The gateway sealed behind Kael the moment his boots touched the stone.
The terrain was different from Floor 11.
This time it was not like the floor 11 which was in the Volcanic region but not even open place but something like the floor 6th.
This was a ruined city.
Collapsed towers leaned at dangerous angles. Streets were split by deep fractures. Broken archways formed jagged silhouettes against a dim amber sky. The air smelled metallic not heat, but oxidation and decay.
This battlefield favored different angles of the buildings and ambush routes.
Kael stood in the center of a wide avenue buried beneath fine grey dust.
He already understood what this meant.
Urban wave stacking.
Shen Yao appeared on the roof of a half-collapsed structure above.
"Second floor of endurance training" he said calmly. "Same restriction."
Kael flexed his fingers once and took a fighting stance.
His wounds from Floor 11 were still present. The system had not fully restored him.
Shen Yao noticed.
"You will recover through circulation and controlled breathing. Not through system restoration."
Kael exhaled slowly and used the air around him and breathed it in and released it all over his body and slowly Kael started to heal his wounds but not completely.
The ground trembled. From the broken intersections ahead, Ashen Revenants began emerging again.
Thirty-two this time which was identical to Floor 11.
Except their armour plating carried darker streaks now and their core fissures pulsed brighter which means the Ash Revenants are stronger than before.
"They retain memory" Shen Yao said. "This wave has recorded your previous combat pattern."
Kael did not react outwardly, but his focus sharpened.
So, they evolve across floors.
The first wave spread into the ruined structures instead of forming a circle.
They were using the city.
Kael stepped forward.
The first Revenant attacked from above dropping from a second-story balcony.
Kael shifted slightly right letting it crash into the stone where he had stood. Before it recovered, he stomped down on the back of its knee and crushed the joint.
A second lunged from behind a broken pillar.
Kael turned just enough to deflect the talon strike then countered with a short elbow into the exposed neck.
The others did not rush blindly this time.
They waited and they were using coordinated timing.
Three came simultaneously from three elevation levels ground, mid-wall and rooftop descent.
Kael pivoted catching the rooftop attacker midair and slamming it into the ground but the ground-level Revenant succeeded in clawing across his thigh.
Blood soaked into dust.
The third struck his shoulder and drove him into a cracked storefront.
The impact fractured stone.
Kael pushed off immediately before they could chain the assault.
They were adapting faster than before.
He needed to break their rhythm early.
Instead of reacting he charged.
He closed distance before they could fully reposition.
His authority expanded slightly not enough to overwhelm but just enough to distort their timing windows.
He drove a straight punch into one core then rotated into a spinning back elbow that cracked another's collar plate.
The Revenants adjusted again falling back into alleyways.
They were herding him deeper into the city.
Kael allowed it. Because he had already noticed something.
There were scrape marks on upper walls that were not from Revenants.
They were of different claw width of different depth.
Yes, this the second species living in this floor 12th.
The first wave was meant to wear him down before the true floor challenge began.
Kael accelerated.
He eliminated eight Revenants in rapid succession using aggressive close-quarters exchanges, breaking limbs, shattering joints, striking cores with increasing precision.
They no longer felt like durable obstacles.
They felt like training dummies that hit back.
But fatigue was accumulating. His breathing grew heavier.
A Revenant succeeded in locking his arm. Another drove a talon into his ribs.
Kael twisted violently and shouted because of pain and then Kael dislocated the first's shoulder while crushing the second's jaw seam with a headbutt.
He did not slow and continued killing.
Twenty down.
The remaining twelve switched strategy.
They climbed all of them.
They took to walls, balconies, rooftops. Surrounding vertically this time.
Shen Yao observed without interference.
Kael stood still in the center of the intersection.
If he chased upward he would expose himself.
If he waited they would attack from blind spots.
So he changed the field.
He slammed his foot into the cracked street with controlled force.
Authority compressed downward.
The fractured stone shook.
Dust exploded upward creating temporary visual distortion.
In that half-second of obscured sightlines he moved first and fast.
He sprinted toward the nearest structure and scaled the broken facade using pure physical explosiveness.
He intercepted the closest Revenant mid-leap and hurled it downward into two others.
He did not give them height advantage.
He took it.
From rooftop to rooftop he moved dismantling them with brutal strength.
By the time he landed back on the street only one remained.
It did not attack immediately.
Its core flared intensely.
Then it charged and turned berserk.
Kael stepped forward to meet it.
Their collision cracked the ground beneath them.
The Revenant's strength had increased compared to Floor 11's leader.
It forced Kael backward three steps.
He adjusted his stance and shifted angle.
Instead of trading force he attacked micro-movements disrupting its weight distribution, striking knee pivots, destabilizing hips.
When it overcommitted, he drove a palm strike directly into the core fissure and ended it.
Silence. The first wave cleared.
Kael inhaled deeply.
His muscles trembled slightly now.
Blood loss was moderate but his bruises all over the body.
Then the air changed and the just pressure increased slightly.
From within the collapsed buildings came a different sound.
Something breathing. A very Low and Wet, what wet sounds???
From the shadows of a shattered cathedral emerged the second species.
They were leaner than Revenants.
Taller nearly eight feet.
Their bodies were bone-white covered not in plating, but exposed skeletal armour fused with thick fibre. Long forearms extended into curved scythe-like claws. Their heads were elongated with no visible eyes, only vertical slits that pulsed faint blue.
They moved quietly like a Predator.
"These are Ossuary Stalkers of Level 70" Shen Yao said. "They hunt by pressure sensing. Your authority will attract them."
Kael exhaled slowly.
"How many?"
"Twenty-four."
The Stalkers did not rush.
They spread across walls and ceilings.
They were faster than Revenants.
Much faster.
One vanished from sight entirely.
Kael's instincts shifted instantly.
A flicker above…
He ducked as a Stalker dropped silently its claw slicing through air where his throat had been.
He countered with a rising knee, but the creature twisted unnaturally midair and avoided full impact.
It landed behind him.
Another struck from the side.
Kael blocked but the force drove him sideways into a broken pillar.
These were not durability-based enemies.
They were mobility predators.
He needed control.
He expanded his authority wider this time.
The atmosphere thickened.
The Stalkers reacted.
Not slowed significantly but their directional shifts became fractionally heavier.
That fraction was enough.
When the next Stalker lunged Kael stepped inside its arc and drove his elbow into its rib cavity.
Bone cracked.
It screeched with a sharp metallic sound.
He grabbed its elongated skull and slammed it into the wall repeatedly until the blue slit dimmed.
The others circled faster.
Two attacked in synchronized cross patterns.
Kael dropped low rolled under the first swipe and countered with a sweeping kick that fractured a shin bone.
The second's claw sliced across his back.
Pain surged through his back, but he controlled it and ignored it.
He caught its wrist and twisted sharply tearing ligament structures apart before driving his forehead into its skull.
Three down.
The Stalkers adapted instantly.
They stopped attacking one by one.
They attacked in coordinated suppression waves.
One would feint high.
Another low.
A third from blind angle.
Kael was forced fully defensive for the first time since entering the tower.
His body was reaching his limit.
Muscles screamed under repeated explosive movement.
A Stalker latched onto his arm with its claw and attempted to dismember.
Kael rotated his shoulder violently breaking its grip and then grabbed its torso and hurled it into two approaching attackers.
He needed to thin numbers fast.
He chose aggression.
Instead of waiting for ambush he charged directly into their cluster.
The Stalkers did not expect direct charge from Kael.
He grabbed the nearest by the throat and used it as impact weapon smashing it into another mid-leap.
He crushed one skull under heel.
Tore another's arm free and used it as blunt instrument.
The battle devolved into brutal close-quarters chaos.
Dust filled the air.
Bone fragments scattered.
Kael's breathing grew ragged.
Ten down.
Fourteen remained.
They retreated briefly to rooftops.
Recalculating and adapting the situation below.
Kael stood in the center of ruined street blood running down his arms.
Shen Yao finally spoke.
"Your authority is fluctuating."
Kael stabilized his breathing.
He realized something.
He was still treating authority as an aura.
It didn't need to be because his aura needs to be shown oppressively.
He compressed it again but this time not around his body.
He pushed it outward in layered zones across the battlefield.
Invisible pressure fields.
When the Stalkers descended again
They entered staggered resistance pockets.
Their synchronization faltered and that was enough.
Kael intercepted each disruption point.
He broke their formation systematically.
Five fell in under thirty seconds.
The remaining nine grew desperate.
They attacked recklessly now. That was their mistake.
Kael exploited every over extension.
By the time the final Stalker remained he was exhausted.
The last creature hesitated and without any choice it jumped.
Kael stepped into it and ended the fight with a single decisive strike.
Silence returned to the ruined city.
Kael stood alone amid shattered bone and ash.
He did not celebrate nor having any reactions but just the aftermath of survival.
A gateway formed at the far end of the street.
Floor 13 awaited.
Shen Yao descended from the rooftop.
"You started to separate instinct from power and that's a good thing" he said calmly.
Kael wiped blood from his jaw.
"How many floors until this stops feeling controlled?"
Shen Yao's gaze sharpened slightly.
"It will stop feeling controlled on Floor 15."
That was not a threat. It was a fact.
Kael turned toward the gateway.
His body hurt and he used his circulation to heal his wounds.
But now his authority felt heavier now and was denser, less like energy and more like structure.
He stepped forward.
Floor 12 cleared.