Yasenia commanded the army, the maids maintained the top level of the sect occupied, and Alaia and another high-level maid kept the most powerful experts in check. On another part of the battlefield, our girls, Cecile, Kali, Angel, Evelyn, and Andrea, were fighting against three low-level Epoch Core cultivators and a middle-level one.
Their strength was enough to win against low-level Epoch Core in a one-against-one. Yet, the jump in strength when entering the middle-level Epoch Core level was big enough to make our girls struggle.
The middle-level Epoch Core shouted. "You little children dare to fight against me!?"
Andrea appeared beside him and swung her halberd with a massive heat aura and strength. "We will."
The Epoch Core swung his large saber and met with Andrea's strike.
BOOM!
Andrea was overpowered in strength and crashed back down into the earth.
A low-level Epoch Core sped toward Andrea, but Evelyn's spear appeared behind him like a phantom.
Kali's roots and Cecile's arrows stopped the second and third low-level Epoch Core.
The mid-level Epoch Core was about to do a follow-up attack, but his surroundings were suddenly filled with glass nodes. His expression fell. "This annoying brat!"
Angel's pouting sound reached his ears. "I'm not a brat! [Vaporizing Laser Formation]!"
BANG!
Then, while Kali, Cecile, and Evelyn stopped the three low-level Epoch Cores, Andrea shot from the crater, mostly unharmed, and summoned a massive pillar of magma above him.
The middle-level Epoch Core swung his saber again. A few patches of his skin were red and bleeding, showing quite a lot of damage from Angel's formation.
Andrea and he clashed again, but this time, Andrea controlled her body better and just slid backward.
The man rushed toward the army Kali was summoning, frowning as he destroyed ten of the fifty dryads with one saber swing.
Kali frowned and unleashed her healing auras, calling a whirlwind of flowers and petals that regenerated all her allies, the girls included, at high speed.
The middle-level Epoch Core and the other three naturally detected the healing qualities, and their focus instantly changed.
Andrea appeared above the middle level, with Angel summoning another array of glass nodes. "You are not going anywhere. [Solar Body], [Sun Obliterating Armament], [Sun Burning Palm]!"
Angel's voice was less playful. "Before approaching Kali, you have to overcome me. [Red Crystal Enhancement], [Iridescent Structure Amplifying Formation], [Shattering Crystal Core Formation]."
Exploding crystals and a massive burning palm surrounded the man. "[Profound Iron Skin]!"
BOOM!
He was slammed downward and cratered into the ground, a chance our girls would not let go of. After all, fighting in the air in the Unification Realm was quite a burden to our girls' energy levels.
Kali's life energy burst forth together with her innate skills and intents. "[Fatal Parasitic Thorn Field], [Fox Root Entanglement]."
All her growth-related skills boosted those two skills and instantly swallowed hundreds of meters around the man, attacking him with ruthless precision.
The man felt his skin splitting and something trying to enter his body through the open wounds, making his eyes widen in fear at the strange attack method.
The other three saw his predicament and attacked, but Andrea, Evelyn, and Angel stopped them with their defensive skills.
Cecile gathered energy crazily and aimed her bow to the struggling mid-level Epoch Core. "[Moon Freezing Catastrophe]."
The three arrows left the enormous phantom bow and combined in a giant arrow that looked like a massive silver meteor smashing into the earth.
WOOSH!
Kali's sturdy vines got damaged by the hurricane-like attack, but they lasted enough time to keep the middle-level Epoch Core in place.
"AAARGH!"
His scream of pain was heard, but our girls were not done yet.
While Evelyn, Andrea, and Angel kept the other three in check, Kali used all her boosting skills on Cecile and Cecile gave her all.
Her meridians pumped energy crazily as a powerful life energy seeped into her muscles and body, enhancing her strength by almost fivefold.
A torrent of white flames surrounded her figure and gathered toward her bow as her eyes became piercing cold. "[Moon Phoenix Meteor Shower]."
Her hand blurrily moved and a rain of silver meteors fell onto the mid-level Epoch Core.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tatyana and Valeria stood at the side, together with Mirrory and Leila. Everything was going smoothly, so they didn't feel a need to join the battle unless Yasenia or the girls told them otherwise.
Tatyana smiled. "The girls are fighting admirably."
Mirrory agreed. "They are doing good against someone of their level. I can also see where they are lacking and how we should train them."
Valeria asked. "Are you thinking about their Spiritual Sense use and energy efficiency?"
Mirrory nodded and analyzed. "Not only that, their combat skills are still somewhat immature. They do too many unnecessary movements. Look at Evelyn; her spear strikes are too wide, allowing her opponent to counterattack. Andrea's combat is admirable, but if she wants to stay in the frontlines, she needs to learn to redirect more attacks and also dodge more often; she is clashing too much frontally. Cecile has the basics down, but her combat is somewhat stiff. Angel's formations are good, but she is too focused on offense. Her supportive abilities are as good as her offensive ones. Finally, Kali focuses too much on her summons. Her personal combat strength is not low, and she could've joined the battle a few times."
Tatyana and Valeria agreed while Leila stood respectfully at the side, her halberd ready for when she needed to attack.
Leila continued listening, and their words allowed her to learn new things.
Leila asked, curious, her floppy dog ears swaying with her fluffy brown dog tail. "Seniors, how is Young Miss doing?"
Tatyana looked at Leila and smiled. "She is showing why she could win that complicated War in just twenty years. Her orders are precise, her battlefield sense is superior, and her combat and strategy instincts are superb. For a fifty-year-old, she is doing exceptionally well."
Valeria nodded. "If we were to say anything negative, it would be that she is a bit too much of a perfectionist, which places too much pressure on the troops. Her commands are sometimes too precise, leaving them confused. Her battle awareness is broad, but she is a bit too unaware of the high-level battle situation. I can see that she lacks experience in commanding troops with strengths too far apart. After all, Luscia, Aviana, Drasha, or Finnegan could do much more offensive work as middle-level Epoch Core cultivators."
Tatyana nodded. "Also, although she is supporting with ranged attacks, she is not even using a tenth of the personal damage she could deal. Commanding is fine, but taking part in the battle while commanding is the difficult part. If she could guide the troops while fighting at the frontlines, the morale of the Astral Sky Sect people would be ten times higher."
Mirrory finished. "She is also too cautious. Her orders take into account that someone too strong suddenly appears, but in this situation, she should've evaluated that that worry is excessive. Being careful is good, but if you are too careful, you might lose the chance to give the finishing blow because of a moment of hesitation."
Valeria smiled. "In short, she is doing really good, but she still has a lot of room to improve."
Leila's tail wagged, and she smiled. "Young miss is really impressive~."
Suddenly, a massive murderous aura appeared above the battlefield where top-level people fought, startling everyone.
Yasenia and the enemies went to the defensive simultaneously, making the battlefield strangely come to a momentary stop as eyes focused on the sky.
A few moments earlier, Feng Xue Xian's old face was gaining an anxious shade when she saw that even with a numbers advantage, not one person from Yasenia's side had fallen yet.
What was worse was that the white-dressed women group suddenly slaughtered ten of her seniors in less than thirty seconds, giving her a scare.
'Our numbers have lowered to three and a half thousand, and even when the enemies are getting tired quickly, that dragon's orders are too well-coordinated, and we won't last until we can reverse the situation. My commander can't even compare to that child!'
Feng Xue Xian dodged Alaia's spear by a hair's breadth. 'Moreover, this lightning dragoness is too strong! At this pace, we will lose.'
After thinking for a while, Feng Xue Xian's eyes flashed with thick, killing intent as she looked at the giant floating dragon raining stars and shouting orders in a coherent cadence. 'If I can kill her, everything would be much easier.'
"Jian Li, I'll try to hold back this woman, go and kill Yasenia!"
When those words left her mouth, a massive wave of killing intent swallowed the battlefield like an unstoppable tsunami.
Alaia's cold voice reached her ears with a clear, wrathful undertone. "How dare you target my Young Miss with your disgusting plots!? [Lightning Intent Level Six], [Thunderous Serpent Dragon Spear Barrage]."
"XUE XIAN, DEFEND!"
Jian Li shouted as Alaia overcame him and appeared right beside Feng Xue Xian in an instant.
Feng Xue Xian felt a bone-chilling coldness in her soul as if she was about to die and quickly dodged. "[Five Shadow Steps], [Shadow Intent Level Four]!"
Her body melded with the surroundings as she appeared hundreds of meters away. However, the feeling in her soul didn't disappear and got thicker instead.
From an angle she couldn't even perceive, the pole of Alaia's spear smashed her waist. Her eyes bulged as the massive bodily strength of the dragon woman overcame hers, a middle-level Epoch Core Body Cultivator.
Her body flashed across the sky like a black line, but a yellow lightning bolt caught up to her ridiculous flying speed and appeared in her flight path. "I'M NOT DONE YET!"
Alaia's deep blue slit eyes were thinned while her body exuded rage toward the person who directed killing intent toward Yasenia, and she swung her spear like a club again.
Feng Xue Xian couldn't stop her body in time, and the spear hit her back with enough strength to level mountains.
BANG!
The sound of her bones shattering and her internal organs becoming a pulp was resounding in the battlefield, and her body flew with even quicker speed.
This process repeated three more times, leaving streaks of yellow electricity across Alaia's path as she broke every bone in Feng Xue Xian's body.
On the Sixth hit, she thrust the spear forward, intending to skewer the elderly woman.
Feng Xue Xian was able to react barely and activated a life-saving treasure to increase her defense.
BOOOM!
The spear was blocked, but even then, Feng Xue Xian's body flew across the sky like a shooting star, piercing through a distant hill and creating a massive dust and debris explosion.
Alaia's body crackled with thunder with the width of small buildings, and she uttered coldly and spread her arms while arcs of blue and yellow lightning arched around. "Die. [Thunderous Serpent Dragon's Decimation], [Lightning Intent Level Seven]."
ROAR!
With a deep, resounding dragon cry, an eastern blue and yellow lightning dragon manifested above the destroyed hill in the distance.
The battle around came to a halt as that massive lightning dragon materialized and crashed into the ground with a catastrophic explosion.
The shockwave was powerful enough to push everyone away from the explosion site, leaving only Alaia standing with her arms wide open and terrifying lighting crackling around her.
Yasenia stopped herself by flapping her giant wings a few times, looking over to the enormous crater with a surprised expression. 'Why did Alaia attack so heavily?'
As if to answer her confusion, Alaia appeared before Yasenia and bowed. "Sorry, Young Miss. That person was plotting to kill you to end the battle, and I didn't want any mishap to happen as we don't know what kind of treasures she might have. I choose to kill her to prevent anything from happening."
The confused maids' faces fell, and a chilling cold aura spread from them. "These bugs want to touch our miss?"
"Less than bugs, they are trash that only serves to train our Young Miss. How dare they plot to kill her?"
Leila laughed, but her eyes weren't smiling. "What do you think about ending the battle, Young Miss? Leave the rest to us."
Jian Li tried to escape at this moment, but the red-haired and green-eyed woman who had been overlooking the battlefield appeared in front of him.
The man attacked without holding back. "Out of my way!"
Using [Fist Intent Level Four] and [Nine Mountain Smashing Strike], a swirling aura enough to split rivers in half gathered in his fist.
Mirrory waved her hand and spoke coldly. "Stay where you are. My children still have the intent to fight your sect."
Then, she activated [Reflection Intent Level Nine].
Angel felt a fifth of her energy seeping from her body, and an ethereal mirror with an ancient feeling of just thirty centimeters of height appeared between Mirrory and the devastating punch.
The people around looked on strangely. 'What can that small mirror do?'
When the punch landed on the mirror, instead of shattering it, the arm of the tall and bulky man ballooned and exploded in a gory mess as his body flew backward and cratered into the ground before the remaining army of the Five Shadow Fang group.
The people who were observing widened their eyes, and even the maids became solemn.
Yasenia quickly shouted. "Prevent anybody from escaping!"
The maids with expertise in formations quickly deployed space-locking formations, sealing the whole area. They also spread around, blocking all possible escapes.
Yasenia asked Alaia. "Have you checked if she is dead?"
Alaia blinked and went to the middle of the crater. 'Oh? I was a bit too arrogant because of the low-level treasures the people of this continent had shown. She is still alive.'
Feng Xue Xian's body didn't have a single whole bone, and her internal organs were smashed into a pulp. The only thing keeping her alive was a strange healing force coming from her dantian, probably some pill or treasure she had previously ingested.
Alaia was quick and ruthless.
Her spear flashed a few times, slashing off all limbs with an accessory on them to prevent any escape through spatial treasures.
Then, she grabbed the hair of the almost-dead elderly woman and returned to Yasenia's side. "Here she is, Young Miss."
Yasenia felt a bit complicated.
The giant dragon turned her head to look at the remaining three and a half thousand cultivators.
She landed on the ground before them, making the earthquake with her weight, and overlooked them with indifferent Golden eyes. 'I wanted the fight to last a bit longer, but now it doesn't really make sense, does it? Well, our win was imminent as their numbers were already reduced by half.'