*¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤*

The low hum of the rifle reverberated through the air, killing the monster that then crashed to the earth with great force...

"NO! Blueberry! Catch her!"

Shanks screamed in desperation, weakened to such a degree that he could barely hold on to the giant weapon.

The monster he killed... wasn't the beast with the meatgrinder-like jaws but another one, that THREW ITSELF IN THE WAY OF THE ATTACK AND BLOCKED IT WITH ITS OWN BODY SACRIFICING ITS LIFE.

"SKWEE!"

The emperor griffin screeched with affirmation and her body glowed violet.

*SWOOSH*

*CHOMP*

With the burst of acceleration, Blueberry managed to swipe the falling ashen-haired girl from literal jaws of death.

"Gah...! I would have survived that!"

Instead of gratitude, the first words that left the mouth of the young girl were a complaint.

"Bullshit. Even your skill won't let you survive with all your limbs torn off. Did you forgot that you need to be alive for the successful quest completion?"

Shanks was laying flat on Blueberry's back, pale as a ghost, as he scolded the ashen-haired girl who was glowing red while embraced by strong talons.

"..."

Mika looked away and gritted her teeth.

"Maybe you should stay with us for a while, deactivate your skills and cool off... Good job miss Blueberry."

Shanks advised the berserk girl and patted the side of emperor griffin's neck, grateful for her quick reaction.

Then he concentrated on the mayhem down below.

With his empowered skills, it was easy for him to spot Mary and Arion...

They didn't seem to be doing too well...

Somehow the titan-class monster that they chose to fight turned out to be far more resilient than they could ever anticipate and Mary was constantly losing the short bouts and retreating to restore her broken body while Arion's all-devouring darkness would just leave very shallow wounds on the half-humanoid beast's body.

"Idiots! What are they're trying to accomplish?! Out of every single freak in this wave, that thing is one that should definitely be left for the artillery to deal with!"

Shanks shook his head in disbelief and already started taking aim at the abhorrent monstrosity to help the duo.

"KGH...!"

But as he wanted to prepare for the next shot he suddenly coughed up a scary amount of black blood and his body trembled.

"Damn it...! Too much too soon..."

The rat-faced man growled to himself and clenched his fists on the rifle.

He had to wait, if he tried using the charge shot in too quick succession, he risked dropping dead at any given moment.

"Skwee...?! SKWEEEE!"

Suddenly, Blueberry screeched greatly disturbed, and almost threw Shanks off.

"WHOA! Are you alright?! What happened?! Did you got hit by one of the distance att...?! MIKA, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"

The rat-faced man gasped and managed to hold on to the griffin's back by pure chance, and as he ducked and grabbed on to Blueberry's feathers as hard as he could, he noticed the reason for the sudden violent and unpredictable movement...

It was all because the ashen-haired girl not only didn't listen to him telling her to cool off but instead ended up prying Blueberry's talons open - going as far as BREAKING OFF one of them and causing the griffin's blood to spray all around in the air - and after freeing herself in such a disgusting way, she jumped straight down at the titan-class monster that Mary and Arion struggled with.

"I'LL HELP!"

The ashen-haired girl shouted as the shining condensed mana coiled around her fist before she smashed it against the gigantic monster's shoulder - missing the head due to the inability to maneuver in the air.

"¤¿^|±££€$>÷•`¥"

The monster howled as its right arm fell limply to his side and yellow blood poured out from the horrible wound caused by the broken bones piercing through its muscles and skin.

"MISS MARY! NOW WE CAN FINI- GHUAH!"

*CRUSH*

Mika shouted happily with a bloodthirsty smile a mere second before Mary jumped up towards her and slapped her face so hard that the ashen-haired girl momentarily lost all of her senses and once she regained them, she found herself at the bottom of a small crater.

"YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT! TOUCH BLUEBERRY AGAIN AND I WILL RIP OUT YOUR INTESTINES AND LEAVE THEM FOR MONSTERS TO FEED ON!"

Mary growled at her from the edge above and instantly disappeared, leaving a faint cloud of bloody mist behind.

"Ah...!"

The impact made Mika deactivate her skills so in the moment of clarity she gasped and covered her mouth with both hands.

She felt something wet and looked at her palms, there was blood on her swollen cheek - but it wasn't her own, instead, it was Mary's from when she burst her hand on Mika's face as well as the blood from Bluberry's wound.

"...what am I doing...?"

Mika's chin trembled and her eyes begun stinging with tears.

In her berserk state, she hurt one of her allies.

Suddenly she clenched her fists and shook her head.

"No! I can't be distracted by things like that! Even if it's an ally, it's just a monster! There is a much more important thing to take care of now!"

Mika frowned, unknowingly stepping on a very dangerous path...

/Role specific achievement (ultimate route's exclusive) unlocked

Justice is blind

/Justice's Wrath skill upgrade

Enrage (level 11) »»» Righteous Wrath (level 1)

Base status points increased

"...!"

Mika flinched and her eyes widened.

"That's right... I am in the right... I'm Justice's Wrath! I am not in the wrong here!"

She nodded to herself and clenched her fists.

She reactivated her skills, the special upgraded version of the enrage made her feel much more powerful compared to before and she didn't felt that her head was all foggy anymore either!

This was perfect!

Mika face twisted in a confident smile - she felt like there was nothing that could stop her now!

"WHO'S NEXT?!"

She jumped out of the crater and roared.

*•÷€±•|¤«.¿>^ •€`_€•]«»%•£$«.*

"...eh...?"

...just in time to witness when a silhouette of something that had to be a living mountain - because nothing else could explain its gargantuan size - launched a swiping golden beam from high above, so high that it was impossible to tell which was the exact point of origin of the attack due to the amount of mist...

"What is going on?"

Mika asked dumbfounded - the beam wasn't aimed at her nor any other of the forward attack force, instead, it looked like the silhouette of the monster was aiming somewhere far behind them...

So far that its target could only be...

"THAT THING DESTROYED THE WHOLE THIRD DEFENSE LINE! THE ARTILLERY IS COMPLETELY GONE!"

Only Shanks's horrified shout full of desperation let her know what truly happened.

...there was no backup anymore...

The realization dawned at Mika and even her improved skills couldn't completely drown the fear that grasped her heart.

...no safety net of the lucky titan-class monsters getting blown to shreds while charging through the second defense line...

/02:29:56

/02:29:55

The proper procedure of dealing with the titan-class monsters that was seemingly set in stone for hundreds of years got completely decimated by a never seen before beast in a little bit under two and a half hours before the end of the -Final frontier- quest's 9th wave.