The Snake God with SSS Rank Evolution System

Derek's burning gaze remained locked on Ellen's limp form. "Status," he growled, not looking away from Adam.

A scout with a pulsating green gemstone raised it toward Ellen. "Faint life signs, sir. Critical. The creature is… using her as a living shield. It's positioned her to intercept any direct attack."

Tia confirmed with a grimace, her sword held tight. "He used vicious tactics."

Derek's jaw tightened. The tactical calculus was clear. The serpent was grievously wounded, exhausted, and holding a hostage. Charging in could get Ellen killed. But leaving the serpent to recover its strength, or worse, allowing the two other monsters to complete their evolutions, was unacceptable.

"Priority one: recover Ellen alive," Derek commanded, his voice low and final. "Wound the beast, but do not risk her. We cripple it, then take it down."

The order shifted the team's stance. The knights moved in a careful semi-circle, shields raised, not to attack Adam directly, but to contain him. Westin, recovering slightly from the initial psychic and sensory assault, began chanting again, not a direct attack spell, but something insidious. Tendrils of shimmering, nullifying magic snaked across the ground, aiming to erode Adam's Starlight Veil and suppress the miasma of his Venom of the Void.

Archers and mages on the periphery let loose a volley—not at Adam's vital points, but at his wings, his legs, his already wounded back. Precise, crippling shots meant to ground and immobilize.

Adam reacted with desperate, cunning brutality. He didn't try to dodge everything. He moved Ellen. He rotated his massive body, using her as a macabre, living buckler. A volley of ice shards meant to freeze his wings instead slammed into Ellen's armored side, the ice cracking against the steel but the cold seeping through to her skin, making her moan in unconscious agony. A bolt of lightning aimed at his leg was intercepted by her dangling boot, the energy making her body jerk violently.

"Stop! You're hitting Ellen!" a knight yelled in panic.

"It's using her! We can't get a clean shot!"

The hesitation was palpable. Their disciplined assault faltered for a crucial second as they tried to recalibrate, horrified at harming their own commander.

Derek saw the opening. He hadn't charged with the others. He'd been waiting, watching Adam's reactions, his focus entirely on protecting the cocoons behind him. "Now!" he barked, not to the main force, but to a seemingly empty patch of shadows to Adam's far right.

Adam's Hunter's Tri-Sense, overloaded with the blinding light of his own skill, the cacophony of spells, and the press of hostile intent, failed him. It registered the main group, the magic in the air, but not the single, perfectly still presence that had been inching forward under a powerful, specialized Cloak of Unnoticeability.

From the shadows, a figure clad in form-fitting, non-reflective leather moved. It wasn't a warrior. It was a specialist—a saboteur and kidnapper for high-risk retrievals. In her hands was not a weapon, but a device: a Magical Severance Lancet, a single-use artifact that created a momentary, localized null-field.

With a practiced flick, she threw it. It wasn't aimed at Adam. It was aimed at the space between Adam's coils and Ellen's body.

The Lancet struck Ellen's hip and activated. A silent, transparent bubble of pure anti-magic erupted.

For less than a second, the magical component of Adam's Constrict skill—the supernatural, unbreakable force that supplemented his physical strength flickered and died.

It was the window the specialist needed. As Adam's grip relied on that magical reinforcement, it loosened instinctively. The woman was a blur. She shot forward, a gleaming, monomolecular blade in her other hand not striking Adam, but slicing through the strained leather of Ellen's armor straps. With a powerful yank fueled by enhancer runes on her legs, she ripped Ellen free from the slackened coil.

It happened too fast. Adam felt the sudden absence of weight, the severance of the magical hold. He whipped his head around, fangs bared, but the saboteur was already retreating at incredible speed, Ellen draped over her shoulder, back toward the safety of Derek's line.

A ragged cheer went up from the human forces. "She's clear!"

"Ellen's out!"

"Now, kill the beast!"

Derek's command cut through the momentary celebration. "Get Ellen to the healers! Now! Everyone else focus fire! The serpent is exposed! Bring it down!"

The order snapped the humans back to their lethal purpose. With their commander rescued, their hesitation vanished, replaced by cold, professional fury.

Adam's mind raced, even as his body screamed in protest. 'Shield is gone. They're superior in tactics, coordination, and numbers…I can't win this fight. I just need to buy time. A few more minutes. Just until Ignis and Lilith wake up. Then we run.'

The assault that followed was brutal and efficient. A storm of fire, ice, and lightning spells rained down, not as a barrage, but in a coordinated sequence meant to limit his dodging options. Warriors, empowered by enchantments, closed in with shields and spears, their battle cries echoing.

Adam fought with everything he had left. He launched volleys of Pressurized Spines, forcing the front line to raise their shields. He fired Ember Shard Shots at the mages, disrupting their casting. He used Mirage Cascade, his form phasing in and out of reality, to dodge the most lethal spells from Westin, who was methodically trying to lock him down with spatial-binding magic.

But the difference was stark. He was a cornered beast, fighting on instinct and desperation. They were a precision-engineered hunting squad.

Tia broke through, her sword blazing with a personal vow of vengeance. "For my team!" she screamed, her blade slicing a deep gash along Adam's flank.

He twisted away, but the movement opened him up. Derek, who had been waiting for this exact moment, moved. He was not fast, but he was absolute. His great axe, Embercleave, erupted in a corona of crimson aura. He didn't charge; he took one decisive step and brought the axe down in a perfect, devastating arc.

The axehead struck Adam's back, right where the ballista bolt had pierced his Monarch's Aegis. There was a sound like a mountain cracking. The legendary defensive trait, already critically weakened, shattered under the focused, S-Rank force. The axe bit deep, shearing through scale, flesh, and bone, seeking his spine.

Agony, beyond anything he had felt from the void blade, exploded through Adam's world. A deafening roar of pain was torn from him as he collapsed, his rear legs giving way.

A knight spat on the ground near Adam's head. "No living shield now, monster. This will be easier. Just die already, you damned freak!"

Blows rained down. Swords stabbed at his sides. Hammers crushed scales. Adam tried to coil, to strike back, but his body was failing, his movements becoming sluggish and uncoordinated. Each new wound was a nail in his coffin. He was being systematically dismantled.

With a final, shuddering gasp, Adam's strength gave out. He fell onto his side, his breathing a wet, ragged whistle. The world began to darken, the sounds of battle becoming muffled. He saw the humans closing in for the final strike. A mage gathering a sphere of condensed annihilation. A knight raising a sword for a decapitating blow.

'So… this is it,' Adam thought, the fury bleeding away, leaving only a cold, profound regret. 'Alice… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pulled you into me. I'm so sorry…'

He closed his eyes, awaiting the end.

CRACK!

SHATTER!

Two simultaneous, deafening sounds of shattering crystalline and tearing silk erupted from the alcove behind him. Waves of unstable power—one of incandescent solar fury, the other of deep, psychic stillness and razor-sharp intent washed over the battlefield, staggering the humans and snuffing out the prepared killing spells.

Derek's head snapped toward the alcove, his crimson eyes widening at the twin maelstroms of energy now erupting where the two dormant signatures had been. He saw the silken cocoon explode outward in a storm of pale, shimmering threads, and the fiery egg of energy rupture, revealing a blinding, draconic silhouette within.

His face hardened into a mask of urgent command. He pointed his bloody axe at the alcove. "FORGET THE SERPENT! PRIMARY TARGETS ARE ACTIVE! ALL FORCES, FOCUS FIRE! ANNIHILATE THEM BEFORE THEY FULLY EMERGE!"

The hunters turned their weapons from the fallen Adam toward the two new, terrifying sources of power now bursting into the world.

The final battle had just multiplied.