16 hours and 15 minutes later....

Noah leaned on Omni in spear form for support, as he violently coughed out a mouthful of blood. His prided Goblin Lord's Hauberk had the indentation of a massive, inhuman fist in the center, his exposed back had four arrows sticking out of it that he was too exhausted to remove, his left eye socket badly swollen to the point where Noah could barely open his eye.

Omni let out a shrill cry that was a mix of sorrow and anger at her own limitations, the confused reaction of a familiar who was forced to see her master systematically and relentlessly being ground down to dust.

Noah's arms were a mesh of light wounds, long, but shallow lacerations among other small perfortations. His hauberk was hanging together by threads, it's self repair ability desparately trying to keep pace with the massive amount of damage that had been inflicted upon it. Three large claw marks were carved out into his back, fresh blood oozing out of his wounds every few seconds. The ligaments in his right ankle were partially torn, and his boots were reduced to rags by this point.

A small dagger lay embedded in his left thigh, continually causing blood loss and draining at his vitality. He'd tried to pull it out, but Liam had dissuaded him from such an action- the damn dagger was an Artifact, one of common rarity, but even then- if Noah pulled it out, he would, without a doubt, die.

The first wave with Samain as it's leader had just been a probe, the first fight instilling him with a confidence he should have never walked into this fight with. The second wave, thankfully, had no Primordial Spirit user hidden among the challengers. The second group was considerably more well-armed, organized and cautious, but his actions did have a definite effect- The mere act of requiring a second wave to deal with one, puny, human in itself indicated that this mission undersold the difficulty- only 30 challengers daring to show up.

Noah had made quick work of the challengers, but one of them was concealing an common artifact that could temporarily seal his movements for 5 seconds, a wand that projected a black bolt of lightning- If not for Liam's warning, things could have gone south very easily.

The third wave had a strength based Primordial Spirit come after him, a bipedal bull that looked like a minotaur from Greek Folklore. Noah had immediately created distance between him and the 10 meter tall bull, but it was only then he realized that every challenger was carrying the same, harpoon-like weapon in their hands. Noah didn't understand what was happening until one of the challengers passed the harpoon to the Primordial Spirit, who used it's tremendous upper body strength to hurl it in his direction accompanied by the sound of a sharp object tearing through the air, a perfect javelin throw.

Noah had once again defaulted to the [Mirror Shield of Reflection] and the shield held... but the impact of the throw sent him flying for a dozen meters. From then on it was a game of tag, except the method used to tag Noah was harpoons thrown at mach speed and enough strength to cause him to explode. After a good fifteen minutes of dancing between life and death, Noah told Omni to transform into the [Longbow of Frostfire], as he pulled the leftover [Arrow of Piercing] to shoot an arrow right through the Minotaur's large, beady left eye and into hopefully where his grey matter lied. The shot was only possible due to his own dexterity, the longbow's passive and Liam's guidance, an impossible shot that caused silence to reign on the battlefield as the bulky minotaur collapsed to the ground with a loud bam!

Like an enraged madman, Noah swapped to the normal arrows that came with the infinity quiver and started raining down arrows on the twenty five odd challengers that kept passing on harpoons to the damn minotaur. His aim was directed at non-lethal spots like the arm, leg, knee or even hand, with intention to inflict the same pain they dared to inflict on him.

That was all the time he had to vent however, as the next wave was enroute. This wave would hopefully only be limited to challengers, but Noah had no guarantee that they would stick to that strategy.

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Fight. Run. Fight. Run. Get nigh fatally injured. Run. Heal. Fight.

For the next sixteen hours and fifteen minutes, Noah first hand got to experience what hell was. There were no breaks for him, no respite from the endless deluge of people who unfairly wished to kill him, the only reward he would get for fighting was more fighting. He couldn't level up past 10, so there was no way for him to get stronger. It was an endless cycle of misery, one he couldn't escape no matter what he tried or where he ran.

The fourth wave, thankfully, didn't contain a Primordial Spirit user. But Noah almost screamed in frustration as he realized by this point the twenty odd challengers who faced him were perfectly armed in a set of common equipment, common weapon and common side-weapon. He realized that they didn't need to change their strategy, all they had to do was keep maintaining the pressure until he made a mistake.

"This is because of me, isn't it? I-I'm sorry," Omni's sobbing voice echoed in Noah's voice, causing a wave of rage so pure, so unrestrained, and so unfamilar to flow through him that it made Noah wish to raze the entire second floor to a pile of dust.

Facing the challengers, Noah screamed with frustration as Omni transformed into a gauntleted fist, a common weapon as he ran into the crowd without intention to hold back his punches. Making a child apologise for her existence, in Noah's eyes there was no greater crime.

To their credit, this group stayed their ground as an enraged Noah charged without any inhibitions. One brave man stepped forward with a shield to block, or make him change directions, but he just punched the shield in his fury, not thinking clearly.

The man screamed, followed by a snapping sound that was absolutely horrific to the surrounding challengers, blasting into a swordsman behind him for dozens of meters. In a flurry of motion, Noah tore through the challengers with one vicious punch after the other- he still had enough sense to restrict himself to fracturing their arms or legs, injuries that could be healed via potion, but to those facing him he was nothing less than an enraged god of war that only brought destruction wherever he went.

Each fight was only a waiting ground for the next.

The fifth wave.

The Tenth wave.

The fifteenth wave.

The more Noah fought, the better he got at conserving his energy. But the more he fought, the more of his trump cards were gone.

Infinity Quiver, all seven sets gone.

Pseudo-Primordial Spirit Transformation, gone.

Weapon skills? All on cooldown.

Myriad Illusions? Exposed.

Titan form, unable to be used.

The Twentieth Wave.

The Thirtieth Wave.

Master Potion of Health Overload (Fragmented-Rare, Minor Corruption), used to save life.

Master Potion of Origin Overload (Fragmented-Rare, Minor Corruption), used to replenish Origin to 500 (overload).

The Thirty-Secondth Wave.....

Replenished whatever supplies possible from challengers. Only ten challengers armed with one common artifact (that was now lodged in his right thigh), and common equipment and weapons showed.

With another weary groan, Noah pulled out a health potion and an origin potion, gulping them down at the same time. A refreshing feeling enveloped him, but it only lasted a second before the pain of his numerous, throbbing wounds overwhelmed the healing sensation. It was unfortunate, but with the tremendous increase in his stats, normal health potions were simply no longer that effective.

"Hey Liam. You there?" Noah woozily called out, barely able to stand up by himself at this point.

"I'm here, lad," For once, Liam's voice felt concerned... yet enraged at the same time. It was unlike him, or maybe the blood loss was causing Noah to hear things.

"I'm sorry.... but it looks like I wasn't the right guy for the job, after all. But hey, I can go down saying I tried my best," Noah coughed out another mouthful of blood, his mout arching into a small smile. He thought about the thrill he'd experienced when conning the sect leaders, the excitement this new life had brought him.... the path Liam had set him down, he wasn't cut out for it and that was okay. This would be the end result regardless of what he did, he was neither much of a fighter nor a killer. His thoughts wandered off towards his mother and sister, filling him with hollowness when he thought that he'd never be able to meet them again. And Omni, who'd be seized by the Tower for its own purposes, his new adorable friend.

Before Liam could reply, a spatial tear appeared in the space in front of Noah. His remaining eye widened in shock as he counted not one, not two, not three but four primordial spirits, leading the charge followed by an army of challengers that took up rest of the teleportation slots, all well armored and completely fresh.

His battle instincts took over, assessing each primordial spirit type almost involuntarily. A flying type, a strength type, an agility type and a defense type.

They'd finally come for the kill and Noah had nothing left to fight back with.