The thrum of a colossal engine roaring to life resounded across Edge’s soul.

  The vibrations shook his inner world as the mighty machine rose from the abyss beyond the boundary of his core, snapping into place alongside his reactor.

  A volcano erupted behind his ribs as Overdrive’s pistons pumped concentrated magicytes into his reactor. The primal realm of flame that lay beyond its bulbous black grill roiled and heaved like waves upon a storm-wracked sea.

  A resplendent river of refined mana came surging out. An infinite torrent of energy engulfed all eighteen skill sockets at once, granting him unlimited use of his skills while increasing his powers’ potency.

  The matriarch knew something was wrong. It bet everything on a final roll of the dice—a gambit that could win the battle in an instant. The bug threw its body back and ran for its life as every beetle surrounding the crew started shining at the same time.

  A score of grunts, a dozen soldiers, and the last centurion were infused with the matriarch’s magic, priming an apocalyptic explosion.

  Edge didn’t need his core to warn him that if he didn’t act fast, the crew would be reduced to quivering chunks of meat piled inside a smoking crater.

  The problem was, even with Overdrive granting unlimited magic, he didn’t have a way to stop the impending catastrophe… or maybe he did.

  While none of his skills would do the trick, they weren’t the only way to use the scintillating tide of magicytes flowing inside him like magma in his veins.

  He had no idea if this was going to work, but there was only one way to find out. He didn’t have time to hesitate, reconsider, or second-guess himself, so he stepped into his inner world.

  Even inside his core, he had a subjective minute at most before the swarm exploded, which meant he had to work fast. Edge ran to where the aperture from Overdrive permeated the boundary of his core, which looked like a smoking brass tube twice as thick as his body.

  What happened next would never have worked with a physical machine. But everything in here was a metaphor—concepts his mind could grasp to let him perceive and interact with the magic of his core.

  Praying to any gods who might happen to be listening, he reached for the pipe that led from his reservoir to the Disruption diffusor on the other side of the wall and pulled it free from the tank.

  Ignoring the searing heat and shuddering so intense that it rattled his bones, Edge took the conduit he was holding and shoved it against the massive tube coming from the great engine. Relief flooded every cell of his body when it snapped into place with a click.

  His diffusor ran on raw magicytes instead of refined mana, but that was exactly what Overdrive provided. The magic flowing into his reactor was diverted, streaming into the pipeline leading to his diffusor.

  When the potent energy reached the device, the stream of fog it produced swelled to a tsunami, multiplying the power of his Disruption field dozens of times over.

  He stepped back into his body as the antimagic encasing his skin expanded in the blink of an eye, forming a thirty-foot hemisphere that mimicked a domain.

  A normal surge only lasted for a fraction of a second and it cost a ton of magicytes to create that brief pulse. But with Overdrive powering his diffusor, Edge’s surge didn’t stop. The dome of antimagic extinguished every skill in the area, erasing every speck of mana in the air.

  The milling mass of insects was poised to explode. But when his Disruption engulfed them, the matriarch’s skill was snuffed out. The bugs stopped shining like someone had flicked a switch.

  The effect wasn’t powerful enough to erase the magic inside another creature’s core, but the beast had drained its reservoir to unleash the combo, and its reactor was running on fumes.

  For a second, everyone stood there in shocked silence. The hunters and beasts were frozen in astonishment, and Edge was just as surprised.

  Then the moment passed, and the battlefield became a whirling panorama of violence once more. Both sides launched attacks while reactivating the skills his unprecedented move had canceled.

  With an effort of will, he switched off his diffusor, sending Overdrive’s output into his reactor once more. The fight had arrived at its climax, and with Skill-Eater’s ultimate turbocharging his magic, he was raring to go.

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  The matriarch knew something had gone horribly wrong. Its trump card had been countered, and its reservoir was down to the dregs. While half its army was alive, its auras were gone, its bombs were defused, and the hunters were still standing strong.

  The beast ordered a retreat, leaving a third of its forces behind while the rest ran for their lives. Trapper was issuing orders, but Edge didn’t focus on the words. They had already agreed that while his ultimate was active, he would act on his own discretion.

  Trusting his team to handle the rest, he set his sights on the stage-three insect and began his pursuit, downing a Speed potion while activating multiple skills at once.

  Overdrive let him perform as many combos as he pleased without having to worry about running out of mana, weaving magic together in ways that no one on the planet could match.

  A fully flared Warlord’s Mantle settled around the crew’s shoulders, boosting their attributes while shielding them from the beetles’ attacks. He switched on Regulate Temperature to protect him from the chill he was about to unleash and Hardened every part of his body except his joints.

  Edge shrugged off numerous attacks as he forced himself through the press of amethyst bodies, closing the distance in a streaking flash. He activated All-Seeing Gaze’s combined mode, letting him keep an eye on his friends without having to look over his shoulder.

  Once he was certain the crew wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire, he fired a rapid barrage of Vacuum Blasts into the swarm, using Repel’s water saw at the same time. He sent some Blasts the matriarch’s way too, targeting its limbs to keep it from getting away.

  As he ran, he dropped his polearm and manifested an iceblade in each hand. He infused his chakram with Elemental Blade, flaring the skill while Foebinder flung the bone-and-brass ring time and again. Now that the matriarch was too far away to counter with a Disruption surge, he opened his mouth and let out an Intimidating Roar, stunning the weaker bugs and impeding the rest.

  Maelstrom was blowing with hurricane force, shoving beetles out of the way while accelerating his mad dash. The clamor of combat erupted behind him as the crew burned through their reserves, unleashing combos and heavy hits that slaughtered one bug after the next.

  He shifted into shadows to make himself lighter and then Leapt as hard as he could.

  Edge shot forward like a rocket taking flight as the Cherry Orchard was reduced to a smear of color and motion.

  An instant before he caught up to the matriarch, he resumed solid form. He slammed into her abdomen with the force of a wrecking ball with the points of his iceblades leading the way. The crystalline swords sheared through the dense chitin armor and buried the blades up to the hilts.

  The massive beast was bowled over, and they both went rolling along the petal-strewn soil. Mantle and Harden kept his bones from breaking. His organs were bruised from the incredible impact, but Rejuvenation healed the damage within seconds. By the time he sprang to his feet, the damage had faded away like the memory of yesterday’s dream.

  The matriarch knew it couldn’t get away and spun to face him with a furious hiss. While his crew finished off the rest of the swarm, Edge met the stage-three bug in a battle to the death. Overdrive only had twenty-five seconds left on the clock, but that was all the time he needed.

  He met the powerful insect head-on, Double Slashing with his dual iceblades time and again. At the same time, he let loose with every skill he had and flared every power that was rank three or above.

  Even with his ultimate going full blast, a stage-three beast was a deadly opponent. The beetle was burning through the last of its energetic reserves—desperate to defeat the hunter wielding powers that it couldn’t understand.

  It activated both auras for the final seconds of the fight. Vigor boosted its Power and Speed and its mandibles were encased in dense layers of mana, magnifying their destructive potential.

  It would have cut him in half a dozen times over if it weren’t for Harden and Mantle. The beast’s natural weapons shattered scales with every attack, wreaking havoc on the tissue below.

  Diamond scales regrew in the blink of an eye. Sundered flesh knitted itself back together almost as fast. It hurt like hell, but Edge was no stranger to pain by this point in his adventures, and he kept on swinging with everything he had.

  The beetle had panicked when its trump card was countered. It regained its composure when it felt death approaching, entering an intense state of focus in a final bid to live through the day.

  When it realized that tearing into his tissue wasn’t working, it switched tactics, targeting his vital points instead. His head was protected by his helmet, so it focused on his torso, sacrificing defense to thrust its mandibles deep inside his body.

  He hadn’t anticipated the abrupt change in behavior, and the lightning-quick move broke through his guard.

  One barbed blade was heading straight for his heart, and the other was poised to rip out his guts.

  It would have been a critical wound if it wasn’t for one important detail—Edge’s vitals were protected by his Organ-Guard. Instead of perforating his ticker, a shield formed from gold-class aether snapped into existence, blocking the blows and deflecting them to one side.

  The matriarch was poised to twist its head to shred his abdominal cavity. The move might have broken through his implant’s barrier, but he didn’t get a chance to find out.

  Foebinder had surged into motion the instant it realized he was in trouble. The chain of oblivion wrapped around a tree trunk and retraced as hard as it could, freeing him from the impaling embrace before the big bug completed its attack.

  It hurt like hell, but Rejuvenation sealed his sundered flesh as he raced to rejoin the fight. Edge let loose another barrage with Vacuum Blast while closing the distance and soaking the bug with a spray from Repel.

  His barrage of Blasts struck the beast in time with his racing heart. The repeated detonations racked the beetle’s body, letting him close the distance.

  He drove both subzero swords into the bug’s abdomen while spraying it with water, which froze to form a thick shell of ice.

  He had been willing to kill the matriarch if left with no other choice, but the goal of this hunt was to steal the creature’s skills. Despite several close calls, he’d prevailed in the end, and the beast was vulnerable to the chains’ invasion.

  Edge only had a few seconds before Overdrive cut off, and the exhaustion hit him. He ceased his attacks, raised both arms, and activated his ultimate ability. Extraction.