I Was Summoned as the Weakest Hero, But I Awakened a Military System

The golden runes of the teleporter flared with blinding intensity, swallowing John and the high-elf girl whole as the air pressure dissolved around them.

CRACK-BANG!

The world materialized with a violent, concussive atmospheric shift. The freezing sub-zero drafts of Floor 6 vanished instantly, replaced by a suffocating, dust-choked gale that smelled heavily of scorched sandstone, copper, and raw ozone.

John immediately lowered his boots into a wide, spring-loaded combat stance, keeping one arm firmly around the elf girl’s waist to stabilize her weak frame. His AN/PVS-31A night-vision goggles auto-adjusted, switching from white-phosphor to high-definition FLIR thermal contrast.

They were standing on a massive, cracked stone platform elevated hundreds of feet above a desolate, storm-swept canyon. Ancient, ruined colosseums carved into the sheer sandstone cliffs surrounded the abyss, illuminated by swirling crimson lightning that crackled across the dark sky.

[Local Area Scan: Unknown]

[Floor unknown.]

”What the fuck is this,” John cursed under his breath, his eyes rapidly sweeping the dark, cavernous sky above the ruined colosseum. ”Where’s the system prompt for the floor name?”

Beside him, the silver-haired elf girl clutched the heavy foliage-green poncho tightly around her bare shoulders, her pale knuckles turning white against the thick fleece. She looked out over the howling, crimson-lit abyss, her amethyst eyes wide with complete disorientation.

”Hey lady, do you have any idea where is this?”

She simply shook her head.

”Great, so we’re both flying blind,” John muttered, his grip tightening around her waist.

WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH!

Before he could process the situation further, a terrifying atmospheric pressure slammed down onto the stone platform like a falling hydraulic press. The howling wind doubled in intensity, carrying a rancid, copper-rich stench that burned the back of John’s throat.

Through his FLIR thermal display, a massive, brilliant signature blazed to life in the clouds above—a towering white-hot mass of kinetic energy descending at terrifying speed.

THOOOOOM!

The entity struck the far end of the elevated arena with an earth-shattering impact. Shockwaves of compressed air and shattered sandstone exploded outward, sending jagged rocks raining across the platform.

John’s maxed-out Combat Perception immediately locked onto the threat as the dust cleared.

It was a monstrosity straight out of a nightmare—a thirty-foot, bio-armored Manticore Dreadnought. It possessed the muscular, black-furred body of a massive lion, reinforced across its shoulders and ribcage by overlapping plates of obsidian bio-chitin. Sprouting from its back were four leathery, bat-like wings that beat the air with rhythmic, thunderous gales, while its head was a horrific fusion of a feline apex predator and a horned demonic skull. Six yellow eyes burned with raw, ancient malice, and its tail—a heavy, segmented scorpion whip—was tipped with a massive, dripping sting that sizzled as acidic venom dripped onto the stone floor.

[Target Identification: Sovereign Chimera - Vaelgor (Level ?? - Class-S Floor Boss)]

ROAAAAAAAAR!

Vaelgor flared its four wings, unleashing an ear-splitting screech that shattered the surrounding stone pillars. A visible ring of pressurized wind expanded from its maw, sweeping across the platform like a shockwave.

”Get down behind the pillar!” John barked, easing the elf girl behind a thick, carved stone column near the edge of the teleporter platform.

He unslung his FN SCAR-H, slapped a fresh magazine into the magwell with a crisp CLACK-CLICK, and racked the bolt.

”Keep your head tucked and don’t move!”

Vaelgor didn’t give him time to maneuver. With a thunderous beat of its four wings, the thirty-foot chimera launched itself into the storm-swept sky, hovering eighty feet above the arena. Its scorpion tail whipped forward, launching a dozen razor-sharp blades of pressurized wind straight toward John’s position.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

John’s maxed-out reflexes kicked in. To his perception, the incoming vacuum blades slowed down just enough for him to react. He executed a violent lateral combat roll across the cracked sandstone.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

The wind blades shredded the solid stone floor where he had stood a microsecond earlier, carving four-foot-deep trenches into the rock and spraying blinding dust across the platform.

John sprang back onto his boots, his cold blue eyes locking onto the flying titan through his white-phosphor goggles.

”You want to play air superiority?” John growled behind his mask, his mind opening the military system interface at blinding speed. ”Let’s see how your wind barrier handles a heat-seeker.”

”System! Deploy FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS!”

FLASH!

The heavy, olive-drab surface-to-air missile launcher materialized directly onto his right shoulder. John flipped open the optical sight and tracking antenna, aligned the weapon squarely with the hovering, thermal-blazing shape of Vaelgor, and crushed the tracking switch.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

The high-pitched infrared seeker tone turned into a solid, piercing whine as the missile locked onto the beast’s superheated core.

”Locked on, you overgrown stray,” John sneered, taking up the slack on the trigger. ”Fox Two!”

FSHHHHHHH-BOOM!

The 70mm Stinger missile ejected from the launch tube, its primary rocket motor igniting mid-air with a deafening roar. Trailing a thick plume of white smoke, the heat-seeking warhead tore through the storm at Mach 2.2, streaking straight toward the chest of the Flying Sovereign.