The sight of Ellis and Nina joining forces triggered a frantic chain reaction across the battlefield. Among the elite, words were unnecessary; a single glance across the chaotic spans was enough to seal a pact. They knew the math: facing the combined might of the Rank 1 and Rank 2 players alone was a death sentence. To survive, they had to congregate.
Within fifteen minutes, the power map of the island cluster had been redrawn into five terrifying coalitions:
The Iron Vanguard: Rank 3 [Sword Saint] Kaito Miura and Rank 5 [Gunner] Tyren.
The Shadow Venom: Rank 6 [Shadow Warrior] Cha Seung-won and Rank 10 [Venom Maestro] Hodgson.
The Aegis Core: Rank 4 Edward, Rank 8 [Captain] Grann, and Rank 9 [Shield Vanguard] Kelly.
The Luminarch Pact: Rank 7 [Radiant Mage] Aldington, backed by thirty elite [Grapplers] from The Indic Sovereignty.
The Apex Duo: Ellis and Nina.
These juggernauts tore through the central islands like reaping scythes. They didn't just fight; they harvested. Ordinary players were swept aside like chaff as banners were torn from their pedestals at a visible rate.
The global livestream chat was a chaotic frenzy of despair and awe.
— “Holy shit, these monsters are teaming up? How is anyone else supposed to play?”
— “Play? You don’t ‘play’ against the Top 100. You pray they don’t notice you.”
— “This is beyond unfair. It’s a slaughter.”
— “Welcome to the Apocalypse, kid. Fair died with the old world.”
— “Any A-rank carries looking for a sub? I’m high-spec and wear fishnets. Please, just save me!”
— “The thirst in this chat is real. Meanwhile, the pros are fighting for The Unclaimed Wastes and we’re all just basement-tier fodder.”
In the cramped classroom of Novice Zone 911, the atmosphere was suffocating.
"Those bastards," Ray spat, his knuckles white as he slammed a fist against the desk. "Teaming up like cowards. They're going to corner Calder!"
"He’s the only one from our zone," another student whispered, her eyes glued to the screen. "And he’s completely alone. Every other elite has a squad or a partner."
Ray let out a ragged breath. He had pinned all his hopes on Calder, but the reality of the leaderboard was setting in. He stopped wishing for a win; now, he just wanted Calder to survive. If Calder lived, Zone 911 had a protector. If he died, they were just another group of "fodder" begging for scraps in a chatroom.
Suddenly, a girl pointed at the screen, her voice cracking. "Oh god... Calder’s on a collision course with Aldington!"
The classroom went silent. On the digital map, Calder was sprinting across The Prismatic Span, heading directly toward the same island as the [Luminarch Pact].
"He’s alone and he’s running straight into the largest team on the field," Ray groaned.
Aldington, an S-rank [Radiant Mage], was flanked by thirty A-rank [Grapplers]. Even the [Shadow Warrior] Cha Seung-won had steered clear of them earlier. A Radiant Mage was a Tier-1 force multiplier; under his buffs, a squad of Grapplers became an unstoppable wall of meat and iron. Their combined skills were rumored to be enough to make even an SS-rank player hesitate.
"Turn back, Calder," Ray muttered under his breath. "Just turn around!"
But Calder didn't turn. He accelerated.
Minutes later, the two forces met on the scorched earth of a central island.
"Hah! Yah!"
The Grapplers moved with rhythmic, terrifying precision. They stepped forward in a unified phalanx, palms out, slamming into any player in their path. Those with low defense were turned into red mist instantly; those who survived the initial impact had their bones shattered, left as easy kills for the subordinates trailing behind.
When they saw Calder approaching alone, they didn't even break formation. A single Grappler lunged forward, his hand reaching for Calder’s throat to initiate a crushing throw.
"You're in my way," Calder said, his voice a cold rasp.
His arm blurred. In a flicker of dark energy, it calcified and lengthened into the jagged, lethal edge of the Ossein Sword. He swung.
A guttural scream ripped through the air.
The Grappler’s reaching arm was severed at the shoulder before he could even blink. Before the man could process the pain, Calder’s blade came back in a rising arc. The Grappler tried to block with his remaining hand, but the Ossein Sword sheared through flesh, bone, and reinforced armor like it was wet parchment.
The man’s head and arm hit the dirt simultaneously. He died wondering how his triple-layered defense buffs had failed to stop a single swing.
"Kill him!"
"Interloper!"
"Tear that Ember Republic trash apart!"
The remaining twenty-nine Grapplers roared, descending on him from all sides.
Calder didn't retreat. He stepped into the swarm, his eyes burning with a predatory light.
[Skill Activated: Steel Cleave]
Both arms transformed into twin blades of bone. What followed wasn't a fight—it was an execution.
He moved like a phantom through the formation. Every swing resulted in a spray of gore and a falling body. The system notifications began to chime in a rapid-fire staccato:
[Ding! You have slain Player: Rahul.]
[Ding! You have slain Player: Summit.]
[Ding! You have slain Player: Salman Khan.]
In less than two minutes, the clearing fell silent. Thirty A-rank elites lay in pieces. Not a single one had survived more than one exchange with the bone-blades.
The spectators on the livestream sat in stunned silence. Even the players on nearby islands froze, trying to comprehend the carnage they had just witnessed.
Aldington, the [Radiant Mage], stood trembling at the rear. His hands, still glowing with the golden light of unused buffs, shook uncontrollably. He looked at the dismembered remains of his vanguard, then looked up at Calder.
Calder was staring back, his blades dripping.
Aldington felt his throat go dry. His scalp tingled with a primitive, soul-crushing terror. Run. I have to run.
But before he could even take a step, Calder blurred. A second later, the "Slaughtergod" was standing inches from his face.
Calder reached out a blood-stained hand and uttered two words:
"Hand them over."
Aldington didn't hesitate. With trembling fingers, he emptied his inventory, dumping every banner he had collected into Calder's grasp. Calder gave a sharp flick of his wrist, and the banners vanished into his storage.
Expectant of the killing blow, Aldington squeezed his eyes shut. Instead, he felt a rush of cold wind against his cheek. When he opened his eyes, Calder was already fifty meters away, leaping onto the next Prismatic Span.
Aldington collapsed to his knees, his back drenched in a cold sweat. He watched the retreating figure with a look of pure, unadulterated dread.
"Where did a monster like that come from?" he whispered.
Under his Radiant buffs, those Grapplers should have been as durable as S-rank tanks. But against Calder’s Steel Cleave, they had been no more than paper targets. He didn't know that Calder’s current output was tuned to wound an Infernal Hydra with over a thousand Constitution points. These Grapplers, with their measly 300 Constitution, never stood a chance.
Aldington turned back to the corpses of his team and gasped. The bodies were no longer bleeding. They had been shriveled into "vacuum-packed" husks, every drop of essence drained away.
The livestream went nuclear.
The Luminarch Pact, one of the five "God Teams," had been dismantled by a single, nameless player from the Ember Republic.
— “Who the hell is this guy?!”
— “He wasn't even on the leaderboard ten minutes ago!”
— “Calder. His name is Calder. Look at the rank update!”
— “Is he a hidden boss? He just soloed thirty A-ranks like he was clearing trash mobs.”
In Novice Zone 911, the classroom erupted into primal cheers. Students were jumping on desks, screaming at the top of their lungs. Ray was shaking, his fists pumped high. "I knew it! I fucking knew he was a beast!"
But the celebration was cut short.
The leaderboard shifted.
Rank 9: Calder. [SSS-Tier War Banner x1], [SS-Tier Conquest Banner x9].
"Wait," Caden whispered, his face pale as he pointed at the tracker. "Calder isn't stopping. Look at his trajectory."
Ray’s excitement evaporated. "What? No... no, that's suicide."
Calder wasn't heading for an unclaimed island. He was sprinting toward the center of the map—directly toward the coordinates where Ellis and Nina were currently locked in a world-shaking battle with Kaito Miura and Tyren.
The most dangerous players on the planet were all in one spot, and Calder was walking right into the center of the blast zone.
"He knows there are no banners left on that island," Ray muttered, his voice trembling. "He can see the map. He knows they’re there."
The realization hit the room like a physical weight. Calder wasn't looking for flags. He was looking for the people who had already taken them. He was going after the biggest hoard on the field.
"Frost Spike Frenzy!"
Nina, the [Glacial Arcanist], slammed her staff down. A localized hurricane of jagged ice, meters wide, roared across the island.
Kaito Miura, the [Sword Saint], didn't flinch. He raised his simple wooden bokken.
"Swift as the gale, fleet as the thunderclap," he murmured. "Stormcleavage!"
A dragon of pure lightning-edged sword qi erupted from the wood, colliding with the ice storm. The resulting explosion leveled the surrounding forest, sending shockwaves that knocked lesser players off their feet miles away.
Before the mist could clear, a booming laugh echoed from the heights.
"My turn! Tidal Surge!"
Ellis, standing atop a massive crest of seawater, thrust the Trident of the Tidegod forward. A tsunami fifty meters high crashed down toward Kaito and Tyren. With their skills on cooldown, the duo could only brace for the impact.
The wave swallowed them whole, tossing them like ragdolls in the churning depths.
"Hahaha! We're unstoppable!" Ellis shouted, standing naked and triumphant atop his wave, hands on his hips. He shot a wink at Nina. "See? Teaming up with me is the best decision you've ever made."
Nina went to retort, but her words died in her throat. Her eyes widened, staring past him. "Ellis... behind you!"
"Behind me? What could possibly—"
A sharp, agonizing sting pierced Ellis’s lower back.
His eyes bulged. He spun around just in time to see a black Chain Scourge retracting from his flesh, trailing a ribbon of his blood in the air.
He followed the chain back to its source. A young man stood perched on the crown of a shattered tree, looking down at him with eyes as cold as the void.
"Get down here," Calder said, his voice cutting through the roar of the ocean. "Or die up there. Your choice."