James couldn’t move an arm and a leg, and he couldn’t see through one eye.

And yet, he felt so much better than before.

The pain was entirely gone. He didn’t feel the pain from the wound the agent gave him, nor the pain from all the HP sacrifices. Either of them were enough to make him scream in pain, and yet he didn’t feel any pain at all now.

But even though he felt even better than before, seeing him crippled like that, without the use of an eye, a leg and an arm, was enough to almost make Lunaris faint. She had to repeatedly send mana into the [Belt of Soothing] that James gave her in order to calm herself down.

“Hmm, this thing is actually useful.” Lunaris said. As heartbreaking as it was to see her friends in such dire straits, she now felt much more relaxed, as if she was floating on a rainbow down a river of clouds. Perhaps James knew that he’d keep making his friends worry through his reckless was, so he chose a gift that would protect them emotionally.

Even though it was better than being in shock, Lunaris didn’t have time to float on clouds. Her support was essential to her friends’ survival. Seeing as both Helios and James were in trouble, she was constantly twisting and turning, sending healing spells, buffs and shields both ways.

But as crippled as James looked, he was actually deadlier than ever.

His own body could barely move, but his SARM was better than any crutches. An invisible mana exoskeleton was faster than his own, weak legs anyway.

In a way, his temporarily crippled body felt even better than normal. Other than not experiencing any pain whatsoever, he felt so light, free of exhaustion or tension anywhere on his body.

But he couldn’t stand around enjoying the sensation. The battle had barely even started.

Seeing that James wasn’t dead seem to have enraged the agent. His ominous, mocking smile had completely disappeared.

“You’ll lose a lot more than an arm and a leg by the time I’m done with you.”

The agent was done taking it slowly. The fact that James survived the sneak attack was enough to make him wary of him.

By raising an arm, a wave of Darkness began forming in front of the agent. But instead of just spawning the usual amount of blades, the wave of Darkness kept getting thicker and thicker.

In mere moments, hundreds of blades had been spawned, dozens more gathering every second.

James could tell from a glance that if those things hit him, it would be fatal. Possibly not even his Chaos Barrier could block that many blades. And he definitely couldn’t dodge them all.

So he had to make his barrier stronger than ever before.

Lunaris’s healing had been slowly adding up, and he had recovered a good deal of health already. But it wasn’t health that he needed right now.

He didn’t actually need much HP for the sacrifice to the Chaos Barrier, but by being healed, his body was strong enough again to endure the sacrifices. Without any mercy for himself, he sacrificed everything he had recovered.

And the world turned crimson again. The barrier was so thick that James could barely see at first.

But he hadn’t felt any pain. His body still felt light as a feather, free of any pain or exhaustion.

He felt the sacrifice shaking him to his very core, and yet the debilitating pain didn’t rear its ugly head.

He was standing there behind his thick barrier, seemingly paying no price for it. His [Split Mind] skill did leave him unable to move an arm and a leg, blind in one eye, but that was more than worth it if he didn’t have to feel pain. Not only that, he could apparently keep causing his body pain, but he could avoid feeling it.

However, as thick as his barrier was now, he knew it wouldn’t be enough. Not this time. No matter how strong his it felt, he knew he needed more.

The agent still didn’t release the attack. He kept adding more blades, all aimed at him. He wanted to make sure James would die. James could feel the deadly aura of the attack increasing by the second, his scalp going numb from the sheer terror the blades emanated.

But he didn’t plan on being the loser of this arms race.

Sacrificing his health again this soon would’ve been cripplingly painful. But now that his mind was split and he didn’t feel any pain, James didn’t even hesitate.

He threw a health potion down his gullet and immediately sacrificed most of the health he recovered.

The Chaos Barrier was downright opaque now. He didn’t even see the world in crimson anymore, he couldn’t see the world at all! He had to send some more mana into his eyes just to see beyond his barrier.

But he could still feel the agent adding even more power to his attack. He could preemptively feel the blades stabbing him all over, so intimidating was their aura.

So he did it once again without hesitation, sacrificing his HP ruthlessly. There was no pain, but the sheer vibrations from the power of the sacrifice were enough to make him shake uncontrollably.

The barrier didn’t even feel like a barrier anymore. He felt like he was buried under a heavy, crimson mountain. Even though the barrier was covering him without actually touching him, he could somehow still sense its weight and thickness.

What was more surprising was just how pretty it was. Every time he had cast the barrier previously, he had been in excruciating pain. So he hadn’t been able to notice just how beautiful it was. Even though he was currently in a battle for his life, the crimson color and the weird patterns made him pause and stare at them for a second. It was like looking at an ever-shifting mural.

But he knew he didn’t have time to waste. The danger kept amassing not far from his barrier. He could feel that the critical moment was about to come.

It didn’t take long. A few seconds later, he sensed the agent releasing his attack.

He had to infuse mana into his eyes yet again to see through the even thicker barrier. As soon as he did, he saw a world of Darkness.

Thousands of blades were flying at him, almost covering the sky with their dark aura.

And yet, they were flying at a snail’s pace.

James was surprised, but he didn’t even need the barrier. He could simply move over and dodge most of them.

He had almost forgotten about it because of the sheer pressure the agent was projecting, but it seemed like his [Reckless Abandon] benefitted from his sacrifices as much as the barrier. Time seemed to pass by even slower than the other times he used the skill.

But as soon as he began dodging the blades effortlessly, the agent noticed his speed. He clenched his fists and a burst of Darkness shot forth. The agent had immediately activated his own quickening skill.

Of course, James couldn’t just have it easy for once. But at least he had a head start.

James knew that if the agent couldn’t hit him, he’d just hit Helios. So instead of jumping far away to avoid all the blades, he used SARM to push him just a few feet away.

As soon as the agent empowered his own speed, he began channeling his powers, a cloud of Darkness quickly washing over the the thousands of blades. In mere seconds, their speed was greatly empowered, launching at James at a rate that he couldn’t just dodge anymore.

But James hadn’t wasted the few seconds that it took for the blades to speed up.

Even though [Reckless Abandon] seemed to be lasting for much longer, the increased speed and perception of time was rendered almost useless since the agent had a way to speed himself up.

But the agent still took a few seconds before he could make his blades speed up as well.

And that was all that James needed.

As the blades were rushing towards James, an armada of saws were waiting for them. James had conjured thousands of shoddy saws, infused with the essence of air. Probably his shoddiest work yet, but he didn’t need them to be powerful. He just needed them to partially block for him.

With the increased stats granted by [Reckless Abandon], even the shoddy saws were emanating a relatively impressive aura. They still paled in comparison to the blades, but they were good enough for his purposes.

James launched the saws, intercepting the blades. As the projectiles crashed into each other, the resulting shrapnel that was flying in all directions was helping James, further damaging the dark blades, slowing them down and knocking them off their trajectory.

But there were a lot more blades than saws. The agent had prepared his attack for longer than James did.

Thousands of saws clashed with thousands more blades. A veritable war was being fought between the projectiles as they were zooming around the battlefield.

But for once, James’s saws were on the losing side. There were simply too many blades, who were even more durable and stronger than the saws.

With each passing moment, the swarm of saws was getting smaller.

But even though the saws were losing the war, they had done their job. Not more than a few seconds had passed before they were all destroyed, the empowered speeds making each second feel like an eternity. But that was enough.

Even though what looked like many hundreds of blades remained, many more were destroyed along with the saws.

Had the saws not been there, James would’ve been hit by every single one of the blades. Not even his thrice empowered barrier could’ve survived that.

But now, he could put the barrier to the test with slightly less worry.

Seeing the storm of blades shooting at James, Lunaris had to keep spamming her [Belt of Soothing] to calm down and to avoid fainting. Instead of panicking though, she was even more determined to help her friends.

Seeing as the agent was so busy with James, she could at least help Helios, who was constantly being stabbed and slashed.

Even though he had been blocking with his shield and dodging as much as he could, when fighting so many foes at once, it was impossible to avoid injury. If it weren’t for Lunaris’s constant healing, he might’ve even succumbed to his wounds long ago.

Lunaris knew she couldn’t help James much now, so she was determined to at least make a real difference in Helios’s battle.

The agent destroyed her butterfly in a second, but perhaps it could still be useful against the neophytes.

She stopped her healing for a few seconds and concentrated. Not longer after, a burst of light shot forth, another butterfly having been spawned. It immediately darted towards one of the neophytes attacking Helios.

There was still a neophyte attacking the barrier under which she and Denmac were hiding, but luckily Denmac’s barrier was holding strong.

He was pretending the barrier was weakening and about to break every now and then, just to trick the neophyte into continuing to attack it. It was much better than him rejoining the attack on Helios.

Seeing as their own barrier was holding, Lunaris chose to send the butterfly to assist Helios.

But before she could see if the butterfly that had been useless against the agent would have any success against the neophytes, she was stunned by the deafening attack that had been unleashed on James. She turned her head and saw what seemed like an endless ocean of blades crashing into James’s barrier.