Mirror Dream Tree

Merin thrusts his palm forward—a pulse of invisible True Energy erupts, forming a translucent shield in front of him.

A split second later, a bolt of lightning cracks through the air, fired from the three glowing horns of the colossal rhino.

The bolt slams into Merin's shield with a thunderous boom, the impact lighting up the forest like a midday sun.

His feet drag across the dirt from the force, but the shield holds.

Sparks dance across his forearms as he exhales through clenched teeth.

The three-horned rhino snorts, its massive hooves cracking the earth as it steps forward—each horn humming with electricity.

Merin watches as Ryan lunges, spear in hand, its tip glowing red-hot from concentrated True Energy.

Ryan roars, slamming the weapon into the beast's shoulder.

Clang.

The spear bounces off, leaving no more than a scuff on the creature's transparent energy shield, which shimmers faintly around its entire body.

"Damn it!" Ryan shouts, falling back.

Merin narrows his eyes.

The beast's two natural defences—its lightning bolt attack, fueled by the charged particles stored in its horns, and the invisible shield cloaking its hide—make it nearly invincible.

A Colossal Realm beast.

To take it down cleanly, one would need to be in the King Kong Realm—and none of them are.

Which means there's only one path left.

Drain its energy.

Only when the beast's energy reserves are exhausted will the shield vanish.

Only then can it be killed.

Merin steps forward, veins glowing faintly as his True Energy surges again.

The three-horned rhino bellows, stomping its front hooves as sparks flicker across its horns.

Merin shouts, "Fan out! Rotate your attacks—we'll drown it in motion!"

He slams his foot into the earth and blur forward, palm glowing with blue light, aiming a strike at the rhino's ribs.

The blow connects—not with flesh, but the flickering energy barrier, which pulses and wavers from the impact.

Ryan follows, leaping high, then hurling his red-hot spear like a comet toward the rhino's back.

It crashes against the shield again, forcing the beast to turn.

As it pivots, Arun and Wei strike from opposite flanks—Wei hurls a pair of energy-forged knives that explode on contact, while Arun releases a focused beam of True Energy from his fingertips.

The rhino bellows and fires a bolt from its centre horn—Wei dodges just in time, the bolt shearing a tree in half behind her.

Merin rolls low, grabs a rock, channels True Energy through it, and hurls it like a bullet into the rhino's eye.

The shield flashes again, blocking it.

Sweat beads down his temple.

They're making it work.

Every attack taxes the rhino's energy.

Belinda steps forward, calm amid the chaos, her eyes locked on the rampaging beast.

Her True Energy blooms outward, forming elegant, translucent blades made of rose petals—each swirling with hidden sharpness.

With a flick of her wrist, the petals dart forward like razors, slashing at the three-horned rhino from every angle.

They strike—but the shield holds, shimmering with force as the petals shatter one by one against it.

Merin watches from behind, his eyes narrowing—not at the failure, but at the form.

That's an upper-grade martial technique—elegant, powerful, and far beyond the standard arts.

He clenches his fists.

He has one too, but it's incomplete, rough and dangerous to use.

So he holds back—for now.

Madelyn moves in next, lifting her sword high.

It glows pale blue, radiating cold.

When she points it down, the ground itself freezes, a thin layer of frost racing along the dirt and grass beneath her.

She dashes forward, each step leaving frozen footprints, and slashes upward at the beast's shoulder.

Her blade collides with the shield, unleashing a burst of freezing wind.

The ground hisses—but the rhino's hide remains dry, untouched by ice.

Its energy shield prevents even elemental penetration.

Madelyn leaps back, breathing hard.

No one retreats.

They keep the pressure on.

Every blow matters.

Even when they fail to harm the body, they wear down the invisible barrier surrounding it.

Merin takes one step forward, breaths slowly, pulse steady, eyes locked on the beast.

Ben rushes in next, the gauntlet on his arm crackling with lightning.

He slams it into the rhino's shoulder—a thunderous boom echoes—but the shield holds.

The next moment, the rhino turns and lashes out with a brutal kick, sending Ben flying backwards into the dirt.

Before the beast can charge and finish him, Jane and Sam move in unison.

Their True Energy swirls together, fusing into a giant luminous palm suspended in the air.

It slaps across the rhino's ribs with a sound like cracking stone.

The rhino stumbles, enraged, its hooves tearing through the earth as it bellows.

Black, crouched in the distance, breathes out and looses a volley of arrows.

Each arrow arcs through the sky, humming with lightning, and strikes the shimmering barrier—but still, the shield endures.

Flickers ripple across its surface—energy draining, but not yet gone.

Then Jamie—silent, cold, precise—appears behind the beast.

He hadn't truly vanished; he had compressed his presence, masking himself from the rhino's senses while remaining visible to his allies.

He darts in with his blade, striking behind the rhino's knee—a thin line of light as the blade scrapes across the shield.

Then he vanishes again before the beast can react.

Talia rushes in next, her movement like flowing water.

She dances across the battlefield, each step perfectly placed.

She plants her heel, pivots, and drives a fist into the rhino's hind leg—a sharp, deliberate strike.

The rhino's foot lashes out in a wild kick, just missing her shoulder as she twists away, breath controlled.

Merin watches all this, eyes narrowing.

The beast is slowing. Its shield—thinner now, flickering under pressure.

The next attack might crack it.

And it might be his.

Merin steps forward, the earth cracking slightly beneath his feet as his True Energy coils tighter, hot, pulsing, ready to burst.

He exhales.

Blue light blazes from his arms, veins lit like rivers of fire under his skin.

He doesn't charge.

He walks.

Each step heavier, the pressure around him sharpens—the air trembles as heat ripples through the ground.

The rhino senses it. It turns. It roars. It charges.

Lightning arcs from its horns again—a white-hot bolt screaming toward Merin.

But Merin's hands rise, and his invisible True Energy explodes outward, forming a barrier just in time.

The bolt slams against it—crackles, resists, then dissolves.

Merin grits his teeth.

His arms twist—his incomplete upper technique flows out.

Not polished. Not stable.

But raw.

He strikes forward.

The energy surges like a cannon blast, the air behind him warping as his palm launches a burst of compressed True Energy directly at the rhino's throat.

The shield flickers.

It shudders.

And then, it fractures—a spiderweb of cracks across its surface.

The whole field around the beast shrieks with energy breaking loose, and the shimmering layer bursts into blue particles, fading.

"Now!" someone shouts.

The next moment, all nine martial artists charged together.

They attack—all nine, excluding Merin—striking with everything they have.

Belinda's rose-petal blades, Ben's crackling gauntlet, Madelyn's frost-edged sword, Jane and Sam's twin energy palms, Jamie's precise blade, Black's thunder arrows, Talia's dancing fists, and Ryan's burning spear—all converge on the weakened beast.

The rhino roars.

A cage of lightning erupts around it, a dome of jagged electric lines forming in an instant—a prison and a barrier both.

Every attack slams into the cage and bounces off, powerless.

Then the cage twists.

It unravels into whips of lightning, snapping out in all directions.

They lash the battlefield.

A semi-truck is sliced clean in half, its back end collapsing in a shower of sparks and fire.

Two of the lower realm martial artists scream—one is thrown back, limbs convulsing, the other falls and doesn't rise.

Panic rips through the defenders outside the main fight.

The beast charges again, furious and blood-hungry.

But the ten rise, bruised but relentless.

Merin wipes blood from his lip and sprints back to the battlefield, lungs burning.

They converge once more.

This time, together, they push the rhino's shield to the brink.

Another synchronised attack.

The barrier shatters with a ringing crack.

The rhino bellows, a pained, furious sound.

Now vulnerable, its hide begins to split under their blows.

Ben's gauntlet punches deep into the muscle.

Madelyn's frost starts forming on its back leg.

Belinda's petals slice into flesh.

Blood flies—but not enough.

The rhino is still strong. Still enraged.

Merin leaps in just as the rhino rears and kicks.

His chest explodes with pain, breath knocked out as his body hurtles back.

He crashes hard against a floating slab of magnetic stone, the air around him shimmering with charged particles.

Pain surges across his ribs and spine.

He groans.

The sky above crackles faintly.

And the rhino roars again—the hunt far from over.

The magnetic stone groans beneath Merin's body as he crashes into it, his bones rattling from the impact.

He coughs—blood drips from the corner of his mouth.

Pain blooms across his ribs, but nothing's broken.

Not yet.

Below, the rhino thrashes, unrestrained by its shield, but far from finished—its rage grows.

The ten unification realm martial artists regrouped fast, fanning out around it, moving with precision.

Each step presses further into the electromagnetic field surrounding the beast's lair, the very air vibrating with static.

From the rhino's cracked horns, electricity surges again—a pulse of lightning cages forms, this time thinner, faster, like serpents of pure energy.

They lash outward, snapping toward anything that moves.

A whip slices a semi-truck clean in half, the upper chassis sliding off and crushing two of the lower-realm martial artists before anyone can scream.

More whips snake through the field, cutting down three others, while others leap away, wounded or burned.

The shockwave flattens tents, tears open the soil, and fills the air with scorched dust.

Merin grits his teeth, still crouched on the floating stone—he can barely move, but he watches.

The nine attack again, coordinated, relentless, pushing past pain and instinct.

Ben leads the charge, his gauntlets sparking, fists hammering down with thunderous force.

Jane and Sam combine their energy again, forming twin palms of pressure that slam from both sides, cracking hide, splashing blood.

Madelyn's frozen sword finally bites deep into a shoulder, and steam rises where ice meets muscle.

Belinda's rose-petal blades follow the openings, tearing through the weaker spots.

Black's arrows fly in precise bursts, each one targeting a joint or eye.

Jamie flows like a shadow, knife flashing in and out before the beast can fully react.

Talia dances low beneath a thrashing limb, strikes the underbelly, and rolls away before the next stomp.

Their attacks finally cut—not enough to kill, but the rhino's blood now paints the cracked stone beneath it.

Merin breathes heavily, chest tight.

They're fighting hard.

But this is far from over.