The Strongest Human

Chapter 6: Shield Breaker

A chilling silence draped over the main cavern of the Iron Skull Valley. Dozens of Ashen Vanguard members stood frozen, eyes wide, staring at the thick steel plate on Garrick Ironwill’s mechanical arm, now severely cracked and buckled from the raw grip of Alden Vance’s bare hand. There were no spells, no elemental glow; only raw physical strength that defied the logic of their minds.

Garrick exhaled a heavy breath, thin wisps of smoke venting from the gears of his mangled arm. Instead of anger, the giant veteran erupted into a loud, booming laugh that echoed throughout the cave. "Good! You son of a bitch, you aren’t screwing around, kid! It’s been over a decade since I’ve felt this intense a level of intimidation from a pure human!"

Alden released his grip and took a single step back. His sharp, cold eyes stared at Garrick without blinking. "I don’t have time to prove myself repeatedly, Garrick. If you’re in on my plan, we move now. Ironclad Fortress must fall before the Sovereign Concord realizes I’ve wiped out their desert patrol fleet."

Cael, standing beside Eli, stepped forward with an anxious face. "Alden, but Ironclad Fortress isn't just any outpost! It’s the Sovereign Concord’s front-line stronghold in the Deadlands. The walls are made of enchanted obsidian and protected by an Aetheric Aegis magic shield!"

"Magic shield?" Alden offered a crooked, scornful smile. He clenched his right fist, his body’s cells vibrating intensely as his Somatic Resonance pulse began to absorb the residual wild Aetherium energy in the air. "To people like you, that shield might be an impenetrable wall. To me, it’s just a pile of energy food begging to be devoured."

Garrick flattened an ancient beast-hide map on a stone table in the center of the cave. He pointed to a large black dot surrounded by red runes. "Listen to me, Alden. Ironclad Fortress is guarded by five hundred elite Daemonicus warriors and commanded by Commander Morvath, a high-level fire and earth elementalist. Inside, hundreds of human slaves are worked to death mining for Aetherium Cores."

"Five hundred soldiers?" a veteran Ashen Vanguard fighter shouted in a panic from the back. "Garrick, are you insane?! We don’t have fifty able-bodied men left! This isn’t a raid; this is a mass suicide!"

Alden turned slowly toward the soldier. His gaze was so piercing it left the man trembling, cutting his words short. "Who said I wanted you to fight on the front lines?"

The cave fell silent instantly.

"What do you mean, Alden?" Garrick asked, narrowing his eyes as he studied the cold face of the Earth-born fighter.

"I don’t need fifty people to fight with me," Alden said in a tone flat yet absolutely certain. "You lot just need to wait outside the perimeter of the fortress. Your job is to secure the human prisoners I’m about to free and handle the looted supplies. The business of breaking the shield, tearing down the main gate, and slitting Commander Morvath’s throat... I’ll handle that myself."

"You bastard... you’re completely out of your mind," Eli whispered, disbelieving. Yet, in his eyes, flickered a spark of hope long extinguished.

Garrick stared at Alden for a few seconds before breaking into a wide grin. His remaining mechanical arm whirred as its pneumatic system locked. "A man with this much confidence is either a dead idiot or an apex predator. And after what you did to my arm, I’m betting on the latter. Fine! The Ashen Vanguard moves under your command, Alden Vance!"

Without wasting time, they prepared. In less than an hour, the fifty-man squad of veteran fighters, along with Alden, Cael, and Eli, moved across the barren ash storms of the Deadlands. The purplish Eos-Vaelhart night sky emitted an aura that pierced to the bone, yet Alden walked in the lead wearing no magic protection at all. Every gust of Aetherium wind that hit his skin was absorbed directly by his pores, pushing his muscle density and physical regeneration to terrifying levels.

As they crossed the rocky plains, Garrick walked parallel to Alden. "You know, Alden... for hundreds of years, humans in this world have been taught we are failures of creation. Born without a Magic Core, considered parasites worthy only to be blood sacrifices for the Sovereign Concord."

"This world is built on the lies of elite rulers who are terrified of raw physical potential," Alden replied coldly, staring straight ahead. "In my world, we don’t have magic. We fight using speed, precision, and mass manipulation. When the human body is pushed past its absolute limits, magic is nothing but a cheap trick that’s easy to break."

"Cheap trick, huh? I like the way you think, you bastard," Garrick chuckled harshly.

After an intense two-hour trek through the jagged cliffs of the Deadlands, the group reached the top of a rocky hill overlooking the valley. At the bottom stood the magnificent Ironclad Fortress.

It loomed like a sleeping black monster. The thirty-meter obsidian walls stood firm, guarded by a thick, vibrating dome of blue light—the Aetheric Aegis magic shield. Atop the watchtowers sat dozens of Daemonicus soldiers wielding energy bows, while at the gate, an elite patrol squad mounted on three-horned beasts prepared for a night patrol.

"Look at that blue shield," Cael whispered from behind the rocks, his eyes full of dread. "It’s powered by three Elementalist Cores at the center of the fortress. Anything that touches it without a magic passport is instantly ground into cursed dust!"

Alden stretched his neck until his bones audibly cracked. "Good. That means it’s holding a lot of energy."

"Alden, wait! What’s your infiltration strategy?" Garrick asked quickly.

Alden leaped off the cliff without hesitation. "My strategy is simple. I walk to the front gate and destroy anyone who gets in my way."

"That bastard! He’s really walking straight there!" Garrick cursed, slapping his forehead, though a wild smile creased his veteran face. "All squads, get to your ambush positions! If this madman manages to kick up a storm, we move in to save the prisoners!"

Alden strolled casually across the open wasteland, his steps calm yet creating deep indentations in the earth with every heel strike. Within seconds, the presence of a pure human in the sterilized fortress area triggered the magical alarms. The sound of a blaring horn cut through the silence of the night.

"Infiltrator! There’s human trash outside the perimeter!" shouted the Daemonicus patrol captain riding a horned Chimeric beast. He was a large man with grayish-red skin and two curved horns on his forehead.

The squad of ten Chimeric-mounted soldiers turned and accelerated, cutting off Alden’s path. Desert dust billowed behind them.

"How can there be a human slave wandering out here?!" the captain barked, drawing a flaming energy blade. "Kill him! Chop him up for beast feed!"

"Shut your mouth, you Concord dog," Alden muttered coldly.

As the first three Chimeric beasts leaped into the air with jaws wide, time seemed to slow. Alden dropped into an Apex Arts: Tiger Strike stance. The cells in his body detonated with high-level Somatic Resonance.

BOOM!

 the ground beneath Alden shattered into pieces as he shot forward like a cruise missile. Before the magical blades or the beast claws could touch him, Alden caught the upper and lower jaws of the lead Chimeric beast with his bare hands. With a brutal roar, he ripped the one-ton beast in two vertically! Black blood and viscera sprayed across the desert floor.

Without giving the others a chance to react, Alden pivoted, utilizing his physical rotational momentum. An Apex Arts roundhouse kick landed square on the second Daemonicus warrior’s chest. The thick steel armor imploded, piercing the soldier’s lungs and spine. The body flew like a catapult stone, smashing into the fortress gate tower until it collapsed.

"W-What kind of strength is this?! He isn’t using magic! He’s just a regular human!" another Daemonicus soldier shrieked in terror.

"Regular human?" Alden wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand, his eyes glowing with a grayish-gold light from the raw Aetherium absorbed into his veins. "You cold-blooded giants have spent too long thinking of yourselves as gods. Tonight, I’ll teach you what it feels like to be prey."

In under twenty seconds, the entire elite patrol squad was slaughtered outside the gates. Their bodies lay scattered with broken bones and crushed chests.

Above the fortress, Commander Morvath, who had just arrived at the parapet, watched the massacre with bulging eyes. "Set the Aetheric Aegis to maximum power! Blast that bastard with the Aetherium Magic Cannons! Now!"

The blue magic dome in front of Alden buzzed louder, emitting destructive waves capable of melting the hardest metal. Three magic cannons atop the fortress began gathering searing red energy, aiming directly at the lone figure below.

Alden stepped closer to the shimmering Aetheric Aegis shield. He squinted, feeling the surge of pure magical energy fortifying it. Instead of fear, Alden raised his right hand and clenched his fist. The Somatic Resonance cells in his chest and arms vibrated violently, ready to devour every bit of that magic.

"Let’s see how strong your precious magic wall really is," Alden whispered sharply, then delivered a hypersonic straight punch directly into the center of the Ironclad Fortress’s magic dome.