Something had just been taken from Shen. Something so intimately related to his self and integrity that he didn't even understand what had happened at first. It was like a mortal suddenly finding unable to breathe; could they pinpoint that their lungs had just been taken?

A few moments later, he identified what had been stolen from him: his Concept of Zephyr.

Well, not stolen, but it was somehow beyond his reach. No, that was also wrong. Zephyr was part of his Path, part of him; it couldn't be just taken or shut down. Yet he had somehow couldn't translate Zephyr into anything useful.

Shen still recalled everything he knew about Zephyr, every rule, application, and detail. However, he found himself simply incapable of applying that knowledge to anything. He felt like a writer without a pen. The words might be in his mind, but he simply had no way of putting them to the paper. Yes, that was it; the pen had been taken from him.

Zephyr's subtly and minutia was such a fundamental part of his every movement that he had trouble finding his foot. Shen actually fell to the ground, and the gnolls had been waiting for this.

The spikes on the aerial vehicles shot white laser-like rays at Shen. Fortunately, they didn't travel at light speed; unfortunately, they had a homing function. All the spikes in the vehicles, no matter what direction they were pointing at, shot at once and came to him faster than bullets.

The mages shot all manners of spells. Many were restrictive, while the damage-dealing ones were on the level of the best Alicia could use. Black flames, white ice, and red lightning formed inches from him.

Special arrows the size of a car came from war bows; almost invisible, thin needles were shot by magic rifles; metal balls came from the RPG launchers. The balls opened close to Shen and released metal nets to trap him.

The war tanks' gun barrels released a ball of white plasma surrounded by golden lightning that looked very, very dangerous. At least those didn't have a homing function.

Meanwhile, the white cubes were flying quickly towards him.

The gnolls were exploiting Shen's moment of weakness to the utmost. They were likely throwing everything they had on him, or most of it, hoping something stuck. Even if nothing did, Shen would at the very least be forced to waste energy to deal with that.

It was a win-win situation for the gnolls, and it worked.

Shen recovered fast enough from the lack of Zephyr thanks to his learning ability and started running closer to the nearby gnolls before the white cubes got to him. Though he could destroy the cubes, it took too much qi.

However, as he ran, he was forced to take some of the spells on his body because pushing his willpower against so many gnolls would be suicide. There were dozens of spells in the direction he ran toward, all at peak E-rank power.

He swung his spear to destroy or deflect everything he could. He didn't put any qi behind it to avoid a clash of wills, limiting his blade's power, but he was still a master of Sharpness, letting him easily cut through any physical spells. The lightning struck his spear with a vengeance, but the spear and the magic were of the same E+ tier; though his weapon was damaged, it wasn't anything it couldn't recover from with its self-repair enchantment.

The many invisible spells, like wind and gravity, gave him more trouble. Shen could feel them with his mana sense, but only when they got too close. He let those pass while focusing on the thin needles brimming with mana, which felt way more dangerous. He made short work of them, dodged the metal nets by a hair's breadth, and finally freed himself from that mass of attacks.

Many spells and even a few needles had struck by then. There was just too much thrown at him, and Shen had had to prioritize what to defend against.

The fire released a searing heat, wind blades tried to behead or dismember him, an ice spike attempted to impale him, gravity pulled him to different sides, a couple needles tried to pierce his skin, and even one of the war tanks' plasma attacks exploded nearby, covering everything in heat, light, and pressure.

Shen's armor was shredded almost instantly, and he took it all with his qi-filled body.

No, not just a qi filled-body; a D+ resistance body, and one filled with qi, which made it even more resistant.

Feng Shen (D) | 169 / 200 HP | -31

Shen was instantly rewarded for upgrading his resistance. Though he took 15% of his total HP as damage, it was but a scratch when considering how many attacks he took directly in his body. Without the upgrade, he would be dead now.

At D- resistance, he estimated he would've taken about three hundred points of damage. At D, around one hundred. But that wasn't even what worried him the most.

The needles had released an acid substance on his skin even when they failed to prickle him, but even D resistance wouldn't have been an issue for them.

The substance was liquid-like, and each needle had released around a cup of it. The acid liquid felt alive and slithered slowly on Shen's skin, looking for a way to get inside him. It tried to corrode his skin, and though it failed, he shuddered as he thought of the damage it could cause inside him.

Theoretically, he could use his qi to fight it, but he doubted the gnolls, who had proven so tactically effective until now, wouldn't have thought of that. He definitely didn't want to find out whatever nasty surprises the substance had in stock for him.

He got rid of the substance by shaking his body at supersonic speed, a little worried that might be the trigger for something terrible. Fortunately, the liquid was pushed away from him without issue. When it unstuck from him, he drove a small strand of qi into the thing—and it exploded so powerfully that he almost fell to the ground again.

Shen had been right; if that thing had gotten inside him, he would be dead now. The gnolls knew what they were doing.

He had never been happier with his speed and footwork. Dealing with some spells that made his movement harder, and without Zephyr at that, he was at least twenty percent slower than before but still faster than all the projectiles, and once he recovered from his fall, he managed to dodge everything.

For all of the gnolls' preparations, they either hadn't expected him to recover that fast, or the attack had been a mere ruse—

All monoliths' boundaries expanded at once. Shen found himself inside the area of influence of three of them. His ability to push Flow and Boundlessness into his qi or use them passively was instantly removed from him.

Shen didn't trip this time, but his speed took another hit. He never had felt so closely before how his Path was him. It was in everything he did, even when he wasn't using any ability.

Shen became only as swift as the fastest projectiles. That was a far cry from his max speed, but it was better than nothing, and his footwork still let him dodge almost everything while his spear cut apart whatever remained.

So he kept running. His Foundational Concept was still his, and he instinctively knew that it couldn't be taken from him without killing him.

Using his Zephyr-Gale Footwork and Windstorm Spear Art without Zephyr or Flow was weird. It felt like trying to chew without a tongue. It was still theoretically possible but awkward and needless hard.

Still, he accomplished it, and the added difficulty had the bonus of helping him quickly acclimate to his improved stats.

Finally, Shen reached the first gnoll, who wore black plate armor from head to toe and wielded a big ass tower shield with two hands.

Fortunately, Shen felt he could cut the shield by just expending a little qi. Sharpness was still his and still mastered. Understanding the other Concepts had made his movements faster and smooth, but that was all. Shen wouldn't pack as hard as punch with about half his max speed, but in itself, his blade's power hadn't decreased.

Shen cut through the first gnoll's tower shield—

Extra mana filled the shield, coming from the gnoll holding it. Shen's spear hit the shield and cut through—slowly, like a cold knife going through frozen butter. He would eventually accomplish his goal, but not fast enough.

It wasn't the first time Shen dealt with a defensive ability, maybe even a Skill, but it was the first time it was so effective. If everything up to this point wasn't evidence enough, this was the ultimate proof that the gnolls knew their business. To avoid wasting resources, the tower shield, which he had previously seen as little more than paper, was only as hard as it needed to be. It became useful only when a defensive ability was used with it.

That wasn't to say Shen couldn't cut through it; he could. He pushed more qi into his blade to will it to become even sharper, and it went through metal like a melting knife going through warm butter. The gnolls' armor fared no better, and his flesh was worse. The defender was quickly split into two.

| Gnoll (E) | 593,314 → 593,439 AP AP

The issue was the energy expenditure to accomplish that.

Shen was a D-rank with almost all his stats close to D+. He had mastered his foundational Concept and had the support of a D+ and a C- Skills. At least by Earth's standards, he was an elite fighter.

Yet, even thousands of him wouldn't be able to go through the army in front of him without expending all their stamina and qi.

No D-rank gnoll had appeared yet, and Shen guessed they simply didn't need to; this E-rank army had been created to deal with D-ranks. Taking Concepts from him was proof of it; Shen felt his Concepts were even more important than his stats at D-rank exactly because D-rank was about mastering Concepts. The more he understood them, the more he used them, they became him, and his strength became dependent on them.

Everything was in place to deal with someone like him, not with overwhelming power but with strategy. The tactics were just cost-effective enough that the gnolls would take some damage, but they were so many that the outcome could be only one: Shen's defeat.

Or so the gnolls believed.

"Buy stamina potion," he said.

| Purchased: Minor Refreshing Potion | -900 AP

| Remaining AP: 592,534

As soon as the potion materialized, he drank it. It would recover 100 stamina points over 10 minutes. That should cover his stamina expenditure. If not, his almost six hundred thousand AP would let him buy a lot of stamina crystals before he ran out.

Only qi was still an issue, but Shen would try to save the energy as much as possible. He could accomplish that by learning how to use his stats to their full potential, which would lessen how much qi he needed to use to stay alive.

Shen would eventually run out anyway, but he didn't genuinely care.

He had entertained the possibility of temporarily retreating, but if that wasn't achievable, so be it. He existed to kill, and his goal was to develop an aura. As long as he accomplished both, he would die a happy man.

He would postpone his death the most while pushing himself to the utmost. The crisis should even help—

He stepped into another monolith's area of influence, and Arc Flash was also taken from him.

Only his Foundational Concept remained. He was as Conceptually pure as he could be to develop his aura. Failing was not an option.

Shen was his spear, and his spear was his Path. Today he would prove himself, his Path, his future, or die trying.

Fate's die had been cast.