Once Alexander's skills were dismissed, the notification screens popped up again:
[Level Up! Normal Rank 5 – Normal Rank 6]
[Level Up! Normal Rank 6 – Normal Rank 7]
"I know that killing something with a core grants mana and levels, but what is the actual ratio?" Alexander asked, turning to the Noble Rankers.
"Broadly speaking, it takes a hundred beasts of your same rank to gain one level," Hakon explained. "Or ten beasts of the rank above yours. To jump an entire level from a single kill, you usually need to take down something two ranks higher. Once you hit the Royal Ranks, however, the math gets fuzzy. Not much is revealed to normal adventurers about that tier."
"You two are hardly 'normal' adventurers," Reina remarked.
"First of all, I am merely a minor member of a minor branch house of the Lords of Daro," Franklin said with a modest shrug.
"And I am just the second son of a merchant," Hakon added smoothly.
Ketovan and Reina both sighed; they knew exactly how much influence those "minor" titles actually carried.
"Guys, the next leaf has a Commander Rank beast," Alex noted as the new platform entered his sphere of vision.
Reina's interest spiked. She was currently at Soldier Rank 35, having gained a boost by finishing off the dying Noble Rankers during the orc invasion, but she was desperate to reach Commander Rank as quickly as possible.
"Reina, you take the Commander. Alex, you handle the rest," Hakon commanded.
"There are around 250 Normal Ranks and four Soldier Ranks there," Alex said, his voice betraying a lack of self-confidence.
"You can handle it," Reina said, trying to bolster his morale. "Focus on your wind skills and that fatigue aura. Just keep your head in the game."
As they reached the leaf, Reina surged forward to challenge the Commander Rank grasshopper. The Soldier Ranks hissed and moved to defend their leader, but the Commander swiped them aside, wanting to end the "fragile human" itself. The two combatants moved to the far side of the leaf, claiming half of it as their personal battlefield.
Alex immediately called upon his skills. Wind coalesced around his fists, his fatigue aura rippled outward, and the rush of adrenaline sharpened his vision. Sensing his presence, the horde of Normal Rank beasts did the only thing they knew how to do: they swarmed.
Alex pulled up his fists as a shield. The claws that had previously shredded his body were now deflected by the wind with ease. He began to strike. Command – Muscle allowed him to punch with inhuman speed and leverage, each hit shattering a grasshopper. His aura of despair sapped the energy of the horde, slowing them to half their original speed. To his surprise, the Soldier Rankers simply watched from the periphery; they looked at him as if he were a common insect, not even worthy of their attention.
Alex felt skulls crushing beneath his wind-gloves, and he found himself craving more. Once fifty grasshoppers had perished, one of the Soldier Rankers finally grew impatient. It blurred toward him with the intent to kill in a single strike. The Normal Ranks parted instantly for their superior; those who weren't fast enough were simply trampled to death.
Alex raised his left arm to guard, but the power gap was stark. The beast's claw cut through his defenses and his flesh like a hot wire through wax. His left hand was severed cleanly, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Adrenaline spiked. He jumped back twenty feet, instinctively increasing the potency of his despair aura while activating Command – Anger. He slipped into a cold trance. He expected the Soldier Ranker to slow down, but the effect of his aura was minimal against a superior rank. He ducked low to save his neck and unsheathed Emperor's Will. He swung at the beast's neck, but it parried with a heavy claw. The blade, which usually sliced through insects like butter, got stuck halfway through the Soldier Rank's chitin.
In his trance, his body moved on its own. He wrenched the cutlass back and lashed out again and again. After four relentless strikes, the claw was sliced clean, and a jagged gash opened across the beast's chest. As the grasshopper raised its second claw to take his right arm, something shifted. A faint, razor-thin sheet of wind coated the black blade, forming a shimmering exoskeleton. It became sharper and easier to guide.
He struck the second claw and severed it in two hits before plunging the blade into the beast's head, ending it. He let the wind go rampant; each swing now created three crescent wind blades that tore through the Normal Ranks. Seeing their comrade fall, the remaining three Soldier Rankers descended upon him simultaneously.
Alex fell back into a defensive stance, parrying and dodging. He noticed their claws were now coated in a toxic green mana. When a missed strike hit the leaf, the surrounding area disintegrated instantly. He realized that a single touch from those claws would be his end. Even the wind sheath around his blade was being eroded by the green mana, forced to restore itself subconsciously.
He found an opening and released his wind blades, but they did nothing against the Soldier Ranks—not even a scratch. For a second, he was shocked, but his trance kept him focused. By now, Command – Muscle had fully restored his left hand at a massive cost to his mana.
With his hand back, he blocked a strike with his cutlass and countered with a punch. He didn't expect much damage, but when his wind-empowered fist connected with the grasshopper's stomach, it went straight through. As he pulled back, the beast collapsed with a fist-sized hole in its gut, its core visible at the edge of the wound.
The final two beasts tried to flank him, but he was a blur of motion. He plunged the cutlass into the head of one and crushed the throat of the other with his bare palm. With the Soldier Ranks dead, the remaining hundred Normal Ranks were child's play. A few more punches and wind blades, and the clearing was silent.
When he turned toward Reina to check her progress, he froze. The battle before him was unlike anything he had ever imagined.
***