With four Prongs attached to the agent’s body and a constant stream of bullets stunning him and interrupting his every move, James was well on his way to victory.

But he didn’t dare get too cocky. His bullets would soon run out. And he knew damn well that in life, things never go according to plan.

For many years now, James knew to never expect things to go as you imagined them. He always expected things to go very wrong, for unexpected factors to pop up.

It was that constant anxiety that made him careful not to underestimate the agent for even a second, even though he had 4 prongs embedded into him.

“There’s always a phase 3.” He said out loud with a sarcastic smirk.

The agent probably had something else in store, so James decided to hurt him as much as possible while he still could.

The steady stream of bullets was still stunning the agent, but the reserves were visibly dwindling. It wouldn’t be long till he was all out.

Two Prongs were doing damage over time, one was feeding James the agent’s mana, and the fourth one was for the big damage.

But it seemed like the agent’s counteroffensive started even before James ran out of mana.

He could feel the dark mana trying to corrode and corrupt him from the inside. The more he absorbed, the more overwhelming the feeling got. He felt it in his body, he felt it in his mind, and he felt it in his soul. A foreign entity, all too familiar, seemed to want to take him over.

“Really? This again? This Darkness shit is starting to get old.”

Both because he was a half-demon, whatever the hell that meant, and because of the repeated times he was the target of agents, James had experienced this attempt at corruption several times before. And he resisted it every time. He wasn’t about to get taken over at this point. If anything, it just felt annoying that they even tried.

The feeling was suffocating, but other than inflicting pain, it couldn’t do much else to James. And he could handle the pain just fine.

“If this is all you’ve got, then give me more.” He smiled wickedly.

Seeing as pain and corruption were the only side-effects, both of which he could handle, James decided to get greedy. The bullets were running out, so he might as well go hog wild.

James conjured another Prong and embedded it in to the agent, sucking out even more mana. He hadn’t even dared to fully utilize the previous Prong that was leeching mana, so he began operating the both of them at full blast.

The oppressive feeling got much stronger, the pain more than doubled, but it was still mild in comparison to repeatedly sacrificing your health without pause. Maybe [Split Mind] was significantly dampening this pain as well.

But now he was overflowing with mana. He could hear his teeth buzzing, his veins were bulging, his hands were trembling, so full of mana he was. He felt like a balloon about to burst.

Thus, James decided to sacrifice half of his entire mana pool to immediately strike at the agent.

The agent’s body began trembling even more than before. His eyes turned back, he was foaming at the mouth, bleeding out of his ears. His skin was seared, the smell of burned flesh reached even James, who was keeping a healthy distance between them.

The Prongs were stretched ridiculously long, probably diminishing some of their effectiveness. But James wasn’t going anywhere near him. Even though his plan made the agent seem weak, it was only because of the endless stream of bullets that he managed to conjure. But he didn’t forget that the agent had been greatly empowered. One good strike from him and James would die on the spot.

“You’ll regret this. You’ll beg me for the sweet release of death.” The agent said as soon as he stopped foaming at the mouth. “There are fates much worse than death on this planet, and I’ll make you experience every one of them when I get free.”

“Well, the fact that you are experienced in inflicting that kind of suffering just makes it all the more evident that I need to get rid of you here and now, for the good of mankind.” James answered and spat towards the agent.

He used his mana to levitate his spit right onto the agent’s forehead.

The agent raised his hand in anger, conjuring a wave of dark blades, but he was interrupted by the bullets’ stuns after only launching twenty blades, which James dodged with ease.

With the Prongs sucking out so much mana, James’s mana pool was full again already just half a minute later.

But instead of hurting the agent again, James severed two of the Prongs instead.

His bullets had run out.

Even though he had done a lot of damage to the agent, whose blood was still flowing from his ears, James now had to be more careful with his mana.

With the two Prongs that were doing damage over time now gone, James had even more mana at his disposal.

It was unlikely that he could keep leeching mana off an enemy so powerful when it was not stunned, but James would still try, leaving the remaining Prongs intact.

The agent rose up and looked at James with the hateful eyes of a scorned murderer, but there was a hint of fear in them as well. This mortal that had only been in this world for a few months shy of a year, and yet he had inflicted more damage onto him than he had ever experienced in his life.

Even in the dog-eat-dog world of agents, where they constantly attack and kill each other for power, nobody had made a fool of him like that. Even though he rubbed shoulders with much more powerful agents than himself, he had managed to take advantage of it instead, because of his prowess at infiltration.

But this mortal humiliated him. He even kill his neophytes, who could’ve grown into so much more.

Now it was time to return the favor.

To James’s disappointment, the agent destroyed the Prongs with a single slash. Lunaris’s butterfly was destroyed without even a glance, as a mere side-effect of the slash.

Without a word, a moment later, the agent dashed towards James, closing the distance in an instant.

Without hesitation, James sacrificed most of his health and activated the Chaos Barrier.

“Scared already?” The agent smiled creepily. His prey relied on tricks to do this much damage to him, but now the tables have turned. “I’ll tear you apart limb from limb, heal you back up so you don’t die, and then cut you open all over again.”

With a slash, the agent struck at James.

But James hadn’t cast the Chaos Barrier for defensive purposes. He did it to activate his [Reckless Abandon].

[Reckless Abandon] greatly increased his power and speed. But this time, James wasn’t planning to use his speed to run away.

He knew he couldn’t afford to run in this battle. He needed to pull out all the stops right now. If not, the agent could even kill his friends before he could react in time.

He knew what he needed to do.

It was time to use his Chaos Javelin. It was a risky move, but after stealing from the agent, he now had more mana than ever. And he had also damaged him quite a bit by now, it was the perfect time to use it.

If a Chaos Javelin empowered by Reckless Abandon couldn’t do the trick, then nothing would.

James raised his hand and swirling crimson energies started forming around his hand.

The surroundings were drenched in an overwhelming of aura of Darkness, but as soon as the Javelin started forming, the new aura seemed to push away the Darkness.

The agent’s eyes opened widely. As powerful as he was now, he knew he couldn’t afford to get hit by that, not in his already damaged state.

But James wouldn’t let him run. The agent activated his speed skill again, but James was already under the effects of Reckless Abandon.

With one hand busy casting the Chaos Javelin, and the other still useless from the effects of [Split Mind], James couldn’t do anything to stop him. He knew he’d regret it, but the regret would be much bigger if he let the agent live for even a second longer. So James released his [Split Mind].

Immediately, all the pain that James should’ve been feeling all along was allowed back into the conscious part of his mind. Even though he regained sight of his other eye, his vision had turned entirely red. His mind and body could feel nothing but pain. Both the pain from the sacrifices and the pain from absorbing the Darkness seemed to have multiplied each other.

But he had a job to do. His friends were counting on him, and so were the many lives that would be spared if this agent didn’t exist.

With his now no longer paralyzed hand, James grabbed the agent, not letting him leave. The desperate agent turned around and struck at James, but James was still covered in the Chaos Barrier.

James’s Chaos Javelin was a quick spell, but the desperate agent struck again even more swiftly. The attacks were happening in fractions of seconds, both parties being under the effects of spells that greatly increased their speed and reflexes.

James’s Chaos Barrier still resisted his attacks, but the empowered agent’s strikes were much stronger than before, shattering part of it.

The agent focused his attacks on James’s hand that was holding him. The barrier shattered in that spot, leaving James’s hand exposed.

James had many strengths, but durability wasn’t one of them. With one swift strike, his hand got sliced clean off.

But James was already experiencing overwhelming pain. At this point, the added pain from the severed hand barely even registered in his mind.

Driven by sheer willpower and a sense of duty, James continued the attack.

The agent, free from James’s grasp, turned and dashed away.

But it was too late. James’s spell was swift, too fast for the agent to outrun at this point.

James released the Javelin, the crimson energies shooting out so fast that even when under the effects of Reckless Abandon, James could barely see it.

The agent, sensing he couldn’t out run it, turned around to block it.

But it was impossible. This spell had cost James all his mana, and he was even empowered by Reckless Abandon. Nothing could block it.

There was no scream. There was no sound. There was no blood. Just like that, the fight was over.

The agent’s body was incredibly tough, so it hadn’t been entirely evaporated. But the area where the Javelin hit had been erased from existence.

Seeing the giant hole in the agent’s chest, James smiled. He almost couldn’t believe his own eyes. He was still expecting a phase three, maybe even a phase four of some kind. But in trying not to underestimate the enemy, he had underestimated his own power.

Finally, he could relax. With a big grin on his face, he fell to the ground. Hopefully, passing out would numb the pain.