed the battlefield before him. His eyes moved from Verner, to Helton, to the Chimera, to Nyx, before finally stopping on Aria.

Aria had now begun entering her Partial Form transformation. Half of her body became covered in crystalline ice while her light blue hair slightly lengthened. Frost rapidly spread across the ground beneath her feet as the surrounding area slowly transformed into an icy domain.

The temperature inside the boss room dropped drastically. Meanwhile, Frostrix continuously flew around the massive boss chamber which spanned nearly one hundred meters in width and length.

Verner immediately noticed the change in atmosphere. Clicking his tongue, he realized he no longer had any choice. He instantly entered Full Form transformation.

The difference between the two forms was simple. In Partial Form, the monster still existed separately beside the tamer. Meanwhile, in Full Form, the monster completely merged with the tamer’s body.

Both forms possessed their own advantages and disadvantages.

Partial Form allowed a tamer to continue fighting alongside their monster while simultaneously boosting the tamer’s combat abilities to a much higher level. The downside, however, was that maintaining the form consumed a tremendous amount of mana over time.

Full Form, on the other hand, was a complete fusion between the tamer and their monster. It granted the tamer access to the monster’s maximum capabilities, making them vastly stronger in direct combat.

However, while it also consumed a huge amount of mana, the greater drawback was the burden placed on the monster itself. After the transformation ended, the monster would become heavily exhausted and require time to recover.

Aria understood the advantages and disadvantages of both Forms very well. She had already mastered both transformations long ago. But in this situation, she needed to choose the most effective option carefully.

"Oliver! Can you hold that monster off for a while? I’ll look for Ingram and deal with this guy!" Aria shouted.

"Yes! I’ll do my best!" Oliver replied immediately.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Nyx stared at the Chimera with intense interest.

"You... look strong. I... want to... fight you." Nyx slowly hovered forward toward the Chimera. The Chimera merely stared back at him silently while standing completely motionless.

Meanwhile, Helton was still staring at the forbidden lantern in confusion. He desperately tried to understand why the Forbidden Taming ritual had failed.

’That damned woman lied to me! She said the ritual could capture any monster without fail. Then what exactly is this?!’ he cursed inwardly. Frustration and anger filled his mind.

However, while he was distracted venting his thoughts, Oliver suddenly appeared above him and descended rapidly from the air. For now, Oliver had decided to leave the Chimera to Nyx while he focused on capturing the masked man first.

"I have so many questions to ask you. But first, I need to beat you into a pulp!" Oliver said. At that moment, he was only inches away from grabbing Helton.

"Then catch me first if you want answers! Hahaha!" Helton laughed madly. Suddenly, his entire body exploded into hundreds of cicadas, each one releasing loud screeching noises throughout the room.

However, Oliver did not become angry or frustrated. Instead, he calmly hovered upward again before pointing his cannon toward the swarm.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He activated Rapid Barrage and fired continuously. Several cicadas instantly exploded into splashes of green blood.

"Let’s see how long you can keep this up," Oliver grinned.