Chapter 1043: Kinetic Push The two Deific Explorers were female, and unlike the rest of the Explorers below they were not wearing any armor, their clothes would be described by Rowan as a Ceremonial Robe, colored silver with black fittings, their green skin and long red hair glowed despite the darkness, and waves of Aura radiated from their bodies that seemed to make the darkness easier to bear for those below. These were the two people he was most interested in, and every moment that he spent scanning through their Aura he was learning so much and tweaking the Ascendant Technique taking shape inside his body. A Deific Explorer was a step away from Ascendancy and they controlled many Natal Treasures meaning they were filled with more of the World's Will, yet they were still weak enough that Rowan could read them like a book. With their souls, he was sure he would be able to patch together a lot of the holes he had about the current state of this realm, which was good because, with the broken state of his consciousness, there was no way he could digest the soul of an Immortal Ascendant. The weapons the Explorers brought out from their storage devices resembled staffs, around four feet long with intricate Rune words etched onto both ends, there was not much difference between the staffs a Heroic Explorer and the Legend Ranked Explorer held except for the Runic Words becoming more plentiful and complex. A part of his consciousness node was already taking apart these Runes, using the foundation of the languages he already collected from the souls of the dead Explorers. Rowan's eyes which were a bit clouded in thought focused on the battle that had just commenced below. There were no orders given, but the three thousand Explorers raised their staffs and an invisible ball of force coalesced around the end of their staffs and a part of the Runes etched on the staff vanished in a conflagration of scarlet fire. Using Aura sight Rowan saw a surprising thing. The energy around the ends of the staffs was not Aura but was pure kinetic forces, but it was not derived from Ascendant Aura but from Calamity's. The air was charged with so much Aura of Calamity that the staffs were ripping it straight from the surroundings with no effort, and then channeling the Aura through the Runes to unleash it as bolts of pure force. It was a rather simple design, but it could channel an impressive amount of power, especially the staffs held by the Glorious and Legend Ranked Explorers that were brimming with so much power the earth below their feet was cracking open. A closer look by Rowan revealed that the staff had an interesting property, they were all made from bones, the most likely candidate being bones from Calamities. Rowan found nothing wrong with these arrangements, the weaker side was doing all they could to survive, even if they had to wield the powers of their enemies to do so. The Explorers had arranged themselves in a fan-like formation, and when they released the first bolt of force, it rippled past their formation harmlessly, passing through the well- arranged spaces created for their impending actions. This was not a rag-tag bunch like the first to arrive on this continent, these Explorers were an army. A rather well-trained one, there was no panic or hesitation in any of their actions. With a loud whistling sound the first wave of force slammed into the charging Calamities with a loud booming sound that could be heard for miles, and it blasted apart those at the front into little chunks. This wave continued to pierce through the formation for several dozen feet before the force behind it expired with a loud clap that pushed the charging horde back. Crude, but incredibly effective. Rowan quietly rated the weapons. The entire front of the Calamities had been decimated and the monsters that perished in the Heroic Ranks and above were in their thousands, one of Rowan's consciousness nodes supplied him the exact number, 9,873 Calamities above the mortal rank dead in that single salvo, 8,872 Heroic calamities, 992 Glorious Calamities, and 9 Legendary Ranked Calamities. For the tiny mortal Calamities, their dead numbered in the tens of thousands. The incoming waves of Calamities were not slowed down by these setbacks, their shrieks of bloodlust only increased in intensity, no fear, only hunger, no awareness, only the lust to consume and sate themselves in the energy of death. And so with the Calamities, the opposite was the case and they did not retreat only surged forward with more excitement, they pounced on the bodies of their fallen and consumed them with gusto, growing, evolving from the dead, and pushing forward only to be met by another wave of force launched by the Explorers that killed tens of thousands. The bolts from the Legend Rank Explorers were especially devastating, they took longer to form but they chewed long trails of destruction through the horde, and although they had only fired once, their kills nearly equaled all the combined kills of the entire army. The Deific Explorers did not make any move, seemingly content in watching the battle, it was not hard for Rowan to piece together that they were on the lookout for him. This event had all the hallmarks of a trap, and their ships were disabled by something or someone in the dark who was clearly more powerful than the mindless monstrosities below. This pattern continued three more times, and amazingly enough, the Calamities did not overthrow these Explorers despite their number which should have been in the millions and there were signs that they were being pushed back, although Rowan knew that would not be the case for long, for already the number of higher ranked Calamities was increasing, and so was their ability to tank the damages from the force bolts. Despite the terrible state they found themselves in, the Calamities were thriving, for death was their sustenance. Something would have to change or sooner rather than later, the Explorers would be overrun. The staffs turned out to be disposable weapons after all and they had to be replaced after just three shots, the Runes etched on them burned out quickly leaving dry flaky bones that shattered to pieces when dropped to the ground and new staffs were retrieved to continue the slaughter. For now, the tides were in favor of the Explorers, in seven well-timed force salvos, they had decimated hundreds of thousands, and if not for the Calamities coming from behind that continually ate the mounds of flesh on the ground, the bodies of the dead would have formed a mountain. The explosions and sounds from this battle spread out and rippled the surfaces of the surrounding waters. However, Rowan was surprised when there was no visible growth in the bodies of the Explorers after the mountain of death they had dealt, but a quick memory search informed him of this reason. To gain the Aura of the Fallen and boost your growth to a higher rank, a part of your Aura must be entwined with the killing blow. In this instance, each of the Explorers had killed thousands by now, but none of the energy used came from their bodies, in fact, they were using the powers of Calamity against Calamity. This was a shame, Rowan thought, he had wanted to fatten up these Explorers before he devoured them in order to push his ascension to a higher level much more quickly, but a thought occurred to Rowan on how he might solve this problem and he quickly began experimentation.