As soon as he heard the cracks in his barrier, James realized he was dealing with a whole new kind of enemy. This Garantep was nothing like the 32 from before.

He wasn’t alone in this fight though. He had used Chaotic Healing on his friends, so they had his back for now.

A barrage of vines, imps, runes and arrows were intercepting some of the crescent blades attacking his barrier. Helios was directly attacking Garantep from behind, while Lunaris was healing James, allowing him to sacrifice some more of his health.

But as valiant as their efforts were, James knew that they wouldn’t be able to do much. He could feel the weight of these attacks, they were hundreds of times heavier than anything he had ever experienced before.

James began dodging, but making sure not to move too far away. He couldn’t let Garantep switch targets. He’d definitely attack him as long as he was the closest target, but if he flung himself with SARM too far away, Garantep would inevitably capitalize on the opportunity.

But with the help of his friends who intercepted half of incoming attacks, giving him the breathing room he needed to dodge, he had the time to activate several instances of [Reckless Abandon]. Between five casts of Chaos Barrier on himself, and a Chaotic Healing buff for every single one of his teammates, he had sacrificed his HP so many times that he reached speeds he hadn’t ever experienced before.

It was almost like he was teleporting forward in time. He’d think something, and before he even fully formed the thought, his body already completed the action.

He extended his hands, and in under 10 seconds, fifty Javelins had been spawned.

He launched them at Garantep with no hesitation. They shrieked through the air as rocketed towards their target who defiantly didn’t even seem to have cast a protective spell.

The earth shook with each impact. Without feeding mana into their eyes, it would’ve been impossibly for anybody to see anything through the blinding energies violently swirling about. The shockwaves alone were enough to create large cracks in the ground. A vortex of crimson flames was spinning at the center of those explosions, each one adding to its intensity.

And Garantep was right in the middle of that inferno.

But instead of hitting Garantep directly, a thin, dark bubble revealed itself. With each explosion, a several thin cracks appeared. But instead of the cracks adding up and breaking the barrier, Garantep raised his hands, and they healed right away.

Each consecutive explosion formed dozens of cracks, but they were healed within moments.

“You didn’t think you were the only one with a barrier, did you?” Garantep licked his lips.

Fifty whole empowered Javelins did nothing. James didn’t think that he’d end things that easily, but he couldn’t hide his surprise that they seemingly did absolutely nothing.

“You’re not alone in this, brother!” Helios shouted as a flash of blue light exploded from him. A wave of blue fire enveloped Garantep.

Helios’s patented blue fire began consuming the barrier, growing bigger by the second as it was absorbing the very energies that were supposed to constitute the barrier.

“Please, I only have patience for one pest at a time.” Garantep chortled. He waved his hand, and a dark gust of wind swept over the inferno.

The fires waned, but they weren’t snuffed out. Instead, the barrier cracked.

“Oh? I suppose you’re not as trash as I assumed. No matter though.”

The barrier cracked again. But Garantep began waving his hands over and over again, a veritable tornado of dark energy spawning over himself.

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Helios was flung away from the sheer force of the storm, and even James could barely keep his footing by anchoring himself with mana.

But as quickly as it appeared, the tornado vanished. And the fires were gone along with it, Garantep’s barrier looking like it hadn’t even been scratched.

A dozen of Garantep’s crescent blades flew towards Helios. He dodged and blocked, but their speed was much higher than what the clones were capable of. This Garantep was not the same enemy as before.

Three crescents successfully struck him. His shield instantly broke in half by the first, the second slashed his chest armor open, but the third hit him in right the chest. He spat out blood, his whole chest having turned numb right away.

“Helios, join the group under their barrier.” James shouted.

Helios wanted to protest, but he knew James was right. This was an enemy that belonged to a different realm. No matter how tough he was as a tank, that hit convinced him that he’d only be a burden. He had to help from afar.

Helios dashed towards safety. The dwarves reoriented most of their efforts towards maintaining the barrier with Denmac, having sensed the power behind Garantep’s attacks.

Emilia and Helios would remain the only ones who could focus entirely on offense. Emilia was continuously shooting her crowd control arrows at Garantep, and Helios was already conjuring fireballs he could lob at him.

Lunaris’s butterflies, and some of the dwarves’ runes, vines and imps were still pestering Garantep. They weren’t having much of an effect other than the tiny, almost imperceptible cracks that were fixed instantly still could be sensed on his barrier. It wasn’t much, but any little bit helped.

It was up to James to do more. Now it was basically a one on one with this monster.

Garantep’s hundreds of crescent blades seemed to have stopped. Instead of bombarding James with them, they all began melding together.

In mere seconds, one huge, crescent blade as tall as Garantep himself had formed.

“Let’s see you dodge this one.” Garantep smiled as he grabbed the blade.

James could see where this was going. He didn’t want to enter a game of cat and mouse, not with this guy.

But if he put too much distance between them, Garantep would just attack his friends. The power of that crescent blade was enough to make his skin crawl just looking at it, and it was only growing in power with each second as Garantep was feeding it his energy.

He had to avoid getting hit by that at all costs. But since he had to stay at a relatively close range, his options were limited.

Garantep lunged at him. James dodged, but with another dash forward from Garantep, the blade seemed to expand, reaching inches away from James’s face.

Even though some of the effects of [Reckless Abandon] were still on him, James noticed that Garantep’s speed was still increasing.

James realized right away that he couldn’t keep dodging like this. He could renew the effects of [Reckless Abandon], but he needed more than just that.

He needed something that would help both defensively and offensively. Something that would allow him to block and attack.

Looking at the peculiar crescent in Garantep’s hands, James suddenly smiled.

“Monkey see, monkey do.” He closed his eyes for a brief second, images of skills and spells flashing through his mind.

Garantep was able to conjure such a formidable weapon because of his incredibly large reserves of energy. And he was constantly pushing even more energy into it, increasing its power and size at will. For anyone else, that would be an incredibly prohibitive expenditure.

For anyone else other than James, that is.

Garantep was slashing at him, James barely dodging by just inches every time.

But he had a plan. He sacrificed his HP and conjured his Chaos Barrier five times, even though the wooziness from the consecutive sacrifices was risky, especially since Garantep was relentlessly slashing at him with the giant weapon.

A slash almost grazed him while he wobbled from wooziness, but SARM managed to push him out of the way.

But now that he had renewed the effects of [Reckless Abandon], James could finally implement his strategy.

He began conjuring Javelins. His increased speed and SARM were allowing him to dodge Garantep’s slashes while conjuring.

“Oh no you don’t.” Garantep smiled. With the next slash, a wave of dark energy shot towards James.

Immediately, several cracks were formed on James’s barrier.

Garantep began weaving waves of energy into his attacks. With SARM and [Reckless Abandon], James was able to dodge some, but several were landing nonetheless.

His five times empowered Chaos Barrier was cracking more and more.

But he wasn’t stalling with his hands in his pockets. While dodging relentlessly, he was continuously conjuring Javelins, most of his attention focused on that despite the frenzied onslaught he was facing.

Luckily, his friends were pelting Garantep with everything they had, even managing to block some dark waves that were about to hit James. Lunaris’s healing alone was doing wonders, which would allow him to sacrifice his HP even more times in the future.

The Chaos Barrier was still steadily cracking though. However, he was able to cast Javelins almost without stop.

Mere seconds passed, but under the onslaught they felt like an eternity. But James had already conjured two hundred Javelins.