"Goodwill, my fucking ass!" With the realization that he would have to fight against 200 empowered aberrations at once finally sinking in, the young man did not hesitate to go all out in empowering his strength, madly dashing away from the group as those at the front began to chase him.
"Grrrrwwaaaggghhh!!!"
"If I knew I'd be facing against 200 aberrations as a group instead of 50 stronger ones, I should've just opted out of the trial!" screamed Valyr, somewhat regretting the fact that he had allowed his yearning for more power to get the better of him. After all, with how the Gates of Enlightenment had only shown their goodwill after he had survived through a thousand kills, it went without saying that he would have to go through the same amount of suffering for the next reward, if not worse.
"I should've pondered over it for longer!" Airing out his grievances as he continued to increase the distance separating him from the large group of aberrations he was up against, Valyr eventually took in a few deep breaths, gradually calming himself down as his current situation finally began to sink in.
With his expression returning to how it was while fighting against the first thousand aberrations of the trial, the young man began to think about his current situation from another perspective, reminding himself of the saying that surfaced in his mind while he was pondering over the voice's question.
'With high risks come high rewards.' Allowing the thought to linger in his mind as he inwardly repeated it over and over, Valyr had a feeling that the current situation was the real test from the Gates of Enlightenment, seeing if the limit of his strength and willpower lied far beyond the first thousand aberrations, with the bonus more or less a way for the Gates of Enlightenment to make sure that he continued pushing himself.
Pondering over the entire thing by putting himself in the Gates of Enlightenment's shoes, he felt that the first thousand aberrations was the Gates of Enlightenment's way to ascertain their hypothesis of him having the strength and willpower necessary to make use of their knowledge. Then, the remaining nine thousand would allow them to assess how much he would benefit from the knowledge they'd give, prompting him to keep on killing whatever it takes.
'I guess choosing to continue the trial was the right choice, then,' thought Valyr to himself, getting the feeling that the Gates of Enlightenment would force him out of the trial grounds if he opted out of the trial, if not the inheritance as a whole. Though such a situation was purely theoretical, he was highly certain that the Gates of Enlightenment would definitely do such a thing, especially with how they consistently emphasized strength and willpower.
"[Shadow Serpent Combat Style]…" Feeling like he had now somewhat gotten a better grasp of the current situation, the young man decided to finally retaliate against the large group of aberrations chasing him. Infusing the Shadow Energy he had summoned earlier into the spear he held, Valyr swiftly stopped in his tracks before turning around to look at the aberrations.
Then, thrusting the spear towards the aberrations, the Shadow Energy he had infused into the spear seemingly bloomed, dyeing the spear pitch-black as the entire area seemed to have been covered by darkness for a brief moment.
"[Lightless Ultimatum]."
Whoosh!
Just as he was wondering where the darkness had gone, Valyr noticed that the Shadow Energy covering the spear began to disappear, prompting him to infuse more Shadow Energy after thinking that the skill needed a constant infusion of Shadow Energy to activate.
However, rather than head towards the spear, the Shadow Energy he sent instead made its way to the aberrations themselves, only noticing at that moment that all of the aberrations were standing frozen in place.
Pushing [Hunter's Tracking Eyes] to get a better idea of where the Shadow Energy he sent was heading exactly, the young man's eyes widened in surprise as he found out that the Shadow Energy acted as fuel for the aberrations' shadows to grow, gradually taking on a shade of black that reminded the young man of the pitch-black color his spear was enveloped in earlier.
Eventually, after some time, the aberrations' shadows seemed to have found their limits, bursting out in unison as they encased all of the aberrations in dark cocoons that emanated a feeling of destruction and death. Feeling a hint of fear and awe at the power the ultimate move held, the young man could only stare at the sight before him in silence, watching as the cocoons covering the aberrations gradually disappear.
Then, by the time all of the dark cocoons had dissipated into thin air, all of the aberrations fell to the ground with a dull thud. From their current appearances, it seemed that all of the vigor and vitality they used to have was siphoned to the last drop by their shadows, with the skin taking on a shade of gray because of it.
"As expected from an ultimate move…" Sucking in a bit of cold air as he slowly came to terms with the power his ultimate move held, Valyr began to distance himself from the lifeless corpses of the aberrations, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief after hearing the voice tell him that he would be given ten minutes to prepare for the next group of 200.
Retrieving a couple of mana potions from his spatial bracelet, the young man went ahead and downed the contents of both vials in one go as the aftermath of his ultimate move continued to linger in his mind. Feeling his mana reserves reach peak condition once more, the young man was reminded once more that his current level of strength far exceeded the strength he held at the same level in his past life.
If anything, the power of his ultimate move only reinforced that thought.
'One group down, nine more to go.' Letting out a long and drawn-out sigh, Valyr pushed out all of the discordant thoughts in his mind as he reminded himself of his goal. Closing his eyes for a bit, he soon looked at the field of aberration corpses that stood a fair distance away from him.
With his ultimate move down for the count, the number of options he had in his arsenal that would allow him to fight against a group of 200 aberrations had been reduced, prompting him to briefly wonder whether he even had it in him to fight against 1,800 Divine Elite tier aberrations.
Fortunately, the answer to his question appeared as fast as the question came to mind, letting out a faint chuckle as he took a brief glance at his spear. After all, he had already fought against 10 groups of 40 Divine Elite tier aberrations without relying on his ultimate move and came out on top. Since that's the case…
Who's to say he couldn't do it against groups of 200?
