The situations appeared to be similar across the board, even if not in execution, but definitely in the end result.
Each division of the Gol City Army achieved an overwhelming win.
Similar to Lance, Joel also chose to go down the route of challenging and defeating the enemy’s commander and forcing them to submit. Unfortunately, his opponent, a warrior at the late stages of the eighth rank, was anything but honourable.
Upon realising he couldn’t win, he tried to escape whilst commanding his own army to attack, believing that he could still reverse the situation with his numerical advantage.
Unfortunately for him, with Joel and Yulana leading the arrow formation that was Division Three of the Gold Force, his dishonourable attempt proved futile.
Excluding Joel and Yulana for a moment, just the 2500 ‘ordinairy’ members of the Third Division showed how important having good equipment was. Even the weakest of them – warriors at the fourth rank – were able to tank the blows of seventh-rank warriors, leaving them free to focus purely on offence.
At first, the division was still a little hesitant because of their numerical disadvantage, but that quickly changed when they realised how easy they were finding it to ignore their opponent’s attacks.
Still, the most incredible performances went to Joel and Yulana. It was in that fight that they showed the world the new spells each member of their class had spent the last week mastering – [Force Armour].
Though it was said to be created by Arianna, technically, it was created by Ace. Put simply, Arianna took Ace’s Pseudo battle-qi technique and turned it into a true spell only useable by mages at or above the sixth rank.
Of course, it was nowhere near as powerful as Ace’s as he was infusing his insights of the profound mystery of the laws of fire into it. Still, it allowed each of the disciples to cover up for their only actual weakness – their lack of battle qi.
As peak-level geniuses, each of their class was yet to cultivate their battle qi, making them physically superior to the average warriors of their level, a fact that was especially true for Killian and Joel, who had both already gone through their first round of [Imposing Devourment].
As it stood, Killian and Joel were closer to magical beasts regarding physical ability than humans.
And now, with their ability to utilise [Force Armour], each of their strengths saw a significant jump.
Joel and Yulana slaughtered their way through their opposing force with such ease that their enemy’s desire to battle quickly waned within minutes.
Ultimately, Rasiar, the former Lord of Oaque City, was forced to escape with his tail between his legs, allowing Joel and Yulana to assume command of the city.
Killian and Alissa, on the other hand, decided to go with a more direct approach. After commanding their army to wait, the duo went on to slaughter a path through the 10,000+ man army of Green Lake City.
During his fight against the rainbow dragon, Harelk, Killian’s comprehension finally touched upon the profound level. It was in that arduous battle that Killian comprehended a trace amount of the profound mystery of the throbbing pulse of the world.
And after six months, although his comprehension hadn’t increased by much, he had become a lot more accustomed to using it.
Between that and his new spell [Force Armour], a technique he had, incredibly, mastered for all three of his affinities, Killian’s strength had reached the upper levels of the various generals of each nation.
With his feet bare feet touching the cold hard ground of mother nature, Killian allowed his heart to beat in tune with the pulse of the earth, which not only seemed to allow him to attack with the power of the world behind him, it also allowed him to channel vibrations into each of his strikes to ravage the insides of those who dared stand in his way.
Among the various warrior-based generals on the continent, in terms of pure offence, if he said he was second, no one else would dare claim to be first. His strikes were fast approaching that of a weaker saint. If not for his unfortunate lack of speed and the lack of energy to maintain such a state, he would be no weaker than the likes of Olivier and Duke Kaymin before their respective breakthroughs.
Still, considering that there were no experts on the battlefield who had anywhere near that sort of speed, Killian may as well have been a saint to each of them. Every time he swung his twin-sided battle axe, dozens of warriors would lose their lives!
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And Alissa was no less deadly. She was a wind mage of the sixth rank and Tigerstriped warrior at the early stages of the seventh rank pre-transformation; after transforming, she was a warrior of the eighth rank whose speed was naturally at the ninth. When adding that to her [Force Armour] and the various speed-increasing spells of wind, her speed touched upon ridiculous levels. Purely in terms of speed, she was no slower than Olivier during his fight with Ace.
The two of them swept through the army of Green Lake City with an unstoppable momentum. They were literally like a force of nature that wouldn’t stop until all their enemies were dead.
Thankfully, Osarna, the city lord of Green Lake City, a water mage of the eighth rank, was more of a benevolent leader than many of the other tyrants in the Anarchic Lands.
As soon as she saw the calibre of the two monsters before her, she directly gave up and surrendered her life to them for the safety of her people, causing Killian and Alissa to stop.
Finally, there was the victory achieved by Kannal, Osiris, and the First Division. Kannal had tried to challenge Nimark, the city lord of Cloudfree City, but Nimark was the shrewd type. He and his two younger brothers had grown up in the Anarchic Lands and fought desperately until they finally achieved their current standings.
None of them were willing to give up unless absolutely necessary. Still, they weren’t fools.
They had heard the rumours of the unrivalled talents of each of the Pavilion’s disciples, and though they didn’t necessarily believe that Kannal, a young expert whom he could sense was already at the middle of the sixth rank as both a mage and warrior, could defeat Nimark, a warrior at the peak of the eighth stage, he wasn’t willing to take the risk, not when he had such an overwhelming numerical advantage.
As such, Kannal and Osiris were forced to lead the members of the first division into battle. And similar to Joel and Yulana’s Third Division, with their incredible equipment, the soldiers of the First Division quickly found their footing.
That was where the similarities between the First and Divisions came to an end. Kannal wasn’t as much of a one-man army as Killian, Joel, and Alissa, and Osiris was an archer better suited for long-range support and assassinations.
As such, they decided that Osiris would hang back and support those who needed it with his incredible archery. As soon as any of the soldiers found themselves in a compromising position, an arrow would find itself between the brows of the enemy soldier who threatened their lives.
At the same time, whilst he admittedly wasn’t as strong as Kil, Joel, and Alissa, Kannal could still be considered a force of nature to the regular soldiers.
As soon as Nimark realised the threat Kannal posed, he decisively led his two younger brothers, each of which were warriors of the eighth rank as well, to encircle the young genius.
Osiris quickly turned his focus to the trio who threatened his junior classmate’s safety, but before he could release the arrow he had nocked, Kannal ordered him to stand down. He wanted to fight this battle on his own.
Osiris had instinctively wanted to ignore him. As talented as he was, Osiris knew Kannal’s strength well. Forget fighting all three; he would struggle enough in a fair battle against Nimark.
But just as he was about to release his arrow, he subconsciously remembered Ace’s words – how Kannal was one of the very few of them to have an unwavering belief in himself.
Eventually, Osiris lowered his bow, choosing to put his faith in his junior brother.
As Osiris predicted, Kannal instantly found himself suppressed, but whenever Osiris found himself tempted to support him, one look in his eyes told him that Kannal hadn’t given up.
Though he knew Ace wouldn’t lie to him, subconsciously, Osiris struggled to completely believe his words.
It was far easier to never give up when you had talent on that level, but seeing Kannal, a teen younger than him, not much stronger than him, and definitely no more talented than him, fight so desperately, his faith in himself never once wavering, despite the overwhelming disadvantage he was facing, how could Osiris not be moved.
Still, the difference between them was simply too big. Kannal, whose body was now littered with wounds, found that he was too slow to react to the silent but deadly slash of Nimark’s short sword.
Ace, who was watching intently from his position up in the clouds, along with Cirulus, couldn’t stand still any longer.
His calf tensed as he prepared to act before his junior brother lost his head when he stopped himself, a proud smile taking shape on his face.
Sometimes, belief in oneself wasn’t enough, but sometimes, there was nothing more powerful.
At that moment, as he stared death in the face, Kannal’s talent and self-confidence fused seamlessly together to create a miracle.
Kannal’s eyes glazed over as his body seemed to merge with Mother Nature herself.
Nimark, who just had a wild grin on his face, as he could almost feel the invigorating feeling of his sword slashing through his opponent’s neck, suddenly felt as though he was wading through quicksand as space seemed to compress around him.
His grin quickly turned into shock before transforming into fear as he found their positions reversed.
Kannal exploded with speed that should’ve been impossible for someone at his level, easily and gracefully sliding under the cold, sharp blade of Nimark’s sword before replying in kind. His Liuyedao sword drew a perfect arc in the air as it sped towards the neck of the city lord.
Nimark’s two younger brothers exploded in a fit of rage as they watched their older brother’s head fall to the floor, but before either could move, Kannal’s body flickered out of existence as he slashed the bodies of both brothers in two before either could understand what happened.
After such a demanding battle, Kannal’s body had long since gone past its limits. A second after his eyes regained clarity, they quickly shut as his consciousness faded.
Osiris, who had been paying constant attention, leapt to catch his junior brother in his arms before he could collapse to the floor.
“You really are amazing,” Osiris smiled proudly as he looked at Kannal peacefully sleeping in his arms, the remnants of the heart demon created by Ace’s words finally disappearing. “From now on, I’m going to make you my target to chase after.”
At the same time, Ace watched with the widest of grins before turning to face the still-shocked Cirulus.
“See,” Ace said. “I told you, they’re anything but ordinairy!”