SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling-Chapter 75: First Blood

The Syndicate army advanced in perfect formation, three hundred soldiers moving like a single organism, siege equipment rolling forward, and at the front the two A-Rank commanders walking with casual confidence.

Luthra stood on the main wall, Khorvash to his left and Misha to his right, behind them six hundred defenders waited for orders.

"Let them get within range of our traps," he said calmly, "no one fires until I give the signal."

The army crossed the one-mile marker, then half a mile, entering the zone where Jako had set up his elaborate trap network.

Luthra raised his hand, waiting, watching.

When the front ranks reached the quarter-mile mark, he dropped his hand.

"Now."

Jako triggered the traps simultaneously.

The ground erupted in a hundred different places, pit traps opened swallowing soldiers, tripwires activated explosive charges, hidden crossbows fired from concealed positions, and earthen spikes burst up from below.

The Syndicate formation shattered, soldiers scrambling for cover, siege equipment toppling as the beasts pulling them panicked.

In the first thirty seconds, they lost forty soldiers without Luthra’s forces firing a single shot.

Commander Vex roared in fury, his mana exploding outward in a visible wave of destructive energy.

[Warning, Path activation detected, Absolute Annihilation creates zones where all matter is destroyed on contact, avoid the red energy fields.]

Vex began walking forward again, and everywhere he stepped the ground was consumed, traps meant to slow him simply ceased to exist in the radius of his power.

Kira, the other A-Rank, vanished from sight completely.

[Phantom is using Perfect Assassination, she’s entered stealth mode, assume she’s targeting high-value individuals, likely you.]

’Great, one enemy I can see who destroys everything he touches, and another I can’t see who specializes in killing important targets.’

Luthra activated his Corruption Field, expanding it to its maximum twenty-foot radius, if Kira got close enough to strike he’d sense the disturbance in his field and react.

"Ranged attackers, focus fire on the regular soldiers, ignore the A-Ranks for now," he called out.

Arrows, fire bolts, and thrown weapons rained down on the Syndicate forces, the defenders had height and cover advantage, every shot counted.

The B-Rank hunters in the Syndicate army began counter-attacking, blasting the walls with mana attacks, creating breaches that soldiers poured through.

"Rapid response teams, plug the breaches," Khorvash ordered, leading her trained fighters to intercept the infiltrators.

The first wave of enemies that made it through the walls met dragon fire and coordinated melee combat, Khorvash was devastating in close quarters, her enhanced strength letting her throw grown men like ragdolls while her flames consumed anyone who got too close.

Luthra focused on the bigger picture, tracking Commander Vex’s advance and staying alert for Kira’s inevitable strike.

Vex reached the wall and simply touched it, the stone and metal that Borris had spent weeks building dissolved instantly, creating a massive breach.

"Fall back from that section, reform on the secondary line," Luthra ordered, he’d planned for this, the walls were never meant to stop A-Rank hunters, just slow them and channel their advance.

Vex walked through the breach, his Absolute Annihilation field destroying everything in a ten-foot radius, defenders who didn’t retreat fast enough were caught in the field and simply ceased to exist, no blood, no screams, just instant vaporization.

’That’s the most terrifying power I’ve ever seen, there’s no defense against it, if he touches you you’re dead.’

Luthra dropped from the wall and ran toward Vex, trusting his instincts.

The A-Rank hunter saw him coming and smiled. "So you’re the famous Luthra, the defective Lurius who somehow kills B-Ranks, let’s see how you handle real power."

He swung his hand in a wide arc, the annihilation field expanding with the motion, Luthra dove under it and rolled to his feet, his chain already in motion.

The chain wrapped around Vex’s arm, but the moment it touched the annihilation field it began to dissolve, Luthra released it immediately and backpedaled.

’Physical contact is death, ranged attacks get destroyed, how do you fight something like this?’

[You don’t, not directly, you avoid him and let his power drain his stamina, Absolute Annihilation is extraordinarily mana-intensive, he can’t maintain it indefinitely.]

’So another war of attrition, great.’

Luthra kept moving, using his superior speed to stay outside Vex’s reach while occasionally throwing attacks that forced the A-Rank to expand his field defensively.

Every second Vex maintained his Path was a second closer to exhaustion.

Behind them, the battle raged, Khorvash was holding the eastern breach against multiple B-Rank hunters, Misha had created a sovereign space zone that slowed enemy advancement on the western side, and Rebecca’s fire attacks were providing covering fire for retreating defenders.

They were holding, but barely.

And then Luthra felt it, a disturbance in his Corruption Field, something moving with impossible stealth, coming from above.

He twisted, bringing up his arm defensively, and Kira materialized mid-strike, her blade aimed at his throat.

Time seemed to slow.

Luthra activated Absorption Mimicry, his hand making contact with Kira’s arm as her blade descended, he copied her stealth technique in that instant of contact, felt the mana pattern that allowed Perfect Assassination to work.

Then he pushed his Corruption Field outward in a pulse, the sudden expansion caught Kira mid-strike and disrupted her stealth, she flickered back into visibility, surprise crossing her face.

"You can see through my Path?"

"Now I can."

He punched her in the chest with all his strength, the impact enhanced by the stolen stealth technique still running in his system, Kira was launched backward, crashing into a group of Syndicate soldiers.

But now Vex was advancing again, his annihilation field destroying the ground between them.

Luthra was caught between two A-Rank hunters, both of them angry now, both of them serious.

’This is bad, I can’t fight both simultaneously, I need backup.’

As if summoned by his thought, Gareth’s twenty reinforcement fighters arrived, charging into the Syndicate’s rear formation, the sudden attack from behind forced the Syndicate to split their attention.

And then Thalia’s hundred support workers proved they were more than just logistics, they’d armed themselves with whatever weapons were available and were harassing the Syndicate’s flanks, not doing serious damage but creating chaos and confusion.

The tide of battle shifted.

The Syndicate had expected a one-sided assault, defenders cowering behind walls while they methodically destroyed everything, instead they were facing coordinated resistance, multi-front combat, and a defender who was somehow not dying despite fighting two A-Ranks.

Vex’s annihilation field flickered, his mana finally running low from sustained use.

Kira’s stealth was compromised, Luthra had copied her technique and could now sense when she was trying to approach.

The regular Syndicate soldiers were being ground down by defensive positions and superior tactical coordination.

Commander Vex made a decision, he roared an order and the Syndicate forces began retreating, not a rout but an organized withdrawal.

Luthra started to pursue but Misha grabbed his arm. "Let them go, we won this round but we’re not in condition to chase them down, we’ve got wounded to treat and defenses to repair."

She was right, the settlement had held but at cost, sections of wall were destroyed, dozens of defenders were injured, and their trap network was completely expended.

As the Syndicate army withdrew to their forward camp, Luthra assessed the aftermath.

They’d killed or wounded about eighty of the three hundred soldiers, forced both A-Rank commanders to expend significant mana, and proven that the settlement couldn’t be overrun by a simple frontal assault.

But the war was far from over, Vex and Kira would adapt their tactics, the Syndicate would send more forces, and the coalition of independent settlements was still vulnerable.

Khorvash limped over, blood on her scales but grinning. "We survived day one, I’d call that a win." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Day one of many, they’ll be back, probably tonight with a different approach."

Misha was already organizing medical teams and repair crews. "Gareth’s fighters took the brunt of the rear attack, we owe them, Thalia’s people performed way better than expected, turns out refugees fight hard when they have something to protect."

Rebecca appeared, soot-covered but unhurt. "I hit twelve targets, Jako confirmed seven kills, I didn’t mess up."

Luthra felt something like pride. "You did good, now help with medical evacuation, we need everyone who can walk assisting the wounded."

As night fell, both sides regrouped and reassessed.

In the Syndicate camp, Vex and Kira were having a heated argument about tactics.

In Luthra’s settlement, defenders celebrated surviving the first assault while simultaneously preparing for the next one.

And somewhere in the distance, the other independent settlements were watching, waiting to see if this unprecedented resistance actually had staying power.

The Battle for the Mines had begun, and the outcome would determine the future of the entire northern region.