Sam could tell by now when the Overlord was about to farm some Dao energy, and this seemed like one of those times. As a dozen fighters dove at him at once, he simply slipped through their attacks, moving as if they were in slow motion. His hand descended a dozen times in a fraction of a second, and seven heads fell to the ground. Some of them had been quick enough to escape, but most had not. Dao energy poured into the man in a waterfall of crimson as he continued to wreak havoc among the beings that to him were no better than ants.
Sam closed the distance between himself and the enemy at a more sedate pace, with Glakassa by his side. The woman seemed a bit put out to be standing next to a being so much greater than her on the field of battle, and her steps were faltering.
Sam flashed her a quick smile, trying to reassure her. All it seemed to do was make it look like he had no qualms at all about the battle, further propelling him into a realm of monstrous potency in her eyes.
A few E Rank mages sent bolts of energy and other forms of exotic attacks towards the woman, seeing her, rightfully, as the weakest of the Raid Boss trio. That meant little, considering that she was far stronger than everyone else here.
A wall of ice appeared before her, stopping the attacks in their tracks. Then, icicles exploded outwards, slicing through the air towards the challengers. While she was technically a water mage, it was easier to use ice for long range strikes.
The four mages raised their palms, centering shields of energy before themselves. The shields rotated in the air, but before they could do much, the icicles blasted through them, reducing the magical constructs to shards. Then the mages were reduced to shards in turn, pieces of frozen flesh flying as the icicles detonated on contact.
Then the bulk of the challengers were upon them, and everything devolved into a blood soaked melee. Sam’s hammer rose and fell like the gavel of a god, meting out justice upon those who opposed him. He tried to slow down so as to allow those with the inclination to surrender to do so, but he knew that anyone who still fought was fully willing to kill him if they could. He was not yet at the level of strength that these fighters posed no threat. If he let them, they could absolutely kill him. It was simply very unlikely. A similar scenario would be a toddler with a knife fighting a grown man. Although one was far more likely to win, the other could still inflict fatal damage.
Therefore, Sam tried not to feel excessive guilt about those who fell to his hammer or energy attacks, as they had chosen their fate, as surely as if they had launched themselves into the void of outer space.
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Sam frowned. Perhaps that was not such a good analogy anymore. After all, E Rankers could easily survive in the cold between the stars, having no need for air and too much durability for the cold to take effect.
Nevertheless, essence began to pour into him, in significant amounts. Even though the majority of his opponents surrendered, those that were left were generally those who considered their prospects to be good enough to defeat him. In other words, the strongest of them.
His level began to noticeably change as he blazed a trail of ruin through the lines of his foes. As he went, he realized that even those who surrendered were providing him with a small amount of essence. It was less than normal, but it still added up. The amount of essence from an average E Rank sapient was enough to propel somebody to the peak of G Rank in an instant, and a good ways into F Rank as well. It certainly showed just how different life was as an E Ranker that he had to kill hundreds of such beings to even gain a level.
Against such weak enemies, his other skills hardly received much in terms of improvement. His Weapon Mastery had stagnated since his time with Gordanus, as there had been little opportunity to train it. He was stronger than everyone else in his faction, and as such had nobody to fight against. He needed another training token, but he knew that such a thing would never come.
Sam tried to train somewhat, but he quickly gave up after realizing that it was basically impossible to gain anything while fighting people that he could kill in a single strike. There was little danger of death, which was the main driver of mastery. In addition, the massive bonus that he had gained to his elemental energy from the natural treasure he had used earlier in the Tower made it extremely hard for him to train that either. 15 percent might not have seemed like a lot, but on an exponential scale, it meant quite a bit. He could feel the difference in his attacks at a profound level. Although none of his skills had changed, they were far different now than they had ever been before in terms of power.
Sam watched the Overlord as the man butchered his way through his opponents in the flashiest way possible. As he did so, a vortex of Dao energy sucked in all of the ambient power aligned with his Dao. The man’s body glowed like the sun, and continued to grow in brightness with every kill he made, or every surrender he forced.
Eventually, his body reached a point of saturation, and he was forced to loose his energy into his next strike. With a roar, he slammed his fist down into the ground before him. Cracks spread out from the impact point, rapidly filling with reddish energy. Then the land beneath him, for miles in every direction, exploded upwards. A wave of red, looking more like an aurora than anything else, streaked up towards the sky, atomizing everything within its path. Curtains of scarlet danced as the Overlord seized control over the attack, sending it even further afield.