The agents were already charging their attacks towards James’s friends.

These were tough enemies, much stronger than the usual agent. James had to do something quickly, or a single random attack could kill half of his group.

He destroyed the first eight of the superior agents by conjuring seven empowered Javelins for each one of them. But he didn’t have the time to conjure that many Javelins now, and these enemies were obviously even stronger, requiring even more firepower to take down.

The superiors had already launched blades and waves of Darkness at the group. His friends weren’t sitting ducks, they were able to dodge around. But as James saw the attacks fly through the air, cutting deep into the ground when they missed, he realized that the power and speed of these enemies was not something that his friends could dodge for long. And they couldn’t even put up the barrier if they were forced to dodge for their life.

But while he couldn’t defeat them easily, he could at least keep a few of them from attacking his friends. His friends couldn’t dodge seven of them for long, but if he eased their burden, perhaps they could survive long enough for the dwarves and Denmac to put up the shield again. But that wasn’t going to happen if they were forced to dodge for their life. Especially since they also had to dodge and block the constant bombardment from the weaker agents as well. Hundreds of dark spells were dropping down each second. James could handle them without a problem, but that couldn’t be said about everybody.

To his dismay, the seven superiors weren’t targeting James at all yet, instead they were focusing entirely on his friends. As several sharp blades of Darkness were about to reach Lunaris, James jumped to intercept them.

His Chaos Barrier cracked right away. These superiors definitely packed a punch, he couldn’t let any of the attacks reach his friends. He sacrificed his health again, immediately replenishing the barrier. But more importantly, he activated [Reckless Abandon].

With his buffed speed and power, James swiftly cast a three Chaos Javelins, aiming them at the three weakest superiors.

But even with the added bonus of [Reckless Abandon], a few Javelins weren’t enough. The superiors didn’t even seem fazed by them.

He really needed to do something, quickly. His friends were dodging and blocking frantically, not having even a second to rest as the spells were flying everywhere.

The seven were unleashing wave after wave of powerful Dark bolts and blades that thundered as they were launched, cutting through the ground like butter when they missed. The group managed to dodge most of them, the sheer adrenaline greatly enhancing their defensive abilities, knowing that a good hit from one of those was as good as being dead. But when they dodged one of them, they were inevitably hit by one of the hundreds of spells launched by the weaker agents, who never seemed to stop their bombardment.

While his [Reckless Abandon] was still active, James prepared five Javelins and launched them at the weakest of the seven.

He would’ve preferred to take care of more of them at a time, but it seemed like his previous plan wasn’t an option for now.

The agent immediately reacted, trying to dodge the Javelins, while also casting a barrier onto himself. But they were much too swift at this short range.

With the five empowered Javelins hitting him, the agent resisted the first two, but the following ones cracked his defenses.

James didn’t even spare the time to blink, sending another four Javelins his way.

Half of his chest was evaporated in an instant.

As good as it felt to have eliminated one enemy, the victory was short-lived though. With one superior agent down, the rest of them went into a frenzy.

Their previous pace of launching spells was already incredibly quick. But now, they seemed to be recklessly throwing out every ounce of power they had within them.

Luckily, in the small window of time granted by the death of the seventh superior, Emilia managed to intervene with her crowd and control, in order to grant the dwarves the seconds they needed to rebuild the barrier. Denmac immediately joined them in fueling it, and thus the barrier was at full force again.

Now the barrier was back, but they were facing six enraged superiors that were foaming at the mouth.

Naturally, with the combined attacks of the six, the barrier would only crumble again. So James left the barrier entirely, foregoing any idea of strategy or tactics yet again. He could clearly feel the difference in power between the superiors and the rest of them.

He had actually always envisioned it this way, even when they were planning the mission at home. He knew he’d have to move away from the rest of the group to keep them safe. But he knew they’d object, so he didn’t tell them that.

His friends were powerful and necessary for the success of the mission in their own right, but he just couldn’t bear putting them at risk.

So he marched straight int the belly of the beast, willing to fight all the superiors by himself.

The superiors were too smart to fall for that trick though. Five of the superiors did leap at James, throwing their Dark blades at him.

But the strongest superior agent didn’t move. Instead, he began staring at the barrier. Suddenly, he shook uncontrollably, as all the Darkness within his body seemed to flow into his eyes.

James could feel the power of that energy right away. He realized in an instant that this plan wouldn’t work either. He needed to do something about that energy, otherwise in a few seconds he might not have any friends anymore.

However, without exchanging any words, the superiors had split themselves into a formation that didn’t allow him to intervene. It looked like they were even more experienced with formations than their group. With five agents cornering him, he couldn’t get to the first superior without at least taking a huge hit.

But if there was one thing that James cared about in this world, it was his friends. Not even his own wellbeing was as important to him as theirs.

The five agents blocked any exit. They were leaping at him from every direction, closing in with each passing moment, leaving him no way out.

But he wasn’t about to let his friends suffer whatever that first superior had in store for them. Disregarding any care about his own welfare, James used SARM to launch himself past the agents.

It was impossible to escape such an encirclement. Not without suffering the consequences. Immediately, James heard a crack, and then he felt two painful stabs in his back.

His Chaos Barrier had been broken, the agents’ Dark blades having stabbed deep into his flesh.

Had he not trained his physique with Bacchus over the three months, he would’ve certainly been dead already.

The pain was excruciating, so he had to activate [Split Mind].

He could still feel his flesh burning and corroding from the Darkness infused in the blades, but he couldn’t waste a single moment.

The strongest superior’s Darkness had all gathered within his eyes. Even the Darkness in his surroundings seemed to fade, all flowing into his head.

Suddenly, a loud, deafening beam of Darkness shot from his eyes. In a fraction of a second, it reached the group’s barrier, shattering it in an instant.

James was too late to save the barrier. But he still had options. As he was leaping towards the first superior, he noticed that the immense power of the beam seemed to be hard to control even for him. His neck was snapped back, he seemed to be straining himself to keep it steady. And that told James that he had an opportunity.

With the hand that could still move, James grabbed the agent by the back of his neck. With all of his body’s new strength, he pushed the agent’s face away from his friends.

But not only did he push it away, he pointed the beam towards the rest of the superiors, who were just about to stab him in the back again.

The first superior shrieked and clawed, trying desperately to shut off the beam, or at least change directions.

But the beam was too strong to be shut off in an instant. The amount of energy flowing through it was not something that could be turned off on demand. And James was holding him by the neck like his life depended on it, because it actually did.

Unable to shut off the beam, it immediately reached the other superiors.

They tried to dodge, but they were already in mid-jump, as they had been trying to leap and stab at James.

They tried to conjure some protection, but it was of no use. As soon as they were hit, their bodies exploded into a rain of flesh and guts.

Three of the superiors were gone in an instant. Unfortunately, two of them had not been leaping towards James, and they managed to dodge the beam.

Finally, the first superior managed to shut off the beam.

But it was already too late. It had only been fractions of a second, but three of the superiors were already dead.

James didn’t feel like celebrating though. He could now see with his very own eyes the evidence that agent society was incredibly hierarchical and unequal. Even though the rest of these were also called superiors, it looked like the remaining three that were still alive were an entirely different breed.

Especially the first one, he looked more powerful than the rest of them combined. His body didn’t even look human, it was like a bunch of violent energies had been hammered together in a vaguely humanoid shape.