The icy winds howled across the crater as Mako, Alexi, and Erin stood amidst the shattered remains of the three golems. The silence that followed the battle was as deafening as the clash itself. Each of them was panting heavily. The intensity of the encounter weighed on them, evident in the grim expressions they exchanged.
Mako slid his katana back into its sheath, the flames extinguishing with a quiet hiss as the cold quickly cooled down the blade. He glanced at his teammates, his face a mix of relief and frustration. "That was way harder than it should've been," he muttered.
"No kidding," Alexi said, slumping onto a nearby chunk of ice. "You were right, judging by their auras, I could tell that they weren't stronger than a high-tier beast and yet we struggled against those three. High-tier! I killed dozens of them with my own hands during the recruitment test without breaking a sweat."
