CHAPTER 188: DESTROYED THE CURSED (5)

Chapter 188

Aiden had a bad feeling—an overwhelming sense that something terrible was coming. Whatever the Cursed were planning, it wasn’t ordinary. It felt massive, earth-shattering. Yet, the other heroes around him didn’t seem to share his unease. Maybe they couldn’t feel it. But that didn’t matter.

He had to warn them.

Aiden turned toward the formation of heroes and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Everyone, get ready! Something big is coming—really big!"

Before his words could fully settle, the ground trembled violently. Not a little—it was as if a mountain was walking toward them. And soon, they saw the source. From the distance, faint silhouettes appeared on the horizon—tiny at first, but quickly growing larger and more defined.

And terrifying.

Monstrous beasts emerged, massive in size, shaped like giant scorpions—yet far more grotesque and unnatural. Their carapaces were a deep, gleaming black, but what made them truly horrifying was the thick black fur covering parts of their bodies. On their backs, deadly tails arched high—sharp, glinting, and menacing. Some had one tail. Others had two. A few had three. Each tail seemed deadlier than the last, with different eerie colors glowing along their tips.

There was no time to gawk.

The heroes raised their weapons. Energy flared. And with a collective roar, they surged forward to meet the beasts head-on.

The battle erupted instantly.

The scorpion beasts were incredibly strong—fast, lethal, and nearly impenetrable. Their armored bodies made them extremely difficult to injure, let alone kill. But the heroes had what the monsters lacked: intelligence and teamwork.

Fighting side by side, the heroes adapted quickly, exploiting small weaknesses in the scorpions’ movements and carapace joints. And slowly, they began to push the tide.

What truly boosted morale was the arrival of several elite fighters.

On one flank, Kael and his two companions were a storm of precision and fury. Though most of the beasts they fought were C-rank—with the two-tailed ones bordering on the high end—they held their ground effortlessly. In fact, they weren’t just surviving. They were winning.

Kael launched his body backward like a meteorite. Midair, he gripped the handle of the glowing blue gauntlet in his hand and dragged it to the farthest notch. Instantly, he felt his energy drain at an alarming rate. The gauntlet in his hand gleamed with a brilliant blue light as swirling energy surged around his arm.

But this time, the energy wasn’t the size of his fist or slightly larger like before—it had grown colossal. So massive, in fact, that Kael looked like a microbe within it. The enormous blue drills formed, spinning violently with raw power. Then Kael struck.

The horde of beasts below had no chance.

Like a divine spear, his drill tore through their ranks with zero resistance. The bodies of the scorpion beasts were shredded effortlessly—dozens fell in an instant, torn apart like paper in the wind. His friends stood in shock, but no one was more surprised than Kael himself.

Never in his wildest dreams did he expect to take out over forty C-rank beasts at once—and with such ease. He stared down at the blue gauntlet with a complex expression on his face: awe, fear... but above all, a deep thrill.

Back then, when one of Nathan’s subordinates had gifted him this weapon from the forge, he hadn’t thought much of it. The gauntlet seemed ordinary. But now? It felt like the most powerful item he had ever held.

The gauntlet—[Limiter Grasp]—had two abilities: one passive, one active.

The passive skill dulled the fatigue caused by using powerful techniques. Normally, unleashing such energy would put a massive strain on Kael’s body. But now, that burden was softened. The exhaustion didn’t vanish, but it was so muted that Kael felt like he could fight for hours.

The active skill, however, was something else entirely.

Typically, only A-rank warriors could precisely control the amount of energy they released during attacks. S-rankers were even better—wasting little to no energy at all. B-rankers like Kael? They barely had a grasp on energy control. But thanks to this gauntlet, he could bypass that limitation entirely.

Even more shocking—Kael realized he had pushed beyond his usual limit. Normally, there was a maximum threshold of energy he could channel into a single attack without collapsing afterward. But not anymore. He had surpassed that boundary—and the gauntlet had made it possible.

"The guild’s forgemasters really are monsters..." Kael muttered with a small, stunned smile.

"Have you lost your mind, Kael?! Hurry up and help us out here!" one of his friends shouted from nearby.

Snapping out of it, Kael gave a quick nod. He pulled the handle back to the middle setting, shrinking the drill to a medium size. Without wasting another second, he leapt back into battle.

All around the battlefield, scorpion beasts were falling one after another as the guild members fought fiercely, their synchronized attacks and powerful weapons giving them the edge. Skills clashed against monstrous hide, and the tide gradually turned in the humans’ favor.

Aiden and the others finally joined the fray, and from that moment, the pace of the battle accelerated drastically. Aiden, now in his partial transformation state, hadn’t fully unleashed his power—but the strange sensation he felt earlier had triggered something deep within him.

Though he was slicing through the scorpion beasts with ease, his eyes kept drifting toward the group of nearly 200 red Vanguards stationed in the distance. They hadn’t moved an inch since the battle began, only watching silently.

His gaze locked onto their leader, standing ominously at the front. There was something unsettling about the man—an arrogant smirk perhaps? Aiden couldn’t quite place it, but a chill ran down his spine. Had they walked into a trap? He didn’t know what, but his instincts screamed danger.

Meanwhile, several hundred meters to his right, a fellow hero stood triumphantly over the corpse of a large, two-tailed scorpion beast. Blood dripped from his mace as he grinned in satisfaction. He had managed to take down a high C-class—or maybe even low B-class—beast alone.

But his celebration didn’t last.

To be continued...