---o---
Seeing the Silvermane Guard suddenly freeze up, Caelus immediately swung his baseball bat to finish off the heavily wounded Fragmentum creature, then turned his head to look at the guard.
"Do you want to continue?"
The Silvermane Guard shook his head repeatedly, forcing a couple of awkward laughs as he retreated to his original position. When he spoke, his tone had unconsciously become respectful.
"Please, you continue."
Only then did Caelus turn back, continuing to swing his bat and relentlessly smashing the arms that the Fragmentum creatures extended through the grate, one after another.
With every Fragmentum creature that died, his Battle MOD proficiency steadily rose.
[Battle MOD Proficiency +1]
[Battle MOD Proficiency +1]
[Battle MOD Proficiency +1]
...
After just a few minutes, the Battle MOD proficiency bar filled completely.
[Battle MOD proficiency has reached 100. Obtained Battle-type MOD: Simple Swords MOD]
[Battle MOD proficiency cap increased to: 200]
---o---
While grinding mobs, Caelus took a moment to look at the new MOD he had acquired. Seeing that it was the Simple Swords MOD, a familiar guest in all sorts of modpacks, he felt a little disappointed.
The Simple Swords MOD had no particularly special effects; it simply added recipes for a variety of different weapons for Steve, such as iron broadswords, iron rapiers, and iron longswords.
The only unique feature was that, in addition to the common iron, gold, diamond, and netherite alloy weapons, it also added a tier of Runic equipment. The stats on this Runic equipment were slightly higher, and they could grant different weapon effects, though none of them were game-breakingly powerful.
Caelus felt that getting a mod like this was a bit of a waste. The stats on the baseball bat in his hands were already equivalent to a netherite alloy weapon, and according to the JEI item management mod, his bat had infinite durability.
Before he got around to enchanting it with Mending, even the strongest Runic weapon from the Simple Swords MOD couldn't compare to his baseball bat.
Just as Caelus was focusing on grinding, he heard the slightly panicked voices of the Silvermane Guards from behind him.
"What's going on?"
Caelus asked Dan Heng, who was helping him fight off the creatures at his side. Dan Heng frowned, retreated to a safe distance, and looked behind them. He saw that many of the Silvermane Guards who were supposed to be defending the lower passage had dropped their long spears, picked up firearms instead, and rushed up to the top of the wall. The sound of gunfire from above grew even more intense.
"Something seems wrong."
Caelus and Dan Heng immediately pulled back from the gate, leaving the area to the remaining Silvermane Guards as they both headed up to the battlements.
March 7th was already on the wall, loosing arrows from her bow to help lighten the Silvermane Guards' burden.
Their original targets had been the ground-based Fragmentum creatures, but just a moment ago, thousands of flying, Vilewing creatures that looked like oversized mosquitoes had come swarming in.
There was no iron gate in the sky to halt their advance. In an instant, the pressure on the wall defenders skyrocketed. Even Captain Gepard, who was supposed to be directing the battle, was forced to pick up a rifle and join the defense.
March 7th was firing arrows non-stop, occasionally taking a moment to cast a blessing on the Silvermane Guards to prevent them from getting injured. She was so busy she could barely cope. When a sliver of her peripheral vision caught Caelus and Dan Heng arriving, she immediately cried out.
"Dan Heng! Caelus! Help us! My hands are about to cramp up!"
"Got it."
Dan Heng immediately responded, got a rifle from Gepard, and began firing relentlessly at the flying Fragmentum creatures. But with just one extra gun, his contribution was but a drop in the ocean against the swarming sky.
Seeing that the defensive line was about to break, March 7th anxiously looked over at Caelus, who was standing frozen to one side.
"Caelus! Hurry up and help! What are you just standing there for?"
Caelus had been pondering something. Although he had inherited all of Steve's traits, he was now in the real world, not a Minecraft game. He could perform actions that Steve couldn't. So, what would happen if he performed an action that Steve was incapable of?
For example, instead of pressing 'Q' to simply drop an item, what if he were to throw it?
---o---
Caelus gripped a cobblestone block, his right hand tensing with immense force as he hurled it violently into the air.
The moment the block left his hand, it instantly expanded to its original one-cubic-meter size. The people around him heard a sudden, deafening BOOM! as a perfectly square rock shot through the air at an incredible speed.
The force of the wind it generated nearly knocked the unprepared Silvermane Guards closest to Caelus off their feet. Even March 7th and Dan Heng barely managed to keep their balance.
The cobblestone block flew like a meteor, its front end glowing slightly red from the friction of its high-speed passage through the air. Any Fragmentum creatures in its path were torn to shreds by the powerful, concussive wind.
The few Vilewings that were lucky enough to survive were caught in the turbulent vortex created by the block's passage and sent crashing into each other. A second later, another cobblestone block flew out, smashing the clustered creatures into a fine powder.
The Silvermane Guards on the wall stared blankly at this scene, then mechanically turned their heads back to look at Caelus, who was emotionlessly pulling out one cobblestone block after another and launching them at the swarm.
With every block Caelus threw, a slight tremor ran through the wall, and the resulting shockwave made the eardrums of many Silvermane Guards throb painfully, even through their helmets.
If they weren't in the middle of a battlefield, they all would have wanted to take off their helmets and check if their ears were bleeding.
Is that... really a human? Such terrifying, monstrous strength is something I've never seen before!
Then, recalling Caelus's earlier 'whack-a-mole' performance at the gate with his baseball bat, the expressions of the Silvermane Guards turned somewhat strange.
Why were you even bothering to bonk those Fragmentum creatures with a baseball bat earlier?
If they had known he possessed this kind of power, they wouldn't have even bothered lowering the gate. He probably could have cleared the entire field with a single thrown rock!
The feeling was like watching a god-tier player, pretending to be a newbie, join a group of mortals just to experience what a normal battle feels like.
---o---
"A pity these kills don't count towards proficiency."
Caelus spared a glance at his proficiency progress bar. He had killed at least a hundred Fragmentum creatures by throwing those cobblestone blocks, but his proficiency hadn't increased by a single point.
As expected, the Proficiency MOD system was too rigid. It only recognized legitimate actions from within Minecraft's mechanics. Kills achieved by exploiting loopholes like this didn't count at all.
Still, he had to admit, the strength BUFF from Steve's traits was just too absurd. The power he could generate from just the cobblestone blocks he used for scaffolding was immense.
Compared to fighting these monsters using normal MC combat methods, this was far more efficient.
---o---