A couple of minutes into their battle with the Sector Boss, Natasha surprised the group by casting a large water-type restriction spell to seal the Devastated Banshees movements, allowing Achilles and the twins to initiate the Macedonian Charge. Elemental Focus was approaching its end, but it still raised the standard of the skill. Natasha held off the creature by herself giving the others time and room to act. Unfortunately LyraLyra's Elemental Focus reached its ten-minute limit. But it was more than enough time to boost Achilles, Will and Natasha.
Achilles activated his Macedonian Charge, while the Twins activated the Unrelenting Hunt and transformed, turning into tall muscular werewolves with a phantom of Remus behind each one. With a burst, they went forward and slammed into the stuck Devastated Banshee.
As soon as the Macedonian Charge hit the Devastated Banshee, Will sensed that they were nearing the corpse of the beast and rapidly expanded his area. Thanks to its infusion with Radiant energy, Will's sensitivity to Life Force allowed him to detect the signatures of the Bellingham crew even though they were surrounded by the Dragon Force-infused poisonous mist. Will quickly sent knowledge of the enemy's numbers and layout to the group. Natasha ordered that they enter the riverbank area with the Macedonian Charge and rapidly sent instructions via Intent on her plan.
Natasha, like Will, was quite well-versed in telepathy and could easily communicate wordlessly with hundreds of individuals at once. She was a natural leader and had been in many a battle, thus it was easy for her to adapt on the fly and create a plan of attack.
'Our main focus is to secure an area for Palmer to create a teleportation magic circle so we can bring in reinforcements. We have no need to wipe out everyone there. So here is what we are going to do…'
Part of Will's orders was to open the path with his recurring water blade while Achilles was tasked with leading the Macedonian Charge forward toward the gathered diggers. Will was also instructed to take the group by surprise with his water blade from behind while Achilles and The Twins were asked to rest if the charge was successfully cancelled.
Natasha's face grimaced as soon as the group escaped the miasma. She and the others trailed behind the rampage of the charge but were fully aware of their environment. Natasha had a vested interest in this attack because she knew who these hooded individuals were.
Knowledge of the attacker's identities forced her to change her initial plans. She reacted quickly and unleashed a new barrage of orders. Will was not one used to being told what to do, but even he had to admit that Natasha was a superb strategist. The moment they entered the riverbank space, she released a second string of detailed instructions that took into account everyone's abilities and circumstances.
The tall and broad-shouldered Achilles was breathing heavily after having exhausted most of his Specialist Qi by using Macedonian Charge. The Twin Crescent brothers beside him were in a slightly better condition as they had only been drained by unleashing the Unrelenting Hunt. This was the common price to pay for momentum-type skills. It was clear that they would be out of commission for some time while recovering from dealing with the Devastated Banshee.
The Banshee itself was vaporized and nothing indicating its existence was left. Motes of light indicating experience slowly wafted toward Will and the others while the Hooded Individuals watched on.
Once the dust settled, everyone moved out!
Will, Natasha and Gianluigi moved toward their targets while Lydia and Palmer used stamina recovery spells on the trio that was resting. Lyra went to work as soon as he arrived and placed his hands on the ground and started a long series of chants. Water and Metal element mana started to pulse around him as he focused on his own task.
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Call of the Forest!
Lyra's task was to use Call of the Forest and locate the corpse of the dungeon or clues regarding it. The map function of the system was only useful in low-difficulty areas. But in high-difficulty areas that needed higher senses such as Truth to handle, one needed an expert in information gathering. This was why Lyra's Call of the Forest was important, it allowed them to fight without entering blind.
On the other hand, Will and Gianluigi headed for the hooded individuals while Natasha headed straight for the injured cultivators that were still reeling from Will's recurring waterblade.
The hooded individuals wanted to move to stop Natasha, but a wave of concentrated killing intent released by Gianluigi Remus forced them to pause. A large phantom of the Storm Wolf Deity Remus manifested behind Gianluigi as he charged at his foes from their right flank. He had not properly unleashed the Unrelenting Hunt and had instead only activated part of his bloodline. Increasing his physical traits and strengthening his killing intent.
The hooded individuals wanted to focus on Natasha, but they could not look away from the most talented youngster of the House of Remus. The overwhelming killing intent Gianluigi released made it impossible for them to not pay full attention to him. It felt no different from looking away after a gun was pointed in one's direction.
On the other hand, Will was not idle. He ran up to the hooded individuals from their left and unleashed his waterblade at them. The hooded group created shields of ice to block the waterblade, but the attack did not disperse. Instead, it malformed and reformed behind them. Will made a pulling motion and the water blade returned with a bit more momentum than before.
Gianluigi took this opportunity to attack with Remus' Wrath, causing the hooded individuals to face attacks from two sides. Remus' Wrath and Will's waterblade were attacks that looked like crescent moon blades and went at the hooded individuals horizontally.
Crash!
The silhouettes of the four seemed to have been caught unaware and were split at their waists, their 'corpses' falling to the ground.
As this happened, Natasha arrived before the bewildered and frightened group of excavators. The petite man was one of the survivors, but he had no time to celebrate his survival as he quickly pointed at the sky above them, "It's Natasha de Ligt!"
Natasha ignored the exclamation and raised her hand, creating a large circular spell matrix in the skies above the group. Hundreds of needles made from ice descended from the heavens and covered the group.
Frozen Asgard Arts: Ragnarok Rain!
Screams of agony echoed as the rain of needles rained down like frozen artillery from a frigid underworld. More and more cultivators raised their shields and other forms of defence, but the overwhelming rain cared little about this and continued to pelt them. This display of large Mana reserves sent chills into the hearts of the observers and reminded them of why this woman was mentioned in the same sentences as Ulysses Rijkaard.
'That should hold them for a moment.' Natasha mused as she quickly changed direction and headed toward the hooded individuals. As far as she was concerned, they were her true enemy.
On the other side of the battlefield, Will retrieved his water blade after it had bisected the hooded individuals and released it once again, this time however he targeted an empty space to his right.
The water blade surprisingly met resistance and once again malformed as if blocked by a shield, kicking up a dust cloud that covered everyone's vision. Gianluigi arrived next to Will and dispersed the dust cloud with a stomp.
As soon as the dust cleared, Natasha landed next to Will and Gianluigi and barked, "What are you lot doing with the enemy?"
Gianluigi was confused by her words for a moment, then he quickly shifted his attention back to corpses on the ground that he and Will had sandwiched with their attacks. Their forms changed into water that was sucked into the earth. Gianluigi shifted his attention back to the shielded space, and the silhouettes of 4 hooded figures materialized like a mirage in a scorching desert. Except the temperature was anything but warm.
The surrounding temperature cooled rapidly as frigid world energy concentrated on their location from the surroundings. The hooded individuals oozed negative energy so concentrated it manifested in a frost that spread from the ground, slowly crawling outward as if it wanted to freeze the environment inch by inch.
'This invasive and overbearing negative energy. To think I would come across another batch of crazy whores.'
Gianluigi licked his lips in anticipation as he quickly came to terms with what had happened around them. Now there was no longer any doubt about the identity of the hooded individuals because this was a spell that Gianluigi was already quite familiar with as Peerless had used it on him multiple times.
Frozen Asgar Arts: Loki's Substitution!