Grimacing, Zal extended his shield and attempted to bash the sable cultivator's face. The wiry undead enemy hopped with haste out of the way. ‘He’s running to prep for another sneak attack.’ Zal knew this, but he couldn’t do a thing.
An ice spike flew out from one of the enemies and skimmed Zal's curly hair. Zal could disrupt it only due to his practiced reaction speed before it reached his teammates.
“Damnit, Thorne,” Zal muttered as he blocked another barrage of attacks. Sweat painted his face, and blood spots were scattered all over his plain robe. “Do your damn job, you emotionless fuck!” Zal shouted.
He couldn’t see Thorne and didn’t even know if the dual cultivator could even hear him. After blocking a fireball with his spear, Zal swiveled and stared back at Lyra and the rest.
“Fuck.” Zal’s face fell. He was wrong; the sable cultivator hadn’t run so he could prepare for another attack against Zal. No, he went straight for the vulnerable Procka. By this point, Moravian had already exposed his existence when he took out one of the more ambitious yellow cultivators. Unfortunately, that meant that now he was practically useless, especially in the open terrain of the desert where stealth was useless.
“Procka!” he shouted at the Grandorian, “Hold out as long as you can; I'll help in a minute.”
Ever stoic, Procka simply nodded, and despite her weakness in close combat affairs, she engaged the sable undead.
Zal returned his attention to his own battles, and it was lucky he did. “Whoa!” He yelled as he had to duck under an icy blade!
“So, you're going to help her, huh?” A small smile formed on the face of his enemy. The blue cultivator, who had previously been in the back with the rest of the ranged attackers, had decided to press the advantage, and he wasn’t alone.
Licking his lips, Zal looked around. In a tight circle were two amber cultivators, one orange cultivator, one black cultivator, and the icy blue cultivator.
“Well,” He smiled, wiping some blood off his cheek, “I said I'll help in a minute. So, let's finish this fast. It seems You're good at finishing fast, right?” he said, grinning at the blue cultivator.
He was a short human man. His lanky build and pale skin made him…questionable regarding beauty.
“You know,” Zal continued speaking as he dodged a fireball, “It makes me wonder sometimes. Even if you're a rare cultivator, you know, being ice and all, do girls still like you if…” Zal pointedly looked downward at the man's private area.
With gritted teeth, the pale man's face went red, and he struck forward. His icy blade shimmered in the artificial sun as it raced toward Zal’s neck!
Despite this imminent threat, Zal simply smiled wider. “Looks like you're stupid, too, " he said. You leave the defense of the ambers just for some taunting.” Zal clucked. So stupid.”
With easy movements, Zal raised his shield and locked the man's strike. This completely halted the black cultivator's momentum, allowing Zal to stab directly at the man's neck! A fireball burst out from the orange cultivator, but Zal saw it and responded with haste.
“A Spears Shield.” He muttered, and immediately, an airtight bubble of amber energy flowed around his spear–causing the fireball to be absorbed without difficulty.
“Perfect.” Zal grinned as he noticed the familiar scent of ozone as Jacky came to rescue the blue-spectrum student.
BOOOM!
Zal felt a shockwave radiate through the ground out of nowhere. He swiveled his head past his enemies, and toward the area where the shockwave originated from. In the distant air, he saw something, something... extraordinary!
Zal's grin grew wide, “Oh, there we go, Thorne! Get them ya bastard!”
In the distant air, a figure—dozens of feet in the air—was quickly descending. Crackling red energy kept extending past the blade. Thorne, still in the air, held his blades in an X-shape. The red energy kept crackling and became increasingly volatile. Even from such a distance, Zal could notice that the red energy was becoming unstable to a dangerous degree.
Zal’s excitement morphed into horror as he watched the red energy extend; “THONE RELEASE YOUR ATTACK! IT'S GOING TO RECOIL!” Only able to hold his breath, Zal gaped in terror as Throne began his descent.
He was right above the group of support students and ranged attack students. About five of them were directly in Thorne’s line of fire. ‘Oh, please, Jade Celestial, I implore you to grant my friend luck! ' he prayed.
Just as the energy appeared to reach its limit, Thorne released it in a nauseating cross-strike. In a mighty voice that rumbled throughout the entire battlefield, Thorne shouted, “CROSS BLADE EXTENSION STRIKE!”
A tsunami of red appeared in an X-pattern. As if it was a world-ending calamity, all the students could do was watch, as their end approached. It was beautiful; the luminous strike—more overpowering than the sun—lit the entire desert in an eerie red glow.
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BOOM!
“Five gone.” Zal muttered, his eyes brightened, “Just like that, thank the celestials that he’s on my side.”
“ZAL!” someone shouted from behind.
Busy admiring Thorne’s handiwork, Zal immediately turned his back to see who spoke. “PAY ATTENTION!” Lyra shouted at him, a scoff on her face, “Stop ogling Thorne’s attack, and pay attention to your own people!”
Zal smiled slightly and held up his hand in apology. “My bad, " he shouted back as he refocused on his opponents. Now, there was only one orange, one black, and the two amber cultivators left.
“Lyra,” He shouted back, “Give me a hand here.”
Knowing that the girl would do her job, Zal rushed forward at one of the shock-ridden amber cultivators. Like him, the burly dwarven woman had just witnessed an attack that no novice should be able to produce, and her mind hadn't yet comprehended it.
“Perfect for me.” Zal smiled as he quickly extended his spear to its longest setting. With a quick strike at her neck with the shaft of his spear, it was over, and Jacky had already collected her unconscious body.
“Now,Lyra!” He shouted as he faced the other amber cultivator. This one—a human with a short but well-built figure—had already recovered from his shock and was facing Zal with practiced steadfastness.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t prepared for the pressurized bullet of water that shot his leg! He crumpled to one knee, which allowed Zal to leap forward and thrust his spear forward quickly, causing Jacky to burst forward and collect the cultivator before Zal’s spear connected.
“Now, only you two left,” Zal smiled as he looked toward the remaining enemies. The orange and black cultivator looked at each other before nodding. ‘Hmm, do they have a plan?’ Zal wondered. However, his pondering had to be put off as the black cultivator ushered black miasma forward out of her hands. The zombie-like woman was summoning something!
“Oh shit!” Zal muttered as he rushed forward, trying to stop the summoning from being completed. Unfortunately, the orange cultivator stepped forward and shot two lines of fire right at Zal’s head.
“Fuck!” Zal grimaced as he was forced to use his energy to protect himself.
“Thorne, help.” He shouted, “If you don’t help, we're screwed!
Zal knew that Lyra, Procka, and Moravian were already enraptured by their battles and couldn’t assist Zal. Thus, his only option was Thorne, who was probably extremely exhausted due to his earlier attack.
Zal—struggling against the constant fiery barrage—took one step at a time. ‘This isn’t enough.’ He realized his face was pale, and exhaustion assaulted his body. ‘Thorne has to come.’ He realized, ‘If not…’ Zal didn’t even want to think of the possibility of what would happen if the summoning worked.
Now only ten feet away from the black cultivator, Zal swung his spear forward. He extended the spear's length, and it almost reached his opponent. But almost was not enough.
“Thorne, if you don’t come, we're dead!” He shouted once again, the stress and fear evident in his voice.
“Don’t worry, " a coarse voice said. Zal franticly turned around. His eyes widened, and a slow smile started to creep across his face as he looked toward the source of the voice. “Take it from here, man,” Zal mumbled.
Thorne stood five feet away from Zal. His robe was entirely ripped, and only his black pants and plain red and amber undershirt remained. He held both his runic swords out in a combative stance. None of that surprised Zal; what did it for Zal were the eyes. The dead, blank, emotionless eyes stared forward at the black cultivator.
“I will,” Throne said. With a fast leap, Throne immediately reached the orange cultivator. Unable to react to Thorne's speed, the cultivator let out a burst of fire in panic!
The fire lashed out at Thorne’s limbs, and the dual cultivator didn’t even bother to defend himself! He took the fire and lashed out like an animal with his blades!
“There we go, Jacky.” Zal chuckled as he saw a brief glimpse of the woman’s energy. “Need help Thorne?” Zal shouted as he saw the man move on to the next cultivator.
Thorne shook his head and dove into the fight! With a precise dive, Thorne found himself inches away from the black-spectrum cultivator. ‘There we go.’ Zal sighed as he predicted the inevitable conclusion; Thorne would swing his sword, and Jacky would appear in a flash and save the zombie woman.
“ARGHHHHH!” A horrifying groan erupted as the black cultivator opened her eyes. Her abyssal pupils shone with fury as she watched the incoming Thorne.
‘Oh no.’ Zal gasped. Time slowed, and the miasma that the cultivator had once been expending suddenly began to shift on its own. In an instant, it had transformed into a building-sized monster, the paragon of darkness!
Thorne leaped back, and Zal finally noticed a hint of caution on the impulsive man’s face. The beast roared once again; sand flew into the air from the pure force of the shout, and Thorne stumbled a few feet backward.
The zombie woman, for her part, was essentially dead. She had collapsed to her knees, and Zal noticed that she could barely maintain consciousness.
“Thorne!” Zal screamed at the top of his lungs, “IGNORE THE MONSTER. TAKE OUT THE CULTIVATOR!”
Thorne took a harrowing step toward the beast without even offering a look of acknowledgment.
“Damnit!” Zal muttered, but his anger soon subsided as he noticed something strange; ‘Why is he…smiling.’ Zal knitted his eyebrows as he watched Thorne in disbelief.
“Well, that’s it,” Zal muttered, resigned, as he watched the beast charge with the desire to kill right toward Thorne!
Watching intensely, Zal noticed that Thorne’s smile had grown wider; the man's pearly whites were exposed, shining in the sun, as he watched the approaching miasmic monster.
Right as the beast was upon Thorne, Zal noticed something. ‘He’s concentrating the energy in his body… he's going to use The Phantom Leap!’ Zal’s mouth lay agape as he realized it. The Phantom Leap was perhaps the most famous red spectrum technique in their area of the universe.
Not for its movement capabilities. No, it was famous for something else, something deadly, something that gave it its name, The Phantom Leap!
Thorne activated the ability and leaped up! His body traveled at unreal speeds, but he did not rematerialize. Thorne was gone!
Zal gasped; his fatigue felt like nothing anymore under the pure shock that he felt; ‘He fucking did it!’ Zal grinned.
BOOM!
The monster imploded, and Thorne burst out from the stomach of the monster. His clothes were coated in a gluey, black substance. But he was fine. No injuries, no signs of total exhaustion. Thorne simply stood in the wake of the beast and looked at the zombie woman with an expressionless glare.
The black cultivator had promptly fallen asleep as soon as the monster had died. After all, a technique that was powerful had repercussions.
“CONGRATULATIONS!” A dazzling voice exploded, as the whole desert echoed with the sound of Jacky. “What an amazing team! You guys won!”