SSS Rank: Spellcraft Sovereign-Chapter 61: Break (2)

The next scream wasn’t far. Female. Too close to mistake for background.

Lucen glanced left.

Half the block was chaos now. A sedan flipped over the divider. Steam hissed from a cracked spellcore under its hood.

Civilians ran uneven lines, some bolting through open shop doors, others just crouching behind parked bikes like that would stop anything with claws.

A teenage girl tripped by the hydrant.

Her friend, a stocky kid in a school uniform, hauled her up with both hands, but his stance was shaky. She was crying. Loud. Messy. The kind of crying that didn’t sound like words anymore.

Lucen didn’t run to them.

Just shifted his angle. Casual.

’Two of them flanking. That one by the alley wants an easy cut.’

A blur to the right. Another creature was skittering low along the pavement wall. Four limbs. Jaws twitching.

Lucen lifted a finger mid-stride. Quick line. No theatrics.

[Shockweave Bolt]

The bolt cracked from his hand like an insult. Hit the thing center-mass mid-crawl. The spark flared. Muscles locked. It slammed into the wall and folded with a twitch.

The girl screamed louder.

Lucen sighed.

"Stay behind the red line," he called.

The boy looked up. Confused.

"What line?!"

Lucen tilted his head. "The one I’m drawing."

He flicked his hand again. Chalk from his pocket. Fast line across the sidewalk.

Behind it, mana snapped into shape. A low-layer glyph wall. Nothing fancy. Enough to absorb stray impact or scare a dumber beast.

"Don’t move," Lucen said. "Even if it looks like it’s getting worse. Stay."

The kid nodded. The girl hiccuped through tears.

A woman from the corner deli stuck her head out of the shattered doorway.

"Hey! What are you—" she froze when she saw the bodies. The claw marks. The wrecked vehicle.

Lucen raised a hand toward her. Not aggressive. Just two fingers vertical.

"Inside."

She nodded. Slammed the door.

’One smart civilian. Mark the moment.’

Another impact down the street. A fire hydrant exploded. Water shot skyward like a fountain possessed.

Lucen barely glanced.

Two more monsters were rounding the transit bend. One walked. One crawled with arms too long for its body.

He didn’t stop moving.

Didn’t posture. Didn’t light up like a casting prodigy.

Just walked.

Mid-step, he pointed left.

[Crater Bloom]

The ground exploded under the walker. A concussive burst of redirected terrain forced upward. The creature launched into the air, bounced once, and didn’t land pretty.

The crawler shrieked. Changed angle.

Lucen rotated on the heel.

"This one’s going to be loud," he said to no one.

Sigils flared in his palm. Fast stack. Overlapped rhythm.

[Cataclysm Vector]

The glyph spread outward.

Wind pulled in like breath before a punch.

Then it hit.

The crawler was gone. So was part of the sidewalk. Dust choked the street in a wave of air pressure and dull heat.

The windows on three storefronts shattered.

Lucen exhaled. Glanced down.

His mana bar ticked low.

[36 / 112]

’That should be fine.’

Someone behind him whispered, "What... class is that?"

He turned.

A tall man in courier armor had stepped out from behind a scooter rack, face pale.

Lucen smiled faintly.

"Just a tracer."

Then turned forward again.

Another monster was halfway through the drift split now. Bigger. Bulky.

He cracked his knuckles and walked toward it.

—

The pavement bulged again.

Not cracked. Not torn.

Just... rose. Like something below it had changed its mind about staying underground.

Lucen slowed his steps.

The civilians behind him stayed quiet. Even the girl had stopped sobbing.

Smart.

The drift break pulsed once. Dark light flickered like a faulty bulb.

And then it stepped out.

Bigger.

Not insectoid this time. Not twitchy. Humanoid, in a ruined way. Skin like burnt parchment, too tight on muscle that didn’t look like it belonged in anything natural. Its head was tilted. No visible mouth. Just a mask of ridged bone where the face should’ve been.

Its arm dragged a twisted iron weapon behind it. Too long. Covered in dried blood that hissed softly against the ground.

Lucen didn’t blink.

’Not a grunt. Drift walker.. No obvious sigils on the body, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cast.’

It turned toward him.

No rush. No howl.

It just started walking.

Lucen didn’t step back.

He raised his hand and cast immediately.

[Frost Spire]

The ice shot up from the ground in a jagged pillar. Centered dead beneath the thing’s feet.

It didn’t stop.

The spire punched through its side, but not clean. Just enough to pierce, not enough to kill. The creature staggered, looked down, and then twisted. The spike snapped off like cheap glass.

Lucen narrowed his eyes.

’Okay. Thick hide. Minimal nerve reaction. Great.’

The monster lunged.

Lucen jumped sideways, low, tight pivot off his left foot. Landed in a crouch and fired upward.

[Soundlash]

The shockwave hit the creature’s arm. It stumbled, just for a second, and then rotated again unnaturally fast. The elbow joint bent wrong and made a wet crunching sound as it brought the blade down.

Lucen caught the edge of the attack, not the blade, just the momentum.

It was enough to slam him into a parked bike rack.

Pain bloomed in his side. Not sharp. Just deep. Bruise-to-the-bone kind.

’Alright. Fair.’

He pushed off the bars and cast quick.

[Shockweave Bolt]

The creature didn’t dodge.

The bolt hit the shoulder. Arced across the collar. Sparks danced.

It stopped moving for one full second.

Then took another step.

Lucen backed up. One foot slid in cracked asphalt. The civilians were screaming again.

A man bolted into the alley.

A second figure, civilian with a crowbar, ran toward the girl Lucen had saved earlier. Tried to pull her away.

Lucen turned just enough to shout.

"Red line!"

They froze.

The monster raised its blade again.

Lucen cast.

[Piercing Flare]

The beam cracked through the air like a sniper shot. Hit the thing full in the center of its chest.

It staggered.

Twitched.

Then kept coming.

Lucen’s mana dropped again.

[21 / 112]

He rolled his neck once. Flexed his fingers.

’Okay. Maybe tracer doesn’t cut it anymore.’

He spread his hands, low, tight, close to his body. Shaped the sigils manually. All of them. No system assist.

Stacked glyph on glyph.

[Cataclysm Vector]

He whispered, "Try this one."

The air sucked inward.

Dust pulled off the street. Paper whipped sideways.

Then the spell erupted.

The explosion wasn’t fire. Wasn’t heat.

It was pressure.

The entire block shook. Light snapped off poles. Shop windows imploded. The monster was thrown back like someone had yanked its spine from behind.

It hit the ground. Hard. Didn’t get back up.

Lucen stood in the middle of it all. Breathing hard.

Mana: [6 / 112]

’Now we’re in it.’

The drift break shimmered again.

And two more of the big ones stepped through.

Lucen gritted his teeth.

Behind him, someone said, "Backup. Where’s the guild backup?"

Lucen didn’t answer.

He just lifted his hand.

And grinned.

’Alright. Round two.’

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