"Will you finish each other off and give me less work or will you all come at me together, I'll keep my word and let one of you live either way.", Anya watched them patiently from above.
It didn't come as a surprise to her as they began to argue amongst themselves, there were too many groups out there like this, they were a group of profit-seeking individuals that use their power to push others to obey them and form these groups, but there would never be loyalty between the members-only benefits.
The thing they valued above all else was their own lives so in a situation like this they would turn on each other.
"I'm one of the founders of this organization, it should be me that lives.", said one of the warriors.
"You may have been one of the founders but since then you only collected your dividends and threw exotic parties every other week without doing a bit of work.", said one of the mages his eyes growing cold.
"Do have any idea how many investors I attracted through those parties at least thirty percent of all investors were brought in by me alone, you have profited from this and lived luxurious lives, I think it's time you thanked me for granting you all such a good opportunity," he spoke resolutely not even feeling ashamed of his words.
"Stop," the mage that spoke to Anya earlier interjected, "She is just one person, if we fight each other, it will give her what she wants, she probably only made that offer because she can't handle all of us together if we fight and win our organization will have to break up but if we surrender it will be the same thing, I say we fight and after the battle is over, we all go our separate ways."
The eight all looked at each other, with determination while they were not the best of friends it would be a lie to say that they had never had a few good moments together.
They formed a typical formation that any cultivator would know, warriors in the front, the psychic in the center to control the field, and the mages at the back to deal explosive spells at the right moment.
Anya took particular notice of the psychic, psychics were split into two categories mental or force, mental psychics were able to act as a communication relay for entire battalions in a war, a team with a mental psychic was at least twice as effective as one without, they were also rare and valued very highly by even the seven civilizations.
Mental psychics were also the backbone for any large organization and the empire, their main jobs were to ensure effective communication across the universe and there would never be enough of them in the world.
As for force psychics, their main use was on the battlefield, with their force control they could intercept attacks with ease and push opponents into disadvantageous positions for their comrades to exploit.
Based on the psychics' position, she was certainly a force type and on the entire field, she was the only one that Anya considered to be worth more than a germ.
Anya waited for them to prepare a series of expansive armor, robes, weapons and staffs appeared, as they equipped themselves Anya didn't move but watched with anticipation, the last time she fought against several seventh-grade cultivators she had received three severe injuries, back then she had still been an empress candidate and her techniques were flawed but now they been refined close to the pinnacle of all mortals and she wanted to test herself to see if becoming the aide to the empress had been worth it.
The four warriors dashed forward but they kept trying to lag behind each other and their dash slowed down, as each one of them tried to avoid being the first to make contact with her, Anya frowned at their lack of teamwork and trust, two bolts of lightning shot out into the air and as they approached the warriors the bolts stopped and expanded into a blinding light.
'How childish,' Anya mused and shut her eyes, she had gone under extreme sensory deprivation training that required her to use only her raw instincts if she failed, she would have been dead a long time ago.
She readied her long sword and determined the positions of the warriors, she pushed herself towards them with her eyes shut and slashed her sword.
Clang.
The crisp sound of steel striking steel rang out the warrior that blocked the attack felt both his arms shake to the bone and under the pressure he was no longer able to stop the pull of gravity and he was sucked down onto the surface at a breakneck speed, his descent left a trail of fire in the sky and the impact made the entire station shake.
He climbed up from a crater with his shape it took him a full five minutes to regain his senses and looked up at the battle taking place with horror, it was just a single strike and it left him bloodied. He grabbed his spear and looked at the shaft at the point of impact a web of cracks spread, he looked at it regretfully it had cost him 10 million credits to get this weapon and one strike rendered it useless.
He looked back up and to his horror, he saw a trail of fire in the sky, he immediately decided to escape this was a losing battle, Malisa, their mage, was wrong the women from the empire could erase them with ease.
In the sky Anya watched the warrior crash she quickly moved back and avoided two flaming balls of fire and the sword of one of the warriors, but she barely regarded them and looked to the psychic, "Your judgment is good if you hadn't stopped my attack your warrior would have been smashed to paste."
The psychic was looking pale she had prepared that forced barrier since they flew into the sky and Anya's single attack had crushed it and injured their warrior.
At that moment Anya ducked down as a warrior thrust his spear at her heart from behind, Anya spun gracefully in the air and aimed a devastating kick to her opponent's neck, she looked like she had dodged but it was merely the psychic pushing her back but the force of the kick still remained and knocked the warrior away and the pressure pushed the air out of her lungs.
"If you can keep this up, I'll save you for last," Anya said brightly, but her words only made the psychic gloomy, it was clear to her that Anya was not taking them seriously and till now she still hadn't seen or felt that red energy and she was wondering if she could keep it up as the battle proceeded. She did her best to intercept every lethal attack and she would constantly put pressure on Anya's blade to steer it off course and redirect her attacks but the more the battle carried on the more energy she had to use to redirect Anya's blade but even with her increased expenditure, it felt less effective every second.
At that point, the three mages flashed forward and from three sides monolithic balls of flame assaulted Anya.
'Sun Rupture.'
As the flames closed in on her Anya dashed to the central point where the three flames would converge and drew her short blade.
From the outside everyone watched the flames explode, two of the remaining warriors readied their next attack and as soon as the flames cleared up they would ram their blades into Anya.
Once the fire began dissipating, they moved in an attempt to stop Anya from having any room to breathe, their blades flashed in the light of the fire and when they approached Anya, they received a fright only her clothing had a few fringed strands but she was perfectly fine.
Anya flashed them a smile, "Say, good-bye.", she giggled and the flaming energy in her short sword moved into the long sword and the power of three, 'Sun Ruptures', was amplified by three as it left the long sword.
Even for Anya, this amplification was a bit overtaxing on her energy but she had to meet the conditions or it wouldn't release the built-up energy. The fire swallowed the two warriors entirely and continued onto one of the exhausted mages.
While the fire had still been around her Anya had felt the mage that had spoken to her when she arrived flee, she dashed over to the last remaining warrior but instead of attacking she yanked the spear from her hands.
"Tsk.", she clicked her tongue and scoffed at the mage, she bellowed into the air, "A mage with barely any attainments in-laws dares to try and conceal themself from me."
She raised the spear, and filled it with piercing and destruction laws until it threatened to fall apart, and launched it at the mage, Melisa had no idea how she had been discovered but when she saw the trajectory of the spear, she manifested all her energy into a defensive barrier, however it proved futile as the spear ripped through it like paper and shredded her heart it continued down and the first warrior who had been preparing to flee didn't even get a chance to react as the spear ripped through his head.