He is not close to being the strongest soldier on the battlefield. But he is close to being one of the most well-rounded. And on the battlefield, the lack of a weakness makes a lot of difference.
The elves had set up a Komodo lizard in his path to the next spiked tree. Unlike the giant tortoise, it was fast enough to move into his path. Unfortunately, its defenses are lacking, so Kelvin decided not to avoid it.
He reminded himself as he rushed toward the giant lizard, "Be careful of its poison, and everything will be fine."
His Extraordinary Perception picked up danger, and he reacted immediately. The Komodo lizard had attacked him with his tongue. If he hadn't moved at the last moment, he would have been pushed back at the very least.
Of course that's not what the giant lizard was hoping for. It was hoping to impale him. But it didn't even get to push him back. Instead, it lost its tongue because Kelvin swerved it as it swept past him.
The giant lizard roared in pain. It reared back and swept its large tail at him.
He didn't dodge. Instead, he doubled down and swung his four blade arms in retaliation.
The tail was as thick as he was tall. It was many times longer than him. But it still took one hit for him to cut through it.
Honestly, it didn't feel like he was cutting anything. The blade sliced through it with little resistance. At most, it felt like he was wading through water.
The lizard roared in pain again. This time it decided to escape. It stopped listening to the elves and chose to preserve its life.
Kelvin thought to himself with a smirk, "Smart guy."
He appreciated such wisdom in a beast and wanted to let it go. It was just unfortunate that the giant lizard had waited until it was injured before it could escape.
Life Core latched onto its life force and siphoned it with a massive pull. It felt like he had taken a pull of strong coffee through a straw. His mind became sharp, and his body became ready to run around the planet without stopping.
This was not so for the giant lizard, though. It felt like someone had yanked on its internal organs and pulled them out of its body. All of its strength left its body, so it became too slow to escape.
Kelvin sheared through it before continuing on his way to the spiked tree. Nothing could stop him. The strong elves were guarding the giant worms, so these weak elves couldn't deal with him.
This time, he didn't slice through the tree like he did before. He used Explosive Fist to enhance his hand as he punched the tree.
His punch shattered the trunk of the tree in one blow. The tree exploded as if it was made of wood. It scattered deadly scrap El of bone into the surroundings.
A few more punches destroyed the whole trunk and toppled the tree. It couldn't withstand an onslaught of explosive fists for more than three seconds. It began to fall down with a loud groan.
He was already gone by the time it hit the ground. His mark also registered his action and rewarded him with his due.
He thought to himself, "That makes two in two minutes. Not a bad rate."
Wrath said to him, "Looks like you've gained a lot of attention."
She was referring to the notice of the Yggdrasil army. His feat of bringing down two spiked trees in two minutes had attracted the attention of his allies, especially the soldiers of the first division.
These soldiers could be identified through the glazed look in their eyes and the fire burning in their pupils. Many of them ran toward him to reinforce him.
They took up positions beside and behind him. Wherever he ran to, they followed. They didn't speak their intentions to him, and he didn't have to speak to them either. They simply shadowed him and mimicked his actions.
He said, "Sweet."
Wherever he ran, lone soldiers of the first division joined his squad. So they were growing in size by the moment. This gave them more and more momentum and made them difficult to stop on the battlefield.
They eventually stopped joining him when the squad became one hundred in size. That's how much support is willing to grant to him.
Normally, he would be able to commandeer his one squad of first division soldiers if he had a two-star authority in the army. But he doesn't, so this is clearly a favor.
It is more of a strategic move by the command to increase his impact on the battlefield and increase his clearance rate. However, it also gave him hopes of acquiring two stars by the end of the expedition.
He thought to himself with a grin, "As long as I fulfill command's expectations of me, I should get those two stars."
The star system is not about power. It is about strategic importance. If a soldier has proven themselves to be different from the chaff in the army and can affect the battlefield in a significant manner, they will be given more authority and privileges so that their strategic importance will be maximized.
This situation is just like that. As long as he proves that their trust in him was not in vain, he will jump the rank of one star and be moved to two stars for future expeditions.
But if he fails, he will have part of his merit points subtracted for the wastage of resources. So, the squad of a hundred is not a free gift. It is a responsibility.
This prospect and the constant chiming of merit points increasing in his mark encouraged him to keep going and to do more.
Not that he could be tired even if he wanted to. The sight of the bone-white, spiked tree in the distance could only invigorate him. He was rearing to have a heart to heart with it.