NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: The Tyrant Behemoth’s Last Stand – Breaking the World Record
The Awakening Dungeon quaked, the frozen wasteland cracking apart, unable to withstand the sheer magnitude of the battle. Chunks of black ice and shattered mountains floated midair, caught in the residual mana shockwaves radiating from the two opposing forces.
At one end, Ankush stood, his form completely untouched, his breath steady, his muscles relaxed as if this was nothing more than a warm-up.
At the other, the Tyrant Behemoth struggled to rise, its four massive arms pressing against the ruined battlefield, chunks of mana-infused stone cascading off its towering frame.
For the first time in its existence, the Behemoth was afraid.
It had fought countless challengers in this dungeon's history. It had crushed heroes, shattered warriors who had entered believing they were strong, only to be obliterated within moments. Even the greatest of humanity, the so-called strongest elites, had never passed Stage 17.
Yet this man had shattered its entire reality in a single punch.
The Behemoth roared, its four arms spreading wide, drawing in the surrounding mana at an overwhelming rate. The air itself vibrated, the battlefield darkening as its burning white eyes flared even brighter, its horns crackling with contained destruction.
The ground collapsed beneath it, massive pillars of energy erupting from the ice, breaking apart what little remained of the dungeon's floor.
It was going to unleash everything.
A final, all-consuming strike.
Something that no being could ever survive.
Ankush tilted his head, watching with a bemused smile.
Then, he vanished.
In an instant, he reappeared right in front of the Behemoth, his body a blur of motion too fast for the creature's mind to comprehend.
His fist was already pulled back.
And before the Behemoth could even process what was happening—
Boom.
A punch landed directly into the center of its chest, the force so catastrophic that the very fabric of space warped around the impact.
The shockwave tore through the dungeon, ripping apart frozen structures, obliterating mountains, and shattering everything within sight.
The Behemoth's entire torso imploded, its blackened skin disintegrating upon contact, its bones crushed into dust, its massive form sent spiraling backward like a meteor hurled across the abyss.
The moment its body collided with the far edge of the dungeon, the walls shattered completely, exposing the true void beyond the Awakening Dungeon's boundaries.
The entire dimension shook, the dungeon itself unable to contain the sheer force of Ankush's attack.
And then—
The world went silent.
The Tyrant Behemoth's corpse faded, its mangled remains dissolving into pure mana, its final thoughts filled with nothing but terror.
And the system—
The very universal force governing all awakenings, the entity that had recorded every challenger's progress for the past seventy years—
Issued an announcement.
---
[World System Announcement – Historic Event]
[Stage 18 of the Awakening Dungeon has been cleared.]
[A new world record has been set.]
[A challenger has surpassed all known limits.]
[The previous best record: Stage 17 – Cleared by multiple global elites.]
[Current best record: Stage 18 – Challenger Unknown.]
[The Challenger has chosen to remain anonymous.]
---
The world froze.
Every single person, from the poorest commoner to the richest corporate executive, from the weakest individual to the strongest world leaders, stared at the announcement in pure disbelief.
It was impossible.
The best warriors on Earth, those who had trained their entire lives, those who had access to limitless resources, those who had been hailed as the strongest in existence—had all been stuck at Stage 17.
For years. For decades.
No one had ever cleared Stage 18.
Until now.
And the one who did it—chose to remain unknown.
A ghost.
A shadow that had stepped into history without a name, without recognition, without glory.
The world erupted in chaos.
Governments scrambled to identify the challenger.
The media flooded with breaking news.
Every major power, from America to China, from Japan to Europe, from South Korea to Russia, launched full-scale investigations, desperate to uncover who had achieved the impossible.
And yet—
No one had an answer.
Because Ankush had already moved on.
---
Stage 19 – The True Test
Ankush exhaled, stretching his arms as he turned his gaze toward the next set of stone doors, the runic symbols glowing more intensely than ever before.
A normal challenger would have immediately left the dungeon, their mind filled with shock and exhaustion, their body overwhelmed by the sheer strain of surviving against an A+ level monster.
But Ankush?
He wasn't even remotely satisfied.
He had been waiting for something truly worthy of his strength.
Something that could push him to his limits.
And as the gates to Stage 19 began to open, he finally felt something close to anticipation.
The air shifted.
The entire dungeon trembled violently, as if the very fabric of its existence was warning him to turn back.
A lesser being would have felt immediate dread.
Ankush grinned.
"Let's see what's next."
He stepped forward, vanishing into the darkness of Stage 19, leaving the rest of the world in awe, in chaos, and in complete ignorance of what was about to unfold.
---