The only monsters left after that were the relatively weak Legion commanders, all of whom were nothing compared to the strength of the Legion Sword. However, there were far more of them there than there were of the Swords.

A few minutes later, a sudden flare of light blossomed in the far distance, beyond the canyon. A pillar of light the width of a mountain shot up into the sky, and the clouds themselves parted before it. Everyone, even the Legion soldiers, looked over at the spectacle. It seemed that the missiles had hit home. A few moments later, a titanic wall of gray rose up on the horizon, a multi mile high tidal wave, formed from the raging waters of the Atlantic. Whatever had been lurking over there was now gone, utterly annihilated.

The pause in the battle vanished as if it had never been there, and the fight continued unbroken. Sam kept knocking the monsters off the walls, but it was rapidly becoming a losing battle. There were simply too many of them for him to deal with, even with his prodigious strength. In addition, this was only the beginning of the fight. Hugo Mar and the greater bulk of the Legion hadn't even arrived yet. Once they came, everything would go downhill fast.

The wind began to pick up suddenly, one of the results of the explosion out in the ocean. It brought droplets of salt water with it, accelerated to high speeds by the force of the explosion. A few moments later the shockwave hit, blowing the defenders off the walls or into each other. Even separated from them by a distance of thousands of miles, it still hit hard. Sam could only imagine what had happened in the area near the impact zone. If he was lucky, the strike might have hit Kane City, but he was sure that the ground zero of the explosion had been quite some distance away from the site of the ruined city of New York.

Kane City

The normally placid waters of the Hudson boiled as an influx of superheated water from the Atlantic entered them. Dead fish floated at the surface, and stranger creatures abounded in the polluted waters, eating the corpses of the fallen. Ten feet of water flooded through the city, washing out the dens of iniquity that had been established there under Rodney Kane’s rule.

A titanic thunderstorm blossomed on the horizon, prompted by the explosion that had occurred further down the coast. Intelligence reports told Rodney Kane that a hundred mile square area of land was just gone, evaporated into nothingness by whatever had exploded down there. The battered hulks of strange vessels bobbed up and down within the swell there, too large to fall fully into the crater.

Rodney Kane himself sat on his throne within his inner sanctum which was located on the top floor of the Empire State building, After returning from England, with his new sword in hand, the delusions of grandeur had begun to mount within him, and he decided that a true king needed to be elevated above his subjects, both physically and metaphorically. He wore no crown, but he did not need one. Excalibur was more than enough to cement his presence there.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The weapon had an interesting effect where it would increase the conviction and charisma of its wielder, to such degrees that weaker people could mistake them for a god. In addition, it possessed the power to back up such a ridiculous claim, and Rodney Kane had used it to level a building once in a fit of rage at the refusal of his minions to carry out one of his more diabolical orders. After that display, they never bothered him again.

Screams echoed through the city as aquatic monsters devoured his people and the superheated water scalded their flesh. However, he ignored their plight. A shadowy figure walked out from behind a nearby pillar, smiling. All that could be seen on its face was a slit of a mouth that was faintly angled upwards.

“Good, Rodney. You are becoming more aligned with your purpose now,” the creature said. Upon reaching F Rank, Rodney Kane had been contacted by a creature from the elemental plane of Darkness, which was his own chosen elemental affinity. It had promised him great power if he followed the path of Darkness fully, which he was doing, so far.

The elemental was trying to realign his Dao with one that was more in line with evil, rather than Anger, as he had initially possessed. So far, it was working well. Rodney Kane possessed an adjacent Dao to the one that the monster wanted for him, and he was slowly transforming himself into its image.

“I am glad of that,” he replied. “Still, I sense that I am not the strongest on the planet. That accursed wretch Sam Atlas is still at the top, and that fool of a man is underneath him. I am still stuck within third place.”

Rodney Kane’s bitter jealousy of those with more power than him was ever more apparent now that he had started to embrace his darker side, and it manifested every time that he spoke. The elemental encouraged this. There was nothing better than a bit of ambition after all. However, Rodney’s ambition went beyond a mere desire for success. He wanted, no, needed, to be the strongest. As he felt monsters begin to encroach upon his territory, he smiled. Seeing this as a means to gain more power in a shorter amount of time, Rodney Kane walked over to the edge of the roof, and vaulted over it, summoning his armor as he fell.

When he reached F Rank, the capabilities of his armor had increased dramatically, and he could now achieve pseudo flight with it, allowing him to drift down safely from the top of the building. Even if he had not done so, he still would have been fine, seeing as he could easily survive terminal velocity, but this way, he was able to pick his targets.

He drifted down towards a giant of a monster, a thirty foot tall crustaceous creature that had been disturbed from its slumber on the bottom of the ocean bed. It was an F Rank beast, and quite a powerful one at that. Perfect for testing his latest ability.

Streams of dark energy drifted out of his body and into his sword, covering it with a dark hue. Raising it above his head, he dropped the armor’s flight ability, and plummeted the rest of the way down. Roaring in rage, he swung his sword, cracking the crab open with a single strike. Blue blood spurted outwards, and he sent his Dao energy into the crack, opening it wider and wider.

Lifting Excalibur above his head, he summoned its conceptual energy, invoking the concept of the sword in the stone. Ramming the sword down into the monster, he cracked it in half with a thunderclap of energy, sending a wave of golden light out of the bottom of his sword. This was its special ability, The Sword of the King. When one was in a position of dominance, the sword was enhanced beyond its normal abilities. Smiling, he stepped off the monster, and onto the flooded streets, barely noticing the heat of the water. When this was all said and done, his enemies would weep tears of blood.