The Real Monster 46 Defending the Settlement III

In the time that the fighting inside the city was finally taken care of by the Clay's people and the people of Village, the fighting outside the city finally started. It were Caltec, Jon and Mor who spearheaded the attack on the few rifts that appeared outside and with the closing of most of the rifts, the monsters coming from this few rifts outside the city became stronger and stronger. This growth posed a problem to the three of them because Clay's influence was weakest outside of the city because even as the rifts were gone from the city, he did not want to let his guard down and so still maintained the same vigilance towards the Demon enemy and other rifts that might open up without them noticing.

Fighting Mythical leveled monsters would have been a fight to the death for each of them, but because of Clay's Overpower, they became of almost equal levels. What this meant was that at the current level of the enemies, they could have fought to the death and maybe emerged victorious, however, with Clay's help, they could now overcome the monsters a bit more easy.

Caltec was the first to notice that the fiends that emerged from the rifts were now able to move a bit after the most of the rifts closed. That meant that there were already close to hundreds of fiends in the area of the rift he encountered and only a few of those were able to make a move. Clatec decided to leave all those small fries later and settle it with the stronger ones first.

Making a dash to throw the first punch, Caltec silently arrived in front of a fiend with his fist already half-way to the peak of his punch's momentum. The fiend noticed him but it was already too late and the punch already landed in the face of the fiend.

*PAK*

*Shaaaa!* It was a fiendish shrill scream that made even Caltec raise his brows as he heard it. The fiend was knocked back a few meters but remained standing, while it really screamed and showed its hostility to the one that punched it.

[Damn. This one's a tough nut to crack. All the others earlier were easier to kill with just one shot. I've got to up my game a bit huh?] Caltec made a wry smile as he looked at the fiend as if it's a headache.

The fiend after shrieking at Caltec finally made a move and approached him at break-neck speed. It was fast enough that it left an after-image where it was just a moment ago. However, even at that speed, Caltec remained calm and took the thing in front of him seriously. Caltec punched out towards his back with full strength, imagining that his punch would connect to the guts of the fiend.

*BAM*

And as if that punch sucked the monster into it, his punch landed on it and gave it a huge reason to bring its earlier meal outside of its body, if it had any and as evidence of that…

*BLUGH* Flowing saliva came pouring out of its mouth. It was the result of moving in high speed to move into a blind spot only to be suckered into a punch that made it puke its guts out. Acceleration plus mass constitutes to the force something has, then imagine carrying the mass of more than twenty times the gravity of this world, after that put it the opposing object's mass and acceleration that virtually just hit a very sturdily extended arm which would be comparable to a spear lodged to the ground awaiting a horse's charge. That's what happened to this fiend.

Without even being able to take a break, Caltec was flanked by another two fiends that could move even against Clay's Overpower blanketing the whole place. The one on the right made a clawing action as it pounced towards him while the one on the left made a knife-hand as it planned to chop Caltec's extended arm from his body.

Without a hint of panic at all with how fast the development of the fight was, Caltec made a punch towards the one intending to chop his arm and made a kick towards where that fiend's feet would be once it lands from its pounce. The one from the right arrived with its claws already a few inches away from his face but it suddenly stopped halfway as it saw that its companion was already engaging in the fight, but it was already too late, the punch of Caltec was already there and its chop did not even come close. Its face buried itself on Caltec's fist and it was blown away after gifting its companion a nice diagonal claw slash. *Shaaa* *Shaaa* Successive shrieks along with *Blugh* sounds of vomiting continued to resound around Caltec.

It wasn't time to relax as the three might have some sentience after all and work together to kick his ass, so he made his way and was standing 'face to back-head' of the first fiend he incapacitated with his hard blow. Then he made use of the move that Clay taught them a while ago, the technique called Turtle Destruction Wave, although he did modify it a little since the consumption was not something we could afford in battle.

The result was that it was friendlier on his mana consumption but also weaker in comparison, but against unmoving and unguarded opponents, it was enough to blow their heads off.

He created a ball of energy and skipped the compression of mana and just directly made a ball as big as both his palms formed as if holding a ball; then imitated the stance that Clay taught them while already gathering that mana. Then right after finishing the final motion of the stance that Clay taught – the gathering of both hands to have the ball in between the thigh and the ribs – and then abruptly just extended his arms, palm facing outwards to shoot a mini Turtle Destruction Wave.

A pale blue beam of pure mana energy shot forth away from Caltec's palm and directly hit the head of the fiend. The fiend that felt that energy coming towards it was startled but alas, it was too late to dodge and *Puff* its head and neck were directly hit clean off of its body.

*Shhh*

Muffled sizzling sound was coming from the part where the head was blown off and disintegrated.

The rest of his opponents did not see what happened as they were busy trying to figure out what happened just when they were both blown away and hit by their own companion. The one on the ground because of it burying its face on Caltec's fist was trying to get up after noticing the sudden surge of mana in the surroundings, while the other fiend was seething in anger at its companion for being hit by it. It actually pounced towards the other and started a fight.

As both the fiends were starting a fight, Caltec thought it was a good idea to try and close the rift with that, however, right after he moved towards the rift, the two stopped fighting and made way towards him intent on killing him. It was most probably not a planned effort on the both of them as they kept on getting in the way of each other. This amused Caltec as he remembered how Jon and Mor did just what these two were doing.

[Oh well, this is better, I can utilize this to kill them both without much work. Well then…] Caltec then this time made a move first and threw a punch towards the one with claw slashes on its belly that had his all. Moving towards them as the only time they reacted to something was a very strong mana fluctuation which helped him a great deal. *Tear* The punch literally tore the fiend's stomach and while the fist was still inside the fiend's flesh, he forcefully added even more and gave a step-in to further enhance his strength and voila, the fiend died.

Then the next one was the last one, he was thinking that if he could land another hit on it like the last one, it would be over, however, *Grrr* *Shaa!* *Argh!* a very tensioned atmosphere suddenly turned the place a very cold one.

[Shit, is this what Sire always told me? To always finish opponents up before anymore unfortunate turn of events happened.] Clay knew that the most stupid action any hero did was to let enemies to gain time to enhance themselves and turn the tables on them so he told his subordinates about things like this. He told them to not dilly dally and just kill your opponent while it still thinks it can best you since that's the only time you'll be able to kill them. If they transform and power up from something beyond your knowledge then you'd be better off on the run than facing it.

Caltec knew that this situation was something like that and so made his way to attack the fiend that made the atmosphere colder by a degree and so poured his power to his punch to finish the last fiend that went out of the hole he was trying to close. The punch was almost to the fiend's face when suddenly it moved and struck out with ferociousness even more than just earlier. It clawed at Caltec with speed that was obviously faster than his the trajectory totally in line with his face.

If this claw hits him, it wouldn't be an exaggeration that his face would be divided to four ugly parts. Realizing that, Caltec utilized every ounce of power he had left on his legs and dodged the claw that was already swung towards his fist. *Shoo*

He was successful in dodging the claw strike but what came next wasn't a claw but a hammer-like fist that aimed for his body. In a hurry he blocked that as well and *BAM* he was blown away because of that even though he weighed so much at the moment.

[Haa… Ha…] Caltec was breathing loudly now for the first time because of all the pumping his heart is doing. The energy that he used just to dodge and forcefully block was enough to warrant a long hour rest in the barracks. But the fight was not over, just yet.

Caltec remembered what Clay told them a few years back when he first made them wear rings of gravity: "Hey, remember that if you want to have greater damage for each strike you wear the rings and everything. Your mass multiplied by how fast you dish your punch out will result in a force that cannot be stopped by ordinary means or people; now if you want to have speed that cannot be topped by your equal in terms of strength then take off your rings and everything you'll see what I'm talking about at that time." With a laugh still vivid in his memory, Caltec immediately took off the accessories he wore and tossed them into the side. *Ting* metal on metal collision gave a muffled sound to reverberate.

The fiend heard that and pounced towards Caltec again. It was doing so at the speed that Caltec was barely able to match earlier because of its transformation, even though its physical body did not undergo a change that was obvious enough. *Swoosh*

However, as its claws again approached Caltec, he but only willed himself to move and he already appeared behind the enemy silently, without the air being disturbed at all. He would know of this later but it seems that he unknowingly entered the state by which Clay has been utilizing when he uses all his senses to the brim. Caltec's case must have been triggered by him urging his senses to be faster than the enemy and so he entered the state.

The enemy he faced did not notice it and so Caltec delivered a well-place punch towards the back of its head with the intent of taking its head off and away from its neck to kill it, *woosh* however, contrary to his imagined outcome *crack* *splash*, his punch by virtue of his speed entered the fiend's head and pierced it all the way to the other side effectively killing the fiend.

[What the fuck! It really is true what Sire said about being unable to control your power when we take the rings off, this is just insane. No wonder he said he had to consolidate his own power or he won't stop growing even more powerful and that would instead become his weakness. I should tell the guys this later, so we can all consolidate our powers together without the accessories on. Although we already got used to having the accessories and can control our powers properly with it, it beats having the speed up that it grants us without it.] Caltec pondered even more of the great discovery he just uncovered through actually trying what Clay told them about. Then Clay closed the next holes he found without wearing the accessories again for the time being.

*Flop*

Caltec collapsed face-down and was unable to move as if affected by Clay's Overpower as well.

Chapter end