Talon stared at the area in front of him that had been hit with the giant shockwave. His eyes were fully wide as he took in the scenery.
A huge visible trace of the spear's blade ran across the area, carving the ground out and leaving a mark behind as it moved forward a dozen meters or so. The depth of the trace was also considerably far for a mere swing of a spear.
"... I didn't even... use all of my strength..." Talon murmured as he crouched down and touched the mark.
The sheer precision of the hit made it appear like a straight line to the naked eye so there was no way it was anything but his strength that created it.
"Acrypha?" Talon turned around to his companion. "What kind of power is this? I didn't think a single slash would do this!"
Acrypha stared at him with a serious look. "What did you expect? With all the bonus points you have, your stats are easily over 80+ points. You have the strength of 8 average humans. With the fully leveled spear, leaving an effect like that is expected."
'Though, it's unheard of for a level 23 creature to do it. But, it's Talon we're talking about so It's not abnormal anymore.' She thought to herself as she sighed.
"Damn, I'm already at that level..." Talon murmured.
"Yeah, and it's only going up from here. At some point, your strength will reach a level where a move from your hand could erase a continent or a planet as a whole." Acrypha nodded her head.
"..." A complicated expression appeared on Talon's face as he looked at his hand.
Slowly, he started realizing that his strength was breaking through the realm of what was possible for a creature on Earth to do. With each move he makes, the effects will become devastating and monstrous.
'I can't take this lightly...'
He knew that if he continued at this rate, the consequences of each mistake he made would become irreversible. That was something that he naturally wanted to avoid and he knew exactly how to do that.
Clenching his fist, Talon stood up as he exhaled a long breath.
"Are you good?" Acrypha asked.
"Yeah, just took a moment to think. Let's try again." He said as he picked up the spear and took a fighting stance.
Staring ahead of him, he inhaled air before he flashed forward in the blink of an eye as he slashed down again.
*BOOOM*
A giant explosion occurred the moment his spear landed on the ground. But, Talon didn't stop there as he slashed to the side again, sending a giant airwave that sent everything flying back into his area.
He didn't stop there and span the spear in his hand before he turned around and sliced thin air. With each move he made, he would change how the entire place looked. That was how absurdly strong he was.
'Such attacks would be devastating on a group of monsters.'
A few slashes later, he finally spanned the spear one last time and put it to his side. His eyes sharply looked around. The entire place was now desolate of anything other than the piles of dirt carved out of the ground and the traces of the spear's blade.
With Talon standing alone in the middle of this chaos, it was in a sense, a very scenic image that captivated Acrypha's eyes as she watched from afar. Complicated emotions flashed through her eyes.
So far, there were two people inside the gymnasium that the students captured and imprisoned. Ji-Seok who was ready to harm Go Young-Soon for extra food, and Rim Kyung, the previous leader of the students before Hyun-Jae and Talon arrived.
Both had committed horrible crimes and tried to harm the students around them so Talon decided to chain them up and keep them in a closed room. He did contemplate simply throwing them outside for the monsters to eat, but he felt that it would've been too extreme for the students to handle so he put it aside for now.
"What about them?" Talon asked with a frown. "Did they escape?"
The girl shook her head as she pointed back. "Come and take a look... I don't know what I saw... It's... It's weird..."
Talon didn't understand what the girl was saying. So, he decided to go and see for himself what she meant.
"Stay here. Don't alert anyone till I come back, understood?" He said.
"Y-Yes."
As he moved inside the gymnasium, Talon's eyes moved left and right, making sure to keep his senses alerted just in case. A while later, he found himself in front of a dark room in the corner of the gymnasium. It was completely secluded from the other parts of the building and students were warned not to enter it unless they had to.
'Hmm, I'm not feeling anything weird...' Talon squinted his eyes as he turned the knob and opened the door. The interior was dimly lit with one single, old bulb.
There, his eyes fell on two students lying down on the ground as if they were asleep. Their arms and legs were tied with ropes and they were facing the other side.
"Oi, bastards, wake the fuck up!" Squinting his eyes, Talon called for them coldly.
However, no response came back to him.
"I said wake the fuck up!" He yelled again, shaking the entire room with his voice. However, still, they didn't seem to move at all.
"What..."
Talon confusedly walked inside the room and approached the two students slowly. A weird, cold feeling was starting to rise in his chest as he got closer. Without even noticing, his grip on his spear became stronger as Talon started channeling Aetheris.
It was a natural reaction from his body when it felt that Talon was in danger.
When he got close enough to one of them, he slowly crouched down and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Wake up. Rim Kyung! I said wak-"
Before Talon could even finish the word, Rim Kyung's body fell to the side, revealing his face.
Seeing that, Talon immediately jumped back in shock. "What?!"
The young man's entire face was completely distorted into a wide, skin-tearing smile. His eyes were crying tears of blood and his motionless expression made Talon realize... He was dead.
'That smile... What the fuck?! Why does he have that smile?!' Talon immediately looked around him alerted as he grabbed the spear with both hands.
'Is someone here?'
(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )