As Sam's chuckle faded, he steeled himself for what lay ahead.

And as expected, El's relentless magic missiles had paused. Even though that's the case, the air still crackled with the tension of imminent danger.

Sam took a deep breath, focusing on the beating rhythm of his heart and the grounding sensation beneath his feet.

"Relax, Sam. Trust your instincts and rely on me to spot what you can't see." Kaya voice echoed in his mind, providing a strange sense of comfort.

"Alright, here goes nothing." He muttered, diving into the fray once more.

El hovered a short distance away, his completely white eyes looks cold and eerie. "Ho? Looks like I don't need to go after you after all. Are you done saying your final goodbye?" He said, raising his staff once more.

When the first magic missile erupted from one of the circles, Kaya's voice rang in his mind.

"Get down!"

Sam ducked and rolled on the ground, feeling the searing hit of the projectile whizz past his ear.

"Left! Jump!"

Kaya's commands were precise, allowing Sam to narrowly evade each attack. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins for the umpteenth times today, heightening his senses. With each successful dodge, he felt more confident and calm.

"Right!"

Sam threw himself to the side, once again narrowly dodging attack. This time, the magic missile exploded upon impact with the ground.

Boom!!

The force of the blast sent him skidding across the ground, but he quickly regained his footing.

'Looks like this is gonna be a pain in the ass' Sam thought.

"Behind you, Sam!"

Sam immediately spun around on his heel, barely ducking under the shadowy tendril that lashed out at him like a whip. He then rolled forward, coming up into a crouch and raising his rifle to fire a burst of bullets at El. Each shot were aimed as accurately as possible to his vital spot.

El dodge the bullets barrage with ease, the bullets missing him entirely and disappearing into the dark distance. El countered with another wave of shadow grasp, except it's not shadow tendril this time, but a bunch of shadowy human hands coming out of the grounds frantically moving around through the air toward Sam, desperately trying to grab him.

"Jump! Jump!" Kaya's command was urgent immediate.

Sam leaped into the air with all the strength his legs could offer, avoiding the Shadow hands that wrapped and coiled around where he had just stood. He then landed hard to the ground, feeling the strain in his muscles from overexerting and constantly reacting to Kaya's warnings without any delay.

'Damn, what the hell? How did she saw that shadow bullshit coming in this kind of environment? Sam thought.

"What a futile attempt," El sneered, his voice echoing in the air. "You're merely delaying the inevitable, human."

The fight drags on, seconds turned to minutes that stretching into what feels like an eternity amidst the constant dodging from the relentless attack. The darkness inside El's domain felt suffocating, Sam didn't know there's going to be a time where he really missed the moonlight. The absence of light heightens the sense of isolation and approaching death.

In the entire fight Kaya's eyes never leave El, tracking his every movement no matter how small it is as she anticipating his next move.

"Sam! Behind!"

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Unfortunately, for some reason Sam didn't react at all when she warned him. A magic missile hit Sam straight in the back and exploded, it then sent him sprawling across the ground.

Sam's combat uniform had a massive hole behind his back, the spot that had been hit by the magic missile is now bleeding from a bunch of big and tiny wounds resembling scratches.

"Fuck! That hurts!" Sam curses under his breath.

His eyes went wide open as his danger sense flared up once again, he quickly rolled to the side. Soon after, he saw a magic missile exploded in the spot where he had been before.

"What the-? Why the hell didn't Kaya warned me?" Sam muttered in confusion.

Unfortunately, Sam didn't have the luxury on thinking about this as another batch of magic missiles is coming straight at him again. He swiftly sprang up and began to run around in an unpredictable pattern, he called this,

”I don't know what the fuck i'm doing, but i'm sure as hell don't have the slightest intention to get hit by those bullshit missiles again.”

Just like that, he did everything he could and hope for the best to not get killed and shitting himself for about the next 10 minutes.

El still hovered in the air as he saw Sam suddenly changes his tactics on dodging his attack like a complete clown, he raised on of his eyebrows and said, "What is that human doing? Why is he making all sort of weird poses?"

To be fair, El is not the only one who seemed to be a bit puzzled and bewildered by Sam's way of dodging. Inside Jason protective dome, the three of them is currently in the middle of heated arguments as they watched Sam running around and do some weird moves to dodge the magic missile like twirling in the air like a ballerina, bridging, and he even did the worm moves!

Although it looks completely ridiculous, everyone including El couldn't deny the fact that Sam succeeded on dodging every single magic missiles thrown at him.

In the beginning of the fight, Sam couldn't even dodge with ease if not for Kaya helping him as his second eyes. But now, he's dodging every attack like a pro even though he did it in a weird way. As time goes on, it can be seen clearly that Sam is getting better and smoother executing his every moves.

Inside the protective dome.

A moment after Kaya unable to communicate with Sam via telepathically, a little chaos immediately erupt.

Kaya smashed a small circular token against the protective wall in frustration, completely shattering it to pieces.

The thing she destroyed is an object that enables her to communicate with Sam telepathically. When Kaya used it, she didn't know it has a time limit since it was something she obtained by chance way back before she evolved her class. Unfortunately, now she just remembered it as a communication device of some sort and somehow forgot the time limit on it upon use, it's either that or she just didn't read the item description well enough.

After she explained what happened to Gabby and Jason, the response she received was not good. Gabby scolded her, saying how can she made such a stupid mistake like that in a life and death situation. On the other hand, Jason was torn between on keeping the protective dome or just deactivate it and rush toward Sam to help. Everytime he considered to just screw it all, Sam's previous words echoes inside his head telling him to get a grip.

The three of them debating whether to help Sam or not. Gabby is the most vocal about rushing in to help Sam, she didn't want to just watch him die from his sister unfortunate blunder. She's sure if Sam were to die, Kaya's mental will definitely take a heavy blow. Her sister mental was already shaken enough by the stormbringers incident, she didn't need anymore trauma added into her mind. Meanwhile, Kaya and Jason was unexpectedly the least vocal about all of this.

Kaya kept her head down in silence and repeatedly tapping her feet on the ground as she chewing on her finger nail due to her emotion turmoil inside of her. Anyone could see that she's stressed out, possibly feeling guilty toward Sam.

Jason was listening to Gabby about rushing in to support Sam, she explained to Jason as detailed as possible that Sam will die if they continue to just sit around on their ass like this. Everything Gabby just said was completely reasonable, he couldn't deny that it's nothing more than a true cold hard fact. But even with all that, Jason still can't afford fulfill her request. He wanted to jump in and help Sam, he really do, but this time even if he felt like shit he decided to trust Sam once again like he did before back when he left Sam's alone fighting the mage called Yu in the forest.

Gabby obviously infuriated by Jason who gave her a lackluster answer such as just trust in Sam, she could do that if it were a normal case but this is far from normal. Sam is fighting the literal monster who killed every stormbringers members including the elites with ease, and the one who launch a disgustingly huge magic missile attack that could obliterate anyone.

When she's about to rant to Jason she saw Sam running around in a weird and unpredictable manner, he then proceed to dodge every attacks almost perfectly in the last second before impact. Seeing this, Gabby stay silent for a moment and fell in deep thought. After thinking it through, with a long sigh she decided to follow Jason and trust Sam on this one.

10 minutes later...

Gabby said, "Damn, I felt cheated. Look at that guy, while we're worrying about him he danced around those magic missile like they're water bullets or something."

She continued and asked, "So.. Should we help him or what?"

"I... don't know, seeing him moves around with ease like that I feel kinda conflicted." Jason replied hesitantly.

Kaya stood still in complete silent, her amber eyes never leave Sam even for a second. No one knows what she's thinking about at the moment, but if one were to look closely they'll see a small smile of relief on her face.