A swing of his spear later and bodies fell to the ground. The attacks coming his way were unceasing, but he was starting to understand how to deal with them. Liam didn’t bother trying to see with his eyes. Instead, he used Aura Sight to identify the most threatening blows and avoid them accordingly, while avoiding the slower ones with his speed. Everything else hit him. That did not mean, however, that he was unable to fight back. For every second that passed, more and more of the enemies were killed as he grew used to this type of battle. Liam thought to himself.

‘All into Aura.’

[Ding!]

Every enemy gave him around eight stat points. Given the high number of enemies, this was the most defining battle of Liam’s life so far. If he succeeded in killing many of them and increased his stats, he could grow several times stronger over the course of this one battle. If he failed, he would die. His energy reserves were already at around 70%.

“Event Horizon.”

Darkness blanketed everything in a one-kilometer radius around him. The chaotic movement of Aura immediately shifted the direction of the attacks coming at him, disturbing the enemies’ balance. Every single one of Liam’s movements was calculated tens of times by his powerful brain, an insane amount of information being processed by his Intelligence stat.

Then, he cleared his mind completely. He entrusted himself to his instincts. Ever since long ago, back when he lost all of his five senses for the first time, they had been developing. After his regeneration reached inhuman levels, this development obviously stagnated, as he was able to use his senses once more. Right now, however, it was starting again. It was because none of his senses were useful on this battlefield. His sight was constantly hindered by flashes of light and different-colored waves of Aura that covered everything in view. His hearing was disturbed by the sounds of thousands of enemies making the atmosphere implode with sheer brute force, while he was never one to use his sense of smell much, to begin with. He could feel his spear’s presence even without his sense of touch and taste was useless in battle.

It meant that it was as if he had lost all of his five senses once more, with no way to regenerate them. He let his fighting instincts and muscle memory take over.

The seconds crawled by. Every moment was extended into countless as Liam’s black-armored figure cut through the green-armored enemies. Like a ghost, he narrowly avoided attacks that should have surely hit him, counterattacking simultaneously. Every time his spear was swung, blood flowed before being instantly incinerated. Black and golden Aura dominated the space as more and more enemies were forced to climb the wall to deal with him. Liam no longer knew how many he had killed. He simply mindlessly assigned his stat points and moved according to how he felt he should.

Ever so slowly, his connection with his spear grew more intense. His movements became sharper and more accurate, his footwork evolving alongside it. As the enemies’ attacks poured towards him continuously, it was as if they were merely fueling the fire. Liam’s evolution sped up.

A rumbling sound echoed. He didn’t need to think to know that his allies had finally come.

It was a turning point.

As over twenty million Drakkhan troops arrived, there was no way for the enemy not to have realized. This wasn’t one man’s desperate actions; it was a true siege. The Aura storm around Cinzolia suddenly more than tripled in size. The thousands surrounding Liam became millions in instants. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

As arranged, the millions of Drakkhan did not approach the wall, instead supporting Liam from afar. As the seconds passed and this status quo was maintained, more and more enemies turned to Liam, who was wildly fighting to the best of his ability.

‘It seems that they have realized it.’

Liam could be considered to be their only enemy. The moment he died, the millions of Drakkhan would immediately retreat. He was this battle’s deciding factor. As the enemies realized this, the pressure upon him multiplied tens of times. In less than five seconds, his armor shattered.

Pressed against the ground, Liam forced himself to stand and dashed to the side, making the attack coming at him miss. Nevertheless, it detonated, pushing him away. It was at that moment that an Elite Captain’s figure appeared above him. Liam hurriedly raised his spear, blocking the blow with the shaft as a loud sound rang from the collision spot.

The otherworldly material that made up Cinzolia’s wall cracked dangerously. Finally, almost an entire minute after Liam had arrived on the wall for the first time, the Elite Captains had joined the battle. Having just barely blocked this attack, Liam kicked the Captain in the stomach, making them fly away for almost a kilometer. Nevertheless, three more replaced them. The group of three became five and then ten. Before Liam could do anything else, he realized he was surrounded by thirty Elite Captains.

He shivered as he felt the Auras belonging to twenty of them start to merge and unite as the ten remaining leaped towards him. He bellowed.

“Fuck!”

An attack created by twenty Elite Captains wasn’t something he could currently deal with. If it hit him, his body would be destroyed and he would be forced to regenerate it from nothingness, spending a lot of energy doing so. However, there was nothing he could do. Ten Elite Captains were more than enough to tie him down. He desperately fought, using his Active Skills almost recklessly, but was forced to watch the twenty Auras feed one another to the point they became a single one. This one gigantic mass of Aura shot towards him at a speed much faster than he could move.

It was the moment Liam’s body utterly disappeared for the second time in his life.

It was as if several nukes had detonated at once, but none of the enemy troops were harmed. The Drakkhan shifted uncomfortably as they started to retreat. Noticing this, the Fortress’ troops didn’t bother giving chase. They had defended themselves, at the cost of only a few hundred ordinary soldiers. It was enough.

The air vibrated as a great shout rang out on the battlefield. It was the voice of one of the Kingdom of Luweth’s Elite Captains, the one responsible for coordinating the attack that had destroyed Liam’s body.

“He’s still alive! All troops, prepare for battle!”

The shock in the eyes of the Kingdom’s troops became cold, steeled determination as the Drakkhan stopped their retreat, confused.

The air shimmered.

In an instant, a naked man appeared, the damaged spear that had fallen to the ground flying into his grasp. The man roared before his figure was compressed into a single point. The enemy Captains’ eyes shook before the same Captain opened his mouth. His words, however, never left his throat.

The atmosphere imploded as the thirty Captains’ bodies were torn apart alongside hundreds of ordinary troops. Liam expanded back into himself, yelling.

“Crescent Moon Wave!”

Wave after Wave shot out of his spear, hitting the ordinary soldiers by the thousands. Now that his energy had been mostly spent and his body had been damaged to the point of having been destroyed once, the Skills that improved his power as he was closer to death were now activated in full force. By using Singularity, he had managed to break out of the encirclement by the thirty Elite Captains.

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

[Advanced Spear Mastery has become One with the Spear.]

[You have evolved a Skill near death! The Skill’s Proficiency has risen sharply!]

Liam didn’t bother to wonder why the System considered him to be near death. Even if one ignored his current state, with his lifespan reduced by such an extent even though it had been increased through Essence of Eternity, his ability which allowed him to withstand the passage of time and increased his lifespan, alongside his high stats, which also affected his body’s aging, he could be considered to be on his last legs in terms of life force alone. Like a candle about to burn out, his lifespan was feeble compared to what it should have been. It was no surprise that he was permanently under the “near-death” Skill Proficiency buff. Naturally, he had just regenerated his body from nothingness at a large expense. If the battle continued the same, he would surely die. That alone made him close to death, as well.

In an instant, his movements changed. They gained a certain rhythm, developing even further, becoming faster, stronger, and more accurate. His spear moved as if it were part of his own body, completely under his control. Liam’s hazy eyes focused once more as he pulled away from reveling in his Skill evolution.

The first thing he saw was blood. An instant later, this blood was incinerated by the Aura emitted from his body. He had no idea how many enemies he had killed already. All he knew was that there were countless more in front of him and around him. He was surrounded. It didn’t mean certain defeat, however.

Liam’s perception expanded, grasping everything near him. He reacted to the attacks coming his way automatically. Under this battle’s insane pressure and his own talent, as well as his high Perception stat, his instincts, which had just begun to develop once more, soared and evolved.

[Aura Sight has become Aura Perception.]

[You have evolved a Skill near death! The Skill’s Proficiency has risen sharply!]

[You have acquired Master’s Domain.]

[You have acquired a new Skill near death! The Skill’s Proficiency has risen sharply!]

The increase in Liam’s combat power was immediate, but he still didn’t stop.

‘All into Aura.’

He assigned the stat points he’d received from killing the soldiers.

His Aura surged.