The calmness radiating from the young man was inversely proportional to the horror surrounding him. He stood tall, letting the wind flutter his elegant black robe patterned with red clouds.
In front of him, the Gargoyle that had just been roughly thrown away had stood back up.
"GRAAAOOORRR!"
A booming roar exploded from the giant stone monster, vibrating the air around it. Anger radiated from its purple eyes as its jaw opened wide, displaying rows of sharp obsidian fangs.
However, the young man merely smirked full of confidence, as if that roar were merely the howl of a stray dog by the roadside.
He glanced slightly over his shoulder, looking at Aeliana who was still sitting frozen stiff on the ground.
"Do not blink," the young man said in a calm tone, which somehow managed to pierce through the noise of the battlefield. "At the very least... watch the shadow of the sword that severs your despair today."
Without taking a complex stance, the young man swung the Jian sword in his right hand with a highly casual motion.
[Tier B - Sword Intent]
A thin slash line glided, cleaving the air with an invisible speed. The attack passed through the stone giant's body without creating an explosion or the noisy clink of steel. It was so silent, as if the young man had merely cleaved empty wind.
The Gargoyle suddenly froze stiff.
In just a matter of seconds, the purple light glowing in the monster's eyes flickered before extinguishing completely. A moment of silence.
Then, a rough cracking sound was heard cleaving the silence. The giant stone body, which was as hard as steel, slid sideways, cleanly split into two halves diagonally from its left shoulder to its right waist, then fell to the dirt with a heavy thud.
Thump!
Seeing the disaster-level monster that had slaughtered elite adventurers die with just one casual swing, the young man was not surprised in the slightest. To him, it was a natural outcome that was bound to happen.
He turned his body, looking at Aeliana with a faint smile.
"Take a breath," the young man said in a soothing tone. "The nightmare is over."
Hearing that incredibly calm tone of voice, Aeliana's shoulders slumped limply. Her sobs, which had been paused due to confusion, poured out again, sounding more sorrowful than before. Her brain had just processed the reality that she had truly survived, while the others had not.
Remembering her comrades—Lorien, Barton, Klei, and Nita—who had now turned into formless corpses on the battlefield, as well as Master Zareth who was impaled by a stone sword to protect her, the Elf girl crumbled entirely.
Aeliana's shoulders trembled violently. She lowered her head deeply. Her trembling fingers tightly gripped the dirt wet with blood and tears.
Agonizing cries and desperate sobs spilled from her lips, echoing heartbreakingly amidst the battlefield. The young man merely stood in silence, staring at the wailing Elf with deep pity.
Seeing the giant Gargoyle cleaved in two upon the ground, the invisible bond controlling the hundreds of remaining monsters on the battlefield severed instantly.
The purple glow that had dominated the monsters' eyes flickered briefly, then faded entirely. Their eyes gradually returned to their natural colors—dull, feral, and clouded with confusion.
Without the influence of controlling magic or commands from the Gargoyle, the battle lust and savage bloodthirst that had previously driven the monster army evaporated without a trace. Pure survival instinct now forcefully took over.
Those Goblins, remaining Orcs, and Hobgoblin cavalry roared in terror simultaneously. They turned around, threw away their weapons, and ran helter-skelter scrambling back into the tree line of the Forest's darkness.
The black-robed young man narrowed his eyes, staring at the fleeing wave of monsters. His mind arranged the next cleanup steps so no remaining threats would escape.
However, before giving chase, he shifted his attention back to Aeliana.
The young man walked closer with slow steps. He knelt on one knee to align his eye level with the seated, crying Elf girl. He intentionally left a polite distance between them so as not to make the crying girl feel threatened.
"Cry," the young man said softly, offering validation for Aeliana's emotional wounds. "It is the right of those who managed to survive."
He then smiled warmly as Aeliana looked up at him through a vision completely blurred by tears.
"You need not worry," he added in a reassuring tone. "I will handle the rest."
The young man stood up. He reversed his sword grip, then sheathed the Jian blade back into the scabbard at his waist with one smooth motion ending with a soft metallic click.
As he turned his body preparing to leave, Aeliana forced her voice out between chest-tightening sobs.
"Wait..." Aeliana called out softly, staring at her savior's back. "Who are you, Sir?"
The young man halted his steps. He glanced over his shoulder, smirking full of confidence.
"Right now? I am merely a wanderer who happens to dislike the sound of a beautiful woman crying," he answered in a light tone.
The young man paused his sentence for a moment, turning his head to look straight toward the Wealden City walls stretching vast before him. His gaze pierced the city's borders, radiating a calm ambition.
"But someday..." he continued with a deeper, echoing voice, "...you will hear my name among the cheers of the people in this place."
Without waiting for a further reply from the Elf girl, the young man focused his gaze toward the battlefield path littered with corpses and the enemy's escape route into the forest in the distance. His lips moved, voicing a single skill.
[Tier S - Godspeed]
In the blink of an eye, his body vanished from sight like an illusion.
The young man left no trace whatsoever other than a strong gust of wind that swept the dust around Aeliana. He shot forward chasing the hundreds of fleeing monsters with an irrational speed completely incapable of being caught by ordinary human eyes.
Seeing the monster wave lose direction and run helter-skelter like loser dogs, the morale of the remaining Wealden adventurers instantly skyrocketed. Their terror was replaced by a burst of adrenaline.
"Chase them! Kill them all!" shouted one of the Silver-Tier adventurer captains, raising his sword high.
With roars full of anger and vengeance for their fallen comrades, the adventurers ran savagely chasing the remnants of the monster army. The tables had turned completely; the hunted now became the hunters.
An adventurer darted forward, swinging his sword roughly. His steel blade slashed the back of a panicked, running Goblin, tearing its spine until the dwarfed monster died sprawling on the dirt.
In another direction, merciless executions continued.
An adventurer threw his spear. The spearhead pierced the hind leg of a Dire Wolf running while carrying its rider. The giant wolf howled in pain, lost its balance, and fell rolling onto the ground alongside the Hobgoblin riding it.
Before the two monsters could rise to fight back, dozens of fury-filled adventurers swarmed them. Swords, axes, and spears were swung relentlessly, hacking the rider and its mount to death into minced meat.
On the flank, a Silver-Tier [Mage] adventurer struck his staff onto the ground and cast [Tier 1 - Stone Bump].
A stone protrusion suddenly jutted out from the ground right in the monster's running path. That protrusion made a heavily muscled Orc trip hard and fall face-first. The group of adventurers trailing behind it immediately jumped, pinning the monster's body down and ending the Orc's life without a shred of mercy.
However, amidst the hustle of the chase filled with the euphoria of vengeance, basic human nature bared its fangs once more.
A young adventurer ran past the edge of the large crater still billowing smoke—the remnant of the Gargoyle's fireball impact. He glanced briefly toward the piles of ash and the charred remains of the Gold-Tier veterans, then immediately looked away to continue running to search for remaining monsters.
His steps suddenly slowed as he passed a lump of flesh and bone fragments that had been crushed into a puddle of meat paste from the giant stomp of the Gargoyle. It was the remains of Lorien and Nita's bodies.
The metallic stench of fresh blood immediately assaulted his nose, forcing him to cover his mouth holding back the churn of nausea in his stomach.
However, his eyes caught something that drew his attention. Amidst the puddle of blood and the remnants of torn cloaks, something emitted a dim glow. A Magic Bag made of fine leather still lay intact, uncrushed by the stomp.
Greed instantly swallowed his nausea. Ensuring no other adventurer was paying attention to him, the adventurer crouched quickly.
His hand scooped up that highly valuable magic bag from within the lump of flesh. He immediately hid the item beneath his cloak, then resumed running as if nothing had happened.
While humans were busy with vengeance and greed, an invisible storm was raging ahead of them.
The sound of strong wind blew from the rear of the battlefield, sweeping dust and chasing the remaining monsters running approaching the Forest's border line.
However, this was no ordinary wind. This was the wind of death.
Instant slaughter occurred in a terrifying silence.
The horde of Goblins running at the very back lines were suddenly sliced into several pieces. Every time that gust of wind swept past them, the monsters' bodies in its path were torn apart.
Because its speed surpassed reason and the limits of vision, the blade cutting them was completely invisible.
Ahead of those Goblins, the Hobgoblin cavalry spurring their wolves were suddenly shattered into piles of minced meat mid-air, falling scattered, staining the grass.
Followed by the lines of Orcs ahead of them; those rough-faced heads were detached from their necks simultaneously like grass being scythed.
Finally, a surviving Ogre with burn scars on its back limped approaching the forest. Suddenly, without any sound of a slash, its massive body was split in two vertically with an incredibly clean cut.
Seeing the comrades behind them turn into a rain of blood for no apparent reason, the remaining monsters running at the very front lines abruptly halted their steps roughly.
Their survival instincts screamed the terror of death.
Ahead of them, hovering calmly a few meters above the ground near the Forest's border line, the figure of the young man in the red cloud-patterned black robe awaited. The Jian sword with its slender blade was drawn casually in his right hand.
The young man stared at the dozens of remaining monsters now standing trembling in fear beneath him with an incredibly bored gaze.
He looked down, staring at his own sword blade.
"Killing you with this sword..." the young man murmured softly, his tone sounding like regret. He wiped the flat side of his blade with two fingers. "...is truly an injustice to it. Forgive me, partner."
As if responding to its master's apology, the sword in the young man's hand suddenly emitted a white light so bright, it blinded the eyes of all creatures who dared to witness it.
Without needing to take a stance, the young man swung his sword forward with one short intake of breath that cleaved the silence.
[Tier S - Heavenly Sword]
A highly massive slash of light, extending up to hundreds of meters, was created cleaving the air.
That glowing slash shot forward, sweeping clean the entire line of remaining monsters. In a matter of seconds, the bodies of the Goblins, Orcs, and the rest of the monsters evaporated into dust, erased from existence as if they had never been in this world.
Without losing its destructive power in the slightest, the slash of light continued moving at high speed until it slammed into the ground's surface.
That impact cleaved the earth, triggering a localized earthquake that vibrated the entire city, and created a giant canyon hundreds of meters long gaping wide open, severing the path to the Forest.