Elder Mao took the leadership position and ordered aloud. "We have twenty Ethereal Soul Body Cultivators. You five will cover the juniors and fight the small army. The rest of us will try to finish the powerful ones behind the army. Once we are done with them, we'll clean everything up."
The five he pointed at nodded with severe expressions.
The plant-based creatures didn't instantly attack, confusing them. They all saw the giant horror hound take a few steps forward and open the malformed mouth, leaking a thick violet substance from its mouth.
"You stole everything. Now we've come to take revenge. You are the first, and we'll continue this hunt until you all disappear."
The sound was stringent. It was so bad that a few people cringed while listening to it and covering their ears. The screeching of the voice echoed like a sharp vibration that made most people nauseous even while placing their hands over their ears.
Elder Song's face changed, and she shouted. "Be careful. That thing has soul influence!"
Yasenia was impressed. 'Just the voice is able to make the souls of these people tremble. It may instantly kill those with weaker souls if it shouts with all its might.'
Elder Mu looked over and asked aloud. "Which power are you from, creature? Why did you set up an ambush? Why do you claim we stole everything?"
The giant quadrupedal vine creature seemed incensed by those questions, and its body writhed in a nauseating manner. "You forgot… You forgot? YOU FORGOT ABOUT OUR SUFFERING!"
The creature's screech was so sharp that a few juniors fainted and fell from their flying swords.
The elders decided to land on the ground and cushion their falls. They were standing on the tallest peak, so looking around was not hard, even when they were on the ground.
Elder Song felt her body telling her that fighting this thing was too dangerous, so she shouted. "This is a misunderstanding. We can-."
*SCREECH*
However, the creature interrupted with a scream that made the air around its body visibility tremble.
Yasenia was still flying above them, looking over the battlefield. She knew that although this was planned, Tatyana would probably not pull punches with them.
Elder Mao looked up at Yasenia and asked. "Lady Yasenia, will you join us in the fight?"
Yasenia answered indifferently. "No."
They all frowned and asked. "What is your plan?"
Yasenia looked at them and squinted. "I've been involved in this situation because of you."
They all flinched because it seemed like that. Yasenia snorted. "Don't worry. I will also contribute. Yet, I'll fight on my own. Do not worry about me; I can protect myself."
"While all of you fight with those things, I'll ask Angel to find a weak point for this Formation. If we destroy it, escaping shouldn't be too hard."
Elder Hao frowned as he scratched his sword's pommel. "Can't you kill that giant thing with the previous attack?"
Yasenia sneered. "I don't think an ambush set up against a group from the Nine Sects would be this simple. Even if I kill it, so what? I'm the strongest combatant, so I should focus on guarding the only person that can get us out of this situation. In this case, it is Angel."
They all looked at the blonde human on Yasenia's back and frowned.
Yasenia continued coldly. "I know that being saved by a human will leave behind a bad aftertaste, but living is better than dying, right?"
"Moreover, seniors from this power might be coming our way, so I'll focus on helping Angel decipher the formation. The last thing I want is for this situation to become more complicated."
They found it reasonable, so nobody said anything else.
Fighting with their flying swords wasn't possible as it would consume too much energy, so everyone decided to fight on the ground besides Yasenia.
After they all landed on the ground, it felt like a switch had been flipped, and every plant-based creature surrounding them charged toward them.
The five seniors assigned to protect the juniors surrounded them and took out their weapons.
Meanwhile, the other seniors shot toward the group of charging creatures with the intention of fighting the leaders of the four groups.
Yasenia coldly spat. "Burn. [Draconic Noon]."
With the Sun Energy accumulated from her breath attack, she used [Draconic Noon] in her dragon form.
Unlike the descending strike created with her sword in the human form, the attack in the dragon form was different.
A ball of golden energy materialized before Yasenia and ballooned to a monstrous size in a fraction of a second. Then, the dragoness clenched her claw and punched the ball.
The ball bent outward and burst into a golden eruption while taking a draconic shape. The dragon silently roared as the extended wings and body transformed into a cascade of golden flames that incinerated a significant portion of the army before the quadrupedal creature.
As the golden energy wave immolated everything in its path and rushed toward the powerful creatures at the back, the quadrupedal creature screeched at the wave.
When the attack was about to arrive, the giant creature stomped the ground, creating and small earthquake and black-colored vines caught the dragon shape wave, squeezing it out.
The golden wave was like a balloon that was squeezed and popped into particles, dissipating it completely.
Evelyn cursed. 'Fuck me. It can pop [Draconic Noon]?'
Yasenia commented. 'Evelyn, focus. That wasn't a strong attack either way, so don't get that surprised.'
The Ethereal Body Realm Cultivators didn't lose the opening Yasenia created and charged into the clump of high-level enemies surrounding the quadrupedal creature. At the same time, the seniors from the nine sects faced the vine creature.
As such, a battle began as the Five Elders from the Nine Sects attacked the giant creature together while the other ten kept the rest high-level monsters occupied.
"YOU ASININE CREATURES. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT CHARGING RIGHT AT ME IS AN INTELLIGENT THING TO DO!?"
The Vine Horror Soul Hound opened its malformed mouth to the limits and roared with all its might.
The shriek from the creature created a sound wave that rushed toward the five elders at high speed.
Elder Song shouted. "Behind me!"
Then, she took out a guqin and lifted all seven strings at once. This pull was something Elder Song wouldn't usually do. She was a woman who cherished her instruments a lot. However, she had no choice before this soul attack.
Her strings released and echoed in a sound wave that rushed against the screech of the creature.
*BANG!*
A deafening sound exploded from the collision.
Elder Hao took the chance and lunged forward, instantly crossing the distance between the horror and him.
"[Earthy Sword Barrage]."
The giant creature was almost larger than Yasenia, so they concluded it was slow. However, to Elder Hao's surprise, the creature turned its head quickly, and many vines shot toward his sword strikes.
*CLANG!*
The first sword attack and vine created a metallic sound. Then, a metallic cacophony was created by the repeated collisions created in the next instant.
Elder Mao used his Golden Body techniques to approach and increase his bodily strength many times over.
"[Hundred Golden Fists]."
With the weight of his whole body, his fist shot toward the giant creature's side, leaving a light trail behind.
The creature's vicious head twisted to look at him as he approached, and Elder Mao saw an evil smirk appearing on its mouth.
A fortified spike shot upward from the ground, intending to impale him.
"Not so fast!"
Elder Yu appeared and used a giant hammer to smash against the rising spike, blasting it to pieces.
Elder Mao's fist connected thanks to this.
*BANG!*
With an enormous shockwave, the creature's feet left the ground for a few seconds and slid sideways.
Tatyana was personally controlling this creature, and her tiny smirk widened. 'Interesting. Now, play with mommy for a while, children, hahaha.'
Tatyana's laughter was imitated by the creature that was just hit. However, the sound sounded terrific and malicious as the mouth twisted in a horrifying grin.
Elder Song and the others felt an instinctual fear rushing up their spines. They didn't know why, but they somehow knew this thing outclassed them.
Even across another creature, Tatyana's majesty could not be missed.
Elder Song played her guqin and created an upbeat melody that boosted their morale and strength. "Focus! Remember that it was soul attacks, so be always prepared."
Elder Song blinked, and in that instant, she lost the creature. 'Huh? Where is-.'
"[SOUL HORROR SCREAM]!"
Elder Song quickly reacted and created a poorly formed barrier around herself.
*SCREEECH!*
Her eyes widened as the blood vessels in her eyes burst, and she coughed a mouthful of blood.
The creature slammed its claw, trying to flatten Elder Song to a pulp.
Elder Mu snorted. "[Flora Control]."
The Soul Hound moved its shining violet eyes and looked directly into Elder Mu's eyes, making her feel as if darkness had engulfed the world for a second. This was another mental attack from the creature, which interrupted the skill.
Even then, the beast froze for a second, enough time for Elder Yu to move Elder Song away and for Elder Hao and Elder Mao to enter into close-range combat.
His fist shone with golden light.
Elder Mu approached and took Elder Song from Elder Yu, starting to use her healing skills.
Elder Yu didn't stay around and joined the battle, landing a blow with his hammer on the side.
"Tsk, this thing is quite durable. I only managed to dent a few of the vines. We need heavier firepower to damage it!"
Elder Mao commented. "Keep it up. We need to get used to the attack patterns before we can create opportunities."
Then, after recovering Elder Song, all five of them got locked into battle with the thing Tatyana was controlling.
Meanwhile, Yasenia flew over the battlefield as if she was moving Angel around to find the weak point of the formation.
'Dears, prepare yourselves. The following combat is very real; although we control most of the formation, there may be accidents. Fight without holding back.'
Angel commented. 'Yasenia, the formation is working at a twenty percent capacity. If they don't have any powerful trump cards, we should be able to kill all of them. What should we do?'
'Don't. Carbira, Elder Song, Jorey, and the other Elders are useful. By the way, Jorey has weak combat power. How is she doing?'
Kali answered. 'She is surrounded by the five seniors left behind, together with Carbira and other weaker juniors. For now, besides having a nosebleed because of the screech, there is nothing out of place.'
Yasenia was fighting against many attacks coming from the ground while carrying her dears on her back, and she had little time to observe the battlefield situation.
Tatyana seemed to have been focusing on her for a while, and a constant rain of arrows, spears, and many more projectiles shot at her without rest.
Yasenia had to zig-zag, barrel roll, and make abrupt changes of pace to avoid the attacks.
Even then, she was hit by a few from time to time.
Thankfully, her scales were durable enough to avoid serious injuries, while the girls on her back also helped block a few of the attacks.
Even then, it was quite the roller coaster for the girls on Yasenia's back.