章 79: Chapter 79: System's Outcome

With his mana nearly depleted and his body pushed to its limits, Elio knew this was his last chance. Everything hinged on this moment, on this one desperate gambit.

The world seemed to slow as the lance closed the final distance. Elio's heart pounded in his ears, each beat an eternity. This was it. Success or failure, life or death, all decided in the next instant.

And then, suddenly, he saw it. The elephant's core, glowing with an ethereal light at the center of the beast.

The corrosive energy exhausted itself.

For a moment, it seemed victory was within grasp.

But it wasn't. The lance, stripped of its dissolving power, fell to the ground with a dull thud, mere two meters from the elephant's exposed core.

So close. He had been so close.