The fog parted like curtains being drawn aside, revealing sothing that shouldn’t exist.
A creature.
No! calling it a creature was insufficient, like calling an ocean a puddle.
This was a mountain given flesh.
It was massive... not just large or big, but massive in ways that made mountains seem small.
Its body stretched upward into the grey sky, disappearing into clouds, its width spanning hundreds of ters in every direction.
The surface looked organic. It was pulsing, breathing and covered in leathery hide that resembled the armor plating on the smaller creatures but scaled to nightmare proportions.
And throughout its body, visible through semi-translucent mbrane, thousands of egg-like sacs pulsed with sickly light.
The ones at the outermost area were already broken, empty shells that suggested recent hatching.
Fresh births... New monsters ready to be deployed.
At the base, an opening gaped like the entrance to so massive cave, except caves didn’t have walls that contracted rhythmically, didn’t pulse with life, didn’t exhale breath that slled of rot and chemicals.
This was the entrance to sothing’s body.
The students stood frozen in formation, weapons held loosely, minds struggling to process the scale of what they were seeing.
’What the fuck is this?!’
The thought echoed through one hundred seventy minds simultaneously, each person arriving at the sa conclusion through different paths of logic and horror.
Gulp
The sound of nervous swallowing spread through the formation like a wave.
Ronan’s voice broke the silence, his usual confidence replaced by sothing approaching religious awe.
"So... this is our enemy?!"
His massive fra looked small against the creature’s size, his earth-enhanced fists suddenly seeming inadequate against sothing that could crush him by accident.
David Evergreen’s green eyes tracked across the creature’s surface.
"Seems that way, big guy."
His voice carried forced lightness that fooled nobody.
Sophia’s pink hair was plastered to her face from rain, her hands trembling, her voice erging small and frightened.
"D-don’t tell we have to enter... that thing?"
Nobody answered because the answer was obvious.
The creature didn’t move. It was too massive for normal concepts of movent to apply, but its presence dominated everything, making the air feel heavier, making breathing harder.
And everyone realized simultaneously what they were looking at.
The creatures they’d fought before, the mindless monsters with white eyes and knife-claws, hadn’t been coming from so distant spawning ground.
They were being made by this thing.
Born from those eggs, directed through whatever hivemind controlled their movents, sent out to test and hunt and kill.
This wasn’t just an enemy.
This was a factory.
And it was alive.
THUD-THUMP
THUD-THUMP
A production facility made of flesh that could generate armies.
****
’What is this?! I don’t have anything like this in my mories of the novel.’
Damian’s mind raced through fragnts of the story the old beggar had read, searching for references to creatures like this, finding nothing that matched.
’That fucking beggar! I swear, when I find that motherfucker, I will shove my axe so far up his ass he’ll taste tal!
Son of a bitch manipulated my entire life, set everything in motion, and couldn’t even give knowledge I could actually use.’
Frustration burned through him, mixing with the ever-present rage that colored everything since reincarnating.
But... dwelling on manipulation wouldn’t help.
Wouldn’t change that he was here and trapped.
Damian stepped forward, his movent drawing every eye, his presence sohow more commanding than the mountain of flesh they faced.
He raised his right hand, fingers spreading, and his axe materialized – pulled from the spatial ring he kept it in, the dark tal gleaming dully in the grey light.
The weapon looked small in his grip, inadequate against what they faced.
But his expression showed no doubt, just cold determination as he began walking toward the cave-mouth entrance.
The other students followed his lead, weapons coming up, formations tightening, everyone preparing to enter the nightmare despite every instinct screaming to run.
Then–
THUD-THUMP
The heartbeat changed rhythm.
It was not faster or slower, but different sohow, carrying awareness that made skin crawl and instincts scream danger.
The creature’s surface began vibrating, subtle at first but increasing in intensity, the entire mountain-sized body trembling like it was waking from deep sleep.
Then it stopped with absolute stillness, silence heavier than before, pregnant with terrible anticipation.
Crack!
The sound echoed from inside the cave entrance, sharp and clear despite the distance.
Then more.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Dozens of eggs breaking simultaneously, shells splitting, whatever was inside beginning to erge.
"Fuck!"
Edrin’s voice cut through rising panic, his tactical mind already processing implications.
"REMAIN IN FORMATION! CONSERVE AURA AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! USE PHYSICAL STRENGTH PRIMARILY!"
His orders carried across the formation, students responding automatically to the voice that had kept them alive this long.
"AURA SHOULD BE USED BY LONG-RANGE ATTACKERS ONLY!"
The formation shifted, shield bearers moving to the front, heavy weapon holders taking supporting positions, ranged attackers forming lines behind the lee fighters.
A Noble boy at the front line looked at his shield, then at the darkness where sounds of hatching continued, his voice erging quietly to the person beside him.
"...We’re really doing this? Going in there?"
The response ca from a commoner girl gripping a war hamr, her knuckles white but her voice steady.
"Don’t have much choice, do we? Either we fight or we starve in this fucking dinsion."
Behind them, a heavy weapon user with a massive fra, patted both their shoulders with aty hands.
"Don’t worry. You hold the line, we’ll smash anything that gets through. We’ve got you!"
The Noble nodded jerkily, so tension bleeding from his shoulders, the simple reassurance cutting through panic.
Similar conversations happened across the formation, people who would have been enemies weeks ago now offering comfort and support because survival required unity over pride.
"..."
Eerie silence spread across the formation as the hatching sounds continued, as darkness inside that cave entrance shifted with new life erging.
Then they heard it.
Footsteps.
Not one or two, but hundreds, the sound of bodies rushing forward with mindless purpose, the familiar pattern of creatures charging without thought or self-preservation.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Growing louder and getting closer.
Gulp!
Then they saw them.
The sa creatures as before – humanoid, dark flesh, white eyes, knife-claws.
But bigger, with thicker armor plating, bulkier fras and moving faster despite increased mass.
C rank!
"FUCK! THEY’RE C RANK NOW!"
Soone’s voice cracked with terror, the realization spreading through the formation like poison.
They’d barely survived D rank waves with seventy casualties.
C.rank ant every creature was twice as strong, twice as durable, twice as dangerous.
"DON’T FEAR THEM!"
Edrin’s roar cut through rising panic.
"HOLD THE LINE! JUST HOLD YOUR FUCKING LINE!"
Ti seed to slow.
The creatures charged, hundreds of them, pouring from the entrance in a tide of dark flesh and white eyes, their footsteps shaking the ground, their silent approach sohow more terrifying than if they’d been screaming.
Shield bearers at the front watched them co, their weapons raised, their bodies braced.
The distance closed.
Fifty ters.
Forty.
Thirty.
Twenty.
Shield bearers held their breath, so closing their eyes, preparing for impacts that would shatter bones and collapse formations.
Ten ters–
WHOOOOSH!
Sothing went past them.
Over their heads, moving so fast it was barely visible, displacent creating wind that made everyone flinch.
Shield bearers looked up, confusion breaking through fear.
And saw Damian falling from above like a fucking teor, his body having launched skyward while they’d been focused on the charge, his axe held in both hands, his entire body wrapped in crimson flas!
BOOOOOOM!
He landed directly in front of the charging horde, impact creating a crater fifteen ters wide, mud and stone exploding outward with devastating force.
Tens of creatures in the front, those leading the charge, those moving fastest, simply ceased to exist.
Not killed cleanly or struck down.
Just... obliterated.
Reduced to red mist by impact force alone, Damian’s landing generating shockwave that deleted anything within imdiate radius.
The hundreds behind stumbled, their mindless charge disrupted by sudden obstacle, bodies colliding with each other as montum carried them forward into space their front ranks no longer occupied.
The entire formation collapsed into chaos, coordination broken, the wave losing cohesion.
"..."
Damian stood in the center of carnage, his crimson hair soaked with blood that wasn’t his, his crimson eyes blazing with sothing approaching joy.
The smile on his face was wrong.
The sa expression he’d worn when fighting Giants in his previous portal, pure battle-madness, the look of soone who’d descended into violence so completely that killing beca ecstasy rather than necessity.
Except his eyes remained clear and his movents controlled.
His mind completely stable despite the madness showing on his face.
He turned, looking back at the stunned formation behind him, blood running down his face, his axe dripping with gore.
"What are you waiting for?"
His voice carried amusent mixed with challenge.
"An invitation? These bastards are just C rank! You’ve all fought C rank before!"
He gestured broadly at the disrupted horde with his axe.
"So stop standing there with your mouths open and START KILLING!"
Then he turned back to the horde and charged.
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