Kael stood motionless amidst the devastation.
His eyes swept across the enormous crater surrounding him, the shattered earth, the blood-soaked landscape, and the countless mangled corpses scattered in every direction.
"..."
Even he hadn’t expected this.
It wasn’t that he had underestimated himself.
If that had been the case, he would never have recklessly thrown himself in front of an entire beast horde.
No.
The problem was much simpler.
He genuinely had no frame of reference for just how destructive his current strength had become.
Ever since his explosive growth, he had only truly unleashed his power in two places.
The first had been inside the Tower’s start room, a place so absurdly durable that no matter how much strength he used, he couldn’t even leave behind a scratch.
The second had been inside the Instance while battling with Varek’s shadow construct. That place had been the Seat of Authority of a higher existence, a realm built to withstand overwhelming power. Even fighting at full strength there had produced nothing more than a few insignificant craters.
Compared to those places...
The battlefield beneath his feet was fragile.
Painfully fragile.
Kael slowly exhaled before pushing those thoughts aside.
There would be time to understand his strength later.
Right now...
The battle wasn’t over.
The temporary gap carved into the beast horde was already closing.
Like seawater rushing back after a stone had been thrown into it, countless monsters surged forward once again, trampling over the corpses of their fallen brethren without the slightest hesitation.
The losses they had suffered...
Were nothing more than a drop within an endless ocean.
Kael rolled his shoulders before planting one foot forward.
His breathing slowed.
His posture lowered.
One fist rested near his waist while the other extended loosely before him.
The familiar stance of his martial arts settled naturally into place.
A faint smile slowly crept across his lips.
"Come."
As though understanding the challenge...
The beast horde answered.
ROOOOOOOOOOAR!!
Thousands of monsters roared as one.
The sound rolled across the battlefield like an endless tidal wave, shaking the air itself. Dust exploded upward from the earth while the monstrous killing intent condensed into something almost tangible.
Any ordinary Awakener would have gone pale.
Many would have lost the courage to stand.
Kael only felt his blood begin to boil.
The excitement bubbling inside him became impossible to suppress.
He didn’t even wait for them to arrive.
His figure blurred.
The earth beneath his feet exploded apart as he shot forward like a cannonball.
The first beast reached him almost simultaneously.
A massive Verdant Wolf lunged through the air, its claws tearing toward his throat.
Kael didn’t dodge.
He stepped into the attack.
His fist rose from beneath his waist in one smooth motion as countless ripples of earth energy gathered around his knuckles.
Then...
He punched.
The fist collided with the wolf’s chest.
The impact wasn’t merely physical.
It detonated.
A violent pulse of earth energy erupted through the beast’s body before exploding out from its back.
Its ribs folded inward.
Its chest caved completely.
A massive hole was blasted straight through its torso.
The shockwave didn’t stop there.
It continued travelling forward in a perfectly straight line.
One beast.
Two.
Five.
Ten.
Every monster standing behind the wolf was swallowed by the devastating force.
Their bodies burst apart one after another as though pierced by an invisible spear.
Only the higher-level monsters managed to resist for the briefest of moments.
Even then...
They merely survived long enough to experience the sensation of being punched apart before joining the rest.
The battlefield echoed with dying screams.
Kael had already moved.
Another beast appeared beside him, its claws slicing toward his ribs with frightening speed.
He pivoted effortlessly.
His hand shot forward and caught its forelimb.
Twist.
CRACK!
The bone snapped instantly.
Without releasing his grip, Kael borrowed the creature’s own momentum before swinging it like a gigantic club.
Its body slammed into another charging beast.
The collision exploded into a shower of blood and broken bones.
He released his grip.
Both corpses crashed lifelessly across the battlefield.
Boom.
Crash.
Crack.
Three monsters disappeared in less than three seconds.
Yet the horde didn’t care.
They simply continued charging.
An endless tide of claws, fangs, horns and scales poured toward him from every direction, attempting to drown him beneath overwhelming numbers.
Kael inhaled deeply.
Then stepped forward.
Not backward.
Forward.
He met the incoming tide head-on.
From atop the fortress wall, Victor Smith watched the scene unfold with an expression caught somewhere between amazement and disbelief.
The plains outside the fortress had transformed into a slaughterhouse.
Kael wasn’t fighting.
He was rampaging.
Every punch unleashed another devastating shockwave.
Every kick shattered the earth beneath him.
Every elbow, knee and palm strike carried enough force to crush multiple monsters at once.
Wherever he passed...
The beast horde simply ceased to exist.
Even so, Victor refused to relax.
The monsters were simply too numerous.
If they allowed the horde to surround Kael completely, even someone of his strength would eventually be worn down.
Victor immediately turned toward the artillery crews.
"Artillery!"
His voice thundered across the battlements.
"Target the flanks!"
"Do not fire anywhere near him!"
"Keep the swarm from surrounding his position!"
The order spread instantly.
Heavy cannons adjusted their aim before unleashing thunderous blasts.
One shell after another screamed across the battlefield before crashing into the advancing monsters.
BOOM!
Earth exploded skyward.
Bodies flew through the air.
Entire sections of the horde disappeared beneath the relentless bombardment.
The archers joined in immediately afterward.
Thousands of arrows darkened the sky before descending like a rainstorm.
They pierced hides.
Split skulls.
Pinned charging monsters to the earth.
A massive serpentine beast attempting to circle behind Kael suddenly found its body nailed to the ground by three enormous steel arrows.
It writhed violently, hissing as it struggled to free itself.
Before it could...
Another volley descended.
Its body disappeared beneath a forest of arrows.
The battlefield had descended completely into madness.
Explosions shook the plains without pause.
The roar of monsters mixed with the thunder of artillery.
The screams of dying beasts echoed endlessly across the battlefield.
Despite Kael carving enormous gaps through the horde, the sheer number of monsters meant many still slipped past his killing zone.
Those creatures immediately rushed toward the fortress walls.
Waiting for them...
Were the hunters stationed along the defensive line.
Steel met fang.
Magic collided with claw.
The defenders threw themselves into battle without hesitation, determined to ensure that not a single beast reached the city behind them.