The moment Kael noticed the beasts changing their strategy, he moved.
His figure blurred across the battlefield.
Any monster that attempted to slip around him toward the fortress found him waiting before it could take more than a few steps.
A charging wolf exploded beneath a single kick.
A bear-like beast had its skull crushed before it even realised Kael had appeared beside it.
A giant mantis leapt into the air, hoping to bypass him from above.
Kael simply reached upward, grabbed one of its bladed forelimbs and slammed the creature into the ground with enough force to split the earth apart.
Blood sprayed across the battlefield.
Another gap opened within the horde.
Kael didn’t stop.
He moved like a machine built solely for destruction.
No wasted movements.
No hesitation.
Every step claimed lives.
Every punch created another opening.
Every kick shattered flesh and bone alike.
The monsters couldn’t get past him.
Not a single one.
High atop the fortress walls, Victor Smith watched everything unfold with an expression caught between admiration and concern.
The young man before him was undeniably powerful.
Terrifyingly so.
Yet...
Something about the battle bothered him.
Victor frowned.
"Why..."
"Why is he wasting so much power on low-level beasts?"
He had witnessed S-Rank Hunters fight before.
As hunters climbed through the ranks, their mana reserves increased dramatically.
However, so did the cost of their abilities.
The stronger the skill...
The greater the mana expenditure.
Experienced S-Rank Hunters rarely fought recklessly. They conserved their strength, eliminating weaker enemies with minimal effort while saving their strongest techniques for opponents worthy of them.
Victor had expected Kael to do the same.
Deal with the higher-ranked monsters.
Leave the lesser beasts to the soldiers and hunters defending the walls.
Yes, more monsters would inevitably reach the fortress that way.
There would be casualties.
But preserving an S-Rank’s strength was infinitely more important.
Because...
Victor slowly lifted his gaze toward the distant horizon.
Far behind the seemingly endless tide of monsters...
A colossal silhouette advanced.
Even from several kilometres away, it towered over every other creature in the horde.
A gigantic ape.
Its body resembled a moving mountain.
Every step caused the earth beneath it to tremble.
The pressure radiating from its enormous frame reached the fortress despite the incredible distance separating them.
Victor’s breathing unconsciously became heavier.
An A-Rank beast.
Possibly...
An S-Rank monster.
That creature was the true threat.
Everything happening now was merely the prelude.
Yet Kael continued unleashing devastating attacks without restraint, wiping out wave after wave of insignificant monsters.
Victor couldn’t help wondering if the young man simply lacked battlefield experience.
He looked too young.
Perhaps...
He had only recently advanced to S-RRank.
That would explain his reckless fighting style.
Victor sighed inwardly.
Even if that were true...
There was nothing he could say.
He wasn’t arrogant enough to lecture someone whose strength far surpassed his own.
All he could do was hope.
Hope Kael had enough strength remaining when the gigantic ape finally reached the battlefield.
Or at the very least...
That he could stall it until reinforcements arrived.
Meanwhile...
The person at the centre of Victor’s worries remained completely unconcerned.
Kael continued tearing through the beast horde with relentless efficiency.
If he somehow learned what Victor was thinking...
He probably wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Running out of strength?
That possibility simply didn’t exist.
Victor’s concerns were based on ordinary hunters.
Kael wasn’t ordinary.
Throughout the entire battle...
He hadn’t spent a single point of mana.
Every attack.
Every shockwave.
Every devastating explosion...
Had been fuelled entirely by earth energy.
His mana remained completely untouched.
As full as it had been before the battle began.
As for earth energy itself...
Running out was even more ridiculous.
Deep within his body rested billions upon billions of Planet Embryos.
Each one continuously generated earth energy every passing second.
The amount he consumed during battle wasn’t even close to matching the amount being produced.
If anything...
His reserves continued increasing.
The true limitation wasn’t quantity.
It was familiarity.
He had only recently obtained this power.
There were countless applications of earth energy he had yet to discover.
Countless possibilities he hadn’t had the opportunity to experiment with.
Once he fully understood it...
His combat ability would rise to an entirely different level.
Of course, that didn’t mean skills were useless.
Far from it.
Earth energy possessed incredible destructive potential, but it couldn’t replace the versatility of skills.
Take Eye of Judgement.
Or Interference.
Could earth energy replicate their effects?
No.
It couldn’t.
Each possessed strengths the other lacked.
The difference was...
Other hunters relied almost entirely upon skills and mana.
Kael possessed those as well.
On top of that...
He had earth energy.
That single advantage put him on a path completely different from everyone else, once he learned to properly implement it in battle. But that wouldn’t be for today.
There would be plenty of time to experiment in the future.
For now...
Only one thing mattered.
Destroying the beast horde standing before him.
Kael didn’t hesitate.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
One explosion after another echoed across the battlefield.
Each punch birthed a violent shockwave. Each kick flattened everything caught within its path. Monsters died in droves, their bodies torn apart before they even understood what had struck them.
At the center of it all stood Kael.
Calling it a slaughter barely did the scene justice.
Corpses littered the battlefield for hundreds of meters. Many of them weren’t even whole anymore. Limbs, shattered bones, chunks of flesh, and broken shells painted the earth in a grotesque mosaic of death. Rivers of blood flowed through the countless craters littering the plain until the ground beneath Kael’s feet had become a thick crimson mire that squelched beneath every step he took.
His combat suit had long since lost its original color.
Blood soaked every inch of it.
His brown hair dripped scarlet.
His hands were completely red.
The metallic scent of blood mixed with burnt flesh filled the air with an oppressive stench that could make an ordinary person vomit on the spot. A weaker-minded hunter would probably faint from witnessing the nightmare before them.
Kael stood calmly in the middle of it all.
His breathing remained steady.
His expression never changed.
To him, this was simply another battlefield.