As a fire burst nearly grazed her, Angel spun mid-air and unleashed a wind blade toward one of the crab's claws. Unfortunately, the wind blade only left a shallow scratch on the hard shell.
"This is bad... This thing is too tough!" Angel muttered.
Refusing to give up, Angel continued to attack from various angles, searching for an opening. However, the massive claws always blocked her attacks. When Angel got closer, one of the claws swung swiftly, almost hitting her wing.
Angel flew backward, keeping her distance while thinking hard. "This creature's regeneration is too fast... I have to find its weak spot."
Taking a closer look, Angel noticed a small gap between the claw joints when the alien moved. "There it is!" she thought.
Angel fired a wind blade precisely at the joint gap. This time, the result was better. The shell at the joint cracked, slightly slowing down one of the claws. However, the crab went berserk, releasing an even larger burst of flames.
Angel soared higher, avoiding the relentless attacks. "If attacking from the outside is too difficult... How about from the inside?"
Raising her hand, Angel began to summon fireflies of light. Thousands of glowing fireflies appeared, surrounding her body. With a signal, Angel directed the swarm toward the cracked joint.
The fireflies slipped through the small gap, infiltrating the creature's body and spreading throughout its insides. The crab began to thrash, sensing something crawling within.
Angel clenched her hand, giving the command. "Heat up!"
The light fireflies started to glow even brighter inside the crab's body. The temperature within the creature rose drastically. The crab's shell turned red-hot, steam escaping from its joints.
With a final roar, the giant crab convulsed violently before its body ignited from within. The shell began to crack, and flames burst from its eyes and joints. Finally, the giant crab collapsed, its body consumed by fire.
Angel landed, breathing heavily, as she watched the smoldering remains of the crab slowly melt away. "Finally... What a stubborn creature."
After the fierce battle with the giant crab, Angel stood amidst the ruins of the devastated city. Her body was covered in scratches and small wounds from the previous fight, but her gaze remained sharp.
"Level 57... But why does it still feel so hard?" Angel murmured, catching her breath.
When she looked to the sky, her eyes caught the massive figure hovering—an enormous dragonfly with gleaming wings radiating electricity. Its red eyes glowed menacingly, and without warning, a red beam shot straight toward Angel.
Angel leapt into the air, narrowly dodging the beam. However, the explosion from the blast caused the ground to tremble, creating a large crater.
The dragonfly spun rapidly, its wings generating a piercing buzzing sound. Suddenly, flashes of electricity from its wings shot toward Angel, forming a web of lightning in the air.
"I must not get caught in that!" Angel thought, using her strength to fly higher.
Unfortunately, one of the electric flashes hit her left wing. A sharp pain surged through her entire body, temporarily numbing her wing. Angel tumbled to the ground, gritting her teeth to suppress a scream.
The dragonfly didn't give her time to recover. It dove down swiftly, aiming to crush Angel with its massive body. Angel rolled to the side just in time, but one of the dragonfly's legs scraped her thigh, leaving a deep gash.
"Argh!" Angel groaned, but her eyes remained locked on the enemy.
"If this keeps up, I won't win..." she thought. Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind.
Summoning her willpower, Angel jumped back into the air despite the pain weighing her down. She flapped her wings quickly, trying to lure the dragonfly higher into the sky.
The giant insect chased after her at lightning speed, shooting red beams several times. One of the beams almost grazed her back, slightly burning the edge of her wing.
"This is my chance!"
Quickly, Angel turned around and drew her Wind Sword from her back. She flew straight toward the dragonfly, enduring the pain in her wings. When the dragonfly fired its beam again, Angel crossed her sword, forming a wind shield that deflected the attack.
Once close enough, Angel gathered all her strength and slashed the dragonfly's wing with a powerful, full-force swing. The left wing of the creature broke off, crashing to the ground with a loud thud.
The dragonfly, losing its balance, fell hard, writhing on the ground. Not wasting a second, Angel summoned thousands of glowing fireflies, now glowing a brilliant blue.
"This will end it!" Angel shouted, directing the fireflies to envelop the fallen dragonfly's body.
The fireflies began to heat up, far hotter than before. The giant dragonfly's body started to burn from within, and blue flames engulfed it completely. The creature writhed desperately, but within seconds, its body melted and turned to ash.
Angel collapsed to her knees, gasping for air, her wounds and pain still throbbing. Yet, she smiled with relief.
"I did it..." she whispered before taking a brief moment to rest and recover her strength.
After defeating the giant dragonfly, Angel felt a wave of relief wash over her. However, that feeling was shattered in an instant.
A sudden, excruciating pain pierced her chest. Angel looked down in shock, seeing a hand protruding from between her breasts, drenched in her own blood.
"Wha...?" Blood dripped from her mouth, her vision blurring.
A cold, sinister voice whispered behind her, "Finally, I found you... the angel disrupting Mars."
Angel struggled to turn her head, catching a glimpse of the figure behind her—a tall, dark figure with massive wings, a face half-concealed in shadow. It was Xalthea, one of the high-ranking generals of the Mars Bats.
Confusion filled Angel's mind. "Why... is someone this powerful in such a small city?"
Xalthea pulled her hand back, letting Angel collapse onto the ground. As life faded from her body, Angel closed her eyes, and her form began to glow.
Her body transformed into a blue light, a state where she couldn't be attacked or harmed. As a being of light, Angel now had two choices:
1. Reform as Valkyrie, her other Khodam, but still at a low level and incapable of fighting Xalthea.
2. Teleport to a familiar location that she had previously visited.
Rai, now just a floating blue light, didn't hesitate. Reforming as Valkyrie would be pointless, given the difference in power. Instead, he chose to teleport to the Earth Vanguard Monitoring Room, where the command center for Earth's defense was located.
In the blink of an eye, the blue light vanished from the battlefield, leaving Xalthea to watch with a wicked smirk.