But that was easier said than done. The creature had a massive amount of health, and Li still had no idea what its abilities were. He knew he would very likely have to resort to an Ultima-class spell of firepower, but during the cast time for such spells, he would have to go into his true form.

In any case, Li had to scope out the situation a little more, possibly see if he could take it down without resorting to his Ultima-class spells, and to do that, he needed to ensure the adventurers were not in harm's way, not only to safely scope out the abomination's powers, but to get them out of range of any collateral damage in the case that he did decide to use an Ultima-class spell.

The surging crash of heavy waters rolling overhead began to simmer down, the constant, dim roar fading into a streaming trickle. Replacing that ruckus was instead the immense groaning of the Dark beast amalgamation in the distance as it began to move, its form fully stabilizing.

Soon enough, it would ready an attack.

"The waters have passed over us, and the abomination is slow to move, not yet steadying an attack against us," said Li. "Listen to me closely and follow my orders. I am going to take down this defense."

"You are!?" said Faye.

"Yes, and the moment I do, all of you heroes that can fly, take Launcelot and carry him up and away from the fight. You can do that, can't you?"

"Well, yes," said Faye as she bit her lip nervously. "But the moment we do, countless flying Dark beasts will swarm us. Elsewise we would have flown in here to begin with."

"I've made sure. Every single Dark beast presence that I could sense has merged into that amalgamation. There is no other way that it could have become as powerful as it is now without sparing any measure of strength." Li began to prepare himself, going through the steps in his mind as to what he needed to do. Power began to crackle around him as he thought, crackling and coursing about him in sparks of electrical green.

"So, I will ask you again. Can you fly Launcelot out? Fast, too? Elsewise, I can summon a familiar for you, though if I do, its newborn life will be in your care."

"My party can quite capably fly me," said Launcelot. "They have already done it more times than I can count in the many times I shouldered one too many attacks and knocked myself out."

"A wonder your brains still function properly by now," muttered Faye to Launcelot, and she nodded to Li. "I am the fastest among all of us with my flame bursts, but with wind to fuel it from Ava and an explosive headstart from Celeste, we should be able to carry this heavy load high in the air within seconds."

"Good," said Li. "And in the case that the Dark beast has some mean to attack you, I will ensure that you are adequately defended, so waste no necessary movement on trying to defend yourself.

Then, here we go."

Li waved his hand, and the roof of the [Deeproot Bunker] parted, the roots creaking as they unfurled from each other to reveal the pitch-black darkness of the sky covered in Dark beast smog. In the distance, the Dark beast amalgamation screamed.

It was an ear splitting, chaotic frenzy of a sound created from the mouth parts of all of the creatures comprising its unnatural existence, and Li approached it. He could understand the language of creatures, even those that did not have the necessary mental capacity to vocalize words, and he knew that what he heard was not a battle roar, but a symphony of pain, of thousands upon thousands of existences all loosing out screams of eternal torment.

Li began to walk forwards, his boots trudging through the waterlogged swamp to meet the Dark beast. He resolved himself to end not only its misery, but the misery of the existence that still controlled it.

The adventurers moved quickly and efficiently, their training and experience with each other kicking in. Faye immediately grabbed Launcelot under his arms to get a hold of him. Surprisingly, she was rather easily capable of lifting him up.

Ava and Celeste were at Faye's side, focusing on her movements. Faye furrowed her brows for an instant before she activated her power. She jumped up with Launcelot in her grasp, and as her feet left the rooted ground of the [Deeproot Bunker], twin jet bursts of flame erupted from her feet, glowing bright orange in the dark like tails of a comet.

Celeste then clapped her hands, and they glowed white for a split second before generating a massive explosion that sent all of them hurtling up to make an initial burst of distance.

Ava thrust her hands down, and a powerful wind whirled from them, sustaining their flight and enhancing Faye's flames.

Li was surprised at how potent their abilities were. They had managed to soar past the high tree line of the Chattering Forest within a few seconds – a testament to their coordination and strength.

The hand amalgamation loosed its collective scream, rumbling the earth, sonic shockwaves emanating from its body, making it look like a shimmering mirage was wreathing it.

Li narrowed his eyes as he noted that the hand had turned its palm away form Li and was looking at the adventurers. It started to move, its gargantuan length rising out from the depths of the Dark beast lake as it reached for the adventurers, its long fingers stretched out greedily to try and grab them.

The creature moved slowly, but due to its size, it covered ground incredibly quickly, rapidly closing in on the adventurers.

Li acted fast.

He would teach this abomination that it could not afford to ignore him. He put his arm out and aimed an open palm towards the hand. Then, he cast [Rumblespine Railspitter]. The A+ ranked spell activated, a pulse of green magical energy coursing out around Li, growing little plants and flowers all around the darkened mud near his feet.

Plant mass coiled around Li's arm, transforming it into a large, dark green plant bulb that looked vaguely like a cannon, the end of the bulb tapering off into a hollow barrel. One half of the bulb was lined with a strip of glowing blue, and on the other side, there was a strip of glowing red to represent positive and negative currents.

Li felt magical energy expending from within himself, feeding into the railspitter. This spell cost a decent amount of mana to manifest and to create individual bolts of ammo for, but its firepower was unrivaled in return.

It clicked, creating a rail – a long, heavy, stake-like spine. It armed, and the railspitter began to emit a whirring sound that rapidly amped up in intensity.

With a breath, Li fired the railspitter.

The rail spine blasted out from Li's modified arm at speeds that far surpassed the speed of sound. It crashed into the wrist of the Dark beast hand in an instant, and as soon as it made contact, it completely eviscerated the wrist before the hand could close its fingers on the adventurers.

Then, the concussive buzzing of the railspitter's detonation echoed throughout the forest.

The giant hand fell slowly to the lake, crashing into it and creating another huge surge of black waves. Thankfully, the adventurers now flew even higher away from the hand, becoming like dots in the darkened sky, and it could no longer reach far enough to touch them.

Li put a palm to his heart, planting himself with the [Heart of the Forest] buff, massively enhancing his physical stats. Lines of bright green energy glowed through his body, where his veins would be, flowing with raw power.

Before the wave could engulf him, Li punched into the air, generating a shockwave that split the wave apart.

"Interesting," said Li as he beheld his foe again through a rain of spattering black, noting that the dimensions of the battle were about to change.