James was already putting everything he had into his attack. He didn’t have anything else, that was it. And yet, his opponent had so much more.

At this rate, his crimson sparks would fade out, and the Darkness would swallow him whole. And his friends would be next.

He desperately tried to think of anything else, but there was nothing he could do. He was already using everything he had. Other than cutting off his leg and chucking it at Garantep, he had nothing else to throw at him.

His brain had been running arcane simulations and meditations in the background. But there were no solutions. None except the one he didn’t even want to acknowledge.

Usually, he’d come up with a solution at the eleventh hour. But as he was desperately trying to think of a way out, he realized something. He realized that there truly was nothing else he could throw at Garantep. He couldn’t attack him with anything else. He could regenerate his resources fast, but Garantep wouldn’t wait around for him to recover. This was truly it this time. And he was going to lose if he kept this up.

But as he was despairing, thoughts that he always regarded as stupid entered his mind. So-called nuggets of wisdom that always seemed like empty platitudes. And yet, these stupid platitudes now gave him an idea.

It was as if his mind was trying to tell his something. His body was burning, but his mind was filled with pretentious proverbs and smug idioms.

‘The only winning move is not to play’.

‘He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day’.

At first, he chalked it up to fear, despair filling his mind as he saw himself losing, as the Darkness was slowly overwhelming his crimson sparks.

But as he was examining his options, he could clearly see that there was no other attack he could throw at Garantep. Unless he actually killed himself in order to take Garantep with him, this was it. This all he had. And it wasn’t nearly enough.

Every time they were in mortal danger, James used to tell himself that he’d sacrifice himself to save his friends. Especially after he saw the agents do it, he didn’t even need his arcane simulation to know how to detonate his own body. And it would likely work too, since he had a heck of a lot more mana than the agents.

But now that he was facing an opponent that would actually kill him in the next few minutes, he found himself unable to actually pull the trigger on the dreaded option he didn’t even want to acknowledge. Deliberately dying to save your friends is a lot harder than the heroic daydreams in our heads would have us believe.

He truly loved them as much as he always declared. But there had to be some other way. Even if he won, by dying, he knew he would be inflicting so much grief upon his friends, that they might actually lose their minds.

Therefore, his mind desperately tried to cling to any other option. No spells came to mind, but there were proverbs and platitudes aplenty.

So he thought, what if instead of clashing his powers with Garantep’s, only to inevitably lose … he just didn’t. What if he just didn’t?

It was stupid, it barely made any sense. It was so anti-climactic that he was second-guessing himself, wondering whether he’d just end up dying instantly to some element he didn’t consider.

But that stupidity is exactly why he was willing to bet on it. What other proud mage or warrior would do this? It was unheard of. Retreating when you’re fighting your nemesis, when the battle was finally about to reach its climax.

But James wasn’t a proud man. He had accomplished a lot during his time in this world, but he was still the same crazy nerd he had been in his previous life. Turning tail and running like a coward was not off the table, no mater how much of a crazy and reckless bastard he was most of the time.

The fact that Garantep was continuously pouring Darkness out of him, with no sign of slowing down, told him all he needed to know.

His Chaos Flower was in full swing, burning the Darkness without stop. But even though it was constantly burning the Darkness, it wasn’t exactly making any progress anymore either. Even more Darkness was pouring out to replace it.

“If you give up now, I promise to torture your friends less.” Garantep laughed as even more Darkness shot out.

The tide had really turned against James, but he still had mana left.

It was clear that trying to overwhelm the Darkness with his crimson sparks was clearly not working any more, and it would be insanity to keep trying the same thing over and over and expect different results.

Staying and fighting would be even more stupid than his stupid idea.

Even the stupid, harebrained plan of running away was much better than just delaying the inevitable.

Suddenly, the crimson sparks disappeared.

“So you’ve finally smartened up?” Garantep laughed maniacally. “Good move. I’m a man of my word, I’ll only torture your friends’ souls for a thousand years now.”

With the sparks gone, the Darkness quickly moved in, about to swallow James whole.

“You’ll have to catch me first though.” James smiled as SARM threw him away, the sheer amount of mana infused into the throw creating a sonic boom.

As he was zooming through the air, James didn’t even look back. He couldn’t waste a single second.

His plan was silly, but it could work. But he had no room for mistakes. There was a reason he kept calling it stupid. Garantep had sacrificed the longevity of his powers in order to kill him. He might not be much of a threat when this was over, but for now, he was stronger than he ever was. And that included his speed.

James knew he had to execute his getaway flawlessly. He was so fast that within seconds he had reached his friends, who at that point were watching the battle from miles away.

“He’s coming our way!” Denmac shouted.

James didn’t have time to warn them of his plan though. Instead, he crashed into Helios and immediately pushed them all with a wave of mana.

“What the hell?” Emilia shouted as she found herself flung hundreds of feet back, flying uncontrollably through the air on the flying carpet along with the rest of the group.

James couldn’t even spare a moment to inform them of his plan. He just had to hope they’d be able to understand.

Luckily, his friends weren’t dummies either. Without a word, they got to work right away.

Even as they were forcefully pushed away by James’s mana, after a millisecond of being surprised, they began doing what they could, pumping all their mana into pushing the flying carpet.

James wouldn’t just shove them for no reason, so he obviously must’ve wanted them to flee in that direction with him.

Lunaris and Helios understood right away, steering the carpet in the direction that James flung them. The rest of the group followed suit, frantically shoving mana into the carpet.

James was still pushing them with his mana, increasing their speed even further.

As abrupt as James’s change in strategy was, Garantep was right behind them already. Just because an idea was so stupid that it was incredibly unexpected, it didn’t mean that it was flawless. Naturally, Garantep wouldn’t just give up on them. Him and his now thousands of giant crescent blades were in hot pursuit, ready to slice them in half the second James made an error.

But now, James was reunited with his group, and that was an advantage already. Even though they didn’t even have time to exchange words, much less strategize, that didn’t mean they didn’t have their uses.

Lunaris was already healing James. Even while dashing forward with all their speed, she was pouring as much mana as she could into James’s body.

And that’s exactly what James was counting on.

He was already so injured from the many sacrifices that he couldn’t even see. Blood was pouring out of every pore on his body. He’d die if he sacrificed again with his body in that state.

But he was still alive. And if he was alive, he could be healed.

Naturally, Lunaris couldn’t heal him much, not in the few seconds they had left until Garantep would slice them in half with his blades.

But the ounce of healing she did give was all he really needed. It gave him hope.

Without hesitation, James cast his sacrifice seven times.

Even though he had already died once, he didn’t exactly remember what dying felt like. But it probably felt a lot like what he was feeling at that moment. Couldn’t be any worse.

His body was already in a dire state, he knew damn well he could very likely die if he sacrificed again.

But with Lunaris here, things were different. Even if he was left with one billionth of his total life force, just a minuscule amount of HP, barely a hair’s breadth away from the cold grip of death, he would live as long as she kept healing him.

It was insane, he knew that. Lunaris turned white as a ghost as soon as he cast the sacrifices. But insane moves were the only thing that could give them a chance to survive. Insane moves and a stupid plan were their best shot.

No matter how sick he felt, it was worth it. Activating [Reckless Abandon] would give them just the breathing room they needed.

But this time, he didn’t cast Chaos Barrier with his sacrifices, instead choosing to buff his allies with Chaotic Healing.

Immediately, their speed massively increased. They were already almost flying over the landscape, with James forcefully pushing them with mana to increase their speed furthermore.

The carpet was wobbling dizzyingly from the mind-boggling amount of mana poured into it, but at least it was much faster as well.

James coughed blood, his body shaking as the repeated sacrifices kept reminding him of his delightfully masochistic brand of stupidity and insanity.

But it was worth it, because not only was he himself even stronger, the fading [Reckless Abandon] stacks on him having been replenished. But his entire group was now buffed.

With their newfound strength, they were actually dashing away, the enemy being left farther behind by the second.

Still, they all knew that this wouldn’t last long. One couldn’t simply run away from an enemy like Garantep. That didn’t make any sense, the world just didn’t work like that.

He had more power than them, James himself realized that, and that’s precisely why he ran away. And if he had more power, there was nothing to stop him from simply redirecting some of it to increasing his speed. He’d catch up to them eventually.

But there was an important difference between James and Garantep. James’s powers could regenerate. He wasn’t using anything he couldn’t replace. Meanwhile, Garantep was burning off the Darkness he had stored for years, something that he couldn’t replenish it just like that.

The caveat was that they’d have to actually survive long enough for James to recover enough.

Which was much easier said than done. James wasn’t much of a math whiz, but he didn’t need to calculate a whole lot to realize that he couldn’t recover in just a few minutes. To truly tip the scales in their favor, they’d have to evade the enemy for a long hime.

Garantep’s blades were already hot on their heels as the crazed lunatic was desperately launching them forward.

A dark, crescent blade the size of a house flew by the group, barely missing them by an inch as they dodged for their life.