"Let me handle this... Dumb bird..." is the only thing I hear as the same silver arm that blocked my attack punches the brown bird in the underbelly.

Its wind magic attacks all disappear in an instant, and it goes flying high into the air without even having to flap its wings. It isn't killed, but definitely knocked unconscious in a single blow.

I jump backward and go on the defensive immediately, scanning the figure in front of me, but hardly believe what I see when a [Lv. 1894] appears on its status along with the [Curse of The Lich King] buff and nothing else.

I get a good look at the Guard, and its figure starts to look less and less human to me the more I examine it.

With three horns coming out of its forehead, shimmering silver skin, athletic striated muscles, and eyes that stare directly through my soul as if this creature has been living for a million years.

The pupils and irises are both jet black, while the outer edges that are usually white are a dull, matte silver, a few shades darker than its skin.

Whatever this creature is, it is far from human.

The silver aura that surrounds its body is dreadful. It feels colder than ice, but looks like a constant stream of evaporating metal particles coming off its body.

It makes a motion as if it were about to step forward in the air, but before its foot even completes a full stride, a silver flash of light fills my vision and it's right in front of me, staring me in the eyes less than half a meter from my face.

"Fight me. I was told you are a strong one, I hope that attack was not the full extent of your power."

The creature doesn't strike me even though it's clearly within range; it just stares into my eyes with a lifeless gaze and waits for me to answer.

I use this opportunity to continue my motion backward, placing my daggers on my waist and pulling out my fire-imbued sword while swallowing a Qi pill to restore the half of my core that was used up in my last attack.

I concentrate my Qi into my blade and use the excess in my barrier to only cover my vital organs with the maximum density possible. The rest of my body is still covered at 75% strength, but considering my opponent's speed and power, it feels necessary to defend for any potential lethal strikes.

It steps forward again, and it takes most of my perception skill, purely focused on its movements, to watch the silver flash come closer. Its right hand glows brighter silver and a long spear appears that looks like bubbling metal being summoned from seemingly nowhere.

It lunges forward with the silver spear and throws a basic attack straight at my heart.

Its eyes are locked on the target, and it moves with absolute confidence.

No matter the direction I move, it will surely follow, and given the time I have until it makes impact, the only thing I can do is block.

I grit my teeth and focus everything I have into my swordsmanship skill, letting Qi flow through my hands into the blade while glowing brightly with all my buffs.

I airstep sharply to turn my body in the same direction I swing my sword, and it collides with the sharp edge of the spear.

Silver soul energy reacts with the plumes of Qi that erupt from my sword, and for a moment both of us are stood perfectly still in the air as if we're evenly matched.

However, the silver figure pushes forward with unyielding force, consistently pressing on without a single change in its expression or soul energy released whatsoever. My own power is fluctuating greatly as I continue to push its limits and fend off the attack aimed to end my life.

As my airsteps' force catches up to me, my angle of momentum relative to the creature's spear shifts, and my body rotates out of its direct path.

There's an explosion of white and silver energy that sends me flying to the side while I follow through with my swing, pushing me farther away, and the silver spear misses my body entirely by just a few centimeters.

The instant I ready myself in the air again and look for my opponent, it's already turned at a right angle and come back at me with machine-like precision.

I block again, twisting my body to the other side, using up precious Qi, but avoiding a fatal blow.

This time after our separation, the spear comes back much faster than the first two times.

The incoming strike is so quick I can't even move my sword fast enough to block it. I want to activate my newest ranked-up buff to increase my size, speed, and power, but its activation time takes far longer than what I have to work with here.

The best possible option I have in a moment like this is to move all of my Qi to cover my heart and head, then brace for impact.

It lunges forward and the tip of its silver spear comes within millimeters of making contact with my chest, but it disappears before my eyes again.

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Next thing I see is the creature to my side thrusting his spear through the back of my left knee. It disappears and reappears, and I feel it thrust another attack through the inner side of my right elbow. It vanishes two more times, thrusting its weapon through both of my opposite knee and elbow with no resistance at all.

Searing pain erupts from the center joints of all 4 of my limbs, and it becomes impossible to move at the same speed I did a moment ago. The creature appears in front of me with the same emotionless look on its face, staring me straight in the eyes, then pushes its palm on my chest where my Qi barrier is still the strongest.

An incredible pressure knocks the wind out of me, and I'm blasted back, down toward the desert floor.

This all happens in fractions of a second, that it's almost too fast for me to comprehend until after the fact.

Its words echo in my mind as I fall, "As I thought... you are just another weak Human," and the visual of it punching its brown bird partner from the sky moments ago replay in my head, showing that in this form I was really just as weak to it as the 6th ranked guard was to me.

Even though it stares at me with an emotionless gaze high above in the sky with its arms crossed, and silver spear floating by its side, I can still feel the cold sensation of its attack in my legs and arms.

If anything, it's getting even colder.

I ignite my body in a sea of flames, but the cold sensation doesn't stop.

Once I look down at my legs and at both of my arms, I see the silver Soul energy growing from the injuries this creature gave me. It looks like metallic slow-moving ice is growing from my joints, and it's freezing my flesh and bones no matter how much fire I summon onto it.

I attempt to cancel out its ability by flooding the areas with Qi, but it does nothing more than eat up the white energy and drain my stores.

All of the energy in the infected areas is being sucked away.

I even activate my Red Hydra's buff, but it's even less effective than my pure Qi, so I shut it off the moment I realize it's futile. On top of this issue, I'm also hurdling toward the ground at speeds faster than anything I've ever experienced. Once my multiple attempts at healing come back with definite failures, I imbue my sword with a raging hot fire to slice through my own legs above the affected area, destroying the problem entirely before it spreads too far.

I slice off my own left arm, then regrow only it to hold my sword and slice off my right.

An item storage portal forms above me, and the frozen silver limbs float up into suspended animation while I regrow my other three limbs and focus on the bigger issue at hand. Based on my downward velocity, impact will not be survivable if I fall on my neck or back. I activate wind magic gusts below myself to slow my fall. This works, but my momentum is too great to stop entirely.

The golden sand below me gets closer very quickly. I position myself upright to land on my feet, making impact on the ground with an echoing thud that displaces the sand all around for over 100 meters wide and over 20 meters deep.

As the dust clears, I quickly open my item storage. My subconscious creates a new method for retrieving gear from my inventory.

I open 4 simultaneous portals beneath my feet and in front of my hands, plunging all 4 limbs into my storage, and retrieving the unaffected gear from the limbs I cut off previously back exactly where they were on my body before.

My rings, boots, and gauntlets come out of my storage system on my body as I pull myself out of the spatial magic. With it, I pull out another Qi pill and swallow it on the spot, expanding my perception range to locate the Dark Guard in the sky.

Before this creature can get a chance to attack me again, I activate my newest buff [Rising Emperor's Greater Form].

Instantly, I feel my power grow and my feet lift off the ground.

Energy erupts from the cloud of dust that formed from my impact, and an enormous black shadowy energy projection of myself is left staring up at the sky.

The silver entity feels the disturbance the moment my transformation starts and zips down to the desert floor to see what has happened.

It stares forward with its silver spear slowly floating around its body in circles while it patiently waits for my transformation to reach its peak form.

Then, it finally speaks up.

"Weak... Dumb...Humans... You do not understand how pointless it is for me to fight an inferior creature like you. Merely by existing, I have already won."

I don't listen to its words, I just charge up my sword with everything I've got. I create my most destructive attack possible. To do so, I plunder mana crystals that fall from my item storage and feed my main body with mana, and imbue the inside of the attack with Qi.

The enormous shadowy armor that amplifies my strength by over 7 times mimics my actions, showing my sword glow and flicker with jet black flames. The inner core of the Greater Form's sword glows white with Qi, as energy leaves my body continuously feeding into this buff's powers.

The sand beneath my feet and all around me is melting and turning to liquid glass as I continue charging up and waiting for any signs of movement from the Silver Figure, but it doesn't budge.

It just continues staring forward with its arms crossed. It speaks again as I pull back my sword to swing.

"I will make you understand how weak you really are."

I swing my sword forward at its cryptic message, and a wave of Qi surrounded by fire magic multiplied by my ranked up buff's power tears through the desert, melting every rock, sand dune, and shrubbery in its way.

The 2nd ranked Dark Guard doesn't budge, and it's hit directly by the mountain-splitting slash.

I feel immense amounts of energy drain from me but watch in amazement at my own power as it collides with the floating silver mass of soul energy.

Based on the Dark Guard's confidence, I was still partially considering the fact that it could block an attack like this if it tried.

I can sense its estimated soul energy density, and I created a slash strong enough to easily break through its barriers, but for some reason, the monster still stays standing in one place as my slash makes contact.

The creature is sliced in two.

There is hardly any resistance at all actually...

A small eruption of soul energy, Qi, and flames burst out on contact, but the guard made no effort to increase its shielding or dodge the blast.

Most of its body is incinerated through; all that remains are a few parts of its arms, legs, and the top half of its spear.

My heart beats loudly in my ears as I regain my MP stores and take another Qi pill to recharge.

I keep a safe distance away, and hold my blade at the ready for something to happen, but nothing does.

The part that irks me is the fact that there wasn't even a level-up reward for defeating this opponent.

I murmur to myself, "This can only mean one thing... it's somehow not dead..."

The scattered tiny bits of silver parts all throughout the desert begin to vibrate and move.

My eyes try to track them all as they begin to come back to a central point.

Once they do, the silver cells begin replicating and growing, reforming the horned creature's body to look exactly the same as before it started.

The eyes of this menacing monster look as emotionless as when the battle began.

It grabs its spear as it completely reforms in its hand, and speaks again.

"Do you understand now, how weak humans truly are?"