Michael let out a breath as he stepped over the broken corpse of the Forgotten Leader. The dwarf’s body had a large hole in its chest, but the white glowing tears kept flowing. He raised his gaze and looked at the large sphere of light a bit ahead of him, then touched it with his free hand. The expected System notifications appeared in front of him as the light became blinding.

  [You have purified part of the Consumed Territory. You have received three Skill Points and three Levels.]

  [The Curse of Darkness resents your existence. Its effects have increased by 5%.]

  [The Forgotten rejoice, for a powerful warrior now remembers their names. All XP gains from the Forgotten have increased by 10%.]

  Michael nodded to himself, trying to adjust to the strengthened Curse of Darkness’ effects. Since he had cleared so many of the consumed Villages, the effects had increased dramatically. Still, at least he could cope with them by collecting the spheres of light inside the houses. There was no way to completely repel the Curse without using Illumination, which would draw the Forgotten toward him.

  Michael looked around as the darkness vanished and gave way to an all-encompassing blue hue.

  In the end, I didn’t manage to really test out how the Blessing of Light would interact with the bodies of ‘living’ Forgotten.

  He looked to the right, in the direction of the very heart of the Consumed Territory. In the distance, he could see an impenetrable curtain of darkness even deeper than that around it. Even though he was currently under the effects of Clear Sight, he couldn’t see through it at all. All he could tell was that it was coming from below, like a flame in a bonfire.

  The Abyss.

  It was obvious what the impenetrable darkness was connected to. Truthfully, Michael had decided to give up on the Abyss. It wasn’t worth the risk, regardless of what rewards awaited him. As his thoughts reached this point, Michael furrowed his brow. Was that really true? Could he afford to give up on an opportunity to obtain greater strength in the situation he was in?

  But if I end up dead or seriously wounded, it would be worse.

  Regardless of how the Gods of War would react to his death, he simply didn’t want to make his mother sad.

  Michael sighed and looked around. Bluestone’s Territory had completely taken over the ruined Village. He looked back at the Abyss’ curtain of darkness.

  Deeper, then.

  He unhesitatingly dashed toward it, weaving between the small buildings and heading ever deeper into the Consumed Territory. Every time he came across a lone house, he entered it to collect the sphere of light.

  It happened after five minutes, when he had gone deeper into the Consumed Territory.

  Michael ran on the uneven ground. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed and his ears twitched. Rapid footsteps against the stone ground, several sets. He continued to run, raising the Elder Chief’s Staff. The first Forgotten appeared from behind one of the massive stone pillars, and the second leaped over a house. Michael quickly gauged his opponents.

  One Warrior and one Mage.

  The Mage was a female dark elf with a slashed torso, and the Warrior was a male dwarf with a hole through his belly. For the first time, the Forgotten of different Races had appeared together. As he was about to finish casting, the two of them moved. The dwarf dashed forward, each step crushing the stone underneath as he shot toward Michael like a bullet, axe lifted high. At the same time, the dark elf waved her wand. Mana gathered in front of her in the shape of a large arrow before it moved, piercing through the air toward his head. Michael whispered the last part of his chant.

  “Mana Field.”

  The twin storms of mana exploded outward from his position, but he also leaped to the side. The woman’s mana arrow missed him, but the dwarf was still closing in on him. The Mana Fields crashed against him in full, like a tidal wave against a lone rock. The dwarf almost immediately slowed down considerably, but didn’t stop entirely. At the same time, another sound reached Michael’s ears, almost drowned out by the dwarven Forgotten’s heavy steps and the twisting mana from the woman’s spell. A projectile, closing in like a missile.

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  His eyes widened as his Dragonheart thumped within his chest, activated in full. His senses instantly became much sharper, but there was no time to pinpoint where the projectile was coming from.

  Trust your instincts.

  This thought struck him almost at the same time as he moved. Michael jumped to the side as fast as he could. A moment later, a large arrow coated in faint darkness went through the space where his head had just been. He looked at it, feeling like time had slowed down. Its trajectory had been affected by his Mana Fields, but not nearly as much as he expected.

  The dwarf Forgotten arrived. The man brought down his axe with an eerie silence. Pure light flooded Michael’s veins, making his eyes glow golden. Time seemed to slow down even more. In this state, Michael looked at the dark elf, who was in the middle of casting another spell, and at the dwarf, who was readying himself to swing his weapon again. Simultaneously, Danger Sense warned him of an incoming attack from behind him. Michael let out a breath.

  Instead of jumping away, he jumped backward, empowered by Lightspeed. Danger Sense screamed at him, making him twist his body to try and avoid another one of the arrows. This time, he wasn’t as successful. The arrow went right through the left side of his body, tearing through his stomach with brutality. Pain rocked his mind as the organ disappeared and the sheer power behind the attack wracked his body. Michael gritted his teeth, forcing the blood rising up his throat back down. Naturally, the liquid fell through the newly-created hole after going down his esophagus.

  Desperately straining his body to contain the damage from the arrow, Michael’s gaze locked onto the figure of an orc Forgotten, who was holding a bow and crouching on top of a house’s roof, hundreds of meters away.

  That one’s trouble.

  The orc had grey skin and large tusks. His unfeeling eyes cried white, glowing tears, and there was a hole right in the middle of his forehead. Red tattoos covered his skin. The bow was white and almost the size of the Forgotten himself, but a few cracks spread throughout its frame.

  Michael moved to avoid the incoming arrow. Because of the damage he’d suffered and the pain, his movements were slightly more sluggish than usual. The dark elf had stepped out of his Mana Fields’ range, but the dwarf continued running toward him. The orc nocked another arrow with a deadpan expression.

  Kill one of them as fast as possible.

  The orc was too far away, and the dark elf had stepped out of his Fields’ area. The choice was obvious. Michael turned to the dwarf, who was approaching him by withstanding the Fields’ pressure. Keeping Lightspeed active and gritting his teeth, Michael shot toward the dwarf, closing the distance between them in less than a second.

  In the next moment, Michael unceremoniously slammed his fist into the dwarf Forgotten’s face, feeling the man’s nose crack and crumble, his flesh forced to give way. The dwarf was knocked back as he desperately tried to keep his balance, but Michael only ran forward and punched it again. This time, the creature was flung backward. Unwilling to give it any breathing room, Michael closed the distance between them again and kicked the dwarf’s side, pushing him toward the dark elf like a catapulted boulder. Michael narrowed his eyes.

  He abruptly twisted his body. One of the orc’s arrows grazed his body, puncturing a hole in his robe and drawing a line of blood on his right leg. His mind raced. With Lightspeed active, he could barely just outspeed the arrows after they were more than halfway on their way toward him, given the distance between himself and the orc, but this could change the moment the orc decided to narrow the distance. He glanced at the orc. As if he could read Michael’s thoughts, the Forgotten stared at him before slowly standing up and looking at the ground. Michael gritted his teeth and turned back to face the dwarf and dark elf, just in time to behold their collision. With a dull thud, the dwarf crashed against the dark elf like a cannonball and sent both of them flying.

  Without missing a beat, Michael dismissed both Mana Fields and raised his staff. Empowered by the Passive Skills he’d gradually acquired, his casting time was faster than ever.

  “Arcane Missile.”

  The mana within him and in the atmosphere melded to create a large spear made of blue mana, then another next to it. The spears looked like they had just been plucked out of a battlefield, down to the smallest nicks and scratches. Each was around three meters in length, and the mana around them resonated with them and vibrated, sending ripples throughout the air. The spears started spinning, and Michael waved his staff. They then shot toward the two Forgotten who were in the middle of struggling to stand up, faster than any spell he had ever cast.

  The first spear went right through the dark elf’s neck, destroying her head and upper half of her chest entirely. There was no blood or pieces of damaged flesh – everything from the middle of her chest upward had simply disappeared, the glowing white tears that drifted in the air the sole proof that she had ever been whole. Before her corpse could even collapse, the second spear arrived in front of the dwarf. The Forgotten suddenly tried to sidestep it, but it was too late. The spear disintegrated half of his head and the entire right side of his body from the waist up. As the System notification rang in Michael’s mind and confirmed his kill, he looked at the orc Forgotten in the distance.

  Lightspeed still flowed through him as he watched the orc slowly walk toward him. Taking advantage of this brief lull, Michael cast Heal. Once the green mana filled him, his flesh and organs crawled over themselves to mend the hole and repair the damage. In the end, the two combatants moved at the same time.