Fighting fiercely or even moving within Ebony’s domain as a registered ‘foe’, ate into the Warrior King’s Vitality as every movement was violently reflected with mana vibrations. It also ate into his mana but it was acceptable. He could decrease the output to whatever he liked so it wouldn’t exceed the amount that he was comfortable with spending. Throughout the battle, he had made sure his domain bore down on the Warrior King while assisting Ning Xin or Athena’s projectiles that come from out of the range of his domain.
Athena’s stakes could pierce flesh but were usually stopped by bone, the Warrior King deflected all attacks to his vitals. With stakes concentrated on one arm, his thighs and shoulder had one stake in each as well but a casual flex of its muscles snapped those stakes. The wisps of Vitality pushed and the remaining portions just popped out.
3 Glacial Models handling Grandmaster Trolls not too far away immediately used Treading Stride to get to them. He was going to stop the Warrior King from escaping even if it was a waste of mana.
“Athena, back off!” Ning Xin called out.
The Glacial Models charged for the Warrior King and exploded on impact, hugging themselves onto the giant’s calves and thighs. Ebony widened his domain a little and used every bit of the almost entirely compressed mana to freeze the Warrior King down. The explosion of ice turned to an icy cloud but a lot poured out of his domain and affected the surroundings. Ning Xin shut her flames off and only boiled her blood to keep herself warmed up.
Stalactite Drop wasn’t at maximum charge but he wasn’t going to let this opportunity go. The fiery swordswoman thought the same and their movements were unplanned but coordinated. He disappeared from his spot and reappeared above the Warrior King’s head like a phantom. It was still in the midst of shock from the sudden cold and petals that were forming all over it, attempting to drown him in flames. Yet, its trained body allowed it to react with time to spare. His trusty war axe was drawn to guard as its feet weren’t free, it knew it couldn’t break free before Ebony’s strike came down.
Ning Xin was under Ebony, both her blades hammered into the Warrior King’s log-like neck. The look of surprise in his eyes could be seen by both of the swordsmen. She just flashed in front of him at speeds that seem to increase every moment of their exchange so far. Blood gushed out as the Warrior King fell back in pain, practically every vital vein and artery were sliced. The deep burns prevented a speedy recovery and even if he wasn’t burned, he wouldn’t heal fast enough. The slip in his defence allowed Icicle to glide through unhindered.
Stalactite Drop!
Icicle slid through the Warrior King’s skull and stopped at its sternum. Every bit of ice mana was repelled out with a tremor that tore the giant’s impressive body of flesh and even the surrounding air and ground were affected. The cracks formed and burst into freezing flames. Every inch of the giant was lit ablaze. The damage from Sonic Intrusion was repairing at visible speeds as the Troll put all his efforts into healing but Ebony’s flames already seeped into organs and nerves alike. Every bit of mana that the Troll removed was replaced and set ablaze over and over again.
The physical body of these giants was shockingly durable as it remained in one piece even with his earth-shattering attack. It took minutes of struggle and continued thrusts and slashes from both swordsmen before they heard the bell of relief.
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Marauder of Vigor Lvl 502]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Enemy 202 levels or more above your own, sufficient potential experience accumulated. Experience converted to Natural Potential.’
It was confusing that they wouldn’t know if this would cover the Natural Potential for the 450 and 475 that they didn’t kill but if they were to kill anything at those levels, they won’t be getting another inducement so he had to assume that they didn’t lose anything.
Thousands of Grandmaster Trolls were held back by the Empire’s artillery mages including the Frost Elf party but more and more slipped passed the bombardment and got close enough to be the soldiers' problem. They wouldn’t want to have spells and arrows hit their own allies after all.
Cap Dwarf and the others of his unit appeared to be doing well as some of the Kings escaped back, ignoring arrow and spell bombardment. From the looks of things, only a few Warrior Kings were killed and there were 8 still fighting. At least an eighth was repelled temporarily or killed. With that, the soldiers also got a hang of themselves and maintained their defensive line to a certain extent. However, the overwhelming number of Grandmaster Trolls breaking past the spellfire was increasing. Radiance Envoy, 4 Frost Elves, a few notable fire and earth mages together with cannons and magic towers and a bunch of archers were doing their best but their best wasn’t enough.
Ebony’s reach was limited and even Ning Xin’s speed wasn’t sufficient compared to the increasing number of opponents charging in. After all, every Troll took time and effort to kill. Some of them had Fortifications that allowed them to survive decapitation and many could gigantify themselves to escape a difficult position before returning fully regenerated.
“I’m getting a bad feeling.” Ning Xin transmitted over the mana link he kept with her all the time. Both to enhance her and to make conversation possible. It was a bit slow and the link could be broken but he remained reasonably close to her the entire time. There were cannons, fireballs, beams and so much more whizzing above their head that it was hard to hear another person even if they were beside each other.
“Retreat.” He wasn’t in a trance and was able to come in and out of a state of intense concentration without any lag. Her Intuition was far greater when it came to sensing danger.
“I’m feeling weak…” She told him honestly and he was glad she informed him sooner rather than later. He wanted to make sure she was within arms’ reach, so he hastened on getting himself away from the squads of Grandmasters surrounding him. She was in a similar position but they weren’t in any danger as extreme heat and cold enveloped the area around them. It was a nice little deterrent for quite a few of their opponents.
“Ky-!”
An unfamiliar feeling rose within him, he didn’t have time to question himself and discover what the emotion was. At that moment on this noisy battlefield, he could only hear her voice.
‘No…I have to reach her no matter what!’ Every bit of energy was focused on his feet and legs before he propelled himself like never before. Ning Xin’s every step causes a crack and even tiny craters on the incredibly hard ground but his current step didn’t even leave a footprint nor were there any vibrations that indicated explosive movement. The bell in his head didn’t register and he didn’t realise how light he felt.
All he knew was he had never felt so relieved to have got Ning Xin’s hand before they both got dragged underground. Into the sea. That moment of relief, when he pulled her into a hug, was also a moment of folly. Ning Xin snapped him out of it. “We can’t hit the water!”
She was dragged by one of those underwater ‘demons’ that he heard about. Ebony didn’t notice but she wasn’t the only target, random people were also getting dragged under as holes in the ground opened up.
He had already started to freeze the scorched hand off her leg since he grabbed her and found out what happened but it held tight and he could feel her pain. This underwater Tribe member looked very different from other Trolls, they had blue scales, gills and even flippers for legs. It actually held onto Ning Xin with one of its flippers that didn’t have much crushing power but it was not letting go no matter what they did!
The entrance or hole that popped open had to be the Shamans’ work and he didn’t know how long they had before it closed up. The hole was tight and the Troll wasn’t that large compared to others of its race, it was only slightly bigger than a wolfman.
“Zap him.” Ebony conjured his strongest flames but the Troll didn’t seem to be affected much. The flipper wasn’t frozen, its fish face was facing down as it dragged them at its full speed. As expected of a creature of the sea, they had naturally high cold resistance. There was no space for him to swing his sword and Ning Xin could barely keep her body straight, she also didn’t have space to bend forward to attack.
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The entire way down, Ebony had his domain up so the route was frozen. It probably wouldn’t stop the hole from closing up but he hoped it would at least slow it down. As for trying to use gravity to pull them back up, it wasn’t working. The ‘fish’ used its other limbs to grab onto the walls and climbed down like a lizard.
“AHH!” Ning Xin screamed in pain as the grip on her feet and ankle got tighter. He could sense her bones getting crushed. He hastened Tremor Stomp but it was a low-level and weak skill, it would affect Ning Xin if he pushed Sonic Intrusion too much but she had her bodysuit on and he could Will the vibrations to travel in one direction. The next kick caused the Troll to let go but it was just as they hit the water and were surrounded by tens of similar-looking fishy Trolls.
“Fly!” He didn’t hesitate to toss her up with all his strength and the frozen hole started to spawn hands to drag her till she got a hold of herself. He could only conjure those hands up to 600 metres or so away from him. He just didn’t expect to sink at great speeds the moment he hit the water. Vigorously waving his arms didn’t even slow down his descent. He was too dense to swim or float!
There was no way he was going to let these fishy bastards get past him. He easily froze seawater about a 50 metres radius with him at the centre and sealed the exit. He manipulated ice to bring him up to the ‘surface’ and leapt up the hole after Ning Xin who had to use her Halo to lift her as there wasn’t space to use her wings. He unexpectedly caught up with a single kick-off and planted his face into her, almost injuring her feet even further. Thankfully, his domain put his speed to a stop. He got her to move aside and make way for him to hug her again before speeding off and bursting out of the hole like a rocket.
‘Crap. How did I jump so high?’ He overshot by too much and almost dived into the corrosion cloud above. Looking down, he finally saw that there were almost hundreds of similar-sized holes in the ground. The earthen hole didn’t appear to be closing any time soon. Even with the lack of some similar faces, he didn’t go down to save them.
He wanted to bring Ning Xin away, everything else could wait. At his current height, he was above the cliff and even the walls of Fifth Tide. ‘Hopefully, I can get back without interruption, those two healers should still be back there.’ He stood on two Imperishable Frost Scales and concentrated on his destination past the walls. Numerous spells were heading towards him, more specifically past him so he wondered if he could safely dodge them as the air was still the safest path for him at the moment.
Now that the unfamiliar feeling was gone, he was feeling at ease. He took a step forward with his body prepared to twist and turn to dodge arrows which was the safest route since Fifth Tide didn’t have many notable archers. He didn’t expect his feet to lunge forward so much, as if they were separate from his body. His face was planted into the shield he conjured in front of them in case a stray spell hit. Before he knew it, he was about to crash into the city wall.
‘Too fast! Am I on crack, did I just teleport?’ Thankfully, he prepared shields ahead of them against spells and arrows; it protected Ning Xin from the pressure of high-speed wind resistance. Although his spell wasn’t able to move along with him fast enough so he planted his face while protecting the woman in his arms. She was also shocked by the distance covered. Her head was on his shoulder and she was facing the battlefield only to see it shrink almost instantly.
Ebony stopped his crash as his mind finally understood his body’s ‘lightness’. His legs reached forward as if to stop a long jump and landed on another ice scale to flip himself. In the midst of his flip, he saw his training barrack and kicked the air before rotating and stopping himself. ‘I reached in 3 steps…and I could have done it in one if I aimed for this spot beforehand.’ It was quite hard to believe that he was initially around 7 to 8 kilometres away from the city. Already out of range of his Will but he could reach the city and even a distance into the city with a single step.
“That was so cool! How did you go so fast!? Did your movement skill evolve?” Ning Xin’s eyes lit up and hammered her slender fist into him playfully. She clearly wanted the details as soon as possible.
“Come on, let’s get you healed up first. I have to check, I didn’t notice.” He pulled her arms apart from his neck and felt her loud heartbeat rising. She must have started to get embarrassed for whatever reason again. He gripped tight on one arm when he felt that she was about to pull away from him. Lightly putting her feet down before supporting her.
“What healer?” She calmed herself with blood magic but Ebony wasn’t deceived, her arms were shaking and so were her feet. She was forcefully wriggling her arms away but he wasn’t going to let go.
“...” Ebony looked forward and saw that the tiny field hospital was already devoid of people. ‘What a blunder…’
“How’s your leg feeling?” He was relieved that her leg was still in one piece, attached and not really deformed. She didn’t have regenerative abilities as far as he knew but that was because she herself didn’t think she could regenerate limbs or bones and nerves. She rarely ever got physical injuries that weren't self-inflicted. Her normal healing speed was pretty good with her Core Skill but that usually applied to muscle cuts and most strains together with maybe blood generation speed. She didn’t know how her Physique affected her healing compared to other humans that had a harder time healing organs and other slightly more lethal damage.
“It’s okay so please let me go.” She used her free hand to pluck at his fingers that wrapped around her waist.
“No, let’s find that old healer Dorqe.” He tightened his hold on her in response. Afraid that she would run off onto the battlefield again.
“You should go save the others, they might not be able to free themselves and climb out. I promise I won’t go out. I..I’m losing strength. I’m afraid the others are losing strength due to the plague as well.”
“You promise? Promises are a vow, an oath. Actually, never mind. You’re getting weaker, I’m not leaving your side. I ordered my Models to save them. I sent how I froze the sea and escaped. If things go well, they will copy my method. If the others sank any further, I wouldn’t be able to save them even if I was there.”
“Bring me onto the wall, I will stay put. Please, I don’t want anything to happen to Athena or Ayla…” Her eyes appeared slightly moist.
“Okay.” Ebony couldn’t stand seeing her expression. Her eyes were enough to pick up many emotions.
They remained in the training field for less than half a minute. It was already an extended period of time. Ebony carried her and placed her within hundreds of his Glacial Model. He intensified Will into them as much as possible.
“Be good.” He pat her head the way he would’ve liked to be patted before disappearing.
‘Ayla. Good. Athena…any traces of her mana? There!’ Ebony spotted Ayla fighting with Hayec and many others including a drenched Cap Dwarf. They were getting closer as the unending Trolls only increased in number. Athena was nowhere to be seen and he flickered around the battlefield to look for traces of her aura around the holes.
He reconfirmed that Ning Xin sat and rested on the wall before diving in with a rope of ice extending down with him just as an extra measure. He realised he couldn’t stay afloat due to his incredibly dense body with liquid mana flowing in his body. As for making ropes of ice? He started learning magic manipulation by forming threads and ropes, he could do it perfectly at high speeds.
The hole in the ground was slightly wider than the one Ning Xin fell into, which might be an indicator that a larger fish Troll can traverse in. Ebony entered head first and slammed painfully into the water. He was greeted with the sight of bloody waters, dozens of floating corpses and the sight of a war goddess spearing fish Trolls to death while desperately trying to get back to where he was. She was strong, Ebony could barely free Ning Xin earlier and they were clearly far more suited for underwater battle.
Athena saw him and was clearly shocked but delighted. Firm Path was cast on her to drag her over, water resistance wasn’t a big issue but it did slow the movement down.
Ebony sank but he simply conjured footholds and treated water as air. He thought the water would be a problem but he only caused layers of ripples to undulate around where he kicked off. Water resistance was far more substantial than air resistance but he found himself near Athena in a few test steps. The fishy Trolls were shocked by the intrusion of another human and even more shocked he simply came and pull their target away.
They chased Ebony and were clearly faster than him but he had the element of surprise and the water surface or where the earthen hole started wasn’t far away.
Athena coughed out water and took deep, unmeasured breaths the instant he got back up and there was air for her. “Yo-”
“The gap’s closing!” Ebony noticed the dimming light and it was fast. Too fast for him to even kick themselves up. He quickly enveloped them in the strongest coffin he could make. There wasn’t space for an orb. His mind was rammed by a truck and his coffin partially dented in. He was partially knocked out but he came back to his senses so fast, it was as if he didn’t faint. Whoever's spell the fake land was, it was not something Ebony could easily break or withstand. His nose bled and he had a massive headache that was fading away slowly.
“You’re gonna make me fall in love.” Athena caught her breath and tucked her hair aside.
“I’m taken. Clench your teeth, I’ll freeze that wound.” Ebony let her go, he made room for both of them to stand with some gap between each other. She had a stab wound in her thigh.
“Maybe I should fight her for you.” She ripped her torn pants to allow him to freeze them neatly.
“She got me to look for you, I’ve not seen her care for another person so much.” He answered truthfully. He was glad he did so, Athena was very close to dying underwater and he didn’t want to let someone dear to Ning Xin die if he could help it.
“Ah? Then I’m falling deeper in love with her.”
“You’ll have to fight me then.”
Both of them chuckled and his voice wasn’t as stiff as he imagined.