Chapter 210: Too Many

The pattern broke.

Until now the Colossi had come in measured groups — two, three, five at a time — enough to pressure him without fully committing their numbers. That restraint ended without warning. The darkness ahead of Ryzek filled with movement. Silver eyes opened in clusters. Heavy bodies shifted across the cracked ground in a sudden, continuous wave.

They poured in.

Ryzek met the first line with compressed energy and precise strikes, dropping one with a joint break and forcing another back with a dense burst to the chest plating. A third came in low. He killed it with a downward blow through the neck gap. For a moment the space around him cleared.

It did not last.

More took their place immediately. Four. Then six. Then more than he could cleanly count in the dark. The pressure changed. These were not the same measured attackers as before. Their movements were heavier, faster, more coordinated. The force behind each strike sat a clear level above what he had been handling.

Leagues above him.

A silver-armored bulk slammed into his guard hard enough to drive him off his feet. He hit the ground, rolled, and came up with a spear of amber energy that cracked the beast’s knee plating. Before he could finish it, two more closed from the sides. One caught him across the shoulder with a backhanded sweep. The impact spun him halfway around. The second drove a heavy limb into his midsection and sent him sliding across broken stone.

Pain flared sharp and deep.

Ryzek forced himself up in time to block the next strike, but the block itself cost him. The crystalline ridges along his arms flared under the strain. His left side burned where earlier wounds had torn open again. Blood ran freely now, warm against his skin in the cold dark.

They did not give him space.

Every time he dropped one, two more replaced it. Every time he created a small opening, the wave closed it. The darkness worked fully against him now. He could sense pressure and movement, but the sheer volume of bodies made clean reads almost impossible. Strikes came from angles he could not fully track. Heavy limbs scraped past his guard. Bone plating slammed into him whenever his timing slipped by even a fraction.

He killed another with a close-range burst through a damaged joint. The effort left his breathing rough. His energy output was still controlled, but the continuous demand was draining it faster than he could recover. The Colossi in this wave hit harder. Their plating held longer. Their recovery after each exchange was quicker.

A massive form broke from the group and charged straight through the others. Ryzek braced and met it with both hands reinforced. The collision drove him backward several meters, boots carving lines through the cracked ground. He held the block, twisted, and redirected part of the force, but the beast stayed on him. A second impact followed almost immediately from the flank. He took it on the ribs and felt something give.

The numbers became too much.

They pressed from every direction at once. Ryzek’s strikes still landed. Colossi still fell. But the rate of replacement had surpassed the rate of kills. For every one he put down, the darkness delivered more. A limb caught him across the back and drove him to one knee. He rose, killed the attacker with a rising thrust, and was immediately forced to block two more heavy blows in sequence.

His left arm answered slower with each exchange. Blood loss and accumulated damage were taking their share. The amber glow along his arms flickered under the strain of constant compression and release. He was still fighting with precision, still refusing wild, wasteful bursts, but precision alone was no longer enough against this volume.

Another wave pushed forward.

Ryzek set his stance, pulled what energy he had left into tighter cycles, and met them head-on. The first two fell to joint breaks and close-range strikes. The third drove him back. The fourth opened a fresh cut along his side. Beyond them, more silver eyes kept opening in the black, an unbroken line of armored bodies advancing without pause.

Power Scale / Cultivation Realms (Quick Reminder)

Foundation Realm (Layers 1–9): Body forging, no external Qi.

Circuit Awakening Realm (Early–Peak): First Qi loop, internal bursts.

Core Condensation Realm (Early–Peak): External Qi release, short flight.

Stellar Circuit Realm (1–9 Stars): True flight, Qi armor, energy projection.

Nebula Dominion Realm and higher: Domain control, galaxy-level power, etc

Power Scale Reminder

Lian Yu: Stellar Circuit Star 1.

Elara Voss: Core Condensation Peak

Keep it as reminders