Asphalt buckled outward in a perfect circle. The shockwave rolled down the street hard enough to shatter every remaining window on both sides of the block simultaneously.
Dust and debris swallowed everything.
Hai-Yen hit the ground hard, arm thrown over her face, vision whited out by the impact cloud.
Her ears were ringing. The bond she had with her own spatial awareness—the one that kept her alive in every fight she’d ever walked out of—had gone montarily silent from the sheer pressure of the strike.
She pushed herself up on one knee.
"Ace—"
The word stopped in her throat.
One finger extended. The black orc’s axe blade resting against it. The crater it had carved into the earth surrounding my feet on all sides, the ground around destroyed, and untouched at the center of all of it.
I lowered my hand.
"No more holding back."
My fist closed.
There was no wind-up. No weight transfer. No setup of any kind. Just a single jab, thrown the way you throw sothing you’ve thrown ten thousand tis and found sufficient every ti.
BOOM.
The black orc didn’t fall dramatically. Didn’t get launched through a building. It simply exploded into pieces, fragnts still separating in the air as I was already turning toward the other two.
The grey orc raised its iron mace.
The green orc swung its axes.
Neither of them finished the motion.
Crack.
Crack.
One punch each. I was already walking back toward Hai-Yen before their bodies finished hitting the ground.
Three boss-class monsters. Three punches. Total.
Hai-Yen was still staring when I stopped in front of her.
Her mouth was slightly open. Of all the things that could shake a fighter of her caliber—apparently this was where her composure finally cracked.
Couldn’t bla her. I was practically treating boss monsters like slis.
Jokes aside, those bosses were weaker than the ones inside the tower.
Their chamber probably boosted their strength. Now that it was gone, their base stats had dropped as well.
That was good news.
"Go toward my main base. It’s safer there."
She gathered herself faster than most would. "I can help."
I looked at her for a mont. She ant it sincerely, which made what ca next less comfortable to say, but no less true.
"You’ll only slow down."
She opened her mouth to argue. Shadow was already lowering her neck behind . I caught her scales and pulled myself up in one motion, her wings spreading wide before I’d fully settled.
The downwash tore through the street like a shockwave, hurling ash and shards of concrete across the pavent.
Before she could answer, Shadow kicked off the ground and we shot into the air.
The next sector was already burning by the ti we reached it.
A cluster of mid-tier monsters had pushed through a collapsed barricade and were working their way down a comrcial street, and the Seekers defending it had been reduced to buying ti rather than actually fighting.
I could see it from altitude—the defensive line contracting block by block, slowly losing ground.
Shadow didn’t need to be told.
She opened her jaws and Azure Inferno poured out in a wide torrent, sweeping across the street in a single pass.
Blue fire swallowed the entire cluster whole. By the ti she pulled up and banked for a second look, there was nothing left that required a second look.
We didn’t even land.
The sector to the south was already calling for attention.
We crossed the city in under a minute and found another pocket—this one larger, a dense knot of monsters that had surrounded a group of survivors near a collapsed overpass.
Shadow ca in low and fast, and this ti she didn’t use fire. Purple light crawled up the mbrane of her wings, branching along every ridge and joint, and she snapped them wide at the apex of her dive.
The lightning that followed didn’t need my comntary. It chained through the entire cluster in seconds, threading between targets with an intelligence that still surprised sotis even now.
The people below stood very still afterward, which was the appropriate response.
We were already gone before any of them thought to look up properly.
Sector after sector, the pattern held. Shadow handled what could be handled from the air, efficient and thorough, and I let her work without interference.
At so point during the fourth sector, I realized I was watching her with sothing close to pride and made no effort to stop.
The city was large, though, and monsters weren’t the only problem.
The people were the harder variable.
Civilians who hadn’t evacuated were still scattered throughout the inner districts—so sheltering in place because they had nowhere to go, so simply frozen by the particular paralysis that sets in when everything happening around you is too large to process.
The military was doing what it could, but its resources were stretched thin across too many fronts simultaneously.
That needed addressing.
Shadow leveled out above the central district, high enough to see across most of the city, and I cast magic to magnify my voice.
I let it build for a mont, feeling the magic settle, and then spoke clearly into the open air.
"My na is Ace rcer, and I’m here to save the city."
The words rolled outward across every district simultaneously, bouncing off buildings, carrying down streets, reaching into shelters and basents and the spaces between collapsed structures where people were hiding and hoping.
"If you want to survive, make your way to the outer layer near the Degen Guild building. Move now. Stay low. You will be protected when you arrive."
I held the spell for another breath, then let it go.
Shadow banked without being asked, already reading the next direction.
We dropped altitude and pushed east, toward the districts where the horde’s pressure had been lightest—where the streets were damaged but passable, where soone moving carefully could actually make progress without running directly into a fight.
The old guild base ca into view as we cleared the outer district’s rooftop line. The surrounding blocks were quieter than anywhere else we’d covered today.
A few wandering monsters in the streets nearby, small ones, the kind that posed real danger to an unprepared civilian but nothing that couldn’t be handled efficiently.
Just as expected, the monsters here were weaker. No boss monsters either.
Still, my guard stayed up. The Monkey God might show up at any mont.
As I moved closer, Mythical Seekers were already fighting.
They hadn’t evacuated in ti.
My guild mbers had already evacuated. Only a few stayed behind to deploy the drones.
I landed on the rooftop and my staff and mbers rushed toward .
Relief spread across their faces. So smiled. A few looked close to tears. They were truly happy to see .
"Don’t worry. Now that I’m here, I’ll make sure this city survives. No matter what," I declared.
Next, I walked into my office. My hand brushed across the desk. The wood was familiar.
Outside the window, the city burned. Smoke climbed into the sky.
Feeling sentintal during an ergency like this... that sounded like sothing only I would do.
I sat on the desk and closed my eyes.
Shadow took over the fighting. Through our soul link, our vision rged. The battlefield unfolded behind my eyelids.
Staying here wasn’t laziness. The system had chosen this place itself before. That ant sothing was hidden here. Sothing worth my attention.
I closed my eyes and began casting a spell, one that let see not just the surface, but beneath it.
This was not the first ti I had tried this, and I had found nothing. Still, I wanted to check again.
Just as I was reaching thirty ters underground, my connection was cut off. The ground trembled violently beneath .
"Shit." I clicked my tongue in annoyance and teleported back to the rooftop where the remaining staff waited.
Without hesitation, I cast a wind spell, lifting them into the air. From above, we watched the entire building vanish, swallowed by a widening sinkhole.
It didn’t end there. The sinkhole kept swallowing building after building. So much for calling this a safe place.
I decided to put so distance between us and the chaos. I landed on a rooftop only after the ground had stopped collapsing. From our vantage point, the hole looked bottomless.
However, I could sense danger deep within the abyss. I summoned my spear and jumped down.
Whatever lurked inside could not be allowed to escape. The consequences would be unimaginable.
SWOOOSH!
A beam of red light tore through the air, heading straight for . Heat hissed along its edges, burning the space around it.
"FUCK OFF!" I sneered, slapping my hand forward. A shimring barrier of magic flared to life just in ti, deflecting the beam. Sparks scattered as the force vaporized.
More beams of red light scread toward .
I didn’t hesitate. A glowing sphere of energy ford around , spinning rapidly.
It wasn’t just a shield—it redirected the incoming attacks, sending each beam ricocheting harmlessly away.
"Now it’s my turn."
I raised my spear, chanting as lightning danced along its length.
The bolts converged at the tip, crackling and writhing with raw energy. When they fused with my energy, the darkness around split into black and white, a stark storm of contrast.
"PIERCE THE HEAVEN!" I shouted, throwing down my weapon which was paradoxical.
The air tore apart with a deafening roar as the lightning-laden spear slamd toward the ground, sending hot waves that rippled through the sinkhole.
Reviews
All reviews (0)