GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 8: []Temporal Slaughter, The Price of Survival

The world did not merely slow down. It shattered into frozen frames.

Vahn engaged Temporal Step.

The ambient noise of the cavern faded into a dull distant hum. The heavy breathing of the students, the scraping of iron against stone, and the angry hissing of the Shadowstalkers all vanished.

The droplets of moisture falling from the cavern ceiling hung suspended in mid-air like tiny glittering diamonds.

To Vahn’s highly accelerated perception, the chaotic battlefield transformed into a static chessboard.

He evaluated the positioning of the six Shadowstalkers currently surrounding Sia Vance.

They were fast and designed by the system to overwhelm players through speed and stealth. But against fifty Agility combined with a mutated Epic Skill, they were completely immobile statues.

Vahn stepped casually past the first suspended droplet of water. He didn’t bother with flashy sweeping strikes. Flashy movements wasted kinetic energy.

He raised the Soul-Bound Shadow Blade. The dark metal drank in the cavern’s gloom.

He moved to the first beast. It was a massive panther made of smoke and jagged obsidian.

Its jaws were locked open just inches from Sia’s trembling shield.

Vahn positioned the razor-sharp edge of his dagger directly against the creature’s exposed jugular.

He didn’t slash. He simply held the blade in place and allowed the creature’s own forward momentum to do the work.

He walked smoothly to the second target and stepped lightly over a jagged rock. A quick clinical thrust into the base of the skull was all it took.

The third and fourth were positioned closely together mid-leap.

Vahn pivoted on his heel. His movements possessed the fluid terrifying grace of a master surgeon.

A calculated flick of the wrist sent the Shadow Blade tracing a microscopic gap between their armored plates. He severed their spinal cords in a single continuous motion.

The fifth and sixth targets were lingering in the backline. They were preparing to bypass the tank and slaughter the squishy casters.

Vahn bypassed the physical space entirely and appeared behind them. A double horizontal realignment of his blade finished the job.

He checked his work. The angles were perfect. The math was absolute.

Vahn deactivated Temporal Step. Time snapped back into existence with the violence of a breaking rubber band.

To Sia Vance and the students, it looked like a glitch in reality.

The man in the brown tunic flickered and blurred into a streak of dark motion.

There was no epic clash of steel, no battle cries, and no drawn-out struggle. There was only a chorus of sickening simultaneous squelches.

All six Shadowstalkers exploded into geysers of glowing blue pixels at the exact same millisecond.

The cavern was plunged into a heavy suffocating silence.

The glowing pixels rained down around Vahn like a digital snowstorm.

Wisps of dark energy from the Item Souls of the fallen beasts drifted upward. They were violently sucked into the hilt of his Shadow Blade.

[System Remark]

↳ Hidden Modifier Applied: The 10,000x Factor.

↳ Blade has absorbed 60,000 Item Soul EXP.

↳ Level Up!

Vahn stood perfectly still amidst the fading data. His breathing was completely even. He hadn’t broken a sweat.

He casually flicked his wrist to shake non-existent blood from the dark blade and sheathed it at his hip.

The elite students stared at him. Their mouths hung open in sheer terror.

The arrogant mage who had been screaming seconds ago was now trembling violently as his knees knocked together.

They had begged for a savior. But as they looked into Vahn’s deep impassive purple eyes, they realized they had just bought the services of an apex predator.

He didn’t look like a player. He looked like the Grim Reaper disguised as a commoner.

"What... what are you?" the knight whispered. He took a slow terrified step backward.

Vahn ignored him entirely. His gaze shifted to the silver-haired girl still kneeling on the stone floor.

Sia Vance slowly lowered her heavy tower shield.

Her arms were shaking. Her stamina bar flashed a dangerous crimson warning in her peripheral vision.

But as she looked up at Vahn, she didn’t feel the paralyzing fear that gripped her classmates.

Instead, her silver-grey eyes widened with a deep sense of respect.

She had been trained in the military academies of Ravenwood. She knew what true martial prowess looked like.

The man standing before her hadn’t just killed the monsters. He had deleted them with a level of efficiency that bordered on the divine.

Sia forced her exhausted legs to move.

She stood up and her armor clanked loudly in the quiet cavern.

She straightened her posture and ignored the burning ache in her muscles. Then she delivered a crisp textbook military salute.

"Target neutralized. I... I offer my utmost gratitude for your tactical intervention," Sia said.

Her voice was formal and rigid, though her shield vibrated slightly from the trembling of her hands.

She couldn’t tell if her heart was hammering from the adrenaline of the fight or the intense analytical gaze the man was giving her.

Vahn looked at her salute and then down at her shield arm.

"Your gratitude is irrelevant. You paid for a service," Vahn stated. His voice was completely deadpan.

He walked toward her and closed the distance.

Sia felt her breath hitch. Her pulse skyrocketed as he stepped into her personal space.

"Your defensive posture is really bad," Vahn said. He reached out and his fingers brushed against her forearm to adjust her grip on the heavy shield.

Sia’s face instantly flushed a deep brilliant shade of crimson. Her military composure shattered completely.

"You hold the primary brace too far to the left. It forces your deltoids to absorb kinetic shock instead of transferring it to your core."

He continued to look at her. "Shift your grip down by two inches. It will increase your blocking mitigation by fourteen percent."

Sia stared down at where his hand had touched hers. Her mind went completely blank.

"I... yes. Understood. Grip shifted. Thank you... sir."

Vahn gave a single curt nod.

"Maintain your equipment. It is currently at forty percent durability."

He turned away from her. His gaze swept over the terrified group of elite students huddled against the wall. They flinched as his eyes landed on them.

"The exit is four hundred meters behind you. There are no remaining hostile entities there ," Vahn informed them coldly.

"Do not follow me. Any further rescue operations will cost double the initial rate."

Without waiting for their response, Vahn walked past them and headed deeper into the abyss of the Sunken Catacombs.

Sia Vance stood frozen. Her silver eyes tracked his retreating back until the shadows swallowed him whole.

Her heart was beating so fiercely against her ribs she thought it might shatter her breastplate.

She tightened her grip on her shield and moved her hand down exactly two inches just as he had instructed.

"Sia! What are you doing?! Let’s get out of here before that psycho comes back!" the mage yelled as he scrambled toward the exit.

Sia didn’t move immediately.

She looked down at her battered shield as a strange intense determination settled over her features.

He had saved her. He had corrected her form. He was a powerhouse of absolute terrifying order in a world descending into chaos.

’I don’t even know his name,’ Sia smiled to herself. ’But I think I just found my commander!’