All 32 bodies of Garantep were standing there, crying like a deranged maniac at the beauty of his genocidal plan.

“Not that I feel remorse about killing any agent, but killing this guy in particular will be such a relief. I can’t believe there are crazies like him running around the world.” James told his friends. They all had perplexed looks after they had listened to the maniac.

“Killing me will accomplish nothing.” Garantep laughed. “Not that you can, but even if you did, there are many others like me, some of them so much stronger that your brain couldn’t possibly comprehend it if it had a million years to think about it. You’ve already lost the war, you just don’t know it yet.” He laughed with dark tears still flowing from his eyes.

“Now why don’t you just let me kill you? If you do, I promise to treat your souls gently. Except for him, of course.” He pointed towards James. “Don’t be selfish, don’t you want to spare your friends’ souls eternal torture? If you care about your little friends, then give up now. This is your only chance, I won’t be this generous again.” Garantep shouted, all 32 of him releasing an intimidating aura. A small storm was formed from the auras alone, advancing towards the gang as a warning.

“I see there’s no point in talking to him anymore. Let’s kill him.” James said as he released his own aura.

The rest of the group released their auras too. But most of them paled in comparison to Garantep’s. Only James’s, with his nigh bottomless amount of mana, was still visible within the pulsating Darkness. But it still seemed weak compared to the combined might of the 32 auras, each as strong as the next one.

“Wait, which one is the real one? How do we kill him?” Emilia asked.

“I can’t tell, even with my sight.” Not even Denmac’s divination could see who was the original one either.

“I don’t think there is a real one. Well, not in any sense that matters.” James said. “I can’t say for sure, but from the way he talked, I think these are more than clones now. They’re all him. Although it’s a bit weird, something is off about this whole thing. The whole speech too, why wouldn’t he just kill us instead of babbling on?”

“I hope that doesn’t mean what I think it means.” Lunaris sighed.

“Whatever it means, one thing is for sure. We gotta kill all 32 of him.” James answered, his brow furrowed as he watched his foe. Garantep didn’t budge, as if mockingly waiting for them to make the first move.

“So we’ll just kill him 32 times, brother. It’s no big deal, nobody can beat us!” Helios declared with a savage grin, smacking the shield he just took out from his storage with his fiery sword. Seeing as they were facing the boss, Helios had taken out the fanciest gear he had. The gems alone looked so expensive that James cringed at the thought of the gear being destroyed.

The dwarves and Denmac were already fueling the barrier at maximum intensity, not daring to underestimate their foe.

James wasn’t really sure what to do, the aura coming from just a single body of Garantep was more powerful than any agent he had ever seen before, even the superiors. So he went with his tried and true weapon. He had already conjured a few Javelins, so he continued with it.

But Garantep’s inertness ended there. As soon as James’s hands moved, all the bodies shot forth.

James launched his Javelins, focusing all of them on one body. Unsurprisingly, the Javelins weren’t able to kill him. They did stagger him and make him collapse, but there were 31 others just as strong.

Thunders rang within the barrier as half of the bodies assaulted it. James and Helios were out of the Phalanx, trying to bait the enemy into not attacking the barrier.

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But there were more than enough enemies to go around. Half of them attacked the barrier, and the other half focused on Helios and James, who were already dodging and blocking frantically.

With SARM helping him, James was able to dodge and defend just fine while still casting his Javelins.

James began firing off Javelins like a machinegun. The battle actually seemed to be going well for a few seconds.

But that was only because Garantep wasn’t entirely focused on him.

Helios was in trouble. He was valiantly blocking and dodging, but he was also taking some heat off of James. By using his shield and his tanking and taunting spells to stop some of Garantep’s bodies from getting to him, Helios was making it significantly easier for James to attack.

But that came at a cost. No matter how fast or durable he was, Garantep had too many bodies. And they were all much stronger than any enemy they had faced before. Each punch that landed on his shield sent shockwaves throughout Helios’s body. His hands were numb already, the only confirmation that he was still holding his shield was the fact that he could see his hands holding it. But he couldn’t feel it.

James shuddered every time he heard a punch land. It wasn’t even on him, his Javelin was knocking down any clone of Garantep that came close, while SARM avoided the rest. But knowing that his friend was enduring such blows made him realize he quickly needed another strategy.

Worse yet, the barrier was already cracking! His friends were putting their all into it, and yet it was already cracking.

This was already a check. And if he didn’t do something, it would turn into a checkmate within seconds.

Less than a minute into the fight, and he already had to change strategies.

Luckily, he had something that could help his team out.

After the three months of training, James’s body was now slippery and strong that he could take a few hits. So he wasn’t overly concerned about his own safety. What really bothered him was the welfare of his friends. Therefore, instead of casting another Chaos Barrier on himself, James used his Chaotic Healing on Helios.

Chaotic Healing required James to sacrifice HP and to feel a gargantuan amount of pain. But at this point, he was so used to it that he didn’t even blink.

Immediately, Helios’s aura looked several times stronger before. Even the dents in his shield and armor almost looked like they were mending, though that was most likely just an illusion caused by Helios’s radically different demeanor.

Helios was always a feisty and fiery one, but after being buffed, he looked like he had swallowed a volcano. Fire was spewing out of him uncontrollably, his eyes and sword leaking fire all over the ground. Even the Darkness was seemingly catching on fire.

James’s powers had grown much since the last time he used Chaotic Healing, and it seems like the buffs were much stronger now.

Seeing the positive effects, James sacrificed his health again. He winced in pain, but he did it with a smile, knowing just how good the effects were. He cast a Chaos Barrier on himself, to make sure that he wouldn’t leave himself too vulnerable now that he began sacrificing his HP.

The effects of [Reckless Abandon] activated twice since he had sacrificed his HP twice, which greatly buffed him, to the point he was zooming around the battlefield. With the increased power and speed, now was the perfect time to attack.

But he had something else in mind.

He darted towards the rest of his group. The barrier was about to crack, but now that he was here, he could actually do something about it.

Instead of directly empowering the barrier though, he chose to empower his friends.

James sacrificed his health not once, not twice, but six whole times.

Even with his now much more powerful body, that many sacrifices in quick succession left him woozy. But he could take it, and he knew it would be worth it.

The group’s auras immediately skyrocketed. They even seemed to rival Garantep’s auras now, the Darkness in the surroundings suddenly seeming much less oppressive.

Instantly, the teetering barrier was healed of all its cracks as the Dwarves’ empowered skills flowed through it. It grew even bigger than before, its white color getting brighter and brighter even among the ocean of Darkness around it.

The empowered Emilia began firing crowd control spells by the dozen, managing to stun the clones that were attacking Helios.

The empowered Lunaris began empowering the others with her own abilities. Since no one was really damaged except James from his own sacrifices, she was casting buffs with one hand and healing James with the other. Each time one of her buffs hit someone, they looked even more energetic, as if an adrenaline shot had been injected right into their bloodstream.

Despite being woozy from the sacrifices, the barrier and his friends were safe now. The checkmate had been averted.

But that wasn’t all. After so many sacrifices, James was now supercharged by [Reckless Abandon].

Suddenly, his world turned red. The only things that weren’t red were the 32 peculiar blobs of Darkness that were striking at his friends. But for some reason, through his crimson sight, they didn’t even seem like living beings.