Chương 288: Chapter 276

With the knowledge that Tim was out there, doing something to hinder the enemy with very visible results (at least to him), Sam felt a renewed sense of hope. It was not about winning, as the demon was too strong for that, but about survival. Grinning slightly, he parried the blade enveloped by the cloud of acid, sacrificing the remaining part of his sleeve and pivoting away from the man, just in time to block two more blades, aimed at his spleen and liver, respectively.

Spinning around, he let another blade bounce off his Mana Scale skill, kicked another, then used the motion to jump a little back, creating a momentary gap between him and the rather angry assassin cultist.

"What the hell, bro?"

"We were so close!"

"Not cool, bro. Not cool!" Came the quiet murmur of complaint from the group currently menacing him, and the rest standing behind them 'politely' waiting for their turn didn't look much better. Sam quickly swung his sword, releasing a thick slice of nothingness toward his assailants, using the moment their eyes were distracted to jump backwards, creating even more room.

However, to his dismay, the wall behind him, with the gate, and (to his knowledge) only way to leave the room, was instantly covered by shadows as the magic erupted from the ground, covering the expanse of wall with dark spikes, glinting maliciously as the demon watching the proceedings chuckled hatefully." You are not going anywhere, cockroach!"

"I'm exactly where I planned to be," Sam replied as coolly as he could, his eyes darting around, surveying the changed battlefield.

"And I'm not planning to leave anytime soon…" That was all the time he had, as the players arrayed against him managed to recover after using defensive spells (one going intangible in a weird way) – though Sam was relieved that he managed to hit one of them with the spell – and using their speed were on him again. For the next minute, Sam was a whirlwind of blade, shadows, and void as he danced dangerously between at least four people wanting nothing more to do than to skewer him.

He managed to nick a few of them; they managed to nick his Mana Scales a few times, but nobody had managed to land a decisive strike. Then, just as Sam was sinking deeper into the exhilarating feeling of deadly dance, there was a call.

"Scatter!" It came from the lead assassin and cultist, the one who was still standing next to the demon. Unfortunately for Sam, he was also holding a dense ball of miasma and demonic mana, as a tentacle of darkness seemed to sink into his neck. His eyes, visible from under his hood, glowed black. As his subordinates followed his command and jumped backwards, leaving the panting Sam alone, the man raised their head further, allowing the meager illumination to reveal their grinning face.

He launched the magic straight at Sam. WHOOOSSH It slammed into Sam, who barely had time to channel more magic into his defensive enhancements, sending him straight at the wall that was blistering with countless spikes made of shadows and ill wishes. Just as the magic that hit him was doing its best to consume his body, he had a moment to react. Not wanting to be skewered, he crudely detonated a pocket of air under himself, changing his trajectory upwards, while simultaneously conjuring a clone of himself.

Thanks to the evolution of his magic, the complexity of the clones – originally made from shadows, now from the void – and the complexity of their behavior has improved drastically. The system, learning from Sam's behavior over time, made sure to move those clones that were originally like statues in a rather human and Sam-like way. Which meant that the summoned clone let out a drawn-out and dramatic scream of pain as it slammed into the spikes, the magic even generating some believable blood splatter.

"AARRGBH! The pain! Oh, the pain!" came from the clone with his own voice, enough drama for a first-year theater show.

"Got you!" came from one of the unlucky players, whose next celebratory words were: arglmrble, as Sam landed on him, sword first through his skull. Taking a quick stock of himself, Sam noted that the earlier stab (and poison) had managed to reduce his health to almost half while his Mana Scales were also dangerously low. Pulling the sword out of his latest victim, he instantly lashed out, making use of the 'surprise round' to decapitate two more players, leaving him with an even half dozen and a very angry demon."

ENOUGH!" came the roar from it, the volume shaking the walls once again, causing dust and pebbles to fall from high up, while the air pressure sent Sam skidding backwards as the remaining players stood in a half circle in front of the demon, glaring at Sam. He felt a surge of magic from one of them, and the dagger in their hand, glowed as a semi-transparent copy of it, rose into the air and began to hover around the player, quickly followed by a few dozen more copies of the dagger.

Another's hands were dripping with a very familiar acid, while two others were wreathed in shadows that looked like flames. The main guy was still connected by a creepy tentacle to the demon, their mana surging and ebbing in parallel with the demon, while the last one was vibrating in place, occasionally a body part or two becoming transparent. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Sam gave a silent thanks to the gods that he was facing assassins and not frontline fighters. Their skills were mostly geared toward taking out an enemy before they could raise their defenses. They were good at skulking around, not going toe-to-toe with somebody like Sam. Still, eventually their speed, condition damage, and variety of ways to avoid damage would have worn Sam down. Thankfully, he wasn't alone. Just as the Shadowed One started on another rant, he felt another pulse."

YOU MAY THINK THAT YOU BESTED THEM, BUT I AM STILL HERE! AND I WILL CONSU – ARRGGH!" the demon let out a cry of pain as Sam felt the mana keeping the demonic construct together evaporating as something was destroyed.

'Probably an anchor…' he mused as the leader of the Silent Step began to fuss over the demon while the two guys with shadow flames raised their daggers and launched javelins made of pure heat and shadow at Sam. One, two, four, eight… and the number just kept increasing. Sam used minimal movement to parry those he could, using the void to coat his new sword to avoid the magical javelins melting it, while using fancy footwork to walk closer.

"Why the fuck won't you die?!" asked one of them, frustration clear in their voice. Instead of answering, Sam raised his hand to the left and let off an explosion of pure mana straight into the face of the acid-wielding guy who materialized next to him. It didn't kill him, but it sent him slamming into the wall.

'They need to learn how to hide their mana better…' Sam chuckled to himself, his eyes still focused on the two 'mage' assassins. Then suddenly he was enveloped in a tornado of semi-transparent magical daggers, the javelins made of shadow and flame passing through them without any obstruction. Smiling slightly, he raised a temporary shield of void, letting it soak up the projectiles, and focused on the daggers.

They were crude mana constructs, with very little substance to them, but following the principle of death by a thousand cuts, the daggers represented a major threat to most people. Unfortunately for the assassin, fortunately for Sam, he wasn't among those people. With a small twist, the constructs fell apart, the spell architecture a child's play to destroy for Sam. There was a cry of dismay from afar, but Sam was once again suddenly face-to-face with a vibrating assassin.

There was no sound or indication; he was just there, a long, serrated dagger aimed directly at his throat. Hating to reveal it, but Sam also went incorporeal, letting the guy fly through him before reconstituting from being a shadow, and going back to parrying the shadow javelins. Then, just as he was trying to figure out how to deal with those two and as the acid guy was getting up after his terrific performance as a crash-test dummy, the demon roared again.

However, this time, there was no sound, no air pressure, instead, it was pure darkness seeping up from within the damaged stone floor, catching everybody and stopping all movement, including Sam. Sam lowered his sword a little, thankful that the barrage of projectiles had also stopped. The demon, the Shadowed One, showed off its full height, its head grazing the ceiling, as it glared down on Sam and the other assassins.

With a fluid movement, it began to slide forward until he was staring down at the people frozen mid-battle." What a bunch of useless twats," it spat, then took a deep, unsettling breath. Instead of air, it sucked in the shadows. Sam watched, horrified, as first the shadows from the ground, the ones not restricting the players, streamed toward the demon, strengthening its mana, but then the shadows enveloping the two 'mages' also left their bodies, causing them to cry out in pain. Sadly, it didn't stop there.

Thanks to his superior mana senses, Sam had front row seats to watch as the demon began to suck out the mana from their subpar Mana Cores, until the two of them turned into shadows themselves, which in turn were also sucked up. The other players, except for the lead assassin, soon followed them, becoming fuel for the demon. Sam didn't envy them, the debuffs they probably got for this would be legendary…

Still, that 'sacrifice' allowed the demon to regain what was lost due to Tim's action and stare down at Sam with malicious glee." Let me show you, little mortal, what it means when I want someone dead!" Ironically, this was when a third pulse hit the ether, causing the demon to twitch, though remain silent, as another something was destroyed.

'Go, Tim!' Sam cheered inwardly while he looked up at the demon.

'That was three… How many more? Five…Seven?' Instead of trying to free himself, he just grinned.

"What are you going to do differently?" Then, just to drive home the facts, he raised his hand in front of his mouth and yawned.

"Seriously, I was getting bored here…" The demon looked down at him and grinned.

"I ndeed, my current retinue has proved themselves less than adequate, I grant you that, little bug,"came the surprising answer as the demon agreed with him." But that just proves that I need to train them better. They will perform better in the future…

"it promised sinisterly." However, you and your little friend have long overstayed your welcome." There was a tense moment of silence as Sam's eyes met the cruel eyes of the demon. Those eyes, promised suffering on the level that one couldn't even dare to imagine, while in the background, the last remaining player, aside from Sam, was watching, stuck also in one place, their neck connected to the demon with a tendril of pulsating, disgusting mana." Time to die!"

It raised its hand with speed, belying its size and far surpassing what the players around Sam had produced, but he was still fast enough to react. Barely… CLANG Shadow arm, transformed into the blade of an ax, clashed with Sam's Sword of Severance, coated with void mana, as Sam's legs trembled from the pressure and weight of the attack as the demon bore down on him. He grinned up at the monster and winked.

"Not today!" Then, while most of his focus was on holding the sword with both his hands, he split off a sliver of his attention and conjured a small ball of light, right in the face of the demon. Before the Shadowed One could blink, he used all his strength to ram as much mana into that ball as possible (mixing in a little void just to be sure) causing it to explode into nova of light, removing the darkness from the room for a brief moment, as well as weaning the hold of the shadows.

CRASH The giant ax-shaped shadow appendage slammed into the ground, but it found no hold, as Sam was no longer there. Instead, he was already charging up another attack, filled to the brim with void, aiming directly at the shadow. WHUMMM The beam of pure void, an absence of color that somehow seared the eyes of those who looked at it, sped toward the middle of the demon, who simply distorted its body so that the beam would go through air. Sam just grinned as a moment later, there was a cry not far from them.

The Shadowed One's eyes widened, and as the leader of the cultists expired, Sam felt another familiar pulse.