Alnea Oathkeeper pushed against the empty, white floor with his left foot, jumping back from the dark shadow lunging at him, easily avoiding its claws, before slashing at the shadow with his sword. A clean cut, that went from the left side of the shadow’s abdomen all the way up to its right shoulder. A feat he would have had a hard time accomplishing just a day ago. With the help of the concepts though…

  Alnea slashed at his thoughts, subduing them for the moment, before quickly ducking down to avoid a blow to his head, while using his sword to block another blow to his chest. But those attacks were just the beginning. With nearly twenty shadows besieging him from all sides, he did not dare to let himself be distracted.

  Using the momentum from the block to roll on the ground, and avoid another blow coming to his head, Alnea let go of his sword for a moment, and slammed his hands onto the ground, pushing his lower body into the air to stand upside down, before spreading his legs apart, and spinning his body to mimic a whirlwind of sorts. It was not very effective in knocking down the shadows, but it did force them away for a moment, giving him enough time to quickly grab his sword, and flip in the air, only to swing his sword down on another shadow, splitting it in half from head to toe.

  Two down, eighteen to go, Alnea thought, as he tossed his sword up in the air, before tilting his body to his right to avoid a punch to his head, letting the gravity pull him towards the ground. Just as he was about to hit the ground though, he rotated his body so that he was facing the white floor, before once again repeating the same trick of using his hands as a support to kick the shadows. Except, this time, he did not mimic a whirlwind, but a horse, kicking the shadow standing behind him with both his legs.

  And while he was kicking the shadow, he pushed himself off the ground, and used the recoil from the kick to flip in the air, grabbing his sword in mid spin, before swinging it down on another shadow. Three down, seventeen to go, Alnea thought, using his momentum of landing on the ground to keep rolling forward, and avoid the spear being thrusted towards his back, passing through the two halves of the shadow, only to be met with the blade of a sword coming right for his head.

  …Shadows with weapons were always so troublesome. Although being injured in the Mirror World would not kill him, he would still feel the pain. And he had no wish of knowing how the pain of his having head cut off would feel like. In the end, he could only bring his sword up to block the shadow’s attack, and let himself be trapped in a siege once again. A spear from behind, a sword in front, and more than a dozen other attacks, coming at him from all sides possible.

  “…This is too much for even True Wanderers, right?” Alnea mumbled, tilting to avoid the spear being thrusted towards the back of his head, preferring to let his back get scratched by a shadow’s claws instead. “How am I supposed to defeat twenty of them?”

  “…You are the most stupid of all the Wanderers that I have ever known,” Evi said, with derision and contempt lacing his voice. “Have you forgotten what you gained yesterday?”

  “…I can use the concepts here?” Alnea said, kicking the shadow behind his back, while parrying the sword swinging towards his neck. The shadow… it was quite accomplished in the art of sword. Much more so than most of the Wanderers he had met in the Arena. No matter how he looked, the shadow had surpassed the Wanderer it was based on, but he had already expected as such. In Evi’s words, what was the use of sparring against the weak?

  “Why else would I increase your opponents to twice their usual number? Did you think I was impressed by your pathetic skills?”

  “…First of all, my skills are not pathetic,” Alnea said, as he parried the spear, and grabbed on to its shaft just below the spear head, before pulling it with all his strength. An action he would have never dared to perform over half a year ago, when he had just entered the Lost City. After more than half a year of tempering though, his strength was far from what mere shadows could match.

  He did not even need to use any Martial Styles or Aspects. Not that he could have used them anyway. At least not the Martial Styles in true sense. If he so wished, he could still use the Blood Crystal Detonation Style, as the Blood Crystals were already a part of his body. But that would be an overkill.

  More than half a year of tempering his body with hundreds of Transcendent Grade Blood Crystals had already pushed his body to the Transcendent phase of the four Blood Forging Arcanas, making it comparable to Peak Stage False Wanderers. And if not for the limitations of the Martial Style, his body may even have had reached the standards of True Wanderers.

  With such strength, detonating his Blood Crystals did not make any sense. Not to mention that even if his body had become strong enough to bear the backlash of detonating his Blood Crystals, it would still affect his performance a little. Rather than risking it all on a suicide attack, it was better to slowly chip away at his enemies one shadow at a time. And as he had expected, with enough temptation, the shadow with the spear finally made a mistake.

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  Unlike his other enemies, the shadow was not afraid of death. So, when he pulled the spear, the shadow did not let go, and was pulled along, only to be impaled by his sword. Four down, sixteen to go, Alnea thought, as he spun around along with the shadow’s fading body to block the other attacks, including the sword being slashed at his back.

  “More importantly, I cannot use my Aspects.”

  “Who said anything about using your Aspects?”

  “…Then how am I supposed to use the Concepts?” Alnea said, tilting towards his left to avoid the claw, tearing through the disintegrating shadows, heading straight towards his chest, before reaching out to grab the shadow’s hand, and pulling it towards his left to block the other attacks.

  “With just my body?”

  “And why can you not use the Concept with just your body?”

  “…Is that really possible?” Alnea said, letting the shadow’s momentum from blocking the attacks of its companion impale it on his sword. He was not quite done with the shadow though, using its body to block the attacks heading his way once again.

  “…You are so stupid. I feel like I am wasting my time with you.”

  …Protect and Slaughter, the two Concepts that he had grasped while experiencing the Fortune Spring. If Evi was right, either of those two Concepts could help him get rid of the shadows besieging him. The only problem was, he was not quite adept at using Concepts. He might have used them from time to time, like the time he had resonated with his Roots, or the time he had almost killed Cecilia, but he did not know how to channel them actively. Not to mention using them without his Aspects…

  Alnea gritted his teeth, and made his decision just as the shadows launched another wave of attacks, unleashing the Blade of Slaughter hidden in his Heart. Or at least he tried to. However, just being more reckless was not enough to imbue his moves with the Concept of Slaughter. Sure, it allowed him to take down the shadows much more quickly than before, but it also made him much more vulnerable to their attacks.

  A slash on his back, a punch on his face, a kick on his ribs, a claw to his chest… The same attacks, which he had been dodging so easily just moments ago, were all falling on his back and shoulders without any hinderance. He had already committed himself to the attack though. And there was no greater taboo for Wanderers than hesitation. In the end, he could only try to take down the shadows before they could overwhelm him with their numbers.

  “…What exactly are you trying to do?”

  “…Can’t you see?”

  “…Trying to kill me by making me laugh?”

  “…Shut up and let me concentrate.”

  “Does taking out these weaklings even need you to concentrate?”

  …Individually, the shadows may be weak, but when taken together as a group…

  “Even in a group, they are still weak.”

  “…It’s all your fault…”

  “Only the weak find excuses. The strong find solution to their problems.”

  “…Will…”

  Alnea kicked one of the only three remaining shadows, while slashing through the second shadow, allowing the claws of the last shadow to pierce his back.

  “Tsk. Tsk. Yuri could take them out without getting so much as a scratch, you know?”

  “…You…”

  Turning around, Alnea stabbed his sword through the last shadow, just as the first shadow he had kicked away returned, and pierced its sword into his back.

  “…What? Cannot even form complete sentences now?”

  “…Shut up,” Alnea said, grabbing the blade sticking out his chest, giving the shadow no chance to retrieve its weapon, before turning around, and slashing through the shadow’s neck. Moments later, the shadow, along with its sword, disintegrated into countless little wisps of black mist, dissipating into his surroundings, leaving just him standing in the empty white world.

  Not for long, of course. With all his enemies taken care of, Alnea finally let go of his reservations, just as his legs gave out him, allowing the pull of the ground to bring him down. Although he won the battle, with how grievous injuries were, and how much blood he had lost, he was probably not too far from his death either. Thankfully, the injuries were all virtual. Though the pain was all real.

  “…Did you really think that you could use your Concept by just being reckless?”

  “…I did not know of any other way…”

  “…I stand corrected. You are even more stupid that I thought you were.”

  “…Just let me rest for a while. I don’t have the energy to deal with you.”

  “…Do you think I want to talk to you? If not for her request…”

  “…Whose request?”

  “Mine,” Yuri said, squatting down next to him with a concerned look on her face, marred with guilt and regret. “I asked Evi to increase your opponents from ten to twenty, and to remind you to use your Concepts.”