The group had felt the presence of agents around them all along. But actually seeing them was a lot more unsettling.

As thousands of dark lightning bolts rained down upon them, the agents finally revealed their faces. Hundreds of them were staring creepily right into their soul while throwing their spells.

Their distorted smiles and dark eyes were not even blinking, as if they were expecting to kill them with their gaze alone.

But it’s not their gazes that worried James. Even the deafening lightning bolts were trivial to him. What was really concerning were the familiar magical fluctuations he was feeling – remote viewing. The more powerful agents were carefully watching their every move.

They would let their subordinates wear him down, not willing to risk fighting him at full power.

Thousands of bolts of lightning were striking both the barrier as well as Helios and James, who were standing in the opening within the opening. And yet, despite their fairly exposed position, no agent dared get too close.

They were cold, unfeeling murderers, but agents weren’t dumb beasts. They had seen what James was capable of, so they weren’t about to rush to their deaths.

But they had their orders from above, so they couldn’t avoid him either. Besides, whoever killed this group, would undoubtedly be promoted several ranks above. As reluctant as they were of fighting James, that reluctance paled in comparison to their greed.

Not one of the hundreds of agents recklessly marched ahead, smartly keeping their distance.

Helios and James blocked and dodged all the lighting raining down upon them. Even though striking the gap in the barrier made sense, it quickly became apparent to the agents that slowly wearing them down with ranged attacks wouldn’t work. And they were too smart to try the same thing over and over and hope for a different result.

Instead, they focused on the barrier itself. If they could kill all of his associates first, then James could easily fall too, no matter how strong he was.

They quickly redirected all their bombardment towards the barrier.

But half of James’s group was dedicating their efforts entirely to maintaining the barrier. Half of the group basically sacrificed any other utility and use they could bring to the fight, just so they could focus on the barrier.

No matter how many of these agents attacked it, it could hold. The bombardment was creating ripples and cracks throughout the barrier, but they would get repaired a second later as the mages were pouring their power into it.

The agents intensified their attack, knowing that cracking the barrier was the only way to avoid fighting James directly.

But he wouldn’t just stand idly by as they tried cracking the barrier either.

He conjured a Chaos Javelin, launching it at the agents, who were standing a respectful distance away.

The Javelin covered the distance in a flash. But the agents weren’t unprepared. They had seen what James did to their brethren. Naturally, they had used the time during which the group had recuperated to strengthen their own position.

As the Javelin was about to hit its target, it suddenly encountered a barrier.

A thick layer of Darkness blocked the Javelin, red and black lightning fighting for supremacy. But as powerful as the wall of Darkness was, the Javelin quickly defeated it. James seemed to have won.

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A second later, the Javelin penetrated the barrier and flew ahead.

However, it was too late. The barrier of Darkness may not have completely stopped the Javelin, but it had blocked it and slowed it for long enough that the agents were able to completely dodge it. The Javelin hit the ground, evaporating a swath of land, but without hitting any target.

James wanted to launch another Javelin right away so he could take advantage of the first one’s impact, but things weren’t that simple. The barrier closed behind the Javelin instantly, as if it had never broken through in the first place.

As the bombardment was still raining down upon the barrier, James had the luxury of trying something else though. He trusted in the strength of his allies, so he knew he still had a while before it would crack.

Instead, he armed his Chaos Javelin with a SARM of its own, which would be able to guide its trajectory once it broke through the barrier.

He prepared the Javelin with some extra oomph, adding even more mana into it than usual. But he didn’t launch it right away.

With a wave of his hand, he launched two normal Javelins almost simultaneously. And only then he sent the empowered one right after them.

The two Javelins struck the barrier, but the agents had anticipated his attack. He could see them pouring their Darkness into it, making it even stronger than before. The first Javelin faded away without even breaking the barrier, and only the second one was able to break through.

But even though it struck the ground, it allowed for the third one to make it past the barrier unimpeded.

SARM swiftly redirected the Javelin into the nearest agent, blasting him instantly. Bits of agent guts flew all over the inside of their barrier.

James’s plan had worked. And yet, he didn’t feel happy about it.

Their barrier was already back to full strength! And his approach needed way too much prep time. There were hundreds of other agents there.

James had an odd feeling. Something wasn’t adding up.

All that effort just to kill one agent out of hundreds. The barrier might not be stopping him entirely, but it made it way too hard to deal with them.

Obviously, he had plenty of mana left. Three Javelins was nothing to him, even if he empowered one of them. He could cast thousands at this point, which was quite an odd feeling given how he couldn’t cast even one a few months ago. He could even cast his Chaos Flower, which was bound to kill plenty of them.

But given that he was being watched by the more powerful agents at this very moment, waiting for him to wear himself down, he knew he couldn’t just spend his mana recklessly, even if he had plenty of it.

“Something isn’t right.” James growled.

“What do you mean?” Helios asked.

“Think about it, why aren’t they attacking? They should at least try to get in melee range and do something, anything.”

“Maybe they’re just that scared of you, brother.” Helios laughed and spat out towards the agents.

James wasn’t convinced. Sure, that was an element of it, but the agents were too smart to be crippled by fear.

Instead of continuing his attack, James watched them intently. The agents continued bombarding his group’s barrier, casting hundreds of spells per second.

But something didn’t sit right with James. It was odd, no other battle felt like this. This felt a lot more like a chess match than an actual fight.

He was used to his enemies swarming him, trying desperately to rip his head off.

And yet, the hundreds of agents were just sitting behind their barrier, lobbing their spells in what almost seemed like a leisurely way.

He knew he had to think this through, so he didn’t dare spend an ounce of mana.

The higher ranking agents were the real threat. He wasn’t exactly sure why they weren’t all attacking him at once, but Denmac’s memories suggested that they may just be that selfish. Not wanting to risk their own hide, preferring to step in after the others had weakened him enough. They could also be wary of being attacked by the other high-ranking ones if they would be weakened by him in battle.

Maybe his plan had worked, and his previous display of power was so dominant that it indeed made the agents extremely careful.

But even if that was the case, it didn’t exactly bode well for him.

If the agents were indeed so calculating, then he could very well be walking into a trap.

No, now that he thought about it, they were definitely walking into a trap. Instead of proactively doing something, he was waiting for them to make a move. And if they are indeed so calculating, then that meant they had accounted for his power, and their current plan had a way to circumvent it.

If he wanted to win, he had to flip the script. He had to dictate how this battle would go.

He could spend a whole bunch of mana to kill the agents one by one, or he could even destroy the whole barrier and then kill them all once it was gone. But that was too simple. That was just thinking one move ahead.

If this was indeed a chess game, he needed to think several moves ahead.

“Are you ok, brother?” Helios asked as he watched James stare at the agents silently.

“I am now.” James smiled fiendishly as he finally had an idea.