Walls rising.
Fire roaring.
Water crashing.
Hundreds of abilities detonating across the mountain face simultaneously, the sound of it all merging into one continuous violent roar that shook the earth and the air and everything between them.
Soldiers screaming commands.
Metal grinding.
Explosions shaking the mountain to its roots.
---
Through all of it, he ran.
The powerful soldier with the village at his back.
Charging forward.
Toward the towering creature ahead—glossy black armor catching the firelight, massive scythe-like mandibles spread wide, antennae cutting the smoke-filled air with alien precision, advancing with unstoppable nightmarish force that didn't slow, didn't hesitate, didn't acknowledge the destruction around it.
The system's voice cut through everything.
"Thunder Blade."
His large blade ignited.
Sheets of lightning swam across the metal, consuming it, turning it white-hot and luminous, a blade of pure electric light that hummed with contained violence.
He swung.
Powerful.
Clean.
The slash opened the creature from shoulder to hip.
Black ichor sprayed.
He didn't stop.
Powerful step forward.
No lost momentum.
Moving directly into the second creature as it charged him, its death scythe swinging in a wide arc toward his body.
The blade met the appendage.
A clash that sent a shockwave outward—explosion of light and force, body parts from surrounding ants scattering in every direction, pushing both combatants back a step.
The creature attacked again.
Low first.
Aiming for the feet.
Then high.
Going for the head.
He was faster.
Dodged the first.
Ducked the second.
Drove the blade back through the ant's body in a single committed thrust.
Sliced through the head.
Split it in two.
Black blood painted the air.
For just a second.
---
Then another hit his helmet.
The impact spun him.
Revealed his face as the helmet cracked away.
Kim Tae-soo.
The ants swarmed him from every direction simultaneously.
From the air.
From the earth.
Overwhelming.
The system responded.
"Black Bullet."
"Fragrance Shot."
"Mana Alignment Successful."
"Fusion Skill—"
"Fragrance Darkness Blast."
A pulse of black and white energy detonated outward from his body
Clean.
Devastating.
Some ants destroyed instantly.
Others pushed back violently.
But he was already moving.
Using the remaining ants closest to him as shields against the blast's edges.
Calculating even in chaos.
---
He stood.
Vision blurring.
Vicious.
Bloodied.
He looked at his sword.
Breathing hard.
Then looked up at the black smoke ahead.
Endless.
Still coming.
He looked back at his soldiers behind him.
Then down.
At the ground beneath his feet.
Body parts of monsters.
Body parts of men.
Mixed in the mud without distinction.
He raised his sword.
Screamed.
The sound tore out of him raw and absolute.
From the bottom of everything.
His soldiers answered.
Screaming back.
The sound rising together.
Blue light became visible along his armor.
Along his skin.
The mana within the armor responding.
The mana within the blade replenishing.
Flowing back into him like something returning home.
He felt it fill the hollow spaces the battle had carved out.
Strength.
Not comfort.
Just strength.
Raw.
Brutal.
Necessary.
The black smoke rolled on.
The ants came with it.
And Kim Tae-soo stood at the front of everything.
Sword raised.
Eyes open.
Not afraid.
Just ready.