Ronan conjured two swords, one in each hand. Rainbow bomb was effective against crowds but with the number of Grathen charging him he wouldn't have the freedom to spare a hand for casting. There were already a few brave workers nearby and they threw themselves at him with redoubled fervour after the announcement that rocked the city.

He kept fighting as the horde descended upon him. Over the crowd he spotted streams of Grathen coming from all the streets leading to the spaceport. While the civilians were normally prevented from coming here, there was no distinction between the aliens who were coming for him.

Every single Grathen in the city had been galvanized by the announcement. Their only goal was to kill him.

That was exciting, but also rather disappointing at the same time. Large groups were a challenge to deal with, but these workers and technicians were individually weak. Killing them wasn't hard and the rewards were lacking.

Killing enough of them would give him a slow trickle of levels, but it would take thousands to make any meaningful progress. Back on his homeworld, he could push over level 100 by fighting the enemies present in his sector, whereas here it seemed that he needed to fight his way through half a planet to accomplish the same.

The Path of the Gladiator might be appealing to those who didn't have his heritage, but there were better—and faster—ways to grow stronger for a man like him. Still, he wasn't the type to give up, so he would see this through until the end. Whether that meant completing the path or dying, Ronan would do his best.

About half an hour later, Ronan had reached level 77 after killing what had to be nearly a thousand Grathen. There was no distinction. Workers, technicians, civilians, merchants. All fell to his collection of blades.

His stamina was around two-thirds' full thanks to his ability to keep it topped up, but his mana was hovering around the nine-thousand mark. That sounded like a lot, but it was less than half of his total.

His high regeneration stat meant it was recovering fast, but not fast enough. Something had to change if he wanted to break out of this stalemate.

None of the weak Grathen could threaten his life, but he would eventually run out of resources. No matter how powerful Ronan had become he doubted he could outlast an entire city of aliens in a battle of attrition.

He raised his sword to cut down the latest attacker when suddenly the bubble above the city simply… vanished. Not all of the Grathen noticed, but Ronan felt it immediately. The sudden drop in the quantity of mana around him was impossible to miss. Not only that, but he felt a powerful surge of mana in the sky above the city.

Looking up, he saw a ship had flown into Kayir's airspace. A frown appeared on his face. There was no way this was a coincidence.

Apparently his efforts to seal off the city from outside interference had failed. The ship hovered in the air for a few moments before suddenly dropping. It fell like a ton of bricks, seemingly in an uncontrolled freefall, until coming to a halt about ten metres above the ground.

At the arrival of the ship, all the nearby Grathen started to cheer and backed away, making space for the vehicle. Ronan observed their behaviour. They had stopped attacking him despite the announcement telling them to basically throw away their lives to stop him. The only reason they would do that…

The side of the ship opened up with a hiss, revealing three Grathen soldiers in golden uniforms. They looked different to the other Grathen, with shinier skin that was closer to blue than grey. Their eyes also had a glowing white halo around the iris, and he saw lines of metal embedded in their skin.

Whatever they were, they were clearly elites. He didn't need to see their tags to know that, but they helped him get a real gauge on their power. Ronan felt his heart start beating faster and his mind begin to race. This was the challenge he'd been waiting for.

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[Gurkrar 2 - Agrathen Captain Lv.101]

[Gorbak 7 - Agrathen Captain Lv.103]

[Gurkrar 6 - Agrathen Captain Lv.104]

The soldiers didn't seem to be in a rush to attack him. They met his gaze and held it, derision in their eyes as they did what he assumed to be reading his tag. One of them widened its eyes. A line of metal running from its ear to its neck glowed white. The same thing happened on the other two, but in the opposite direction.

They all nodded. The one in the middle took out a laser rifle, but it was made from a dark black metal with gold filigree rather than the silvery material that Ronan had seen until that moment. The other two drew laser swords. The highest leveled captain wielded two mid-sized laser swords, while the other had a single, large one, reminiscent of a broadsword.

They jumped off the ship, landing with barely a bend in their knees. They were tall, one around the same height as Ronan and the other a couple of inches taller. Their height didn't really matter, it was their strength.

They had uniform classes as all of the Grathen seemed to do. He idly wondered if they evolved from an insectoid species, given their propensity for uniformity, but their biological features didn't really support that theory.

The two captains were in lock-step as they moved towards him. The one that was still on the ship had raised its rifle and aimed it at Ronan. The faint glow around the barrel informed him it was preparing for the opening shot.

He had realised it subconsciously, but the moment he'd left the spaceport the suppression on his skills had loosened. When the bubble went down, it vanished completely. Whatever it was required the bubble to function. He was glad for it, as he would need every advantage to take down his three new opponents.

He conjured a shortsword and started forming a mana bolt. Ronan activated vital surge and stone grip, not wanting to take any chances. He fired the mana bolt at the sniper, hoping it would distract the captain long enough for him to gain an advantage against the soldiers on the ground.

However, before the mana bolt could even zip past them, the captain with the twin swords twisted and leapt to the side, cutting his spell apart. A small explosion rocked the air around it as it was destroyed, but it barely fazed the Agrathen. Ronan frowned. That wasn't promising.

Their movements shifted after he used the spell. They suddenly split up and sped up, racing to flank him. Ronan tossed another mana bolt at the one on the left but was forced to conjure a second blade and parry the heavy swing of the laser-broadsword-wielder as it attacked from the right.

As the other Agrathen joined the fray and the two aliens started to push him back, Ronan realised he was in trouble. His stats meant he wasn't losing out in the individual clashes. In fact, he was even pressing them back slightly and occasionally scoring cuts in their flesh. However, they had three swords to his two, and their coordination was perfect.

More than that, it wasn't just the two in front of him that he had to worry about. A piercing whine preceded a rapid laser beam that tore through the air, carving between a narrow gap in the two captain's blades, and struck him right in the shoulder. Ronan grunted as he was knocked backwards, stumbling a few steps.

His shoulder wouldn't move and the pain burned into his chest and bicep. The blast hadn't taken his arm off, but another one surely would. He regained movement after a rapid application of cure wound and minor heal with his sorcery, but the damage was still visible. He couldn't do more than that as the two sword-wielding captains had immediately gone on the attack again, pressing the advantage the sniper had earned them.

Even using magic strike profusely he was still losing. The soldiers targeted the wounded arm specifically, and Ronan was starting to feel the pain worsen. Another laser beam cut through the air. This time he was able to avoid it, but as he stepped to the side he felt a sharp sting in his thigh.

Looking down, he saw the dual wielding captain had stabbed him there. It whipped the sword back and swung the other blade at him right as the broadsword-wielder stepped into range and began an overhead swing that would cleave a limb off if it connected. To make matters worse, one of his conjured blades was fading from the damage, and he was forced to let it dissipate.

He was in the process of re-conjuring it as he was forced to take an awkward step to block the dual-wielder's strike. As the blade appeared in his hand the broadsword was close enough for him to feel the heat of the laser on his face. He grunted and twisted his spine, feeling a tendon snap as he managed to just about parry the heavy blow.

It sent him tumbling head over heels to the ground. His high dexterity let him twist himself back into position to leap to his feet. He saw another shot being fired at him as he did, the two captains charging in to strike once more.

Ronan was trapped and he couldn't see a way out.

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