The horde of crystal beasts grew closer and closer to the cultivators as Alexei watched all those positioned at the vanguard.

"Don't flinch, everyone behind you is counting on you to protect them."

He raised his right hand in the air, all around him, daggers made entirely of water formed one after the other.

With a wave of his hand, all the daggers flew through the air in the direction of the horde of beasts. The daggers easily pierced the Iron rank beasts before continuing their way to the next beast ending the lives of thirty beasts in an instant, their corpses falling to the ground before being trampled by the other crystal beasts.

Their deaths signaled the start of the battle as the horde clashed against the vanguard. Thousands of abilities were used on each side, trying to overpower the other by whatever means.

Kieran's heart was beating faster and faster, everything around him became chaos, the cries of people and the roars of the beasts mixing together.

Pressing with all his strength on his legs, his figure became a black blur moving rapidly through the crowd.

Within seconds he appeared next to a fire salamander spitting small flames with a body that exuded intense heat.

Kieran’s claws crossed the salamander’s body, killing him instantly, he pushed again on his legs, moving quickly.

While moving through the crowd, he saw a minotaur charging toward the vanguard, its body lowered forward with its long horns pointing at them, trying to skewer anyone who tried to stop him.

Kieran rushed forward, arriving next to the minotaur, his claws moved, slicing off one of his legs and knocking him to the ground. Quickly turning around, he sent his claws digging deep into the minotaur's heart, ending his life.

If Kieran was not currently on a battlefield and the guild representatives had seen him kill a Minotaur at the late stage Iron rank so easily with his middle stage cultivation level, they would all have fought to recruit him into their guild.

Removing his bloody claws from the body of the minotaur, a small blue stone could be seen being held between them.

With a simple thought, the blue stone between Kieran's claws disappeared without a trace. It was then that he felt a sense of danger, without hesitating for a moment, he jumped to the side, dodging a rock.

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The ground shook slightly as a stone golem walked in his direction, controlling the earth around it, sending rocks flying in all directions. Some of the vanguards couldn't dodge in time when those rocks crushed them.

Checking his surroundings for a moment, Kieran focused on the golem.

"It's a Bronze rank..."

Moving quickly around the golem to avoid its attacks, Kieran extended his claws forward as a blue glow shone over them.

With a quick gesture, five scratch marks appeared on the stone golem's body.

A shadow was cast over Kieran's body. Raising his head, a fist made of stone descended on him. He quickly sent crystal essence through his legs to dodge the stone fist, the air pressure weighing on his body as the stone fist brushed against him.

He swung its claws again at the stone golem, only to leave a few more scratches on his body.

Holding the arm he had just attacked with, Kieran felt numb.

'This guy's body is even tougher than the training dummies.'

Without giving him any time to catch his breath, the stone golem threw his fist at him again.

Canceling his giant transformation, Kieran rolled under the stone golem. Appearing in its back he activated the giant transformation again.

"Crystal Essence Claw!"

A dense layer of crystal essence resembling blue steel covers Kieran’s claws as they approach the head of the stone golem.

Feeling a sense of crisis for his life, the earth around the stone golem rose, forming a thick wall between his body and Kieran’s claws.

An explosion sound was heard as Kieran’s claws crossed the earth wall, appearing on the other side, his claws leaving deep marks on the head of the stone golem.

The stone golem emitted a sound of rock colliding with each other as spikes of earth formed all around it.

Quickly sidestepping back, Kieran looked at the golem with a smile on his face.

"Alright, let's continue."

***

In another part of the battlefield, Kade throws lightning orbs into the horde of beasts to reduce the pressure on the front line. He constantly inspected the surroundings in search of Bronze rank beasts when he saw a shadow sneaking into his back from the corner of his eye. He expelled an electric discharge from his body, which took the form of a lightning orb to cover it before receiving a blow and being pushed back.

The electric orb all around him shook violently before disappearing. Kade turned his head and saw a lizardman advancing towards him, a pale skin, sharp eyes, and horns growing on his head, a dark mist emanating from his body.

"Here's one."

Lightning shot through Kade's arm before concentrating in his hand, taking the form of an orb of lightning that he threw at the lizardman.

The lizardman ran towards the orb with a hideous smile on his face, a dark flame appeared on his hand before he hit the orb, causing it to vanish into nothingness.

Kade's complexion darkened when he saw that his lightning orb had done no damage to the lizardman. Extending his arm in front of him, a dozen lightning orbs formed all around him.

"Lightning Orb Discharge."

Like a machine gun that had just been pulled on the trigger, the lightning orbs around Kade shot rapidly toward the lizardman like a deluge of bullets.

***

In the area east of Kade, another Bronze rank had appeared, wielding a huge axe, a minotaur twice as big as the one Kieran had killed stood in front of Anna.

The minotaur uttered a howl before rushing at her.

Anna watched the minotaur come to her without any emotion on her face, with a slight gesture of her hand, ice spears appeared all around her before she lowered her hand towards the minotaur.

One after the other, the Bronze rank beasts appeared on the battlefield.