The army did not charge recklessly.
It advanced in a disciplined manner.
Revenants formed the first rank of heavy infantry unit.
Stalkers moved across their flanks of skirmish predator's unit.
Grave Tyrants prowled behind of shock cavalry unit.
Bone Wardens stood further back which consisting of command-tier enforcers.
Kael stepped forward alone.
With the restrictions he placed on himself and can only use with
Only authority, physical dominance and what he had built.
The first collision was violent.
Revenants crashed into him in a unified wave. Not random swings but in a structured pressure. Shields formed by overlapping armour plating. Rotating strike rhythm to prevent counter windows.
This time the entities learned from their experience battles with Kael.
Kael didn't retreat.
He punched straight through the shield wall.
Authority compressed into a narrow spear-point around his fist. When his knuckles connected, three Revenants shattered backward at once.
He moved through the fracture point.
He didn't fight the army.
He split it.
Stalkers descended immediately targeting blind zones. One clawed across his ribs. Another cut into his thigh.
He ignored pain like usual, but he knows he will reach to some point where he will feel the pain and can't handle it.
He grabbed one Stalker mid-air and hurled it into a Revenant group disrupting formation timing.
The battlefield turned chaotic. But chaos favored numbers.
A Grave Tyrant charged.
Kael sidestepped at the last instant and drove it into a Bone Warden's legs.
The Warden didn't fall but it staggered.
That told him enough.
Even elite units weren't immune to collision force.
He needed them to damage each other.
The second wave of pressure hit harder.
Three Tyrants charged simultaneously from different angles.
Kael leapt vertically using a Revenant's shoulder as spring leverage. He twisted mid-air and came down onto a Tyrant's spine with full body weight and compressed authority.
Bone cracked of the tyrant. He tore into its exposed neck and rolled off before the others could crush him.
He was bleeding heavily now.
His breathing wasn't smooth anymore, he couldn't recover any more because of the constant assault of the monsters, how did the first-generation players clear this floor. I still have an option of searching the exit and go to the next floor, but this feeling of battle craziness it's like I want to end it all.
The army didn't thin. It rotated.
Fallen units were replaced instantly by rear lines.
This wasn't a wave.
This was War on Attrition.
Shen Yao observed from high above.
He didn't interfere.
This floor wasn't about power. It was about endurance beyond pride.
This time Kael changed approach.
Instead of destroying every enemy in his immediate radius he began moving constantly carving corridors through the army preventing full encirclement.
He used enemies as projectiles.
As shields.
As stepping stones.
He broke a Revenant's arm and used it as a blunt weapon.
He redirected a Tyrant into a Warden again.
He slammed two Stalkers into each other mid-air.
Minutes turned into an hour.
The battlefield was layered in bone fragments and ash.
Kael's body was covered in blood and it was mixed both with his blood and the monsters.
Then the Wardens advanced together four of them Coordinating.
Their blade-limbs extended outward in rotating arcs creating a moving wall of death.
The army pulled back slightly giving space.
This was execution phase.
For some time Kael steadied his breathing.
If he tried brute force against four Wardens simultaneously, he would lose stamina too quickly.
He needed something so that it can collapse.
The Wardens moved in a square formation.
One attacked high.
One low.
Two from diagonal flanks.
Kael ducked the first strike, rolled under the second but a back-blade cut deep across his shoulder.
He retaliated with a concentrated authority burst into the nearest Warden's knee.
It cracked not fully but enough.
He didn't finish it. He moved.
He targeted the same Warden again during the next rotation cycle.
Micro-fractures expanded.
On the third pass he shattered the joint completely.
The Warden dropped to one knee.
Before the others could adjust formation Kael ripped through its exposed torso and tore the core free.
Three remained. They adapted instantly.
Formation is tightened this time.
The wardens were more aggressive than the rotation speed.
Kael allowed himself to be hit once even though he had injuries and bruises.
A blade pierced his side.
He grabbed it mid-penetration and locked the Warden in place for half a second.
That half-second was enough.
He redirected a charging Tyrant directly into the locked Warden.
Both collapsed.
Kael ended them before they could rise.
Two Wardens left.
He was slowing. His legs felt heavy.
Authority power was fluctuating right now.
Shen Yao's voice finally carried across the battlefield.
"Stop expanding."
Kael understood immediately. He had been spreading authority wide for control.
That was draining him. He compressed it fully inward.
This was for the Internal reinforcement.
His muscles tightened.
His stance stabilized.
His reaction sharpened.
The Wardens attacked. This time, Kael didn't trade.
He slipped inside their rotation arcs with minimal motion. Every strike was precise. Every step measured.
He shattered one Warden's hip joint in two clean hits.
Crushed its skull with three more.
The last Warden roared and unleashed a full-force downward blade strike.
Kael stepped forward instead of back.
He drove his fist straight into the descending blade shattering it mid-swing.
Before the Warden could recoil he struck center mass with compressed authority at full capacity.
The torso exploded outward.
Silence. The army hesitated.
That hesitation was fatal.
Kael surged forward.
He didn't slow.
He tore through the remaining Revenants.
He crushed Stalkers mid-leap.
He snapped Tyrant necks with clean rotational force.
The battlefield thinned.
But did not become instantly. But steadily.
Two hours into sustained combat the numbers dropped visibly.
Kael's body was at its limit. Every breath burned. Every movement carried weight.
Then the final group charged.
All remaining units. This was the last push.
Kael closed his eyes for one second. Then stepped forward.
Authority compressed to its densest state yet not as pressure but as gravity centered on himself.
The first wave collapsed inward upon entering his range.
Revenants stumbled.
Stalkers misjudged arcs.
Tyrants slowed fractionally.
That fraction was enough.
Kael moved like a blade through weakened structure.
When the final Tyrant fell silence consumed the field.
No enemies remained. Only wreckage.
Kael stood alone. Then dropped to one knee in exhaustion.
The system finally responded.
[Floor 15 Cleared]
[Physical Output Efficiency Increased]
[Authority Density Stabilized]
Shen Yao descended slowly.
He studied Kael's posture.
"You didn't win because you were stronger" Shen Yao said.
Kael looked up.
"You won because you stopped wasting power. Now rest for a bit and heal your injuries and recover your stamina"
He stood again barely and pulled up a healing potion and his injuries, bruises started to heal up and he used his breathing circulation technique to recover even more.
"Floor 16?"
Shen Yao's gaze hardened slightly.
"From here the stacking begins to punish mistakes exponentially."
Kael wiped blood from his jaw.
The gateway to Floor 16 opened in the distance.
This time Kael didn't rush toward it. He just laid down on the ground and he slept straight for 8hrs.
After waking up He walked slowly.
Because for the first time since Floor 11 he understood his authority wasn't just force.
It was structure and structure could evolve.