Orwell never imagined Kane would have a second phase.
The eruption of the energy that heralded the titan rising from the watery ravine was a surprise. The wind tossed Orwell and his ride back as a shadow was cast over him.
Orwell Mehest glanced up and knew his favorite Olive-green suit was about to get recycled.
…
The monster was in a simple word… a kaiju.
It was a monstrous hairy beast towering over 700 meters tall -- a living defilement to the concept of the square cube laws. Its red body stretches above the wooden sky-scrappers of Danghai like the image of a devil. The monster wore a body of a muscle-bound human but with wolf-head and claws — a recipient of Ancient Egypt mythology. Cloud of dust led by turbulent wind followed the behemoth's every movement. The land quaked with every footstep he generated.
Waves of pressure pressed upon everyone and everything within range. Suffocating atmosphere clamped down on the entire city like the Great Depression and AIDS scare had a baby.
…
The Assault Team (Dream, Arden Christy, Alpine the Seventh)
Alpine fell to her knees from the eldritch atmosphere weighted on her like gravity. Her eyes saw the monster whose head scraped the crowd. The eldritch energy leaked into the city with raw crushing bulk scaring her mind and rang the alarm bells in her Divine Core.
Dream and Arden Christy, finished with the Fellows standing in their ways, looked worriedly at the gigantic terror in the horizon.
“Not the largest I have ever seen,” Arden commented. “But the raw energy density is atrocious. Are they trying to destroy this city a hundred-times over?”
Dream looked at the monster with his [Clairvoyance]. The raw energy leaking out Kane’s gigantified vessel made the Astral Realm search for his personal detail a non-issue for the walking NSA violation.
“This is their ace in the hole,” Dream explained. “Kane’s Behemoth Mode; an all-out annihilation form meant to be the Beast Clan’s trump card. The Fairy never planned to use it this early in the war.” He growled. “Kane probably gave-up on taking Danghai in one piece. He is now going all out to flatten this city and every county around us.”
…
The Rescue Team (Requiem, Lena Atalante, Ayla Orman)
“You are distracted,” Dalton clashed against Requiem as the presence of the Behemoth Mode washed over them. “Don’t you feel the Eldritch energy in the air? You are all about to die.”
Requiem’s sword contested against the bare arm pushing against him, “That is rich for someone within the fallout.”
Dalton shoved against the blade cladded in the wind. The eldritch power of his skin grinding against the Primal Arcane. He bared his wolfish fang against the squire of the Dawn.
“Don’t have to worry about me. I will be long gone when the bomb explodes.”
Seizing this opportunity, Ruine jumped into the fray, summoning her Adamakles to aid the battle.
Gigantic rose with the texture of rock emerged in the air wrapping itself around Dalton.
As the two-on-one battle intensified with the trade of barbed rocks, claws, and wind-blade, the other end of the battlefield experienced a certain shift.
Namely, Atalante was forced to deploy extreme measures. After being punt across the ground, both Ayla and Atalante knew they had to step up.
[Feather Field]
The coliseum of air rose, imprisoning the three combatants inside the wall of winds.
Regina Sei was amused at the two’s efforts. Her body was spotless, betraying no hint she was locked in a struggle. The only sign she had been in combat at all is the javelin of eldritch energy in deftly spinning in her hand.
The other two inside the windy battleground weren't looking as good. Ayla was bleeding from her forehead. Atalante’s sleeves were torn from the attack she barely evaded with her decoy. Just a single trade was enough to show that the coming battle won’t be easy.
Regina observed the wind surrounding them with mild interest. She also noticed that her weapon was losing cohesion from the conceptual wind surrounding her.
“Valiant attempt, but…”
Atalante vanished and reappeared behind Sei.
The Fairy’s eyes widened.
Atalante wasn’t this fast before.
The Regina blocked the strike at her back and countered. Her javelin of eldritch energy cut into the decoy. Not wasting a moment, the Fairy attacked when she sensed Atalante arriving at her side. The Fairy cut another decoy before blocking the real Atalante who slammed her sword down from above. The Acropolitian's attacks were string together in blurred. Normal onlooker would swear there were three Atalante coordinating their assault.
Ayla seized that opportunity to jump in with a kick enchanted with cold.
In a split second decision, Regina Sei flung Atalante back with a heave of her javelin and jabbed her javelin toward Ayla’s boot.
It was then that an unexpected happened.
The Fairy’s javelin broke under the Ayla’s foot and Aura. The strike landed squarely, much to the Regina’s wide-eyed surprise.
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The kick blasted the dumbfounded Fairy across the ground where she landed in a loud crunch.
Face prone on the floor, the Fairy lifted herself up and cracked her neck. That critical collision didn’t leave a single injury behind in the slightest.
“Interesting,” Regina Sei observed her opponents. “Futile but interesting. Aside from eroding my javelin, your field also increases your speed.” The Fairy conjured another javelin of crackling eldritch variety. “But getting faster doesn't mean the gap between us is closed. Now, let me play with you for a little longer.”
Ayla and Atalante shared a glance and rushed at the Fairy together.
…
The famous Skylark’s Trade Emporium had become the shelter.
Crowd of refugees and remnants of law enforcement holed together in the mall. Together, they shoved back the invading Fairies. Magic flew over the battered building. Most defenders had exhausted their Mana, and were now down to the weapon being donated from the Acropolis.
Shyme Enma was one such person. These last hours burned through her Mana pool and acquainted her with a new best friend.
Said best-friend was the Acropolis-made assault rifle--Olaf HA-Butterfly 02. The HA-Butterfly was an exotic rifle powered by alchemical liquid ammunition which powered the enchantment of homing magic. The gun could pump out 900 RPM of multiple flavors which automatically home-in on their victim. It was a model trading power for aim-assist.
It was a gun made for the classic style of spray-and-pray.
Shyme poked out of her barricade and floored the trigger. Inexperience with the weapon her aim went all over the place. Thankfully, Olaf Brother made the gun with greenhorn in mind and the homing option picked up the slack.
Shyme watched the Fellows rain from the bullets and glanced at her death-stick with pride.
“Don’t you dare,” an equally emptied tank of Mana named Serenade Asmodella warned her battle-buddy. “The weapon killed them, not you.”
“Like you are any better,” Shyme snorted at the Elf. “You already ran out of juice when you got here.”
“Excuse me?” Serenade accused Shyme with a glare. “I have to fight through the entire city of these buggers to get here. Of course, I am empty.” Serenade fired her own bullets into an assembly of another coming squad of Fairies. “Unlike you, I don’t need aim assist.”
That was correct. Serenade’s gun was a pulse-rifle patented by Finnegan. Aside from a supersonic velocity bullet designed to penetrate even the toughest hide of a monster, the only extra feature the weapon boasted was superb handling and range. Every headshot Serenade won was the fruit of her own aim.
Shyme’s face turned green from anger.
Before the argument could turn into a brawl, a rocket whisked past the two girls' faces and exploded the entire squad of Fellows.
It was Rain the Dark Elf. After being convinced by Chronicler to stand down, she was sent together with Serenade to the shelter. Currently, the girl swept up an impressive kill count with a trusty sniper (from Finnegan’s store near you) and explosive implements.
“Can you please stop fighting each other and shoot the bug coming to kill us?” Rain screamed at the two. She grabbed a grenade from her belt, pulled out its pin with her teeth and lobbed the bomb at the Fellow with the RPG.
The explosion wiped the squad, and the two 33 Stars silently turned away from the ballistic Dark Elf.
It was then humongous forms of Kane emerged into full view.
They felt the will-crushing pleasure.
Serenade trembled and dropped her weapon in awe. “What the hell is that?”
Shyme, a Divine Beast descent, was heavily affected by the raw animalistic suppression Kane exuded. Like a puppy, she fell on her behind and curled away from the biggest predator she had ever met.
“We are doom,” Shyme fell into waterworks. “We can’t…”
A massive fire-bird, rivaling the monster in size, swallowed Kane whole before Shyme finished her sermon of despair.
Kaiju or not, there were no possible ways just pumping himself to the size of Godzilla would persuade the three one-man-army fighting to just up and leave.
…
Wayward’s doubt was confirmed the moment Kane busted out his second form.
“I know that bug was too weak,” Wayward muttered to himself. He was so bamboozled by the quality difference he couldn’t keep the suspicion in his throat. “Something is up with that guy.”
The current situation wasn’t good. The shockwave from Kane’s transformation had knocked over the wall Chronicler created to isolate the battlefield. A kick from the gigantic Praetor also sent Orwell flying over to the Harbor District. Wayward doubted it could hurt Mehest, but anyone that could send a man of Orwell’s caliber flying like football wasn’t a pushover.
Flames surrounded Wayward as the flaming bird swooped at Kane towering forms. Unlike Orwell Mehest and Lena Atalante, Orwell’s Adamakles was simple. He didn’t have vibration armor or mystical air-zone. Wayward’s Abilities were simply conjurations of avian avatars of high-temperature flames. He could ride on it and wrapped himself around it. It was a simple power with the deadliest user on the planet.
As scalding flames swallowed Kane, Wayward made a blade with his hand. The blue bird compressed upon his palm. Wayward jumped high into the air and bought the superheated chop onto the giant monster.
Flames burst apart as Kane received the slash of pressurized atmosphere and fires. A bloody, burning wound emerged from his building size chest and erupted in blood. In retaliation, Kane roared. It was a roar packed with Mana. The content of the sound parted the cloud with the volatile range too wide for Wayward to dodge.
The sonic tidal wave slammed squarely into Wayward. Blue flames exploded as he was swatted from the sky.
Not to let a good opportunity go to waste, Kane dug his hand into the ground and heaved the piece of the land at Wayward.
To put it in layman's terms, the mass of rock and soil heading in Samuel Wayward direction had the volume of roughly three suburban schools put together. It was in all sense small hill.
Wayward steadied himself and met the piece of rock with calmness. He combined his high-rank [Martial Art], every muscle in his body and the signature blue flames together in a punch. His first flew like a piston, smashing into the obstacle that dwarfed him. The explosive produced by the entirety of Samuel Wayward was poured into a single microcosm of a pulse. The flashing punch was akin to a hammer of god.
The flying hill was obliterated, cracked to five crumbling pieces and melted into splashing lava. Wayward flew from the demolition, cloaked in the fire-bird. The glowing avian spun in the air, warping the sky in the blinding swirl of fire that covered several blocks.
From the flames, Wayward emerged. In his hand was a massive fireball; a model of the sun.
[Pyro Supreme]
Like an ant lifting a watermelon, Samuel Wayward heaved the gigantic fireball at Kane.
Kaiju or not, the power packed in the fireball couldn’t be brushed by anyone. Wayward’s attack possessed the energy equivalent to a nuclear warhead. Hitting the target, the fireball’s momentum lifted the humongous body of Kane and carried it across ten kilometers into the Station District where it exploded in a mushroom cloud.
The dust rose. Scenery crumbled. Sound ruptured the very street and the smell of scorch flooded the air. Various parks in the Station District were promptly turned to ash. Luxury hotels and amenities were blown to smithereens.
…
Requiem glanced at the certified mass destruction potential of Wayward’s city-bashing fire-ball. He fumbled and opened the link to the Shining Cloud.
“Dream,” he called his best friend. “Please tell me to evacuate the Station District.”
‘I did,' Dream spoke from the other side of the comm. ‘My [Clairvoyance] indicated that the Station District will be destroyed with 73% probability’ Dream paused ‘But I never expected the version that came true is the one where Wayward threw a nuke at it.’
“How much is the damage?” Requiem asked worriedly.
‘About 100 kilotons of payload,’ Dream said. ‘Not enough to destroy a megacity like Danghai, but several zones in the Station District will likely be unlivable in a foreseeable future.’
“Thanks,” Requiem switched off the Shining Cloud. Inwardly, he grimaced.
The true battle against a Praetor barely started and the collateral damage already began stacking.
Requiem heard the roar of a monster and the swooshing of winds. If the sound was anything to go by Kane was still alive and well. That was an incredible statement given he had received nothing short of a nuclear strike from Wayward.
The knight mentally sank at the massive price they needed to pay to unlive him.