Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 81. Gambling With One’s Life.
“So strong,” Arslan uttered. He had been feeling mostly anger in the beginning, but as the battle progressed the rage within him changed into a sense of amazement. Of course, he was worried and nervous, but more than that he was awestruck; he had known that his White Guards were powerful practitioners and he had also been aware that Laien and Yin were exceptionally strong for their age. However… “Catch up with them?” he asked himself with a helpless smile, feeling somewhat silly that he was recalling a thing like that when everyone was fighting.
“…”Kasha stared with disbelief as the two kid who were half her age forced over forty martial masters into a standoff. She knew she should be paying attention to the enemies, but she couldn’t help that her mind went blank for a moment. She heard Yimar Furi’s men shout and call those two boys Djinn spawns and Devils; normally she would have thought it to be ridiculous, but now…?
“Focus, little girl!” Sirius raised his voice, seeing that Kasha was dazing off out of the corner of his eye. Yet, despite reprimanding her, he couldn’t wipe the extremely pleased smirk off his own face. He had expected great things from Laien and the boy didn’t betray those expectations; in fact, he had far exceeded them! This brought him a strange sense of satisfaction he thought he had forgotten. It was just like back then, when he had been adventuring through the lands of Arkaria with the adolescent Mustafa. Those days had been filled with danger and strife, but they were his most treasured memories.
A few dozen meters ahead, Jasmine was wilding two slim scimitars, both of them burning with the fire-element Qi. Each time she slashed at her black-golden-clothed opponent, a tongue of flames would surge out of the blade and act like a long whip, causing each of the strikes of hers to be almost impossible to guard against. Were it not for the black-golden-clothed man also possessing a fire affinity, he would have already died twice over in those moments he had been facing Jasmine alone.
In most situations, Jasmine’s focus on speed and the finesse allowed her to overwhelm and kill even those who had deeper cultivations that she had. Once, she had thrown herself at a group of ten martial masters of the fifth rank during a battle just to temper herself; and before she received any help, she had killed three of them without sustaining any serious injuries.
Right now, however, she was facing the worst kind of an opponent; the man was also a martial master of the fifth rank, but he was almost as fast and agile as she was, To make the matters worse, he was quite good at using a layer of flames to defend himself from her attacks; he was using up Qi at a much faster rate than she was, true, but it would take her at least thirty more seconds to tire him out. Considering that it hadn’t even been ten full seconds since this whole clash began, thirty seconds was an incredibly long period of time.
Finally, unlike in a regular battle, she couldn’t leave such a troublesome opponent to her allies or just run away from him and engage someone else. She needed to stand her ground and at the same time pay attention to numerous martial masters who stood just forty, fifty meters away and were only waiting to pound on Arslan and the others the moment any gap appeared.
“I don’t know which lucky star I should thank,” Jasmine mused with a slight smile as she continued whittling down her opponent. “But those two are monstrous geniuses. That spell of Laien’s in Ulme Village was pretty ridiculous… but this? It’s crazy,” she thought while sneaking glances towards the left side of the battlefield, which had become unnaturally calm all of the sudden.
“They really fought them off,” she smiled and almost laughed out loud. Yet, her expression sank soon afterward when she sensed a huge amount of spiritual energy surge behind the lines of those martial masters. “Reian, hurry up and kill him!” she roared, instantly comprehending what Yimar Furi was preparing to do; he was trying to use a small-scale version of a Grand Spell in unison with his spiritual masters! Small-scale Grand Spell may it be, but the sheer volume of spiritual energy that thing contained would be enough to outright kill almost anyone below the level of a martial master of the fourth rank if taken head-on. If Yimar Furi was to aim this Grand Magic at Arslan and the others…! They absolutely couldn’t allow that to happen!
Reian reacted to Jasmine’s cry instantly. He was also able to sense the energy accumulating a few hundred meters ahead, so as unwilling as he was to do so, he stopped preserving his strength. After clashing with the black-golden-clothed commander once more, he retreated two steps and poured a large amount of Qi of both elements into his saber. He grabbed the hilt of the saber with both hands and raised the blade above his head, pulling the raging inferno of fire and wind alongside it.
The wind-element martial masters of the fifth rank who had been managing to hold Reian down so far for the first time felt that his life was directly threatened. That twisted pillar of flame and wind was giving him an extremely dangerous feeling; his instincts were telling him that if he made even the slightest mistake while defending, he would be cut apart and incarnated into ashes by this freakish martial technique.
Thankfully, it was his side that held the advantage in the battle, at least for now. Thus, instead of trying to face the attack head-on, he began quickly retreating while preparing to unleash his own martial technique to defend. However, when he saw Reian continue with the overhead swing, he realized that it wasn’t him who was the primary target, but the five dozen of the men who stood behind him and Sharu! “Defend!” he yelled, knowing that he had screwed up. Had he immediately begun gathering Qi to meet Reian’s attack with a similar one, he would have at least been able to alleviate its destructive power. As it stood now, however, he could at most defend himself and the few people who happened to be directly behind him.
“Hah!” Reian swung his saber almost horizontally, sending the cascade of wild fire and scattering wind, merged in an unfathomable fashion, tumbling towards the area occupied by the bulk of Yimar Furi’s forces. The thousands of wind blades sliced apart everything in their way, scarring the earth as the giant wave rolled onward. Coated in the wind, the fire burned vigorously, raising the temperature to unfathomable levels, acting almost as if it was inside a great furnace of an ancient, northern smithy. The destructive strength of this unnamed, self-created technique… it went beyond the simple addition of the power of the wind and the fire; its power was multiplied many times over the normal limits of each of those separate elements!
His scalp growing numb, the black-golden-clothed man released his own wind-element technique… alas, this attack of his had been previously shattered by a casual saber-strike from Reian. How could it possibly match up against the hellish inferno which Reian unleashed this time? The blades of wind collided with the middle of the great wave, but they dissipated almost instantly, failing to reduce the power of Reian’s technique in the slightest.
“No…!” the black-golden clothed man cried out unwillingly. His instincts had been correct…! He felt the danger so clearly, yet he had assumed he would be fine if he backed off and received the attack calmly. As he regretted not using all the strength possible to withstand this attack… multiple spells of various natures flew over his head and crashed against the top half of the cascading wave of wind and flame. “Yes!” he exclaimed in his heart, seeing how over thirty spells hit the wave and caused its top half to collapse. However, the next split-second, his expression sunk once again. He hurriedly crossed his arms in front of his face as the bottom half of the wave erupted forth, swallowing him and the closest martial masters within it.
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” he cursed as numerous small wounds were being cut all over his body, followed by the skin and revealed flesh being charred by the flames. He almost couldn’t believe that a martial master of the third rank was capable of using an attack like that, but since Reian was rumored to be the most likely candidate to be the successor of Kundar, the Captain Commander of the White Guard, he just about accepted it as being within the realm of possibility.
Whereas their black-golden-clothed commander was suffering many light wounds, the sixty or so men behind him weren’t as lucky. The over dozen martial masters of the fourth rank were still more or less fine, but those weaker than them were extremely miserable. With the dual-element nature of Reian’s technique, it mattered not if some of them had fire-element or wind-element affinity; thus, almost all martial masters of the third rank ended up receiving relatively heavy wounds, with some unlucky ones getting their limbs cut off by an unexpectedly strong wind blade.
As for those remaining twenty, thirty martial masters of the second rank…? Almost without exception, they all perished, their bodies cut into pieces and burned down right afterward. Not even ashes remained of them.
“How in the world…?!” the black-golden clothed man was beyond flabbergasted when the wave began dying down and he sensed the many disappearing auras of his subordinates. This was the result of them receiving just about half of that technique’s power? Didn’t this mean that if the spiritual masters behind them didn’t act in the nick of time, he would have been the only one to just barely survive? That was too terrifying!
Still, as shocked as he was, the black-golden-clothed man didn’t lose his composure. “He’s coming at me!” he noticed and thus when the rest of the flames in front of him dissipated, he wasn’t surprised to see Reian charging at him. He was surprised, however, to see that Reian’s face was ashen and there were two streaks of blood flowing down from the corners of his lips! “He must have overexerted himself, it’s my chance!” he thought excitedly and prepared to exchange blows with Reian once more; yet, Reian’s figure suddenly blurred, then accelerated to a ridiculous degree.
“Wind Steps? B-but that…!” This time, the black-golden-clothed man couldn’t believe what he was seeing anymore. Amongst the various movement arts, Wind Steps were the hardest to learn! He had been trying to master them his whole life and he hadn’t even scratched the surface of mastery! Hell, forget him, it was widely known that Mustafa had only mastered Wind Steps when he became a martial master of the fifth rank! And it was Mustafa! How could this man, how could Reian do the same when he wasn’t even thirty years old…?!
In front of the overwhelming speed of Reian’s, the black-golden-clothed man couldn’t react in time. All he could do was to try his luck and attempt to guard his chest area randomly with his scimitar. The next split-second, however, the saber pierced directly through the middle of his stomach, causing his eyes to go wide. He was prepared to die the next instant… and yet, what happened once again exceeded his expectations. Instead of Qi flowing through the saber and killing him, he saw Reian tense up and cough out a huge amount of blood.
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Rejoicing with this chance he had been given, he hurriedly grabbed the blade of Reian’s saber with his left hand and clenched tightly, stopping any additional Qi from flowing through it. Simultaneously, he slashed out with the scimitar he was keeping at the chest level, aiming to directly decapitate Reian. With a bloodthirsty look in his eyes, he focused on making this one attack as fast as possible, knowing that he was in a very disadvantageous situation; all it would take from Rein to kill him was to pour Qi into the saber with all his strength and push downward. He needed to kill him before that could happen!
With his vision blurring, Reian cursed at himself. He still hadn’t mastered that new technique, now could he use the Wind Steps without any repercussions. Thus, having forced himself to use more than half of his Qi at one go, he had wounded all of his internal organs and damaged his Qi paths; he had simply lost control of his own technique, then forced his body to withstand the high acceleration of Wind Steps.
Truth to be told, it was a miracle that he was still conscious, but his indomitable will allowed him to keep going. He didn’t try to see or think anymore but instead, he allowed his instinct to take over. His Battle Sense was sharp; he raised his left hand and guarded his head and neck with it and at the same time, sent a surge of Qi through his saber. As long as he could kill that man, they would have a real chance at stopping the Grand Spell before it was completed! He needed to bear through it and emerge victorious no matter what!
The black-golden-clothed man was astonished to see that Reian was able to react, but it was all he could do; see. There was no way for him to change the path of his attack and as such, his scimitar burrowed itself deep into Reian’s left hand, slicing through his protective Qi and stopping only at the bone. With just a little bit more, Reian’s hand would be cut off… but the surge of Qi through the saber pretty much shattered the hand of the black-golden-clothed man’s into little bits, causing him to momentarily relieve the pressure on his scimitar.
Alas, the surge wasn’t enough to kill the black-golden-clothed man. The second one, though, would surely end his life. “Screw off!” the man roared and in an act of desperation, let go of his scimitar and took a step forward. His left hand had been turned into a mincemeat and only charred bones remained of it; he did still have his right hand though! With his scimitar, he could at most cut off Reian’s arm, it wasn’t enough! Thus, he abandoned it and clawed at Reian’s head with his right hand, covering it in the sharp wind-element Qi!
At this very instant, Reian suppressed the blood churning within his body and regained his vision. Was this fortune or misfortune, however, it was hard to say. He saw the wind claw approaching his face and instantly kicked at the ground, jumping to the side and yanking out the saber from the black-golden-clothed man’s stomach. He managed to make the claw miss his face… but he didn’t expect it to suddenly expand in size at the last second! He felt how the wind slashed the side of his neck, he felt how the warm blood gushed out of the huge cut. He was sure he was about to die, but when his feet left the ground as he jumped away, he noticed that the wind claw had missed his spine just by millimeters. This kind of wound was terrifying, but at the very least it wasn’t lethal.
“But how do I...” Reian asked himself, wondering if he was going to die because of his recklessness. He wasn’t in a state to fight off that black-golden-clothed man was he to pursue him. Jasmine was too far away to help him in time too. Was this the end of his life? He wondered what to do next, but then, seemingly out of nowhere, a singular, long and sharp spike of ice whistled through the air just beside him; it continued onward at a high speed and actually, pierced right through the wound he had left on the black-golden-clothed man’s stomach!
A hundred meters away, Kasha revealed a very satisfied, evil grin on her face. She had been mostly useless throughout the battle so far; she was only at the first Realm of Heroes and she had used up too much spiritual energy beforehand. She wasn’t sure what she could do… but after Sirius reprimanded her and told her to focus, she decided to prepare one full-chant spell and wait for an opportunity. It had been fortunate that before she couldn’t hold onto her already-activated spiritual energy anymore, a perfect chance presented itself! She didn’t hesitate at all and used the magic, getting the best result possible!
The black-clothed man began coughing, then vomited the content of his stomach along with a large amount of blood. He could only watch as the heavily wounded Reian retreated; he was in no state to give chase and before his wounded men could take action, the path had already been bared by Jasmine, who moved while surpassing Sharu to assist in Reian’s retreat.
“So close,” the black-golden-clothed man thought with regret. He roused his Qi and shattered most of the large ice spike, leaving only the part of it that was inside his stomach. He then headed back to Yimar Furi and the spiritual masters; although thirty-six of them, including Yimar Furi, would be preoccupied with casting the Grand Spell, there were other water-element spiritual masters who could heal him. After all, their City of Masalle boasted the largest number of water-element spiritual masters in the entire southern Eulene, all thanks to Yimar Furi’s influence and strength.
“Hurry, I will patch you up!” Sirius left his original spot for a moment and ran up to Reian. He grabbed him under the shoulder and immediately began using magic to heal his wounds; and as he did, the look on his face turned extremely ugly. “His neck was close to being lethal, but it’s easy to heal. His internal organs though… they are in tatters. The muscles in his legs are also torn, and his bones fractured, not to mention that half cut-off arm,” he inspected solemnly while dragging the half-conscious Reian over to Arslan and the rest.
“He won’t be able to fight anymore,” he informed, making sure to also send his voice towards Jasmine. It didn’t matter if their enemies learned of that; he wouldn’t be able to heal Reian before the Grand Spell’s cast was finished… and to be more realistic, he would have had trouble healing Reian completely even if he had all of his spiritual energy left. The stronger the body, the harder it was to heal it; it was a simple, undeniable principle. There was nothing he could do about it.
“Reian,” Arslan muttered, watching how bloody and beaten-up Reian was. He had been taken care of by Reian for as long as he could remember, so seeing him in such a state brought tears to his eyes. He wanted to walk up and hug Reian, but he was too worried about making his wounds worse to do so. Thus, he stood where he was while sobbing quietly. He hadn’t known that a true battle was that terrible of a thing.
Still, as devastated as Arslan was, he at the very least could think clearly enough. On the other hand, the eight years old Johan had long since forgotten what was going on around him. He merely looked at what was going on, finding all those scenes as if taken out of a dream. All those powerful techniques, the speed at which all those people moved, the way the ground and air trembled as they exchanged blows… to think that people could reach this level of power! What he was seeing appeared so out of this world he no longer knew if it was all a dream or reality.
“Should we help her?” Liza asked while gnashing her teeth. If the whole lot of them assaulted that man Jasmine was fighting against, couldn’t they hold him back for long enough to allow her to charge over and disrupt the casting of the Grand Spell? She really had had enough of standing here and doing nothing while others were fighting for her; weren’t they all going to die if nothing was done anyway? Then, wasn’t it better to at least take the unlikely gamble than to resign themselves to their fate?
“No,” Sirius said strongly before Reian or anyone else could answer. The only reason none of those weaker martial masters hadn’t attempted to charge over here was because the presence of Ruan, Liza and the others deterred them from doing so. With the addition of Gahar keeping their flanks safe, they could more or less stand their ground with Jasmine providing protection from the front. However, the moment Ruan and the others ran off, they would be done; Arslan would be captured soon thereafter and the battle would be over.
“There’s no time.” Jasmine was restless as she kept assaulting her opponent with an endless barrage of slashes and thrusts. “Fall down, fall down, fall down!” she kept shouting inwardly, using as much Qi as she could with each strike. The moment Reian had been forced to retreat, she had abandoned all defense and kept pushing relentlessly… but that stubborn bastard wasn’t even trying to make a counterattack! He kept guarding and defending with a malevolent smile on his face, aware that unless she was hiding some secret, powerful attacks, she would be unable to take him down in time. It pissed her off unbelievably; she was already furious, but now she was beginning to steadily lose it.
“If nothing else works out, I will need to leave him be and attack Yimar Furi before it’s too late,” she told herself and made the hard choice. If worse came to worst, she would stake her life to take Yimar Furi out as quickly as possible. She could only hope that Arslan and Reian wouldn’t be killed before she could at the very least do this much. If anything, she wanted those two to survive no matter what.
Around the same time, just about when Sirius received Reian into his arms, Laien and Yin exchanged a stern glance at the left side of the battlefield. They had done a lot, but they had both used up a little more than half of their energy. They had welcomed the fact that the forty remaining martial masters weren’t eager to attack them as they didn’t feel all that confident in beating them, especially if they were to receive support from those spiritual masters in the rear… but the situation changed.
“Let’s do it,” the two of them mused, thinking about the same thing. They weren’t too familiar with Grand Spells, but they could sense a huge amount of spiritual energy swirling around Yimar Furi, who stood in the middle of a formation created by nearly three dozen spiritual masters. They were certain it was because of this thing that Reian had changed his approach so suddenly and made a dangerous bet… which he had failed to win. It didn’t look like Jasmine would defeat her own opponent anytime soon, so everything was up to them. Either they pulled off what they were thinking about or they would all most likely be defeated and subsequently, killed.
Without any signal, the two of them began running at full speed straight across the battlefield, directly toward Jasmine.
This action of theirs was so sudden that the forty martial masters took good two or three seconds before something clicked in their brains and they realized what those two wanted to do… and the moment they realize it, they understood they absolutely couldn’t allow those two Devils to join that woman! The three of them would undoubtedly be able to quickly kill Sharu, then proceed to interrupt Yimar Furi in casting the Grand Spell! They couldn’t allow that to happen!
The bunch of them gathered their courage and rushed towards the middle of the battlefield. Due to how they had been positioned before those two Devils started running, they managed to cut into their path in spite of acting with a fairly large delay. They all grit their teeth and prepared to fight the two Devils; as long as they held them back long enough, this battle would be won and all of them would accomplish a great merit! Given Yimar Furi’s character, it was certain they would be rewarded heavily! Driven by their sense of duty, pride and greed, they stood their ground, waiting for the two Devils to attack.
“Tch,” Laien clicked his tongue. He had faintly hoped that those guys would be too scared or reluctant to take action. However… it looked like everything wouldn’t be solved so easily. The silver lining was that there were no martial masters of the fourth rank left amongst those forty men; the problem, though, was that almost all of them were martial masters of the third rank!
With no other path to take, Laien and Yin plowed into the ranks of the forty martial masters. They only had one goal in their minds:
Break through! Break through, else everything would be lost!