With each strike warriors only became, faster, stronger, and keener.

Meanwhile, the speed and force behind each of Adams swings kept on decreasing.

Worse, the warriors had realised that Athena was his weakness and kept on targeting her.

Adam understood too late.. . that he was beginning to lose.

[BANG!]

A spear smashed against his chest and forced him backward.

Another slashed across his thigh.

A third pierced through his side.

Blood rapidly soaked his clothes, and even his monstrous body was beginning to fail under the constant assault.

And yet, somehow, despite his worsening condition, not a single attack reached Athena.

Because he moved like a madman.

His body miraculously broke through enemy encirclements and raced continuously across the battlefield, intercepting every incoming strike no matter what it cost him.

Again and again he parried and repelled their vicious blows, butt every second spent defending Athena was another wound on his body.

His body was beginning to reach its limit.

He was getting slower, and every breath he took felt like he was inhaling fire and acid.

The pain of his curse was becoming unbearable now, and the wounds accumulating across his body were beginning to drag down even his terrifying physical abilities.

Meanwhile the magma warriors showed no exhaustion whatsoever.

The situation was already as dire as it could be when a sudden shiver run down his spine and his hair stood on end.

Out of nowhere, the warriors stabbed their spears into the ground in tandem.

The earth trembled violently.

Adam’s eyes widened.

The molten cracks spread across the battlefield at terrifying speed and erupted into massive pillars of fire.

BOOOOOOOOM!!

Several explosions detonated simultaneously.

Adam shielded Athena against his chest and forced his way through the inferno, but the resulting blast still engulfed him entirely.

When the flames finally dispersed—

Adam stumbled out from the burning smoke.

His body was charred.

His left arm trembled uncontrollably.

One of his knees nearly collapsed beneath him.

And surrounding him were still six remaining magma warriors.

With a "bang", the Great sword fell onto the ground.

With torturous effort, Adam fought through the pain and straightened his back to so Athena could lean properly against him. "Are you alright? Are you injured?"

To his credit, Athena was entirely unharmed. Let alone injured, the magma warriors had not even been able to touch her.

And looking at Adam’s pale face, she knew very clearly that if it hadn’t been for the burden of protecting her, he definitely wouldn’t have been injured to this extent, and the six approaching magma warriors would pose no threat.

"Your... hands..." Athena mumbled with difficulty.

The hand Adam was using to hold the great sword was in unbearable pain. Although he could just barely move it, wielding the great sword was already impossible. Adam forced a smile and gave a strained laugh, "I’m fine, I am just barely able to endure the force of their blows. All my injuries are not as bad as they look."

"Let me go... or else... you will die!" Athena’s voice was frail and weak. Although her body was crippled and she could not use her power, her eyes and ears were fine. The sound the spears made as they pierced his flesh and drilled into his bone had rang by her ears very clearly.

After switching his sword arm to his left, he had Lena create some balm which he applied on his wounds. Had he been a normal person with a bormal body, he would’ve definitely been chopped into pieces by now.

Upon hearing what Athena had said, he shook his head. "You are paralysed and helpless, but I can still move. So unless I’m dead, I will never abandon you. Don’t think that I am the kind of vulgar trash that would stoop so low. And you shouldn’t think of yourself as a burden either. Because in this situation, the will to protect you is my strongest drive."

Before he finish his sentenced, the six magma warriors broke into a charge.... moving faster than they did all the times they attacked previously.

Drip

Drip

Blood slid from Adam’s fingertips and splashed against the fractured stone beneath him.

His breathing had become painful and ragged, and every muscle in his body screamed in agony.

Yet his grip around the Colossal Sword only tightened further.

The magma warriors reached him.

The ground cracking beneath their feet as they rushed him from every direction simultaneously. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The magma warriors were fast.

Too fast.

And his exhausted body could no longer completely keep up with their movements. It was all he could do to just barely keep Athena out of harms way.

One spear tore across his stomach.

Another pierced through his thigh.

A third slammed into his chest and blasted him backward through a pillar of black stone that shattered instantly.

Chunks of debris crashed around him as Adam coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth.

But before he could even rise, the warriors were already there, and six spears descended together.

But that moment, Adam’s pupils dilated as adrenaline flooded his veins and his body went into overdrive.

[BANG!]

Adam rose and parried the spears with his blade.

The motion alone caused his entire body to crack, and the flesh between his fingers to split.

The magma warriors paused.

Steam slowly rose from Adam’s skin.

His muscles tightened to an almost unnatural extent as blood surged violently through his body.

Lena’s voice suddenly sounded alarmed.

"No my lord! Your body is exceeding safe output! If you continue overexerting yourself like this, there is a ninety-seven percent probability of catastrophic bodily collapse!"

But Adam ignored her completely as his breathing slowed.

One

Two

Then . . .

He vanished.

[BOOOM]

A shockwave blasted outward as Adam appeared directly in front of a Magma Warrior faster than it could react.

The warrior barely began to raise its spear before Adam’s fist smashed into its face.

The sheer force behind the punch detonated the warrior’s entire upper body into molten fragments.

The remaining warriors finally reacted and attacked in tandem.

But was too quick for them now.

His speed had speed had increased several folds;

Now it was beyond their perception.

And his muscles were tearing themselves apart to produce power beyond their limits.

A magma spear pierced toward Athena..

Adam caught it mid-thrust.

His palm split open instantly from the heat.

But with a roar, he ripped the warrior forward and slammed his forehead downward.

[BANG!]

The warrior’s skull collapsed inward.

Adam seized its neck and hurled the body straight into two approaching warriors with enough force to blow all three apart simultaneously.

Now only two remained and the only sound on the battlefield was the sound of Adam’s violent breathing.

His body trembled and spasmed like he was having a seizure.

Blood flowed from nearly every inch of him am his muscles had begun to rupture beneath his skin.

Even standing had become an exceptionally difficult task now.

But he dared not fall now. Not while their lives still hanged in the balance.

The final two warriors still charged and

Adam stared at them through blood-covered eyes.

Then.

He lowered his body slightly as his creaking bones and torn musckes tensed one last time.

And then he lept forward and the stone beneath his foot exploded.

A crater formed instantly.

The next moment, Adam appeared between the two warriors.

His greatsword moved.

A single horizontal swing, far less graceful than any attack he had executed before.

This one had just pure overwhelming force.

[WHOOOOOOOOM!!]

But the air itself screamed as the blade pulverized both warriors and continued for dozens of meters, splitting the black earth apart in a massive earthen line behind them.

The two magma warriors had been shattered into countless fragments.

Then there was silence.

Adam remained standing for a few seconds longer with the sword still extended until his fingers slowly loosened.

The Colossal Sword fell from his grasp and embedded itself into the ground.

Adam himself collapsed immediately afterward onto one knee, barely conscious as blood poured beneath him.

For a while now, he’d been accumulating wounds while fighting like a maniac, the blood that had flowed out from his body had unknowingly become a third of the total amount of blood in his body.

What remained of his clothes had been completely dyed red and a large portion of Athena’s armor were also bloodsoaked.

"Athena, did I not tell you. . . That we would see this through ..." While forcing his mind not to collapse, Adam gently set Athena onto the ground and revealed a soft smile: "There are no more magma warriors forming... This must be... the end... we... succeeded at last!"

"If... you didn’t burden yourself with protecting me, you... absolutely ... would not have been injured so badly... At least, you wouldn’t have been pushed to the extent where you almost died.

You’re... really... are... a fool."

"Haha...." Adam laughed humorously. This laugh, instantly affected the countless wounds on his body, and made the muscles on his face intensely contort from pain: "Not all of us can be gods of wisdom. But since stupidity has brought me this far. Then allow me to be stupid to the very end."