As she swept her gaze around, Liguang was nowhere to be seen. Every building, tree, and structure was reduced to rubble. Everything was destroyed! And directly in the middle of the town was a gigantic fissure that extended from one end of the town to the other. It looked like a gaping maw emerged from the earth to swallow everyone whole! She took one glance into the gorge and felt weak in her knees, causing her to stumble backwards. What kind of joke was this? It was hard to tell in the darkness, but the gorge appeared deep, extremely deep. She could probably fall for a few seconds and still not reach the bottom! Just thinking about it made her break out into a cold sweat. What would happen if it had not missed? Not even dust would remain from her corpse! She would be directly erased from this world!
This pure destructive power was both awe-inspiring and terrifying. To think that a person could be responsible for this… it seemed a bit ridiculous. Should mortals really capable of this? Elizabeth heard of these super powerful individuals such as the Sword King or Protector Avin. She even had the displeasure of meeting Lord Wenmord and experiencing the Lannisail explosion too. Rank 3 Kings… She believed they were rare, once in a generation, one-in-a-million existences that could viewed equal to legends or myths. At least, that was what they should have been. And yet, in the last year or so, they appeared like weeds on the side of the road. It seemed like everyone and their parents could destroy cities now! Was it supposed to be this common? Elizabeth felt her sanity slipping a little.
This isn't the time to be thinking about this nonsense, she admonished herself. What about Benedict, Shirley, and Freon? Did they survive? We need to flee from Liguang as soon as possible. The Featherwind Sect isn't something we can handle!
"I should look for my friends…"
She was about to turn around when three shadows charged at her with lightning speeds. Despite the uneven and messy battlefield, they navigated the area with ease, as though they were running on flat ground. One at her back, and one on either side, they covered her blind spots with unspoken cooperation. Their masterful movements and bodily control revealed Perception Realm attainment. Their weapons glinted with murderous light and in less than a heartbeat, they were one step from skewering Elizabeth. Boom! The three figures were blasted back with unparalleled force, startling Elizabeth. She had no idea what was happening until it had already concluded. As the girl looked behind her, she saw Sir Winstin standing there with several other Royal Guards. On the opposite side, the three shadows flipped back and recovered with ease. From a cursory glance, they were master assassins, top of their grade, and probably at the same level as Captain Julian and Vice-captain Julie from the Whispering Shadow's Second Hand!
Elizabeth suspected that they must have been hiding in the town, waiting for an opportune moment to assassinate her. It would have been an excellent idea, except… they probably did not expect the Featherwind Sect's attack to obliterate the town. They must have been swept up in the attack too from their moderate injuries. Elizabeth was more surprised by how quickly everyone regained their combat ability while she was walking around, lost in her thoughts. It embarrassed her, prompting her cheeks to blush red in shame. Still, her hands gripped the Whiteangel Bow tightly. This was a battlefield now! There was no telling how many enemies there were, or where they might come from. She had to be prepared for anything!
A few of the Royal Guards engaged the three assassins in a fierce melee, while Sir Winstin remained close to Elizabeth. From the way that they fought, it was clear that the Royal Guards held the advantage. Not because their opponents were assassins, which meant poorer combat ability, but because their wounds were simply less severe. They could fight close to their peak condition, while the assassins were losing ground more and more. Even Sir Winstin was lightly injured by comparison. Elizabeth had to admit that their Arcanists were really something else. To reduce the damage to their own forces from the Featherwind Sect's attack this much was exceedingly impressive. This was an attack that cleaved the town in two! Although their side did suffer some casualties and Elizabeth was unclear of the total damage inflicted, just being able to survive was a miracle in and of itself. They could still fight!
In this situation, what would their enemies do? If I were them, then I would… Elizabeth pondered with a sharp gaze. Her Magic Energy was already coursing through her body, ready to activate at the slightest moment.
"Your Highness, we should move-"
His words were cut short as his glaive instinctively moved faster than his body and twirled around them. Several distinctive 'clangs' could be heard as crossbow bolts fell to the ground. He had accurately deflected several crossbow bolts aimed at Elizabeth! How ridiculous was his perception ability? Remember that it was pitch black outside, so these projectiles were nearly invisible, and they moved at extremely high speeds. A regular person would not know they were struck until they died. It was a good reminder that this was the man considered the strongest knight in the Alzar Kingdom, the person closest to the boundary of Half-Rank 3 King! While their performance was not as grand, the other Royal Guards also reacted similarly and knocked the ten crossbow bolts out of the air. However, their staged assault would not end with just this much.
At the same time the Royal Guards were preoccupied with the sudden attacks, Elizabeth instantly swiveled around to her backside. The assassins and crossbow bolts came from the front, so her rear was left unguarded. It was the best opportunity to attack! Her Magic Energy rushed to the surface like a storm as she controlled her magic to a remarkable degree. Before this, her magic control was abysmal, which was not necessarily a bad thing. There was no need to hold back against enemies, so she could freely do as she pleased, and use her full power. However, the training that Rena forced her to do was specifically to master her magical dexterity and overall proficiency. It came in handy right now with her spell. She needed enough power to cover her rear and deal with any hidden enemies, while restraining the impact on her allies and the surroundings. It was a very tricky balance to manage, but Elizabeth smiled.
Her spell activated and released a humongous concussive shockwave behind her. It was so strong that it blasted the nearby debris away from her and released a thunderous explosion! The sheer force was probably enough to fracture, if not destroy, an ordinary stone wall. Furthermore, it came so suddenly and without warning that no one would have reacted in time. It would not kill anyone if they faced it point-blank, but neither would they be unharmed. If allies were behind her, then she would have to apologize. However… if there were enemies, then it was the perfect spell designed to blast them away. And as she suspected, five unsavory fellows were caught up in the shockwave, completely unexpecting Elizabeth to pull such a move suddenly. Even assassins could be surprised. But they did not give up. Immediately after failing the ambush, they threw a dozen throwing knives at her. They would kill her no matter what!
Despite Elizabeth's incredible spell-casting speed, it was not within the realm of instantaneous and the throwing knives moved faster than she could defend against. Sir Winstin finished with his side and was about to cover for Elizabeth when he stopped himself. There was no longer a need for him to intervene. A large glittering dome-like barrier manifested around them, blocking the knives with ease. Elizabeth turned to the source with a look of surprise, Ten Dawn Krogan! His appearance was somewhat unsightly from the Featherwind Sect's attack, but his gaze was unbelievably calm. Beside him, the sorry figures of the others were present. Ten Dawn Yvonne, Rosemary, and Iris raised their wands and activated their spells. Spells flew over the battlefield and assaulted Elizabeth's assailants.
They targeted one person each, or three out of the five. Ten Dawn Yvonne formed a cage of darkness-type magic around one of them and clenched her fingers. The cage responded in kind and proceeded to crush the assassin. Her opponent was scared out of their wits and retaliated without success. Magic was still an unknown field in the Xingyuu Empire, and so knowledge was few and far in between. Coupled to that, there were very few instances where these assassins could fight an Arcanist, especially ones as powerful as the Ten Dawns. Their inadequacies were shown here. When the spell lifted, the only thing that remained was a viciously mangled corpse. Were they attacked from the inside too?
Ten Dawn Rosemary formed a bow out of water-type magic and launched a ludicrously fast magic arrow at another opponent. Using the word 'ludicrous' seemed appropriate since it was many times faster than a normal arrow. It was practically instantaneous! Since it was magic, its speed was directly controlled by the Arcanist, which allowed it to exceed the norms of the human world. Of course, this had limitations as well, but any projectile moving this fast at this close of a range was guaranteed lethal. It pierced her opponent in the chest and shot right out the back. They had no chance to react before they died!
Ten Dawn Iris was the subtlest out of the women. Her specialization was normally in perception-type magic, hence her mastery over healing magical injuries. This was how her title as the 'White Healer' came to be. However, she had no issues adapting to a battlefield either. Her spell activated and demarcated a small zone around her opponent's head. Then, her wind-type spell began siphoning the air out of this zone, forcibly depriving their lungs. It was a localized version of her large-scale tactical magic, Diffusion Void, that she could create herself. The assassin began choking and attacked the spell hopelessly except the zone that Ten Dawn Iris created was intangible, so how could they? They fell unconscious a short while later.