The Battle Begins! Part 1

My liege will be the strongest.

As a warrior since birth, I know this in my very soul.

He was born for greatness, to rule it all, and I, as his servant, will be right behind him when that inevitable moment arrives.

This challenge is one of the many that I will have to face to make it happen.

" Big guy, don't get in our way."

Yet, dealing with this green-haired bastard is probably the hardest one so far.

" Mind your business, human."

Be glad, if it was the old me I would've beheaded you with my great-axe already.

" Hehehe~. He doesn't seem to like you, Zoro."

On the other hand, this straw-hat guy isn't as annoying.

Weird he might be, but I can handle weird. After all, our army is full of weirdos.

 Especially that stupid spider. I honestly don't understand what my liege sees in her.

*AAAARGH!*

At the distance, the gate break finally came to a halt. Monsters like I had never seen pouring out of its cracks.

They were nothing like the regular monsters our army had faced in the past.

Their grey, cracked skin and nightmarish morphology were a new sight.

" What the hell are those things."

Zoro, the human my liege considers a brother, looked as astonished as I was.

" Get ready, this will be tough."

Even the easygoing boy, Luffy I believe, has an expression I wouldn't expect from someone like him.

I met him shortly with zero introductions when my liege left me and my battalion to accompany them. Although basic, I believe to have a good grasp of his personality by now.

It seems that, like me, he can tell this battle will be a difficult one.

" You two, stay alive for as long as you can."

They both looked surprised at my words, but their response never came, for the enemy was already here.

" My brothers and sisters, charge!!"

In an instant, my battalion and I rushed to the unknown monsters.

There were around 200 of them, some were bipedal, but most of them seemed to be four legged creatures.

Regardless of their morbid appearance, which I had gotten accustomed to by now, they all shared this eerie vibe I couldn't put into words.

They were SS-ranked. The same as me and a rank higher than my companions.

This was all thanks to our liege's powers. As he gained strength, so did we. A symbiotic relationship you may call it.

Though we outnumbered them for now, provided we were in the thousands, it was not exactly an even match.

I alone could fight half of my battalion and still win, the difference in rank was something that only someone like our liege, who's still in the realm of a B-Ranker, could ignore.

The reason why we surpass his rank when we were clearly lower or equal to him a few days ago is astonishing, but surprisingly enough, he can still out power me and the other commanders with ease.

His strength is out of this world. Ignoring the laws of existential rank and sharing said power with us is surely unheard of.

With him, I'm certain this gate break would've been a piece of cake.

But today is different.

Today we are in our own.

" AAARGH!!!"

Noticing our approach, the abominations at the front began charging forward.

*CLASH!!!!*

I met what seemed to be the leader of the mobs at the very front, my great axe blocking its claw like appendages.

" You're a tough one but…"

Yet, as my axe came down, so did the monsters colorless blood. It's arm bisected in the process.

" You will need much more than that !!!"

We are Adam Zenith's army.

The immortal legion.

.....

" Anansi, get ready."

" I know Stheno, I know."

On Stheno and Anansi's side a similar spectacle was taking place.

In their case, the number of their battalion was smaller, only comparable to Ragnar's own if combined together.

Since Adam would probably need the most support on his side, this was the distribution he decided.

" I will get going first."

Hearing Stheno's words, Bang attempted to stop her.

As a veteran SS-Ranked hunter, he knew better than letting a youngster lead the initial attack against such formidable-looking enemies.

" Sto-."

Yet, what he saw stopped him on his tracks.

The beautiful girl he was calling out to was no longer there, before him, a gigantic snake of obsidian skin stood, dwarfing the entire battlefield.

" Not so fast ~ I need master to spoil me too, you know ?"

Shortly after, the seductress lady going by "Anansi", underwent a transformation of her own.

Her human skin like a cocoon, was ripped apart, and from inside of it an abomination of enormous proportions raised.

Though significantly smaller than her colleague, the energy radiating from her was even scarier than the one coming from the grey monsters.

' Brat, where the fuck did you get these monsters from!?'

Soon after, the subordinates under the two commanders, started transforming into their respective forms. Some turned into arachnes, lamias, scorpion-human hybrids, werewolves, and the list continued.

Their humanoid appearance, along with the shadow concealment planted by Adam was more than enough to consolidate their identity as 'humans'.

Turning into their respective forms wasn't exactly rare. After all, hybrid type awakened who could fully transform weren't exactly uncommon.

The only issue was their numbers. Having thousands of S-Ranked beings in a battlefield who all shared the same power type was simply surreal, at least in Atlas.

' I'm too old for this shit…'

Bang, Zoro, Luffy, and the other hunters at their site were in for a show they would never forget.

....

' Good, it seems that those three are fired up after my words of encouragement ~.'

On Adam's side, the same scenario was taking place. Monsters with grey skin and variable shapes ran out of the now unchanging crevice. The only differential factor between their inferior ranked counterparts and them being the sheer power they possessed.

" Ok, play time is over, Alice."

As he looked at the horde of approaching creatures, he planted a hand on the still confused Alice's shoulder.

" Run if you want, but I will find you. And believe me, you won't like it if I have to look for you."

A chill of unadulterated fear ran down Alice's back. She knew he was telling the truth. The moment he touched her shoulder she felt he did something to her.

No matter where she went now, Adam would know it.

" Undo the spell on Tatsumaki as well. I'm not asking, I'm telling you."

This was probably the first time since meeting her master that she ever felt so powerless.

Clenching her teeth, Alice undid the spell resistance hesitantly.

' ! '

As soon as the spell was lifted, Alice's body started floating as she desperately tried to reach her neck with her hands, her face turning pale as the flow of blood to her head dramatically decreased.

" Stop."

With one word from Adam, her body fell to the ground, unconscious.

" *Sigh* You have some balls to talk to me like that, young man."

With the puppet's threads now gone, the esper youngwoman was back to her old self.

" Not now. You may have been controlled by that flimsy spell all this time, but I'm sure as hell you know what situation we're on. "

The moment Alice lifted the spell, Adam used his concealment and shadow powers to erase the presences around him. That included Tatsumaki's raging aura at the moment.

" Oi, watch your mouth."

Though Adam couldn't care any less about her attitude, he had to save some face. After all, what he was about to do would change his standing in this world forever.

As he said, playtime was over.

" It wasn't me who was brainwashed like an amateur, keep your snaring to yourself."

Tatsumaki was taken back by Adam's response. Not expecting such words from him.

She had listened to his conversation with Alice and assessed him as a playful character.

Now, no playfulness could be felt in his tone.

That mattered little to her though. As the hot headed, prideful woman she was, Adam's attitude was unacceptable.

" Eh? You wanna go ?!"

Even if he tried to suppress it, Adam just couldn't help but deadpan at the esper's comeback line. It seemed like being a puppet for so long affected her already compromised ego.

" You do realize we're facing a freaking army of SSS-Ranked monsters, with an even stronger boss possibly on its way? Instead of acting like a spoiled kid, you should instead be thankful I even helped you in the first place."

" You-!"

" Later…"

Tatsumaki looked furious, her hair flying over her head frenetically. But she didn't interrupt him.

" If you wanna 'teach me a lesson', you can do so later after I'm done saving y'all asses."

*Snap!*

With a snap of his finger, the area of concealment vanished, and as he took a step forward, his presence was felt by the rest of hunters.

" Adam, there are more of them than we expected!"

Irene, looked back at his pupil in worry. The monsters were mere seconds away from making a collision with their group.

" I know."

He answered calmly as he raised his hand, followed by a distortion in space taking place around it.

Then, he took a second step.

*FWOOSH~ *

Before the crowd of veterans could react, Adam was already ten meters ahead of them. A two-handed sword with a horned skull in its handle firmly held in his right hand.

" Adam! This is not what we agreed on!"

Kenji screamed his lungs out. The image of Adam standing a few meters away from an approaching horde of nightmarish creatures by himself bringing memories he wished but was unable to forget.

" Sorry pops. If I told you I would do this you wouldn't have let me."

Before the astonished hunters, Adam's left hand was raised, and a second later, thousands of different weapons formed in the air, which pointed at the approaching grey monsters.

"I hid enough already. Might as well show off a little."

What happened next was surreal on many levels.

Like a rain of judgment, the makeshift weapons fell on the battlefield, incapacitating most monsters, which were unable to defend against Adam's incessant attacks.

Those who were lucky to evade it, were soon encased by a chilly aura that creeped out of the ground, which made it hard for them to do so anymore.

"Kenji, what the hell did you raise…"

Newgate's question was never answered, for Kenji himself was unable to process what he was seeing. He knew his son was stupidly strong, but not having experienced his strength in person had created a misconception on his assessment.

This wasn't simple strength.

This was true power.

And just like that, the biggest catastrophe in the history of Star City began.

...…

Next chapter coming in 3, 2, 1!