Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

And wouldn't you know it, paying attention paid off...

He saw how the seemingly smooth operation had gone to hell because of one small mishap.

The root cause of everything came from one simple thing. And that's due to the squad, whose task was to secure and guard the Control Center, removing their hoods after taking down the cultists they met there.

See, the hooded cloaks that they're wearing aren't just any ordinary equipment, they are enchanted to lower their presence and visibility. It also masks their scents and obscures their facial features.

However, for the effect of the cloak to be in effect, the user must wear the hood at all times. Should they remove it, the latter half of its purpose will be removed. Simply put, the moment the squad removed their hoods was the same moment they allowed their scent to be discovered.

...and one particular cultist caught a whiff of their scent and alerted the others. That's the start of the chaos inside the underground base.

After alerting Arishem of what happened, Cedric was already moving fast. Inwardly, he's panicking too. While I might've grown a lot during these past few months, he is admittedly too weak to participate in this kind of operation. It's also the reason why he didn't join in the first place because he will just hold them back.

But now that shit hits the fan, he can't stay out of this. Now that the cultists gained control once more, the rest of the disaster will surely follow.

Using his speed and what little art of stealth he knew, he ran around the street, carving symbols wherever he left. His hands blurred with how fast he carved.

His mind was going through numerous simulations as he ran around while also counting how much time he had before the chaos erupted. Additionally, he was also calculating if he had enough energy to support what he planned to do.

Thankfully, he was able to formulate a way to support the team without exposing or exhausting himself.

Thousands of runes were carved into metal disks before being installed in several areas of the street. Given how fast he's moving, nobody managed to catch him doing something at all. Even if they would, Cedric would just ignore them anyway.

'I hope this works.' Cedric prayed inwardly as he installed the last array disk before activating the entire formation.

A huge curtain of light suddenly erupted, covering the entire street in the process. People were shocked at the sudden eruption but before they could digest what was happening, they felt their perceptions warping for a brief moment.

When they came to, they discovered that they were no longer within the bubble. Instead, they were outside of it, which was surprising since none of them knew how that happened.

As it turns out, Cedric was the one who did that. He activated his skill: 『Lightspeed』, transporting civilians out of the mouth of chaos. Later, they'd be grateful for him because of this.

But as soon as Cedric was done transporting the last few people and himself out of the street, a great explosion rocked the entire city, causing people to panic.

Looking back, they saw that the entire street blew up and was reduced to mere rubble. When the smoke cleared, people were shocked to see many demons releasing corruption and killing intent facing a group of people who were trapped within that golden bubble.

"Kyaaa~~!"

"Demons! T-There's Demons around!"

"Run!"

"Shit! Those are Tier 5 Demons! We're all gonna die here!"

"Don't lose hope! The City Lord is with us!"

Panic immediately descended throughout the entire city in mere minutes. At this point, all chances of keeping this under wraps have now vanished. The existence of the cult and the demons they're raising were now displayed for everybody to see.

Cedric could already see some brave folks recording the entire incident live using their System Plug-ins. As much as he wanted to stop them and admonish them for what they were doing, he couldn't because that was their free will.

He couldn't help people who were seeking to die, after all...

Cedric took a second to analyze the state of Arishem and his men. The old man himself was not injured, the same goes for the City Lord as well. The rest, however, are either doing just fine or weary from the confrontation they had against the cultist earlier.

Erica's team was doing just fine. Cedric thinks that they're a good team since they have a lot of experience. The others who came with them, not so much. Their injuries vary from scratches to deep wounds. So far, nobody has died.

A second was more than enough for him to analyze all of this, and on the next one, the fight already started.

The City Lord wasted no time and went into the offense. His roar shook the entire city's foundation, carrying momentous strength that makes one's heart palpitate. A potent pressure erupted from his entire body, and then he shot off like a shooting star, delivering a solid punch that shattered the very fabric of space toward the demons.

'Holy shit!' Cedric exclaimed. 'I know he was strong but damn! This is too much!'

The City Lord was much faster than him even at his top speed. Not to mention, his raw power far exceeds his. He could sense that every single cell within the City Lord's body was bursting with potent energy that he could harness flawlessly.

That punch of his held an impact similar to that of the atomic bomb but was controlled to a degree that minimized the damage within the surroundings while maximizing the damage caused to his target.

Sadly though, as powerful as that punch was, it wasn't nearly enough to kill even a single Tier 5 Demon there. The best it did was to injure them severely but that's it. And with how much vitality fed into these abominations, they would heal those injuries in no time.

This is where Cedric's part took place.

***

Erica already noticed the bubble surrounding the entire street once she regained her center. While the City Lord engaged the Demons head first and her team automatically formed a circle around her, she was busy analyzing the formation around them.

Some would argue that this is stupid since she has to focus on the fight but in this case, analyzing the formation around them was more important since she could tell that it would help a lot.

Whoever made this formation left instructions for them...maybe her specifically. Using Symbols, the creator wrote the way how to utilize this formation to their advantage completely.

At base, this formation was already tremendously helpful. Not only did it isolate the entire street and minimize the damage, but it was also created with the purpose of trapping demons. Not that that's unique or whatever, however, this one was more potent than the ones she had seen before.

What's even more amazing is that this formation could do more than just those.

Without wasting any time, she instructed her team to go to a certain part of the street. Thankfully, nobody argued with her. Upon arriving there, she used her senses to locate the Control Core of the formation and successfully located it.

Supplying it with her energies, she was immediately assaulted with the instructions on how to use this thing. Not wasting a single second after gaining those instructions, she activated the main function of the formation.

As soon as she did so, several golden chains appeared from magical circles around the formation. They then flew toward the demons, piercing their flesh and causing them agonizing pain much to everybody's surprise.

The City Lord was shocked. The Tier 5 Demons were left weakened by those chains. It didn't just hurt them, the chains curled into their flesh and siphoned their energy to weaken them and strengthen the formation even further.

It only took half a second for the City Lord to notice this, and a grin appeared on his face. He quickly lit up his cigar and clenched his fists before diving towards the group of weakened demons.

The chains didn't just target the Demons though. They also came for the cultists and gave them the same treatment.

And if that wasn't enough, Erica supplied even more energy on the Control Core and used her support spells.

As it turns out, the Control Core was also a powerful medium for spells. Erica's support skills were already potent on their own but with the core at hand, their potency practically doubled. The healing power of her skills also increased by several notches with this!

Everybody was amazed by what was happening and felt their confidence returning. With their enemies weakened and those powerful blessings supporting them, suddenly the entire situation doesn't seem so bad now.

"Kill!!!"

Nobody knew who screamed this but that wasn't important. What matters is that they have a chance now and it's time to counter-attack.

Meanwhile, Cedric who was watching Erica discovering the clues he left behind, felt relieved. However, that was short-lived because he had sensed another headache incoming...