Unbeknownst to Wu Guang, mainly because he simply had no time to spread his senses towards a supposedly allied direction, Lord Wei wasn't moving towards the fight. He had not even been there to see the flare that called for him.
The reason? Lord Wei had managed to take a glance at the amount of arriving enemies... and ran off.
"I don't want to die, let them fight if they want! I am not even a part of this fucking war!" Lord Wei was a coward... And one that took great care to conceal his cowardness. And so, he had used his aura to suppress the Sect's dog near him and ordered his soldiers to move out towards the pass.
"New orders from the commander, we are to rush towards the pass!!" As he commanded while sensing the anger in Yuan Taotu's presence, he thought "Fume how much you want, you will be dead before we arrive... And all the idiots that are fighting back there as well. And with no commander, who will be able to testify that I did not receive such an order?"
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Even if Wu Guang and the men behind him were mowing down the opposition as if they were grass, it was still only a small drop into the chaotic ocean of what had become the fight.
Lord Xiao accompanied by two of his elite guards and Tian Ning was blocking nine cultivators. But even though he was himself fighting against the two 3rd level and a 2nd level as well, he still was forced to constantly look out for Tian Ning and the other two, as each of them was fighting two opponents, and Tian Ning's ones were both on the 2nd level of the Soul realm.
For Lan Yanzhi and the two disciples of the Discipline Palace, the situation was slightly better. They were fighting against the group of five that Wu Guang had sent them to block and managed to maintain equally exchange blow for blow until now.
"Where the fuck is that son of a bitch?!" Wu Guang could not help but ask himself again. He needed to go and help Lord Xiao, but if he stopped pulling the attention of the Spirit realm cultivators, there would be simply no guards left for the moment he finished dealing with the Soul realm ones. It should be also noted that albeit the men behind him were on the Soul realm as well, they were only 1st level ones, and the advantage they had initially was slowly decreasing. Not only they were spending qi and soul power, but the surrounding enemies were getting smarter, attacking in groups, and not one in between the five was not sporting at least some kind of wound.
"EARTH SPIKED SHIELD!" Wu Guang roared and infusing a significant amount of qi called for dozens of sharp boulders to rise.
He did not mean the technique to serve as an attack, but to cut him from the mass of enemies around him, and allow him to examine the situation. Even so, these spikes emerged suddenly for almost twenty feet towards each direction from him, killing, wounding, or at least throwing away any enemy that was standing inside this zone.
***
The situation was at the breaking point, and the fact that Lord Wei's reinforcements would not appear, Wu Guang managed to scan the area where the latter was meant to be and found... that there was absolutely no one. Neither anyone was approaching the battle.
This meant that the situation would lean towards the attackers with every single passing moment. Before the guards were exchanging each of their lives for 3 or even 4 enemies, now they hardly managed to take one or two. With the line broken, most of the guards were fighting alone or in very small groups, without the advantage given them by training or their techniques.
"And that's just the beginning, when they manage to surround the remaining guards, they will simply begin to gang upon every guard and..." Wu Guang clearly understood it, but he could not solve it, at least if he could not suddenly make appear enough people to recover the balance. Still, it wasn't like he could not at least try and improve the situation a little.
Singling two consciousness in the sea of people that surrounded him was a hard task, but he saw it through.
"Lord Xiao, Lord Wei has disappeared from his position"
"What?!" A voice that sounded ragged and anxious even under the qi transmission lack of emotions denoted that Lord Xiao was not in the best situation.
"I do not know why, and I loathe to guess anything right now. I am thinking we should bring in the reserves, as well the relief teams. Granted, the cultivators there are a lot weaker, but at least we would be able to reform some semblance of a line"
"Yes, go with it!"
"Xiao Kang, did you hear that?" Wu Guang changed targets.
"Yes, it will be done"
"Good, after you do that, join the fray. There is no need for any commands if we are left without soldiers"
"Yes!"
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"Hoh, interesting" Said the man that had previously been referred to as Vice-General by Wang Ling. One that along with another two cloaked figures had not even disembarked from the ship.
"Hmm? Have you sensed anything?" A woman's voice sounded from the figure to his left side.
"Yes, the man that is acting as the commander seems to be far more interesting than I thought"
"Didn't you say he was only a Soul realm cultivator? And one not higher than the 5th level of it?"
"Yes, but I have just sensed how he spread out his consciousness and aura to cover the entire battlefield and contacted out a pair of his elites"
"Would not that be impossible without having the ability to identify every individual on the field?"
"Indeed"
"Hmm"
"When we will act?" The third cloaked figure asked in a deep-set voice.
"Patience, we will act when it is required from us. All the parts of the plan are already underway, so we have to simply wait until..." The man's hand emerged from inside the cloak holding a rune plate. One filled up with a dozen of different colored orbs; "Until we receive the signal that everyone else accomplished their objective".
"And that coward Wang Ling? Does his escape not affect us?" The woman questioned.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Oh no I am glad he allowed his fears to take control and decided to avoid staying here"
"Hmm?"
"We need to have someone to be blamed for what we will do, don't we?"
"And will they believe that he was the one?"
"Who cares? Believe him or not, nothing will point to the involvement of the Kingdom. And however they try to resist, they will still be dealt by 'our' Blue army in the end" How the man had singled out the word 'our' stood up so much that one could be sure that neither he nor his companions were truly part of the army.
And they were not. The three of them served Prime Minister Kiang even while he was just a simple advisor. And whatever General Ou was made believe, that they were here to catch the culprit behind the death of the Black Eagles leader's brother, or that they were originally officers from the Red Army... It was all just a cover-up story.
A few moments later, the man added with a slightly excited tone
"Oh! You two, keep an eye on the commander guy, he's is about to do something even more interesting"
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Wu Guang maintained the spikes barrier around himself for a few breaths, running all the situations of the battlefield in his mind.
The current number of guards had dropped to 70. His enemies numbered about 350. With the fresh addition of the reserve's 75 and the 35 remaining relief force people, the rest remaining to tend the wounded and keep an eye on the bound prisoners, a more-or-less defendable line could be formed. Still, to do that, the mass of enemies had to be distracted.
The best site to do so would be the linchpin in the center, one formed by a dozen guards, Wei and the Kuang siblings. All of them were tired and had wounds of different severity, but were holding back a tide of almost a hundred!
A hundred that if eliminated...
"Screw keeping back then" Wu Guang wryly smiled, knowing that after he revealed his full strength he would definitively paint a target on his back for the three strange Kingdom cultivators on the Ship, well, if they decided to join the combat. Not to mention the enormous difficulty he would meet to leave the plane in peace. He did not think that the Empire or Chen Jiahao would go against the given promises, but... Trying to keep him around for a few years would not be considered them doing so, would it?
"Not that I have any other choice" Wu Guang closed his eyes and began gathering his aura and qi into a tightly bound cluster, entering the so-called peak combat state.
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Kuang Xiaolan knew that she must fight, that a cultivator of the 'Three Hills Sect' is expected to defend, if not all, at least the mortals living in their territory. Sincerely, she would have loved to do so somewhere else, not in this forsaken by the heavens grasslands surrounding an even more forsaken beach. Somewhere where she could continue demonstrating her skill with a blade, dueling worthy opponents. But it wasn't like she could now, did she?
Such a line of thought was not the best one while fighting for one's life, but somehow it allowed Kuang Xiaolan to concentrate on the fight very well.
"Blue Crescent!" An azure-colored blade of water separated from her sword and swept to the side, blocking what would have been a fatal hit to one of the guards that were trying to keep her flanks safe.
Her short and straight sword darted back into a guard position, receiving the hit of what could be only called a farmer's scythe.
*CLANG*
"Break!" But her sword was made of blue steel, a real spirit metal, and so with just a sliver of effort, she cut the makeshift weapon in two, along with the owner's arms.
"AAAAARGH" The man screamed in pain, but she did not even register the screams, quickly glancing around and checking for an opening to land the final hit.
*Swoosh*
And so, she finished her opponent, while using the same movement to avoid a staff that tried to hit her head.
***
Kuang Jing could only wish to be as strong as her sister. Especially now that they, the heirs of the Kuang family were again fighting for the safety of the islanders. But one had to assume the reality, he was not so strong. And no one would consider me to be a worthy brother of hers, heh. With such a thought, he had entered the new fray.
If it wasn't for the lack of time, he would have noticed the admiring glances that the young guards who saw him fight during the beach battle had directed at him. Regretfully he could never do so now, after all... None of the younger guards that had been part of his so-called team were alive.
Even though he was wounded and could not, even after the pills and potions, use his left arm, he still fought bravely now. From the 15 guards that were part of his section of the 2nd line, there were only 3 remaining. And all of the three were showing at least some degree of injury. There was no 2nd line to rotate with now, and so he continued to do everything in his power to stall the enemies and allow them at least some respite.
"I can not fall, I will not fall! COME!" He shouted while throwing himself against the incoming pair of enemies. With his friends and especially Wu Guang fighting as well, how could he fail to kill these bastards?!
***
Wei was by far the most silent of the people presently fighting. He had not allowed a single curse or word, even after one of the enemy cultivators landed a heavy slash that had left him a bone-deep cut on his right leg, one from which blood was still flowing even now.
And as his demeanor, his mental state was equally calm. Maybe because of this, or because of the lack of emotions he had when crushing enemy after enemy with his enormous hammer, he had been being followed by guards that somehow resembled him. Calm, collected and killing without showing any reaction even after losing people or being wounded.
Right now only seven remained, but still, they were by far the biggest group remaining of what was Lord Xiao's line of defense...
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"Now!" Wu Guang opened his eyes and dispelled 'Earth Spiked Shield'. And before anyone even could see him, Wu Guang activated 'Counting Steps to Heaven and Hell', disappearing from the spot.
And as a wraith, silent and unavoidable appeared amid the enemies that were about to surround the three pockets of resistance led by his friends...