Yesterday's Chapter...
...
A few minutes earlier–
When Aya, Liu Ying, and the others discovered they had been surrounded, their expressions turned ugly.
Twenty practitioners were encircling the group from all the directions, looking at them with ice-cold looks as though they could not wait to kill them.
Moreover, the group could feel that the weakest member of the enemies was at the B-Rank. Some of them were even at the A-Rank.
Meanwhile, only three people could fight in their group, and they had two injured and three unconscious people they needed to protect.
This situation could only be considered as hopeless!
Atai looked at Rana and Rhone and shook his head. "You truly are good at escaping. Even injured, you managed to escape our pursuit for so long."
"Bastard!" Rana bared her teeth in rage. "Your soul will burn in the goddess's hell!"
Atai shrugged. "I belong to Slaughter. The goddess's hell has nothing to do with me." He then looked around before fixing his gaze on Elwha.
"You are… The princess of the elves, right? If you are here, it means Ulises failed. How useless, he was not even able to get such an easy task done. Fortunately–" Atai then moved his gaze to Liu Ying, Aya, and Bloed. "I gained an unexpected harvest thanks to his incompetence."
Liu Ying frowned. "It looks like you have become much more talkative now, Atai. I think I liked it more when you were not a chatterbox, though. I did not need to hear your dirty voice back then."
"Ouch. Such sharp words." Atai smiled playfully and shook his head. "I don't understand why the captain likes a girl like you."
"… You don't deserve to call him like that." Aya growled.
"Perhaps." Atai shrugged indifferently. "It's a shame, though." He said while looking at Bloed. "I would have liked to fight the captain again. Our last battle is still unfinished."
"You would have lost for sure."
"I wonder about that." Atai just smiled at Liu Ying's piercing words before moving his gaze towards Elwha. "Miss Princess, can you give me the Heart, please? I promise to give you a painless death if you do."
"… And what if I don't?"
"Then, we will kill all of you in the most painful way possible."
"Try it." Elwha sneered.
"Okay." Atai nodded calmly before looking at the twenty men he brought with him. "Finish it quickly. The people in charge of killing the demigods have not arrived yet, so something unexpected probably happened. We can't lose more time here."
"""Understood!"""
As soon as they heard Atai's order, the twenty men of the Church of Slaughter unleashed their weapons in unison!
"Atai, fight me if you dare, you traitor!" Rhone shouted furious, trying to get Atai's attention, but Atai just looked at him disdainfully. "You were not my match even when you were in top condition. Right now, you are not even worthy of talking to me."
He then walked away as the men of the Church of Slaughter closed on Liu Ying in the others.
"Our backs against the mountain!" Elwha shouted at that moment. The group understood her meaning immediately. Without hesitating, they stepped back slowly until they stood in a defensive formation with their backs against a steep mountain, reducing like that the directions the enemy could use to attack them.
Liu Ying, Aya, and Elwha stood at the front, ready to receive the enemies, while Rana and Rhone, who were still injured, stood behind them to support them with their little remaining strength.
Finally, Bloed and the two unconscious elves were being protected behind Rhone and Rana.
The battle started at that moment. With Atai observing the situation from behind the men of the Church of Slaughter, the twenty enemies charged towards the group!
In an instant, they had arrived in front of the girls.
The girls waited until the enemies were close before making their move. When the enemies were just two meters away from them, they released their mana and moved.
The first to receive them was Liu Ying. Instead of waiting for the enemies to attack, she took a step forward, unleashing a punch against one of them.
Liu Ying's target tried to stop her punch with her palm and aimed his sword towards Liu Ying's blade. If she did not evade, Liu Ying would suffer grave injuries!
But at that moment, Elwha opened her mouth.
"[Stop]!" She spoke.
And the enemies froze.
All twenty practitioners froze for a brief instant. It was less than one second, but it was more than enough for Liu Ying and Aya who had already seen this trick underground.
In this fraction of second, the two girls erupted with all their power and charged forward!
"Ha!" Roaring, Liu Ying punched the head of the enemy in front of her, bursting it like it was a watermelon, then, she unleashed a kick that destroyed the internal organs of a second enemy and another punch that burst the heart of a third enemy.
Meanwhile, Aya flashed among the shadows, wielding her daggers at an unbelievable speed and slitting the throats of another two enemies.
As for Elwha, she managed to shoot two arrows that ended in the eye sockets of two enemies more.
Seven enemies had been killed in an instant!
The sudden attack of the girl stunned the men of the Church of the Slaughter. Seeing seven of their own dying so effortlessly, their killing intent could not help but waver.
However, the girls' reaction was the complete opposite. They proceeded to take advantage of the enemies' hesitation to continue their attacks!
Stomping the ground, Liu Ying launched herself towards another man of the Church of Slaughter and clenched her fist.
But at that moment, an arrow flew towards her, forcing her to avoid the attack!
"Idiots! Protect your minds!" Atai bellowed in rage.
Atai's words woke the remaining men up. They hurriedly protected their minds against soul attacks and defended against the girls' attacks.
Liu Ying frowned. She clicked her tongue in disappointment and jumped back.
"Damn. It's a shame Atai is too far, otherwise, we could have killed him with this trick."
However, she was forced to stop thinking about that soon.
Because once the men were no longer afraid of Elwha's soul attack, they stopped hesitating and attacked the girls fiercely.
The situation immediately turned around. Even if Liu Ying, Aya, and Elwha were very strong, their ability was limited against twenty elites A-Rank and B-Rank practitioners.
Moreover, there was still Atai eyeing them from behind the men of the Church of Slaughter, ready to plant an arrow in their hearts!
Even so, Liu Ying, Aya, and Elwha were strong. They unleashed as much strength as they could and fought against the enemies with their lives in the line.
Liu Ying even unleashed her aspect, allowing her to burst with enough strength to kill another enemy before she was suppressed by an A-Rank practitioner.
In fact, if not by Rana and Rhone occasional attacks, and Elwha unpredictable soul attacks that freeze one or two enemies occasionally, they would have lost long ago.
However, the situation was quickly turning worse and worse.
In less than one minute, the three girls were filled with several injuries, some so grave that they needed immediate treatment.
At this point, they were enduring just on their sheer will.
Despair filled their minds, and unwillingness to die like this filled their hearts.
They hated it. They hated that they were not strong enough to kill the people attacking them.
But when the girls thought that the situation could not turn worse, Atai raised his bow.
Finally, he decided to interfere personally.
But instead of aiming to the girls, he aimed behind them.
To the place where Bloed was sleeping.
And fired.
"Stop!" Liu Ying cried in panic. She tried to stop the arrow, but one of the enemies stopped her.
But suddenly, a shadow flashed.
Aya appeared in the path of the arrow, using her daggers to block it successfully.
Unfortunately, that allowed one of her enemies to deal a blow to her, stabbing her belly.
""Aya!"" Liu Ying and Rana cried out. Rana hurriedly threw a fire arrow towards the enemy that stabbed Aya, but she was so weakened that the enemy easily knocked it aside with his blade.
Then, he raised his blade and pointed it to Aya's neck.
And swung it down.
Several things happened in that instant.
First, a sphere floating in the sky lit up, shooting a barrage of bullets towards the man attacking Aya.
Second, a metallic puppy appeared from nowhere, jumping between the man and Aya and blocking the otherwise lethal attack with its body.
And third, Bloed opened his eyes.
Finally, he had woken up.