Doomsday Pillars

11th floor

D’Day 131

"That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." This was what American astronaut Neil Armstrong said on July 20, 1969 when he set foot on the moon. At this moment, Elizabeth McCord would be setting foot on the 11th floor of th3 Doomsday Pillar. Although it wasn’t as far as going to the moon, the mystery and the awe of this step felt similar.

This noon, nearly 400 people had gathered together. More than 200 people were fighters who came with the Grogs. It could be seen that the Grog brothers were fully equipped with the Tier 1 equipment they have. The other 100+ people were specially-selected United States soldiers. Almost all of them had special weapons such as machine guns and the new X16 guns. In addition, there were 50 people from the combined Delta and Navy SEAL Special Forces team, as well as the government’s special forces, which were ready to escort President McCord.

Among all those that were gathered there, the most reliable fighter among them was of course Nathaniel, who had tier 3 weapons and A-level spirit talent. And another was a bald man with a very sturdy build named Winter, or more commonly known as LT.

[Winter]

[Male - 39 years old]

[Earth Realm level 8 - Initial stage]

[Spirit Energy - Earth]

[Spirit Talent - Level B]

Winter himself had three members who had long been part of his team since being a Delta member and they followed him together to become bodyguards of the Randal family.

[Zee]

[Male - 36 years old]

[Earth Realm level 7 - Initial stage]

[Spirit Energy - Earth]

[Spirit Talent - Level C]

[Red]

[Male - 33 years old]

[Earth Realm level 7 - Initial stage]

[Spirit Energy - Earth]

[Spirit Talent - Level D]

[Flea]

[Male - 34 years old]

[Earth Realm level 7 - Initial stage]

[Spirit Energy - water]

[Spirit Talent - Level D]

Zee was an African American who was also his right-hand man. Red was the handsome guy with a tomahawk haircut, and Flea was their best sharpshooter.

It turned out that Winter’s spiritual talent was still below Nathanael’s talent, and was not much different from the fourth child of the Grog family. However, in this place, Winter was the most respected one. It seemed that Winter’s actions and strength was clearly evident from the battles on the last 10 floors.

Even in this battle, even though President McCord was the president, she didn’t know anything about completing the floor challenge. She left it entirely to Winter.

All the members who participated in the battle this time had reached the Earth Realm level. In the past few days, they had been honing their abilities. Especially the soldiers, who only felt new power after upgrading their realm. They were all full of confidence.

But James thought differently. Alex specifically gave a warning regarding the 11th floor. He thought that floor one to ten would be easy enough for those who had reached the Earth Realm. However, goblins and orcs were two different creatures. James went back to approaching the president.

"Elizabeth, even though your bodyguard has stepped into the next himself, you better not be too far from me. The safest place you can be in is beside me... hmm... I mean my stone golem."

Elizabeth was quite happy to have James’s attention. The joke was meant to calm herself down so that she wouldn’t be worried. But Elizabeth had decided to feel the risk on her own and challenge this pillar. She didn’t want to continue to wish for the protection of others.

To access the gate to the 11th floor, these groups had to pass through all 10 floors. For each floor successfully completed, a new staircase will appear. At this moment, the group was busy climbing the stairs to the 11th floor. When they reached the 11th floor, just like the previous floor, they were faced with a large gate and a stone panel in front of it.

Winter stood at the very front. He then turned around and asked:

"All right, is everyone ready?"

[The gate of the 11th floor is ready to be open] 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[Open the gate to the 11th floor?]

[Yes.]

The giant gate slowly opened.

"Okay, those who have never participated before, prepare yourselves in the back row. For the others! It’s our first time fighting the Orcs. Do not be careless. I don’t want anyone to just waste their life... I repeat! Stay in formation! As soon as the situation goes out of control, follow my lead. We will all immediately get out of here if we have to."

Winter glared at Edy Grog, who was in front of the line of citizen fighters. These fighters were used to moving as they pleased. Edy and his children weren’t the type to care about reprimands.

"On your positions! Everybody forward!"

400 people entered the nearly 10-meter wide gate. After seeing it, they arrived at a room not much different from the previous hall. The hall they entered was dark enough to render them unable to see the end of it.

The condition of the room behind the gate made Elizabeth quite startled. Although the Doomsday Pillar was quite wide and large, it was impossible for each floor to be as large as this room. It seemed that the laws of physics generally didn’t apply to this place.

All the fighters were now facing a giant dark passage. Suddenly, the carvings on the wall lit up and continued across the room, lighting up the dark hallway.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Screams and chaotic noises could be heard from the end of the hall.

Winter didn’t let his guard down and immediately returned to arranging their formation.

The army troops gathered on the left wing were led by Captain Marcus, who had recovered from his wounds and had increased his army strength by entering the Earth Realm.

On the right wing were the 5 Grog brothers and 200 more fully armed combatants gathered.

In the middle, the members of the combined Delta and Navy SEAL Special Forces. Among them were Winter, Nathaniel and his team, Zee, Red, and Flea.

Meanwhile, in the rear position, President Elizabeth was accompanied by Richard, members of the secret forces, as well as James and his stone golem.

The screams and chaotic noises from the end of the hall began to get closer and closer.

To get rid of his tension, the President McCord asked James, "James, how many orcs are we going to fight?"

"I don’t know..." replied James honestly.

"What about the goblins on the previous floor?"

"Hundreds... There were nearly a thousand goblins on the 10th floor."

"How about this time? Try to estimate it... Give me a number."

"We should be fine as long as the orcs don’t number more than a hundred in each wave."

James’s answer brought Elizabeth back to her senses.

Thump thump thump!

Not long after that, the awaited creatures arrived. A group of green-skinned creatures with heights of around 2.5 meters, strong bodies, and sharp teeth appeared. These orcs wore simple armor and brought machetes or large clubs in their hands.

Those who came at this time numbered at 20 orcs. This was a war party. Seeing the small number of orcs approaching, Elizabeth felt relieved. But the 20 orcs looking at the 400 opponents in front of them didn’t seem worried at all. They even seemed to be getting more excited and started screaming.

GRAAHHHHH!! GRAAHHHHH!!

Standing at the front of the orc wave wearing full body armor was an orc who seemed to be the head of this group. A pack leader.

GRAAHHHHH!!

The fully-armored orc ran first. Dozens of others followed suit and attacked not far from him. They split apart to attack the formation. Each of them lusted to kill as many from the crowd of preys in front of them as possible.

"Shoot!!" exclaimed Winter.

All the fighters that were carrying long-range weapons immediately opened fire their M16 rifles. The large-caliber X16 rifles and the laser rifles were fired at the same time.

Tratatatatatat tratatatatatat bbbbzzzzt bbbbzzzztt—

From a distance of less than 200 meters, the Earth Realm fighters could see that the shots completely hit 20 targets on average. In the previous floor battles, 50-cal bullets were able to kill the goblins, but for the orcs, both the M16 and X16 machine guns were incapable of doing it. Only a laser shot was capable of creating holes and wounds in their bodies. But even those couldn’t stop them. Orcs were beasts with great pride. Even though they were injured, they still got up continuously and continued to break through the attack.

GRAAHHHHH!!

"Shit!" exclaimed James.

President Elizabeth promptly reacted.

"James, what’s the matter!"

"This is terrible, they’re stronger than I thought. I have to rectify, not 100 orcs. If we can fight these 20 orcs without casualties, that would already be very good."

None of the 20 advancing orcs were stopped by the gunfires. They were forced to go melee.

Nathanael, Winter, and the other fighters raised their weapons, ready to battle. Winter had specially prepared a technique that he had just mastered.