Out of the billions of people on Earth, there were not more than a thousand King Tiers, and currently, these King Tiers, whose summons could shake cities, looked minuscule in comparison to the Mana Tree.

After forty-eight hours of continuous battle, over a hundred King Tiers had been lost. Most of the remaining nine hundred had broken into High Tier; some rose to Throne Tier with greater potential, a few to Saint Tier with potentials reaching the Divine Tier, but as many of them had discovered, the Origin Tier seemed out of reach.

Arian stood before his Oni Ronin. After eating over three hundred fruits, his summon now stood at eleven feet tall, with black inscriptions covering its blue skin.

Its black hakama rippled around the Ronin's powerful legs. Both the Ronin and his summoner, standing on a branch above the clouds, looked up. The tree still stretched beyond the clouds, its top unknown.

In the clouds, dragons, phoenixes, eagles, humanoid summoners, and several strange chimeric beasts fought.

The King Tiers under the Authorities had already begun exercising control by battling to stop others from eating fruits.

"It's peaceful down here," a voice said.

Arian turned to the speaker. It was a man with a long white beard and hair. The lines of his face hinted that he'd once been a charmer in his youth.

This man stood on another branch, over a hundred meters away, the closest one nearby. Behind him stood a dwarf wearing a wide wizard's hat so large it could serve as an umbrella, with its tip reaching the dwarf's waist.

Its eyes glowed like a storm, white and cold. It had thick mustaches, beards, and eyebrows, but its most striking feature was the long smoke pipe, easily half the dwarf's height.

The smoke billowing from the pipe formed mirages of different creatures, the current one was a snake-like dragon swimming around the dwarf.

The aura of that smoke dragon was easily that of a top-level King Tier, and this was just a casual gesture!

"Not for long. They'll come for us… the Authorities," Arian said softly. "The Pendragons will side with them, along with other powerhouses. Their numbers will be too much, and those Fanatics expect us to bow to their god before offering aid."

John Lugard, the old man, chuckled. "We're vagabonds. We're wanted criminals who have already survived by a hair's breadth. Surviving the odds is what we do."

Arian looked at Lugard. "Haven't you seen what Arthur Pendragon's summon evolved into? Even you have to admit that its potential is greater than most of ours. Let's not even talk about the hundred others with great potential. Even if you and I can hold back Arthur, what about those equally powerful Throne and Saint Tiers working as Agents under the Authorities?"

"Don't look down on yourself, Arian. You're the best talent we vagabonds have, and the greatest there is," John Lugard said.

But Arian, who would have smiled lightly at that, sighed. "I think I've seen a greater talent."

Just then, something landed on Arian's branch, a tiger beetle, several feet tall, whose six legs were swords.

A summoner stood on its back. "With your new strength, the Authorities will clean your files. If you just agree to the Readjustment Program, you can become an agent and have a proper family without living the life of a vagabond," the green-haired man with an anchor beard said professionally.

His Tiger Knight Beetle could move at the speed of sound, though it couldn't see at that speed, predicting his enemies was an Adaptive skill he'd learned within forty-eight hours.

"I decline," Arian said as the Oni Ronin walked past him, each step soft and precise, like a prowling lion about to launch.

"Very well, the—!" The Oni Ronin didn't give the man time to finish as it swung its katana.

The beetle deflected the strike and bolted forward. As the air exploded, a fierce clash of blades began, and though not as fast, the Oni Ronin was able to teleport using the wakizashi, countering the beetle's predictability.

"Ah, I'm old." John Lugard stretched his muscular back as a white viper hissed at him after slithering onto the branch he stood on.

***

"Humanoid summons have flooded the streets," Seraphina, Queen of Polaris High, said faintly as she sat on the back of her peacock.

Such beasts were not ordinarily meant to fly, but thanks to Adaptive skills, every beast could evolve to overcome its flaws and weaknesses in ways that ensured its survival.

She held tight to her summon as it leaned to the right, narrowly evading the bony fingers of a giant.

This giant was twenty-five feet tall but looked like it had been starved for centuries. It was no different from a walking bag of bones.

A man stood on its shoulders, smirking as the skinny giant darted through the streets, crushing cars and destroying buildings.

After eating a man's cow summon, two bird summons, and a High Tier, many had already fled from this summon.

A group of Guild combatants stood ready behind a blockade, watching the Polaris elites face this giant.

"It's not being affected by Seraphina's puppetry. Nathaniel!" Alistair bellowed as his Phantom Mantis became invisible.

Nathaniel's summon, a Black Dreadclaw Crab, scuttled toward the giant and slammed the earth. Rock spikes burst from the ground, two of them.

They struck the giant, but to Nathaniel's shock, the giant's skin turned to stone.

Alistair's Mantis darted up the giant's legs, slashing at its back, but its blade-arms barely cut deep. The giant's stone skin was harder than anything they had ever faced.

"They're losing it," Charles from the Gate Defender's Guild said to Lotus.

"I would have said we could deal with it, but that innate skill is a troublesome one. That's a Tier 8.1 summon, its defenses at that tier are already overwhelming. With this innate skill, it's almost impossible to break through, even with reinforced bullets."

"I heard Manhattan High students are doing well in their missions. There's a reason they're the best," someone beside them muttered, clenching his rifle tightly.

"They need to send them here. I don't think these Polaris can beat this thing on their own!" another hunter, an Elite Tier, said while fidgeting.

"They're here!" someone shouted from the back, and everyone turned to see a golden-haired teenager in a Manhattan jacket standing in the distance.

Charles's eyes widened. "Isn't he that kid?!"

"It's him…" Lotus gasped.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.