Kaelan dashed through the ruined streets of Silverbrook.
Mana coiled around both of his daggers like living shadows. His eyes remained fixed on the monsters pouring endlessly from the massive fissure.
"Die!"
He lunged toward the nearest creature.
Slash!
Both daggers carved across its chest. Dark color mana exploded upon impact. The monster staggered backward but it didn’t fall. Only several shallow cuts marked its pale, oily skin.
"...Damn it."
Kaelan clicked his tongue.
"These monsters are incredibly tough."
Their flesh was far harder than ordinary monsters. His darkness-enhanced attacks could injure them, but they lacked the power to cut deeply through their bodies.
The only reliable way to kill them was by targeting their vital points.
Their neck, their eyes or piercing directly into the brain.
Unfortunately none of those were easy targets against creatures that moved so violently.
Another monster charged. Kaelan lowered his body, slipped beneath its claws, and slashed upward toward its neck.
SHRK!
His blade cut halfway through.
The monster let out a distorted scream. Before it could recover, Kaelan spun behind it and drove his second dagger into the back of its neck.
CRACK!
The creature collapsed. He had barely taken a breath.
SWISH!!
"...!"
A burning pain erupted across his face. One of the monsters had silently circled behind him. Its black claws tore across his cheek before he could react.
Blood splashed onto the ground.
"Argh!!"
Kaelan staggered several steps backward, instinctively placing a hand over the fresh wound. Warm blood trickled between his fingers. His vision blurred for a split second.
A familiar amused voice echoed nearby.
"Hey, Kaelan. You should pay attention to your surroundings while fighting. What are you doing, buddy?"
Shadow casually walked through the battlefield with his hands tucked inside his coat pockets. His movements were completely relaxed.
Almost leisurely. It was as though he were taking an evening stroll instead of walking through a battlefield.
Even stranger the monsters hesitated.
Whenever one approached Shadow. It instinctively slowed down.
Some even stepped backward. Almost as if they feared him.
Kaelan noticed it immediately. ’Why aren’t they attacking him...?’
By now most civilians had already been evacuated by the Nightfall Knights. Only scattered battles remained throughout the district.
Kaelan and Shadow had unknowingly reached the area closest to the gigantic fissure. The monsters emerging from underground were the most numerous here.
Yet no knights had managed to arrive. Not even Captain Drake Steelborn. The endless tide of creatures continued pouring from the crack.
Kaelan looked around.
Dozens of monsters were closing in.
"...Damn it."
Without another thought, he turned and sprinted toward Shadow.
"Oi! Help me!!"
The instant he ran past one of the towering monsters lunged from behind. Its enormous claws descended toward Kaelan’s exposed back.
It was too close.
Kaelan couldn’t dodge. Then a thin black line flashed through the air.
It was so fast. He barely saw it.
SHRRRK!!
The monster froze. A heartbeat later. Its body split cleanly down the middle. Both halves slid apart before crashing onto the street.
Dark blood flooded the broken pavement.
Kaelan stared in disbelief.
"...What?"
Shadow hadn’t even looked at it.
He simply sighed.
"So impatient."
He lazily raised one hand. Then he flicked a single finger.
Nothing happened for one brief moment.
The battlefield became silent.
Then hundreds of razor-thin shadow slashes materialized out of thin air. They spread across the battlefield like invisible threads.
SHRRRK!!
SHRRRK!!
SHRRRK!!
The attacks swept through the streets with terrifying precision. Every monster within nearly a hundred-meter radius was struck simultaneously.
Some were bisected. Others were cut into three or four pieces. Heads rolled across the ground. Limbs flew through the air. Blood erupted everywhere.
Within a single second more than a hundred monsters had been reduced to lifeless pieces scattered across the ruined streets.
Silence followed.
Kaelan stood completely frozen. His mouth slowly fell open.
"...How..."
He couldn’t even comprehend what he had just witnessed.
One attack one casual flick of a finger. And an entire battlefield had been erased.
Shadow looked down at his own hand.
"Hmm... It’s been a while."
He smiled faintly. "I suppose I’ve relied on magic a little too much lately."
A sword slowly formed within his right hand. Not forged from steel but from pure darkness.
The blade seemed to absorb the surrounding light, its edge so black that it almost vanished against the shadows around it.
Shadow casually swung it once.
"Let’s fight properly for a change."
The next instant he disappeared. Not with a flash. Not with teleportation. He simply moved so fast that it look like he vanished.
Kaelan’s eyes darted across the battlefield.
"...Where?"
He couldn’t find him. Not even for a fraction of a second.
SHRRRK!!
A monster several dozen meters away was suddenly cut in half.
Another lost its head. Another exploded into pieces.
Bodies continued collapsing one after another. Every few moments a black flash appeared somewhere else. Each flash was followed by another monster dying.
Shadow moved so quickly that even Kaelan’s enhanced eyesight couldn’t track him.
All Kaelan could see were monsters collapsing across the battlefield as if an invisible executioner were walking among them.
Kaelan truly understood what overwhelming strength looked like. And it terrified him.
’He really is stronger than my father.’ He thought.
---
Meanwhile.
Back to Damien.
He remained hidden behind the thick trunk of a towering tree, struggling to catch his breath. His entire body ached. His clothes were torn and stained with blood.
The wounds from the battle against the giant guardian still hadn’t fully healed. Beyond the forest the horde of pale monsters continued charging toward Everhold City.
Their deafening roars echoed through the woods as they crushed everything in their path.
"...Damn..."
Damien gripped his sword tightly. He wanted to fight. But in his current condition.
He could barely stand.
Then a gigantic magic circle suddenly appeared high above the battlefield. Its intricate runes glowed with deep violet light. The monsters below instinctively looked upward.
The next moment. Darkness gathered beneath the magic circle.
It condensed rapidly. A massive sphere of compressed darkness formed in midair. It continued growing larger until it resembled a small meteor.
It fell.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The sphere slammed into the charging horde. A violent explosion of darkness erupted in every direction. The earth shook. Trees were uprooted.
Dozens of monsters were swallowed by the blast before being torn apart by countless shadow blades hidden within the explosion.
Black blood sprayed across the forest.
Damien’s tired eyes brightened.
"Master...She came."
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