But the old man had very much underestimated the strength of their opponents. He thought they could open the gate, carry Abdin and Juwaira inside, and then shut the gate while delaying the enemy.
He was successful for the first part, but when he tried to shut the gate, it refused to budge. He saw a transparent hand pushing at the gate.
The assailants were now returning fire. And the difference was glaring: the guards on the wall were mostly low-level cultivators at the foundation establishment stage. But their opponents were core formation experts, pseudo-Deva, and even two Devas.
A giant fountain of hot water appeared near the peak of the wall. In the next moment, everyone on the wall was washed down by it. The victims' skin and muscles got boiled and they were unconscious even before they hit the ground. Most of them died on the spot.
The cultivator that sent the attack shot out another fountain and again flushed down the sentries. All two hundred men atop the wall fell this time around.
Walik swallowed bile. He would have been among them if he were still on the wall.
The galloping men entered through the gates, and Walik stood over Abdin and Juwaira protectively. He was the sect leader of Will of San, the infamous Leader San, he knew that protecting Abdin and Juwaira was the decent thing to do. But at the same time, he was calculating his chance at escape. As strong as Abdin was, he obviously couldn't overcome the enemy. They would all die if he stayed.
Moments later, he stepped back. Just before he was surrounded, he took to his heels.
"Ha... Seems they have all chickened out." A voice taunted. "They have all abandoned their chief to die. Is this how to keep watch you old fool?" The voice followed Walik as he ran.
Knowing that they were baiting him to return and get killed, Walik continued to run without looking back.
He left Abdin and Juwaira there.
The man on the lead was a Deva. He walked to where Abdin lay, observed him, and not liking what he saw, frowned.
"Is this truly all you've got?" He asked the semi-conscious Abdin. "Madam made us pass through such a thorough drill, just because of you? Please don't let our drill go in vain, at least honor us with just a single play."
Abdin had seen everything. Though his body was still recuperating, he could still win.
Walik's desertion was what pained him. His men ought to give him more credit. Sigh.
The Deva standing over him bent over and aimed at his left foot with a dagger. But Abdin suddenly transformed into lightning, drowning the dagger in it.
In the next instant, Abdin, the dagger, and the deva exploded.
The deva was flung to one side while the dagger dissolved into the lightning. When the dust died down, the deva looked ragged and blood flowed freely from his wounds.
'You think only you can explode?' Abdin harrumphed as he prepared his next card.
Despite his pains, the wounded deva couldn't help but wonder how Abdin was able to get the better of him. When he approached him, the target had been lying unconscious with every bone in his body broken, and that was why he had dared to move so close to him.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
He had wanted to cut one of his limbs. Munniq ordered them not to kill him, otherwise, he would have made sure the man was dead before he moved any closer.
With one hand, he wiped the blood coming from his mouth as he stared at Abdin. The lightning had vanished and Abdin was now standing in his human form. His scars and wound were all gone.
Only Abdin knew how much it cost him to heal himself completely.
"I shall ask you again. What are you doing in my castle?"
His words sent a chill through the squad and the men recoiled in the wake of it.
It was a Deva who had detonated herself with Abdin, but here he was still standing hale before them.
"Kill him." The wounded deva barked at them.
He wasn't trying to kill Abdin though, but going all out on him was the only way to subdue him at the moment.
A hundred men surrounded Abdin along the narrow corridor of the entrance.
Abdin heaved the still unconscious Juwaira and placed her into his magic bag.
He then checked his soul disc:
[You have used a skill beyond your cultivation level. Penalty: 11 years.]
[You have used a skill beyond your cultivation level. Penalty: 27 years.]
His transformation into lightning helped heal him but at the cost of his lifespan.
Eleven years healed his bodily wounds, while twenty-seven healed the injury to his soul. The latter was sucked into the black Ayrid in his core to heal his soul.
He clenched his jaw and with all his wrath, pounced upon the mob.
"Noah's saber! The walk of Samu!" He chanted.
The sword he held flew out of his hand and parted into two.
A bright glow seeped from the edge of the first, while a green glow flowed out from the other.
The Nuhu clan inherited a sword bloodline. The first son of Nuhu, called Yunusu, was said to master almost all of his father's skills.
And the two sons of Yunusu, Samu, and Hamu, each had their specialty in the techniques.
Abdin was of the house of Samu, and he had spent years studying the skills of his family.
Instead of one, Samu was adept at using both swords. And with that, he created sword formations. Every sword technique he learned had its formation.
Noah's sabre-the walk of Samu was a formation in its own right.
At that moment, the twin swords began to groan and rotate in the air. They went slowly but with every rotation, they took sixty years from Abdin. One hundred and twenty years for both.
The first rotation would kill a cultivator at the core formation stage and the second would kill a pseudo-Deva. But Deva would always be Deva. Depending on their strength, he needed at least three rotations to kill them.
The swords finished their rotation after three laps. The two Deva were already standing before him now.
The first toyed with a ball of greenish flames, while the other had a black cane made from black demon skin.
The cane and the flames shot straight for Abdin's chest.
The two swords groaned and disappeared only to reappear before the two devas the next moment. In the next second, they went through a deva's neck each, decapitating them at the same instance.
The ball of flame vanished right before impact, while the black cane missed a step and went in the wrong direction.
On the ground were the bodies of the two Devas at death's throes.
[You have used a skill beyond your cultivation level. Penalty: 360 years.]
The twin swords glowed and remodeled into one and Abdin took it back.
He had a sword formation to kill a Deva but at the cost of 360 years of pol. He would have long been dead if he had met these two the first time he came to Biyakis.
Abdin shook his head sadly. He had lost close to five hundred years of pol, counting the two hundred years he had lost earlier. The story would have been different if this attack had come before the second expansion.
As of the moment, he didn't have another five hundred years to spare on the other Devas. Another tactic was needed.
Abdin noticed that the men trying to mob him hesitated when they saw the fate of their captains. They knew what it meant to be a Deva. They figured that killing them all wouldn't be a problem for Abdin since he could snuff a Deva off like child's play.
They had no clue what it cost him to do away with their two henchmen and it all seemed effortless.
No deva remained among them now. A few of them had reached pseudo-Deva. The rest were all core formation experts. And Abdin came to an immediate decision.