Ch 14

  And then I released!!

  BOOM!

  The backlash was cataclysmic. The sheer kinetic force of the release sent me sprawling backward, my body skidding across the jagged debris of the courtyard. The astra didn't just fly;. It tore through the sky, creating a massive, visible sonic boom that rippled outwards like a shockwave. It looked less like an astra and more like a tactical missile launched from the depths of hell.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the projectile streak between the five diving Wyverns. It moved with such absolute velocity that the air pressure in its wake shattered their flight formations. They were tossed aside like autumn leaves in a hurricane, their balance destroyed as they spiraled toward the ground.

  The astra continued its predatory path, slamming directly into the Alpha’s chest.

  THOOM!

  …….

  I dragged my battered frame out of the settling dust, every joint screaming in protest. Just as I managed to steady my breath, the System’s blue interface ignited before my eyes, bringing a surge of life back into my weary soul.

  "System," I rasped, the metallic taste of blood still heavy on my tongue. "Allocate the 2 Free Points: one to the Space Chakra and one to the Air Chakra."

  As the prana redistributed, I looked at the five remaining Rank-C Wyverns. They were grounded, their magnificent glass wings shattered into jagged, useless shards by the vacuum wake of my final strike. They lay in the dirt, no longer predators but pathetic, broken husks, looking at us with a glazed terror as if inviting their own end.

  But the war wasn't over. I scanned the battlefield, my Third-Eye tracking the remaining pockets of chaos.

  To my left, a Wyvern plummeted toward Rocky like a crystalline meteor. Rocky didn't just tank the hit; he slanted his heavy shield at the last microsecond. The Wyvern’s beak struck the reinforced surface, but instead of a direct impact, the force was deflected. Rocky skidded back, but the Wyvern’s momentum sent its beak digging deep into the frozen earth. Before it could recover, Ajit blurred into motion. He lunged from the shadows, his 50cm Space-Claws shimmering with a lethal violet light as he tore through the Wyvern’s throat, ending it instantly.

  I turned toward Maya. Another Wyvern was diving at her, its talons extended for a kill. This time, Maya didn't skidding back. She braced her frame and unleashed a colossal, vertical swing of her Gada.

  CRACK-BOOM!

  The impact was bone-shattering. The Wyvern’s head and beak were pulverized into a cloud of glowing dust. Maya was forced back by the sheer kinetic feedback, her boots digging deep trenches into the soil, but she stood tall amidst the wreckage. A Resonance strike, I thought.

  In the distance, Ankit and my Uncle were a whirlwind of steel, their spears dancing through the air as they picked off the remaining grounded wyverns. They were winning. However, as I looked back at the sky, my blood turned to ice.

  The two remaining Alpha Leaders from the other squads were hovering at the apex of the clouds. They didn't move to save their fallen kin. Their cold, crystalline eyes were fixed solely on me—the one who had dared to slay an Alpha.

  "Oh no... I’m done for," I whispered, my heart sinking into the depths of my gut. My victory over the first Alpha had backfired. Instead of scattering, the remaining two Alpha Wyverns were now locked onto me, drawn by the massive Prana surge of my last strike. I stood there, broken and depleted, silently pleading with the gods. Not now. Not like this. Stay away... please, stay away.

  But the gods remained indifferent to my pleas. The two Alphas tilted their heads toward the sky and let out a dual-sonic shriek that felt like glass shards being driven into my skull. They were enraged. With a synchronized snap of their crystalline wings, they plummeted from the clouds, transforming into two iridescent missiles aimed directly at my wounded form. I felt the cold breath of death on my neck. This is it. This is where I fall.

  But just as I prepared for the end, the atmosphere shifted. Two massive surges of Prana ignited nearby, so powerful that the static in the air made my hair stand on end. I glanced toward the source and saw Maya and Rocky.

  They weren't just standing their ground. I could see the prismatic flow of prana swirling around Maya’s Gadda as her Astra’s five Chakras Tattoos began to spin with a violent, synchronized rhythm.

  Some distance from her, Rocky stood like a mountain of iron. Two of his Chakras—the Earth (Crimson) and Space (Blue)—began to glow with an intensity that rivaled the bulb in middle of night.

  "Double Resonance..." I gasped.

  Rocky was doing it. He was using his skill, fusing the absolute mass of the Earth with the structural stability of Space.

  I looked toward Maya, and my breath hitched. Her Gada was no longer just a weapon; it was a conduit for cosmic fury. Two blinding, star-like orbs ignited upon its surface—one a fierce, Yellow (Fire) and the other a violent, swirling Emerald (Air). The dual resonance hummed with a pitch so high it made my teeth ache.

  The two Alpha Wyverns, mid-dive toward me, sensed the sudden surge of lethal energy behind them. They veered sharply, their crystalline wings screeching as they redirected their supersonic momentum toward Maya and Rocky. They were moving like streaks of jagged lightning, intent on crushing my friends before their Double Resonance could reach its peak.

  "MAYA! ROCKY!" I screamed, my voice raw.

  I couldn't just stand there. I frantically searched the debris for my Astra, but it had been flung dozens of meters away during the last blast. I was weaponless, forced to watch as the two sky-demons tore through the atmosphere, leaving twin sonic wakes that pulverized the very air.

  But then, I saw it—and the sight froze the blood in my veins.

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  Maya and Rocky didn't brace for impact. Instead, they began to spin on there place. Just as the Alphas were about to collide with them, they unleashed their final gambit.

  With a collective roar that drowned out the wind, they didn't just strike; they launched. Maya’s glowing Gada and Rocky’s massive, space-anchored Shield were hurled into the sky like two meteors returning to the stars.

  The atmosphere didn't just vibrate; it tore open. Maya’s Gada transformed into a streak of cataclysmic fire, a molten meteor of Crimson Fire and Emerald Air that shrieked as it ascended. It defied gravity, slicing through the sky with such terminal velocity that the air ignited in its wake. The projectile slammed directly into the first Alpha’s chest.

  KA-BOOM!

  The sound was a tectonic eruption. The Gada didn't just hit the beast; it pulverized through its crystalline sternum, exiting out the other side in a spray of orange ichor and shattered glass. The Alpha was literally hollowed out, a gaping, smoking hole left where it body had once pulsed. The gargantuan corpse, now nothing more than a broken husk, began its final, terminal descent toward ground.

  Simultaneously, I watched Rocky. His shield was a spinning disk of absolute destruction, a whirling vortex of Blue Space and Deep Earth that hummed with a low-frequency death knell. It mirrored the legendary shield of Captain America, but fueled by the raw, unbridled Prana of Human. It struck the second Alpha just below the beak, at the softest part of its crystalline throat.

  There was no resistance. The shield decapitated the beast with surgical, terrifying efficiency, the severed head launching into the clouds while the shield continued its predatory arc into the horizon.

  But the danger wasn't over. The headless torso of the second Wyvern, still carrying the momentum of its supersonic dive, was a multi-ton missile of meat and crystal heading directly for Rocky.

  Just as the headless torso of the Wyvern was about to obliterate Rocky, a streak of blinding white light surged from behind him. It moved like a lightning bolt, a blur of raw power that intercepted the falling monster mid-air.

  THOOM!

  The collision sounded like two tectonic plates grinding together. Rocky was launched backward by the concussive force, disappearing into a gargantuan, suffocating cloud of grey dust and pulverized concrete. I stood there, frozen, my lungs burning as I breathed in the grit. What was that? The tension in my chest felt like a tightening noose.

  Slowly, the dust began to settle, peeling away like a ghostly shroud. A massive silhouette emerged from the haze—vast, jagged, and immovable. As the visibility cleared, my breath hitched in my throat. It was Golu, Rocky’s bull.

  The impact zone had been transformed into meters-wide crater, the earth scorched and cracked as if hit by an orbital strike. In the center of that smoking pit, Golu was slumped on his knees, his massive frame trembling but defiant. Spread out before him was the mangled, headless corpse of the Alpha Wyvern—a multi-ton mass of crystal and meat that should have crushed everything in its path.

  I stood frozen, staring at the crater in utter disbelief. How could a creature of flesh and bone survive a kinetic impact of that magnitude? But as I scanned the scene, the tactical reality began to dawn on me. This wasn't just biological evolution.

  The Animals of this new world weren't just growing larger; their very body were adapting. Golu had done more than just charge; he had performed a Chakra Resonance with his Earth Chakra. In that split second before the collision, he must have funneled his Prana of Animal into his skeletal structure, turning his hide into a localized tectonic shield. It was the only reason he hadn't been pulverized into a red mist.

  But the cost of that defense was written in blood. Golu’s left horn—a massive spire of bone that had once been his pride—was snapped clean at the base, leaving a raw, pulsing stump. His front legs were angled unnaturally, the bones clearly shattered under the weight of the Wyvern’s supersonic momentum.

  He was a tapestry of carnage, his thick fur matted with a sickening mixture of his own deep crimson blood and the Wyvern’s glowing green ichor. Yet, even as his breath came in jagged, wet gasps, he didn't move. He stood as a broken bulwark between the dead monster and his master. It was a terrifying display of devotion—a animal willing to shatter its own existence to ensure its owner’s survival.

  With the Alphas dead, the remaining Wyverns descended into a state of primal anarchy. Without their leaders' telepathic coordination, their movements became erratic and predictable. They were no longer a tactical squad; they were confused, wounded animals.

  Uncle and the others were already systematically picking them off, their weapons flashing through the settling dust. I dragged my battered body toward the six Wyverns I had grounded earlier with my spatial wake. They were pathetic now, their once-magnificent prism-wings shattered into dull, useless shards.

  They hissed and snapped at me, their crystalline eyes wide with the realization that the predator had become the prey. I didn't hesitate. I nocked a simple astra and loosed it into the throat of the nearest beast. The projectile sank deep into its soft, unarmored neck.

  I moved to the next two, delivering quick, merciful strikes.

  I was stunned. I had just executed three Rank-C monsters, yet the golden flash of a level-up hadn't appeared. The threshold for Level 16 was proving to be a mountain I hadn't expected. I turned to the fourth and final Wyvern, my eyes cold. I released the string. The astra pierced its skull, ending its rhythmic, agonizing shrieks.

  A sudden surge of heat flooded my body, mending my minor fractures and washing away the suffocating fatigue. My vision sharpened, and the ambient Prana of the world felt even more responsive to my touch.

  As my level climbed, I realized the bitter truth of this world: gaining experience was becoming a grueling climb. I looked down at the last two twitching Wyvern, its crystalline wings shattered and dull. Killing it myself would barely nudge my progress, but then I thought of my family. My aunt was stuck at Level 5, and my parents were even more vulnerable. In a world where the sky itself had turned into a predator, being weak was a death sentence.

  Then, I saw her. Lori. Our fierce, small guardian was still perched near the big mango trees, her eyes reflecting the dying light of the indigo sky. I whistled, my voice raspy from the dust.

  "Lori! Over here!"

  She chirped a sharp, inquisitive trill before blurring into motion. She streaked across the battlefield, a small shadow moving through the wreckage of our home. When she reached me, she looked up, her tail flicking with a silent, predatory intelligence. I activated my [Race Ability: Mental Link] and pointed toward the dying Wyverns.

  "Finish it, Lori. Take the EXP."

  She let out a soft, kitten-like Meow that defied the lethal claws she suddenly unsheathed. With a fluid, surgical strike, she buried her glowing talons into the Wyvern’s throat, ending its rhythmic gasps.

  Suddenly, a strange phenomenon occurred. From the mangled remains of the Alpha Leader—whose chest had been hollowed out by my final astra—a rhythmic, crimson radiance began to seep into the air. It wasn't light; it was raw, liquid vitality. The essence flowed toward me, spiraling around my limbs before being absorbed into my pores."

  I felt the three new points anchor themselves into my core, vibrating with potential. I didn't allocate them yet; the air was still too heavy with the scent of ozone and blood. I needed to see my parents first.

  I moved through the wreckage, my fractured leg sending sharp, electric jolts of pain through my body with every step. I found them beneath the big mango trees—my father, mother, and my aunt, who was still trembling from the residual vibration of the sonic blasts. I gathered them, guiding them through the sea of pulverized stone and shattered glass toward the emerald beacon of the communal hall.

  "It’s okay," I whispered, my voice a raspy comfort against the cold evening air. "I've got you."

  I brought them to Fatima and the medical team. My aunt’s eyes were wide with a glazed shock, but as the cool, herb-scented Prana from the healers began to wash over them, I felt a flicker of the crushing weight on my chest lift. I stayed only long enough to ensure their vitals were stable and that the sonic trauma hadn't reached a critical level.

  I wanted to believe—I needed to believe—that the damage wasn't as severe as it looked. I told myself it was just surface-level, that the they would heal just as my skin had. With one last look at my family being tended to by the soft green light of the healers.

  2nd Invasion.

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