Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 166. One By One.

“Calm down!” Anna yelled to her men, using the brief opportunity when less martial techniques were being used. She could understand why they were all do disgruntled as what seemed to have been an easy victory for their side quickly turned into a slugfest against Abdain, but they had been warned repeatedly by her and Casimir that it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. Scattering the mercenaries, keeping Abdain’s ruby-golden-robed experts away and reaching Arslan were only the prerequisites for them to win. The ultimate goal of theirs was to either kill or tire Abdain out; without accomplishing that, there was no way for them to emerge victorious.

Surprisingly, the shout of their Princess proved to be quite effective in bringing order back into the ranks of the Royal Guards. The senior members of the unit quickly took command of their nearby juniors and started moving. The half of them that was close to Anna immediately unleased more wind-element martial techniques at Abdain and this time, when their attacks weren’t coming from all directions, they managed to successfully slow him down to a snail’s pace at the cost of expending their Qi at a very fast rate. They wouldn’t be able to keep up this barrage for more than ten seconds even the other thirty-five or so of them joined to help, but what other choice did they have?

Luckily for them, Casimir rushed over with his elites without delay. He exchanged a look with Anna, his eyes twitching slightly once he saw the wound drawn across her stomach and chest. With both of their Royal Guards in one place, they would be able to pin Abdain down for well over thirty seconds through the sheer pressure of the wind. Yet, the fact that Abdain was obediently standing in place and taking their attacks caused the two young royals to worry. Their attacks, they weren’t strong enough to affect Abdain in a meaningful enough of a way, were they? He was most likely relying on the prowess of his insights and using a very minuscule amount of Qi to defend.

“It’s bad,” Casimir murmured to himself. On one hand, they had been very lucky with the timing of their arrival as Abdain couldn’t come out to meet them personally nor could the mercenaries organize in any meaningful way to resist them. On the other hand, however, the fact that Julien was nowhere to be seen was a detriment far larger than the advantage they had gained by avoiding any additional casualties had they arrived at a different time.

“The best way to tire him out on our own…” Casimir smiled bitterly. He had considered this scenario before and least to be said, he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. “The captains, conserve your Qi! We’re attacking him in melee once the rest tires out!” he instructed in detail, making use of the time that Abdain was giving them. He could have simply said one word and his Royal Guard would have understood, but he needed to make his intentions clear to Anna’s Royal Guard too. The ten leaders of tens from his Royal Guard and the remaining six leaders of tens from Anna’s unit… he didn’t like their chances, but he had no other choice by this point.

He had given his word to help, so as long as there was the slightest possibility, he would keep fighting. As for the moment when a path to victory no longer existed, it was very likely that a way to escape with their lives would also be gone by that point. Thinking about such a grim possibility, he suppressed a sigh. This was the biggest gamble he had taken in his life and it would most likely decide whether he could add more glory to his father’s legacy or if he would always be remembered as ‘Azuresky’s eldest son’. Once again, he thought it was fortunate that he had a capable little brother; even if he ended up dying, their Kingdom would be left in good hands in the future.

“I’m going too.”

The words spoken by the voice he was very familiar with caused Casimir to let out a quiet sigh. He knew best how stubborn Anna could be, but he wasn’t one to give in easily either, especially when he had a reason to disagree. “You’re too weak, you’ll just get in my way. If he targets you over me, it will be even worse,” he said bluntly. He didn’t need to look to know that his reply displeased Anna, but he glanced at her either way. As expected, there was a frown on her face and she was giving him a heavy glare, but nothing she did or said would change his mind. She was a very strong elite martial master of the third rank, but even he as a supreme dual-element martial master of the fourth rank would be gambling with his life by attacking Abdain in melee.

“I won’t attack right away,” Anna said stubbornly. “If it looks like you’re going to lose, I’m going to join in,” she stated and proceeded to exchange a stubborn look with Casimir. If he wanted to stop her, then he would need to subdue her with strength. They had gotten into this mess together, so there was no way she was going to stand to the side and watch the one she loved get killed. Compared to that, she would rather fight and perish together with him.

“… Idiot,” Casimir murmured helplessly, though he did add a little bit of Qi to his voice so Anna would hear him. He didn’t want her to die, that much wouldn’t change. However, he also understood that arguing with her once she made up her mind was pointless. “Just promise me one thing,” he added and looked at her with a slight smile. “You won’t go dying before me,” he said somewhat helplessly, yet received a kind of a reply he hadn’t expected at all.

“You’re the stupid one here,” Anna said with a laugh, a clear and natural smile spreading throughout her face. “You’re the one who can’t go dying before me,” she said playfully, her gaze once again crossing with Casimir’s. A second later, the two of them chortled and Casimir even shook his head. Both of them were equally hopeless in this regard, weren’t they?

“Let’s do it,” Casimir said as he turned his eyes back towards Abdain. The expression on his face quickly turned serious; there were at most three seconds left before their men exhausted themselves and Abdain regained his freedom of movement, so it was the highest time to stop chatting and focus.

He was under no delusions that he could somehow manage to kill or wound Abdain. Since he possessed the earth element too, he knew very well what kind of defensive prowess people like him and Abdain could boast. To those with average talent, being born with the earth affinity was perhaps nothing but a stroke of misfortune, but once those abilities were pushed to their extreme, one would become almost invulnerable to all and any attacks. Casimir himself was confident in being able to just stand without moving or retaliating while taking attacks from anyone under the level of a supreme martial master of the fourth rank, so Abdain’s defenses as a martial master of the seventh rank were certain to only be that much stronger.

“Be careful.” Anna’s words rang out beside him at the last moment. He nodded, tightened the grip on his longsword and roused both his wind-element and earth-element Qi, and when the last of the suppressive martial techniques were shot, he jumped forward without any hesitation.

The distance wasn’t large, fifty meters or so at most. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Abdain, who in turn was looking at him calmly. The two of them slashed out with their weapons, Casimir with the longsword and Abdain with the broadsword. As the two weapons boasted equally long range, the clash that followed resulted in Casimir’s arm growing numb as he was pushed a dozen meters backward. The swipe of Abdain’s broadsword, which had gone through, hadn’t quite reached his body as he had borrowed the force of Abdain’s attack and retreated at just the right time.

There was little he could do, though, when Abdain immediately followed him. With Abdain’s physical prowess, the man had caught up to him before he could steady his balance. Left with no other choice, Casimir assisted himself with some wind and corrected his stance promptly before guarding against the wide yet frighteningly fast and heavy slash that was coming at him from above. He raised his own blade and at the same time, stepped sideways, right into the direction the attack was tilted at.

Once the two swords met, his own longsword creaked pitifully under the force of Abdain’s blow. The shock was even transferred to his entire body and was it not for its innate sturdiness, his bones would have broken and his muscles would have torn from that alone. Thankfully, he needed to withstand the full strength of the attack only for the briefest of times before he allowed the broadsword to slide downwards, at the same time completing his sidestep and causing the majority of the attack’s force to be wasted.

Refusing to let go of the opportunity to chip away at Abdain’s Qi, he twisted his body and before Abdain could pull his broadsword for another attack, kicked Abdain under his knee. Naturally, the kick was not only strong but also supported by a simple wind-element martial technique that created a wind blade on top of his leg. Most people who received such an attack would have half of their leg cut off, but against Abdain, the wind blade scattered without doing more than leaving a white mark on Abdain’s skin. It did, however, disrupt Abdain’s balance and prevented him from launching an immediate counterattack.

“Those movements… long horizontal slash?” Casimir half-gambled on his instincts when he saw the subtle movements of Abdain’s body. Thus, with the goal of tiring Abdain out in mind, he took the risk and instead of defending in the usual way, he tucked into a very low stance and slashed at the same leg he had kicked just a split-second ago. Luckily, his prediction proved to be right as the deadly broadsword struck just above his head while his own blade made contact with Abdain’s leg. Alas, the attack once again merely left a white scar and didn’t deliver any real damage.

Yet, how could a fight against an experienced martial master of the seventh rank go so well? Casimir was more agile than Abdain and his wind-element did give him an advantage in this field, he also had quite some experience in fighting someone physically more powerful than him from all those spars with his father. However, for him to one-sidedly dominate this fight was wishful thinking.

Right after Abdain’s broadsword swept above his head, Casimir wanted to step back and return to his usual stance, but his heart skipped a beat when he noticed that Abdain kept his momentum going instead of stopping. He understood what was about to happen and quickly raised his hands and put them in a cross-guard, only for the potentially lethal kick of Abdain’s to smash into his arms.

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The force of that kick was no joke as Casimir’s mind blanked out for a little bit due to the shock. He regained his senses while his body was flying through the air, just about to crash into the ground and start rolling over. His sight was blurry, his head and shoulders hurt like hell and he couldn’t feel his forearms at all. Likely, both of his radial bones had been shattered into pieces. He would still be able to fight if he reinforced them with his earth-element Qi, but that would damage his body and cause him to use his energy up at a worryingly fast rate. In other words, it was really bad.

The only silver lining in this situation was that he had been given enough time to kill the flying momentum of his body and to steady himself on his legs. The sixteen ten-man-unit leaders of his and Anna’s Royal guard stepped in as intended and assaulted Abdain. They attacked with martial techniques at first and when that proved to be too little to stop Abdain, who was intent on killing their Prince, they stepped in and blocked him with their own bodies, attacking the powerful foe in direct combat. Thanks to their numbers and innate agility of wind-element martial masters, they successfully forced Abdain to stop and they even landed some direct hits against his body, but all of that came at the price of two of them dying in the matter of two exchanges.

Getting close to Abdain, for anyone who couldn’t block his slashes, was the same as giving up his life. Those martial masters of the fifth rank knew this and yet, they did just that. It wasn’t because they didn’t fear death nor because they were driven by some righteous cause. They simply trusted in their Prince and Princess, those whom they had followed for years. Did some of them feel that dying for people they were unrelated to was pointless and stupid? Yes, but to them, protecting their lieges was more important than their personal feelings. So, they fought bravely, and they died bravely.

“Is that the only choice left?” Casimir asked himself. He could see that unless something changed, they wouldn’t be able to force Abdain to retreat. The massive barrage of martial techniques and the current fight had perhaps depleted two-tenths of Abdain’s Qi. It was hard to say exactly, but since Abdain wasn’t withdrawing his aura, he could tell that the man had about thirty percent of his Qi left. Just enough for him to kill everyone here and have a safe margin of energy left.

Although it wasn’t like him to hesitate when the choice was obvious, he still had a hard time to make this final decision. Thus, during this one second, two more of his men and one woman under Anna died. The sight reminded him that Abdain wouldn’t allow him to leave this place alive either way, so he suppressed his fear and roused his Qi to the limits. Those who served under him needed no other signal than the sensation of his growing aura to understand what they ought to do. Thus, they attacked Abdain with all they had, all of them going up close and using as much Qi as they could.

The repeated attacks of those martial masters of the fifth rank failed to penetrate Abdain’s defenses, but they did prevent any more casualties from occurring and they threw Abdain off-balance. This wasn’t the most effective way to attack in normal circumstance, but this crude tactic was all they could afford in order to give their Prince a small opening to make use of. And of course, there was no way that Abdain wouldn’t realize what they were planning to do either.

“Come!” Abdain yelled with a smile on his face, forcing himself to face Casimir even at the price of receiving a few attacks on top of his back. For the time being, he had left the matter of Arslan for later and so, he concentrated only on the fighting and could enjoy himself just like he always did. He couldn’t be sure, but this time his opponent appeared to be the Crown Prince of the Bolan Kingdom, but more importantly the eldest son of the Warrior-King Azuresky. The head of someone like that would be more precious than even of the White Guard’s Lieutenant, so he was excited at the prospect of that young man giving his all in an attempt to triumph over him.

“Now or never,” Casimir told himself and dashed straight at Abdain, mustering all the strength left in his body. His muscles were screaming in pain and his Qi paths were strained beyond limits, but he knew that he couldn’t hope to force Abdain to use a lot of Qi with a half-hearted attack. Unless he gave his everything, he would have no chance to obtain the effects he sought after. So, as he ran, he started accumulating all the Qi he could in his longsword as he prepared to thrust with it. A slash would be safer, but it would be easy for Abdain to block with the broadsword. However…

Yes, he had thought it would happen. As he moved in, he saw Abdain lift the broadsword and prepare to slash with it from the high up. The man likely planned to avoid the full force of the thrust by twisting his body and at the same time, to kill him with that one cleave. Considering the options available to Abdain, this choice which seemed to be the risky one was actually quite safe. As the saying went, the best defense was a good offense, and Abdain realized very well that if he opted to go on the defensive against multiple enemies, he would risk being tired out to death.

At the last moment before their exchange, much to Casimir’s satisfaction, three of the martial masters of the fifth rank from his Royal Guard launched wind blades directly at Abdain’s hands and his broadsword, aiming to disrupt Abdain’s timing even if just by a little bit. Their coordination was praiseworthy, what was only further confirmed by the annoyed look on Abdain’s face.

The preparation was as good as it could be, so what happened next surprised even Abdain himself. Casimir, who by all means seemed to be trying to coordinate his attack with the martial techniques of his subordinates, suddenly erupted with incredible speed and burst forward so fast that the air itself exploded from the pressure, leaving the following sonic wave to spread throughout the battlefield.

Having used the Wind Step, Casimir attacked faster than what Abdain could adjust to. At the price of mangling his body with the overload of Qi necessary for both the attack and the movement technique, which despite his tough body was still beyond his limits to begin with, he managed to land a blow at the lower part of Abdain’s stomach, right above his Qi Origin. As the two of them were bursting through the air, the longsword, propelled by the incredible speed, supported by the entire force of Casimir’s body and aided by the penetrative strength of the wind, sank into Abdain’s flesh. Despite his injuries and the incoming wave of dizziness, Casimir sent more Qi into the longsword, aiming to turn Abdain’s internal organs, and if possible his Qi Origin, into a meat paste.

However, before the blade could sink deeper than a few centimeters, it was slapped in the middle by Abdain’s open hand and under the pressure of two extreme forces, one pushing forward and one sideways, the blade broke, severing the connection of the Qi within it. Casimir wasn’t willing to give up even when that happened, but before he could force his body to move, he saw Abdain’s palm changing into a fist and flying towards the top of his head. With his last effort, he twisted his neck and attempted to move away, but the punch still landed and causes his consciousness to blank out.

With this exchange happening faster than most of the experts present could follow with their eyes, it took the Royal Guards half a second to understand what was happening. Only when they saw Casimir’s body being smashed into the ground like a rag doll and Abdain digging his feet into the ground in order to slow down did they understand that they needed to move it immediately. Yet, it was too late for them to make it in time; the broadsword was already coming down at their Prince, undoubtedly about to take his life away in the very next moment.

Yet, before Abdain’s broadsword could fall upon Casimir’s body, a man-sized wind blade struck Abdain from the side, causing him to stagger slightly as his balance was disrupted. Moreover, before Abdain could complete his swing, the dark-blond-haired woman who Abdain was already familiar with jumped up to him and swung her longsword at his stomach. The attack in itself naturally wasn’t threatening to Abdain, but he could tell that the wind that the longsword carried would make his body bend were he to receive it as it was. Thus, since his downward slash would be obstructed either way, he tightened his muscles and stabilized himself before the blow could hit and at the same time, changed the target of the cleave from Casimir to the reckless woman, most likely the Yali Kingdom’s First Princess, who was recklessly trying to save the Crown Prince.

The next sequence of actions unfolded exactly as Abdain thought it would. The longsword hit his body with quite some strength, but since he had braced himself, he didn’t even get pushed back. At the same time, he finally lowered his hand and attacked… but then, out of nowhere, his senses started screaming ‘danger!’ so loudly that his body flinched and his attack lost some of its strength. He now clearly felt the surging aura comparable to that of a powerful martial master of the sixth rank behind him, so he immediately chose to ignore the Princess and with all the muscles in his body bulging, he forced himself to shift his movements in an instant. The danger was still more than ten meters away, so as long as he could turn around in time and defend, he would be safe.

And indeed, thanks to his powerful body, he did manage to turn in time and he even slashed horizontally with his broadsword at the same time. The aura had told him who it was before he saw the person, but even then, once the figure of that green-haired youth entered his view, he almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The kid’s emerald lightning was frighteningly strong on its own, but now that boy had gathered a ridiculous amount of it around one of his twin swords. Undoubtedly, it was this thing that was causing his instincts to go haywire.

If he had his entire Qi, he likely wouldn’t have experienced such a reaction, but now he had only one-fifth of it left. Because of that, for the first time in ages, he felt a cold shiver run down his spine once the kid ducked below his wide slash and forced his way close to him, then thrust straight at his lower stomach, aiming right at the spot where the wound Casimir had just made was placed. He had turned hastily and forcefully, so the most he would be able to do was to shift his torso slightly in order to avoid his wound being attacked. Or, so he thought when he felt another powerful aura appear out of nowhere as a mix of Qi and spiritual energy surged along the ground and quickly covered his lower body, freezing it over with a layer of ice and just for an instant, slowing down his movements.

Unwittingly, Abdain’s eyes defocused and he saw the figure of the second body, the black-haired one, running a few dozen meters behind the green-haired one. How did he not sense the aura of either of them until they attacked, he had no idea. However, just before that lightning sword sunk into his stomach, he took note of the stern expression on that black-haired kid’s face. For some reason, it made him want to laugh. True enough, he felt danger, but that green-haired kid was putting himself in even more of a threatening situation was his attack to fail.

As those thoughts were going through Abdain’s mind, his body moved on its own. He felt tearing and scorching pain once the sword entered his flesh and once the emerald lightning started rampaging inside his body. He had been planning to smash that kid’s head into pieces with his fist at the moment he was hit, but for a split-second, he froze as he was forced to focus his whole attention on reinforcing his innards. Truth to be told, he wouldn’t die too soon even if his entire stomach was to be burned into crisp, but the problem was that this emerald lightning was grabbing onto his Qi Origin and attempting to break into it and damage it! If he allowed that to happen, then he would be as good as dead even if he then killed the brat in retaliation!