The gateway to Floor 13 opened into darkness.
This darkness did not belong to night or some massive shadow
But this was an enclosed arena.
A circular basin carved into black stone three hundred meters wide surrounded by towering vertical walls. There were no ruins here or structures or some elevation.
Kael stepped forward.
The gateway which was behind disappeared.
Shen Yao appeared above standing on nothing.
"Floor 13" he said. "It's a Three-wave monster battle."
Kael rolled his shoulders once. He did not ask for numbers.
He already knew the pattern this time
Wave 1: Revenants.
Wave 2: Revenants + Stalkers.
Wave 3: Revenants + Stalkers + new species.
The ground split. Ashen Revenants rose first.
Forty this time.
Their plating was darker. Core fissures were brighter.
They moved immediately. This time there were no formation. It was a direct assault.
Kael moved before they could collapse in.
He charged into the densest group breaking their momentum.
His authority spread outward in layered compression again distorting approaching angles.
This time they were stronger which was noticeable.
A Revenant caught his forearm mid-strike and twisted nearly tearing muscle. Kael screamed in pain.
Kael drove his knee into its torso and snapped its spine across his leg.
Another latched onto his back.
He slammed backward into two charging enemies crushing all three.
He didn't waste motion anymore.
With that pain this time he did not do any dramatic exchanges.
Every movement ended something. His breathing stayed controlled.
He didn't overextend. He didn't allow encirclement.
Within six minutes all forty were down.
No pause and break immediately the second wave erupted instantly.
Ossuary Stalkers dropped from the arena walls.
Thirty of them. They did not circle. They attacked in vertical swarm patterns.
Kael shifted tactics.
He didn't wait in the center this time.
He sprinted toward the wall forcing half of them to reposition.
He ran vertically three steps up the stone before launching backward into mid-air interception.
He grabbed a Stalker mid-descent and threw it into three others.
They adapted quickly.
Two feinted high.
One cut low.
A claw sliced across his abdomen.
Which was deep.
Kael ignored the blood and countered with a hammer fist that shattered a skull plate.
The arena gave no cover. This was pure pressure.
Shen Yao was starting to worry a bit 'Did I restrict him too much?'
But in the meantime, Kael's mind was filled with only focus and he was in a trance for battle and just like that fifteen Stalkers fell.
The remaining fifteen switched to coordinated blind-zone assaults.
Kael expanded his authority field across the entire arena floor which was thin but wide.
He began reading micro-pressure shifts instead of visual cues.
When the next Stalker vanished, he pivoted before it fully manifested behind him and crushed its rib cage mid-phase.
The others hesitated.
Hesitation meant death.
He closed the distance.
He ended the second wave standing but breathing heavier now, his body was full of bruises, blood and deep cuts on his body, but still Kael was going on with just his aura which was becoming scarier than ever.
Then the third wave began.
The arena walls cracked.
From within the stone emerged something larger.
Four-legged monster and heavily muscled.
Their bodies were encased in layered bone armor like interlocking plates. Their heads resembled elongated hounds, but their mouths split vertically instead of horizontally.
There were six of them.
"These are Grave Tyrants of level 80" Shen Yao said calmly. "They are highly charge predators. Which has high durability and very good with their pack coordination."
The Tyrants did not roar. They directly launched and all six jumped on Kael.
Kael braced.
The first collision felt like being hit by a moving wall.
He slid backward fifteen meters boots carving trenches in stone.
Before he could recover a second Tyrant slammed into his flank.
He was thrown. He rolled once and hit a wall but somehow he regained footing.
They were faster than their size suggested.
Two circled.
Two stayed mid-range.
Two charged again.
Kael couldn't overpower them individually without wasting stamina.
He needed redirection.
When the next Tyrant charged, this time he didn't block.
He sidestepped at the last possible second and grabbed its armoured spine plate twisting his hips and using its own momentum to redirect it into another charging Tyrant.
The impact cracked both armour layers.
They weren't invulnerable.
The pack recalibrated this time strategizing what to do next.
Two lunged simultaneously from opposite angles.
Kael leaped. They collided beneath him.
He landed on one's back and drove both fists into its skull repeatedly until bone splintered.
It collapsed.
Five left this time.
A Tyrant bit down on his leg.
Its vertical jaws locked with crushing pressure.
Kael roared and drove his elbow into its cranial jaw repeatedly until the jaw slackened.
He tore free leaving flesh behind.
Pain was irrelevant this time.
He grabbed the wounded Tyrant and forced it between himself and the next charging one.
Another collision and the armour shattered.
He ended that one with a crushing stomp to its neck.
The remaining three grew aggressive and less coordinated.
That was their weakness.
Within minutes the arena fell silent.
Floor 13 cleared.
Floor 14 did not give him rest. Kael just used his circulating breath and healed his body and regained his stamina a bit.
The gateway opened into a canyon of black stone pillars.
There were Vertical labyrinth. Restricted sightlines.
This time there were Four-wave battles.
Kael didn't wait for explanation.
Wave 1: Fifty Revenants.
He dismantled them faster than before.
His strikes were more precise now with less wasted energy.
Wave 2: Forty Stalkers.
They tried ambush.
He pre-emptively collapsed a stone pillar with authority compression forcing them into open field.
Wave 3: Eight Grave Tyrants.
He split them into pairs using terrain manipulation isolating engagements.
He was bleeding more now.
Breathing heavier.
Wave 4:
The canyon trembled.
From the far end emerged a towering bipedal entity.
Twelve feet tall.
Humanoid in structure but encased in black bone plating.
Two massive arms.
Four secondary blade-limbs protruding from its back.
"This is a Bone Warden of level 85" Shen Yao said.
It stepped once. The ground fractured.
Kael felt the difference immediately.
This was boss tier but not an actual boss
How could be defeat this Bone Warden Without skills. Without talents. Without techniques.
Just using authority and body.
The Bone Warden attacked first.
It moved faster than its size suggested.
A back-blade sliced downward.
Kael dodged barely.
The impact split stone in half.
He countered with a straight punch to its knee joint.
The plating barely cracked and not even a scratch
The Warden grabbed him mid-exchange and slammed him into a pillar hard enough to collapse it.
Kael coughed blood. He barely had his senses up
But he forced himself up.
He waited. He baited.
When the Warden overextended a double-arm strike
Kael stepped inside its guard and unleashed concentrated authority directly into its center mass compressing inward rather than expanding outward.
The armour plating groaned. Micro-fractures formed.
He followed with a barrage of close-range strikes targeting the same compression point.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The Warden roared and attempted to impale him with back blades.
One pierced through his shoulder.
Kael grabbed the blade mid-penetration and refused to retreat.
He drove his head into the Warden's face plate.
Once.
Twice.
Then unleashed everything he had left into the cracked center seam.
The plating shattered.
Core exposed. He tore it out.
The Warden collapsed.
Floor 14 cleared was cleared very quickly than anticipated but with major injuries.
Kael dropped to one knee.
His body was reaching limit.
Shen Yao landed before him.
"How is it, all you all right? You know you can remove the restriction anytime you want. But seeing you fight your learning how to control destruction".
Kael stood "No issues master, this looks fun and exciting, and I will continue with these restrictions".
"Floor 15 here I come."
The gateway opened.
Floor 15 was different.
A massive battlefield stretching beyond sight.
Just open war-ground.
In the distance
Thousands. But an army. They were consisting of
Revenants.
Stalkers.
Grave Tyrants.
Bone Wardens.
All combined.
This was no longer wave based.
This was sustained war and endurance.
Shen Yao's voice carried calmly.
"Floor 15 removes wave sequencing. You fight until they stop coming."
Kael stared at the approaching tide.
No fear this time jus the focus and authority and the aura. Just some more calculation.
He rolled his neck once.
Then stepped forward.
The first line collided.
And the battlefield erupted.