Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 80. Intense Battle.

During the seconds the ridiculous events were playing out on the flank of his unit, Yimar Furi could at most curse repeatedly within his heart. He had no time to as much a cry out an order as during the last four, five seconds he had been continuously assaulted by a relentless barrage of attacks! With every other exchange, the red-white Qi of Reian’s would find a way to break through his defenses and injure him; had he not been a dual practitioner of water-element capable of repeatedly healing himself during battle, his whole body would have been full of wounds!

“Djinn’s spawns! Those two are really Djinn’s spawns!”

The terrified, Qi-enhanced cry resounded throughout the area, causing the expression on Yimar Furi’s face to turn even uglier. What for the Good Rala were those kids? How could they alone have thrown almost half of his men into a complete disarray? He would have still been able to accept it if they had only used elemental stones and fled, but they actually chose to assault his men! And they were gaining momentum! Were those two truly Devils birthed from the accused Djinn?

“Yimar!” One of the three black-golden clothed men finally broke free from the repeated magic assaults the three White Guards who remained in the rear were sending at their men. He slashed out with his scimitar, releasing a tempest of raging wind that contained countless small Qi-blades and a few large Qi-blades! This was the Shattering Wind; the most powerful martial technique at that black-golden clothed man’s disposal.

Under the assault of another martial master of the fifth rank, Reian could only take a step back and go on the defensive. He also slashed out with his sword, sending out a mixture of flame and wind to meet the black-golden-clothed man’s martial technique. The two collided, maintaining a stalemate for the briefest of times before they both shattered into pieces. However, the remnant energy of the Shattering Wind continued onwards; it clashed against Reian’s protective Qi and although it didn’t wound him, it pushed him back over ten meters before he managed to come to a stop.

“What a monster…” the black-golden-clothed man groaned. He had used the strongest technique in his arsenal and ambushed Reian with it, but Reian still met it head-on and came out only slightly worse off. He was quite a bit stronger than Yimar Furi in frontal combat, but he still could only gain this much advantage after wasting almost one-fifth of his Qi? He needed to admit that White Guard truly lived up to its name.

“I will deal with him!” the black-golden-clothed man tightened the grip of his hand on the hilt of his scimitar. Reian was already coming back to attack him; saying those few words was all he could find time to say. If they wanted to deal with those White Guard and those Devils at their flank, they needed to each make use of their strongest points; and Yimar Furi’s ability as a martial master paled in comparison to his accomplishments as a spiritual master!

Able to take a breath thanks to his trusted commander’s help, Yimar Furi quickly swept the battlefield with his gaze. He couldn’t see what was going on to the left too well because of the grey mist obstructing his view, but he could sense his men running out of it in the back. In front of him, one of his commanders was fighting off Reian, while to the left the two remaining ones were battling that woman, Jasmine… and although they were suppressing her, it didn’t look like they would be able to finish this duel anytime soon.

“Traka, go and deal with those Devils to the right! Sharu, keep that woman occupied! Spiritual masters, suppress the remaining two!”

With Yimar Furi’s swift orders, the battle became more orderly. To begin with, just the few elites of theirs were enough to tie up the four White Guards for a period of time; the rest of their men, in consequence, should have been able to act freely and cause the battle to end quickly! Yet, because the fight had broken out so abruptly none of them were mentally prepared to act; moreover, Laien and Yin had thrown one of their flanks into utter chaos. Due to that, they hadn’t been able to make use of their overwhelming numerical advantage in their first clash.

Yet now, with Yimar Furi retreating to the back and giving out orders to respective men as he did so, everything was beginning to change. On one flank one of the black-golden-clothed man, Traka, was bringing order to those who fled out of the grey mist, while those at the second flank were finally making their move and circling around the four White Guards and the others who protected Arslan.

The moment Arslan was captured would be the moment signaling the end of the battle. With a direct threat to Mustafa’s son’s life, those four white Guards would stop fighting for sure; they would then only need to kill those damned Djinn spawns and bring this battle to end for good.

“Keep dreaming!” Sirius roared and released a mass of water and ice at the twenty or so men that were trying to get to their backs. He had prepared the spell beforehand and only waited for a good opportunity, having spotted the movements of Yimar Furi’s men before they began for good. With a full-chant spell from a supreme spiritual master of the fifth rank like him, be it martial masters of the third or fourth rank, they would all need to pay a big price if they wanted to receive the magic head-on!

“Now!” Yet in response, a very similar magic was released by the dozens of spiritual masters under Yimar Furi’s direct command. Although individually none of them could hold a candle to Sirius, a combined spell of so many of them was more than enough to make up for their lacking strength. The two powerful magics collided mid-air and after half a second, splattered at the spot of the collision, effectively nullifying each other.

“Good.”

“Damn it!”

White Yimar Furi smiled, Sirius cursed. Had it been a normal battle he wouldn’t have been all that worried, but he needed to protect Arslan! Those guards of Laien and Yin’s weren’t all that strong and Kasha was low on spiritual energy, not to mention that she herself was still much too weak! If those two dozen men were allowed to spread out and attack them as they liked, it would be a disaster!

Just as Sirius was thinking so, a small foundation of blood spurted from the neck of one of those flanking martial masters as his head fell and rolled on the ground. Barely noticeable strands of shadows fluttered behind the man, before dissipating into nothingness and moving on. Not even a full heartbeat later, another of the martial masters lost his head, becoming a corpse without knowing who or what killed him.

“Assassin! Get toge-“ someone began yelling while releasing his aura and looking around, but all he noticed was a sudden flash of darkness before his face had been pierced through by a sword. This time, a martial master of the fourth rank died! Seeing the black-robed man smile to himself and disappear right afterward, the remaining men panicked. They had all heard about this movement technique! Shadow Step, the trademark technique of the Guild of Shadows! Why was one of those people here?! Fighting against skilled users of the Shadow Step was a nightmare!

“Good!” This time, it was Sirius who smirked. When two more men fell one after another, he laughed a little; he just managed to finish half of a full chant! “That guy knows what he is doing,” he praised, having noticed how the last two people Gahar killed were each further away from the cluster the rest start forming. Without hesitation, he waved his hand and sent hundreds of medium-sized ice spikes at the bulk of those men, keeping the trajectory of the spell low, just at the height of their waists.

As expected, it was impossible for Yimar Furi and his spiritual masters to counter this kind of an attack; those of the flanking martial masters who failed to react in time were all covered with wounds as the ice spikes ripped off parts of their body. There were also three unlucky ones who either screwed up or were extremely unlucky and were directly pieced by a few of the spikes; with their bodies freezing from within, they died soon thereafter.

“Where did that assassin come from?” Yimar Furi wanted to yell to relieve his frustration, but he knew it wasn’t the greatest idea. Yes, they still had a great advantage; the only difference would be how many of his subordinates would die along the way. The final outcome wouldn’t change. “Should I wait for Traka to kill those two monstrosities first?” he wondered, not feeling all that comfortable with focusing his whole attention on chanting as Grand Spell when a skilled assassin roamed the battlefield. Were the man to trade his like to kill him, then it would be a truly pitiable way to die.

While Yimar Furi was trying to make a decision, the black-golden-clothed Traka reorganized the men on the left flank. He stood at the forefront, waiting for the two Djinn spawns to emerge from the slowly dissipating freezing mist. Behind him stood around fifty martial masters; it was a pity that four martial masters of the fourth rank died inside that mist, but the force which remained was by no means weak. Traka wasn’t mourning those loses too much.

As for the spiritual master he had available, he had sent them all to Yimar Furi. He didn’t see their magic as particularly useful in those circumstances, thus he chose to make them useful instead of having them stand and watch needlessly.

“Be ready, they are going to come out at any moment,” he warned, seeing how the grey mist was becoming thinner and thinner. “What are you going to do? Do you have more elemental stones? I can deal with them. More mist? It won’t affect me much. Come on, show me what else you have, you accused Devils,” he mused in silence, a smile unconsciously sneaking onto his face. It wasn’t every day that one could kill a Djinn’s spawn; Traka the Devil Slyer! It sounded very nice to the ear.

“!” The sensation of danger woke him up from his thoughts. “Incoming!” he shouted, readying his scimitar and rousing his earth-element Qi. Out of the three present black-golden-clothed commanders, his attacks were the weakest, but his defense was the strongest! He felt fully confident that his Stone Skin and Earth Armor would allow him to emerge victorious against any opponent and especially against one that used sneak attacks and surprise tactics to win! Against him, those things were useless!

Yet, despite all this self-confidence, his eyes widened when an unfamiliar figure rushed out of the mist, heading straight at him while brandishing a spear. The attacking boy looked nothing like his appearance from a moment ago; his skin was extremely pale, almost snow-white. His black hair turned silvery, with only a few strands of black remaining; and his black eyes were now… unhuman-like. They looked as if silver, white and black flowed within his pupils, making one think of the clear starry sky during summer. It was almost as if one could lose himself just by looking into those eyes…

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“Fuck!” Traka cursed inwardly. It wasn’t ‘as if’, one’s thoughts truly would be dismayed if one started into those strange eyes! “Fight!” he shouted and took step closer, aware that most of his men were momentarily dazed and forgot that they were in the middle of a life-or-death battle. He took a defensive position, aware that it would only be asking for a counter if he attempted to strike at a spear-wielder before getting into the effective range of his weapon. He was ready to meet that Ice Devil head-on… but then, something completely unbelievable happened.

At once, the remnants of the fading mist dispersed as a huge amount of lightning burst forth from the, creating something akin to two grand, over twenty meters long swords of lightning!

“Swords…” Traka and his subordinates were momentarily astonished. There weren’t many martial masters capable of unleashing techniques at this level, but that green-haired boy… no, that Lightning Devil… his arms were crossed, the grand twin swords looking like… like wings growing out of his back.

“Wings of the Storm!” Yin cried out inwardly and slashed with his twin swords, sending the two wings of lightning rolling forth. The speed of this attack was such that fleeing was night impossible; the only option was to withstand the mass of lightning that strode forward, seemingly unstoppable!

“Is he sacrificing the other one?” In contrast to his men, who were terrified for their lives, Traka kept relative calm. With his two mighty defensive arts, he didn’t fear a large scale technique of this kind. Thus, he couldn’t help but wonder why would that Lightning Devil opt to attack in this way; did he not understand it wouldn’t bring him victory or was he simply desperate?

On the other hand, a few of those who had seen the reverse situation happen came to a sudden understanding. Those Devils, they were invulnerable to each other’s attacks! Yet, even though they realized this fact, there was no time for them to open their mouths, much less shout this piece of information out. Before they could blink, the wave of lightning eclipsed the Ice Devil and struck at Traka and them, then proceeded to roll through their ranks and assault their protective Qi.

Those in the front had born the brunt of the force of lightning. As Traka expected, he withstood the attack without getting wounded. However, the few confident martial masters of the second rank who wanted to claim achievements and positioned themselves in the forefront were literally scorched to death by the raging lightning; it broke through their protective Qi, burrowed into their bodies and churned them from inside. Six of them died while standing, while overall ten more were heavily wounded. Apart from them though, there were only some more mildly hurt martial masters of the third rank; in the end, those men were closer to the high-end than to being average. It wouldn’t be so easy to take them out, not with an area-of-effect technique like Wings of the Storm.

“I should-“ Traka thought about moving forward himself to kill off that transformed Ice Devil, but contrary to his expectations he was met with a thrust of the spear coming directly out of the sea of lightning! “How can he move so fast! Is he… no!” he understood what happened almost instantly, but the reaction of his body was just a little bit too late. Instead of blocking the thrust, he merely managed to push it to the side; as a result, the spear hit him in the left shoulder… and actually shattered both his defensive arts, then pierced all the way through his flesh!

It was all because of this lightning…! It tore through his Earth Armor, cracking it apart and weakened his Stone Skin! If only he noticed sooner, if only he thought of this possibility sooner, it wouldn’t have happened!

Traka cursed hideously, but despite his anger, he didn’t lose his cool completely. He clenched his teeth and directly grabbed the shaft of the spear with his left hand and simultaneously, slashed at the Ice Devil with the scimitar he was holding in his right hand! He wasn’t all that skilled in attacking, but he was a genuine martial master of the fifth rank! A full-strength blow from him would be enough to cut someone at the same level in hand if the person failed to defend in time!

“Die!” Traka shouted inside his mind, but when he noticed the absolutely calm look in the Ice Devil’s mysterious eyes, a seed of doubt snuck into his heart. “Armguard?” the thought passed through his mind as he watched the Ice Devil rise his left hand to defend. “This kind of thing won’t help you…” he thought confidently and followed through with the slash.

To his secret relief, he indeed felt the armguard crumble under his blow. He felt his scimitar sink into the Ice Devil’s arm as it was being pushed down by the sheer force of the blow… but… but. Something was! He understood something was wrong, but before he could think about it more, his scimitar tore through the Ice Devil’s shoulder and chest, leaving a wound. A wound…!?

“Impossible!” Traka’s eyes widened. The hand the Ice Devil used to block was terribly wounded and the bone was visible, but it hadn’t been cut off! The Ice Devil’s chest was also wounded, but the bloody line wasn’t even all that deep! It barely tore through the muscles! It made no sense at all; this Ice Devil clearly was a dual practitioner at the eighth mortal realm, so how could he be so freakishly powerful?

As shocked as he was that he couldn’t finish off his opponent in one blow, Traka was about to raise his arm and deliver another slash, but the indescribable pain which suddenly surged from his left shoulder made him flinch, momentarily robbing him of his ability to move. The spear…! It was still stuck in his shoulder…! As more and more of his unprotected flesh turned into ice, Traka jerked to the side, attempting to get free in any possible way.

At this moment, Laien revealed a pained, but satisfied smile. He pulled his spear to the side with all his strength, helping Traka get free and in consequence, shattering the whole shoulder of his and making his half-frozen left arm fall into the ground. “It would have been best to kill him, but…” Laien mused as he sent Qi and spiritual energy towards his left forearm and to the wound at his chest. If it was plausible, he would have killed that martial master of the fifth rank, but he didn’t want to risk taking another blow to accomplish that; he most likely wouldn’t have been to take another attack in this manner, not when he was still recovering.

The little over forty martial masters under Traka knew not what to do. Most of them had trouble making any swift movements due to the lingering effects of the lightning… and they had just witnessed their commander exchanged blows with the Ice Devil, both of them getting wounded terribly as a result!

Retreating, Traka coughed up blood and gasped for air. His left lung was gone and it had been very close to his heart getting frozen; he had brushed past death at this very moment! “They are so freakish, those Djinn spawns! But at the very least…” he glanced at the silver-haired Ice Devil, but what he saw caused him to almost faint. It had been two seconds at most, but the slash across the Ice Devil’s chest was almost gone while the bone-deep wound on his left forearm was healing so fast it was possible to see muscles and flesh growing back up with naked eye!

“Kill him! Kill him before he heals himself!” Traka yelled, drops of blood spurting from his mouth with each word. He was in no state to fight; if that Devil regenerated, then he would never be able to face Rala in the afterlife and hold his head high…! It was unacceptable!

The forty men hesitated; could they truly kill something that almost killed their commander in one exchange of blows? On the other hand, did they have any other option? They could only fight if they wanted to live! There was no other way. The remaining two martial masters of the fourth rank had come to this conclusion earliest and they were naturally in the best state out of everyone; one of them wielding a sword, one of them wielding a scimitar, they kicked the ground and rushed towards the silver-haired youth… towards the Ice Devil.

“Water Flow…” Laien stood his ground, the layer of ice mist covering his spear turning into a stream of water. He observed the two martial masters carefully, focusing on defense… but at the same time looking for an opportunity to counter. “I can’t afford any mistakes, I already used up half of my Qi and spiritual energy and Yin isn’t much better off,” he reminded himself, then stopped thinking at all.

He welcomed the fact that the two men didn’t start out with powerful martial techniques; he moved his spear in a seemingly slow, unhurried way to meet the incoming sword. He grabbed it with the flowing water, pulling it off course and he lightly stepped to the side. With a swish, the heavy slash cut nothing but the air; as for the second man, he couldn’t attack as he suddenly found his companion between himself and his target.

“It flows, it pulls and swallows…” the unconscious words passed through Laien’s mind as he deflected the second sword strike of the apparently agitated man. Then, his expression changed into an ‘Oh!’ one as he spotted something that now seemed so simple, but had been so hard to understand previously. “Water Flow manipulates, but only when it’s joined with Water Tide can it push back.” Another strangely calm thought surfaced in Laien’s head as he took two quick steps to the side, making it so the scimitar-wielding man couldn’t find a good spot to attack him.

“It’s not about countering at all. It’s about making your opponent to move as you want him to, then as the tide changes, making him fall down on his own.” Laien mused with a smile, unintentionally making a shiver run down the sword-wielding man’s spine. Just like before, he met the man’s slash with his spear, but unlike all those other times, he didn’t simply catch the attack and throw it away; he made it come out at a spot that was likely to follow a set pattern, as long as he simply pretended to want to attack… yes, just like that, slowly, without hurrying.

Unaware of Laien’s thoughts, the sword-wielding man thrust with his sword and slashed with it, but none of his attacks met any resistance; they were literally sliding along the streams of water, causing him to grow very nervous. He had fought against many different people in his lifetime, but he had never experienced being led by the nose in this manner, even when he had been but a weak kid.

Unable to bear with it anymore, he roused more of his Qi and prepared to use the strongest technique at his disposal. Alas, the moment he pulled his sword back in order to swing it, he felt as if some force caused his movements to become wider than he intended to as if something was pulling him from behind… or maybe pushing him from the front. “Ah,” he exclaimed when he noticed the white spear following along the blade of his sword. Before he could do anything, the spear pierced through his chest and ruptured his heart; he might have lived for a minute long even in that state, but when his internal organs were washed over with forest, any signs of life instantly disappeared from his eyes.

“You…!”

Although almost ten blows had been exchanged between Laien and the sword-wielding man, it had in truth taken no longer than two, three seconds. The scimitar-wielding man was furious; he pushed his companions corpse away and assaulted Laien… but his senses were too clouded by the rage. He didn’t notice when Yin moved behind him with his Lightning Steps; and when he became aware of the danger, his head went flying. Due to one split-second of carelessness, he lost his life.

The forty men who had been rushing over to attack halted at once. Their last two officers had been killed… there were only martial masters of the third and second rank left amongst them. Would they be able to deal with those two Devils on their own? Even Traka had nearly lost his life… weren’t they delivering themselves into jaws of death if they attacked without any plan?

While the forty men paused in their actions, Yimar Furi was overcome with a cascade of emotions. He had been considering whether to chant a Grand Spell or not, then two wing-swords of lighting appeared at their left flank. The next thing he knew was Traka retreating towards him with one-third of his chest gone or frozen and without anything left of his left arm and shoulder. He had shaken the shock off quickly and was about to order some of the water-element spiritual masters to heal Traka, but the next second he saw two martial masters of the fourth rank falling one after another.

… It was a complete disaster! He had taken into consideration the strength of those four White Guards. It was hard, but two of his commanders were able to tie up Reian and Jasmine, while his spiritual masters could keep Sirius and Kasha in check. The appearance of an extremely skilled assassin was troublesome, but not beyond what they could deal with. Yet, the strength of those two twelve years old boys… of those Devils had far exceeded his wildest imagination.

Were they going to fail…? No, they couldn’t afford to fail! If they retreated now and if Mustafa survived the battle in the west, then it wasn’t just them, but all of their families, everyone who lived in the City of Masalle would be as good as dead!

“Hold those devils off, make sure they can’t approach us!” he shouted to the forty men, then positioned himself in the middle of the spiritual masters and said while limiting the range of his voice with his Qi. “I need thirty-five of you, we are casting the Water-Ice Apocalypse Grand Spell! The rest of you, keep that assassin away from us at the cost of your lives!”

Since it had come to this, all that was left was to employ the extreme measures. As he thought that, Yimar Furi looked directly at the place where Arslan was standing at.