Shields

My chest, arms, and head were struck by seven spears yet they broke into pieces the moment they made contact with my skin.

My hands that were stretched out grabbed onto the heads of a soldier on each side.

Squeezing I felt a crunching sensation before letting go, not even bothering to see if they died.

Retracting my arms, from that point onwards I threw out punches and kicks as my main attack.

Soldiers would sacrifice their lives to jump on me in hopes of slowing me down only to be flung in the opposite direction with a gaping hole in their chests.

Spears, swords, and arrows would break and shatter before even leaving a shallow cut.

Crashing through the frontlines I took the lives of tens before being encircled in a formation within the mass of soldiers.

Around thirty soldiers with all the shields surrounded me from all sides.

Wanting to break through their formation I went in a random direction as I rose my fist ready to punch through the shields.

Yet, while I was running many soldiers who did not have shields gathered behind the ones who did.

They filled every possible spot of free space with their bodies.

This did not even register as a thought in my mind as I felt it to be a pointless attempt to stop me.

However, when my fist connected with the shield of a random soldier, instead of being blown away the force of my hit was stopped!

The energy behind my hit was equally distributed between all the soldiers who were behind the ones with the shield.

The ones in the far back were the ones who only got pushed back a few feet. But they were able to quickly recover and jump back into the pile.

Turning from the soldier I just hit I found another target and threw another punch only for the same result to happen.

Angered I went into a frenzy throwing punches and kicks at every shield I saw.

When this continued for close to twenty seconds and nothing changed I knew I had to change my approach.

With time the soldiers managed to hold me back, then the soldiers with ranged attacks gathered and the sky began to darken.

Hundreds of abilities that ranged from arrows, spikes, and balls of different elements locked on to my position within the encirclement.

If I didn't take action immediately I would be struck by all the attacks and even with my insane defense, I knew I wouldn't come out of that exchange without a few wounds.

Not wanting my blood to be spilled I changed tactics.

Instead of mindlessly ramming into the shields I would make a different form of confrontation.

Kicking my leg to the ground I launched myself into the sky.

Aiming myself to come crashing down on the soldiers in the middle of the pile I pencil dived towards them.

Only some had the power to react but it was hopeless.

Because I targeted the mass of the pile there wasn't enough time for the edges to move which would allow the center to escape.

Also with the shieldsman clear in the front, there was no way for them to defend themselves.

Smashing down into the sea of troops a chain reaction of death followed.

Those who were directly under my feet were now literally six feet underground.

Those all around were hit by a wave of mana that blasted out to create a shockwave.

Many were turned to squashed paste, while others went flying in every direction crashing into their fellow soldiers.

The troops flying had no control of their bodies and often found themselves being pierced by their companion's weapons.

With a single attack, I completely disrupted the synergy between the soldiers and ruined their formation.

As the shockwave began to fade away the projectiles that were fired at my original position within the circle finally hit.

Although, there was no target there since I was long gone the explosion that resulted from all the abilities created a second shockwave albeit smaller.

The soldiers on the opposite side of the circle who weren't harmed too badly by my attack were the ones to suffer the most from the explosion.

'They are killing each other faster than I can kill them myself,' I say, making note of the absurdity of the situation.

Turning my attention back to the war there were still over four hundred more troops ready and actively charging toward me.

I ignored all the soldiers I sent flying as I figured it would take them a while to get their senses back and sustain themselves. Plus, I couldn't go out of my way to target one or two specific troops.

Now dashing towards I prepare to have a second collision but this time with the second wave of troops.

Many survivors of the first wave were still alive but it seems the man who gave the speech at the beginning wanted to send the next group of stronger men.

These soldiers were on average a whole five levels stronger than the past soldiers.

While running, time still seemed to move slower even with the first wave but now with the second, there was only a little bit of a delay.

This proved how much stronger they were and that I had to take some more caution. I couldn't keep getting entrapped in formations again.

Not wanting to activate any abilities to move faster and deplete my mana I was stuck only having a short delay between my reactions and theirs.

Still, I had a huge up hand because of my pure defense and strength.

As I collided with the second away I changed my way of attacking from random punches and kicks to a more defined path.

Cutting away some unnecessary movements my prowess increased by many folds.

I was not well trained in martial arts in fact, I barely knew any at all so even if I was improving bad habits were still being made.

I had no teacher nor guide on the correct way to hit a target so I could only make do with what I knew.

And what I knew was how the mana flowed.