My breath was caught... for that moment, I felt my muscles lock up, a primal voice I had become familiar with screamed in my head... urging me to flee, to hide, that this thing before us was death incarnate.

Beside me, Cass let out a choked gasp, almost getting caught in the skill as well...

"Now, Finn!" But our captain Borin roared just in time, his own voice strained as he fought the debilitating fear.

"Yes...!"

-Craaack! Ptsssssss...!

Finn, trembling but moving with practiced speed, slammed a crystalline vial onto the ground.

It shattered, releasing a cloud of mint-scented, silver vapor that washed over all of us, clearing our minds with a new refreshment.

"Ptkssss...!"

The terror at the back of our mind didn't vanish, but it receded from a tsunami to a choppy, manageable sea, the stimulant allowing us to override our instincts.

"Engaging!" Borin bellowed the very next moment, charging forward, his shield flaring with a brilliant golden light.

"Ptkssss...!"

The Basilisk responded instantly, its head snapping forward with utter rage.

'The hell is up with that guy?!'

I have seen a few monsters ever since I came to this world, and I have read about various others that exist here... the Basilisk is also one of them.

But, facing even a sub-version of their kind feels completely different from what I expected.

-Oooooooooooong!

-Booom!

A torrent of superheated rock and fire blasted from the creature's mouth, slamming right into Borin's shield with a concussive BOOM that shook the entire chamber.

"Ugh!"

He held on, something you wouldn't expect to happen when literal meteors smash into you, his boots grinding backward against the stone, but he still held on.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

Kaela was already a blur of motion, scaling a rough pillar near the wall. Her bowstring thrummed, and frost-tipped arrows streaked through the heated air, striking the Basilisk's flank like an Olympic archer hitting a bullseye!

-Pang!!

Where these freezing arrows hit, the magma-scale armor sizzled and cracked, tiny fissures spreading like spiderwebs as if the creature was struck by lightning.

-Ooooooooooong...!

Cass, gathering his will, sent a firebolt not at the body, but straight into the creature's still-open maw.

The aim was as impeccable as it could get.

-Boooooooom!

"Ptsssssss...!"

The attack did no damage, but the Basilisk recoiled with an annoyed hiss, its breath attack sputtering out like fused swish.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

-Booooooooom!

-Bang!

The battle immediately fell into a brutal rhythm.

-Tang! Tang! Tang!

Borin was the anvil, an unmovable bastion against the creature's raw power.

Kaela was the scalpel, her arrows finding every tiny weakness of the enormous behemoth.

Finn was the mechanic, throwing concussive orbs that staggered the beast, laying down caltrops that glowed with restraining magic, and constantly monitoring the party's condition.

'I wanted to help them as well, but wooden spikes weren't going to be of great use when the creature was still inside the lava.'

We still had a strategy, so we made our way to the next phase of the plan.

After being in a stalemate against us, tiny humans, the Basilisk changed its tactics.

"PTKSSSSSSSSS...!"

With a guttural roar, it first submerged into the lava pool, vanishing beneath the bubbling surface.

"It's moving! I've lost visual!" Kaela immediately called out, her voice tight with frustration.

While the rest of the team did not know, Qwy had been connecting all of us through her empathetic link, allowing us to understand each other beyond words and orders.

-Trrrrrrrr!

The blazing pool's surface churned violently, the danger moving under its surface.

All of us could feel the massive creature moving beneath the surface, a subterranean tremor of impending attack creeping at the end of our skin.

It could surface anywhere... unlike the obvious centre, there wasn't just one exit.

'Time to play my role...'

My mind, sharpened by my recent level-up, went into overdrive.

This wasn't a problem for a warrior or an archer. This was a problem of structural prediction, of flow and pressure, something fundamental to us support units and mages.

I ignored the fear gnawing at the edges of my consciousness and focused on the lava pool, on the countless threads of Mana only I could see, and the creature made of countless other strings weaved together, moving right beneath our feet.

I could see it, all of it.

'Analyzing mana-flow patterns... Predicting trajectory.'

It was surfacing to our left, aiming for Finn.

'That's it!'

I knew the answer, I knew what the creature was doing... but it was already on the move.

I needed to protect them.

I could tell deep inside my heart that they would die if the creature got them, so...

'Will it work?!'

I didn't have a blueprint for this, but my mind had produced an idea.

'Creativity, will, and imagination. {Creation} is not limited to the blueprints!'

I pictured the blueprint for the (Spike Trap) that came to mind every time I used the creation skill, but this time, I twisted the concept.

I did not need a sharp point to kill something, but a structure. A wall. A barricade to protect my teammate.

'I can!'

I fused the principle of the Safe Zone's barrier with the physicality of the trap, using my will to instinctively design something I never knew would work.

[ "Invoking Hybrid Blueprint by utilizing the principles of [Spike Trap] and [Safe Zone]." ]

[ "Composition: Fortified Mana. Objective: Create a temporary, directional barrier." ]

[Cost: 5 Creation Units. Remaining CU: 85.]

"Yes!"

I didn't just whisper. She willed it... I willed a creation without a ready-made foundation.

-Ooooooooooooong!

"PTKSSSSSSSS...!"

Ahead of Finn, at the very same moment, the stone floor erupted.

It wasn't spikes that sprang out of the ground this time but a thick, rough-hewn wall of shimmering grey stone.

"Finn...!"

The Basilisk exploded from the lava, its massive head smashing directly into the still young man, still holding onto a green enchanted crystal.

Thankfully...

-Ooooooooong!

Right before the creature crashed into him, a translucent wall six feet high and four feet wide, covered in a faint, greenish glow reminiscent of her Safe Zone, manifested itself into existence!

-CRRRACK-BOOM!

The impact was colossal.

"SKAAAAA...!"

The barrier shuddered, a web of fractures instantly spreading across its surface, the green light flickering wildly.

It wasn't meant to hold for long in the first place, but it held for exactly one and a half seconds.

'Hell yeah!'

-Bang!

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

"Now!!!"

That was all the time Borin needed to reposition himself. That was all the time Kaela needed to draw, aim, and loose a vine-entangling arrow that wrapped around the creature's neck, briefly anchoring it.

-Oooooooooong...!

That was all the time Cass needed to fire a firebolt straight down its throat, causing it to choke and sputter in rage.

-Crrrrrrek!

The barrier shattered into motes of fading light and dust, its purpose served triumphantly.

However...

"PTKSSSSSSS...!"

Enraged beyond reason, the Basilisk backed into the center of the pool, its six eyes blazing with homicidal fury.

Its body began to glow from within, the magma scales turning white-hot.

-Swiiiiiiiiiiish!

The very air began to vibrate, pulling everything towards its gaping maw.

"It's overcharging! Area blast!" Borin yelled, a note of genuine alarm in his voice. "There's no covering this!"

In short... we were fucked.

-Zaaaaaaaaaa!

We all saw it.

A final, system-wide purge right before our eyes, the angel of death looming over us with an ear-to-ear grin.

A wave of annihilation was approaching. My death was approaching...

-Swish!

But my mind, the architect's mind, calculated the angle, the spread, the intensity, and everything happening around me in that fraction of a second.

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