The Lumina Sanctum Royal Guards were known as one of the strongest religious military forces on the continent. Only after facing them directly did Nicola truly understand just how powerful this army was!
No wonder the Ancient God Religion had been winning battles everywhere these past decades. Just looking at a small team of less than ten people - every soldier was already at fifth rank or close to it! In other countries' armies, someone at this level would be leading troops. But in the Lumina Sanctum Royal Guards, they were just the lowest-ranked soldiers.
As for their squad leader fighting at the front, his power was even more amazing - at least fifth rank or maybe even sixth rank! Just in terms of power, he was already stronger than some ordinary priests. Luckily, they didn't have those special abilities that Nicola met before.
Looking at Nicola now - even though she used to have eight wings and was even the reincarnated Wind Element Angel with some Time Authority, after losing her wings she just didn't have enough magic power to use these abilities!
If just talking about physical strength, she wasn't much different from a normal angel who lost their wings. Right now, being at fourth rank was already giving her face, not to mention she was injured!
Of course, the reason she dared to join the fight was because she still had some trump cards left.
Too bad she really didn't want to use them in normal situations...
"Damn it, you small soldier, why come after me! Did you spot that I'm the most unlucky one now, so you're doing this on purpose?"
These religious enemies usually became super crazy during fights. Seeing a church guard muttering words she couldn't understand while charging at her through an opening, swinging his blade without mercy, Nicola felt huge pressure and quickly raised the sword she had borrowed to block...
"Crack!"
But the next second, the weapon in her hand just broke cleanly in two. This scared Nicola so much she cursed at the poor quality product. In panic, she rolled backwards before barely dodging the remaining force of the enemy's attack.
"Damn it, if I had my Condensation Sword, how could you act so proud!"
After all, she had survived countless battles. Even if her speed and strength weren't keeping up now, she still had her reactions and battle experience.
After that she very messily dodged around. Though she barely avoided the enemy's attacks, she had no way to fight back effectively, plus the difference in powers, she felt more frustrated than ever.
But even so, she still didn't want to easily use her trump cards. This made the situation become more and more dangerous.
No way? Was she really going to die in this place? Maybe she shouldn't have insisted on staying behind earlier...
Soon she paid the price for being careless. Seeing herself cornered with the enemy's killing blow about to hit her, she almost fell into despair. But suddenly an arrow shot in from the side, nailing straight into the opponent's head and carrying the whole body several meters away before exploding.
"That arrow's attack... could it be?"
Just when Nicola got blown to the ground by the strong explosion wave, She saw a hand suddenly appear in front of her - it really was Adrian!
"Are you okay? Quick, get up! Everyone else has already gone into the underground tunnel safely. We need to retreat right away!"
So in just those few minutes of fighting, they had successfully blocked the Ancient God Religion's pursuit forces several dozen meters away from the underground entrance. With their side being weaker overall, continuing to fight definitely wasn't what Adrian wanted to see.
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"If I wasn't injured, if I was in my normal state, I would have beat all these people long ago!"
Having survived another close call but still not willing to accept his kindness, Nicola forced herself to get up from the ground. Feeling uncomfortable in her heart, she couldn't help explaining to him.
"Yes yes yes, you're an eight-winged angel, I know very well how strong you are! Back then you alone cut a big hole in my barrier - these Ancient God Religion people probably couldn't even do that!"
Adrian couldn't waste time talking with her now, since another wave of church guards was closing in, and the rest of their people had almost reached the underground entrance. Seeing Nicola could barely stand steady, he didn't say anything more and just picked her up onto his shoulder and started running.
"Sorry about this! You understand we're in a hurry to escape right now, right? Please put up with it for a bit!"
Adrian didn't forget to explain along the way. Actually Nicola was very shocked and angry at first, but thinking about how she had barely any strength left to run such a long distance at full speed after nearly dying, she could only helplessly stay quiet on his back.
Also she could see that carrying her was really the fastest way right now! This world's Adrian had also awakened Battle Qi, so he should be at least mid-sixth rank in power.
"Stop them! Don't let them escape like this!"
The enemies left behind obviously figured out Adrian's plan. A voice came from far behind - though not very loud, almost the whole battlefield could hear it.
This voice somehow sounded familiar to Nicola. As the words fell, many Ancient God Religion mages who had just arrived started throwing all kinds of attack spells from far away. Adrian and Nicola running at the back naturally took most of that pressure.
This was reality after all - unlike novels and animations where long-range magic attacks all miss their targets. And these were the Ancient God Religion's elite forces.
Nicola couldn't move while being carried on Adrian's back, and very unluckily took most of the attack. But how could her current body condition handle non-stop crazy bombing?
Even though angels' bodies had resistance to most magic, without wings supplying light element, it was almost impossible!
"Really no choice now!"
Thanks to secretly gathering wind element during the healing process these past few days hoping for a final comeback, Nicola had no choice but to grit her teeth and use this trump card to save her life. Otherwise who knows what state she'd be blown into.
Without wings, the wind element gathered over several days was only enough to heal her limbs, not enough to reverse time for her whole body or wings back to before being injured.
But dealing with those spells and ranged attacks didn't need much magic power - she just needed to keep speeding up or slowing down time in a small space behind her to make all the attacks strangely miss their target!
"Such a waste, my magic power being used for this kind of thing! Adrian you bastard, this is all your fault. When I recover I'll definitely cut you into thousand pieces!"
The price of using super skills was naturally rapid magic power loss. Nicola was definitely bleeding inside from the pain, especially since this meant the time for revenge would be delayed much longer. While blocking the enemy attacks, she finally couldn't help shouting and cursing.
"Bang!"
With Adrian's speed, that distance only took seconds to run. He was the last one to charge through the underground entrance gate. However, the final explosion hitting the ground behind them sounded especially loud, seeming particularly powerful.
"Huh? So you're not dead? Hearing your voice you seem quite energetic! If I knew earlier I would have put you down to run by yourself, probably would have saved energy that way!"
As the heavy underground gate closed tightly behind them, Adrian finally couldn't help taking a heavy breath. While putting Nicola down he didn't forget to tease her.
"Stop wasting words with me!"
But the next second, a foot directly kicked his face, slamming his head straight into the shaking iron door. Then Nicola's very fierce voice came close as she warned him:
"Since you and I didn't know each other before, I'll consider this a special case and forgive you once, but don't hope for a next time! Understand?"
"What are you doing? His Majesty just saved your life, are you trying to repay kindness with revenge?"
After saying this she slowly moved her foot away. But some of Adrian's subordinates saw this scene and were very surprised. Though they could tell Nicola was probably just putting on an act, they all came forward to stop her.
"It's nothing, I'm fine, and her strength right now couldn't hurt me anyway!"
Maybe because they had barely escaped with their lives, Adrian clearly knew Nicola had helped block many enemy attacks along the way. So even with a shoe print on his face he still acted very graciously, wiping the dirt off his face and waving away his subordinates without any blame.
"But it's strange why you'd forgive me because we didn't know each other before? That reason is too weird... Are all you angels this strange?"
Looking at the situation, this was probably his first time dealing with angels. After thinking about it, he couldn't help turning back to ask very curiously.