His barrier was about to break, but James learned long ago to not rely on his barriers. They were merely a tool to buy you time.

Luckily for him, sacrificing 100 times in total came with its benefits. [Reckless Abandon] was in full swing. The stalkers were fast, and James still couldn’t see them even if their swords were currently stabbing into his barrier. But under a hundred stacks of his buff, he was faster.

The swords moved in slow-motion. He could have dodged them. But he needed them to stab him. He needed to keep them all around him.

He wasn’t just standing around, waiting for the barrier to break. He was spawning dozens of Javelins a second. The casting time had become virtually non-existent.

More and more sounds appeared with each passing moment, he was already being stabbed from 8 directions. The barrier was barely holding.

He couldn’t wait for all of them to arrive, but eight was plenty.

James couldn’t dodge in any direction. He would be skewered if he tried. But with hundreds of Javelins on his side, aching to be released, he could just make himself a way out.

With one last loud crack, the barrier shattered. The swords immediately lunged at James, rushing to cut him into pieces.

But before they could, the giant mass of energy that were his Javelins shot forth.

“Let’s see if you can nullify this.” He cackled.

He could’ve conjured several Glaives with the hundreds of Javelins he had gathered. But he needed to overwhelm them.

Whatever magic they used to nullify his Chaos Flower was no joking matter. He had no idea what it was, but it was horrible news for someone who relied solely on his spells to fight his battles.

But they couldn’t possibly nullify everything. They might be able to completely nullify the spells of an average mage. Hell, these guys were no pushovers, they could possibly nullify the spells of many great mages put together.

But while James lacked finesse, what he had aplenty was power. If they relied on nullifying, then he’d just rely on overwhelming the nullification.

Since the stalkers were attempting to skewer James, the Javelins exploded immediately. It didn’t matter that they were invisible, they were mere inches away from him.

James got severely burned and injured from his own explosions. But that was only a small fraction of the damage his enemies received. And with Lunaris providing healing from afar, and his total lack of pain, the situation was still in his favor.

He did think of the possibility that many more stalkers could be around, waiting to slash him in half just as he flung himself away from the encirclement.

But his gambit had paid off. The explosions had cleared a way for him to leave unharmed. Well, as unharmed as you can be when you’re missing limbs and are burned all over. But for him that was another Tuesday at this point.

He cast another twenty sacrifices, activating his Chaos Barrier again. Through bloodshot eyes, he looked back. Unfortunately, he saw that he hadn’t managed to kill any stalker.

It took him a second to process it.

He saw them! He didn’t kill anyone, there were no corpses around. But he could finally see them.

James was sure there were still a few stalkers lying in stealth, but at least now he could see most of his enemies. And so the fight just got a lot more even.

“Wow, I can finally see them!” Denmac shouted gleefully.

“Thank God, that whole fight was a stressful, confusing mess.” Emilia was relieved. “All I could see was James flying randomly through the air as if someone was playing Ping Pong with his body.”

“My brother always knows what he’s doing.” Helios laughed cheerfully. “Even when he’s screwing up, he still knows what he’s doing. I’m sure he’ll show them who’s boss soon enough.”

“I just hope he doesn’t get cut into pieces again.” Lunaris was breathing heavily. “I’ve had to regrow his limbs several times in just a few minutes!”

“Damn, are you running out of mana?” Helios was concerned.

“No, I’m fine. I’m just worried for our little moron, he gets cut up way too often.” Lunaris smiled awkwardly.

“He’s a real man, he gets cut up and he doesn’t even wince. As tough as it gets, that’s my brother!”

“Of course he doesn’t wince, he doesn’t feel any pain at all.” Lunaris sighed and then giggled. “I’m not sure if it’s a good thing any more. Ever since he got that trait, he’s been losing limbs every day.”

“Yeah, but he’s a lot more powerful though!” Helios beamed proudly.

Meanwhile, James was peppering his foes with Javelins. But now that he could see them, they somehow seemed much faster than before. He couldn’t land any of his Javelins.

“What, now that your stealth is off, you’re lighter on your feet all of a sudden?” James growled as he fruitlessly spammed Javelins at his targets.

“You didn’t think we’d only have one layer of defense, did you?” James suddenly heard a voice behind him.

SARM flung him away, but not before his barrier cracked a bit from a direct sword slash.

The attack had come from a stalker that still had his stealth on.

Not only were the eight visible stalkers advancing towards him, but he had an unknown number of stalkers prowling around, still waiting to skewer him.

He could now see some of them, so that was still progress. But he was still in quite a bind.

“Well, at least my friends are safe.” James sighed as he spammed some more Javelins.