Chapter 220: Incoming Attacks
George stood at the center of the chaos with a wide grin stretched across his face as he swung his massive hammer in broad arcs that tore through the air with crushing force.
His movements carried weight and control and his swings landed with devastating impact as his weapon smashed into multiple enemies at once instead of just one. Because they kept surrounding him despite everything they had already seen.
They saw how easily he handled that oversized hammer and how he moved it like it weighed nothing, yet they still believed numbers would be enough to overwhelm him and that mistake continued to cost them their lives again and again.
Two men took the full force of his hammer to their heads and their skulls collapsed instantly before their bodies were thrown backward several meters and slammed into the ones behind them, dragging others down in the process.
George didn’t stop and didn’t even pause to look as he twisted his body and reversed the swing in one continuous motion, sending the hammer crashing from the opposite direction.
Two more were caught off guard and struck before they could react. Their bodies lifted off the ground and sent flying as if they weighed nothing.
It had been like this from the beginning, a constant flow of destruction where anyone who entered his range only ended up becoming another corpse on the ground.
But in the middle of that rhythm, something changed.
The grin on George’s face slowly faded as a sharp tension crawled up his spine and his instincts flared with sudden intensity to warn him of something far more dangerous than the enemies he had been hitting so easily.
He had learned to trust that instinct, especially after everything he had experienced and after deepening his understanding of Ether, and that instinct had never been wrong before.
His head turned at the exact right moment.
Nine figures rushed toward him.
Shock flashed through his mind for an instant as he saw them closing in together with overwhelming presence, and the thought exploded in his head.
"What the fuck?!"
But the shock didn’t freeze him. It sharpened him.
George gritted his teeth and adjusted his stance immediately, planting his feet firmly as he turned his full body to face them head on.
The hesitation vanished and was replaced by an aggressive attitude as a snarl formed across his face. His eyes locked onto them without fear even though he stood alone against all of them.
"COME ON!"
His voice roared across the battlefield as he gripped his hammer tighter and raised it in challenge.
The first attack came instantly.
A bolt of lightning tore through the air toward him with terrifying speed and precision, and George reacted without hesitation as he swung his hammer up to meet it directly.
The impact exploded on contact and sent sparks and energy scattering outward while the force pushed into his arms, heavier than anything he had blocked before. But he held his ground without stepping back.
Another bolt followed immediately. Then another.
They came one after another in rapid succession crashing against his hammer as he continued to block them. The repeated impacts build pressure through his arms and into his stance.
The force kept increasing and he could feel the difference clearly now because this was no longer something he could brush off as easily as before.
"These guys are stronger..."
The realization formed as his muscles tensed further under the strain, but he still didn’t give ground.
Then they arrived.
Peter reached him first.
His movement cut through the distance with explosive speed and his blade was already in motion before his body fully stopped.
The strike aimed with lethal precision straight toward George.
George reacted at the last moment and moved his hammer into position, intercepting the attack with a heavy clash that rang sharply through the battlefield.
The force behind it slammed into him immediately.
It was far heavier than anything he had taken before and it drove straight through his weapon and into his body, forcing his arms to absorb the impact as his footing pushed slightly despite how firmly he had planted himself.
His muscles tightened as he held against it, but the pressure didn’t disappear.
Another strike came right after. Faster, sharper, and more controlled.
George raised his hammer again to block and the second clash hit even harder, forcing his boots to scrape against the ground as he was pushed back this time, even if it was only a small distance.
The difference was clear now and there was no denying it anymore.
These enemies were not the same as the ones he had been crushing before.
Their attacks carried more weight, precision, and intent that pushed against him and there were still eight more behind the one in front of him.
George tightened his grip around his hammer as his snarl deepened and his stance stabilized again.
The pressure didn’t give him even a moment to recover. The instant Peter’s second strike forced him back another figure broke through the gap in perfect timing and came from George’s left side with a sharp and precise slash aimed straight for his exposed flank.
The blade moved fast and clean with killing intent that didn’t leave room for hesitation, and George reacted on instinct as he twisted his body and dragged his hammer across to intercept it.
The heavy weapon collided with the incoming sword in a harsh metallic crash that sent sparks scattering between them.
But that wasn’t all.
Another presence slipped in at the same time from his right side, lower and faster, moving in a way that was far harder to track.
A man wielding a dagger closed the distance in a blink of an eye and aimed directly for the opening that George couldn’t fully cover after blocking the first strike.
The angle was perfect, the timing even more so, and the attack came in silently compared to the others, making it even more dangerous.
George’s eyes widened slightly as his body failed to fully turn in time.
His hammer was still locked against the sword on his left, his weight shifted, his center open, and his mind instantly understood the situation as it turned grim.
"Shit... I can’t block that."
The realization came sharp and immediate. His muscles strained as he tried to force his body to move faster than it could, but he already knew it wouldn’t be enough.
The dagger was too close. Too precise.
He was about to get stabbed.
Then...
A flash of blue cut through the space between them.
A bluish dagger appeared out of nowhere and slammed directly into the incoming strike, intercepting it just before it could reach George’s side.
The impact knocked the enemy’s blade off course and broke the perfect timing of the coordinated attack in a single instant.
George’s head snapped slightly to the side.
Daniel stood there.
His body leaned forward from the sudden entry, his dagger still locked against the enemy’s weapon as his other hand remained ready. His eyes were sharp and focused on the opponent in front of him.
He had arrived at the exact moment needed.
The pressure shifted. Peter frowned.
What should have been a clean kill turned into a clash instead.
—
