Andrew saw it coming. He tried to dodge. But the tail was too fast. A thick, bony whip the size of a tree trunk, covered in segmented armor plates. It caught him square in the ribs.

"Crack!"

The sound was sickeningly loud. Andrew’s chest broke and his body left the ground like a home run baseball, tumbling end over end through the air, and he slammed into the dungeon wall with enough force to crater the stone. Dust and debris cascaded down around him. He slumped forward, one knee on the ground, blood dribbling from his lips.

His vision blurred and every breath felt like swallowing glass.

Then the divine rings behind him flickered and died.

God Summon had run out.

The holy suppression evaporated. The King Grey Rat straightened to its full height, and the beast’s red eyes glittered.

That was all the God Summon had given him.

Andrew’s hand shot to his inventory. He pulled out the flask of Mysterious Goddess Breast Milk and poured a drop onto his tongue.

Energy flooded back into his battered body as his body knitted and his wounds closed. His mana pool refilled as he finally healed.

At that moment, he immediately activated hus bloodlines.

The King Grey Rat charged again, closing the distance with terrifying speed, its claws drawn back for a killing blow—

"KRAKA-THOOM!"

A golden bolt of lightning struck a hole through the dungeon ceiling and landed on both Andrew and king Grey Rat body.

The beast’s entire body paused and tts muscles locked.

[-299 HP — Paralyzed]

Andrew’s body grew to a 5 meter tall monstrosity. Another head ripped out his shoulder and two more arms ripped out of his armpit.

Blue scale armor covered his skin making him look like a fiend of war.

With GodSlayer Blade leading, purple flames roaring along the edge. He brought the blade down on the paralyzed rat’s neck with every ounce of strength he possessed.

"Slice!"

[-1,500 HP]

The beast bellowed in agony, but it reacted immediately as its claw flashed.

Andrew tried to pull back but he was too slow as the claw sliced his thigh. His leg buckled as he dropped to one knee, and suddenly the beast’s tail was swinging again—

He rolled sideways, the tail whipped through the space where his head had been.

Andrew rolled, came up on his feet, and barely had time to raise the GodSlayer Blade before the rat was on him again.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!"

Claw. Claw. Tail. Bite.

Andrew blocked, dodged, deflected. The exchanges came faster and faster — a blur of steel and claw and purple fire, each impact sending shockwaves rippling across the arena. .

He was holding his own. Barely. But the beast was carving marks all over his body.

The Rat King suddenly activated Blitz and blurred into two afterimages.

Andrew turned to the left to block its attack but his eyes widened when he saw it was an afterimage.

The beast’s jaws opened wide, and lunged for his neck.

Just when Andrew was about to risk it all and activate his trump card—

"BANG!"

A spear slammed into the King Grey Rat’s neck, sending the beast reeling sideways, its jaws snapping shut on empty air, and it crashed into the ground with a thunderous boom.

Andrew whipped his head around.

She stood at the edge of the dungeon, and she was not the same girl who had saved at the edge of the tunnel a while ago.

She had activated her Golden Dragon bloodline and also fully awakened her physique. Her body had transformed into something out of a myth. Three meters tall, covered in golden scales that overlapped like the finest lamellar armor.

Two pairs of wings unfurled from her back, vast and beautiful, stretching wide enough to cast a shadow across the dungeon floor. The membranes glowed faintly gold, traced with delicate veining that pulsed with each beat of her heart.

Her face had changed too as she was even more beautiful than before. Her eyes were molten gold, slitted like a dragon’s, Crimson markings crawled across her skin like living runes, tracing patterns of power across her arms, her neck, the curves of her jaw.

She was at least 5 times more beautiful than before. And that was saying something, because she’d already been beautiful.

A divine halo floated behind her head, smaller than Andrew’s but burning with its own fierce light.

Her voice was like ten thousand sirens singing the same note in perfect unison.

"Your bloodline is strange."

Andrew stared. For half a second as his brain completely short-circuited. But he quickly recovered.

"Thanks." He cracked his neck, rolling his shoulders, forcing his focus back to the fight.

The dynamic shifted immediately. What had been a desperate solo battle became a coordinated assault, and the King Grey Rat found itself fighting on two fronts for the first time since phase three began.

The girl took the front. She moved with a fluidity that belied her massive frame, and when the beast lunged at her with claws extended, she didn’t dodge but attacked with her spear.

The rat was stronger than her and pushed her back, inch by inchaftwe each collision.

It suddenly used the same Blitz movement technique to confuse the girl and appared by the side its jaw opening for that killing bite again—

Andrew struck out.

Flowing Phantom.

His body blurred, afterimages scattering across the beast’s peripheral vision, and the real Andrew materialized at the rat’s flank with the GodSlayer Blade already in motion. Chaos Dao Violent Strike.

[-800 HP]

The rat roared and swung its tail. The girl released its wrists and vaulted over the sweeping appendage, landing in a crouch, her twin pairs of wings folding tight against her back. Andrew ducked under the tail and drove his blade into the beast’s hip, twisting.

[-600 HP]

The beast staggered. Its HP was dropping 3000... 2000 — but it was still fighting with terrifying ferocity. It spat a blast of sonic energy at the girl, who tanked it with her scaled wings, the sound wave cracking the golden scales but not penetrating. She charged through the dissipating energy and slammed her shoulder into the rat’s chest, driving it backward.