(Braden)

As we continue to try to figure out what's going on, I look up on a hunch. When I do, I see a giant meteor descending straight towards the King Monsters. Strangely, its flames are violet, but based on what I know of Zack and Big S being brothers, it's possible that if the Crystals channeled their power together and Big S summoned the Meteor into the Boundary, then it took on the violet flames because of whatever makes Zack's flames violet, too.

"Hooooly fuck!" I exclaim.

Others look up, and I hear others swearing in exclamation and a few others just exclaiming or shouting in confusion. A few Meteors have been summoned during this fight, but none as large as that one. They were all destroyed, too.

Plenty of monsters attack it, but the few spells that do reach it fail to do anything. Three of the King Monsters try as well. The Goblin King throws trees at it, but they just burn up instantly, the heat of it's that hot. The Frost Knight King throws spears and shards of ice at it, but they melt before touching it. The Flame Slime King attacks it with flaming rocks, Flame Jets, and more, but its attacks just splash off the Meteor.

It's too hot and too dense. Is there even someone in the Boundary capable of summoning a Meteor that powerful? I doubt even Normar using the Blessing of the Crystal on himself could. This is definitely something the Crystals did.

Just how much weaker are they going to be?

It doesn't take long for the meteor to hit the ground – maybe only fifteen seconds from when I noticed it. With a high Agility, that time feels longer than it would have a few months ago, before I started training and had a 'normal' speed.

When the Meteor strikes, the King Monsters aren't fast enough to escape it. It lands with a powerful boom, and we can feel the quake from here, even atop the City Walls, which supposedly don't even shake during earthquakes.

A cloud of dirt, dust, and trees is kicked up immediately, obscuring our view, and it quickly pushes outwards, including towards us. The forest is no doubt heavily destroyed by this, and the wave of destruction continues into the fields, taking out monsters everywhere as we stare in shock and amazement.

Then, the shockwave hits us, and those of us who are lighter are grabbed by those who are stronger and heavier and kept from flying away in the shockwave. Jeez! Maybe we should have gone inside the City for this! My body feels like it's being pounded over and over! It takes me a moment to realize that a pure-white Barrier was manifested around me, and I'm healing at the same time I take damage.

Wait, there are two pure-white Barriers. Luca and Normar probably cast them at the same time, and it's probably Normar who's healing me, keeping me from dying. He can heal someone in the moment they reach 0 Health, keeping them from actually dying. So yeah, this is him healing me. Thank you, Normar.

The shockwave ends, and the barriers fade. Nik sets me and Luca down, and I notice another Dark Knight setting Max down. Gavin was blown back a bit, then caught by a Druid. When we can finally see again, we just stare at the destruction.

The impact threw dirt and trees all the way to the City Walls. No monsters were left untouched, and there's flaming debris scattered around. The Meteor itself still burns, visible at the center of the new crater from here, even miles away. It destroyed everything within several miles of it, a far larger crater than the one outside of Kaelmar.

There are monsters far, far on the other side of the crater, but from what I can tell, they aren't bothering to come any closer. The King Monsters are nowhere to be found.

"If the Crystals have always been able to do this," someone says. "Why haven't they before?"

"Few Cities are as protected as Maelnor," Nik says. "Most are open on all four sides, and the monsters aren't usually stemmed in their flow from something like the passes. But there's something strange…"

"If they've always been able to do this," Gavin says. "They would have. It must have come at a great cost to them. Otherwise, there'd be records of the King Monsters being destroyed."

"Big Flame says," Nik says. "The Shadow of Life has released his suppression on the Dungeon Barriers for Kaelmar and the Fallen City at the other end of the pass. It seems he's given up this fight. The four King Monsters were meant to be a guarantee this City would fall, and instead, they were destroyed in an instant."

"Something's not right," I say. "I'm sure they'd have done this at least once before, if they're able to manifest things into the Boundary. But they haven't."

"You're right," Nik says, then frowns, before looking at Normar. "Normar, did you happen to give a certain punk the Blessing of the Crystal?"

Normar shakes his head, and Nik raises an eyebrow.

"He was out of my range," Normar protests. "I couldn't have given it to him. His Eidolon Form put him at almost 5,000 Intellect, though. And if he buffed himself with Blessing of Mind or Blessing of Intellect, it would become closer to 6,000 Intellect."

I gasp as I realize what was off about the whole thing.

Zack had been recovering. The Crystals made that clear. He was recovering from his fight, and the Dragon wasn't destroying our troops or going after the City Barrier. If it had defeated Zack, shouldn't it have not mattered if it waited or went then?

If so, then why didn't it?

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Because Zack won the fight. He then recovered from the whole thing, and he summoned a meteor. It might have been massive, but I'm sure the Crystals would have created an even larger one and aimed it at the center of the Valley for maximum effect.

Or they'd have sent it into the other pass, blocking the entrance to Kaelmar with the Meteor.

That Meteor was Zack. Normar must have figured out that he was going to do something, that's why I got that feeling from him that he knew more than he was saying.

I turn my gaze back to the Meteor. But how did it do so much damage?

"That doesn't explain all the damage," Nik says. "It's smaller than the one he used at Kaelmar's entrance."

"Impact."

"That only works with-" Nik starts. "He transcended the limitations of the Skill again."

Normar grins.

"Quite a few of us were transcending Skill limitations," Normar says. "I Resurrected several people whose bodies were too badly damaged for it, as one example."

"So that's why the Crystals would only say he was recovering," Nik says. "Zack was recovering… right up until he got it in his head to drop a Meteor on the King Monsters."

"It worked," Luca giggles.

"What now?" I ask. "It seems like most of the monsters are staying on the other side for now."

"Now," Nik says. "We rest. We recover. We wait. The monsters will cause problems for us, but if the Shadow of Life has given up attacking us this battle because of this, then the monsters will eventually spread out. Some will resume their charge towards us, but us stronger Adventurers will handle that. We may even be able to do that with just ranged attackers. Over the next week or three, we'll then deal with the monsters that have become spread out in the forest."

"Where be Boss?" Max asks, and when we look at him, he's looking at no one in particular. He's talking to Big Flame again. "No, Max want to know where be Boss!"

He huffs.

"Try your home," Nik says. "He'll either be eating, soaking in the bath, or sleeping."

Yeah, this is Zack we're talking about. He just fought a Dragon, then dropped a Meteor while transcending limitations. That stuff's exhausting.

I transcended limitations twice during the fight, and each time, I felt even more exhausted than before I did it. I didn't mean to, but it happened. Twice, I performed a Multshot that released twenty arrows instead of ten. All I did was increase the arrow count, yet my exhaustion was greater than it should have been after.

Zack used Impact on a Meteor. While normally, he'd have to be touching the 'weapon', I think his transcending of limitations might have given him an exemption on that one.

"You guys get some rest," Nik says. "You did good, and it looks like the battle is over, now. Even if it's not, you need it. We'll keep here those who can just in case, everyone else can get some rest."

He starts giving out instructions, calling over other leaders to tell them what's up so they can spread the word. We locate an Adventurer who can fly us down. Well, who can fly Gavin and me down, Luca flies Max.

Once we're on the ground, Luca pulls his tunic and cloak out of his Inventory, then pulls them back on, and we begin walking back home. Max carries Luca on his back, and Luca actually falls asleep. He's too exhausted. We all are, and I'm grateful Nik isn't putting us on watch duty.

When we reach the house, Kit and Aurum are in the kitchen, cooking, and Gold is putting dishes on the table.

"They only just be starting," Gold tells us. "I just be getting ready now. Hero Zack be in the bath, soaking already. He said the battle be won, so we be making a feast."

So he is home.

"Thanks," I tell Gold as we hurry to the bathing room.

Sure enough, Zack's in here, though his eyes are closed and he looks like he may be sleeping as he soaks. Wouldn't be the first time. He's back to his normal appearance, Eidolon Form no longer active. I suppose if the battle's over, then he's done using it at all times just in case.

The four of us scrub ourselves clean with as much strength as we can. It's not until I'm scrubbing that I feel weak, my grip poor. Even with Zack's hellish training, we didn't get this exhausted.

Once we're rinsed, we join Zack in the bath, and he doesn't seem to react to our presence.

"Lord Zack?" Luca whispers with concern in his voice.

"I'm awake," Zack says, his voice weak. "Or at least, am trying to be. Good job with the fighting, you guys."

"You dropped a Meteor on the King Monsters," Gavin says.

"It was Big Flame's idea," Zack opens an eye. It's violet, which means he's using his sight for something. "I was resting pretty high up – almost to the clouds, actually. That's where my fight with the Dragon ended. As I was recovering, Big Flame joked about me dropping from a great height using my body for Impact again, maybe taking out a King Monster or two from that. Then he paused and went 'you know, you could probably do that with a Meteor. Just think of what happened the last time you used one during a big fight. Just build up all that rage within you and transcend Impact's limitations like you did with the Demon Kobold King'."

Big Flame is the one who came up with that idea?

"So the Crystals and I discussed it," Zack says. "And we decided that even if it didn't kill the King Monsters, it would probably have damaged them enough and taken out enough of the horde to make it easier for everyone. It would definitely have done enough to the Flame Slime King to let the Adventurers kill it before it recovered. Were expecting that fucker to absorb a fair bit of the impact, but it seems that failed to do much. Once I was ready, they issued the retreat order to clear everyone out. Then I summoned the Meteor and dropped it. It actually killed all four instantly, that was a surprise. We thought it'd at least take out most of their Health, but actually killing them wasn't in our expectations. Two miracles in one major battle… today was a pretty damn lucky day."

"Two miracles?" Gavin asks.

"What be the first?" Max asks.

"Me killing the Dragon," Zack answers. "The Shadow of Life sent one he knew I couldn't kill. It was probably the strongest he could order, and one of its missions was killing me. Even with my gear, I wasn't able to take out more Health than it recovered per second. In a last-bid effort, I performed a runic spell while drawing on my inner flames. With a stroke of luck, I managed to hit the Dragon in the eye. Had I failed, I would have been too exhausted to continue, and the Dragon would have killed me."

"A miracle," I say, and Zack nods, then closes his eye. "What are you looking at?"

"The monsters," he answers. "I'm giving Nik my assessments of what's going to happen the next few days. There are around two million monsters still left in the valley after that, and about half are still moving towards Maelnor, while the other half are spreading out. However, only some are rushing, others are walking. It's easy enough that everyone can handle them. With just a couple of days of rest after this, taking out just what approaches the City, we can then send out squads of around twenty throughout the valley, and clean everything up within a week after the start of that. The battle is won, and now, we're going to get started on reclaiming Lost Territory."

"But how will we do that?" I ask. "Aren't all of the Lost Cities protected by the Avatars of the Shadow of Life?"

"Yeah," Zack stands and exits the bath, walking over to the towels and pulling one off so he can dry off. "They are. As soon as everything is clear, I'm heading to Kaelmar to kill the one there."