There were other soldiers sitting around doing nothing or looking out beyond the barrier to the hell going on outside. But no one talked to each other.
Some of the soldiers had vacant looks in their eyes. Some of them were shaking, still feeling the terror even after escaping with their lives intact.
Only a few still had the leisure to stand and watch the fight between the demigods and the movements of the pillars of fire. He could tell that these soldiers were very strong.
He sank next to a tree and sighed in relief.
Inwardly, he promised himself, "I must get an escape ability or the ability to resurrect before I sign up for the foreign battlefield next time."
Wrath said beside him, "It is good that you're alive. I thought for sure that you would die there."
He said, "Me too. I didn't think I was going to make it."
They became silent after that. He was thinking about the preparations he would make if he became lucky enough to return home alive.
Then he broke the silence by asking, "What is that pillar of fire anyway? Is the third secret weapon? It doesn't look as powerful as you made it out to be."
Wrath rolled her eyes. "That's the spear of glory. Its power has been weakened by increasing its duration. At its full power, all that damage is done to a target in a split second."
He looked at the pillar of fire closely. Each one will strike the ground and destroy everything in its way for at least 30 seconds. Some last longer than that.
During the time that they exist, almost no mortal could survive being brushed by them. For everything else apart from the demigods, it meant instant death.
He shook his head and said, "I doubt I want to experience that even as a demigod."
Wrath chuckled. "No one wants to. Fortunately, you are a part of the Yggdrasil civilization, so you don't have much to worry about."
He nodded, relieved.
Then he thought back to the war and said, "We have suffered a terrible blow. I wonder how this will affect our chances of victory."
Wrath shrugged. "It is just a lot of mortals dying. Sure, it is quite a blow and significant at that, but it is far from being a terrible blow."
Kelvin chuckled and said, "Right. I almost forgot that the lives of mortals almost mean nothing. We need to die by the millions before our death can be considered 'significant.'"
He said that sarcastically and made air quotes to pass his point across.
As he said that, he saw an explosion in the sky. The explosion was terrible but brief.
When it was over, all that was left of it was a tiny source of light at the center of the explosion.
Kelvin recognized what it was and said, "I hope that wasn't one of ours."
Wrath agreed. "If it is one of the commanders, then this loss will be more than significant. It will be terrible."
He snorted at her words.
It is not that he doesn't think she is right. He actually knows that the lives of mortals are cheap compared to those of demigods. But he can reconcile what he believes to be true with the fact that he almost died a few seconds ago.
Eventually he said, "At least I didn't die, and I earned a lot."
Wrath became excited when she heard him. She asked with excitement, "Tell me. Tell me. What did you get?"
He took a look at his mark to check his destiny report.
Name: Kelvin Thorn.
Health: 92,132,368. Stamina: 92,132,368. Focus: 368,529,472.
Class: Physique. Tier: 1 (Professional League)
Level: 10
Strength: 10%. Constitution: 20%. Speed: 10%.
Endurance: 10%. Vitality: 10%.
Mind: 40%.
Kill Count: 21,936 >>> 65,528
Fans: 742 >>> 703
Game Points: 1
Power Rating: (703 x 65,528 x 2) = 92,132,368 (B-rank)
Abilities:
A. Shape-shifting (Alpha): Malleable Anatomy.
B. Power Shifting (Omega): 1: Myriad Physique (Fuse 0/20 | Remove 0/1). 2: Juggernaut's Armament (Fuse 0/40 | Remove 0/1). 3: Mind Domination Network (Fuse 0/40 | Remove 0/1). 4: Life Core (Fuse 0/40 | Remove 0/1). 5: Extraordinary Perception (Fuse 0/20 | Remove 0/1). 6: (Open 0/320).
What caught his eye was how much his focus and stamina had increased.
He said, "With this, the range of life force can be pushed to nearly 4 kilometers, and I can fight for days on end. This is good."
His power rating used to be 32 million. But even though his fan count reduced by almost 40, his power rating still increased to 92 million.
This increase of 60 million to his power is solely because of the increase of 43 thousand to his kill counts. That is the result of his work over the past 30 days.
The fact that less than 10% of those died to him because of the injuries he had created made him chuckle. Most of the 90% kill count that he earned was due to him taking advantage of the situation with Life Siphon.
When he told Wrath, she said, "You are probably one of the highest performers in the army."
What she said made him check his merit points and ranking.
- Total Merit Points: 275,825 >>> 91,392,500
- Current Performance Evaluation: 2 Stars
- Current Merit Ranking: 159,562 >>> 276,824
His merit points had increased to more than 61 million. It is a lot, and he would have earned more if he hadn't needed to share the bulk of the merit points for the kills with the soldiers that actually worked hard to kill the enemies.
He thought about it and said, "They can have the merit points. The kill count alone is good enough for me."
Unfortunately, the rest of the data were not encouraging.
His performance rating hadn't increased despite his performance. Even his rank fell by more than 110,000 places.
He was hoping that his ranking would increase since he performed so well and a lot of soldiers just died.