Everyone felt the extremely tense atmosphere and the approach of death over their heads. But, in this moment of extreme fear, the giant whale had eyes that were extremely calm and profound. Not a single ripple of fear or despair existed in him anymore. Before, they could even feel that, but in the true critical moment, nothing remained in their minds except the enemy.
" Zanou, protect Mira." The whale spoke indifferently, and Mira hurriedly ran to Zanou's side.
Then, they turned to the woman of the same height as them, who wielded a large black sword. "I'll block as much as I can, Langrum, try to open a path at the first opportunity and run with them."
Both Langrum and the others felt that calmness coming from the leader, and their minds stabilized quickly. The sense of death did not diminish, but Goku's assurance was very abnormal. They had no idea that Zane and Gael had already faced much deadlier moments so many times that they had lost count. They still didn't know how these elders seemed to be able to teleport in this place where Qi was blocked, but that didn't matter anymore.
It all lasted three seconds until the shadows of five people within the scarlet mist closed in around them.
'I think I know where we saw something similar to this elder's technique; it was in the fight against Langrum.' Gael commented mentally.
Zane then recalled that moment when a black flame seemed to subtly ignite in Langrum's eyes, causing her to explode in power many times greater. Back when she attacked them, they hadn't fully activated their defenses. Yet, the power she displayed was beyond their expectations. In the end, their bloodline seemed to react instinctively and activated on its own, saving them from Langrum.
'Yes... it's different but very similar.' Zane agreed, but they didn't have time to discuss it.
The whale surged forward with an overwhelming presence as its physical body triggered a tremor in the earth that crumbled beneath its feet. In the blink of an eye, an axe appeared in its hands, and before the elders could react, the whale vanished from their senses.
CRASH!!!
Raw and abnormal power exploded on the body of an elder in front. It was a pure and unbelievable physical force, without any gleam or flashy effect, but its destructive power was unstoppable. The elder fell several meters back, spitting blood, leaving everyone around shocked.
The whale disappeared again like a sinister shadow, but the experienced old ones no longer underestimated the threat. They focused on everything around them while holding their weapons.
CRACK!
Another elder was attacked, out of everyone's senses. But they felt a bit of relief seeing this time the elder wielding his saber, blocking the sinister whale with its axe.
However, it didn't take long for them to notice the mystical gleam in the eyes of the round and dreadful being. The elder's face contorted, and he couldn't hold against the axe for another second.
BOOOM!!
Astral winds, made of crimson mist, swept the surroundings with overwhelming power. Another elder was thrown several meters back, spitting blood. Everyone realized that this power emanated from the axe held by the whale; it was a strategic self-detonation.
In just five seconds, two elders were injured before anyone could comprehend what was happening. The first move was unexpected, but in the second, everyone was prepared, and yet nothing changed. It was at that moment they realized: this was the true power of an Evil God Talent.
The two elders, who were initially side by side, were separated, creating a large opening. Immediately, Langrum and the others ran with everything, awakening action in the rest.
"You won't escape!" an elder hissed ominously.
The air twisted, and something akin to a bolt of black lightning shot up, falling in front of Langrum with a wave of impact. The space seemed to distort, and the earth rose, halting everyone's steps and leaving them stunned before the manifestation.
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This time, Zane and Gael saw and felt everything directly, confirming their theories. 'This is definitely a unique technique. And the fuel is the infernal laws... There was nothing in the sect about such techniques...' Gael commented, sighing.
They clearly saw this technique using the infernal laws around, resonating with them. Inside the prison, Qi couldn't be used, but these techniques were triggered by using the environment. Clearly, it was a trick they couldn't guess, and they had no way to deal with it properly.
'It seems that evil cultivators possess unusual inheritances to use alongside the infernal laws. It makes sense, as we didn't find significant uses for the wings in our badge before; this must be so valuable that no one discloses or teaches it, keeping it only for themselves.' Zane added.
The dust settled slowly, and the two elders, separated and injured, had already run and closed the circle again. Now, they were entirely focused, and the chance of escaping was completely destroyed.
'Langrum, it seems like this is the time for you to use that card of yours,' the whale spoke calmly, directly into her mind. 'We can't run anymore; if we delay, another five elders will come. I don't know why you're hiding it, but I can't fight them all.'
Langrum sighed. 'My master forbade me from using it unless it's a last resort. Well... this seems to be the case. I'll try to surprise them...'
'It's useless,' they cut in. 'At least two of these elders have a technique similar to yours. And it seems yours is focused on attack, but theirs is for speed. We won't escape unless we kill at least two.'
She felt their approach at her back. Langrum was facing south, Goku to the north, and in the center were Zanou and Mira, trembling.
Leader Goku spoke to everyone, " Zanou, activate everything you have and protect yourselves."
"I can hold two of them," Langrum whispered.
Zane and Gael were shocked; she currently couldn't even fight against one elder. Would using that power change things so much?
Then, they nodded, and both took firm steps forward. Soon, the ground trembled with explosive power coming from the laws of the earth covering Zanou and Mira. The runic seal they had inside Zanou's armor was activated, and a countdown began as the energy stored inside began to be used. Still, once the defensive power of the seal ran out, they would be completely vulnerable.
A frenzied aura exploded from Langrum as her ogre bloodline was pushed to the limit. Then, her sword emitted an incomprehensible mystical and cutting energy. She leaped and violently swung forward. The weight and size of that sword locked the space around the two elders; the reach of that weapon was enormous, giving them no chance to escape.
On the other side, the whale drew two heavy sabers. These were weapons that were in the rings they collected in the desert. They ended up with half of everything, so these weapons, which Zane and Gael considered junk, remained. The female elder in the mission building gave them to Zane and Gael because these weapons had spent hundreds of years in the ring outside the dimensional realm, and time had completely worn them out.
But, even being poor, using the full power of their bodies, they could force these weapons to explode. Now, thanks to the Dao of the Forging God, they completely understood everything about inferior weapons like these; it was easy to press the right points to make the weapon detonate, even without Qi to use.
A succession of booms made a vast area of kilometers reverberate. The whale attacked and mercilessly exploded its weapons. They had two dozen of them, and two elders were completely blocked and were being injured, spitting blood in two exchanges.
The last elder attacked the center, thinking it was the most vulnerable point. He was partly correct, but Zanou and Mira stood there with hands held, not moving an inch, and even though the elder attacked with all his might, the yellowish barrier a few inches around them didn't even vibrate. It was impossible to break this defense. That was the power of the runic seal in Zanou's armor.
Then, a desperate message reached the mind of that elder. The fight to the north against the whale was something impossible to win with just two of them. He then ran, ignoring those two at the center.
The sound of metal clashing against metal became extremely intense to the south; Langrum fought like a war goddess against two elders. They had much more offensive power, but unbelievably, that sword could perfectly block their sabers. The physical strength coming from the ogre blood made that heavy weapon seem like a twig in her hands.
She only blocked their attacks, and then a mystical cutting power made them retreat hastily. The ground and the air were brutally split in half; the hardness of the sword was unbelievable, and the cutting power was even frightening. The sword Zane and Gael were supposed to be using was truly phenomenal. Too bad they lost it to Langrum in that bet.
"What evil divine weapon is this?" one of them exclaimed. Then greed exploded in all the elders' eyes.
But, despite being dangerous, it was only the power of the weapon, not Langrum's. They were experienced and quickly attacked from angles impossible to block. Langrum was quickly cornered. Then, her eyes changed, and an aura that looked like a black flame flickered in them.
It was a power that resonated with the laws in the air, similar to the technique of the other elder. Langrum spun with her sword, and both elders were alarmed, quickly blocking with their weapons.
They were thrown a few meters back and spit blood incredulously. Then, they felt their weapons shattering completely into dozens of fragments. That technique could penetrate and cut even divine metal.
"We have to use everything. It's not just the whale that has many secrets," an elder sinisterly spoke for all the others to hear.
In less than a minute, the two groups of elders realized that they wouldn't win and were closer to death every second. So, even unwillingly, they used their final trump card. Soon, their true power was fully exposed.
Out of the five, two were covered in black lightning that resonated with the laws, and one of them was enveloped in an aura that resembled a black flame. However, it was infinitely weaker than Langrum's technique.
Zane and Gael clearly noticed. The four wings stemming from the symbol of the evil god of these elders seemed to become more opaque. The cost of using this technique was the wings created with a lot of effort from them. Therefore, for this reason, they didn't use it easily.
The one wielding the flame faced Langrum, and she was easily thrown away, managing to block only because the sword was hard enough to mitigate the damage. With the other elder attacking next, she had no chance to counter.
The other two attacked the whale at an impossible-to-see speed. Nevertheless, Zane and Gael could sense their movements and dodged by jumping before the strike; it was as if they could predict the future and were not hit.
However, the third elder completed the attack shortly after. They had to focus entirely on anticipating the other two. Dealing with this third one was almost impossible. Still, their experience was unbelievable; none of them managed to hit the whale completely, but in return, Zane and Gael were completely on the defensive.
Quickly, in the second minute of the fight, the two groups reached a stalemate. No one could win against the other in a short or medium period. However, time was against Zane and Gael.
Gael spoke, trying to keep calm: 'Damn, the runic seal of the armor will only last three more minutes, even using our earth runes.'
'At most, in two minutes, the other five elders will arrive. Everything has to end before that...' Zane concluded, making the situation even worse.