LEVEL 0 IMMORTAL

When the horde of creatures descended upon them as the ground cracked open, Tarian Arathor did not flinch; he was smiling instead.

About ten Siphons had died nearly in an instant, and Tarian felt sorrow as well as annoyance. These were good men and women who could have served him in the future, and now they were gone due to carelessness.

As much as he craved the signs of mysteries around this place, what he wanted more was blood, action, and the endless possibilities for growth, and now it had arrived.

He had been waiting for this, years of training against all forms of danger, and this was no different. The stakes were higher, the enemies were a lot uglier, but the math was the same: kill or be killed.

"Shield wall!" he commanded. He did not shout, but his voice touched every ear that was under his banner.

In the upper districts, although he did not show off, every nobleborn knew that Tarian's word was law, especially in a place like this. He had elder brothers and sisters, but none of their talent neared his own.

Although there were others who would not have listened to him, he was sure that his father had smoothed out anyone who would want to interfere with this expedition, and his words were a test to see who responded well.

Hundreds of young Siphons moved like clockwork. In one form or another, they had trained together for years and had learned each other's rhythms the way other young people learned each other's names.

There were not many defenders in their ranks; most of the Siphons here came for the promise of growth that killing these creatures would bring, but the ones with shields were many times more skilled than an average Siphon, as they had talents and techniques that enhanced defense.

They stepped forward and locked the shield, forming a wall of steel and light. Behind them, the ranged specialists raised their hands, their talents already kindling, and they did not have to wait because the spawns were everywhere.

They came from the alleys, windows, and holes in the ground; it was as if they were raining from the sky, but these were just the ones who had climbed the roofs of buildings and were jumping down.

Everyone here expected a tide of bodies from the account given by the lucky few who survived this place before the walls came up, but hearing about something and seeing it were two entirely different concepts.

They came in a tide of pale flesh and red eyes and teeth that gleamed in the light. The scream from before was no longer heard; instead, the horde descended in silence. which was a worse sensation for many of the Siphons here.

Beasts should roar and scream, even if they were freaks of nature; silence was too unnatural.

"Fire!" Tarian commanded.

The ranged specialists released seething bolts of power that shredded the air. This power either emerged from techniques or talents, but they were devastating.

A girl with copper hair and eyes that glowed like embers raised her hands, and a wave of flame exploded from her palms.

This flame was different as it was the flame of a dragon, hot enough to melt stone, bright enough to blind anyone who stared at its core. The spawns in front of her turned to ash before they could scream.

Beside her, a boy with a long face and longer fingers knelt and touched the ground. The cobblestones rippled, then rose, forming a wall of stone that blocked the alley to their left. The spawns trying to flank them slammed into it, their claws scrabbling uselessly against the enchanted rock.

"Good," Tarian said. "Hold."

The area lit up with the glow of thousands of energy bolts, from frost, fire, lightning, and even green bolts of poison and purple bolts of acid.

In twelve seconds of unadulterated violence, thousands of spawns were turned to ash, and the air around this area seemed to be bubbling.

There was so much energy in the air that the thousands of spawns that were rushing towards the Siphons were destroyed before they could come near their ranks.

However, blasting out so much energy came with consequences, as most of them here had used up most of their energy, and now they were rapidly chugging down potions or using special talismans to quickly regain their essence.

This was the problem with killing these beasts, and instantly, these young geniuses recognized it.

Siphons were special, and one of the greatest reasons they dominated this entire world was because even in battle, they were literally consuming the vitality of their fallen enemies.

Fighting these creatures was like striking the abyss; every attack was swallowed, and nothing remained. If not for the fact that the ground was now filled with ash, they would think that they were just wasting time.

Tarian frowned as he saw that the flood of energy would soon end, and the spawns were not decreasing.

Others may be satisfied with these small fries, but he had noted that as they got closer to the pit, that was when they were attacked, and he did not like for his enemies to make the shots.

It was time to break this battlefield.

Tarian stepped to the front of the shield wall, his blue hair bright against the darkness, his pale gold eyes scanning the tide. His Warg stood beside him, its hackles raised with its teeth bared. It was not afraid because it had been bred for this.

"Open the wall," he said.

The shields parted, just enough for him to step through. His squad did not question him. They had learned, in the years they had trained together, that Tarian knew what he was doing.

He raised his hand and called the lightning.

Many of them had heard of the power of Tarian, the child who was favored to be the next lord of Stormfall, and in this moment, the entire battlefield seemed to grind to a halt as lightning bolts began to erupt from Tarian's body

It began like small strings of worms that grew to the size of pythons.

The lightning came from his body and the sky above, tearing through the twilight and falling onto his body, and all of this lightning wrapped around his arm, coiled like a serpent.

With the power of his Heaven Grade Legacy, he animated this lightning, transforming it into a gigantic serpent.

The serpent crawled away from Tarian, and it grew bigger as it got farther away from him, and its speed also increased.

Everything in front of and around the lightning serpent turned to ash and fire as it burned its way through the horde, through buildings and any obstacle in its path, all the way to the pit.

In one single move, Tarian had burned a hole through half the city. It was as if a finger of god reached down to touch the earth and carve a line through the earth, leaving a trail of melted stone.

For a long moment, there was silence as the entire Siphons here gaped at this level of power. Was this the power of the greatest genius in Stormfall?