I moved back towards the hill and observed Harold's battle. He was fighting a defensive battle against a fully armored man wielding a morning star and a man who was wearing a robe and throwing out spells, some sort of mage. Harold had conjured a large tower shield with a type of essence I hadn't seen before and was doing his best to deflect the armored man's heavy attacks while dodging the mages spells.
I decided to take out the mage first. I dashed behind him, and as I still had [Shadow Cloak] activated, he didn't notice me until it was too late. He wasn't a melee fighter, so my daggers had removed his head before he even had a chance to protect himself. The man with the morning star was locked in fierce close combat, so he didn't notice the death of his friend. I took advantage of this opening and rushed to his back. When his weapon collided with Harold's shield, I moved forward and attacked, stabbing my daggers up into his unprotected armpits. He dropped his morning star as his arms flopped to his sides, barely connected to his torso. Harold kicked the man in the stomach and knocked him to the ground. He tried to get up, but without the use of his arms and wearing heavy armor, it was futile. I didn't have to do anything more, as Harold raised his huge shield with both hands and smashed it into the fallen mans' chest repeatedly, giving him a painful death. Harold then turned to me.
"I see now that the commander wasn't kidding when she said that you could take my whole squad single-handedly. That aside, we need to get out of here. After we dealt this much damage, they're bound to send out the big shots. I've already signaled a retreat"
With that, we turned around and ran as fast as we could, or at least Harold did. As we left, I glanced once more at the elegant man. He was just as unconcerned as before, completely unfazed by all his troops dying. When we had gone a few miles, Harold suddenly deactivated his stealth skill and stopped moving. After a few moments of silence, he spoke with a listless voice.
"Run faster"
He then reactivated his skill and kept moving. I pondered on the reason for his change and reached a conclusion rather quickly.
'One of the other two must have died, and as their leader, he must have their life amulets'
Life amulets are expensive enchanted items that use space essence to transmit the information of its wearer's death to any linked amulets over long distances. We ran for two hours, only stopping when Harold collapsed in exhaustion. He spoke while gasping for air.
"We should have gone far enough. After that attack, the army should move much slower. We will move parallel to them for a few days before harassing them again. You take first watch"
Saying this, he pulled out a blanket and wrapped his self with it. He fell asleep in a few seconds. It wasn't even noon yet and with my insane stamina and fast essence absorption speed, I was still full of energy. I made a chair with [Earth Manipulation] and kept watch over the surroundings. I activated [Seismic Sense] and cast a few healing orbs to get used to my new skills. With no one else arriving I soon realized that both of the other operatives must have died.
After nine hours of sitting around and training my skills, Harold finally woke up. He got to his feet and looked around, his eyes had lost the conviction the held yesterday. It had been replaced with sadness and the slightest bit of rage. He turned to me and spoke.
"Let's get moving"
We moved slowly in the direction of the Warren Kingdom's northern border. We walked in almost complete silence until night fell and we stopped to sleep. We moved slowly in this manner for two more days, meeting nothing but a few insects. On the morning of the third day, we started to move at a run and headed back towards the army.
It only took us a few hours to find the group of over a million people. The army advanced in tight ranks, scouts sweeping the area around them. Harold informed me of the next plan.
"They expect another night attack, so we're going to attack right now. Move counterclockwise around the army, kill all the scouts and patrols. Don't stop moving, meet me on the other side"
We both ran off, having already activated our stealth skills a few miles back. In the barren wastelands, it was easy to spot the patrols. I approached the nearest one to me, a group of three low-end rank 2s. I moved in completely unoticed. I swung my daggers three times in quick succession, killing them all. I then moved on to a group of 15 normal soldiers. I released wind bolts as I approached, killing most of them, and then ended the rest with my daggers. To the current me, anything below a highly trained rank 4 ascender would be killed instantly. As I sprinted around the marching armies, groups of soldiers fell to my hands like wheat before a scythe. After three minutes and 136 dead scouts, I started to hear commands being shouted in the distance. As Harold had instructed, I didn't slow down. The army was huge and I was moving far to fast. Groups of ascender moved out, but none of them could find me or catch up. I reached the other side of the army in twenty minutes, having taken over a thousand lives. harold's badge was still a ways away, so I continued carving my path of death towards him.
Commanders were shouting and ascenders were scouring the land. When I was about to reach Harold, I felt a large fluctuation of essence, far stronger than anything I'd felt before. A rank 5 had just cast a spell. I increased my pace and joined Harold. When I did, he spoke to me frantically.
"We need to get out of here quickly, that was a high-rank tracking spell"
"If we're being tracked by a rank 5, isn't it pointless to run away?"
"Yes, but we need to get away from the army if we want to have a chance at fighting. Our only advantage is numbers. Rank 5s are the strongest beings for thousands of miles, most of them are incredibly arrogant. None of them would go out of their way to take reinforcements to fight two ascenders of lower rank."
With this, we sprinted away from the army once more.
'a rank 5 huh? I suppose this is a good chance to find out how powerful they really are'
Once we had gotten a good distance away we stopped and turned around. I spoke to Harold about the plan.
"Our fighting styles have a good synergy, you try and draw his attacks, I'll move around him and deal damage"
After saying this, I focused on my surroundings and activated [Earth Manipulation]. I raised a hill below us and formed walls and outcroppings of earth. Once I was done, the previously flat ground was now filled with irregularity. Satisfied with the new battleground, I look into the distance at the army. A lone figure was approaching us. When he came into view of my sharp senses, I realized I was very lucky.
"A straightforward warrior type, my best matchup"
The man was tall, 6'5(198cm), and didn't wear any armor. He seemed to rely on the bulging muscles that covered his body for protection. He held a massive, seven-foot-long(2.1m), greatsword in his right hand, resting it on one of his broad shoulders. Harold pulled out a chunk of metal from his pack and filled it with essence. It expanded and formed into the shield I had seen him use a few days prior. When the approaching warrior reached the area of irregular ground, he spoke in a loud voice.
"Finally, I've found the last of the rats that have been plaguing the troops. Prepare to die!"
He wasted no time and charged straight at us, sword raised in both hands. I jumped to the side onto a wall of earth, I had already activated all my buffs and equipped my ice armor. The man was fast, though still slower than me, and quickly arrived in front of Harold. As he swung his massive sword down, I jumped forward, aiming to stab his thick neck. In response, the man expertly conserved the momentum of his downward strike and turned it into a sweeping slash. I used a [Sky Step] to move above it and continue my attack. The man released his left hand from his sword and raised his arm to block my daggers. They sunk into the thick muscle of his arm, but not very far. The force of my immense strength didn't shake him either. I pulled out my daggers and used [Sky Step] once more to get above the man.
'His [Strength] is definitely above mine, as expected of a rank 5'
At this moment Harold's sword cut into the man's knee, not doing much, and the man's greatsword crashed into the ground. The man pulled out his sword with his right hand as he used his left to punch Harold, at the same time rotating to Harold's left to avoid my strike at his back. Harold quickly raised his shield to block the punch. But his shield did little to deter the power of a rank 5, It was dented and blown back into his chest. Both of his arms broke as he crashed into a nearby earth wall, he didn't get back up.
'Well he didn't last long'
The man finished pulling away from me and once more held his greatsword in both hands as my feet finally touched the ground, both of my attack having failed. I didn't let up and dashed to the man's left. He swung his sword diagonally from the right to intercept me. I kicked of the ground with my right foot, quickly changing my trajectory. The sword passed above my head by less than an inch as I swung my right dagger at his wrists. He moved them slightly out of range and halted his swing, pulling his sword in and across his body to block my attack to his chest. My attack failing, I darted around farther to his left and slashed both of my daggers to his side. He jumped back and brought his sword into a quick upward swing. Even with all of my speed I couldn't completely doge, I was too close. As I moved back, his sword clipped my right side, crushing my Ice amour and leaving a deep gash. As I was thrown to the side by the attack, I did my best to ignore the pain and fired multiple wind bolts. He easily dodged them, but it stopped him from following through and finishing me. I controlled my fall and backflip, landing on my feet.
I quickly cast a [Healing Orb] on my side and dashed back into the fight. I couldn't let the man hold the advantage. He charged at me as well and held his greatswords like a lance, intending to run me through. I Jumped forward and used [Sky Step] to send myself in an arc over him with my head to the ground. I struck at his head as I passed, but was blocked by a shield of dense rock. As I landed on the ground, the man spun around and moved his sword in a similar way to an attack Sophia had used during our spar, swinging it like he was in a hammer throw. The only difference was that a dozen boulders were raining down upon me at the same time. I moved back and to the left to avoid his swing, at the same time weaving my way through the sudden avalanche of stone. Once I was out of immediate danger, I charged back towards the man, casting [Flame Lash] as I moved.
The warrior brought down his sword in a heavy swing and conjured a layer of stone around his body. The flames crashed against him as the sword approached me. I dropped into a slide, my ice armor helping me preserve my momentum. As I slid through the man's legs I activated [Assassinate] on the dagger in my right hand and cut through the tendons in the man's left leg. As he fell to one knee, I completed my slide and turned my stomach to the ground. I condensed a [Sky Step] and jumped up diagonally towards the man's back, casting [Assassinate] again on both daggers. I aimed for the man's neck and heart, but he moved to the left at the last second. My daggers pierced into the man's right shoulder and back. Bad injuries, but not deadly. He jumped away from me and turned around, not putting any weight on his left leg. I continued forward as he hefted his sword.
'He's tiring. He used a lot of essences to cast the tracking spell and again in that boulder attack. He's also losing a lot of blood. Almost there'
He didn't attack me as I approached, holding his sword in a defensive stance. I rushed to his right side and dashed at him diagonally. He moved his sword to block my attack. Instead of moving to reposition, I dropped my right dagger and punched the flat of his sword as hard as I could. The Ice gauntlet absorbed some of the impact, but a few of my fingers still broke. Standing almost entirely on one foot, the man couldn't use all of his strength and was pushed off balance. He had to drive his sword into the ground to stop himself from toppling. I was now right in front of him. I cast a [Wind Bolt] point-blank at the man's hands, mangling them. The man groaned in pain and tried to get away, but I wouldn't let him. I activated [Assassinate] for the third time and drove the dagger in my left hand into his neck. This attack finished pushing him to the ground and I fell with him, stabbing my dagger into his heart for good measure.
I stood up, blood leaking from my right hand and the vicious gash in my side. The man below me was now a corpse, covered in lacerations. I caught my breath and stepped back, I was exhausted and almost out of essence.
'So that's a rank 5'