Empire Building With Infinite Warehouse-Chapter 72: Death from Above

All the people remaining in District 5 turned pale as a horrific shriek echoed from the sky above.

The unnatural sound shook the broken windows and rattled a thick layer of dust from the ruined walls of the surrounding buildings.

It was a terrifying noise that simply did not belong in this world, carrying a heavy weight that forced the surviving hunters to scramble and prepare their gear in a panic.

Swords were rapidly drawn from their leather sheaths while heavy firearms were loaded by hands trembling with raw fear.

Kyle had just carefully placed the thick concrete slab down to allow the trapped hospital patients to escape safely when he turned his head toward the descending noise.

His eyes narrowed in deep concentration as he reached down and grabbed the rough edge of the slab once again.

He activated his unique skill to reduce its overall mass, making the heavy block of stone light enough to handle.

He held the large object sturdy and hoisted it onto his broad shoulder, pointing it directly toward the direction of the swirling gate like a loaded weapon ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

Julien stood frozen in the middle of the street, keeping the Unrestricted Beast Contract tight within his sweaty grip.

His palms were ready against the magical parchment because he knew he was not ready to pull any jokes or clever tricks right now.

The red warning boxes in his vision were flashing at an unprecedented pace.

He had never seen his Streetwise skill pinging this much in his entire life, and the continuous system alerts felt like a drill pressing directly into his skull, warning him of a threat far beyond his current level.

"Wha... what was that sound?" a terrified hunter asked from somewhere behind Julien.

The man’s voice was trembling uncontrollably as he stared at the strange sky.

Then it appeared.

A massive cone-shaped structure dropped from the swirling portal and landed on the street with a heavy thud that cracked the pavement into deep fractures.

The creature was a giant reaching the clouds, boasting the terrifying size of a kaiju that easily blocked out the sun as it descended.

The massive beast cast an overwhelming shadow over the ruined district, covered in grey skin that looked tough and leathery while pulsing continuously with dark and dangerous energy.

Kyle did not wait a single second to analyse the threat.

He stepped forward and planted his legs firmly on the broken ground to secure his footing and threw the concrete slab directly at the creature with all of his physical might, dropping his mass reduction skill right as the stone left his thick fingers.

The slab regained its true and crushing weight in midair, flying through the ruined street like a devastating meteor aimed straight at the core of the beast.

The grey creature reacted to the incoming attack as its leathery skin twitched and the flesh peeled back in the centre to reveal its true face.

A single huge eye snapped open from the skin, large enough to cover almost its entire body, and the giant pupil darted around before locking directly onto the flying concrete projectile.

The heavy slab stopped dead in midair.

It stopped moving and floated there for only a fraction of a second before it reversed its trajectory entirely.

"Wha-?"

The speed of the reversal was terrifying because no one present could predict that kind of overwhelming force, and the stone shot back toward Kyle faster than a traditional cannonball.

Kyle stood rooted to the spot, unable to react fast enough to defend himself from his own backfiring attack.

Multiple low-level hunters and the injured hospital patients were still resting on the ground directly behind him, meaning they would all be crushed into paste if the attack landed.

Julien ran to the front of the group because his Streetwise skill was processing the danger much faster than the beast could move.

The system calculated the exact trajectory of the incoming stone, allowing the E Rank merchant to step right in front of the imposing A Rank giant to intercept the blow.

"The hell are you doing?" Kyle shouted in absolute horror, thinking it was pure suicide for a weak support class to take a direct hit.

"Julien, get out of there!" Chris shouted, caught by surprise as he reached out a desperate hand to try and pull his friend back from the incoming projectile.

Everyone there was left awestruck when Julien stood his ground.

[Kinetic Displacement.]

The heavy concrete met his open hands without Julien trying to block it using raw physical strength, allowing the magical skill to absorb the immense blunt force directly into his body.

The kinetic energy flowed through his arms as Julien spun on his heel, using his entire body weight to guide the dangerous momentum instead of fighting it.

He redirected the heavy attack right back at the monster with twice its original force, sending the concrete smashing directly into the giant eye of the beast.

A crunch echoed through the ruined street as the beast shrieked in pain, and the heavy impact threw the monster backwards until it crashed through the walls of an abandoned building.

Dust formed in the air and blanketed the street while Chris stood near the debris barehanded.

The blonde hunter’s shield and armor were ruined from his previous wave, leaving him defenceless against a boss-level threat.

Julien quickly navigated through his glowing system inventory, scrolling past the basic healing items until he found a heavy Ruin Knight sword and a matching reinforced shield.

He bought the high-tier weapons quickly, watching a large chunk of his new credits vanish from his account before pulling the gear out and handing it to his blonde friend.

Chris caught the heavy shield and immediately locked it onto his arm, gripping the sword tight as he prepared to defend the group from the incoming onslaught.

"Kiara, Alice, take the patients and run!" Julien ordered, turning around and pointing down the street.

They needed to clear the area before the boss recovered its bearings.

Before Kiara and the others could move a safe distance away, the screech of the beast echoed again from deep inside the collapsed building.

The heavy rubble shifted as multiple parked vehicles were suddenly lifted from the street by an unseen telekinetic force, and the monster threw them all toward Julien and the escaping crowd.

The cars sped through the air like deadly projectiles aimed directly at the vulnerable civilians.

Julien gritted his teeth in intense concentration.

His mana pool was already running dangerously low from blocking the first attack, so he quickly pulled a blue potion from his coat and drank the entire vial without hesitation.

The magical liquid burned down his throat and restored his energy pool just in time for him to raise his hands again and step in front of the retreating civilians.

He used Kinetic Displacement on the first flying car, sending the heavy metal frame crashing into a nearby brick wall to neutralise the threat and caught the second vehicle with his glowing hands and redirected its momentum straight down the empty street, repeating this exhausting process multiple times in rapid succession to keep his friends alive.

Julien stressed his weak muscles to their limits as his arms shook hard and his veins bulged under the immense pressure of using the high-tier skill repeatedly.

The physical toll was agonising for his fragile body, but the desperate strategy worked perfectly as the path remained clear for the survivors to escape.

Every patient quickly escaped from the danger zone, guided safely around the corner by Kiara and Alice while the remaining fighters braced themselves.

The surviving hunters gripped their weapons tighter and slowly walked toward the ruined building, trying their best to find where the beast was hiding within the wreckage.

Julien stood in the middle of the street, catching his breath, resting his shaking hands on his knees while his Streetwise skill tried to pinpoint the direction of the monster.

The system was acting highly unstable, causing the glowing tracking lines in his vision to flicker rapidly before pointing toward a dark alleyway and vanishing.

The beast was either moving far too fast for the system to track, or its dark magic was actively messing with the tracking mechanics of Julien’s passive abilities.

Julien kept his gaze focused on the flickering line as it suddenly reappeared and pointed toward a burnt-out car, only to disappear again before he could warn the others.

This time, the system alert did not point down the street or into the alley like the previous warnings.

It pointed right above Julien’s head.

A heavy shadow loomed over him and blocked out the light from the strange sky above.

Julien looked up to see the single huge eye staring right at him from the edge of a high rooftop, unblinking and full of rage as it prepared to strike.

Right below its giant eye, the flesh split apart to open a nasty and terrifying mouth lined with needle-sharp teeth.

The beast fell from the building in a silent ambush, dropping straight down with its jaws wide open to swallow Julien whole.