Aldwin felt the town before he saw it.
The air was wrong. Thick with blood, smoke, and rot. The scent clung to the back of his throat and refused to leave, even as the trees thinned and the broken outlines of buildings came into view. The forest gave way to cracked streets and shattered storefronts, signs hanging crookedly from their mounts. What should have been a quiet suburban settlement had been reduced to a battlefield frozen in constant violence.
His mana hovered at seventy percent.
Not low.
Not full.
But heavier than it had ever been.
The embodiment of Aramak had changed something fundamental inside him. His maximum mana capacity now sat at thirty thousand, a number that still felt unreal when he focused on it. Even partially filled, the sheer volume pressed against his senses like an ocean held behind a fragile dam.
Gnolls infested the town.
They swarmed the streets in packs, hyena faced creatures wielding rusted weapons and scavenged armor. Their laughter echoed between buildings, high pitched and unhinged, cutting through the screams of humans barricaded inside what structures remained standing.
The surviving humans fought back.
And they were not weak.
Bolts of lightning cracked from a rooftop as a man with glowing eyes hurled spell after spell into a charging pack. A woman reinforced a shattered storefront with translucent stone walls, her hands shaking with strain. Fire, wind, and metal bent to desperate wills as the town's gifted defenders held their ground inch by inch.
They were losing.
At the center of it all stood the ruler of this slaughter.
Jax.
Three heads rose from a single massive body, each face a different expression of cruelty. One laughed constantly, saliva dripping from its jaws. Another snarled orders to the gnoll packs, eyes sharp with cruel intelligence. The third watched silently, unblinking, calculating.
The system identified him the moment Aldwin's gaze settled on the creature.
[Boss Monster Detected: Jax, Three Headed Devourer]
Totems of bone and skulls surrounded Jax's position, human heads mounted on spikes and strung from wires between buildings like decorations. Some were old. Some were fresh.
Aldwin felt his chest tighten.
Then he saw it.
A familiar face.
His uncle.
Eyes hollow. Mouth frozen in an expression of surprise. Blood long dried along the severed neck.
Something snapped.
Aldwin barely registered Hatch stepping forward or Flambe's low growl. His vision tunneled as his eyes locked onto another head, smaller, mounted higher.
His sister.
The world went quiet.
He felt a vein pulse violently in his temple, pressure building until pain flared white hot behind his eyes. His breathing slowed instead of quickened, rage compressing into something cold and focused.
Everything in his power.
Every hyena faced gnoll.
No exceptions.
Mana surged.
The air around him shifted as moisture was drawn from everywhere at once. From the blood soaked streets. From the damp walls of buildings. From the breath of the gnolls themselves.
Water answered his call.
The demons felt it before they saw it.
Flambe stiffened, heat flaring defensively as the temperature around Aldwin dropped. Hatch turned, eyes widening slightly as mana pressure rolled outward like a tidal force. Corvus landed silently nearby, feathers ruffling as the atmosphere thickened.
Aldwin raised one hand.
The ground trembled.
Water erupted from beneath the cracked asphalt, bursting upward in twisting columns. Pipes ruptured violently as pressurized flows joined the rising mass, streams converging into a roiling sphere of darkened liquid suspended above the street.
Gnolls laughed.
Then the water moved.
It compressed instantly, density increasing until the surface shimmered like steel. With a clenched fist, Aldwin sent it forward.
The wave did not crash.
It cut.
Gnolls were lifted off their feet, bodies crushed and folded as water pressure tore armor apart and snapped bones. The front lines vanished beneath the surge, screams cut short as liquid filled lungs and crushed skulls against walls.
The humans stared.
The demons watched.
Aldwin stepped forward.
Water coiled around his limbs, flowing like living armor. Each step sent ripples through puddles and blood alike. With a gesture, he shaped blades from condensed water, razor thin edges glinting with refracted light.
Gnolls charged him.
They did not reach him.
A sweep of his arm sent water lances screaming through the air, piercing torsos and pinning bodies to walls. A stomp cracked the ground, releasing a localized burst that flattened a full pack into the street.
Hatch felt something shift in his chest.
This was not borrowed power.
This was mastery.
Flambe lowered his head slightly, a sign of respect among his kind.
Corvus's gaze sharpened, recalculating his understanding of the being he served.
Jax roared.
All three heads turned toward Aldwin, expressions shifting from amusement to fury. The boss monster lifted a massive cleaver, runes flaring as it stepped forward, the ground cracking beneath its weight.
"Mine," one head snarled.
Aldwin stopped.
Water gathered behind him, drawn into a massive spiral that towered above the street. It rotated slowly, pressure building with every second.
"Yours?" Aldwin asked quietly.
He pointed at the heads.
The spiral collapsed forward.
A focused torrent slammed into Jax, driving him backward through a building. Stone and wood exploded outward as the boss crashed through walls, bellowing in rage.
Aldwin did not pursue.
Instead, he turned.
Every remaining gnoll froze as his gaze swept across them.
Water rose again.
From every direction.
The town became his domain.
Gnolls screamed as streets flooded instantly, currents dragging them off their feet. Water hardened around limbs, snapping joints and crushing throats. Some were lifted into the air, suspended helplessly before being compressed into stillness.
The humans could only watch as the tide turned completely.
Hatch moved when Aldwin gestured.
The axe fell, finishing stragglers.
Flambe unleashed controlled flames where water did not reach, steam billowing as gnolls burned.
Corvus struck from shadows, precise and merciless.
But it was Aldwin who dominated the battlefield.
When Jax emerged again, bloodied but alive, Aldwin was waiting.
The water parted.
The fight was not over.