The two figures that materialized before Max in the second floor didn't directly attacked as something was happening to them.
"Hmm? They are merging together?" Max was surprised. He hadn't expected the shadowy figures could merge into one.
They coalesced into something resembling a humanoid shape, tendrils of black mist curling off their edges, and the moment they fully took form they lunged at Max simultaneously, moving with a coordinated aggression.
Max did not step back, did not shift into a defensive stance, and did not even bother to channel more than a sliver of his cultivation. He simply swung his sword in a single, clean arc, and the blade moved with a sharpness that seemed to cut through the very concept of resistance.
The two shadowy figures were not merely defeated. They were obliterated, blasted apart by the force of that one motion, their dark forms unraveling and disintegrating into wisps of shadow that faded before they could even reach the floor.
