As much as he didn’t like to say it, the old man’s grin really made him feel better.

He had already cleansed the wound and cast Minor Mend the moment his brain caught up to the injury. Whilst the two skills had managed to reduce the damage, regrowing a limb wasn’t within their realm of capability.

The stump was sealed, the bleeding had stopped, and that was all he could ask for right now.

If he survived the day, a powerful healer would be able to reattach his arm, fully paid by Tom.

He moved his head towards the two assassins who were still running. They had already crossed hundreds of meters in the few short seconds.

Nobody had ever done this to him. Nobody had ever taken a piece of his body. And now the two who had actually managed it were trying to walk off the field like a job well done.

Moon’s mana ignited.

His remaining arm rose. The aura around him pulsed once, and the pressure in the air around his position warped visibly.

"Don’t."

The rubble at his feet cracked under his escalating aura.

"You dare."

The tremor deepened, the ground around Moon’s boots splintering outward in a slow ring.

"Run now."

He shot forward.

His sword crackled with purple lightning along its length, the current arcing outward in bright forks that scorched the air around the blade. The floor beneath his feet cracked with each stride, chunks of stone kicking up behind him. He couldn’t fully control the new power coursing through him yet. His body wasn’t used to moving at Surpasser tier power, and the excess spilled out of every step he took.

He didn’t care.

This power wasn’t going to last long. Every second he spent conserving it was a second wasted.

Moon leapt into the air.

The wind solidified beneath his feet under Air Step, and the skill’s passive speed boost stacked on top of Life Burn’s raw output. He crossed the arena in a streak of purple that most of the fighters below could not follow with their eyes.

The two assassins felt him coming.

"He’s on us." The first one hissed grimly, his head snapping back over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of Moon. "He’s already halfway to us. We can’t outrun him, there’s the outer zone. The Association’s dome. We can’t break through it either. There’s nowhere to go!"

The second assassin’s face twisted. He glanced at the shimmering barrier ahead of them at the edge of the venue, then back at the approaching blur of purple behind them.

"Then we run for as long as we can. When we can’t anymore, we fight him. I don’t believe he can hold this demonic transformation for long. Thirty seconds at most. Probably closer to ten seconds. We just have to outlast it."

The first assassin nodded, teeth bared. Both of them accelerated to their maximum speed, weapons drawn, mana channels wide open.

Ten seconds.

They didn’t get ten seconds.

Moon’s sword came crashing down toward the first assassin from above soon enough.

The man barely twisted in time to avoid his head from rolling off his shoulders. He raised his own blade to block, his eyes going wide as he tracked the strike that shouldn’t have arrived for another five seconds at least.

The second assassin didn’t hesitate to intervene. Seeing his partner in trouble, he activated his strongest offensive skill in an instant.

Twin slashes of mana tore from his weapon, pale silver arcs cutting through the air toward Moon’s back. They were meant to intercept his attack and force him to abandon his strike against his partner.

Moon glanced sideways. In the last moment, he redirected his sword mid swing, activating Tempest Symphony to meet the approaching double slash.

His Tempest Symphony split both arcs at once, the impact sending sparks flying across the rubble.

The assassin’s strongest attack died against Moon’s.

Moon’s remaining hand was doing the work of both. Under normal circumstances, his left arm would have deflected the slash while his right kept pressure on the first assassin.

He didn’t have his left anymore. He had one arm, and it was going to have to be enough.

His eyes fixed on the second assassin.

"You want to die first?"

The man’s mouth opened but Moon didn’t wait for the answer.

"I don’t mind fulfilling that wish for you."

Moon shot forward and the distance between himself and the assassin vanished. His body arrived in front of the second assassin in what felt like a single blink, his sword already rising above his head for an overhead strike that promised to split the assassin in half.

The assassin raised his own sword to block, both hands wrapped around the hilt in a desperate two-handed guard.

The two blades met, and sparks flew in the air between them.

The floor beneath the assassin crumbled.

The overhead strike drove him down as if a mountain had descended on his shoulders. His boots sank into the stone, his knees buckled, and a crater a meter deep formed beneath him in a single instant.

The rubble around the impact zone spider-webbed outward for another three meters. Dust rose in a thick cloud around them.

The assassin’s face went dark. His entire body screamed from the pressure on his joints. His arms trembled from the strain of holding the guard, and blood ran from his nose down over his mouth from the sheer force being channeled through his body.

"Just what are you?" His voice came out hoarse, disbelieving. "How can you be this powerful? You’re an Evolver!"

Moon’s eyes were dark, "I’m your worst nightmare."

The pressure on the sword increased.

"You took my arm."

The assassin’s guard began to buckle further, his sword bending under the weight.

"I’ll take your life."

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Author’s Note: Three Chapters today at once without the usual delay. I owe you guys one more Chapter for the 5 bonus Chapters promised. Hope you enjoyed them.