The monster lunged at the group, with Nova instantly spawning his daggers and crisscrossing them to defend against the monster's attack. As the monster and Nova collided, Nova instantly felt the overwhelming force and was pushed to the ground, but he held himself, or at least tried.

Elesch and Adam tag-teamed and took Nova's flanks and attacked the monster simultaneously from the sides, with they weren't able to penetrate through the monster's defenses.

Then, Nova looked at the Circle of Pillars that was inked on the monster and realized that from the previous S-rank beast, it was now an evolved D-rank threat, which was, obviously, much worse.

He gulped as his skin burned, but his legs were cold, almost numbing themselves. He backed up as the monsters' attack created a larger crater in the ground, which sent a ripple through the entire city.

The attack would have nearly destroyed the city, but upon closer inspection, Nova had tried to stop the attack from rippling outward too much, since then it would cause too much commotion, and there would be a slight chance that the Australians would find out that they were the ones responsible for it.

Michael used his ice and darkness ability to first freeze the monster's legs and other limbs, and then used his darkness ability to create a small tendril, which had a very sharp point, that would penetrate through an S-rank monster with relative ease.

He launched the tendril, which went through the monster's abdomen, but the monster didn't flinch. It snarled increasingly louder and then broke through the ice and tried to punch Nova straight on the face, though he was able to block the attack just in time.

Nova was hurled back, with Zane catching him. He put him down, as he was barely able to get up. Elesch and Adam continued their assault, but nothing came of it. As they were approaching the monster again, the monster grabbed both of them and threw them to the ground hard, knocking them unconscious.

Nova grew angrier because he wasn't able to do anything, but Zane told him he had done enough for now. Zane decided to leave Nova for a while, helping his duo, Michael, survive against the onslaught of the beast.

Zane used his ability to distract the monster, confuse it, which was working, as Michael decided to use his powers and put them on maximum capability and combined his ice and darkness powers, which he wasn't able to control, or really do at first, but as he was in a pickle of a situation, he gave it his all and realization a ball dense with ice and darkness, hurling it towards the beast, who snarled at it exploded on it.

There was a thick layer of dust that was flying all over the place. Zane and Michael were unaware whether the monster had been defeated or if the monster had survived the encounter, rendering Michael's attempt to bring it down useless.

As the thick layer of dust settled on the ground, the monster's red eyes loomed and spread fear among the duo, who were paralyzed as it approached slowly, not even scratched. They both gulped simultaneously, the fear in their eyes giving the monster the strength it needed to slaughter them.

Though it wasn't able to connect, since Nova had saved them, getting a deep, guttural gash that sliced his entire back. He didn't scream, but the pain was visible as he blocked against the beast's attack.

He fell to the ground as Zane and Michael woke up from their paralysis. They crouched down, but the split second they did, the monster thrashed its secondary pair of hands against them, hurling them back into a crumbling building.

All the debris fell on them, knocking them out and potentially on the verge of death. Nova saw this unfold, stretching out his arm, but he wasn't able to do anything. He felt mad; he felt annoyed; he felt irate. Irate at the fact that he was still so weak, even though he was their leader.

He stood up, the monster curiously letting him. He turned around to face the monster, slowly and carefully, since his back was almost wide open, and if anything were to happen, he could die at any moment.

The monster curiously watched him as he unsheathed his daggers again, summoning them in his hands, looking at the monster with primordial rage. Blood trickled down his face, a droplet touching the ground, as he walked towards the monster.

The monster growled, but it didn't affect Nova. It didn't move. It just curiously, astonishingly, stood there, waiting for Nova to do something. As Nova was just an inch away, he used his remaining power to lift his dagger and tried to penetrate through the beast's skin, but he wasn't able to.

Nova's knees gave out as his daggers slipped from his trembling hands. His body hit the ground with a heavy thud, the dust lifting around him.

The monster tilted its head, confusion flickering in its burning eyes before morphing into pure rage. It raised its claws, a guttural roar echoing across the shattered street as it prepared to crush the fallen human.

But the moment its claws came down, Nova wasn't there. The ground where he had fallen was empty, marked only by his blood. The beast froze, its roar turning into a snarl of frustration, searching wildly as a faint glimmer flickered behind it.

Nova was in front of it, his wounds repairing themselves, as he opened his eye, tilting his head in amazement. He looked at his Circle of Pillars and saw that he was now an evolved F-rank Adventurer. And due to his evolution, his body was able to repair somewhat of itself somewhat, since you couldn't evolve with a weak body, so the Circle of Pillars decided to lower the rank he could have gotten, and put all that into repairing his body.

"Why end the fight now?" Nova said, smirking. "Let's dance some more, shall we?"

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