Damien was already battle-ready. If Katherine was the first person he met in this world that could give him a good fight, the man in front of him was the first person he met that could threaten him.


    Teleporting to the forefront of the battlefield, Damien spoke to those on his side. “The 11 of you take on the 2nd sses. Ms.Hart, help me take this guy.”


    While the adventurers were confused about the discrepancy in the number that Damien mentioned, Katherine and Dous were not. Their faces clearly portrayed their shock, but they didn’t have time to question him at the moment. Sending Dous’ gaze, Katherine slightly nodded her head before rushing towards Damien.


    Receiving the signal, 5 figures emerged from the shadows and lined up with the adventurers. Without further ado, the 11 weaker members on their team faced the 30 on the other side.


    As battle erupted, Damien continued to stare at Adrian without moving. Soon, Katherine joined him. “It’s awfully bold of you to make a frail youngdy such as myself join you in this intense battle, no?” She jested


    However, Damien wasn’t paying attention. His whole focus was on the enemy in front of him. Katherine pouted at this but didn’t say anything else. Damien suddenly spoke.


    “I don’t know what you can do, but I won’t say anything as long as you don’t get in my way.”


    Without another word, he sped forward.


    Adrian was watching everything y out with an amused smile. He didn’t care about the lives of his subordinates nor what was going on anywhere else. He saw that the target was in front of him, so he mused it’d be an easy mission.


    The target was only a 2nd ss, and her guards were all 2nd ss as well, so he wouldn’t have any problems. However, before he could think any more, an intense bloodlust assaulted him.


    Looking at its source, he saw one of the adventurers hired for the mission staring at him. He was nning to tease the kid, but before he could say anything, he was forced to engage inbat.


    Damien didn’t immediately start with his spatial abilities, opting to use lightning to test the waters. He circted lightning through his internal body and increased his speed 5x and also infused it into his de.


    He arrived in front of Adrian in an instant and shed down. As his de cut through the air, arcs of ck lightning danced and the amplification effect of his sword bared its fangs. The infused lightning, whose properties already leaned towards destruction, became even more destructive.


    Adrian took out his weapon, a huge hammer, and parried the blow. Their first sh resulted in a small explosion as Damien flew back 10 meters before stabilizing himself. Adrian, on the other hand, only took a single step back.


    Before he could attack, Adrian found himself surrounded by wind des that cut towards him. Though the power wasn’t great, the scale was huge, with hundreds of desing from every side. Adrian started continuously parrying while feeling confused.


    “The target is a wind user, but her ability shouldn’t be this much right?”


    While Adrian was confused, Damien could see that there were only around 20 wind des in the attack. In this moment, Damien realized the identity of the second type of mana he had seen surrounding Katherine.


    It was an illusion affinity.


    Taking advantage of the time when Adrian was upied by the illusion, Damien teleported behind him and made his first serious move.


    Although he enjoyed using lightning, he knew it would never measure up to his spatial ability, and at some point, might even fade into the background. Damien’s body became illusory as he moved while producing multiple after images.


    ‘Void Sword Art Second Step: Dance of the Void.’


    Damien danced around Adrian as he attempted to cut through his body with his spatial des, but Adrian was much stronger than him, allowing him to use his experience to counter Damien’s attacks.


    It was at this time when Katherine decided to join the fray. She summoned a scythe from thin air and, like Damien, began striking from all angles.


    Her scythe was a silver color with gold etchings running along its handle. If scythes were usually portrayed as weapons of the grim reaper, this scythe was more like something an angel would use.


    Damien was at the forefront, cutting through Adrian’s flesh and upying his attention while Katherine was attacking from mid-range, with every swing of her scythe cutting the air in its surroundings and producing various ranged attacks out of wind, which were further multiplied by her illusions.


    Adrian was incensed. He was fighting two mere 2nd sses but they were able to overwhelm him in such a manner. In his rage, he stopped caring about his mission. The reason he’d only been using physical attacks was because the leader had said to keep the target alive, but he didn’t care anymore.


    Within seconds, the atmosphere in the vicinity began to superheat as crimson mes bloomed around Adrian’s figure. Sensing danger, Damien directly teleported to Katherine, grabbed her and teleported away once again.


    The area where they were previously standing became a field of moltenva as the ground continued to melt. Adrian beganughing loudly.


    “HAHAHA! You little kids are dead now!” He said as he raised his hand. Then, he uttered a simple word that was followed by pure destruction.


    “Explode.”


    Theva surrounding him ballooned and exploded outward, swallowing everything within a 50-meter radius. Luckily, most of the adventurers and guards had retreated after the atmosphere had started superheating.


    2 of the adventurers and almost all of theckeys Adrian brought, however, were swallowed by theva and turned into ash.


    This was the true difference between sses.


    Although Damien never really felt this difference due to his intense power, this was the reality for most people. Damien would have been fine due to his vector field, but even a supreme genius like Katherine who could fight across sses would have been heavily injured by that attack.


    Her main forte seemed to be rangedbat, so her body naturally wasn’t strong enough to cope.


    After this attack, Adrian began wantonly attacking Damien, shooting beams of sma and throwing waves ofva in his direction. Damien abused his teleportation to avoid what he could, but the attacks were too overarching, forcing him to deflect more than he dodged.


    Damien was still holding Katherine in his arms as well, so he had a difficult time avoiding injury. Eventually, he started to umte burns. His flesh melted but regenerated just as fast, and Damien continued to dodge.


    He was looking for the right opportunity to attack, but Adrian wasn’t leaving him any openings to exploit.


    Damien turned to Katherine as he got an idea. “Can you use your illusions to make him think he sessfully hit me?”


    Katherine had a slight blush on her face from being held in Damien’s strong arms, but this was a subconscious reaction. Her whole attention was simrly on the battle in front of her.


    Hearing the question directed at her, Katherine thought for a second before responding. “I can, but in his current state, I’d at most be able to fool him for 3 seconds.”


    Damien’s eyes lit up, “3 seconds is more than enough.” Immediately, he contacted Zara. ‘You know what to do.’


    Katherine immediately went to work, weaving an intricate illusion to cast as Damien continued taking the brunt of Adrian’s attacks. Within 5 minutes, she was ready, and after signaling Damien, she cast her illusion.


    Adrian had been intensely watching Damien as he continuously avoided his attacks, and he had noticed Damien getting hit a few times, but he had teleported so quickly that Adrian wasn’t able to see the amount of damage he had taken.


    However, the next time Damien appeared, he saw it. Many areas of his flesh had been melted and even his bones could be seen in his left arm. Seeing this, Adrian released a huge wave of magma, hoping topletely incinerate the two rats in front of him.


    Damien, who was busy nning with Katherine, suddenly looked up with horror written on his face. In the next moment, both of them were reduced to ash. However, something didn’t feel right to Adrian.


    Before he could figure out what the problem was, Damien appeared before him with his sword heavily striking towards the ground. Without time to react, Adrian could only erect basic defenses. However, Damien’s sword wasn’t aimed at him.


    The sword smashed into the ground and caused a huge dust cloud to rise and then, reality seemed to crack.


    The sky became the ground and the ground became walls. The new sky was now a ck abyss that seemed to consume everything.


    Multiple cracks formed in the air as the surroundings began to shatter like ss. Space began swirling like a whirlpool and contracting upon itself, reducing everything within it to shreds.


    This was what Adrian was experiencing right now. Sensing death approaching him, Adrian erupted all his mana and used it to form a barrier around him, but even the barrier was slowly being contracted.


    And then, everything went ck.