Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 849: Second Wave

’That’s weird,’ Asher thought to himself as he stared at the rankings. He was certain that the wave was coming to an end, and yet two more teams had just been disqualified.

’Is there another Rank 7 Shadow Assassin on the move?’ Asher wondered, his gaze remaining fixed on the rankings as he tried to make sense of the sudden development.

But unknown to Asher, Arianna Haellight was already putting her plan into motion. She was determined to see it through before the second wave of enemies came to an end.

’Something is happening,’ Asher concluded, his thoughts spinning as numerous possibilities flashed through his mind. But he didn’t move from where he sat. Although he was curious, he wasn’t curious enough to do anything about it unless whatever was eliminating students at such a frightening pace eventually crossed paths with him. Until then doing nothing was best.

Five more minutes passed before an announcement tore through the air.

"ALL ENEMIES OF THE FIRST WAVE HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED. THE SECOND WAVE SHALL COMMENCE."

At the announcement, Asher suddenly felt the building he was sitting on quake violently beneath him. Asher and Teo immediately vanished from their positions, reappearing in midair as their senses sharpened, prepared for any and every new enemy that might emerge.

But to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t the new wave of enemies that appeared first. No... it was reconstruction.

Buildings that had been shattered, destroyed, burned to a crisp, or melted into lava rose once more as though they were being resurrected by some divine force. Every iota of damage, destruction, and madness that all the students had unleashed seemed to vanish without leaving the slightest trace. New cars appeared as the ruined ones disappeared, asphalt roads mended themselves, streetlight poles stood tall once more, and towering skyscrapers rose proudly as though they had never collapsed in the first place.

Asher could only marvel at the astonishing sight before him.

’What sort of ability is this?’ he thought to himself in utter fascination as he simply stared.

’Truly, Crymora is a planet filled with all sorts of ridiculous abilities,’ Asher thought to himself as he wondered just how far such an ability could truly go.

But unfortunately, he didn’t have time to dwell on the matter, as the very moment the battlefield had been completely reconstructed, the second wave instantly flooded the entire battlefield.

Asher’s senses flared. His hand streaked toward Virelass, which hung at his waist. He unsheathed her in one smooth motion before swinging her upward from below. The instant he did, a blazing plasma beam was cleanly split in half, each severed portion carving downward with potent destructive force.

A deafening explosion erupted.

With a sundering burst of staggering power, the detonation swallowed everything beneath it, covering a staggering three-kilometre radius. Buildings, cars, streets, and everything that had only just been restored were erased once again in a violent storm of destruction, leaving nothing but fire, dust, and pulverized debris in its wake.

With that attack alone, another team had been disqualified, the remaining number of teams dropping to twenty.

Asher stared ahead. Above them, the sky was filled with bird-type monsters, their numbers easily exceeding a hundred. Their feathers burned with a brilliant crimson hue, while their eyes literally blazed with fire. Their beaks curved downward into vicious hooks capable of tearing through flesh and steel alike, while enormous talons extended from their powerful legs, looking more than capable of ripping apart virtually anything they grasped. Unlike the relatively normal sized Shadow Assassins, these creatures were colossal in every sense of the word. They all possessed bodies as massive as entire bungalow buildings, their immense wings casting enormous shadows over the battlefield below.

At this moment, Asher could sense three Crown-class Monsters among their ranks. Roughly twenty percent belonged to the Mark-class, while the remaining eighty percent were Grave-class Monsters. But he didn’t need anyone to tell him that these Mark-class and Grave-class Monsters stood at the very pinnacle of their class. The immense pressure radiating from them made that abundantly clear. Merely by flying through the sky, the surrounding temperature rose to an unbelievable degree.

’Are these some watered-down version of a Phoenix or vermilion bird?’ Asher thought to himself.

Although he floated in the air completely unbothered, the same couldn’t be said for the majority of the students below. Most of them didn’t possess any flight-type abilities, meaning these monsters could simply remain airborne while raining down devastating attacks until every student on the battlefield had been completely wiped from existence.

One could only imagine just how difficult the second wave was going to be.

"This won’t be easy," Teo Swig said as he immediately tapped into his water affinity, cloaking his body in swirling currents of water that revolved around him like protective serpents.

"What you’re saying doesn’t correspond to the name of our team," Asher replied in a joking tone.

The Monsters didn’t wait for Teo to respond. They released ear-piercing screeches, the combined force of over a hundred voices violently shaking the air itself. The next instant, they dived forward with astonishing speed that seemed completely disproportionate to their enormous bodies and massive wingspans.

Asher and Teo immediately shot downward in a blur as they moved toward the ground. The moment their feet touched the earth, their eyes instantly locked onto their enemies.

The first bird Monster came diving down in a crimson streak, its razor-sharp beak tearing toward Asher’s chest with frightening momentum. But Asher simply raised Virelass and met the attack head-on. With a devastating impact, beak met metal, and concentric rings of compressed wind erupted outward, slicing through everything around Asher.

The resulting shockwave threw Teo Swig backward, his body slamming violently into a nearby building. As though it held a personal grudge against anyone capable of controlling water, another Monster immediately folded its wings and dived after him without the slightest hesitation.

The ground beneath Asher’s feet cracked apart under the tremendous force of the collision, but he remained completely unperturbed, as though nothing significant had just happened.

’Such immense strength,’ Asher thought to himself. He hadn’t expected such pure physical power from a single bird. Then again, considering its enormous size, it wasn’t entirely surprising. Besides, Asher knew that the Monster had gathered tremendous momentum during its dive, amplifying the force behind its attack. But alas, even such an advantage was meaningless against him.

Asher’s wrist twisted as he effortlessly shoved the phoenix-like bird to the side, sending its gigantic body hurtling toward a nearby building. But before it could crash into the structure, it twisted gracefully in midair, spread its enormous wings to slow its own momentum, and landed effortlessly against the vertical wall of the building as though gravity meant absolutely nothing to it.

The moment it landed, it shot forward once again. This time, however, it attacked with its talons, both of its enormous legs tearing toward Asher as it sought to rip him apart with shredding force.

Asher smirked, his body vanished before reappearing beside one of the Monster’s legs. His rapier blurred upward in a brilliant silver streak, and like a hot knife through butter, Virelass sliced cleanly through both of the Monster’s legs from the knees. Crimson blood and brilliant red feathers exploded outward as the severed limbs crashed heavily against the ground.

A painful screech erupted from the phoenix-like bird as unbearable agony coursed through its body. But Asher didn’t care in the slightest. He was already moving.

His body became a blur as he sprinted along the Monster’s back before reaching its neck. Without the slightest shred of hesitation, he swung downward.

Like scissors through silk, Asher’s rapier effortlessly severed the Monster’s neck. He didn’t even wait for the massive corpse to strike the ground before shooting forward once more, immediately chasing after Teo Swig.

Although Teo Swig had managed to hold his own against a Rank 6 Shadow Assassin earlier, this battle was entirely different. These Grave-class Monsters possessed terrifying speed, monstrous physical strength, incredible durability, and devastating firepower.

Arriving in a blur, Asher’s rapier flashed once again, its razor-sharp serrated edge tearing one of the Monster’s enormous wings clean off at the shoulder. Seeing the opening, Teo Swig immediately closed the distance. His glaive, now coated in hardened stone, came crashing downward with brutal efficiency as he aimed directly for the Monster’s skull.

But Grave-class Monsters possessed absurd defensive capabilities and astonishing vitality. Their skulls couldn’t simply be crushed by just anyone.

The Monster’s blazing crimson eyes snapped toward Teo, and with a vicious screech, it unleashed twin beams of searing energy from its eyes. The attacks tore toward Teo with terrifying speed.

Teo, who was still suspended in midair as gravity had yet to reclaim him, immediately manipulated the wind around him, forcefully pushing his body sideways to evade the attack. But he hadn’t avoided it completely, as one of the beams grazed his side. His Vitality Points instantly dropped from one thousand (1000) to nine hundred (900).

The moment Teo Swig landed on his feet, the Monster refused to relent. Using its remaining wing, it swung the enormous appendage toward him with crushing, air-compressing force capable of flattening buildings.

But before the attack could even connect, Asher was already in motion. He appeared between Teo and the incoming wing, and with a single upward slash, he bisected the massive wing cleanly in half with the precision of an experienced surgeon.

Teo didn’t hesitate, the instant the opening presented itself, he leaped upward once more, his glaive now roaring with razor-sharp wind that spiraled around its blade with tremendous force. He thrust upwards toward the Monster’s neck, and with a gut-wrenching tearing sound, flesh parted beneath the strike as the glaive carved halfway through the creature’s thick neck.

Their coordination had been flawless.