Demonic Po*nstar System Chapter 799: One Percent

A tight smile stretched the corner of his lips as the calculations began to race through his mind before he could even take another breath.

One percent of what exactly?

The probing wave had consisted of forty individuals in the front line and another forty behind them, along with the smaller creatures and winged beasts that followed, not to mention the aerial units hovering above. It was safe to estimate around two hundred entities had passed through the gate during the probe. Most of these had already been dealt with by the combined efforts of the gang and the magma path.

If the system's kill count was measured as a percentage of the total enemy force, then one percent suggested the Claimant's entire roster numbered approximately twenty thousand individuals. The forces that had comprised the probe wave were merely a negligible fraction, a mere sample.

Alternatively, if the system was evaluating the percentage of enemy combat strength, the calculation would shift dramatically. Twenty thousand low-tier units would represent a far greater portion of the Claimant's power compared to one percent if the metric was based on sheer numbers.

A one percent reading on a power scale implied that the absorbed roster possessed a significantly different composition beneath its easily disposable surface. There could be tens of powerful combatants, perhaps even a hundred. The probe wave might have represented only the thinnest outer layer of something far more substantial, with its true strength being an order of magnitude greater.

He had no way of knowing which interpretation the system was employing.

Regardless, the news was unfavorable.

Should the Claimant boast twenty thousand monsters in its roster, the gang would be engaged in a relentless two-hour battle with no respite.

Conversely, if the Claimant commanded a hundred formidable fighters, the gang would face a severe test of their ability to subdue a creature like the one currently occupying the Safe Zone, repeatedly, before the Claimant exhausted its reserves.

Or, in the worst-case scenario, both.

The Kaiju had observed the probe. It had witnessed the woman unleashing arcs of energy in a precise pattern high in the air, the speedster detonating its serpentine projectiles through the front ranks, the queen immobilizing its strikers without lifting a finger, the demoness absorbing axe blows as sustenance while cackling, and the man at the center wielding two greatswords. The Claimant was investing significant resources.

Kaiden's lips tightened at one corner as he shifted his gaze sideways, toward the 3D map displayed at the edge of his vision, and brought it forward.

The dungeon materialized in the air, rendered translucently. He navigated the view down the kill path, past the magma exit, and into the channel.

The magma channel was glowing with an unusual intensity.

The ambient radiance of his molten rivers typically cast an orange hue against the basalt walls. However, the heightened brightness stemmed from the enemies who had advanced down that path during the probe wave and had yet to perish, as well as the brood that was actively neutralizing them.

The Claimant had dispatched something down the spiral passage. Not just one, but several entities. The map indicated cooled areas where bodies had fallen, and through the rendered visualization of the channel itself, Kaiden could observe the actions of his magma roster against any hostile forces that had ventured past the slime-covered entrance.

Path B was fulfilling its designated purpose: rendering it impassable.

Kaiden allowed himself a brief moment to appreciate this, then closed the magma view and accessed the main interface.

The DMP balance was displayed prominently in the upper corner.

He and his companions had accumulated resources from the probe wave. The figure shown was their operational fund, and given the calculations he had just performed, every single point of it would prove crucial.

He brought up the roster and the shop simultaneously, then began to allocate resources.

Each selection was confirmed by the system with a distinct pulse. The roster updated, and new unit markers appeared at the throne in the Verdant, located at the far end of his domain. Initially faint, they intensified to their designated colors as the spawning process concluded. The newly materialized units began to advance.

[Reinforcement deployment: confirmed.]

[Units spawned at Core. Manual traversal required.]

[Estimated arrival to chokehold: variable.]

The notification highlighting the need for manual traversal was new, but he understood its implication. With enemy combatants within the domain, the system restricted the placement of new units to arbitrary locations.

All purchased units would materialize at the Core, the throne situated at the furthest extremity of the Verdant, and would proceed from there. Units deployed in the caverns would need to traverse a corridor and cross a Sink. Those dispatched to the magma region would have to navigate the burrow tunnel, which, being only a single body-width wide, proved suitable only for wyrms. None of these arrivals could be expected within the immediate seconds.

If the rules permitted otherwise, Master Battles would not exist. He could have spawned a Quakelord directly behind enemy lines and unleashed its hammer upon the heavyweight's spine before the creature could even complete its next movement.

He could have positioned a Gorefiend on the ceiling directly above its skull, six feet away, allowing its talons to initiate the confrontation. Theoretically, he could have even spawned a fresh Maulfiend within the heavyweight's own chest cavity, achieving an instant kill through sheer spatial manipulation.

The dungeons disallowed such a tactic. The system overseeing this peculiar realm and its combat stipulated a semblance of equity; though, equity between two Masters wielding vastly different arsenals and power levels was, by nature, illusive. New avatars materialized within the Core. They proceeded onward.

Anything acquired henceforth would bolster his capabilities for the prolonged conflict ahead. And this protracted engagement was the only kind conceivable.

He deactivated the interface.

The Cavern's atmosphere still thrummed with the ear-splitting shriek unleashed by the two colossal entities—the boss and the Monarch.

Beyond the boss monster, the gateway groaned under renewed pressure.

Twice it strained.

A second formidable creature breached the threshold moments later. It was less massive than the first, yet similarly built, its shoulders broad, possessing mountain-bred bone and armored with grey plating. Its maw gaped wider than its skull's structure should have permitted. A third emerged.

The Safe Zone began to accumulate substantial presence, mirroring the influx of bodies during the initial probing wave. However, this time, the mass arrived in formidable units rather than sheer numbers, each new entrant dwarter than anything the probe had presented.

Following these three, a fresh contingent of lesser beings started to trickle back into the Safe Zone. The Claimant's forces recognized the hulking figures as a diversionary screen, consequently deploying more combatants under their imposing shadow.

The assembled group was on the precipice of confronting a genuine onslaught.

Kaiden raised both his blades just as the second wave neared the termination line.

The foremost beast accepted Scarlet's brazen challenge.

Its four eyes had fixated upon her the instant she planted her palms on her hips at the Safe Zone's boundary, daring it to cross. Despite its immense, mountain-like stature, the boss monster was not the sort to disregard such a direct affront.

It charged.

Forty meters of solid mass hurtling forward at maximum bipedal speed, its plated shoulder lowered, its gaze locked onto the fiery-haired woman at the opposite end of the kill zone.

Spying the behemoth of muscle and grey armor careening towards her, Scarlet's grin took on a distinctly wild edge. Her true battle-crazed nature was now fully revealed. She had been anticipating for hours an opponent worthy of unleashing her full power against, and the creature across the Cavern had just signaled its intention to engage.

"Hell yeah! Let's dance!"

She made no move to brace for the impending impact. Bracing was a tactic for physical combatants, and Scarlet was far from one. Her slender frame and meticulously balanced stats, when subjected to the brutal calculus of her mass against that of a mountain, would have been utterly crushed had she attempted to meet its charge head-on. The Flame Monarch's physical form could not hold a line. Instead, it ignited the surrounding air, allowing the inferno to act as her shield.

Thus, she unleashed her power.

The crimson aura that had expanded from her shoulders during her initial war cry returned, now amplified. The air within a twenty-meter radius surrounding her ignited.

Visible heat distortions radiated outward from her body in concentric ripples, and the dark floor beneath her feet began to glow orange, shimmering as the dry stone liquefied in a slow creep outward, dictated by the intense temperature she was manifesting.

Her hair detached itself from her shoulders, transforming into molten strands, each fiber a filament of liquid flame. The column of fiery red-gold hair ascended thirty meters into the Cavern's vaulted ceiling, cascading back down around her in a dome of pure, radiant energy.

The Flame Monarch was manifesting the same level of intensity she employed when her contract demanded peak performance and the audience was irrelevant—raw, untamed, and burning at a temperature no human body should endure.