Chapter 75: The Unfettered (2/2)

"He’s not fighting like before." Grimdolur’s voice cut through the shared enemy channel, wary now instead of clinical. "He’s fighting like he doesn’t care what he hits anymore. That’s worse."

"Focus fire!" Sylvaeth’s own voice snapped through the chaos, sharp and commanding. "He can’t be everywhere at once, no matter how fast he thinks he is!"

She wasn’t wrong, not yet. But the gap between what she believed and what was actually true had started closing faster than she could track.

Logan felt his own speed climbing past anything he’d ever carried into a fight before, each blink shaving fractions of a second off the last, each strike landing a hair faster than the one before it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a notification he hadn’t opened in hours flickered for attention.

’Right. Still got that saved.’

He’d banked the Level 25 class skill choice hour ago without ever circling back to it, saving it to judge a rainy hour, and this was it.

He didn’t hesitate.

’Grim Phantom Enchant.’

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[ Grim Phantom Enchant learned. ]

```

```

[ Grim Phantom Enchant ]

> Level: 1

> Effect: Grants a 100% Speed increase for 1 minute. During this duration, Attack increases by 100 for every 200 points of Speed.

```

Grim Phantom Enchant!

The world lurched sideways for a half second as his own body caught up to a speed his mind hadn’t fully processed yet, and then everything simply started happening faster than anyone else on the battlefield could track.

Reaper’s Stride’s stacked bonus, already climbing steadily through the whole fight, compounded on top of the fresh hundred percent boost, and the number sitting in his own status window climbed somewhere past anything he’d ever seen a stat reach.

And then...he injured himself, triggering the Epic-rank Relic which further boosted his speed.

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[ Speed: 9,830 ]

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The Attack that came bundled with it climbed just as fast, each two hundred points of Speed translating into another hundred points of raw damage behind every single swing.

---

Sylvaeth Windrune realized somewhere around the second minute of trying that she genuinely couldn’t see him anymore.

Not in the sense of losing track. In the sense that her own eyes, her own sensors, her own every method of perceiving another living thing in the space around her had simply stopped registering him as something that existed in a fixed point long enough to matter.

"Where is he?" She spun once, twice, blade raised toward absolutely nothing. "Where did he go?!"

He was right behind her by the time the question finished leaving her mouth.

"Surrender," he said, quiet, and moved past her again before the word had even finished settling into her own ears.

She never got the chance to actually respond. A vortex of displaced air spun up around her from nothing but the sheer speed of his passing, close enough to pin her in place without a single blade ever actually touching her.

’SURRENDER!’

The word tore out of her on pure reflex, some animal part of her brain understanding the situation faster than the rest of her could catch up.

---

Logan felt it the second her signature blinked out, and he felt something else too, underneath the satisfaction.

His own bones ached in a way that had nothing to do with any of the wounds he’d already taken.

’Body’s not built for this.’ The thought surfaced distant and strange, as it belonged to someone else. ’Toughness isn’t keeping up with the Speed anymore.’

He looked at his own status window anyway, at a stat stacking climbing higher with every meter he’d covered since the fight started.

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[ Gale-Reach Sigil (Relic, Rare) ]

Grants a 1% Attack boost for every meter traveled before a hit connects. Applies to all allies within a 1-kilometer radius.

```

With his speed, he was covering insane distances by moving around in this open area, destroying spaceships and players alike.

’Don’t reset it.’ The thought came through clear despite everything else screaming for his attention. ’Whatever this turns into, don’t reset it.’

In the next two seconds, one or two limbs of every remaining player flew, terror seizing their hearts as they instantly surrendered.

He didn’t swing again. He ran instead, straight through the chamber wall separating this area from the next, chitin and stone both giving way under nothing but the raw force of his own passing.

He circled around, with a sword held diagonally, covering kilometres upon kilometers every second, and boosting his Attack via the Rare-rank Relic.

Something in his own shoulder cracked audibly on impact of another living wall. He kept moving anyway.

More walls. More distance. More stack building on top of itself with every meter, his own Attack stat climbing into territory that stopped making practical sense somewhere around the fifth wall he tore through.

His whole body screamed at him to stop.

But screw that. As long as he stayed alive, his body was game, and his mind was controller.

The chamber he finally arrived in was massive, four separate Mythic-rank Field Bosses already turning toward the sound of his approach, guardians clearly meant to be the last real obstacle before whatever waited past them.

Logan stood there for a moment, his own heart hammering hard enough that he could feel it in his ears, his bones aching with a pain that felt uncomfortably close to something more permanent than pain usually meant.

He looked at his own stack, climbing still, a number he didn’t fully trust his own eyes to be reading correctly.

’This might actually kill me.’ The thought arrived calm, almost detached. ’Doesn’t matter. This ends now, one way or the other.’

Grimlord’s Blade rose in both hands.

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[ Overgrim Slash ]

Level: 10

Cost: 500 Mana.

Effect: Unleash a slash projectile with 90% Omni-Defense Penetration, dealing 1,000% damage. If the first obstacle facing the slash is not a living being, the slash passes through it without losing any power.

Additional Effect: Increase the size of the slash up to 100 meters.

```

Overgrim Slash!

Every point of stacked Speed. Every point of stacked Attack. Every ounce of power Grim Phantom Enchant had layered on top of Reaper’s Stride’s own climbing bonus, and every last percentage the Gale-Reach Sigil had piled on with every meter he’d refused to spend, all of it poured into a single motion.

The slash that tore free of his own blade didn’t stop at a hundred meters in size. That was the skill’s additional effect, but Logan had so much power gathered it extended way further.

It kept going past a thousand, past two thousand, finally stretching out over three thousand meters long before its own momentum showed any sign of settling. Ninety percent Omni-Defense Penetration riding behind a wall of dark light wide enough to swallow the chamber whole.

The four Mythic-rank Field Bosses didn’t get the chance to react. They simply weren’t there anymore, erased in the same instant the slash reached them, and it didn’t slow down for having passed through them either.

It kept going. Through the chamber wall beyond them. Through whatever passages sat between this room and whatever waited at the actual center of the Hive.

It destroyed five more Mythic-rank Bosses as the speed of the slash was now something no monster or player, including Logan himself, could perceive.

But Logan felt it connect with something vast and ancient a heartbeat later after annihilating everything in the next chamber.

The slash tore through the final wall, and a massive brood queen with 100,000 giant monsters floating around her awaited there.

But only for one moment. After that moment, the queen split into two from the center, and the slash kept going until it literally tore through the massive hive.

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[ Filburn Queen: Eliminated. ]

[ Reward: 3 x Random Skill Books (Epic to Mythic), acquired. ]

[ Congratulations. You have won the match. ]

```

Logan’s knees buckled, and he hit the ground hard, every bone in his body screaming at once, his own vision swimming toward black at the edges.

But...he won.

And he won in a fashion he didn’t think he would.

"Master!"

Billy and Synthia arrived first while Solveig stayed on the ship with clones.

Synthia quickly gave him a Mythic-rank Healing Potion.

"We won." Logan smiled and just lay down as Billy carried him.

"You went overboard, boss. That was insane." Billy sighed while his eyes were filled with awe. "But it was freaking awesome."

Logan looked at the leaderboard, smile gluing into a grin.

[ Overall Score Leaderboard ]

Rank 1 | Leon Flanke — 132,400 Score.

...

Players in the match received the match-wide announcement, and everyone disappeared shortly, their match evaluation beginning.

The people and monitors watching the Tower Floor leaderboards all rang an alarm of their own as the much-awaited change appeared.

"H-He did it!"

"Leone Flanke took over the No. 1 spot in Star Hunters Leaderboard!"

"132,400 score in Star Hunters!? What the fuck did he do? Destroyed the whole threat of his match himself?"

"Look at his eliminations! 124 freaking players! That’s 53 more than the previous highest."

"What the hell is his talent and class?!"