DATE: 09/22/501 PC

  LOCATION: The Ulvgard Kill-Box – 2km from the Outer Walls

  The modified mana bikes gave out with a synchronized hiss of steam exactly two kilometers from the kill-box. The five survivors tumbled onto the scorched earth, their Void Suits scorched and cores humming with exhaustion.

  Selris, a man who had led the Iron Vultures through decades of skirmishes, finally broke. He dropped to his knees, his hands clutching the dry soil. His youngest, Julian—a General-grade talent—was gone. The realization that even a General-grade could be erased in a heartbeat by that thing was a terror Bastion Gamma hadn't faced in a generation.

  "Father, get up," Selris II commanded. His voice was a flat, icy monotone. His White core flared with a blinding, incandescent light that signaled a silent, boiling rage. He turned to the 40 Iron Vultures waiting in formation. "Iron Vultures! Shields up! Vengeance for the fallen!"

  Zel stood beside them, his eyes fixed on the horizon where the sky was turning a bruised, oily purple. He tapped his comms. "All Hunters, listen up. This is a High-Tier Black Mana Entity. Designation: Medusa. Do not engage alone. Do not let her mana touch your skin. We face death as it is—with our teeth bared."

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

  The earth shook. From the battlements of Ulvgard, Little Jim and Sara unleashed the fury of the long-range batteries.

  "Jim! Sara! Keep the shells falling!" Zel roared. "If it moves in the box, turn it to dust!"

  The first and second waves of the monster army—thousands of low-tier beasts and thralls—poured into the canyon. They were met by the concentrated neutral mana shells, which turned the kill-box into a meat grinder. Limbs and bone-shards rained from the sky as the artillery did its work.

  But then, the rain of fire stopped hitting its targets.

  The Medusa arrived. She floated hundreds of feet in the air, her tattered black robes expanding like a localized storm cloud. She didn't move to dodge the shells; she simply drifted forward. As the artillery rounds hit her aura, they didn't explode—they were consumed. The Black mana acted like a massive umbrella, shielding the remaining army beneath her from the bombardment.

  The artillery was being rendered useless.

  "She’s nullifying the neutral mana," Ashley whispered, her Blue core vibrating in alarm. "Zel, if she reaches the 100-meter dome, she’ll eat the generator's shield in minutes."

  The line was drawn. On one side: 6 Void Wolf Hunters and 41 Iron Vultures. On the other: A Goddess of Death and the remnants of her frenzied legion.

  "All 47 Hunters... focus fire on the umbrella's anchor!" Zel commanded, his Knight-Grade Red core roaring to life for what might be the last time. "If we don't bring her down to the ground, we lose the city!"

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The death match began with a scream—not from the monsters, but from the 47 humans who refused to die in the shadow of the Sun.

  THE BREACH

  DATE: 09/22/501 PC

  LOCATION: The Ulvgard Kill-Box

  The battlefield was a cacophony of screaming mana and the wet thud of impact. At the center, the 47 Hunters fought with a desperation that bordered on insanity. The formation was anchored by the Vultures' heavy shields, bolstered by Blanc’s shimmering White-core barriers and Ashley’s pulsing "Cancellation Fields." It was a masterpiece of defensive synergy—but the Medusa was merely watching.

  She wasn't just a monster; she was a general. She knew their cores were at 50% capacity. She knew every White-core barrier required a constant drain to maintain.

  "Jim! Sara! Increase the elevation!" Zel’s voice roared over the comms, his Knight-Grade core sparking with jagged red lightning as he cleaved through a swarm of thralls. "Hit the reinforcement line before they reach the umbrella's edge! Mac, where is that sniper support?"

  "Thirty seconds, Captain!" Mac’s voice crackled through static. "The railguns are recalibrating for the high-altitude drift!"

  But thirty seconds was an eternity.

  The Medusa tilted her head, and three shadows detached themselves from the darkness beneath her robes. These were her Gorgon Sentinels—serpentine humanoids towering twelve feet high, their scales dripping with a caustic Green mana that sizzled against the air.

  They didn't charge the front; they detonated into it.

  The collision was horrific. The first Sentinel slammed into the Iron Vultures' left flank. The White shield Blanc and Selris had spent their lives perfecting shattered like glass. A serpentine claw, thick as a tree trunk and wreathed in rot, pierced through a veteran Vulture's chest, lifting him into the air before his body was literally snapped in half.

  "FORMATION! HOLD THE FORMATION!" Selris II screamed, his White mana flaring as he drove his blade into a Sentinel's flank, but the creature didn't even flinch. It swung its massive tail, liquefying the organs of two more Hunters in a single, bone-crushing sweep.

  Salt and Pepper moved as a single entity. Pepper’s Green core went into "Overdrive," his muscles bulging until his Void Suit groaned. He tackled the second Sentinel, pinning its massive head to the dirt. Simultaneously, Salt vanished into the shadows, his Black mana snaking up the Sentinel’s spine.

  "I have it!" Salt hissed, his eyes turning void-black. He momentarily seized the Sentinel’s nervous system, paralyzing it.

  "Blanc, now!" Zel commanded.

  Blanc, her face pale and sweat-beaded, dashed behind the twins. She didn't heal; she transmuted. She placed her hands on the paralyzed Sentinel, her White mana acting as a conduit to drain the creature’s immense life force and spray it like a mist over the remaining, exhausted Hunters. The "Life-Mist" revitalized the 38 survivors, their wounds closing and cores ticking back up by a crucial 10%.

  On the other side, Ashley was a blur of blue motion. Every time the third Sentinel tried to unleash its Green rot-breath, she triggered a "Forceful Cancellation," snuffing the mana out in its throat. MC followed up, his Red-core explosions pushing the beast back, keeping it isolated from the slaughter on the left flank.

  But for every victory, the cost was measured in blood. Six Iron Vultures were already dead, their bodies unrecognizable heaps of twisted metal and gore.

  The Medusa began to descend. She was no longer content to watch. As her feet touched the blood-soaked earth, the Black "umbrella" collapsed into a concentrated aura of death around her.

  "She's coming down!" Zel yelled, his eyes locking onto the nightmare. "ALL SURVIVING HUNTERS—ABANDON THE INFANTRY! FOCUS FIRE ON THE MOTHER OR WE ALL DIE HERE!"

  ? The Noble Reincanarted Demon King ?

  by BookRusher98