Chapter 110: The Howling Abyss
Chapter 110: Chapter 110: The Howling Abyss
Chapter 110: The Howling Abyss
[Global Timer: 03:15]
Vaelith Starbane stepped through the portal and instantly lost his footing.
He spawned on a narrow, violently swaying suspension bridge made of rotting wood and rusted steel cables. Beneath him was a bottomless canyon shrouded in thick gray clouds. Freezing, high-speed wind currents whipped across the gorge.
Before Vaelith could regain his balance, the clouds beneath the bridge parted. A swarm of Mechanical Shriek-Bats darted into the air. Their wings were made of razor-sharp steel feathers, and their throats glowed with concentrated mana.
They opened their mechanical jaws.
SCREECH!
Invisible, high-frequency sound waves slammed into Vaelith. The attack bypassed his armor entirely, striking directly at his inner ear. Vaelith grunted in sudden pain. He stumbled sideways, barely catching the rusted railing before he fell into the abyss. A thin trail of warm blood trickled down his earlobe.
’How dare they,’ Vaelith thought, his eyes burning with intense fury.
’How dare these rusted toys make me bleed on live television!’
He gripped his silver hilt. He channeled a massive surge of elemental mana into the blade. The solid steel extended and warped, transforming into a long, crackling whip of pure blue lightning.
"Die!" Vaelith screamed.
CRACK!
He lashed the sky. The lightning whip stretched for dozens of meters, wrapping around the flying mechanical bats and violently detonating their circuits. Metal rained down into the canyon as Vaelith spent the next three minutes frantically clearing the sky.
[Vaelith Starbane Cumulative Clear Time: 06:42]
---
[Global Timer: 03:45]
In a separate simulation instance, Aegon stepped onto the same swaying bridge.
The Red Lion did not even wait for the bats to emerge from the clouds. His crimson eyes flared with a terrifying crimson light.
FWOOSH!
A gargantuan pillar of Blood Fire erupted from his hands. The sheer heat instantly evaporated the freezing winds and completely incinerated the clouds below. The Shriek-Bats melted into glowing slag before they could even open their mouths to scream.
[Aegon Cumulative Clear Time: 03:50]
---
In yet another instance, Bram walked slowly and steadily across the wooden planks. The massive boy did not even summon his shield.
The bats surrounded him and unleashed their sonic disruption. Bram just blinked. His eardrums were protected by his dense Titan physiology. The sound waves felt like a gentle breeze.
Failing to disorient him, the bats resorted to their kamikaze dive. They tucked their steel wings and plummeted toward Bram like heavy bullets.
CLANG! CRUNCH!
They rammed directly into Bram’s chest and shoulders, instantly shattering their own metallic skulls against his unyielding skin. Bram peacefully walked to the exit portal, leaving a pile of broken metal birds in his wake.
[Bram Cumulative Clear Time: 04:15]
---
[Global Timer: 00:09]
Draven walked onto the rotting suspension bridge. His coat fluttered gently in the freezing wind.
The Mechanical Shriek-Bats immediately rose from the abyss, their glowing mechanical throats pulsing with energy.
SCREECH!
They fired their sonic disruption directly at Draven’s head.
Draven did not flinch. Sound was simply vibrating air moving in a specific direction. Using his SS-Rank Vector Authority, Draven instantly altered the directional vectors of the air molecules in a one-foot radius around his head, pushing them completely outward.
He created a perfect vacuum.
The deafening sonic waves hit the edge of the vacuum and instantly ceased to exist. Draven stood in complete, blissful silence.
A cold, mocking chuckle escaped his lips.
"Pathetic attempts."
He raised his hand, intending to crush them into a sphere just like the wolves. He gripped the empty air, but his vectors slipped off their bodies.
’Interesting,’ Draven thought.
He activated his Microscopic Perception. The bats were coated in a highly concentrated layer of simulation mana that actively deflected his direct telekinetic grip. They were designed to dodge and resist simple magical locks.
’The magical power around them is making it hard to take control of their bodily Vectors. I need to use a different method to kill them.’
Sensing his failed attack, the bats flapped their steel wings violently.
SWOOSH! SWOOSH!
Dozens of crescent-shaped Razor Gales launched through the air. The pressurized wind and sonic blades were sharp enough to cut the steel cables of the bridge.
Draven just smiled. They were immune to direct body manipulation, but their projectile attacks were entirely made of kinetic force.
Draven pointed two fingers at the incoming barrage of wind blades. He halted their forward momentum instantly. The glowing crescent blades froze in midair, just inches from his face.
Then, Draven forcefully amplified their kinetic vectors by a factor of ten and reversed their direction.
"Return to sender," Draven whispered.
SLICE!
The amplified wind blades tore backward at blinding speed. The bats could not even register the counterattack. The sheer kinetic force chopped the entire swarm into hundreds of tiny, unrecognizable metal fragments.
Draven lowered his hand and calmly walked through the exit portal.
[Draven Mordis Cumulative Clear Time: 00:18]
---
In the broadcast booth at the Capital, Marcus Sterling was sweating profusely.
He dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief. He had just finished praising Vaelith’s "heroic struggle" on the second floor, completely ignoring the fact that the Capital’s prodigy had taken damage.
"A brilliant display of lightning mastery!" Marcus cheered into the microphone.
"Vaelith clears the second floor with a stunning time of six minutes and forty-two seconds! Let us check the global leaderboard!"
The massive holographic screen updated live for the entire world to see.
---
Rank 1: Draven Mordis
Rank 2: Aegon Logecheville
Rank 3: Bram Stoneheart
Rank 4: Estella Everdawn
Rank 5: Lucien Vaelmont
Rank 6: Kaelor Astralrend
Rank 7: Azrakar Voidborn
Rank 8: Vaelith Starbane
---
The global broadcast was met with dead, suffocating silence.
Millions of citizens in Bastion One stared at the screen with wide, horrified eyes. The glitch excuse was completely dead.
The entire top five belonged exclusively to Bastion Seven. Vaelith Starbane, the supposed hope of humanity, had just been pushed down to Rank 8.
And sitting at the very top, mocking the entire Vanguard establishment, was a clear time of eighteen seconds.
’I cannot believe it! Was I a frog in the well all this time? Are these people in the Bastion 7 really this strong?! No it cannot be! They must have cheated somehow!’
Marcus Sterling’s jaw hung open. He could not find a single word to say.