Chapter 151: From the Hood?
Chapter 151: Chapter 151: From the Hood?
Chapter 151: From the Hood?
Lieutenant Vinicius fell to his knees on the cracked pavement.
The young Vanguard Knight gasped violently for air. His lungs burned from the toxic miasma lingering in the central plaza. His elemental staff was completely drained of mana.
Around him, three hundred surviving Knights formed a desperate defensive circle. They were bleeding. They were exhausted. They were entirely out of options.
The first wave of monsters had been eradicated by the masked anomalies. But the Church of the Eternal Eclipse did not stop.
A second wave poured out of the shattered transit tunnels.
This horde was twice as large. Thousands of Level 150 Null-Fiends flooded the plaza. The sleek shadow beasts clicked their jagged claws against the stone.
They smelled the exhaustion of the Vanguard Knights. The beasts began to circle the defensive perimeter, preparing to rush in and tear the helpless soldiers to pieces.
"Hold the line," Vinicius whispered weakly.
His voice carried no strength. The Knights raised their dull swords. Some of the men closed their eyes, quietly praying to the gods for a painless death. The Null-Fiends let out a synchronized screech and lunged forward.
The sky above the plaza suddenly roared.
It sounded like a falling star. A terrifying streak of golden light tore through the dark clouds.
The sheer atmospheric pressure generated by the falling object pushed the leaping Null-Fiends back down to the ground.
BOOM!
The center of the plaza exploded.
A colossal shockwave of physical kinetic force swept across the battlefield. The impact shattered the surrounding concrete, sending hundreds of Null-Fiends tumbling backward like broken toys.
A massive crater smoked heavily in the middle of the monster horde.
The Vanguard Knights lowered their arms. They stared at the crater in pure shock.
The thick dust slowly parted. A tall figure stood in the center of the ruin.
Gunther Stillbane rolled his shoulders. The Lord Commander of Bastion Six wore his signature dark military uniform, though he had forgone the formal cape.
His dark skin gleamed with a faint layer of sweat. His golden eyes burned with an overwhelming, arrogant confidence. He wore a pair of heavy gauntlets forged from dense meteorite steel.
Gunther looked around the ruined plaza. He did not look scared. He looked annoyed.
He casually brushed a thick layer of dust off his shoulder. He turned his back entirely on the thousands of snarling Null-Fiends and looked at his exhausted Vanguard Knights.
"My bad, my bad," Gunther announced loudly, his deep voice carrying a natural, rhythmic swagger.
"I know I kept y’all waiting. That is on me. I had to handle some out-of-town business on the city limits. Some broke-boy Cultists tried to rig the outer gates. Had to teach them some manners."
Vinicius stared at his leader. The mere presence of the Level 200 powerhouse made the toxic air feel breathable again. The morale of the entire Vanguard platoon instantly skyrocketed.
"Lord Commander!" Vinicius shouted, tears of pure relief welling in his eyes.
"I see y’all looking tired," Gunther said smoothly, walking slowly toward his men.
"Y’all put in the work today. I respect the hustle. Now take a seat. I got the block from here."
Behind Gunther, a Level 145 Cultist Warrior climbed out of the rubble.
The Cultist wore a torn crimson robe. He held a jagged broadsword dripping with dark poison. He saw the Lord Commander’s back turned to him. The Cultist’s eyes widened with manic opportunity.
"Die for the Eclipse!" the Cultist shrieked, launching himself through the air.
Gunther did not turn around. He did not even stop talking to Vinicius.
Gunther simply raised his right hand backward.
CRUNCH!
Gunther caught the leaping Cultist perfectly by the face. The heavy gauntlet wrapped around the man’s skull. Gunther squeezed his metal fingers.
The Cultist’s head exploded like a ripe melon. Blood and brain matter splattered violently across the concrete.
Gunther dropped the twitching, headless corpse onto the ground without a single glance. He flicked his wrist, shaking the gore off his metal knuckles.
"Anyway," Gunther continued casually, looking back at Vinicius.
"Y’all just rest up. Let me talk to ’em."
Gunther finally turned around. He faced the massive horde of Null-Fiends. The shadow beasts snarled, their obsidian scales absorbing the ambient mana in the air. They were designed to be completely immune to elemental magic.
Gunther let out a loud, mocking laugh.
"Look at this mess," Gunther projected his voice, addressing the monsters and the hidden Cult commanders like they were an annoying crowd of paparazzi.
"Y’all really came to my city wearing them cheap robes? Dragging these ugly mutts onto my pristine pavement? The disrespect is crazy."
The Null-Fiends roared, preparing to charge the arrogant man.
Gunther slammed his fists together. A terrifying golden aura erupted from his body.
"I’ma let y’all finish your little invasion," Gunther declared, spreading his arms wide as the ground beneath his boots began to violently tremble.
"I respect the ambition. I really do. But I am the greatest Lord Commander of all time. Of all time!"
[Domain of Valor: The Concrete Tomb]
The golden aura expanded rapidly, covering the entire plaza. The domain did not conjure illusions. It imposed Gunther’s absolute authority over the physical earth beneath their feet.
The air inside the domain became impossibly heavy. The gravitational pressure skyrocketed, forcing the Null-Fiends to their knees.
The beasts shrieked. They tried to absorb the magic, but Gunther was not feeding them elemental energy. He was manipulating the raw tectonic plates buried deep beneath the artificial city.
"Y’all thought the city was unprotected?" Gunther mocked, his golden eyes glowing like twin suns.
"I am the city. You don’t come into a man’s house and touch his art. Welcome to the tomb."
Gunther raised his heavy gauntlets high above his head. He locked his eyes onto the center of the struggling horde.
"Get blended," Gunther commanded coldly.
He slammed his metal fists directly into the ground.
[Earth Art: Tectonic Crush]
The concrete plaza literally shattered into a million jagged pieces. The tectonic plates beneath the surface violently shifted, creating localized, hyper-focused gravity quakes. The ground beneath the Null-Fiends did not just shake. It churned.
The plaza turned into a massive geological blender.
The physical rock and reinforced steel of the streets violently crushed inward. The Null-Fiends were trapped in the shifting earth. Their magic-absorbing scales were completely useless against millions of tons of raw physical pressure.
The beasts were ground into pieces. Their bones snapped. Their liquid shadow flesh ruptured.
The localized quakes overlapped, generating extreme friction that heated the grinding rocks to terrifying temperatures.
CRACK! SNAP! SQUELCH!
The sounds of the massacre echoed across the empty sky. Gunther stood perfectly still, his fists buried in the earth, conducting the geological destruction with the swagger of a maestro. He did not break a sweat. He did not show an ounce of fatigue.
The entire process lasted exactly ten seconds.
Gunther stood up. He pulled his heavy gauntlets out of the dirt.
The golden aura of his domain faded away. The dust settled over the plaza.
The thousands of Level 150 Null-Fiends were gone. The entire horde had been violently compacted into a thick layer of bloody paste mixed with shattered concrete. The plaza was a flattened, smooth graveyard of dark gore.
Gunther cracked his neck. He looked at the bloody paste coating his pristine streets.
"Now I gotta call the janitors," Gunther complained, shaking his head in feigned disappointment.
"Y’all making me do overtime on a holiday. Unbelievable."
The Vanguard Knights behind him erupted into deafening cheers. They raised their weapons, screaming his name. Gunther Stillbane looked completely invincible. He was a living god of earth. He was the undisputed king of Bastion Six.
Gunther turned back to his men, flashing them a brilliant, arrogant smile.
"I told y’all," Gunther shouted over the cheers, hitting his chest with his metal fist.
"Ain’t nobody doing it like me!"