After leveling up, Moon didn’t stop his brawl.

The elite fighters who crossed his path fell one after another. Puppets rotated in and out of his control.

His lives climbed, and spiritual energy slowly trickled into his acupoints. His eleventh acupoint was slowly being filled.

In the midst of killing one of the four star Evolvers, Moon’s body suddenly froze.

~Whoosh~

The sound was quiet, yet deafening.

The hair on his arms stood up and a cold sweat broke across his skin in an instant. He felt a pressure that meant imminent death.

Without hesitation, Moon poured mana into the pendant around his neck without thinking.

The pendant activated with a pulse of silver light, forming a dense energy barrier around Moon’s body, layered in overlapping shells. The shield formed a fraction of a second before the strike arrived.

~Crack~

The attack struck the barrier and broke it.

The shells collapsed one by one, the energy blowing outward in a shock wave that scattered rubble in every direction.

The figure behind the strike revealed himself in the aftermath.

A tall man in all black with his hood drawn low over his face. Two curved daggers in his hands, both coated with mana.

His aura pressed Moon like an immovable mountain, radiating power that made Moon frown.

"A Surpasser."

Moon’s face went cold.

’I would have died. If I hadn’t activated the pendant, I would have died.’

Alaric’s gift had saved his life on a delay measured in fractions of a second. Any hesitation, any moment of doubt or confusion, and Moon’s body would already be on the rubble. Even his humongous tally of lives could not save him.

This was Earth after all, and a single death meant a permanent one.

The Surpasser tilted his head slightly. He didn’t look impressed or surprised by any means. His posture said he had expected Moon to have a life saving trick up his sleeves.

’Seems like he did his homework before attacking... he was waiting for his chance since the battle began. He doesn’t look to be fatigued in the slightest... i’m his first target.’

Across the arena, Alaric’s gaze flicked sideways mid-exchange with Ace.

He felt the pendant activate.

"Just as expected... they sent one after him." Alaric had anticipated this, which was why he’d given Moon the pendant—a single chance to save his life before Alaric could reach him.

Unfortunately, the situation had changed. Never in a hundred years had Alaric expected someone like Ace to match his power, especially after his recent breakthrough in the River of Paths.

’Moon... you must survive!’ Alaric’s blade caught one of Ace’s daggers on the flat and turned it aside. His own strike missed by a hair as Ace read the movement and slipped past it.

"Sending a Surpasser to deal with an Evolver. Your tactics never fail to steep low enough."

Ace smiled and his answer to the question was simply another swing that Alaric parried.

Alaric parried it and their exchange continued.

Moon’s mind was already sprinting through his options.

His pendant, which had been his safety net, was officially spent. He was standing in front of a Surpasser assassin whose first strike had almost killed him.

’I can’t be careless with him...I have to use it.’

Without hesitation, Moon activated his strongest trump card, his second class skill, Life Burn.

This was his only chance to survive a battle against a fighter like the one before him.

’Good thing I spent my new lives a few minutes ago. Otherwise a lot of them would have gone to waste.’

Moon’s body began to heat up at an alarming rate.

One by one, his acupoints threw themselves open like valves flung wide. Spiritual energy surged into them, swelling with each passing moment. It churned violently inside his acupoints, a hurricane trapped in a narrow chamber, battering against the walls of his body and fighting to break free.

Before the transformation could finish, another figure appeared behind Moon.

~Whoosh~

A second assassin had been hiding the entire time.

The moment Moon’s aura began to rise, the man moved. Whatever aura Moon was releasing during the Life Burn activation had prickled the second assassin’s skin and forced his hand.

Waiting any longer would have meant fighting a stronger version of the target. He committed to the strike immediately.

At the same instant, the first assassin charged forward from the front.

Two blades came from two different angles. Immediately, it became apparent to Moon that he wasn’t facing any surpassers, but masters in the field of assassination.

They were hunters that knew when to strike... and how to strike, with a single goal in mind. The target’s certain death.

Moon realized he couldn’t stop both.

His right arm rose to block the front strike, his sword catching the incoming dagger and turning it aside with a screech of steel. The impact rattled through his shoulder and buckled his stance.

His transformation was yet to complete, but he had managed to buy himself safety from the front.

Unfortunately, Moon couldn’t buy the flank.

The strike from behind moved through his vision in a blur. His body tried to turn, Air Step activating as he leaped away, but the half-completed Life Burn couldn’t lend him the speed he needed yet.

At the last possible fraction, he twisted his upper body in the air, hoping to reduce the damage

But it was... not enough.

~Thud~

Moon suddenly felt a strange lightness on his left side, and the sound of something wet hitting the rubble.

Moon looked down beneath him to find that his left arm was on the ground.

Blood sprayed from the stump at his shoulder in an uncontrolled fountain. The cut was so clean the edges of the wound looked polished. His body hadn’t registered the pain yet. His nervous system was still catching up to what had happened.

Then Moon’s face contorted, no longer in shock.

’Cleanse...Minor Mend.’

Moon’s aura suddenly exploded outwardly. His transformation was now complete.