Chapter 19: Last Stand: Power Of An SSS-Rank
[Half An Hour Ago; 8:30pm.]
[100 Miles from Asher’s Location.]
[Silverspire Forest.]
An armored vehicle came to a stop before a group of ten armored awakeners. The heavy tires crushed the underbrush, announcing the arrival of absolute authority. The door opened, and a woman with long flowing blue hair, and eyes jumped down.
She was dressed in a white armor, and on her waist was a sheathed red long sword. She was fully clad with Divine-Tier equipments, radiating a majestic light that illuminated the dark forest canopy.
"Guild Leader!! It’s good you’re here!!" A female awakener with a staff rushed forward, her voice laced with both profound relief and deep-seated terror.
"Report." The lady said coldly, walking past the lady, and the other guild members. She didn’t spare them a single glance, her focus entirely locked on the pulsing anomaly ahead.
"Guild Leader! This dungeon appeared deep inside the forest, if it hasn’t been for some civilians, we won’t have known it’s here." The lady quickly explained, following behind her in a hurried panic.
"What are our dungeons’ control team doing then?" The guild leader asked, walking towards the glowing red dungeon ahead of her, her gaze cold. For an organization built on precision and safety, this oversight was an unforgivable sin.
"Umm..." The lady couldn’t answer. Even the nine behind her held their breath, none daring to speak. The air instantly grew heavy.
"Tomorrow, fire them all... I don’t want incompetent people in my Guild." She said, as the Aura of an SSS-RANK warrior type burst out from her, spreading all over the forest. The pressure was physical, snapping tree branches and driving everything into a frenzy.
"Yes, Yes. I understand, Guild Leader." The lady quickly said, trembling under the pressure of her superior’s wrath.
’Guild Leader please hold back your anger, I am just an A-Rank, I can’t bear it.’ She thought inwardly, but dare not say it aloud. To show weakness now was to invite her own dismissal.
The Lady before them was Guild Leader Marianne, the Master and Owner of Holy Sword Guild, the Top 3 Guild in whole of Vaeloria. A ruthless awakener who hates monsters to her very core, viewing them as a plague that needed absolute eradication.
"What’s the rank of this dungeon." Marianne asked, not slowing down one bit. Her strides were measured and purposeful, closing the distance to the anomaly.
"With the energy signature from it, it’s recorded as S-Rank." The Lady stammered, her words freezing Marianne in her tracks.
Like in sync, the nine Awakeners behind the two ladies, stopped, and took a step back, bracing for the inevitable explosion of fury.
"S-Rank Dungeon." She turned around, staring at the Mage, who was already trembling under the icy glare of those piercing blue eyes.
"An S-Rank Dungeon appeared in my zone, and the guild is only discovering it now... Let me ask. How long has it been active?"
"Um... Eh... Um... Three days. Today made it three days."
"....?!!"
Hearing the lady, Marianne’s eyes widened in horror. The sheer scale of the negligence was catastrophic. She quickly turned to the gateway, and shot forward, destroying the ground behind her. The sonic wave threw the whole ten awakeners to the ground, scattering them like dry leaves.
’This bastards!!! Three whole days!! In any moment now, the dungeon barrier will crack, and every single monster inside will flood out!! Do you take S-Rank Dungeons as a joke???’ She thought, stopping right before the dungeon. The barrier was already thinning, pulsing like a failing heartbeat.
"I need to clear it, Fast!!"
Before she could enter the dungeon, cracks appeared before it; jagged lines of dark energy splitting the fabric of reality.
’No... This is very bad.’
Marianne took a step back, watching as the whole red dungeon shattered, and the next moment, a Vortex appeared. It was a swirling abyss of chaotic energy.
"Shit!!!"
BAM!!
A claw burst out from the Vortex, followed by another. She watched as an S-Rank Humanoid creature walked out, its red eyes fixed on them with unadulterated malice.
"Guild Leader!! Our members will arrive in ten minutes!" The mage yelled, stopping behind Marianne. The other nine Awakeners paused, drawing their weapons, preparing for the fight of their lives.
"An S-Rank dark elf!!" She exclaimed in shock, recognizing the monster breed.
"They are more."
Marianne grabbed her sword’s hilt, and pulled the Divine-Tier blade out. The crimson steel sang as it met the night air.
BOOOOM!!
More dark elves jumped out from the dark vortex, and in less than a minute, more than twenty stood before them, their red eyes fixed on the eleven awakeners, salivating at the scent of human flesh.
GRAAAAAA!!!
The biggest dark elf roared. Instantly, all the monsters lunged forward, claws straight out in a coordinated, deadly charge.
"We will help--"
"--No... Just make sure none escape!" Marianne cut her off, walking towards the charging monsters with the casual stroll of a woman taking a walk in the park.
"These bugs seem to have forgotten the strength of an SSS-RANK Awakener."
BOOOOM!!
She shot forward, instantly bypassing all the twenty monsters, then stopped right behind them, her sword dripping with black blood. She hadn’t even appeared to swing.
[Skill: Warrior Flash - Celestial-Tier. MAXED.]
"...?!"
The dark elves froze, their momentum entirely broken, and dropped to the ground, dead, their heads rolling to the side in perfect, simultaneous decapitations.
"That’s the Guild Leader!!" A guy yelled with a smile, the tension instantly evaporating from his body.
’I have seen her use this countless times, but every time, I am still amazed.’ The Mage thought, staring at Marianne’s back with absolute reverence.
"You should have stayed in that dungeon, and waited for me... But you chose to come out." She said, now walking towards the remaining dark elves, whose numbers have multiplied by two, but the strongest was only an S-RANK monster. To her, they were nothing but overgrown weeds.
GRAAAAA!!
The monsters roared at her in rage, and shot forward, moving with deadly speed, all aiming at a single woman.
"Hmph..." Marianne gripped her sword, her eyes filled with cold, absolute killing intent.
"Warrior blade, infinite Strike."
BOOM!
Marianne vanished again, and before everyone’s stunned gazes, phantom blades appeared all over the place, forming a deadly, inescapable net of crimson light, and shot towards the dark elves.
BAM!!!
"....?!"
The ten awakeners watched in awe and shock, as all the elves dropped to the ground, one at a time, and in less than ten seconds, the whole battlefield was cleared. It was less of a battle and more of an extermination.
THUD!!
The sound of bodies hitting the ground rang out, as Marianne reappeared amidst the carnage. She swung her sword, splashing the black blood on the ground to clean the pristine blade, her gaze fixed on the last Dark elf.
"Seems you’re the last."
The monster stared at her, terrified, then looked over its shoulder, as the vortex closed shut. It was completely cornered, its brethren slaughtered in mere moments.
GRAAAAA!!!
It screamed in desperate rage, then brought out a black pill, and instantly swallowed it whole. Seeing this, the eleven were stunned by the creature’s rare display of sapient desperation.
GRAAA!!!
The monster roared in agony as its energy shot into the roof. The dark aura thickened, expanding wildly, instantly advancing its strength to SS-RANK.
GRAAA!!
Without hesitation, emboldened by its newfound power, it lunged towards Marianne, smashing down on her with its massive, reinforced claws, aiming to crush her into the earth.
"Fool!"
BOOOOM!!!
The dark elf’s claws smashed right into Marianne’s sword, which she was holding casually with a single hand. Like dust hitting a mountain, all its attack force vanished, stunning it in place. The SS-Rank’s might meant absolutely nothing to her. Marianne used the advantage, and turned her sword horizontally, then slashed sideways, violently resending all its attack force back at it multiplied by her own sheer strength.
BOOOOM!!!
The monster flew hundreds of meters backward, tearing through the forest canopy and smashing heavily on the trees until it was nothing but a broken heap of flesh.
"Weak."