Chapter 57: The First Wave
The beasts came without slowing down.
No attempt to assess the situation, no hesitation. Just a relentless, unrestrained advance, as if the wall of flesh and steel awaiting them were nothing more than a temporary obstacle rather than a defensive line.
The adventurers didn’t waste time. Those in the rear opened with ranged attacks, abilities, and projectiles crashing into the first wave before it could even reach melee range. The frontliners surged forward, weapons already in hand.
The first clashes erupted almost simultaneously along the entire line, and within moments the sound of battle spread everywhere, steel, roars, impacts, screams.
Then came the first casualties.
One adventurer fell. Then another. For each of them, two, five beasts lay dead, but not because the adventurers were overwhelmingly strong. It was because the beasts didn’t defend themselves. They didn’t attack with method. They didn’t retreat when wounded.
They simply advanced. Without pause, without fear, as if the only thing that mattered was pushing past that line of humans, toward something on the other side.
Something the adventurers were protecting without even knowing it.
Evan was among them, and like the others, he had begun his slaughter.
[Ding! You have killed an F-Rank (Advanced Stage) Wildfang Jackal!]
[You have gained +200 ESS]
[Ding! You have killed an E-Rank (Mid-Stage)
Red Boar!] [You have gained +500 ESS]
[Ding! You have killed an E-Rank (Early Stage) Ironhide Bear!]
[You have gained +300 ESS]
The notifications began to ring out one after another without pause, so quickly that one barely finished before the next appeared. Soon, those from his clones joined in as well, somewhere far from the sight of the other adventurers, carrying out the same work in silence.
[Ding! Your clone has killed an E-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Drugged Squirrel!]
[You have gained +210 Power Stones]
Within ten minutes, the battlefield was already unrecognizable. Bodies lay scattered everywhere, beasts, mostly, but a few humans as well, and no one had the time to stop and count them. Everyone was locked in their own fight.
Meanwhile, the merit point rankings had begun to shift. Names rose, others fell, and some appeared for a brief moment only to vanish again, a sign that their owner had just drawn their last breath.
The battle was fierce. It was brutal.
But the worst part was that it had only just begun.
The stronger adventurers, those at the peak of E-Rank or higher, began stepping forward as more powerful beasts started to emerge among the enemy ranks. As if the first wave had only been a test, and now something more serious was arriving to evaluate the results.
Evan felt it before he saw it.
A presence ahead, forcing its way through the chaos with a ferocity unlike the others. He immediately recognized what it was, and couldn’t help but shake his head.
He was still dealing with a group of wolves when he glanced at them one by one.
"Looks like your pack leader has arrived," he said. "It’d be rude of me not to give him the welcome he deserves, don’t you think?"
In the next instant, the heads of every wolf, E-Rank beasts, all of them, slid cleanly from their bodies and hit the ground, rolling to a stop at the feet of the newcomer.
A wolf. Three meters tall, five meters long. Dark blue fur with a white mane framing its neck. Gray eyes, deep and locked onto Evan with killing intent that needed no words.
"Hm? Don’t tell me you didn’t like the welcome," Evan said, a hint of mock surprise in his voice. "Oh well. It’s the thought that counts, right?"
He vanished from where he stood.
And reappeared beside the wolf.
***
A few hundred meters away, a group of five adventurers moved through the battlefield with an efficiency that had little to do with courage.
They were coordinated, yes, but not in the way fighters who covered each other’s backs were. Their coordination served a different purpose.
Weaker adventurers nearby were allowed to advance first, used as bait to draw the beasts out. The moment those beasts lunged at them, the group stepped in, killed the targets, and claimed the points.
If the bait held, good. If it didn’t, it wasn’t their problem.
Their faces were those of people enjoying every second of what they were doing, not the battle itself, but the numbers.
"Look at that," one of them said, a young man with gleaming eyes as he stared at the score displayed on his bracelet. "We’re already dominating."
The bracelet showed their current points and ranking. To see the full leaderboard, one had to return to the Association, where the entire ranking was displayed and updated second by second.
"First place from the start," another confirmed. "No one’s catching up."
The group’s leader said nothing. He was a large man, shaved head, a scar running across his face from eyebrow to chin, and a naturally brutal expression. He watched his ranking with the quiet satisfaction of someone who had planned everything in advance and was now seeing it unfold exactly as expected.
First place. With a comfortable lead.
It stayed that way for a few minutes.
Then the rankings shifted.
Not gradually. Not with the steady progression of someone accumulating points one by one.
In the span of a heartbeat, first place was taken by someone else, and the leader found himself pushed down a rank.
The group came to a near-simultaneous stop.
They hadn’t seen who had overtaken them, after all, their bracelets only displayed their own position, but dropping from first to second was already enough of a warning.
"Who...?" one of them started.
The leader said nothing. He stared at his bracelet. At his name. At his score.
450.
A high number, considering only a few minutes had passed since the start. And yet, someone had surpassed him.
He didn’t waste time. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small device and spoke into it.
It was a mana based communicator.
"Hey, what the hell is going on? Which bastard just surpassed me?"
the reply came quickly.
"Boss, I don’t know. A second ago you were first, then out of nowhere some guy shot straight to the top, and his score is still increasing at an insane rate," a voice replied, disbelief clear in its tone.
"How much?" he asked, his voice flat, but laced with anger.
The voice on the other end didn’t answer immediately. There was a brief pause, and just as the leader was about to speak again, it came through.
"2000."