The second thing he grasped was how condensed Arimiar’s Aura and attack had been. The Drakkhan had focused his power, reducing its area of effect but increasing the destructive power. It was like a thunderbolt had hit Liam’s brain. The youth immediately thought of many possibilities, all revolving around this concept. During his twenty days of fighting against Cinzolia, he had never bothered with such a thing because all of his enemies were much weaker than him. It was better for him to expand the area of effect of his blows as much as possible so as to kill a larger number of enemies. This time, however, he was up against a singular enemy. There was no need for an enormous area of effect damage. Instead, he should gather his power, just like Arimiar had done.

It was then that Liam moved. Keeping this inspiration in mind, he flew towards the enemy commander at his top speed. The sounds of sonic booms superimposed over one another as Liam quickly accelerated. His speed rose as he hit Mach 500 in the blink of an eye. The 150 kilometers between Liam and the two other fighters were crossed in less than a second.

The grey-skinned commander reacted as if he had already expected this to happen. He predicted Liam’s future position, swinging his greatsword. Liam’s mind went into overdrive as this happened, but he was moving too quickly to change the direction of his flight so suddenly. It was impossible for him to change course without decelerating first or stopping completely. He couldn’t ignore the laws of physics. Not yet. He only had time to activate Event Horizon and raise his spear’s shaft before the greatsword hit it.

Liam’s speeding body was forcefully stopped and pushed back, shooting tens of kilometers in the direction it had come from. The enemy commander, on the other hand, was only sent flying for a single kilometer. The sudden stop damaged Liam’s organs and muscles, but the damage disappeared as if it were a lie in an instant. The youth used Aerial Movement to slow down and stabilize himself, only to witness Arimiar’s axe swinging down once more right on top of the other combatant’s head, meeting the humanoid’s greatsword on the way.

A shockwave even stronger than the one from the last attack was created. Neither fighter was pushed back, forcing themselves to stay in place with their strength and Aura. Liam flew in a curved trajectory, appearing around a kilometer behind the enemy and thrusting his spear at his back. He tried to mimic Arimiar, attempting to condense his power in a smaller area. The wave of Aura shot from the speartip was much smaller than what he had grown used to, but it was obvious even at a glance that it was denser and more concentrated. The enemy commander’s greatsword shimmered before Liam’s wave of Aura was shattered. Not missing this chance, Arimiar swung his axe once more, but the humanoid managed to move fast enough to just barely block the swing.

I’ll only be able to truly take advantage of One With The Spear and Master’s Domain once in melee range, but I don’t want to get into Arimiar’s way. I’m also weaker than them in terms of stats. Should I just keep supporting him like this?

The safest tactic would be to continue doing what he just did and support Arimiar from afar. There were then two possibilities of what could happen. One, the enemy would try to deal with Liam’s attacks, being distracted by them and creating openings that Arimiar could exploit. Two, the enemy commander would ignore Liam’s attacks and focus solely on the Drakkhan; this would cause damage to accumulate in its body, as Liam’s attacks were not weak enough to the point that they could be simply ignored. In both scenarios, the alien would grow more injured and weaker, eventually being defeated. The biggest difference was the effectiveness and speed of each one.

In the first scenario, the enemy’s defeat was more certain. Arimiar was capable of assuredly dealing heavy damage. If Liam managed to create openings, the power of Arimiar’s attacks would be enough. On the other hand, in the second scenario, Liam wasn’t sure if his blows would damage the enemy faster than he could regenerate. If not, then it was a waste of energy.

Just then, the enemy had chosen to deal with Liam’s attack, which had almost cost him severely. If he weren’t faster than Arimiar, the axe swing would have hit him, causing a serious injury to his body at the very least.

It wasn’t a proper opening.

If Liam’s attack had been more powerful, the humanoid would have been forced to execute a bigger movement in order to shatter it, creating a larger opening for Arimiar to use. With this in mind, Liam shot several Crescent Moon Waves by swinging his spear multiple times. With his Aura Perception grasping every movement on the battlefield, he used Waterstep to change positions, this time moving to a spot around three kilometers away from the green-armored commander’s right side.

Drought.

His spear pierced the atmosphere seven times. Seven golden beams shot forward, moving faster than Liam himself. The green Aura in the sky trembled before huge green shields made of Aura came into being and blocked the Waves and Droughts.

So it’s also going to use Aura Manipulation to block my long-range attacks, huh?

It was the correct choice, a third scenario that Liam hadn’t considered. Instead of dealing with Liam’s attacks by moving or allowing himself to be hit by them, the enemy commander simply took advantage of his superior Aura mastery, shaping it and using it to block. Just like it could create large swords for offensive purposes, the enemy could also wield its Aura for defensive ones. This decision neutralized Liam’s support, putting the battle at a stalemate once more.

Liam flew around, shooting Drought after Drought from different angles and positions, but the humanoid blocked them all. It wasn’t just due to the difference in stats and speed but also the gap in experience. Liam felt as if every movement of his was being read and properly predicted.

This won’t be as easy as I thought. Then…

If long-range attacks wouldn’t work, then his plan of safely changing the course of the battle from afar had crumbled. He would need to take a more dangerous path. Liam shot in the direction of the enemy. Green swords and fists took shape all around him. The swords pierced or slashed at him, while the fists punched or tried to grab him.

Singularity.

It was useless. Liam’s body, which was already very small compared to the size of the swords and fists, shrunk even further. In spite of this, the alien’s attacks didn’t miss. The black and golden dot was disturbed, shaking, but the weight of Liam’s existence was no longer so small that it would fall apart due to these simple attacks.

Singularity pierced through everything in its way, arriving at the enemy’s back. In his condensed state, Liam’s consciousness grasped the shocked expression of the humanoid, and Arimiar’s figure disappeared. Right afterwards, the dot went through the enemy’s chest.

The sky parted. The purple and green colors gave way to a single line of black and gold.

Liam expanded back into himself, seeing the results of his attack. In the opponent’s chest, a large hole could be seen. Green blood burst from the grey-skinned humanoid’s mouth. It had been unable to dodge, just as Liam intended. It was the first time he had tried it, but it had worked. What he had done was use the weight of his existence to attempt to lock down the air and even the space around the enemy, restricting its movements for a very short period.

It was something he had come up with during his ten days of training but never attempted due to feeling it was out of his reach. Affecting space? It was obviously beyond the realm of his abilities. Yet, just now, he was sure that he had done it. It wasn’t much, and it wasn’t for long, but the weight of his existence, which continuously grew heavier with every victory and achievement that was added to his tale, had clearly affected the fabric of spacetime. This had allowed him to deal a heavy blow to the enemy commander.

The hole in the humanoid’s chest quickly shrunk, mending itself and disappearing as if it had never been there. Liam’s eyes were calm. He had obviously expected that an enemy with the Constitution stat over the value of 100,000 would possess powerful regeneration. Nevertheless, it wasn’t as fast as his, nor was it similarly free to execute. Liam was confident that the enemy had to spend their energy to regenerate, just like the youth used to.

A voice interrupted Liam’s chain of thought.

“Ignition.”

Liam’s eyes widened. The purple color in the sky ignited, turning into purple flames in nothing but a moment. Looking like a god of fire, Arimiar’s figure was shrouded in purple flame as it charged towards the humanoid, who quickly retreated. In a single second, the humanoid moved back over 200 kilometers, but Arimiar closed in on him even faster, hitting him head-on. The enemy howled in pain as its limbs were melted by the flames.

Memories of his first conversation with Varlian filled Liam’s head. Ignition was the Racial Ability of the Drakkhan. It functioned like an Awakening Skill, drastically buffing the prowess of the user for some time and imbuing their Aura with special properties. In Arimiar’s case, it was the purple flame. Liam understood why the Drakkhan had used it now instead of saving it for another time. There was no opportunity better than this.

I only locked down the space around the grey guy, which allowed Arimiar to get out of the way of Singularity. There’s no way a fighter as experienced as him would let a chance like this go.

Liam had proven himself to be capable of also dealing heavy damage to the enemy commander. It meant that the humanoid would be keeping close attention on him, not being able to afford another blow like that. This division of its attention was fatal when fighting against an opponent of the same caliber, such as Arimiar.

This was why Liam had come to help the Drakkhan. His mere presence was enough of a diversion now that he had gotten a single Singularity in. Even though Arimiar had gone all-out and attacked the humanoid relentlessly, Liam could still feel a shred of the enemy commander’s perception hovering over him. Watching him.

The enemy’s figure flew upwards as a result of Arimiar’s last axe swing. His body was almost completely charred, his limbs having been burned away long ago. It was a testament to the high temperature of the purple flames.

With a pained expression, the humanoid roared and started regenerating his body. The greatsword, which had fallen after the enemy’s arms disappeared, started to fly back up to his hands. Liam had no intention of letting him recover.

Drought.