Awakened: SSS Ranked Soul king

"Slayers from level 9 and above, make your way to the front."

While the fog slowly made its way forward, a voice randomly resounded in the ears of those nearby.

"Hm!! Let's go," the first person to respond was Victoria, for she recognized the voice, and soon others rushed forward from the camp of the three clans and the Blacksteels.

"Sir Guilliman," said Dorn as he exited the fog and looked up at a figure seated atop a direwolf not too far away.

He no longer wore his helmet, revealing pitch-black hair with red highlights dripping from his scalp onto his shoulders. This person was a relatively unknown individual in the grand scheme of things.

In fact, it was not until Vincent began to complain about Guilliman that he—or any of the Blacksteels—had heard his name.

But right now? He had somehow usurped the power and become the de facto leader of the force.

"Two new people broke through to Red, that's good," Guilliman nodded while scanning the groups emerging from the fog.

Months in this godforsaken land had tempered those around like steel in a raging furnace. No casualties—at least in the grand scheme of things. When they left the Blacksteel shelter, the majority were merely new slayers,

or had barely entered yellow.

Now, there were a whopping 25 people in this troop capped at red, and many more at level 9…on the verge of breaking through.

"Yes," Logan Valor smiled; the two were his men, and he felt quite glad.

"We are close to the main hive—just a few kilometers away. There's a massive opening in the mountain where thousands, if not tens of thousands, of those creatures are nesting. Right in the middle of them is, of course, our target:

the hallowed beast.

I can confirm it's still at the wayfarer rank, but it's an inch away from becoming an abomination. Three hours tops. We need to kill it before then, so group up.

Each team should have five people above level 10. We will form a spear formation and move forward with the fog behind us," Guilliman explained.

The mission had been a long time coming. They were all willing to risk their lives for this—and so was Guilliman.

A moment later, groups began to form, creating a total of five groups of people above level 9. The majority of the slayer army was still in the fog, but these men would act as the spearhead for what was to come.

"Move out!!" The only person who didn't join a group was Guilliman, as he remained apart from Victoria and the others despite their beckoning for him to join.

'Maybe after this whole thing,' Guilliman thought. He didn't particularly care about the hallowed beast or clearing this godforsaken gate. But Thane did—it was a kind of last wish for him.

Once again, the fog began to move. This time, it moved faster than before as Guilliman passed down commands.

About 20 minutes later, they reached the dried-up ravine and descended into it, moving straight down through the area and toward the hive.

'They are preparing.'

As Guilliman, alongside the main strike force, moved down the ravine, his focus was far ahead as he used his left eye to see through the haze.

Now that he was in much closer proximity to the hive, he could clearly see the movements.

Those creatures had clearly noticed them from this distance and were now coiling around the massive coliseum-like cave structure, waiting.

'This is good,' Guilliman thought. He was frightened by this sight, but at the same time, he was happy.

This wouldn't be an easy fight—no doubt, he fully expected that at least some of the slayers with him would die. But seeing that these creatures moved like a hive mind,

he conjectured that killing the hallowed beast would kill them all since they were psychically linked.

This was their only hope to kill such a large number of beasts by themselves.

As they inched closer and closer to the hive, the tension among the men grew, until suddenly the roof of the tunnel began to drip water from above, as if it were slowly raining.

They were drenched and cold while rushing toward a dangerous, cold-blooded threat.

Yet they had never felt so hot. Their blood boiled at the thought of this confrontation.

This battle would either make their name and reputation or shatter it into a thousand pieces.

"You all know the plan!!! Let's kill this thing!" Guilliman's voice resounded at the front as they rode through a cave opening one after the other and separated into groups.

The main strike force's duty was to kill the hallowed beast.

But even it had immediate guards ranked as mythic highlords.

"The guards should be easy, but watch out for the horde!" Dorn shouted, waving the sword in his hand as those at level 9 formed a buffer behind them while the horde rushed down on them from behind.

"Hm?" The hallowed beast raised its head from the ground as it looked down at the slayers surrounding it.

This wasn't its first encounter with these "useless" humans. They had attacked it a few months ago, and although it seemed they had grown stronger—by a lot—there still wasn't much difference.

They had rushed in headfirst, forgetting that the horde was coming up behind them. Even if the strong ones behind them joined forces, they wouldn't be able to kill it before the horde ripped them apart.

"Hold!!" Dorn's voice boomed as he spoke directly to those covering the rear.

Guilliman's plans were risky, but also genius. The first part was to charge in headfirst—a tactic that at the time sounded foolish. Dorn, for one, didn't agree with it,

but it was because he didn't see what Guilliman was seeing.

With such large numbers in the horde, they couldn't hope to fight it head-on, so Guilliman split the force into two.

One was the main strike force, which consisted of the strongest slayers.

But truly, was the main strike force the strongest force? No!

As the horde struck from behind the main strike force, the fog rushed in from the entrance and swept over the descending horde, consuming a large chunk of its initial forces.