John fought furiously, and was sorely pressed, even with many of the enemies he faced incapable of hurting him. There was an endless sea of enemies, and many he faced could damage him, and the sun drained him and made him weaker.

A few swarms of giant bee-flies covered John from head to toe while he was busy fighting other things, and stings rarely got through to cause him pain or discomfort. When they did cover him, he had to drop his senses and waste too much time and essence to enter each bee-fly and harden their blood.

John preferred dealing with the giant bee-flies by using his new manifestation that caused them to attack each other and anything nearby. It worked on the fire-birds too, but nothing bigger. And the only fire-birds grouped together enough to make casting the spell worthwhile were the ones on the ground near the ritual circle, and they were extremely easy to dispatch with his sword, so casting was a waste of essence.

The fire-birds could hurt John if they could hit him. Only one had managed to so far. Most of them just flew into the ritual circle, then crawled towards each other, eventually merging into thin and tall mockeries of men.

The mock-men had about ten hidden and thin tentacles that were lightning quick and could bind John up if he didn’t react fast enough. They could also blink around like the Silver bull-lion and Amber could. He believed they had a mind-affecting manifestation that didn’t work on him, and they sometimes used a weak fire spell. He was able to cut right through them with ease, and his blood essence could handle them when he was able to beat aside their defenses and enter them.

John had taken two hits from the rock-monsters, and both hits hurt. They were slow enough he didn’t worry about getting hit too much. The amount of effort it took to kill them compared to the other Bronze tiered monsters did annoy him. Thankfully, the rock-monsters weren’t very numerous.

For other new dark ones John faced, their ranks included a hooded and robed female ghost. These hooded-women couldn’t be hurt by any means at a distance, even by his mighty [Flashburst Pulse]. And up close, his sword passed harmlessly through them, imbued with fire or not.

When a hooded-woman was right next to John, a split moment before she would attack, her hideous face could be seen through the shadows of her hood as she became tangible. Her mouth would grow extremely large, and she would then try to bite him. At that moment, his sword could cut her through. He had yet to be bitten by one of the hooded-women, though he was curious to find out if those bites could injure him.

The oily-black flying men with bat wings, horns, and no faces were annoying to fight. The physical attacks of those bat-men often caused damage, and they tried to clutch onto John and fly him up into the air. They also had a ranged manifestation. He didn’t believe the ranged attacks were meant to cause damage, but what the purpose of the spell was, he couldn’t tell. His sword worked well on them, but he struggled to beat their defenses aside to use his blood essence on them.

John disliked the ugly and huge heads with four spider legs that jumped in close to release a slowing substance. They would quickly back away after releasing the substance, and birth two small spider-like things whose bites could penetrate his skin and inject him with a venom his body had to waste vital essence to neutralize.

The spider-heads were fast and annoying, but John’s sword worked well on them too, and he had no problem entering them and creating clots. He had to harden the blood within the small spiders they birthed, as his sword was ill-suited to the job, and he lacked a free hand to smack them with.

John wanted to drain enemies of vital essence and strengthen himself in that way when he got the chance, but he never got one, and didn’t want to risk the fight turning against him for the vital essence of a Silver or Bronze or lower.

Wanting space and a moment of relief and needing to stay near the ritual and his wife, John carefully plunged his sword a little into the ground as a flesh-blob sent its red rope at him. He caught the rope on his forearm, and then wrapped his hand around it.

Yanking the flesh-blob towards him, he swung it around, using the monster to bludgeon his foes and clear some space. After some time, a few louvre dolls got stuck to his makeshift weapon, adding to its heft, and increasing the force of his swings with it, but only for a moment, as their explosions tore the makeshift weapon apart after a time.

John had fun replacing and using new flesh-blobs as his weapon for a while, but it also caused him some trouble, as two hooded-women got in close, and he couldn’t release the rope and grab his sword in time to kill them.

Both hooded-women became tangible at the same time. John caved in the face of one with his fist, but decided to see if those creatures could injure him and took the bite of the other on his head. Its teeth cut his upper lip a little, and it didn’t feel great, but didn’t hurt him all that much.

The hooded-woman stayed tangible with John’s head in her mouth, and attacked him with claws on hand and foot, those limb attacks also doing little or no damage. He punched her in the chest, and his fist exited her back. As he struggled to remove her from his head and arm, he saw many creatures rushing towards him with his orb-eye and senses, and a few mock-men blinked in right next to him, tentacles already extending towards him. He let himself be taken in the same way he did while fighting Ukaraaz.

It felt to John like he began to watch himself from above, peacefully observing himself fight. He closed his eyes and sent his orb-eye back to rest in his chest and stretched his senses out to the limit. As he rolled forward to avoid the tentacles reaching for him, he grabbed his sword, and focused on his breathing and cycling techniques, ensuring he was performing both correctly. Time seemed to have slowed down, and he plotted the best way to stand against the tide threatening to sweep him away.

John realized he could use the enemy’s attacks as a weapon too and he adjusted his plan to incorporate them. He adjusted yet again once he realized the spears spit by the louvre dolls could injure the mock-men, also factoring in their explosions. As he grabbed his sword and rolled into standing, he slashed the bat-man in front of him in half, and used his momentum to kick through the chest of a rock-monster.

As John dashed forward, he shucked and jived in what seemed like strange ways, lashing out with his sword, hopping over certain enemies, moving away from the ritual circle that drew the dark ones to it. Many enemies he ignored fell dead to blood clots, and many others fell to the attacks of dark ones that missed their intended target.

Fire-birds in the sky started to attack bat-men and other fire-birds. John jumped high into the air, taking the head of a bat-man, entering all the dark ones he could get in, putting clots into them. He checked and his dantian was a little under three-quarters full.

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John opened his eyes for a quick moment and saw all the roads and spaces leading to the intersection of the ritual packed with dark ones. His senses told him the same, but it was a different thing to see it. He wondered what made Lilly think this battle would be such an easy thing, or why the dark ones would make their way to the intersection at a trickle.

While in the air, John grabbed a bat-man and rode it down to the ground, slashing others he fell by, and landed right near the ritual. He began slaughtering fire-birds as they moved towards one another, trying to merge into mock-men. He had the gigantic swarm of bee-flies at the ritual attack themselves and other dark ones near them, then entered as many dark ones he could again, putting clots in them, getting better at controlling his blood essence while holding his sword and the limited hand movement it allowed.

Something that felt dangerous started to quickly move towards John. He wasn’t the best at sensing what tier something was, but he knew the thing was a Gold. He opened his eyes and turned on the NCS info function. It told him the thing flying towards him was indeed Gold tiered, a Dimensional Horror, and was probably vulnerable to fire.

It got close enough to make out details, and John thought it looked like a moth-man made of fungus. All the dark ones shivered as it passed over them, and many dark ones stopped to look up at it. An essence shield shimmered around it as the first ball of [Flashburst Pulse] hit, and the shield broke as the second ball struck, and the third ball knocked it to the ground in a spray of sparks.

John looked at the whitish-purple bulb containing Lilly. He could barely see her through it. He said, “No Golds, huh?”

Lilly pointed at her ear, indicating she couldn’t hear what he said. John shook his head and beheaded a hooded-woman as she became tangible, then jumped towards the Gold. It was still alive and getting back on its feet, and since it was a Gold with unknown powers and capabilities, and John was still surrounded by an endless horde of dark ones, he clamped down on his temptation to drain the fungus creature of vital essence, and instead cast [Flashburst Pulse] again.

With no essence shield to protect it, the spell decimated the creature. Oddly enough, John noticed it was still alive as it was lying on the ground, still and unmoving. He shrugged his shoulders, considered it his lucky day, and dashed forward to drain the monster.

The moth-man felt disgusting to the touch, and the thought of putting his mouth on it repulsed John, but not enough to overcome his greed. Much of its life essence was gone, and John was only able to strengthen himself seven times as he carried the Gold around, draining it as he fought and avoided attacks bodily since he had no free arm. He dropped the corpse as it expired, slashing his sword around to clear some space.

The Gold was the first dark one whose corpse remained at death John had seen. It turned into a mound of fungus with four light-green crystals laid atop it. Something like a weak, mostly dissipated spirit could be seen too.

That was as easy as a breeze. Very unlike my fight with Ukaraaz, thought John as he continued his slaughter of all dark ones around him, cursing the small and sneaky spiders and their poisoned bites.

Keeping with the same strategy, John fought and moved a distance away from the ritual circles, then would jump up and ride a bat-man down to the ground near the circles. He churned his enemies, reveled in the glory of battle, and performing deeds both fell and tall. He was glad his battle had a witness, and he hoped his wife would sing his praises once he stood victorious at the battle’s end.

The battle continued for a while, and John took few injuries. The ground was littered with crystals the dark ones completely ignored.

Near noon as John reckoned it, some time before modern timekeeping claimed noon to be, while his dantian dipped a good way under half full, he felt a new strangeness ripple through the sea of enemies surrounding him.

When shadows should’ve been at their smallest, they seemed to stretch and grow in odd ways off of not just the dark ones, but John’s own shadow, and the shadows from objects too. John’s senses told him something wasn’t right, and his orb-eye warbled and alternated between showing him stretched shadows and shadows as they should be under the noon sun.

The strangeness persisted, and John could feel something different near, but he couldn’t place exactly what or why. His enemies kept attacking him, so he couldn’t devote much time to the mystery, and after a while just accepted the change and continued to battle on.

Knowing his enemies and their tricks, the fighting turned routine, and the dark ones broke upon John like the sea does a cliff.

Seeing a chance to improve, John focused more on swordsmanship, and the fine details of it. He tried not to use essence, but when he did, he focused on breaking through the defenses of Silvers and using his [Blood Manipulation] more efficiently. He was able to practice unbinding manifestations a little too. He somewhat wished more of the dark ones tried to unbind his manifestations or cast spells that improved his [Manifestation Defense] [Skill].

For swordsmanship, reading and anticipating an opponent’s moves was a very important factor, but not one John could improve much fighting dark ones, as they did not seem to put much thought into their attacks. Of the Bronze he faced, only the hooded-women seemed capable of any thought, but their actions were easily predicted. Of the Silvers, the mock-men seemed the most unpredictable, but the bat-men could sometimes surprise him.

Since the fighting was mostly routine, it was hard for John to keep in the two states he always tried to maintain in a fight – focusing on nothing while seeing everything, and keeping his mind free of the burden of thought, keeping it pathless instead of putting his mind on a path.

Two crucial elements of swordsmanship John was able to work on were foot movement and blade control. He was also impressed at how well he was able to strike, using little power and energy, but making devastating attacks all the same.

Early afternoon turned to late afternoon, the crystals continued to pile up, and John continued to fight, certain the ritual that drew the dark ones was supposed to have ended long ago. He hoped for the sun to set faster, and the relief of darkness. He was not overly proficient with the modern world’s timekeeping, but he believed Lilly said it would last three to four hours. He was positive he fought for longer than four hours by that point. Much longer.

John took some pride at how well he was able to continuously use both his breathing and cycling techniques correctly and consistently during his battle, and that he rarely forgot to do one or the other. There was a natural lull in the battle, and he took a small break, letting his guard down for a moment.

As John congratulated himself for doing so well with breathing and cycling, a feeling of immense danger overwhelmed his senses, and with eyes closed, and orb-eye resting in his chest, he missed the shadow that grew behind him.

Two blades dug into John’s back before being ripped out. He lost control of his limbs and started to collapse. A notification flashed in his vision that stated [Emergency Heal] was on cooldown for twenty-two hours and some minutes. He sent vital essence to heal and did what he quickly could with his [Blood Heal] spell in the moment he had to devote to it.

John turned his collapse into a forward roll, snatching the falling Fireblade out of the air. He rolled back onto his feet and spun, looking for the enemy that attacked him. He believed he was grievously injured, and [Emergency Heal] saved him. He checked his dantian and saw it was well under a quarter full. His vital essence was fine, sitting well above half his capacity, and only down that much due to the spider bites, as just enhancing his body wouldn’t have drained nearly so much.

John’s orb-eye watched behind him. His senses couldn’t reliably spot this foe.

The other dark ones didn’t care that John needed to focus on finding his new enemy and continued their relentless assault on him. He cursed as he had to waste more essence to kill a spider, kicked through the chest of a rock-monster, and slashed the air above, killing two bat-men with one blow.

John’s orb-eye began to flicker more quickly between the wrongly stretched shadows and normal late-afternoon shadows. He noticed a shadow growing out of the ground behind him. It was a little darker than other shadows, a black silhouette, somewhat blocky, and vaguely man-shaped with a brimmed hat. It was either holding a long and curved dagger in each hand or had two sickles instead of hands – it was impossible to tell which from the silhouette. The thing felt strange, and not really like a Gold was supposed to, but it felt much stronger than a Silver. He thought it had to be a Gold.

Only Silvers, she said, thought John.