With practiced movements, John prepared himself for a massive swing of Larang, twisting his body and holding the gigantic sword behind his back.

Solid essence bolted him to the ground, while liquid essence permeated every part of his body, increasing his strength way beyond the human limit.

The blade was also infused with liquid essence, giving it the peerless cutting power it had demonstrated many times before.

The attack that cleaved a mountain only had a fraction of this power, having merely used gaseous essence.

‘I refuse to believe this won’t scare you, pops! Feel free to underestimate it!’

John swung, rotating Larang in a perfect semi-circle around his core. The blade nearly vibrated with power as it cut through the air, hitting the black sphere in the exact center. It stole the entire force of the attack and rocketed forward, heading straight for the orange ape.

After its roar, the orange monkey started approaching John, crushing the trees in its way. It was still a few hundred meters from him, but approaching rapidly.

The black sphere didn’t seem to bother it, only worthy of a glance. But then it suddenly reacted to it and tried to move out of the way. The giant body made it impossible to dodge completely, but it still moved enough for the sphere to hit its shoulder instead of its heart.

The sphere exploded, creating a mist of green blood. Once it cleared, a meter-deep cut stretched around the entire shoulder—a massive wound.

Or at least it would be if the horror wasn’t standing fifty meters tall. It might weaken its shoulder, but the attack was far from enough to kill it.

‘Fucking hell, you’re tough! But at least I can hurt you!’

The monkey was still moving to dodge the attack, but once it had the balance, it started running toward him again. It didn’t seem to care about the wound at all.

Despite all the danger he was facing, John couldn’t help a wide grin from appearing on his face. He was intensely excited to have a proper life-and-death fight again, having been bored by the immediate victories in recent battles.

Not since his first fight with a demon, the barg, had he felt so eager, so thirsty.

‘Please don’t let anyone interfere with this!’

John knew that tens of demons were most likely pursuing him from the city, but he hoped they would respect the duel.

He swung again, firing his second sphere with as much force as the first. The monkey had less time to dodge this time, but now that it knew how dangerous the spheres were, it countered it in another way.

On its way toward John, it took hold of a tree, bringing it along to block the sphere. The impact shattered the wood into pieces, but the force of the attack was nearly completely neutralized. Only a weak cut appeared on the monkey’s chest, not even piercing the skin.

‘Figures… It’s time for the range of the invocation to hit me. Let’s see what you have in store!’

But even when the monkey got closer, nothing happened. No effect like the pitch black of the bird or the crushing pressure of the desert horror, at least not that John could notice.

‘... Okay, that’s almost worse. Are you saving it for the right time?’

His arms were charged and ready to blast away after he put Larang away. Once again, he would use the weight reduction to increase his speed. He hadn’t tried that after becoming an aspecter, so he expected the speed to be unbelievable.

The monkey was now less than a hundred meters away, almost near enough to reach out and touch him. John had one more trick he wanted to use before escaping, though.

Instead of using the air burst to flee, he pointed them behind himself, aiming for the giant before him. The blasts were incomparable to those he could use as an aspecter, nearly dislocating his enhanced bones. And the speed was equally impressive.

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‘Ho, that’s speed! Quickly now!’

John didn’t have time to think, performing each step of his plan in rapid succession.

First, he reduced his weight, increasing his speed by another seventy percent. Then he summoned the greatshield into his hand, pointing the sharp side forward.

The shield was infused with essence while sitting in his core, something he had learned while he evolved his weapons.

‘Try dodging this!’

The shield disappeared from his hands and appeared right in front of the monkey’s face. Or at least it would have if it hadn’t dodged the attack before it happened. The shield harmlessly flew past its face, missing entirely.

‘What? How did it know?’

John didn’t have time to think about it. His next attack was already underway, with Larang appearing in his hands. He held it behind his head and threw it like a spear. Larang flew true, using its gravity to increase the speed even further.

‘This has to hit, right?’

The monkey started dodging the attack again before it appeared, but it wasn’t fast enough this time. Larang changed directions slightly during the flight, homing in on the giant body.

An arm appeared before it, and Larang pierced it deeply, coming out of the other side. But it had lost some of its speed, stopping before reaching the handle after hitting the monkey’s chest.

‘How are you anticipating my attacks? Is that your invocation? Future sight?’

John wasn’t satisfied despite the partly successful attack, knowing that was his best opportunity while his kit was still unknown. Now it knew what he could do while he was still nearly in the dark.

‘Oh, it’s a she. If she can predict my attacks, I’ll have a tough time. I only pray she can’t predict my dodging.’

John was still hurtling toward the enemy, but he knew how to stop himself. A black sphere appeared in front of him, filled with gaseous essence. He collided with it, sending all the force of his flight into it and stopping himself completely.

The sphere flew forward in a weak attack while John summoned a solid sphere for his escape, jumping off it and heading straight up into the air. He retrieved Larang into his hand and used it to help the ascent, hanging by its handle.

‘Damn, I haven’t even stalled it for half a minute! Let’s conserve some essence, maybe?’

His storage had already been depleted by twenty percent, but it was no wonder with the number of attacks he had been making.

The orange monkey swept the black sphere away with her one good arm, knowing it didn’t have much power. Then she looked up at John and roared.

‘Yes, I know, cowardly move. But, Lady, you are predicting my moves! I need to come up with a plan.’

The teleporting shield missing was far beyond his expectations. It had never missed before, primarily because of its unpredictable nature. He would have to make a plan if he wanted to use the shield with the black essence again. But that was his last option. He did not want to empty the necklace completely.

A plan started forming in his head, but it would require a lot of essence to work, and there was no guarantee of making a killing blow.

‘If she can predict my attacks, I can make dozens of attacks at once, forcing her to move in a particular direction. But I would have to spend a lot of liquid essence. And they probably won’t do much damage on their own.’

He was now high up in the air, looking down at the orange giant. He would have to decide before she did, fearing she would jump up to him or follow the others instead. And so he turned, clutching Larang as it accelerated toward the ground.

‘Even my strongest attacks won’t kill unless I hit a vital spot, but if I can use her foresight to my advantage…’

Ten black spheres appeared around him as he fell, each filled to the brim with liquid essence. Each one took about one percent of his essence, but he had no choice.

He dismissed Larang once the speed had built enough, and then he used a double air burst again, sending him hurtling toward the ground. Even with his strengthened eyes, the wind made it hard for him to see.

‘Aaand go!’

The ten spheres flew off in a cone shape around the spot where the monkey stood, gradually expanding in radius. They traveled faster than John, seemingly unbothered by the massive air resistance, reaching the trees in mere moments.

The monkey looked around at the spheres cautiously, having already felt what power they could contain on her body. It was a great distraction as long as she didn’t know the difference between the different types of spheres.

As John approached, the spheres started constricting around her, coming from every direction after making sudden turns between the trees.

‘Jump already! You know what those things can do, don’t you?’

He planned to force her to jump in the air toward him, making it nearly impossible to dodge his attacks. But many things could go wrong, so he could only pray it worked.

Sure enough, she sensed the danger, bending her knees and putting her hands on the ground. After Larang hit her, she showed how weak she was against homing projectiles, which made John more sure she would try to avoid them.

Then she jumped, sending shockwaves through the ground beneath her. She was much faster than John had predicted, nearly matching his own speed while falling.

John barely had a second to act before they would collide, which would crush him to pieces.