Deep within the long and wide brownish river cutting through the realm of Nalim, Liam slowly sank deeper toward the bottom.

The water around him remained dark and murky, filled with drifting sediment, broken branches, and faint streaks of blood being carried away by the current. Above him, the shattered surface where he had crashed through had long since settled back into restless ripples beneath the night sky.

For a long while, Liam simply allowed himself to continue sinking.

Not because he lacked the strength to move.

But because for the first time since the fight began, there was a strange silence around him.

There were no explosions, no roars, and no claws trying to rip him apart.

Just cold water, darkness, and the slow pull of the river current carrying him downstream little by little.

’My whole body hurts,’ Liam thought quietly as he drifted downward.

The pain was everywhere now.

Not sharp in one place anymore, but spread throughout his body in heavy waves that made every movement feel irritatingly difficult.

’Nearly all the ribs on my right side are broken. My back is cracked. I most likely have a concussion. My left foot has multiple fractures. And I’m annoyingly beat right now.’

The current pushed softly against his soaked clothes as he continued drifting.

’I could really use some sleep most of all.’

His eyes remained closed.

The dark mage simply floated there beneath the river while loose strands of hair drifted around his face within the water.

’I really hate being in here... but it feels kinda relaxing though.’

Liam had never liked deep water.

It didn’t matter whether it was a lake, river, ocean, or flooded cavern. As long as he couldn’t clearly see the bottom beneath him, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Something about deep water always unsettled him.

The silence.

The unseen depth.

The feeling of being surrounded by something larger than himself while having no true control over it.

And he still felt that same discomfort right now.

But the pain coursing through his body was simply too much for him to care properly at the moment.

Besides, despite how unpleasant deep water usually felt to him, the river current moving calmly around his body carried a strange numbness to it.

Almost soothing and peaceful.

’I can still sense the Berserker’s presence from the surface,’ Liam thought as he expanded his awareness outward slightly.

Even from beneath the water, he could still faintly feel the evolved demon waiting somewhere above along the riverbank, patiently watching.

Waiting for Liam to emerge so they could continue fighting.

’What a pain.’

The Berserker had no intentions of letting him escape through the river.

And honestly, Liam himself had no intention of escaping either.

Not after getting ragdolled through half the eastern forest.

Not after getting smashed through trees, dragged across the ground, and swatted through the sky like prey.

The thought alone annoyed him slightly.

’Well... I’m done seeing what I wanted to see,’ he thought calmly. ’So there’s no need to drag this out any longer.’

With just the clash he had already exchanged with the Berserker, Liam had confirmed nearly everything written inside the old book he discovered back at the academy library.

An evolved Advanced Horror.

A demon that had stepped into the domain of the Sync-class through cannibalistic evolution and constant adaptation.

And more importantly—

A creature that was still evolving during combat itself.

Liam had noticed it clearly throughout the fight.

The Berserker was learning from every exchange, every clash, and every injury.

It adapted to movement patterns frighteningly fast.

It adjusted to his weapon shifts.

It learned the timing behind his flame bursts.

It even retaliated by throwing Liam around through the forest in almost the exact same way Liam had done to it earlier.

Petty.

Instinctively petty.

That part almost amused Liam.

But now he knew exactly what he needed to do to kill it.

Honestly, he had always known.

It was common knowledge.

Destroy the core completely, destroy the head and core simultaneously, or erase the body entirely if the regeneration was absurd enough to recreate a core.

Those were the rules for killing demons; simple, brutal, absolute.

And Liam knew those rules better than most people alive.

Which meant the truth was simple.

He had never actually come here searching for some hidden weakness within Berserkers.

Deep down, there had never truly been curiosity about whether the book was accurate.

That had only been an excuse.

An excuse to avoid thinking about the real reason he wanted this fight in the first place.

Because the truth was much simpler than that.

Liam just wanted a fight where he didn’t have to think so much about holding back.

A fight where he could simply let go and beat his opponent until the pressure building inside his chest finally eased.

Unreasonable as it sounded, Liam needed an outlet.

Ever since the war ended, things had only continued piling onto him one after another.

Aesmirius’s Mind Realm, the memories of his parents, the memories of Aesmirius himself, the weight of everything he had been shown while trapped within that endless place.

Then after finally waking up, he had immediately been thrown into political games and unnecessary problems involving the Crescent Kingdom, nobles, authority figures, alliances, and people constantly trying to decide what he should be.

It had become exhausting.

Annoying.

And somewhere beneath all of that calmness Liam usually carried, frustration had been building steadily.

So when he learned the ’truth’ about Berserkers...

About demons strong enough to genuinely challenge him...

He wanted one thing.

A fight.

A real fight.

Because if he vented all that frustration on a demon instead of a person, then there would be no consequences afterward.

And that was exactly what had led him to this moment now.

Drifting injured through the depths of a river in the middle of Nalim after getting nearly folded in half by a Berserker demon.

The thought made him chuckle quietly beneath the water.

Bubbles escaped upward from his mouth.

’Charlotte might actually be right sometimes,’ Liam thought calmly. ’I might really be a lunatic now and then.’

Then after a moment, another thought crossed his mind.

’But what can I say? I take a bit after my father.’

That thought lingered quietly for a while before his focus slowly returned toward the actual situation at hand.

The Berserker.

The evolved demon was still waiting above.

And Liam doubted it would simply leave him alone long enough to drift away downstream and escape.

Not after the fight they had already exchanged.

The Berserker wanted him now.

And honestly, Liam wanted the same thing in return.

’I’ve managed to mostly rely on flames and low-output techniques so far,’ he thought while analyzing his current reserves. ’That leaves me around fifty-five percent.’

Which was still enough.

More than enough for what he intended to do next.

He had intentionally avoided using many of his heavier dark magic techniques throughout the fight.

He had mostly relied on weapon summoning, Inferno Edge, flame bursts, and Shadow Solidification for the hybrid javelins.

Even though the academy now knew he could materialize weapons and fuse dark myst with flames, the true scope of his arsenal remained mostly hidden.

But if Liam truly wanted to finish this fight the way he intended to...

Then he needed to stop holding back.

Not by revealing more abilities, but by finally using the abilities he had already shown at a far more dangerous level.

Especially his flames.

With just enough dark magic mixed in to push things further.

’And this should be a good chance to enter Unified Flow again,’ Liam thought calmly.

The thought alone made his crimson eyes slowly open beneath the water.

A faint glow flickered within them immediately.

’You can be my first victim...’

Then suddenly, Liam’s gaze shifted sharply downstream.

Something was approaching.

Fast.

Very fast.

And against the river current itself.

The murky darkness ahead distorted as a massive shape rushed through the depths toward him with terrifying speed.

Long sensory tendrils extended from its crocodilian body while its wide maw slowly opened, revealing layers of jagged teeth meant for crushing prey beneath the river.

The same aquatic demon Liam had encountered during the first day of the assessment.

The same one he had promised he would kill if they ever crossed paths again.

’...since you decided to find me instead.’

The aquatic demon surged through the water aggressively as its tendrils sensed Liam’s presence invading its domain once more.

Its maw opened wider.

Then it lunged directly for him.

Liam moved instantly.

A hybrid javelin formed within his grip beneath the water, flames and shadow twisting together around the weapon before stabilizing into blackened metal cracked with molten heat.

The demon’s jaws snapped shut around him—

But the hybrid javelin wedged itself horizontally inside the creature’s maw at the last possible moment, stopping the teeth from fully closing around Liam’s body.

The impact still shook him violently.

The sheer bite force behind the demon’s jaws sent pain exploding through his already fractured ribs.

But Liam held firm.

Unfortunately, stopping the jaws didn’t stop the creature itself.

The aquatic demon immediately dragged Liam violently through the river while swimming upstream with monstrous strength.

Water exploded around them as the creature powered deeper into the river, trying to crush him through pressure and momentum alone.

Liam gripped the hybrid javelin tightly with both hands while the demon forced him deeper beneath the water current.

The riverbed blurred beneath them with sone cracking and mud exploding upward.

The demon’s strength was absurd underwater.

But slowly, the cracks running across Liam’s hybrid javelin began glowing brighter.

Heat spread outward through the river as the surrounding water started bubbling violently.

The aquatic demon sensed the sudden temperature increase immediately and thrashed harder, trying to force the weapon loose before whatever instinct warned it became reality.

But Liam’s grip only tightened.

His glowing crimson eyes remained fixed coldly on the creature.

’Told you I’d kill you the next time I saw you.’

Then the hybrid javelin illuminated.

A blinding eruption of flame and shadow swallowed the river whole.