Aetherflow.",

    Momentum Shift.

    The arrow that had just been flying straight abruptly took an inexplicably sharp 90-degree turn downward, finding Natalie''s forehead before she could even take out the weapon she had been so carefully hiding.

    Ss only activated Aetherflow for a brief instant, and yet the arrows shattered into shards.

    Natalie''s head blew into pieces, but Alexia had been further away. The explosion hit her like a solid wave of air. As though a sledgehammer had rocked her, she flew backward, falling onto the grass with a heavy thud.

    Ss finally stepped out of the clearing of trees and into the marshynds. His green irises glowed beneath the cool night air as he suddenly elerated, his 100 Speed on full disy as he closed the distance.

    He almost seemed to fly, closing the distance on Alexia before she could even gather herself from the ground. A distance that had been less than 20 meters to begin with felt like a matter of four or five steps for him.

    These people had equipment that was likely beyond most of what he had seen until now. He couldn''t give them any quarter.

    BANG!

    His fist shattered her skull, forcing her body to rebound against the ground.

    Blood sttered and flew under Rakk''s shocked gaze.

    Natalie was one of his elites. His entire team, in general, was among the cream of the crop.

    What Ss hadn''t realized just yet was that the F- to FFF+ ratings given to beasts and humanoids alike were, much like stats, rtive. It measured how good you were in rtion to all humans. It was a ranking that would shift every day if you happened to fall behind or improve.

    An FFF- like Natalie ced her in at least the 90th Percentile of humans. But she was killed in an instant.

    Unless Rakk set his trolls on her, it was impossible for him to do the same.

    Who was this man?

    Ss didn''t give Rakk the time to figure it out. In his clear vision, he could see the subtle lines of Aether connecting Rakk and the trolls. He had alreadye to understand that this man was the mastermind of everything. So long as he killed him, everything would be over.

    The Mentals of these trolls were so poor that there were any number of ways to defeat them without his direction.

    Seeing how fast Ss was closing the speed, Rakk frowned.

    "Leave the barrier to the trolls. Everyone together!" Rakk ordered just as Ss'' fists began to glow.

    BANG! BANG! BANG!

    Just when it seemed that Ss would have to close the distance to deal with them, three heads caved in, their noses deforming and their frontal skulls copsing beneath the pressure.

    Rakk''s pupils constricted. What the hell kind of attack was that?! It didn''t even have to travel through the air. It looked like it just appeared before their heads. How were they even supposed to dodge?

    "Activate your defenses! Now! Do not use any archery against him! Watch out for projectiles!"

    Rakk pped against his chest as he spoke, his leather armor thrumming to life. He secretly sent amand to one of his trolls at the same time. He estimated that Ss'' output strength was around 100. With the troll''s Constitution, there was no getting by that. They just had to watch out for any weapons or treasures he might have.

    A silvery-blue light of Aether coated their bodies and their Constitutions were multiplied several times over.

    Ss took silent note of this as a swordsman closed the distance on him.

    ''Closebat will be dangerous, but if I keep ying it safe, they will suffocate me. The only way to deal with the unknown variables is to press them all down so quickly they don''t have a chance to retaliate at all.''

    …

    Within Casstle Main.

    Cassarae was scrambling. They had managed to withstand this siege for two days already, but there was only so long her barrier wouldst. They were chewing through theirs funds like there was no tomorrow, and there still wasn''t a simple way to defeat them all…

    Until she saw that system message.

    She had never sighed such a breath of relief in her life. Now, it wasn''t like they had to withstand an indefinite siege. They just had tost for four days. Just four days, and now there were just two left.

    Even so, she couldn''t help but pace back and forth.

    What would happen after they returned to Earth? They would have toe back to this world eventually, no?

    Would the siege still be here? Or would everything be transferred to Earth? They called this the Trial. So was the main event going to bring everything back home?

    There were so many unknowns.

    "How the fuck did this happen?" She cursed under her breath. "I have to go and fight, but I can''t step outside of the city. But if I let them inside the city, I obviously can''t use the barrier. Fuck!"

    "City Lady," a voice came from outside of the doors.

    Cassarae''s cabin was far more substantial now and was quite elegant as well. She had an office with a window that overlooked the vige, but she hadn''t had the heart to look out there for a long time already. Every time she did, it felt like she was bleeding money.

    She had spent over 10 000 Coins on a barrier that could withstand 20 000 000 Physical and replenish 1 000 000 Physical every hour at the cost of a 100 coins every time. From her calctions, they did about 1000 damage every three seconds, and that was ounting for the breaks they took.

    At that pace, ounting for the replenishing barrier, they did 200 000 damage every hour, which would put them over the four-day mark before they could seed in taking it down.

    But all of this would cost almost 20 000 Coins total and it would put her on the edge.