The difference in power between the first superior and the other agents was unimaginably vast.

Apparently, even that wasn’t the bottom of the rabbit hole though. If someone could make an entity like the first superior afraid, just how powerful were they?

The group didn’t even see Garantep yet. Hell, the only hint that Garantep even existed was that laugh, while the first superior was a danger they had seen with their own two eyes. And yet, they were much more worried about the unseen threat.

But they didn’t have time to dwell on their worries for long. Suddenly, the dust clouds seemed to be thinning.

Before the clouds could even fully disappear, a body dropped.

But it was wasn’t a lifeless husk like they were expecting. And the Pox was nowhere to be seen.

Within seconds, the body moved. Even darker and taller than before, the superior was still alive. Even after all the attacks that he endured. Thirty empowered Javelins and the full wrath of the Pox, and yet he was still alive.

Although, he wasn’t unhurt either. Even with just a glance from afar, one could see that he was not nearly as healthy as he was before. His skin was riddled with burns and cuts, chunks of flesh were missing.

But he was still alive nonetheless, and he was coming for them.

The superior activated his beam, aiming straight at the group’s barrier.

James wouldn’t put his group in danger though. He stepped out of the barrier to face his opponent all by himself.

To his surprise, he wasn’t alone though. Helios stepped out with him.

“You weren’t planning on completely abandoning our strategy, were you?” He asked while smiling.

James did want to take care of things all by himself, but he knew it would be selfish and hurtful to reject Helios’s help like that. But as he looked at the superior, he realized something. “Oh, that’s right. There’s only one enemy now.” James smiled towards Helios. Now that they weren’t fighting thousands of enemies, perhaps he should allow Helios to display his talents as a tank.

The battle had been so convoluted and frantic that James had actually forgotten that he wasn’t supposed to fight all by himself. They were a team, and yet he had pushed them to the side, worried for their own safety.

And even though the enemy in front of them was much stronger than the other ones, perhaps now that they weren’t being pelted by hundreds of spells, they could actually work together.

The superior dashed towards them, his eyebeam already focused upon James. Even though his dark body was batted and bloody all over, that didn’t seem to matter to him as much as obliterating the one who got him into this predicament.

James was about to dodge, but Helios intercepted the beam with his shield.

He had trained his tanking skills so hard for so long, and yet he had barely used them at all. He was itching to do something.

However, as good of a tank as he was, the beam was not something that could be blocked just like that. The sheer force swept him off his feet, launching him dozens of feet backwards. His shield melted almost immediately, so Helios was forced to dodge just to avoid being turned into a puddle of blood.

However, even this brief intervention had given James a great opportunity. While Helios was being blasted with the eye beam, James was already preparing his Javelins.

The superior quickly turned his attention back towards James, but by then James had already prepared five Javelins.

Five explosions rang out one after the other, chunks of flesh flying from the superior after each one.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The Pox and the 30 Javelins might not have killed him, but they definitely weakened his defenses.

“So you’re mortal too, huh?” James mocked him.

“He sure seems a lot weaker now. My spit could probably kill him.” Helios launched his spit with mana towards the superior. Angry enemies tend to make mistakes.

But as insulting as the overused taunt was, the superior didn’t move. It looked like the impact of the Javelins had a more powerful effect than even James had expected.

“What’s wrong with him? Is he dead?” James asked. “The Javelins did damage, but definitely not enough to kill him.”

“I don’t know, but don’t get too close. These guys are full of hidden weapons, can’t underestimate them.” Helios replied.

“Not only is he not moving, but he didn’t even dodge your spit.” James continued as he frantically looked around. “What the hell is happening?”

Suddenly, James noticed a fluctuation in the Darkness surrounding the superior.

“What, is he powering up?” James shouted.

“I doubt that. If he could do that, he would’ve done it much sooner.” Helios answered.

“Should we stop him, or can that be part of his plan?” James was paranoid, this unexpected turn of events made him extremely cautious.

“Throw a few Javelins, just do it from a distance.” Helios suggested.

The two moved farther away from the agent, near their group’s barrier.

James prepared five Javelins and launched them towards the motionless superior. But the explosions didn’t seem to do anything.

“What the hell? They did no damage? The five from before sent chunks of his flesh flying all over!” Helios shouted.

“That makes no sense.” James stared at the superior without blinking. “Those Javelins weren’t any weaker than the other ones, and yet he took no damage.”

“What do you think he’s doing?” Helios stared perplexedly too.

“It really doesn’t feel like he’s powering up. The traitor we battled more than three months ago also used a power-up technique, and it felt very different from what’s happening now. Not only do the fluctuations feel odd, but he’s not even in a cocoon or anything, he’s just standing there.” James couldn’t understand what was happening.

He thought of just bombarding him with Javelins, but the turn of events was too odd. Was he perhaps absorbing the Javelins or something? Just attacking without thinking could also be a bad move, even though the enemy was just standing there without moving.

“This is definitely a trap of some kind though, right?” James asked.

“Definitely, he wouldn’t just be standing there for no reason.” Helios said, although he was just as clueless as James.

“Lun, do you have any idea what’s happening?” Helios inquired, although he already knew the answer. She didn’t have any more information than him.

Lunaris just shook her head. She was staring at the superior, desperately trying to come up with an answer, but this situation made no sense.

Suddenly, she had an idea. “Wait. What if he’s so injured that he’s trying to take us with him?”

Upon hearing that, everybody involuntarily strengthened their barriers.

“He’s injured, and yet he’s also darker and taller than before, right? Why is that? The fact that the fluctuations are different is another hint.” Lunaris continued, her voice shaking. “Unlike the time that agent was in a cocoon, the superior isn’t drawing Darkness in, he must be pushing it out!”

Even though the superior was quite a distance away, and Lunaris made sure to whisper, he smirked.

“That’s right. You may have bested me, but you won’t leave this place alive.” He screamed. “Damn you, Garantep!” The superior shouted, his voice echoing throughout the city. “You think you can just let us all die so you can swoop in and get all the spoils? If I’m gonna die, I’m gonna make sure you curse your selfishness for the rest of eternity! You’ll get nothing from them!”

The superior’s flesh began glowing. Paradoxically, the Darkness itself seemed to be glowing, the substance as black as the void was shining blindingly from the superior’s body.

Knowing they couldn’t just flee, the gang frantically began erecting as many barriers as they could. James sacrificed his health twice, but he didn’t cast a Chaos barrier. Instead, he used his Chaotic healing on Lunaris and on Helios.

He at least wanted his friends to survive. But Helios had other plans. Instead of turtling up, Helios covered Lunaris and James with his body.

“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” James shouted. “Get down and defend yourself.”

“Hey, I’m a tank. This is my job, to protect others. Now shut up and stay safe.” Helios replied valiantly.

Lunaris began pumping her two friends with any healing and barrier spell she knew. It probably wouldn’t do much if the explosion was as powerful as it appeared to be, but she was desperate and they didn’t have much time to think.

The trio’s first instincts were to protect each other. But after the initial few seconds of shock where their bodies did most of the thinking, once they regained their composure, they began throwing spells at the rest of the group.

The dwarves were shaking as they were transferring as much mana as they could into the barrier. Denmac was so focused that he seemed dead asleep, throwing his entire being into enhancing the barrier. Even Emilia was shooting desperately at the superior, hoping to lessen the explosion with her crowd control.

“Brace yourselves!” Helios shouted as the ground began to rumble.

They all covered their eyes, not daring to look at the explosion that could very well be the death of them all.

But seconds passed, and there was no explosion. Even the rumbling stopped.

They looked up, and they saw a dark figure towering over a slumped over superior.