A blazing sphere of fire materialized, spinning and crackling with heat.
Holding it steady with sheer will, I kept it from bursting out of control. Below, the bats screeched, still unaware of what was coming.
At the peak of my jump, gravity tugged at me, but the thrill drowned out everything else. A grin stretched across my face, adrenaline rushing through my veins.
"Blitz Hakai!" I roared.
My spine arched as I bent backward mid-air, strength flooding my right hand.
It snapped downward, driving the staff in a swift arc. The fireball, spinning parallel to its far end, followed the motion, hurtling toward the bats below like a blazing comet.
I swung with everything I had. The staff tore through the air, hitting the space just above the bats, but that was all it needed.
First, the air compressed. Then, the explosion came.
Boom.
The force of the blast tore through the ground beneath, cracking it open.
Fire expanded outward, consuming everything in its path. Dust and debris shot into the air, the heat so intense it singed the air around me.
I landed hard, my body taking the impact easily.
The bats were no more, just charred, broken bodies that flopped lifelessly to the ground.
The ringing in my ears was drowned out by a flood of notifications.
[Skill Level Up!]
[Blazing Sfera Level 1 -> Level 2]
[Skill Level Up!]
[Blitz Hakai Level 2 -> Level 3]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level 33 -> Level 35]
Essence surged through my body, sending a sharp, tearing sensation through my muscles.
Something inside me shifted: muscles, tendon, fiber—adapting as my Strength finally crossed the 150 mark.
Satisfaction settled in as I took stock of what just happened.
The combination of both skills had produced results far beyond my expectations. The power behind my attack had increased by at least 40%—maybe even 50%. If that much was possible just by layering two techniques, then there had to be even greater ways to push them further.
Blazing Sfera had plenty of room to evolve.
Fire was just one option, what if I formed the sphere using different elements?
With my Psynapse as strong as it was, I had the luxury of at least testing them all, even if I failed.
And if that didn't work, there was always raw Essence itself. Pure destruction, unfiltered by any element.
At the end of the day, the method didn't matter. Only the opponent did.
No point in wasting Essence on weaklings when fire could reduce them to ash just fine.
I extended my perception one last time, scanning the area to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything. Once I was satisfied, I adjusted my grip on the staff and walked forward.
Broken buildings and scattered rubble stretched out before me as I moved deeper into the area.
The further I went, the more chaotic the Essence became. Different elements surged and clashed around me, flashes of fire, streaks of wind, and ripples of water twisting through the air. The instability was impossible to ignore
I kept my senses sharp, hyper-aware of every fluctuation. I wasn't about to let myself get caught off guard again. The last thing I needed was another gravity field smashing me into the ground.
Soon, I came across another anomaly.
My legs slowed to a stop as I took in the scene before me.
Dust and debris swirled violently, filling the air and making it almost impossible to see beyond a few steps.
The entire area was a storm of chaos, not sand, but choking clouds of dust and shattered stone twisting and tumbling through the air.
I squinted, trying to make sense of the landscape.
Multiple cyclones churned restlessly, shifting unpredictably.
Some spun slow and steady, while others lashed out like living things, tearing apart whatever stood in their way.
The whole place looked like a battlefield abandoned mid-destruction, except the destruction never stopped.
From left to right, as far as my eyes could see, the air refused to be still. Either twisting into powerful cyclones or thick with drifting dust clouds, everything moved.
Then came the sound.
A deep, thunderous boom echoed from within the storm, travelling through the air like the battlefield's heartbeat. Every few seconds, another explosion erupted unseen, shaking the ground and sending more debris into the storm.
Beneath the booming, something else stirred.
Screeches.
Not from one creature, but many.
Dozens of overlapping, high-pitched cries, their sources hidden within the storm.
"Power Up!"
My heart thrummed as the generator core began absorbing the abundant energy in the environment.
I gripped my staff tightly, took a deep breath to steady myself, and stepped forward.
The moment I entered, the wind slammed into me.
It wasn't a normal gust.
It pulled and pushed, erratic and unpredictable, as if the storm itself was trying to throw me out.
Dust stung my skin, filled my mouth, and made every breath feel thick and heavy. I squinted against the swirling chaos, but the storm refused to let me see beyond a few steps.
Then the sound changed.
The booming from earlier wasn't just distant noise, it was louder in here, deep rumbles that made the ground tremble beneath my feet. And between each boom, a different sound weaved through the storm.
Whispers.
I checked my body for injuries, but my high constitution allowed me to withstand the storm's force.
Still, the deeper I went, the worse it became.
The air howled at each step.
I had to force myself to take one step after another.
Invisible blades of air slashed across the ground, carving deep gashes into the cracked earth.
My staff spun continuously in my hand as I shattered wind blade after wind blade. The sound here was too amplified to distinguish the whooshing of the wind, so I had to keep my perception flared the entire time to make sense of the situation.
I carefully avoided the two massive cyclones ahead and steered myself toward a gap I could barely make out through the dust storm.
Broken buildings shook under the pressure, some suddenly shattering as if struck by an unseen force.
I extended my perception, searching for answers. Essence filled the air in streaks of light green.
'Wind.'
That much was obvious.
It wasn't just normal wind, it was violent. The cyclones weren't just forming; they were colliding, tearing each other apart, and reforming.
But something else was here.
Something was causing those random explosions.
Then the voices came.
They whispered from everywhere and nowhere. Some sounded close, too close, as if someone was right behind me, breathing against my neck. Others echoed from above, distant and stretched.
"Kill."
"Run..."
"Rahhhhhh!"
Each voice was different. Some sounded human. Others… didn't. The words overlapped, merging into a chaotic mess of sound.
I stopped, eyes narrowing.
Something else was happening.
The air carried pockets of pressure, bursts of compressed sound hiding within the storm.
I watched as a loose chunk of debris floated harmlessly for a second, then exploded into dust, crushed by a shockwave.
I could feel in my perception that these traps were everywhere, completely invisible. One wrong step, and my body could be next.
But the worst part?
The storm wasn't empty.
High above, four shapes moved through the chaos, gliding smoothly through the deadly winds.
I squinted my eyes at the figures.
Abominations.
The bats were here.
While I struggled against the storm, they thrived in it. Their massive wings sliced through the wind with ease, carried by the very force that tried to push me down. This was their domain.
I narrowed my eyes and focused.
[Level 39] [Level 35] [Level 42] [Level 46]
Even the weaker ones managed to survive in this chaos.
I let out a short chuckle at the thought.
One of them flapped its massive wings and let out a screech—
It wasn't just noise.
The sound rippled through the air like a shockwave, twisting the wind itself. I watched as it tunneled forward like a sonic boom, hurtling straight toward me.
I barely ducked in time.
A slicing gust of wind shot past my head, carving a deep scar and dent into the ground behind me.
The fight had begun.