Three hours passed on the battlefield, and to the Hollow Demonling’s surprise, the fighting only intensified.

The humans had indeed been put at a disadvantage when the great horn sounded, most of them – the weaker ones, Arlosse had noticed – pushed to retreat to safety. However, while rallying around powerful human warriors whom the Demonling heard being called Tenet Commanders, the human forces found their footing once again and charged, ripping the frenzied demons to pieces with clever formations.

Arlosse had watched without openly engaging for a while. He needed to learn more about the nature of this conflict. What was the Shard his fellow abomination had referenced? What were the staves issuing the golden beams of light?

While trying to figure these things out, Arlosse had used Reform to heal the wound on his back, which, thanks to his ability to not bleed out – which was further reinforced by the recently earned 225 points to his Spirit Essence – hadn’t caused problems too great for him.

Unfortunately, while he healed that wound, he didn’t manage to fix the fact that the poison which had slithered into his body through it was still roaming his bloodstream. This fell out of Reform’s capabilities, it seemed, after all, it wasn’t exactly practical to target every single bit of his flesh and blood; Arlosse had discovered earlier that when it came to living things, Reform couldn’t heal their entirety at once.

Still, the Incarnate had healed some of the other major wounds on his body, such as the one on his side where the Fickle Viper had stabbed him while in Kadyas’ hands, and some of the nasty stabs it had delivered.

Far from being a victory, the Incarnate had been forced to use his other Far Ji, the Hermetic Vault to store two particularly quick arrows that had soared towards his head, nearly killing him when he was scrutinizing the activity on the battlefield. Just like that, Arlosse had lost another open slot to store items today (he had stored that one bolt of lightning that had nearly blown off his leg earlier) and now, only three remained.

Doing investigative work while on the battlefield was tricky and risky, but Arlosse’s patience and hard work, most of it learned from knowing to fight smarter rather than harder when you were clearly weaker than your opponents, had paid off somewhat.

He found out, through some screaming humans fighting to protect those whom they called Clerics, that the beams of light were called the Abundant Radiance. Or was it that they were derived from the Abundance Radiance? Arlosse didn’t hear it clearly.

They only lasted for roughly an hour before needing to be recharged. If a demon got too close, they would be destroyed instantly. Arlosse had been stunned when a rather large snake demon with many heads growing from its back like the protrusions from a spine, so mad that it couldn’t help it, had charged into the light only to turn to dry ash that was swept away by the wind.

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It was horrifying.

Other than this detail, Arlosse learned something else, though it was far removed from things he wished to know about this Floor in particular.

When a powerful human had sneaked up on him an hour ago, bearing quite a suppressive shroud of dark silver Spirit Essence, the Host Guide had responded to his (the human warrior) murmurings about his reserves of Spirit Essence and shown him the human’s status!

Indeed, Arlosse could use the Host Guide to see the name, race, and physical attributes of other living creatures, but only just that.

Of course, it wasn’t as convenient as checking the properties of non-living objects. It took a few moments for the Host Guide to produce the result for whatever reason, as the Demonling came to understand. He had wondered why the Host Guide didn’t tell him he could do this but recalled that the tablet never told him he could check the attributes of physical objects either. Perhaps this was a use for the Host Guide that only manifested after it acknowledged him.

That said, one of the questions Arlosse had had since he acquired the Hermetic Vault was answered.

While checking the value for Spirit Essence for different warriors, human, and demon, he found that his 225 points were not, in fact, too outlandish, at least when measuring them against the stronger foes he had met.

It was safe to say that Arlosse, in terms of Spirit Essence, was not kin to the riffraff, something his complete decimation of weaker soldiers earlier had already displayed. This warmed the Incarnate’s heart.

Currently, the Incarnate was hiding behind one of the rocky protrusions in this desert, roughly four meters tall. They were strewn about this section of the desert, though many were being toppled over by the fierce battles.

‘Is it just me or has the sun’s heat gotten worse?’ Arlosse thought.

The sun was still blazing overhead, scorching everything beneath it mercilessly. It worked especially well on the thousands of corpses lying on the ground, making their smell even more atrocious. Demons and humans had started falling like flies ever since the Boorish Frenzy was incited, after all.

Arlosse peeked from behind the large rock to look at the chaotic fighting. He still wasn’t sure how he was to approach this Floor. If the Second Floor worked like the First, then there were three stages and this was the first. What was he supposed to do here? How was he to earn his ten Incarnation Points?

A cold breeze suddenly bashed against Arlosse’s face, sprinkling bits of snow.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” the Demonling heard a cold, distant laugh, and something flew over him, smashed through an erect rock pillar ten meters away, and continued to hurtle far at breakneck speed!

Whatever it was, was the source of the chill Arlosse had just felt, and the glimpse that the Hollow Demonling managed of it made him realize that it was the large, white horse he had seen three hours ago, atop it, a hulking human warrior!

Arlosse remembered being frightened by the sight of this human and his steed. He couldn’t imagine just who had sent him and his steed flying across the battlefield.

From what he could see, the fallen warrior and his horse were immediately set upon by dozens of demons, all of whom seemed quite powerful.

Most of them aimed for the hulking warrior while he was down. He didn’t look good. He had a nasty gash across his chest which cut through his armor, revealing bloodied, sandy-toned skin. This was what motivated the demons.

Unfortunately, the demons’ dismissal of the fatally wounded warrior’s steed was a grave mistake. The great horse whinnied vengefully and chilling frost spewed from its mouth like baleful clouds, large chunks of sharpened ice forming in it and speeding to puncture its rider’s enemies.

Large glaciers were then formed as soon as the demons either retreated or were killed, walling off the horse and its rider protectively while more demons surged, cackling and readying their attacks.

Arlosse’s eyes shone.

He couldn’t help but think…

‘What a loyal steed...’

Indeed, it was.