With their first attacks, James and Helios took what looked like a thousand demons. It was a great start, but now the battle of attrition had begun. They’d have to kill at least ten times as many demons, without the luxury of having time to prepare big attacks beforehand.

Even though the demon hordes were so numerous that the amount they killed already seemed to have been replaced by another wave of demons, their first success did give them hope. If they could kill a thousand, they could kill ten, twenty, or thirty thousand.

Compared to their experiences in the Soul Grinder, this even seemed too easy. Unusually easy, hundreds of demons died like flies.

The demon horde quickly approached the tree Helios and James were perched on. The demons that couldn’t cast ranged spells were scurrying up the tree, while the others began their bombardment.

“I’ll take care of the ones close by. You deal with the ranged ones.” Helios said, gripping his sabres tightly.

There was no time for more strategizing, the enemies were already here. Helios immediately dropped halfway down the tree and placed himself firmly in the middle. Being on the tree limited the amount of enemies that could get to him at a time, and with his two sabres he’d be able to block anything trying to get past him.

To avoid the ranged demons from striking at him too, Helios stuck to the side of the tree that was facing the mountain, perched on the sturdiest branch he could find. And just in case some cunning demon would slip by, he covered the tree around him in a thick layer of slippery ice.

Even though the tree was incredibly tall, it didn’t take long for the demons to reach Helios. The humanoid demons were bombarding James with spells, while the snarling beasts were leaping onto the tree, rushing at Helios.

“Come and get it!” Helios shouted. The seemingly juvenile taunt was imbued with mana, enraging the beasts, making them recklessly attack him without sparing a thought towards their own safety.

He swung his sabres at the first demon to reach him, cutting its head off with one strike.

But instead of the headless demon falling off the tree, it leapt at Helios, scratching him with its claws. Only after Helios struck it again, slashing its heart in two, the demon finally fell to the ground.

“Now that was unexpected. These shits are much sturdier than the ones we killed before.” Helios thought.

It seemed like the first wave were more or less bait. Pawns to be sacrificed. And now the real demons were attacking.

The scratch hurt like hell, the residual Darkness from the strike was burning his flesh like acid. Helios quickly tried to heal the wound, but another two demons leapt at him before he could finish.

Not about to make the same mistake again, Helios launched a series of strikes with his sabres, not stopping until the demons’ bodies were already falling.

He then finished healing his wound, but mere seconds later, another wave of demons reached him. He looked down and there was already a long line of demons leaping at the tree, climbing much faster than he anticipated.

“Time to adapt.”

With all his might, Helios pushed his feet through the sturdy tree, then firmly embedding himself into the tree with a layer of earth holding him firmly planted into the tree.

Helios increased his attack power and accuracy by not having to balance on a branch anymore, but it also made it impossible for him to retreat or dodge. He didn’t plan to, though. He wasn’t letting anything pass through to James.

His timing was just right, because the next wave of demons were already advancing, and they looked even more vicious than the ones before. Like rabid hyenas, they jumped at Helios simultaneously, their fangs and claws dripping with Darkness.

Helios knew he had to be really careful not to be touched by them at all, a few more scratches like that and there wouldn’t be anything left of him to heal. But since he couldn’t dodge, his offense would have to become his defense.

In a way, not having to worry about dodging or blocking felt liberating. He could focus entirely on evaporating the snarling beasts.

He was reluctant to do it right away because he didn’t want to burn the tree down, but he unleashed a small, localized inferno near his sabres, immediately absorbing it into the swords.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The sabres were now white-hot with his conjured flames, but he had to be careful. The tree was resistant, but if he was too inefficient with his strikes, he could easily burn it down.

With a single slash of his sabres, he sent down a wave of fire that killed three demons in one go.

But it also set the tree on fire. Helios now had to sacrifice some mana to conjure a wave of water to extinguish the tree.

Undiscouraged by the deaths of their fellow demons, the next demons leapt at Helios without hesitation. He dealt with them just as swiftly, a single wave of his sword was enough to kill several demons. The demons kept leaping without worry about their own safety. Helios would deal with them with a single slash of his sabres, but he had to keep casting waves of water to extinguish the tree.

As an added effect, the steam from when he extinguished the fires was a powerful enough barrier for a few moments to stop the demons in their tracks. But the flames and the steam were visibly weakening the tree.

For now, his plan seemed to be working. As soon as any demons got in range, they were immediately burned down. However, even though the tree was thick and sturdy, he didn’t know how long it would resist his continuous burnings. They’d have to abandon the tree soon, and yet the battle seemed to be far from over. It looked like with every demon he killed, ten more took its place.

Meanwhile, James was having a much more frenzied battle.

While the beast demons that only had melee attacks could only strike at Helios several at a time, the humanoid demons were bombarding James all together.

It started with a few spells, but as more and more demons were arriving, their numbers multiplied till James was being struck with hundreds of spells a second.

There was no way to dodge. Helios had given him his shield to block the spells, but that wouldn’t work for very long. There were just too many of them.

At first, James had been responding in kind, throwing out as many saws as he could into the horde of demons. But as the bombardment intensified, he was left hiding under the shield, not daring to expose even an inch of himself to those corrosive spells.

Unfortunately, Helios’s shield wasn’t immune to the Darkness. It was quickly corroding as well. James knew that it wouldn’t take long until the shield was as useful as a paper towel.

“My friends’ lives are depending on this as well. I need to shape up.” James encouraged himself.

He knew he had to use his awakening powers. He didn’t really try the limits of his ability before, since it hurt so much to get himself to low enough health for it to truly take effect. But now he was forced to use it.

[Reckless Abandon]. Potentially his most useful skill, but one that he dreaded to even try. It was supposed to make him much stronger as he was lower on HP, even reducing his reaction time. But he never tested the true limits of this ability.

James closed his eyes for a second. He knew the pain would be so great he’d remember it forever. But as he closed his eyes, he saw the faces of Lunaris and Helios. Their lives were on the line too, so he knew he had to do this. Seeing their faces in his mind, he stopped hesitating.

“Chaos Barrier!” James shouted.

The thousands of demons snarling and throwing spells were so loud that one couldn’t hear much else. But even through all that, Helios heard him.

Helios knew that if James resorted to using the barrier, which caused him so much pain, it meant things weren’t going well. He almost rushed to assist him, he hated knowing James was in danger. But he couldn’t ignore the waves of demons that were climbing the tree like ants. They were interminable, he couldn’t leave his post for even a second.

By casting Chaos Barrier, James sacrificed most of his health. He could’ve sacrificed much less, but he knew the situation called for extreme measures. He sacrificed so much health he was one hit away from being dead.

He felt woozy for a second, his head was spinning. The pain was unbearable, his whole body was shaking. It felt as if every part of him was put through a meat grinder, and once the meat was grinded, it was put through the grinder again.

He couldn’t focus on anything, he could barely stand up.

Helios’s shield was to his side, corroded to the point it was useless.

He was too woozy and confused to see what was happening. All he could see was red, as if his eyes were filled with blood.

But a while later, he slowly came to. When his vision slowly came back into focus, he saw hundreds of spells in the air. Every second there seemed to be more and more spells coming right at him, the sky was full of dark spells, all targeting him.

But even as he saw them strike him, he didn’t feel anything.

When he fully recovered his senses, James finally saw what was happening.

He found himself behind a very thick barrier of crimson that was covering his whole body. The spells would hit it, but they would have no effect on the barrier.

He had sacrificed so much health to the point he almost died, more health than he dared sacrifice in training, but it ended up creating a barrier like no other.

The whole world seemed crimson from inside the barrier. But that wasn’t what surprised him.

Everything seemed like it was in slow-motion. The spells that were fast as lightning took forever to reach him.

Through the chaos of battle, the tree’s leaves had been fluttering uncontrollably. But now they looked perfectly still. James had to stare at them for what felt like several moments before the leaves shifted every so slightly.

Even though the pain of sacrificing so much health was gut-wrenching, the reward was worth it. Even with hundreds of spells being launched at him, James could have easily dodge all of them if he needed to. He didn’t even need SARM for it. And yet, he didn’t even need to dodge them, since the barrier was absorbing the hits effortlessly.

However, the time-slowing effects of [Reckless Abandon] quickly started fading away.

But his barrier still remained, even after absorbing so many spells. Now that he knew what he could gain, sacrificing his health suddenly became a much more appealing option.

Even with the pain stabbing at every nerve in his body, he felt stronger than he ever had before.