“Wait, this one city gave you as much city as 10 of the smaller ones?!” Lunaris suddenly realized what James had said. They were all so focused on just how quickly he accomplished such an insane feat, that their brains didn’t properly process what he told them.

“I bet you’re a lot more enthusiastic about my crazy plan now, huh Emilia?” James grinned excitedly.

“Do you actually mean that? You just made as much progress as if we had destroyed 10 cities?” Emilia got the words out with great difficulty, as she could barely comprehend what she was hearing.

“Yes, and if we hurry up we can hit a few more of these big cities. Let’s go!”

Before the others could even gather their wits, James had already grabbed them with his tentacles and put them on the carpet. They didn’t even get a word out before they found themselves soaring through the sky, travelling at many times the speed of sound.

And before they could even lose the contents of their stomachs, they were already at the next big Stygian city. And hundreds of agents were already converging upon their location.

“All right, you know the drill.” James laughed as he began pouring mana onto his friends’ barrier. “I’ll take care of the big ones, you kill as many of the little ones as you can before I’m done.”

Even though they were still woozy from the ride, the group got into their positions right away. Denmac and the dwarves made good use of the mana James was pumping, and began erecting their usual barrier. Meanwhile, Lunaris, Helios and Emilia were already throwing spells at the agents who were furiously stabbing at the barrier.

“Kill them as quicky as possible, cause this time I’m making every second count!” James said and immediately darted towards the superior agents.

“Did I not hear him properly, or does that imply that he wasn’t making every second count before this? Like when he took mere minutes to destroy entire cities, sometimes even seconds.” Denmac began regulating his breathing. He was beyond tired of getting surprised by James, this whole shtick got old long ago. And yet, the bastard just kept surprising him.

“I’ve found that the best way to forget about it is to just try to grab as much xp for yourself as you can.” Emilia shouted as she relentlessly shot her arrows outside the barrier, not pausing for even half a second to adjust the trajectory. She just kept shooting without thinking, focusing her whole being into her bow, as if that was preferable to dwelling on James’s impossible deeds for even a second longer.

But sadly, her focused state was interrupted by hundreds of explosions that shook the ground and incinerated half of the city in an instant.

“Let the lunatic do what he does best, you just focus on your own thing!” Emilia whispered to herself as she actively tried to prevent herself from thinking about the impossible deeds that were happening outside the barrier at that very moment.

“You know, this really does help!” Denmac said as he was throwing out fireballs. He wasn’t much of a combatant, but focusing on launching spells, as useless as they were, was indeed quite soothing. At the very least, it prevented his brain from contemplating the impossibility and insanity of the horrors that were just outside the barrier. And how an even bigger horror was slaughtering them like it was nothing.

But just as Emilia and Denmac were finding the sweet spot of their comfy, soothing exercise, an innocent voice disturbed their blissful tranquility.

“All done!” James grinned. “And off to the next one!”

With a flick of his hands, James eradicated the remaining rank-and-file agents that were attacking the barrier.

In that one flick of his wrist, he killed more agents than all of them put together. But before their brains had time to process this information, James had already put them onto the carpet again, and they were off to the next city.

“How long do you think it’ll be before group B arrives?” Lunaris asked.

“There’s no way to tell for sure.” Denmac said while clinging for dear life to the speeding carpet. “I don’t think they were actually en route until the last moment, because it looked like James was losing the fight until he pulled off the ridiculous nuke. But with how powerful these guys supposedly are, I doubt it will take them much longer.

“Don’t you worry about group B.” James flashed them a smile. “Once I’m done with this next city, I’ll have more than enough power to deal with whoever comes our way.”

“Oh, and by the way, we’re here!” James announced gleefully.

The group quickly got off the carpet, so woozy that it was a miracle they could even stand. But they robotically got to their positions and repeated the same routine they’ve done a million times.

“You know, for something as dangerous as this, it sure is boring.” Denmac sighed as he threw fireballs. “I mean, we’re just a few hundred feet away from superior agents that could probably kill dozens of mages with just a flick of their finger. And yet we’re just going through a routine, barely even having to think.”

“Hey, I’m happy with the status quo.” Emilia replied. “Boring is good. Boring means we’re not being stabbed by some psychotic dark entity that wants to torture us for all eternity.”

“Oh yeah, I love boring too now that I think about it.” Denmac quickly corrected his mistake. “It’s just that I wish I could be like James. Going out there and duking it out with beings that would put fear even into the hearts of kings and queens. Accomplishing mind-blowing feats every 5 minutes.”

“Don’t worry about.” Lunaris chuckled. “You haven’t even noticed it, but you’ve already progressed quite nicely. Not only has your level skyrocketed since we embarked on this mission, but you can even perform astral projections now. Sure, you’re way behind James, but at this rate you’ll be a legendary mage yourself before long. Hell, you’re already way above average, how many people do you know that can actually do astral projection?”

“Huh, I can’t believe I haven’t noticed it.” Denmac looked stunned for a few seconds. But this time he wasn’t stunned by what James had done. He was stunned by himself!

“We’ve all progressed quite nicely.” Helios laughed heartily. “Just ignore James and you’ll be more than happy about your progress. You can’t compare to a freak like him, don’t do it. It’s unhealthy. Think of him as some sort of mythical creature instead of a mage that’s around your age.”

Not even ten minutes had passed, and the mythical creature was already back.

“All done!” James beamed happily.

“Oh God, I can’t take another one of those carpet rides.” Emilia nearly puked at the mere thought.

“Don’t worry about that.” James smiled fiendishly. “Can’t you sense it? The cavalry is already here.”