Helios was about to attack the dark figure which was now much taller, darker and corporeal, having absorbed every inch of Darkness from its surroundings. But before he could, a wave of dark energy exploded from the figure.

Helios braced himself, but the wave didn’t do any damage at all. Instead, the whole room turned pitch black.

Helios’s weapon was so hot and bright that the flames were blue, the light coming from them was usually downright blinding. And yet, the Darkness was so oppressive that even those flames were unable to light up its surroundings.

It was so dark that nothing could be seen at all in the entire room, the faint glow of the blue sword being the only reminder that light still existed.

While Helios had been attacking with the sword for the most part, he still had his shield somewhere around. He wanted to grab it so he could better defend himself in the dark. He knew for a fact that the shield was still white hot from his magic.

But the Darkness was so powerful that the shield wasn’t visible at all. Only the sword which had absorbed the entire inferno, turning its flames blue, was able to illuminate its immediate surroundings just a tiny bit.

Whatever spell made the room so dark seemed to be actively fighting any light, deliberately dimming even the brightest lights.

Annoyed at not being able to see anything, Helios started wildly attacking his surroundings, unleashing waves of fire from his sword.

His attacks were unhinged. One second he was performing wild, fiery whirlwinds, and the next he was slashing around savagely, swinging randomly, hoping to hit something.

But he couldn’t even tell if he had hit anything. It was frustrating, he was almost hoping the damn thing would attack already, just so he could feel something.

And he got his wish.

As Helios was standing perfectly still, trying to assess his options, for just a split second he noticed a tiny movement in the very small radius of light around his sword, so small that he wasn’t sure if he didn’t just imagine it.

But his body instinctively dodged nonetheless. A moment later, he heard the wall next to him exploding. If he hadn’t moved, his head would’ve met the same fate.

If his level were still dampened, that attack would have killed him for sure. But due to his now unrestricted speed, he was able to dodge within just a fraction of a second.

Still, this wasn’t good news. He dodged one attack, but all it takes is one attack out of a hundred to wound him or even kill him.

He stood perfectly still again, hoping to maximize his chances of reacting in time.

The next attack was just as sudden as the first, but this time around Helios didn’t dodge. He attacked.

He swung his sword wildly towards the source of the attack. The powerful blue flames exploded in a furious storm, hoping to incinerate whatever it encountered.

He didn’t actually feel his sword hit anything, but he heard another disgusting shriek.

Which usually would have made him smile gleefully, but instead, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach.

He managed to hit the creature, but it also hit him.

It wasn’t entirely unexpected, he chose to use the split second when he actually knew where the figure was to attack instead of dodge. If he hadn’t done that, his only other option was to keep dodging until, inevitably, he would succumb to the attacks.

He chose to take the lead and attack. But that kind of bravery also has consequences. He now had a hole in his stomach. At least, knowing where the attack was coming from, he was able to shift his body and avoid being hit in a vital area.

Even though the wound was severe, he didn’t make a sound. He didn’t want to worry his friends. He had to keep their safety in mind, if they did something stupid because they were worrying about him, they would only get hurt.

If he at his full power couldn’t defeat this thing, then James and Lunaris definitely had no chance. He wanted to scream from pain. But he knew that if he did that, James would just leap into the fray without thinking in order to save him. Which would just end with him dying in a few seconds.

Helios was thinking that if push came to shove, he could detonate himself in order to destroy this foe. He had to keep his friends safe at all cost.

But before that, he still had his sword. Absorbing that inferno made its flames hotter than the sun. This damn figure couldn’t possibly be stronger than such flames.

He was right. The flames were powerful. Too powerful. But the problem was that the figure knew that as well. And so it turned the room pitch black, effectively rendering Helios blind, patiently waiting for its chance to strike.

Now that it had been hit, it was even more cautious. The flames were formidable indeed, it had to avoid getting hit at all costs. But it knew time was on its side.

Angered, Helios poured most of his remaining mana into the sword. It couldn’t possibly get much hotter than it already was, but he didn’t need to make the flames stronger, they were powerful enough already. What he needed was more flames. The more flames there were, the more he could see.

But the blue flames were as costly as they were powerful. With all that mana poured into them, he barely doubled the area he could see. All he gained was a few inches.

Noticing that he was trying to do something, the dark figure attack again.

But the few inches Helios had gained turned out to be a lifeline. It gave him a few more milliseconds to react. And that was already a huge victory.

This time around, Helios was able to dodge much more comfortably. He had avoided the attack completely.

If that was the only attack the figure had, Helios would be safe for now. But he still couldn’t fight back without getting hit again, the margin was too narrow. In the few milliseconds, he could either fully dodge or attack, not both. It was a stalemate.

Except that he was already wounded. The pain was deep. It wasn’t fatal, but he keep fighting like this for much longer either. His own healing could stop the bleeding, but it couldn’t close the deep wound.

Trading hits one for one would only lead to his death, that thing was a lot more durable than him. He was flesh and blood, while it was … something else.

But Helios wasn’t fighting this thing alone. His friends weren’t exactly lying around doing nothing either.

James’s mana reserves were full, even his necklace was topped up. He didn’t need Lunaris to feed him any more mana either, so she was able to focus on supporting Helios. From outside the room, it was hard to see even Helios’s sword, but the blue flames’ glow was still barely perceptible, and Lunaris was able to use it to pinpoint Helios’s location and send her supportive spells towards him.

Although she also had to maintain a shield around herself and James as well. It was pitch black, there was no knowing what the dark figure was about to do. Her shields might not be impenetrable, but with enough mana put into them, they could at least block one attack, giving them time to react.

The total darkness and lack of information was worrying her though, so along with her support spells, she probed Helios with her mana.

And so she sensed his wound. The shock made her freeze for a second, but she didn’t tell James. She also thought that he would probably leap into battle wildly, without a second thought if he knew Helios was hurt.

All she could do was support Helios for now. She powerful, but she didn’t have Helios’s speed or attack power. There was no point in jumping in directly. She wouldn’t have any more of an idea where to attack than Helios did. But she wouldn’t be able to react in time.

In most scenarios, her power would almost rival Helios’s, but this was a battle where every millisecond mattered. Her supportive and utilitarian spells generally more than made up for her somewhat inferior speed and power, but sometimes even a tiny advantage made all the difference in the world.

Not only that, she couldn’t join because there was the risk of friendly fire if they were both there and attacked randomly in the dark. They wouldn’t even be able to attack as freely if they were constantly worrying about friendly fire.

Her support was much more valuable. A good support was worth more than a dozen fighters.

Even now, after sensing his wound, she began pumping healing magic into Helios, although their distance made it much less efficient than desired. Still, it was enough to keep him strong and healthy for now. Without this help, Helios would’ve quickly lost his speed advantage.

James didn’t really know how things were going. The lack of sight made him the most clueless of the trio. While his self-made skills got him far, the lack of experience wasn’t something one could quickly overcome.

But he wasn’t stupid either. His intuition told him that things weren’t exactly going well. For some reason, he felt a sense of urgency, he felt like their fates were now all resting on him.

Either way, even if the fight had been going well, James wasn’t the kind of guy who would sit around doing nothing while his friends were fighting for him.

He had been throwing ideas at the wall the entire time. It was a veritable brainstorm, he was spitballing ideas without pause. His migraines even led to nosebleeds, he was overusing the simulation. And yet, even though the arcane simulation in his mind was able to digest his ideas fairly quickly, simulating skills from even the half-baked ideas he threw out, none of the ideas had been particularly useful. So even after experimenting with hundreds of skills to the point he felt like his head was on fire, no actual skill was produced.

He had learned from his past mistakes. He was more prepared this time. He had even written down a lot of his ideas, and he explored many skills with the help of the arcane simulation even in the few moments of downtime they had in-between fights.

But this situation called for more. If Helios’s mighty flames couldn’t vanquish this foe, then a random half-baked skill definitely couldn’t. He couldn’t have possibly predicted this situation beforehand, none of them could. So nothing he had prepared was suitable.

He was also very worried about his friend. Even as most of his mind was focused on generating ideas, his thoughts couldn’t help but steer towards thinking about the wellbeing of his friend.

He tried to light up the room. He conjured an army of fiery saws. He didn’t throw them out as to not hit Helios, he just made them enter the room. But it was of no use. Dozens of saws with a whole bunch of extra fire essence added onto them for luminosity, but he couldn’t see a damn thing. As soon as the saws entered just an inch into the room, it was as if they had completely vanished off the face of the earth.

He tried to make just one saw and infuse as much fire essence into it as he could, but that was of no use either. He couldn’t make anything as hot as Helios’s sword, and anything less just wouldn’t shine within this Darkness apparently.

He was frustrated, but he told himself he had to calm down. Frustration and impatience would lead nowhere. He had to steady his thoughts and focus on the task at hand.

His thoughts drifted to his last weapon. The Chaos Javelin. Its power was unmatched, if anything could deal with this enemy, it was that.

It wouldn’t be of any use now though. It was powerful, but so was Helios’s sword. The problem wasn’t only power, it was also being able to hit the damn thing.

Even though his mind was racing, trying to find any solution, every time the thought of the Chaos Javelin popped into his mind, he would freeze. He knew deep down that this was the answer. He felt a stirring in his soul, as if it called to him. He didn’t know whether it was just his intuition, but either way, this chaos power was also apparently interesting enough to spur the reaction of some gods, whatever that meant. It could be the answer he was looking for.

His intuition kept pointing him towards doing something with this chaos he seemed to have tapped into, his instincts were practically screaming at him.

But even when he focused his efforts on doing something with chaos, he couldn’t produce any results. He had been spitballing for a while, and nothing was working. He was becoming more and more anxious the longer the fight raged on, hearing Helios fighting and not being able to do anything about it was a horrible feeling.

“I just need to think. It’s a world full of magic, anything is possible, there is an answer out there somewhere. I just need to think of it.” He told himself, trying to massage his creativity.

“Keep it simple, stupid. Life is simple, you’re the one making it complicated.” He said out loud, trying to calm down and steady his thoughts.

He wasn’t a genius. He was a smart guy, but far from a genius. He wasn’t even good at math. But he did have a unique way of thinking, his quirkiness and creativity were just as valuable as intelligence.

When he couldn’t solve a problem with his intelligence, eventually his weird way of thinking and creativity would come up with a solution.

Telling himself to keep it simple was a way of refreshing his thoughts. When the rabbit hole of quirkiness and creativity was getting him nowhere, keeping it simple was like resetting the router, trying to start over and go in a different direction.

“Keep it simple...”

After resetting his mental router a few times, far too long to dawdle while his friend was fighting desperately, he finally had an idea that clicked.

It was weird, and it was risky. The Chaos Javelin alone almost crippled him. He didn’t even know if he could handle other chaos spells, he wasn’t even sure if he could pull this one off. But at this point, he had to try anything. His friend was fighting for his life.

[Skill unlocked: Chaos Flower]