...…

Shin stared at the newly summoned undead monsters with a solemn look on his face.

One of those monsters was a humanoid creature with a lean yet muscular body. Its upper body was bare which was showcasing a large number of stitches on it. It was wearing loose pants which were making its appearance very human-like.

It was playing with a longsword made of bone while staring back at Shin with a cruel grin on its lips.

Meanwhile, the other undead was a strange knight with a fully armored body and a skull head that was surrounded by purple flames. The was also a crimson mantle wrapped around its shoulders along with a black crown on its head and a broadsword on its hand.

"A True Ghoul and Skeleton King? Tsk! This is becoming even more of a drag," muttered Shin to himself after observing the two new undead monsters in front of him.

Especially, when he saw that Immortal fused a new set of Abomination Elemental Spirits with each of those undead monsters.

"Looks like I can no longer stick with the original 15-minute plan, huh?" muttered Shin while taking a quick look at his digital clock. He was fighting Immortal for just a couple of minutes only, so there were still at least 10 minutes left before the ceremony ended.

Realizing that he could no longer rely on brute force alone, Shin decided to change his strategy of 'staying alive' for as long as he could, to end this battle as soon as possible.

"Then I guess I need to speed this up a little," right after Shin said those words, he immediately controlled his Sun and Moon Clones to summon their respective Phantom Clones while he was doing a quick swap with his equipment before summoning a Phantom Clone of his own.

After that, the new clones simultaneously transformed into their werewolves' form as Shin switched all of his equipment back to [Apocalypse Equipment Set].

A moment later, Shin immediately gave a silent order in his mind which all of his clones responded instantly.

'Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Dance'

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Then a large group of phantoms suddenly appeared on the battlefield at the same time, surrounding the trio of undead monsters.

Controlling his clones manually while also maintaining the berserk state of 'Black Origin Threshold' and 'Sunshine Wielding', was putting a lot of toll on his mind already. So, it was not hard to imagine how much burden he was going to suffer if he insisted on controlling these Phantom alongside those skills and techniques.

Unfortunately, he didn't have any other choice but to do it since he knew that the AI of his clones alone was not enough to handle the battle prowess of these undead monsters.

"I have 5 minutes tops, so I need to make it quick," muttered Shin to himself while gritting his teeth.

Quickly after that, he immediately turned his body around and started sprinting towards Immortal and leaving his clones and their werewolf phantoms behind.

Seeing his action, the trio of undead monsters quickly made their respective moves to stop Shin from going after Immortal.

But at the very same moment, Shin also controlled his clones to simultaneously attack the three undead alongside their Phantoms as some distractions.

Roar!

Bang! Bang!

Clang! Clang!

Then a very intense battle broke out between the two groups with neither side was not willing to back down.

Meanwhile, Immortal was currently looking at Shin with a deep frown on his face as he couldn't understand his opponent's decision. But he quickly threw that thought at the back of his head before saying with a mocking tone. "Then let's see where your desperate struggle is going to take you."

After that, he quickly jumped away from his previous location while gathering the surrounding Dark Elemental Mana before transforming them into a pair of huge black wings on his back.

'Demonic Occultist Special Skill: Demon Wings'

Then Immortal flew in the air while sending a barrage of spells towards Shin's direction.

On the other hand, Shin quickly summoned his 'Wings of Freedom' from the skill set of his cloak before chasing after Immortal in the air. And at the same time, he was also swinging his swords in the air to execute the 'Infinity Edge' Combat Technique to deflect all of the spells pouring down at him.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

From time to time, Shin was also doing some aerial maneuvers to dodge some of the homing spells that he couldn't dodge.

Bang! Bang!

A trail of consecutive explosions was being left behind every time Shin did a beautiful curve in the air. But regardless of this stunning scene, Shin was still unable to catch Immortal no matter how hard he tried.

Due to that, he was starting to feel the setbacks of manually controlling 5 clones alongside a large group of phantoms. And if he didn't hasten the pace of this battle, he was sure that he was going to reach his limit first before the ceremony could even end.

So, Shin didn't have much choice but take the risk and gamble it all.

'Phantom Swordsman Skill: Phantom Dance'

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Then nine more phantoms were summoned. But this time, it was from Shin's real body which was why they had a pair of wings on their back.

But that was not the end.

Because the scene that happened was something that shocked even Immortal.

Swoosh!

Shin suddenly abandoned his control over all of the phantoms of his clones, so that he could focus on controlling his own phantoms.

After that, he suddenly charged towards Immortal along with his phantoms with insane speed while doing some tricky and unpredictable patterns in the air.

The first thing that Immortal had thought off during that time was to retreat back as soon as possible especially when he saw how aggressive Shin was charging at him.

But little did he know that choice was the wrong one to choose in his current situation.

Due to him getting far from the opposing group, Shin was able to have more space to gain more speed and do an even more complex aerial maneuver during his flight.

In the next instant, Shin and his phantoms seemed to create an illusion where he increased the number of his phantoms in the air due to afterimages that he left behind while charging towards Immortal.

Naturally, Immortal was going to try proving which among those phantoms and afterimages was the main body. But no matter how many spells he sent at Shin, he was still unable to locate Shin.

Regardless, Immortal was still able to maintain his cool and continued to kite Shin since he was fully aware that the latter was already reaching his limit.

"Let's see how long that tenacity of yours is going to last," muttered Immortal as he wore an evil grin while looking at the group of phantoms in front of him.

*********

Meanwhile, the situation on the other battlefield was currently in a strange state to see.

The twelve apostles of Immortal were surely going to be ranked among the top players of them. It didn't matter whether it was Official Rankings or Hidden Rankings as these twelve could fight anyone among the famous Godlike Players of that game without having a lot of disadvantages.

It was even more true when it came to the first three apostles of Immortal. Rumors even said that those three were able to hold their grounds against the top three players ranked at the peak of the Godly Ranking List.

But at this point in time, these apostles of the so-called Lich God were currently being schooled by a pair of 'Ancient Beasts'.

"F*ck! What's wrong with these two? How strong they have become since the last time we've met?" cursed Elliot while glaring at Leonard who was currently in a state of Quadruple Elemental Fusion.

Beside him were Larc and Demien who was struggling to stand up after getting hit by one of Leonard's attacks earlier.

But they were not the only ones who were currently in such a beaten state. Four of their fellow apostles were also doing their hardest to get back on their feet while looking warily at the 'monster' standing not far from them.

The group was still no match against Leonard even after combining all of their strengths. Especially when he entered his current state.

The only ones who could stand against the current Leonard were the Fourth and Fifth Apostles, who were also currently in their respective berserk states.

But even with their current battle prowess, they were still unable to fully match the unrivaled strength of the War God in front of them.

Before, Elliot was confident about their strengths especially when they were grouped together. And for them, Immortal was an unrivaled existence in the game especially when he was going all-out, while his first three apostles were just right below his rank.

But it was just until now that they realized how foolish that thought was.

Right now, a pair of 'monsters' were standing in front of them who had the same strength as their boss. Especially Arthur who was holding his ground pretty well even if he was against the first three apostles alone.

Moreover, there was also another one outside the corridor who was keeping their boss busy and supposedly at disadvantage.

"Looks like we really have no choice but to proceed to plan B," muttered Elliot before looking at his companions to ask about their opinions.

Not long after, Arthur and Leonard immediately sensed the sudden change and cursed. "Here comes the real trouble."

...