ch 3

  I shifted my gaze to Maya. She had reclaimed her heavy Gada, her muscles bulging as she channeled her Tier-2 Skill. She wasn't just swinging the weapon; she was hurling it like a meteor.

  Every time the heavy Gada found its mark, a hound exploded instantly. At one point, the force of a blast sent the Gada flying back toward her with dangerous speed. Without flinching, Maya snatched the spinning weapon out of the air and, in one fluid motion, pivoted to strike a second pack of monsters closing in from the flank.

  Suddenly, a flash of movement caught my attention. A villager armed with a sword was fighting desperately, unaware that a Cinder-Hound was leaping at his back from the shadows. I didn't waste a heartbeat. I drew an Earth Tier-2 Astra and released it. The projectile struck the hound in mid-air, the heavy impact knocking it off course and slamming it into the dirt. The creature snarled, its eyes locking onto me with predatory hate. It didn't hesitate; it began a frantic, snarling sprint directly toward my position.

  I felt no fear—only a cold, calculating focus. I pulled another Earth Tier-2 Astra from my spatial storage and began a 40% Resonance charge. The air around the bow hummed with a deep, stony vibration. I waited until the beast was barely thirty meters away before I let the string fly.

  The hound tried to swerve, its instincts sensing the danger, but the astra was too fast. The heavy, earth-infused shaft drove through its front leg and buried itself deep into the iron-hard ground. The force of the impact pinned the creature to the earth like a specimen on a board, its legs shattered and its movement permanently halted.

  [REMAINING PRANA: 66%]

  The wounded hound refused to stay down; it dragged its charred body toward me with relentless hunger. When it reached a distance of barely ten meters, I drew a Tier-2 Fire Astra with lightning speed and released.

  The impact was absolute. The creature erupted into a violent white nova, the heat so intense that it scorched the air around me. A searing wave of thermal energy washed over me, pushing me back like a physical hammer.

  I took a deep, jagged breath, feeling the surge of energy that came with reaching Level 7. While the distance allowed me to fight safely, I could see my companions struggling in the thick of it. The suffocating heat and the constant, bone-shaking explosions were wearing them down. My heart went out to them, but there was no time for empathy—only action.

  I decided to push my limits. I nocked a Tier 2 air astra and began converting it into an Ultimate Tier-2 Air Astra. This time, I didn't stop at the safety limit; I pushed the resonance to a staggering 100% power.

  I watched as the five Chakra tattoos on my Silver Bow began to glow with a blinding light, siphoning my Prana like a thirsty vortex. It felt as if a river of energy was being drained from my core, rushing into the Air-Chakra tattoo where it fused into a volatile, compressed cyclone at the tip of my astra.

  My hands are hurting and my chest like hot,veins pooping in my arms

  Suddenly, I saw Maya. She was stooping to retrieve her fallen Gada when a Cinder-Hound launched itself at her from her blind spot. She saw the shadow, but her muscles, exhausted from the heat, failed to react in time.

  "MAYA!" I roared, releasing the string.

  The 100% Resonance astra tore through the sound barrier, appearing as a blur of distorted air. It struck the hound mid-leap. Because of the massive Kinetic Energy generated by the overcharged air, the beast wasn't just hit—it was physically blasted backward, carried five meters away before it finally touched the ground and detonated. If it had been a normal astra, the explosion would have caught Maya in the blast radius, but the gale-force impact had saved her.

  [REMAINING PRANA: 53%]

  My Prana was plummeting. I realized I had to start conserving my energy if I wanted to survive the rest of the wave. I switched to my remaining Tier-2 Earth Astra, using their pinning properties to assist the other warriors. I intercepted a hound that was lunging at a female villager; she had managed to slay one, but the second was inches from her throat before my astra drove it into the dirt.

  Across the scorched field, the scent of ozone and burnt fur hung heavy in the air. I saw Ajit engage one of the final hounds, his elongated claws tearing into the creature's throat.

  Surprisingly, it didn't detonate instantly. But as Ajit moved in for a finishing strike, the beast suddenly fractured into white light and erupted. Ajit activated his defense ability just in time, but the sheer force of the blast sent him hurtling backward.

  As he tumbled, I saw another hound lunging at his prone body. I didn't hesitate. I loosed an astra that silenced the beast mid-leap. Another explosion rocked the earth, and the resulting thermal wave washed over Ajit, leaving him scorched and dazed. My heart hammered with worry, but my Intuition told me he wasn't mortally wounded; his enhanced attributes would allow him to recover.

  The remaining two hounds, seeing their pack decimated, turned and sprinted back toward the spatial rift. They were retreating. I nocked an Air Astra and tracked the lead runner, releasing a shot that caught it squarely in the back, turning it into a pillar of white flame. Almost simultaneously, a spear whistled through the air and impaled the final hound—a perfect throw from my Uncle. The last invader vanished in a brilliant flash.

  I let out a long, shuddering breath. Silence finally returned to the plains. The hounds were gone. A surge of relief washed over me, though a small, competitive part of my mind felt a twinge of disappointment that the "XP farming" had ended so soon.

  I surveyed our small army. Everyone bore the marks of battle. Two of our dogs and one of the bulls were severely burned; they had taken the full impact of the explosions at the frontline.

  The rest of the warriors were singed and battered, but alive. A wave of profound gratitude hit me—the fact that we had survived our first encounter without a single human casualty was a miracle. If anyone had died today, the morale of the village would have been shattered beyond repair.

  Stolen story; please report.

  It felt surreal. Twenty-five humans and ten animals had stood their ground against one hundred Rank-D invaders and won. I realized then that the explosive power of a Rank-D core was equivalent to a Level 8 or 9 strike. Without a defensive skill, a direct hit would have been fatal for any of us.

  Our animals had survived only because their natural Defense Stats were significantly higher than ours.

  The intensity of the first wave had left everyone shattered. One by one, the warriors collapsed where they stood. Some sat slumped over their weapons, using spears and swords as crutches just to stay upright. I stumbled through the soot, surveying the carnage.

  The battlefield was a graveyard of gray ash; the once-towering iron-grass had been incinerated, and the ground—despite being as hard as reinforced steel—was gouged with deep craters from the repeated explosions.

  I reached Maya first. She was leaning heavily on her Gada, her breathing shallow and ragged. The searing heat of the battle had scorched through parts of her clothing. Without a word, I pulled off my outer shirt and handed it to her to cover the burns.

  "Sit down," I said softly, my own voice sounding foreign to my ears. "Are you okay?"

  "I’m fine," she whispered, her eyes staring blankly at the smoldering remains of a hound.

  "Just... exhausted."

  I turned my gaze toward Rocky. He had suffered the most; as our vanguard, he had taken the full force of the explosive impacts. His arms were blackened and blistered, the skin raw from the thermal shock. However, as I watched, I noticed the faint shimmer of Prana stitching his wounds back together. Further away, the dogs and the bulls were lying in the ash. I realized then that their recovery speed was far superior to ours—their bodies were evolving to heal at a terrifying rate.

  "What kind of sick joke is this?" Ankit suddenly roared, his voice cracking with rage. "If they wanted to kill us with bombs, they should have just sent bombs! Why send these cursed Cinder-Hounds? Bastards!" He struck the ground in frustration, the sound of his anger echoing across the silent field.

  I walked over to my brother, Ajit. He was sitting in silence, his claws retracted but his hands still shaking from the adrenaline. "You holding up?" I asked. He gave a small, weary nod, his body already beginning the slow process of mending itself.

  My eyes eventually drifted toward the horizon, settling on the Great Rift. It remained wide open, a jagged tear in the sky that refused to heal. I didn't know if it was supposed to close after the first hundred kills, but its persistent hum felt like a taunt.

  Just as I felt the first touch of hope that the battle was over, a System notification flared in my vision. This one was different—it pulsed with a dark, heavy resonance

  A mechanical chime echoed in my mind, announcing the conclusion of the first skirmish.

  I let out a long, shuddering breath of relief. For a moment, I allowed myself to believe the nightmare was over. Then, I noticed something strange occurring across the scorched battlefield. From the heaps of cooling ash and the remains of the hounds, faint, translucent ribbons of energy began to rise. They moved like ethereal snakes, drawn toward us by an invisible force.

  I watched, mesmerized, as these energy wisps sank directly into our Root Chakras, feeding into the petals of our internal Lotus.

  "Ten-fold Prana recovery..." I muttered, feeling the stagnant ache in my veins being replaced by a cool, refreshing flow.

  "What a useless reward!" Rocky yelled, kicking a pile of ash in frustration. "What’s the point of recovering prana when the fight is already over?" He didn't understand. The System never gave a gift without a reason.

  Seeing that the others were stabilized, I walked over to Maya and sat beside her on the soot-covered ground. The moment I settled next to her, she pulled me into a fierce embrace, holding me as if she intended to never let go. I could feel the slight tremor in her hands—the lingering adrenaline of the slaughter.

  "Are you okay?" I asked softly against her hair. She didn't speak; she simply nodded her head against my chest, her grip tightening.

  "You know," I said, trying to break the heavy tension with a small smile, "when you were out there fighting, you looked absolutely terrifying. Like some primal, wild warrior."

  "Shut up, I did not!" she huffed, pulling back just enough to pinch me sharply on the stomach. We shared a small, weary laugh—a fragile moment of humanity in the middle of an apocalypse.

  "Anyway," I said, looking at the others, "how are we looking? What levels did you all reach?"

  "Level 8," Maya replied. I wasn't surprised. She hadn't just used her heavy Gada to hit things; she had been hurling it like a kinetic missile. Every time that massive weight connected with a Cinder-Hound, the impact was so absolute that the creatures were disintegrated instantly.

  Ankit and Rocky gave the same answer. We were all Level 8 now. But as I felt my Prana reserves refilling at an unnatural speed.

  "I suggest everyone focus on their recovery," I warned, my eyes scanning the silent horizon. "There’s no guarantee what might happen next. We need every drop of Prana we can get."

  Maya looked at me, her expression shifting from exhaustion to a sudden, sharp anxiety. "Amit, what about the Cinder-Hounds that headed toward the market? What if they burn everything down?"

  I paused, considering the distance. "We can't worry about that right now, Maya. The population near the market is much larger than our village. There must be other people who chose Warrior Professions there. They should be able to hold their own. For now, our priority is our families and our people right here."

  Despite my words, a sense of unease lingered. I needed to know exactly where I stood before the next threat arrived. I pulled up my interface.

  My Prana of Human and Petals had surged to 16, a testament to the growth from Level 8. But it was the Unallocated Free Prana that caught my eye. Three points. In this world, those three points could be the difference between a shattered bow and a killing shot.

  I looked at my stats again. My Water Prana was the lowest at 8. If I was going to face more fire-based invaders like the Cinder-Hounds, I needed to balance my elemental affinity. Every percentage, every decimal point of potency mattered now.

  Without a second thought, I allocated two of my free points into the Water Chakra and the final point into the Space Chakra. Though I wasn't certain the next invaders would be Cinder-Hounds, I refused to gamble with our lives. Water was my only guaranteed counter against the searing heat of the Searing Maw.

  As the points settled, a cool, stabilizing energy surged through my pathways, updating my status:

  I sat cross-legged amidst the gray ash to focus on my recovery. My Prana of Human had jumped from 54% to a solid 70% due to the Level 8 breakthrough. However, my Prana of Petals remained at 70%. As an Archer, I fought from the rear, siphoning my life force rather than my physical combat energy. But a gut feeling told me that before this day was over, I would be forced into a close-quarters struggle where those petals would be my only lifeline.

  A sense of impending doom gnawed at my stomach. Taking advantage of the 10x Recovery Bonus, I spent the next fifteen minutes frantically manifesting ammunition. I managed to craft 30 Tier-2 Water Astra and 5 Tier-2 Air Astra. Thanks to the accelerated recovery, the mental strain of manifesting such complex Astra was significantly reduced.

  By the time I finished, the sun was reaching its zenith. It was noon, but the light felt cold.

  Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted. The animals—the five dogs, the bulls, and the cats—began to wail. It wasn't the aggressive barking from before; it was the sound of pure, unadulterated terror. I watched as Golu and the dogs began to backtrack, their bodies trembling as they retreated from an invisible pressure.

  I followed their gaze toward the Spatial Rift.

  A bitter realization sank into my chest. The System hadn't given us a 20-minute recovery window out of mercy. It was a tactical recharge. It was preparing us for something so devastating tha

  t it required us to be at our absolute peak just to survive the first ten seconds.

  "Get up!" I roared, my hand snapping to my quiver as I felt the first vibration of a massive footfall. "It's not over. It’s only just beginning.”