My Special Ability is Growing Muscles

Chapter 83: Battle against an Undead Orc Warlord



The D- Rank Orc Warlord strode forward like a nightmare clad in bone.

Thud… thud…

Every step it took sent a chill through the spine of every student; every step it took was heavy enough to make dust fall from the cracked ceiling.

Its cursed axe scraped against the stone floor, igniting fiery sparks. Around it, constructs and undead poured like a tide.

Students screamed, but no one ran.

After everything that they've suffered to get here, for the first time, though bloodied, exhausted, and terrified, the sixteen-year-olds gritted their teeth, ate their fear and held their ground.

They were freshers of Nexus Academy, heirs to the shield of humanity.

They were the best talents of the human domain. Pride, desperation, and defiance fused into one as they screamed back at the horde.

This time though, they would have to do it alone because the students who naturally led the platoons during clashes like this were now focused on something else… the Orc Warlord.

Considering the fact that most of them were still F Rank, a D- Rank existence was overkill, but nothing is fair in love and war.

They faced the ones that they could hopefully survive against, the horde.

Mira felt the sudden responsibility fall heavy on her shoulders, but she didn't shirt from it as her voice cut the chaos like steel. "FORM UP!"

The other students responded, and all hell broke loose as they exploded.

BOOM!

She hurled chunks of earth up into jagged barriers while wind blades hissed from her hands, cleaving through the weaker undead.

Other students fell into position instinctively. Together they slammed spells, blades, and bodies against the E and F Rank monsters flooding in.

The air shook with the force of their collision.

The Undead and constructs fell in waves. But in a battle of this scale, mistakes were bound to happen, and they did.

Again, students died, their screams swallowed by blood. Yet the line held as the death of their comrades made the others fight with even more defiance.

Somewhere along the line, they already began to see each other more than just classmates. They were beginning to see each other as comrades in arms.

All the while, Adrain, Selene, Valek, and Kairo didn't join the skirmish.

They kept their eyes set on only one Undead… the Orc Warlord.

The Warlord finally charged forward, plowing straight through the chaos, scattering corpses, constructs, and even its own allies as its gaze locked on the freshers, sensing the life in them, sensing prey.

But before it could get to the others, they stepped forward.

Adrain Cross moved, his golden eyes glowing faintly, time's threads humming at his fingertips as he activated his special ability!

BZZZ!

Beside him, Valek's blood chains writhed. This time, the usually annoying noble had a serious look on his face, knowing fully well that his life was on the line now, and he didn't dare hold back.

His Obsidian Serpent slithered across broken tiles, fangs dripping black venom, while Selene's silver veil shimmered like moonlight, phantoms swirling.

And then there was Kairo.

His fists were clenched, muscles trembling but unbroken.

The four of them split from the platoons… the strongest, the most dangerous, facing the one enemy no ordinary fresher could survive.

Even for them, they were not guaranteed to survive. The fact that the Captains were not here yet told them that they were not coming. They were truly on their own, and the stakes had never been higher, death had never been closer.

The Warlord roared, its axe crashing down.

The air tore apart in the wake of the axe's passage.

WHOOSH!

They reacted.

Adrain blinked and time froze, pulling Mira and the others out of the strike zone, but the moment shattered in less than a heartbeat.

Even weakened by centuries of undeath, the D- Rank Orc Warlord managed to shrug off the effects of Adrain's Chrono-Shift.

"…!" His eyes widened.

He was not alone though as from beside him, Valek's chains lashed with brutal speed, piercing bones, but the Warlord wrenched free, ripping its own ribs apart only to regenerate them as its demonic tainted mana stitched its body back together.

Selene's illusions swarmed, blinding its sight with phantom enemies.

It didn't even try to read reality from illusion. It simply swung wildly at them all, tearing apart false images until one strike landed on the real one.

BAM!

Selene's shimmering veil barely caught the blow as blood streaked her lips.

She paled.

And this was when Kairo darted forward like a storm, taking advantage of its momentary distraction as his fists slammed into its shin. The impact was strong enough to crack stone, but the Warlord barely staggered.

It lifted one bony arm and backhanded him across the hall with devastating power; it was almost insulting.

Kairo crashed into rubble, his ribs screaming in pain. But he didn't stay down.

They regrouped in a circle.

The Orc Warlord didn't rush to attack them, looking at them with what felt like mild amusement, as if daring them to attack if they had the guts.

Adrain grimaced. "It's resistant to my temporal shifts, my blows barely scratch," he said in a grim tone.

Valek snarled, blood dripping down his chin as his serpent coiled tighter. "Then I'll bleed it dry!"

Selene shook her head, her veil flickering. "It doesn't bleed, it's animated mana. Your special ability is weakened against it. Every strike we waste is mana lost, we need to calculate every strike".

After that first clash, the cracks showed.

They were prodigies, yes, but still just sixteen-year-old children. They had never been forced to fight together.

Their individual genius wasn't enough to break the rhythm of a monster centuries above their league. For the first time, they faced what brute force and their special abilities couldn't destroy.

Kairo staggered to his feet, his chest heaving, hunger already beginning to gnaw at him. His sack of meat felt like dust compared to the weight before him.

He briefly stared at the battlefield around them, at the freshers screaming, undead pouring, and blood that was now slick on the stone.

This wasn't training; this wasn't controlled.

For the first time, doubt sliced him.

'What the hell is Nexus Academy thinking sending us here? This… this isn't survival of the fittest, this is slaughter!'

Faces flashed before him, the applicants who died in the Wild Zone, the bodies that littered the keep. They were not like him; they had families, they had parents waiting at home.

He gritted his teeth. 'And for what? Contribution points? To test us like rats in a cage?'

His fists trembled, anger warring with despair.

And then another face came, his sister's… Leora's smile; her voice, her survival hinging on his.

Kairo's eyes hardened as his teeth gnashed against each other. 'If I break here… she dies with me'.

The realization set a flame inside of him.

Ba-dump!

His heartbeat thundered as something inside him screamed, claws scraping at the ceiling of his soul.

Seemingly bored of their inactivity now, the Warlord finally raised its axe again, bearing down on the four.

As it approached, all Kairo saw was a monster that he had to eradicate to meet his sister, and so he stepped forward.

He didn't dodge, didn't flinch. He simply flexed his special ability as his muscles screamed, bursting, tearing, then reforging stronger.

And then…

DING!

The system chimed.

~----~

[Congratulations! You have exceeded the first threshold… you have advanced to E- Rank.]

[Stat Threshold Crossed.]

[You have taken the first step from the Foundation Layer to true Muscle Manipulation.]

[You have met the requirements to master Ability Art: Flex Surge]

>By compressing and releasing muscle fibers in bursts, you can accelerate for short sprints or evasive maneuvers beyond normal limits.

[Duration: 3 seconds]

[Cooldown: 1 minute]

[System Remark: Atta boy, you're finally learning how to crawl.]

~----~

BZZZ!

Kairo's aura flared, rippling through the battlefield as every fresher and undead within sight froze, their heads snapping in sync toward him as pressure washed over them.

Kairo's muscles no longer shriveled, they pulsed, becoming denser and tougher. His height spiked again as he grew even taller, his body becoming that of a predator honed in blood.

The Warlord's axe finally fell.

But by then, Kairo already blurred into motion, his body surging with Flex Surge as it snapped him forward in a sudden, bone-jarring dash. His fist met the Warlord's ribcage with a crack like thunder.

BOOM!

And for the first time, the monster staggered back!


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