Deep inside the temple, in a room filled with essence stones, Hu Jian stood behind Zi Taro.

  Thwip.

  A crisp sound reached his ears, and Zi Taro turned into a neat wooden box.

  "Damn it all! How did it come to this?!" Hu Jian snarled, his sword arm trembling.

  In front of him stood twenty Unawakened, of which seven wore complete suits of body armor looted from fallen defenders, their armor identical to his own. The sight of his side's equipment turned against them filled him with bitter fury.

  "So, this is how it ends," Hu Jian muttered, ceasing his resistance. He lowered his weapon and resigned himself to whatever fate these victors would decide.

  Suddenly, a loud shout came from the temple corridors, reverberating off stone walls with unmistakable familiarity: "You think you can defeat me?! I'll slaughter every last one of your subordinates! Let's see how you stop me!"

  The voice was Hua Yong's! Hua Yong was not dead!

  Hu Jian still had a chance. Perhaps this wasn't finished after all. Perhaps they still had a chance to turn this catastrophic defeat into something salvageable.

  His grip tightened on his weapon as renewed determination flooded through his veins, washing away the resignation that had nearly claimed him.

  Crash!

  Hua Yong took his position outside the chamber, rotated his body perfectly—shoulders aligned, hips twisting, every muscle synchronized in a single motion—and threw his spear from outside.

  The spear flew in a straight line with fabulous speed, cutting through the air with a whistle that rose and fell. It directly hit an Unawakened in the chest, the point bursting through bone and flesh alike before embedding itself in the ground, impaling the young man like a butterfly pinned to corkboard.

  He then charged forward like a raging bull. Waves of panic flooded through the Unawakened.

  'Crap! What are those two doing? Letting this madman run free,' Chen Tao thought, his mind racing as he signaled the allied Unawakened to not run wildly and attack in a proper formation.

  "Haha, I got his spear!" One of the Unawakened shouted after spending a few precious seconds wrestling the spear free from the ground where it pinned his comrade's corpse. The body had already turned into another ordinary box.

  "You moron!" Yao Ming shouted, since the Unawakened was part of his group. "Did you forget that he can control metal?!"

  The youth's triumphant grin vanished, replaced by dawning horror. "Oh…"

  He tried to flee, but a heavy, metallic hand clamped onto his shoulder. He looked up to see Hua Yong's impassive helmeted face looming over him. The spear in the boy's hand shimmered, dissolved into liquid, and flowed up his arm, over his shoulder, and re-solidified into a cruel point pressed against the base of his own skull.

  His face turned blue as he squeezed his eyes shut, surrendering to the inevitable.

  [Ding! You have obtained…]

  A soft chime followed by the notification rang in Hua Yong's mind as he walked past the two wooden chests on the ground.

  "Everyone, stay calm! In this situation, the first thing we need to do is not panic!" Cai Hong shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos. He was wearing the armor he'd looted, the metal sitting awkwardly on his frame.

  "Nah, screw you! I'm out!" One Unawakened shouted and bolted straight toward the other door, his feet skidding against the stone as he changed direction mid-stride.

  Slash!

  Thud.

  The Unawakened fell, his body hitting the ground with the graceless finality of a puppet with cut strings.

  "Hahaha! Did you forget about me?!" Hu Jian shouted after slashing the running youth's leg with a clean cut that separated tendon from bone, muscle from flesh.

  "Aaargh, my—my leg!!" An anguished wail tore from his throat as he grabbed his injury, fingers pressing against the wound as he tried to take out a pill.

  "You're all going to—wait, what?" Hu Jian was mid-threat, his sword raised for another blow, but he stopped abruptly as he felt a strange sensation spreading across his body. He looked down and watched as all of his armor and weapon turned liquid, the metal flowing away from him like blood draining from a corpse, leaving him with only frail clothes that did nothing to hide his naked vulnerability.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Fortunately, he was not alone. The other seven Unawakeneds’ armor and weapons also became liquid and flowed toward Hua Yong. Even the armor and weapons in the scattered wooden chests also turned liquid and flowed toward him.

  "Hurry! Attack! Don't let him use the skill, otherwise we will all die!" Chen Tao shouted, but no one moved. They hesitated, their courage failing at the crucial moment.

  The Unawakened spared each other a few glances, but no one actually moved to attack.

  "Why are you hesitating?" Chen Yuan shouted, his voice rising with barely contained fury. "Did you forget we're fighting under Lady Xia's name? Now, after me!" He charged forward, his blade raised, diving into the fray without hesitation.

  "But… is she even alive?" a voice quavered from the crowd. "If he's here… doesn't that mean he either defeated or killed those two?"

  "Did you not hear what he shouted earlier?!" Yao Ming snapped. "He said 'you want to kill me, but I will kill your subordinates!' Lady Xia is alive! You idiots!"

  "But if that's the case," another Unawakened put his thoughts forward, his voice trembling, "shouldn't we run so he cannot kill us?"

  "Oh, my heavens!" Zhu Yan hurled a string of curses at them. "Follow the orders, you fucking retards!! If he takes all the metal, he will become much stronger and harder to kill!! If you don't follow the orders, we will kill you first!"

  Finally, succumbing to the threats, they also attacked after Chen Yuan.

  Crash!

  Suddenly, Lu Zhiheng flew out from the corridor and landed directly on top of Chen Yuan and the incoming wave of Unawakened, sending all of them tumbling backward in a tangle of limbs and shouted curses.

  "Ugh—" He staggered upright and shouted, his voice cutting through the chaos: "Where is Hua Yong?!"

  "Aaah! You are standing on my arm—get off, get off!"

  "You are standing on my back! Move!"

  Slowly, Lu Er looked down, and beneath his foot was someone's arm, almost crushed beneath his weight. "Ah, my apologies, brother. I mistakenly stood on your—"

  "Just get OFF!" The pinned Unawakened swung a wild, panicked punch at Lu Er's shin.

  Lu Er hastily extracted himself from the groaning pile of human casualties, his eyes searching for the enemy in the chaos around him.

  In the meantime, the other half of the Unawakened, along with Yao Ming, Xu Qin, and Chen Tao, were already attacking Hua Yong, but Hua Yong was somehow able to keep up with them. Though he was at a slight disadvantage at first, it was slowly getting more and more advantageous for him.

  As the armor got thicker, the arrows stopped piercing, and there weren't many methods to attack him that could penetrate his metallic cocoon. The Unawakened were reduced to stabbing at gaps, searching for weaknesses that grew smaller with each passing second.

  On the other hand, Cai Hong was busy fighting one-on-one with Hu Jian in a desperate clash. Two armorless men battering each other with whatever was at hand, both trying to gain the upper hand in a battle that would determine nothing and everything. For them at least.

  After a few more moments, the previously armored scion became a metal giant. He discarded the spear and instead materialized one giant sword. And now, it was his turn to be aggressive.

  Immediately, he began his attack, and the Unawakened started dying left and right. He ignored the group leaders and only targeted the ones without any affiliation.

  The oblivious youths still tried their best to attack and put the giant down, but it just wasn't plausible. No matter how much they tried, they couldn't even land a proper attack that did actual damage. Their blades bounced off his armor, their arrows fell uselessly to the ground, their desperation turned to panic as their numbers dwindled.

  The best method to defeat the metal giant was to make him fall to the ground. He was covered in so much metal—surely, if they somehow managed to make him topple, they'd easily be able to defeat him, right?

  Wrong.

  It wasn't that this method was not possible—it was just that for some reason, they kept failing to actually execute the plan. Every time they tried it, something would occur. They didn't have these problems earlier, what happened now?

  It was as if someone was deliberately causing these accidents. But each time, they were caused by a different person. Thus, no one could be suspected—each failed attempt looked like individual incompetence rather than sabotage.

  Somewhere in the midst of the carnage, Xia Sahui slipped into the chamber. She looked pale, a sheen of sweat on her brow, but her eyes were clear and sharp. She immediately began calling orders, leading the fight with sharp shouts and strategic positioning, but it was of no use.

  One by one, the Unawakened fell. During the entire fight, there were many who tried to run away from the battle—but every time someone tried it, Hua Yong would target them first.

  After twelve Unawakened were dead, the leaders all had a grim expression on their faces. They were all exhausted and injured—breathing heavily, wounds bleeding, muscles screaming for rest—and yet the giant in the front kept slaughtering their companions.

  Looking at them, Xia Sahui gritted her teeth and shouted, her voice hoarse from screaming: "Stop! Hua Yong, a lot of my subordinates have died. I can't afford to lose more. So, how about we make an agreement?"

  "Haha!" Hua Yong's laughter echoed metallically. "You are asking to make an agreement now—but not when I was losing earlier?" He shook his head. "No. I will kill you too and win!"

  "Stop, Hua Yong. We both know that you are already exhausted. Fighting in that heavy armor must be pretty tiring. If we continue, you will have to die. Are you sure you want to continue? You will lose your chance to become an Awakened."

  Hua Yong didn't reply for a long moment. All of the Unawakened who were still alive looked at him with tense anticipation. Everything depended on him. Even Hu Jian and Cai Hong, who were fighting like kids, bleeding from fifty different wounds, with all sorts of weapons scattered around them, stopped for the moment.

  But in the end, Hua Yong fell back to the ground. His giant form collapsed, the metal armor lost its cohesion and pooled around him like liquid mercury.

  "Fine." His voice was quiet, defeated. "I agree."

  Just as he said that, all of them fell to the ground in exhaustion.

  They lay scattered across the chamber like fallen leaves, their breathing gradually evening into the rhythms of deep, dreamless sleep, their bodies finally permitted respite after a day that had extracted everything.