Chapter 405: Smash And BOOM!!
I checked the quest progress: 8293 / 10000.
A smile tugged at my lips. "Almost done," I murmured to myself.
Cassian and I hovered high above the second level of the Beta Zone. Below us, Lyrate, Knight, and Silver were tearing through the battlefield like living storms. Each strike, each movement, left trails of destruction in their wake.
I kept my perception stretched to its limit, my senses brushing against the distant borders of the Gamma Zone. The battles down here were dragging on longer now.
The late Master rank abominations had arrived, and they were nothing like the ones before. Every single one in sight was between level 170 and 200, strong enough to make even a careless grandmaster bleed if they weren’t careful.
The first level of the Gamma Zone was already alive with movement.
I could feel hundreds of abominations gathered there, all of them staring in the direction of the three below as if they had already chosen their prey.
My gaze swept further, locking onto five figures standing still at the edge of the great chasm that separated Beta from Gamma. Grandmasters. None of them were above level 230, but their auras felt like sharpened blades dipped in blood—thick, heavy, and dangerous.
I did a quick count of the abominations still left on the second level of Beta. Even if Lyrate, Knight, and Silver went all out, it wouldn’t be enough to reach the quest’s goal. To finish this, we’d have to step into the Gamma Zone.
Beside me, Cassian floated silently, but I could feel the tension in his posture.
His eyes were locked ahead but his fists were clenched. He was ready for anything.
I hummed a quiet tune as I hovered in the air, watching the chaos below. Lyrate, Knight, and Silver were still tearing through the last of the abominations in the Beta Zone, but my perception kept drifting toward the five grandmaster abominations across the chasm.
They hadn’t moved a step since I first spotted them, yet their presence pressed against my senses like a weight.
Finally, I let out a long sigh. "I guess I can’t wait any longer."
Cassian turned his head sharply, his silver eyes narrowing. "What happened?"
"Nothing," I said with a shrug, rolling my shoulder to loosen it. Then I raised my right hand. "I just feel like smashing a few of these creatures myself."
Essence stirred instantly, swirling around my palm before condensing into shape. My staff materialized in my grip.
Cassian’s brow furrowed. "You need to be careful."
I gave a small nod. "Don’t worry. Killing me isn’t that easy."
Closing my eyes, I sank inward for a moment, feeling the currents of Essence moving through me. This would be my first battle since the physical surge—since my strength, constitution, and dexterity had all crossed Alpha+.
My body felt different now, heavier in power yet lighter in movement. As the Essence flowed through my veins, I realized I might not even need to rely on any laws to handle those five.
There was a pressure in my muscles, an immense strength coiled and waiting to erupt.
I reached out mentally to my summons.
’Hey, you three, finish up quickly. I’ll go on ahead.’
I let my gaze sweep over the five Grandmaster abominations, reading their names and levels as the system displayed them in my vision.
[Nightwolf – Level 219]
[Nightwolf – Level 223]
The first two were almost identical—a pair of massive wolves, each towering close to ten feet in height.
Their fur was dark and patchy, their glowing red eyes burning with unnatural malice.
Behind each of them swayed three long, bony tails, sharp ridges running along the bone and dripping with black corruption. Every flick of those tails left faint scorch marks in the air, as if the corruption itself could burn.
Next was the [Bone Lizard – Level 211]. Its body was long and muscular, but instead of smooth reptilian scales, jagged white bones jutted out in layered plates like a natural suit of armor.
Then came [Sicarius – Level 221]. It was spider-like, but worse than anything I had ever seen in nature.
A constant green mist clung to its body, curling and twisting like living smoke. The mist hid most of its form, but its many eyes shone through the haze, unblinking and cold. I could feel my skin crawl just looking at it.
And finally, there was the strongest of the five, at least by level: [Verzasco Goat – Level 229].
A goat.
Its body was entirely black, fur matted and clinging to rotting patches of skin.
Three jagged horns rose from its skull, curling slightly backward, and a single massive eye glowed in the center of its forehead. That eye was locked on me, unblinking, radiating a pressure that felt almost physical. Its aura was the heaviest of them all, dense, bloody, and full of killing intent.
I drew in a slow breath, feeling the weight of the moment settle deep in my chest. My wings spread wide, every feather trembling as Essence surged through me.
The muscles in my back and arms coiled like springs, storing a terrifying amount of force. The air around me seemed to tense, as if the world itself knew what was coming.
Then—
I slammed my wings down.
The air exploded. The force of the flap was so great that the clouds above shuddered and a deafening sonic boom tore through the battlefield.
Shockwaves rippled outward, scattering dust, bending trees, and sending loose stones skittering across the ground. My body shot forward like a spear loosed from a bow, the world blurring into streaks of motion.
I locked onto my target, Sicarius the ugly spider.
The green mist writhed and twisted around the spider’s massive form, but it was too slow to react.
My muscles tightened again mid-flight, my grip on the staff so firm the wood groaned in my hands. Time seemed to slow. I could see every detail: the flexing of my forearm tendons, the faint shimmer of Essence crawling up the length of the staff, the widening of the spider’s many eyes.
I appeared above it in an instant.
A roar tore from my throat, raw and full of intent. Both hands raised the staff high overhead. The green mist was already fleeing, ripped apart by the pressure wave my strike carried.
The staff came down like a judgment.
BOOM!!!
The impact was cataclysmic. The ground shattered, soil and rock bursting upward in a violent spray. The spider’s body crumpled instantly, driven ten feet into the earth. The green mist was gone, replaced by a crater where the creature once stood.