The beasts roared as they thundered across the crimson-soaked plains, a black wave of claws and snarls crashing toward Redmarrow's walls. Raiders lined the battlements like statues of death, archers standing shoulder to shoulder. Their arrows—some of steel, others shimmering with hardened mana—nocked and ready.
Dozens of archers drew in unison, the cords of their bows creaking under the strain of reinforced enchantments. A tall man in spiked armor walked behind them, eyes locked on the advancing horde.
"Not yet…" he murmured, voice low and taut. "Not yet… not yet…"
The beasts closed the distance, howls echoing up to the walls. When they reached the kill zone, the man's eyes flashed. "NOW!"
A thunderous TWANG rolled down the walls as a storm of arrows exploded skyward, each one breaking the sound barrier. The air shimmered with the speed of their flight. Dozens of shafts crashed into the beast wave, detonating in bursts of flame, ice, and concussive force. Smoke and dust rose in great pillars, yet through the swirling haze the beasts emerged, unfazed, their eyes burning with primal rage.
A deep, collective roar came from the raiders. "CHARGE!"
Bomb—the front line of raiders vaulted over the walls, slamming into the beast horde like meteors. Their war cries ripped across the battlefield.
Valerius sprinted among them, frustration bubbling inside him as the taller raiders blocked his view. "Damn these people," he hissed.
He crouched low, muscles coiling, then leapt into the sky with a thunderous blast that shattered the ground beneath him. Kurgan and his team looked up, wide-eyed, as Valerius spun high above the battlefield. His cloak snapped like a banner in the night wind, Gavurn's sword gripped tight in his right hand.
"YAAAA!" he roared, bringing the massive blade down in a single, devastating arc. The impact slammed into the ground with explosive force, carving a forty-meter-wide crater and obliterating dozens of beasts in a single sweep.
A shocked silence hung for a heartbeat before the other raiders howled in fierce joy. "Don't let that kid show us up!"
Bomb—the augmenters launched themselves forward, bodies blurring at Mach speeds. They crashed into the beasts, their weapons slashing and crushing with brutal precision.
Valerius straightened in his crater, a wild grin on his face. "It's so much easier with a weapon." He lunged back into the fray, Gavurn's sword carving trenches through the beasts, blood and bone spraying in his wake. He delivered a rising slash, the blade cleaving up from the ground and sending a shockwave that split the ground like an earthquake.
All around him was chaos—storms of fire, jagged ice, and shards of stone tearing through the horde.
Auri stood atop a fractured boulder, chanting. She raised her hands, pulling stone from the terrain and shaping it into a massive sphere five meters wide. A long stone chain snapped into existence. "Kurgan!" she shouted.
Kurgan caught the chain mid-sprint, swinging the giant stone in a dizzying arc. Each sweep crushed beasts into pulp, carving deep gouges in the battlefield. He leapt high, spinning the stone overhead, and brought it crashing down with devastating force—sending shockwaves through the ground.
Luthar stood behind them, robes billowing as he raised both hands. Twin circles of glowing runes appeared around his wrists. He unleashed torrents of lightning that snaked through the beasts, the crackling bolts burning dozens to ash in seconds. A pulse of gravity magic followed, slamming enemies flat as other raiders tore them apart.
Zee moved like a wraith among the chaos. Her twin daggers flashed faster than sight, each slash leaving faint blue trails of mana. She slipped between massive beasts, climbing over claws and tusks, stabbing vulnerable eyes and throats with lethal precision.
Mira roared, her axe a blur as it split a beast the size of a carriage clean in two. She pivoted, driving a boot into another monster's chest and swinging her axe in a wide arc, scattering limbs and blood. Flames wrapped around her weapon, each swing igniting the air.
Above it all, a raider leapt impossibly high into the sky. Another raider below raised a hand, casting floating magic to keep him aloft. The airborne warrior's arms moved so fast they blurred into invisibility as he slashed downward. Waves of cutting energy rained from his swords, carving hundred-meter-long trenches through the beasts and the terrain itself.
The night was alive with howls, lightning, fire, and the unending roar of battle. And in the middle of it all, Valerius moved like a storm unleashed, each step and swing of his blade rewriting the shape of the battlefield.
---
As Valerius cleaved through the beasts, a strange, dark thrill stirred inside him. He reveled in it. Each swing of his sword, each explosion of gore, fed something he hadn't known was there. He smiled wide, eyes gleaming with a wild light.
Nearby, Auri stood beside Zee, eyes wide as they watched him tear through monsters like paper.
"My goodness…" Auri breathed. "He was that strong?"
Zee's face was pale but set. "He might be stronger than Kurgan."
Kurgan dropped the chain and grabbed his giant hammer, the weapon shimmering with pulsing mana. He roared, swinging it down onto the boulder. The impact detonated like a cannon, sending the massive stone hurtling at sonic speed. It carved a two-hundred-meter trench through the beast horde, crushing everything in its path.
Valerius braced himself, gripping Gavurn's sword tight. He stepped forward, muscles tensing, then slashed with every ounce of his strength. "YAAAA!"
The instant his blade completed its arc, the ground split with a deafening roar. A glowing wound slashed through the terrain, stretching over two hundred fifty meters. The rift smoked and trembled, as if the world itself recoiled from his attack. Valerius lowered his sword with a fierce smile—
—when suddenly, BOMB—
From the darkness, a blur launched at him faster than his eyes could follow. The Cheetora.
It struck him square in the chest at Mach Nine. His ribs shattered instantly, lungs crushed, blood spraying from his mouth. Valerius was flung backward like a cannonball, screaming as he tore through the air in a straight line. Raiders standing in his path exploded on impact—bodies pulped, armor splintered, bones ground to dust as his hardened body demolished them like a living missile.
He slammed into Redmarrow's massive wall, shattering stone in a thunderous blast before bursting through it. Only the shimmering barrier behind the wall finally stopped him, his body crumpling to the ground, coughing blood with ragged, desperate breaths.
The battlefield fell into an eerie hush. Every eye turned to the monster that had appeared among them.
---
The Cheetora
Standing eight feet tall, it was lean and feline—a nightmarish predator sculpted for death. Its elongated body rippled with corded muscle under dark, jagged fur. Plates of bony ridges jutted along its shoulders and spine, each edge sharp enough to cleave steel. Its eyes glowed a malevolent yellow, pupils slitted and twitching with a predator's precision. Curved claws black as obsidian flexed rhythmically, scraping deep grooves in the blood-soaked earth. A guttural growl rumbled from its chest, vibrating the air.
Its tail, barbed and armored, lashed behind it like a living whip. Every movement promised impossible speed and lethal power.
---
The Cheetora lunged into the nearest cluster of raiders. Its claws flashed in the moonlight—slicing three men in half in a single swipe. It twisted, jaws snapping down on a raider's head, crunching it like an egg before tossing the body aside. Another leapt to strike it, but the beast pivoted, tail whipping out to sever the attacker at the waist, spraying blood in a crimson arc.
Arrows bounced uselessly off its armored ridges as it zigzagged through the battlefield faster than the eye could track. Each time it moved, raiders fell, torn apart by claws or smashed flat by the creature's blinding speed. Augmenters tried to intercept it, but their swings met only empty air—and in the next instant, the Cheetora was behind them, claws punching through armor and ribcages.
Screams filled the night. The ground was slick with blood. Mangled bodies littered the torn terrain.
A raider staggered back, eyes wide with horror. "What the hell is a Cheetora doing here?" he shouted.
Another raider, voice shaking, answered, "This… this can't be happening…"
As the slaughter continued, one lone raider stepped forward, planting his feet firmly on the broken ground. He raised his weapon, eyes locked on the Cheetora's glowing gaze—ready to face the nightmare head-on.
---
From another realm, a being watched the unfolding chaos through Valerius's eyes. unseen yet intensely focused.
On the battlefield below, one raider stepped forward. He gripped his longsword, aura blazing with quiet fury. Above his head shimmered five stars, each pulsing with golden light—a testament to his immense power.
Valerius, still leaning shattered against the inner barrier, watched in stunned awe. "He's… five-star," he whispered.
The raider and the Cheetora exploded into motion. He vanished from sight, lunging faster than the eye could follow—his Mach 11 speed turning him into a blur of afterimages. The Cheetora twisted to meet him, claws slashing with monstrous speed. Their clash sent out shockwaves that flattened nearby beasts, each movement carving trenches hundreds of meters long into the blood-soaked terrain.
To all but those of five stars and above, the battle looked like streaks of gold and black flashing across the field, punctuated by sonic booms and earth-shattering impacts.
The raider's sword arced through the air, glowing with condensed mana, each swing carving kilometer-long gashes into the battlefield. Sparks and blood fountained wherever they connected. The Cheetora blurred away, claws leaving lines of molten stone in the ground as it danced at near-impossible speed.
Then—BOMB—three more Cheetoras emerged from the darkness, their eyes gleaming like sickly yellow moons. Four more five-star raiders, middle-ranked D-Ranks, stepped forward, faces grim.
They leaped into the fray, joining the first raider in a maelstrom of light and fury. The five warriors and four beasts clashed with apocalyptic violence—blades and claws meeting with flashes brighter than lightning, their combat sculpting the ground into a labyrinth of steaming craters and glowing scars.
Each blow sent shockwaves that cracked nearby walls. Entire sections of the battlefield crumbled under the ferocity of their strikes. The Cheetoras weaved and countered with impossible agility, their claws deflecting blades as they sliced back with savage precision.
One five-star raider swung a massive greatsword, catching a Cheetora mid-dash—sending it skidding across the battlefield, a trench of burning earth in its wake. Another cast a pulse of wind magic to slow the beasts for a heartbeat; his comrade capitalized with a thrust that impaled a Cheetora, black blood spraying into the night.
Finally, with coordinated fury, the five raiders forced the last three Cheetoras into a corner of the battlefield and cut them down in a storm of light and steel. The ground shook, silence falling for just a moment.
Then, a hush spread across the battlefield as a new presence stepped into the moonlight.
---
Out of the darkness padded a white figure—a Cheetora, but unlike the others. Its sleek, elongated frame glistened like polished ivory, muscles rippling beneath ghostly pale fur. Its ridged armour was sharper, more jagged, and its eyes glowed an eerie, glacial blue that pierced even the darkest night. Each step was silent, deadly, graceful.
The white Cheetora's gaze swept the battlefield with a predator's calm. In an instant, it vanished—reappearing in the midst of the five raiders.
A blur of white light.
A gust of wind.
A crimson mist.
All five five-star raiders fell simultaneously, bodies split and mangled before they even realized what happened. Their blood splashed across the broken terrain.
Every raider still standing froze in terror. This was no ordinary beast—this was their leader.
---
The being from another realm leaned forward, eyes gleaming.
At Valerius's side, the air shimmered. A figure appeared, crouched low—body of shimmering gold, semi-transparent like a ghost bathed in sunlight. His golden irises glowed within white corneas, his youthful face split in a too-big grin.
Lorde crouched beside Valerius, his golden, semi-transparent body gleaming faintly in the chaos-lit night. He glanced over Valerius's battered form, blood still dripping from his lips, and let out a sharp laugh.
"You look like utter shit," he said, voice warm with dark amusement.
He turned his gaze to the battlefield, eyes narrowing as he took in the white Cheetora standing among the corpses of the fallen five-star raiders. Its pale form glowed in the moonlight, its glacial blue eyes fixed unblinking on the two of them.
"At your current stamina," Lorde continued calmly, golden irises flaring, "I can only stay manifested for about… twenty seconds before I'm pulled back."
He reached out, resting a shimmering hand on Valerius's head. The warmth of his touch spread like liquid sunlight, filling Valerius with sudden, crackling energy.
"Don't worry, man," Lorde said with a grin too wide for any human. "Your best pal's gonna lend a hand."
He straightened, the grin still stretching his face, then turned his head to look back across the shattered battlefield. His eyes locked on the white Cheetora—and a sharp, fearless smirk curled his lips.
Lorde was here.
To Be Continued...