Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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Godwyn drew the bowstring and held his breath...

He aimed at a target about a thousand meters away from where he was. He narrowed his eyes instinctively, as if he's trying to see it clearly. This wouldn't have worked for other people, but Godwyn's different. His physique as a sniper allowed his vision to adjust according to his needs. While it's still not at the level of what his father could, especially since he still has yet to open this heritage from him, it's serviceable for his current needs.

Pshew!

Godwyn released the shot with a gentle exhale. His heart flew with the arrow, arcing above the clear blue skies and seeking its target.

With a barely audible thump, which also resonated slightly in his body, Godwyn's arrow hit the bullseye. This brought some level of satisfaction to him. At the very least, he had now somewhat stabilized his new maximum range. It gave him confidence that he could hit any target within a kilometer radius of him.

This was an absurd concept. A Tier 1 Level 1 Superhuman having an effective one-kilometer range? Who would believe that? That said, Godwyn isn't some normal kid or an ordinary superhero either.

He's a superhuman that has a SSS rank overall aptitude rating and was the son of the strongest human alive, the Sun Sage, Cedric Stormrider. If people were to know of his heritage, none of this would've been surprising at all.

And this is exactly Godwyn's dilemma right now. Indeed, compared to ordinary superheroes, he's absurdly strong. But in this household? That's nowhere near enough.

Sure, his father never once pressured him to do anything. Hell, for all he knew, his father would've been perfectly fine if Godwyn decided to just turn his back on this whole superhuman thing and choose to live a normal life. He would've made sufficient arrangements from him and will accompany him until the natural end of his lifespan.

But this isn't Godwyn's choice. He wanted to excel. He wanted to make his father, his idol, proud of him. Therefore, this little bit of strength was far from enough.

Surely, if he can just be patient and wait for the natural progress that happens to him as he ages, he'll get there eventually. That's one of the perks of having an absurd aptitude rating, after all.

But waiting for his natural progress was a waste of his gifts, so he had to do something.

The problem is, while he had many ideas, none of them were giving him the result that he wanted.

All the satisfaction he gets from practicing archery was starting to get old at this point and was far from enough to fulfill his needs. His passion for it was slowly dying down simply because he knew that in the face of the horde, simply shooting many arrows wouldn't be sufficient.

Godwyn could still feel the phantom pain—echoes of the maws chewing on his flesh from time to time. He felt embarrassed and upset to feel this way; that's why he's doing his best to become stronger.

But he has hit a wall, and he knew it himself that it's way too early for him to feel this way, so he doesn't know what to do.

Feeling a bit dispirited, Godwyn left the shooting range with his head down. He pursed his lips and roamed the sky castle, not really knowing where he should go.

In his mindless walk, he unintentionally arrived at the edge of the sky island. His dull eyes gazed at the puffy clouds that seemingly act as the ocean surrounding the island.

Godwyn usually comes here to clear his mind. It's peaceful and quiet out here. This isn't to say that their home wasn't; it's just...different when he's out here.

Fwoosh!!!

Unexpectedly, though, the peace and quiet he's expecting didn't happen today. Godwyn noticed a commotion nearby, which piqued his curiosity.

He narrowed his eyes as he saw a shadow darting through the clouds. It was fast, but not fast enough for him to miss.

'Mom? ' Godwyn was dumbfounded.

Yes, what he saw was indeed his mother, Erica.

He watched as she flew with grace and swiftness, surrounded by tiny drones that's shooting lasers at her and could match her flying speed. Godwyn was alarmed at first, but he immediately realized that his concern was completely unnecessary.

The lasers couldn't do any real harm to her. Hell, they can't even get past the thin and flimsy-looking barrier that's appearing to intercept them. Furthermore, Erica looked completely unconcerned about these drones herself.

Godwyn can see her reading something as she flew around. It appears to be a cookbook, but he couldn't be so sure. Then, from time to time, Erica would flick her fingers and shoot a tiny bolt of magic missile at a drone.

It's not that she couldn't do more than this because Godwym was sure as hell she could. She's purposely not doing more for some reason.

Godwyn was amazed. After all, it wasn't everyday that he could see his parents showing off their skills. Sure, this was the bare minimum, but it's something that might take years of practice for Godwyn to replicate.

Erica's display of skill didn't end there.

Godwyn watched as she fired another shot, but this one was different. It was still an ordinary magic missile, but this one split into shards, hitting all of the drones.

Don't get him wrong; Godwyn isn't surprised that she could turn a simple magic missile like that. What surprised him is the sheer, astounding skill behind her execution.

One would expect that splitting the already weak magic missile into shards to favor hitting many targets would weaken it's power. That's not the case for Erica. Yes, she still split that one magic missile, but the shards contained just as much power as the original one.

It would've been different if she cast many magic spells at once, but this one? Absurd. And Godwyn couldn't get it out of his mind. Continue your journey on empire

But, oh, Erica wasn't done.

The next shot was just as excellent as the previous one, even though it's different. She still shot the same magic missile, but this one, instead of splitting into many shards, pierced multiple drones instead.

What's amazing is that it didn't go on a straight path. It zigzagged as if chasing after the drones like heat-seeking missiles. It also contained enough force to forcibly tangle every drone into a line of rubble.

Mind you, this magic missile wasn't technically stronger than the previous ones she made. She didn't pour more mana into it. She just simply displayed a different application of it, that's all.

However, this simplicity was enough to make Godwyn's eyes shine like a star.

It was at this point that Erica finally noticed a pair of eyes watching her. She saw him looking at her from the edge of the island, causing her to raise a brow. With a shift of her will, she landed in front of him, accompanied by the broken remains of the drones.

"Hey, Champ. What're you doing out here?"

"What was that, Ma?"

Instead of answering her question, it seems that Godwin's interest lies elsewhere, and Erica can't really ignore his enthusiasm.

"Hmm, this?" She gestured at the drones. "Well, these are drones that your Uncle Charles made. They're prototypes for his future project. She sent them to me for testing, so I figured I might as well. After all, I need some exercise from time to time."

"No, no! Not that!" Godwyn shook his head eagerly.

Truthfully, he couldn't care less about the drones. While it's nice to know that his mother was helping his Uncle Charles to test some of his toys, that's not really what he wanted to know right now.

"Well, what are you talking about then?"

"I mean the things you did with the magic missiles!" Godwyn replied expectantly, "You know, the splitting without sacrifing the power of the missiles, and then the piercing effect without compromising the ease of casting? How did you do that? Can you teach me? Can I apply that in my archery?"

Frankly, Erica wasn't expecting to see this much enthusiasm from her child. Well, she's not expecting him to see her playing around like this either, but what's done was done. And since it led to him approaching for lessons, then it's all good, isn't it?

Erica ruffled her son's hair and said, "Good catch. Yes, I did all of that. How? With lots of practice and discipline. Teach you? Absolutely! Applying that to your archery? Hmm, well, I don't know. Why don't you test it out after learning?"

"Yes! Yes, please! Where do I begin?"

Godwyn was truly excited. This was it. This was exactly what he was missing. He couldn't believe that such simple concepts eluded him, but he doesn't care now, especially since his mother looked just as eager to teach him as he was willing to learn.

And thus, Godwyn's lessons about magic with his mother began. And from what he learned from her in a day, Godwyn repeatedly cursed his brain for not approaching her sooner and not taking advantage of the wealth of experience she has under her belt.