On the battlefield, the loud cracks and shockwaves of Qi and Soul energy between Monk and his old master echo throughout the sky.
Their rate of contact and intensity keeps rising, and they begin to land proper hits on each other too; it's not just blocking and equal force counter moves anymore.
Monk is the first to take a heavy blow to the side, sending him flying downward into a rock wall, shattering it to pieces as his Qi form destroys everything in its way. An entire rock structure crumbles beneath him as he jumps back up into the sky and continues the brawl.
Just seconds later, he lands an attack of his own, a kick to the chest that sends the old man in white robes flying down toward the ground in the opposite direction.
The same magnificent display unravels. An enormous 100-meter large cliffside is broken in two and crumbles away as the Qi-Master, covered in Soul Energy, is thrown through it. He gets to his feet and flies back up into the sky as well, and their relentless attacks continue.
Both of them are using the same technique I saw Monk use in the Arena many times before.
Every attack they throw is aiming to damage the other from the inside out. If the receiver of each blow does not have dense enough shielding up in the area they're being hit, the damage is immense.
Both fighters exchange blows again and again, sending each other flying onto more cliffsides and rock formations, turning the small mountain range into an enormous pile of gravel.
Each of them knows the severity of the attacks being thrown, and knows that neither of them can survive more than a dozen or so hits from the other. It is just a matter of who can land these hits first, keeping their cool, and releasing enough power to match and overwhelm their opponent in the end.
It is a war of technique and pure energy capacity. It will be impossible for either of them to cheat the other; the strongest will win.
Meanwhile, the avalanches of fallen rubble that crush the Ghouls nearest to the mountain range are not slowing down at all.
Dozens of enemies are killed by residue from this violent brawl in the sky, but not as many as the Elites led by my Body Double and their elemental squad leaders.
The recruits have found their stride, protecting the exit of the V-shaped battlefield with everything they have. Over a hundred Ghouls have been killed by the Elites alone, and nearly a hundred more have been burned, sliced, or crushed by the Squad captains.
Another four Wraiths' orange hearts are crushed and their bones are scattered among the fallen ghouls in the battlefield below as Lydia and Fisher soar through the sky.
About ten Wraiths remain, and every one of them gravitates to the center of the sky to make a circle around the two A-Rank fighters with orbs of darkness in their hands. Enormous forms of a blue water serpent and an icy white tiger clash with these attacks, making Soul Energy and mana residue rain down onto the hordes of monsters below.
Fisher imbues his blade with Qi and lunges to the left.
Lydia does the same, gripping her curved weapon saturated with Qi, and lunges to the right.
They each curve around in large semicircles high in the sky, leaving white streaks of energy behind them and slicing through 5 hearts each before meeting each other on the far side of the ring.
The entire circle of Wraiths is decimated in seconds and their remains fall down to be trampled under the Dark One's army being slaughtered below.
The two A-Ranked fighters dive down, following the remains and start slashing through the mindless ghouls to make paths for the Elites that approach.
—
Above the ravine, the arachnid's legs stop growing once they reach roughly 10 meters each.
It stretches out in all directions over 20 meters in total, and its half a dozen eyes track Arie and Abby as they step through the air, dodging the thick purple threads that form out of the Soul Energy that surrounds the creature.
Each of the spider's long limbs manipulates a single thread at a time.
It looks similar to a technique I'm able to use when activating mana manipulation, forming pure energy into razor-sharp strings of thread. However, by the looks of it, this monstrous being had a unique skill similar to this and uses it like a spider would its web.
The long strings of Soul Energy thread continue to weave through the air in a seemingly random fashion, rocketing toward the archer and the healer while they use their offensive and defensive abilities to block.
In the creature's human form, it took only one arrow of any kind for Arie to disrupt the flow of these threads, but now, it takes him 2-3.
The spirit arrows change the direct course of the purple attacks and slow their forward momentum, but multiple shots need to be fired now before the threads actually snap or splinter.
The same goes for the demonic arrow; the top layer of the soul energy is dissolved, and the mana inside of that layer is eaten away, releasing pure Qi into the air. However, the inner core of even denser purple energy remains. It takes multiple arrows to break it down to its thinner parts and destroy the actual attack.
Meanwhile, he still has to evade the other two threads with extremely fine and calculated precision.
Abby steps through the air with her gaze locked on the spider's many eyes.
The green Soul Energy surrounding her body grows denser and denser, and she takes the spider head-on without any fear.
Green and purple explosions release energy into the air as she punches through the threads with her fists alone.
It seems as if her attacks are much stronger than before because they are doing the same amount of damage to these new and improved threads as they did to the lower-powered ones in the Dark Guard's human form.
This is happening because, just like a Qi barrier or Mana shielding, Abby is focusing a majority of her offensive Soul Energy into her fists, feet, and eyes.
This is boosting her attack strength, agility, and perception.
She's able to easily evade and counteract the four purple tendrils of energy that continuously reform and attack her, but is forced to stay a distance away because the closer to the spider she gets, the faster and more precise the movements of these Soul Energy threads become.
She knows this, and Arie picks up on it too after destroying another two threads.
He's the only one capable of sending in long-range attacks. Continuously dodging and blocking from a distance will only tire the two of them out and make it harder to fight the longer the battle stretches on.
"I'll have to use it now then... There's no better time..." He whispers to himself while the third arm of his Ranked up buff moves toward the golden bow without an arrow.
He yells out to Abby.
"Cover me! I need a few seconds..."
Abby's fists glow even brighter green, and she sends off a large number of weak Soul Energy spears as distractions for the Spider's threads to move away from Arie and block Abby's incoming attack.
"On it!"
They shatter all of her spears, but shift the battle as Abby's speed nearly doubles while she gets closer and closer to the spider's body.
Her fists move so fast, clashing with 8 threads at a time, and they move in on her like a circular cage, trapping her inside like prey only able to block and disrupt a few threads at a time.
Every time one is destroyed, more form from the arachnid's limbs, and it appears she's really in a tough spot unable to escape.
However, she threw herself into this situation. It was clear that this would happen, and the stone-cold calculated expression on her face shows that she is still in control.
She yells back to Arie.
"Do it! I have a plan, don't worry about me!"
The golden bow glows, and on its string, four energies begin to form and spin together. There is pure mana, dense Qi, Demonic Energy, and the red essence of everything remaining from the Red Hydra's buff.
It begins to spark, vibrate, and hum as the energies have a hard time getting along, but an invisible force keeps them together.
Immense amounts of these energies, far stronger than the base-level arrows he shot previously, come together and form a swirling manifestation of an arrow, then a shell of golden light begins to cover it.
The arrow looks just like the bow and is buzzing loudly while violently shaking, yet staying in place and contained by the golden casing.
Arie pulls it back and aims right at the spider's head.
He releases the arrow, and it soars through the air.
At the same time, the eight threads that surround Abby collapse in on her, and there's an enormous flash of green light that erupts from inside the mass crushing prison of purple Soul Energy.
The spider lets out a screech that sounds like malicious joy, as it thinks it's crushed the girl to death. So, it moves two of its limbs covered in purple energy in the way of Arie's arrow to block the brunt of the blow.
On contact, the golden casing of the arrow melts away, and the release of pent-up vibrating energy rips through both of its limbs, tearing them off its body to only leave stubs behind.
This release does, however, change the trajectory of the attack and it misses the spider's head, but blows a large hole through its side, making flesh leak out while the spider's eyes open wide.
It screeches again. This time, full of agony and anger, rather than joy.
A static telepathic link opens between the arachnid and Arie as it yells at him.
"Food should know its place! I'm down to 6 arms because of you! We are not the same! We are not! Your friend is dead, and you are next! You've missed your one and only chance."
It begins to untighten its prison dome-like grip of its purple threads around the portion of sky where Abby once was, but the instant she does this, a bright green glow comes from the cracks.
All of the spider's eyes open even wider and it moves backward in the sky when it sees a glowing green body emerge.
It doesn't look like the green Soul Energy that surrounded Abby's body a moment ago; it looks as if the body itself is made of this energy, and there isn't a scratch on her...
Abby has activated her ranked-up buff, [Form of the Immortal Healer].
It just looks like her silhouette is floating in the sky, glowing light green, almost to the point where it looks white.
The arachnid sends its 6 remaining controllable threads flying her way, but Abby doesn't even try to dodge them.
The purple Soul Energy tendrils make contact with her body, and phase right through.
No damage is done at all.
Abby floats closer and closer to the spider, and it retreats down into the ravine while mercilessly attacking Abby with everything it's got.
Nothing works; it's like the creature is attacking a hologram that cannot be damaged.
She drives the monster down into the ravine and manifests a large green spear in her right hand, slowly bringing it above her head.
In the same moment, Arie follows downward from a distance, using this second distraction to charge up his golden bow again.
—
At the back of the battlefield, the last Dark Guard watches and waits.
Muffled tones come from within its armor, sounding like it is having a conversation with itself.
"This is not the direction the war should be going,"
"Shall we do something about it?"
"We can kill every last one of them right now, come on. Let me out."
"Patience is key. We can kill everyone that is fighting, this is true. However, our real opponents are watching the battles unfold just like us."
The Dark Guard points forward at Maria and Ember, then its voices continue to have a conversation with itself beneath the armor.
"They do look rather formidable."
"Come on, they're nowhere near our level. One of them feels like they just awakened before this battle. They have no experience in our realm."
"Yeah, I can kill them boss, let me at them."
"The woman's Soul Energy is very new, yes. However, her potential for power feels bottomless, I wouldn't underestimate her. Also, this Flame Emperor we were told about, we were not warned he was a dragon. Something about that one feels very odd. I will be the one to battle him."
They continue to argue about who gets to fight who, but eventually settle on opponents.
—
Across the battlefield, Maria and Ember continue to stare at the armor until it finally moves.
The right hand of the black knight reaches for its helmet and takes it off, letting it fall down to the chaos below.
Four green eyes on one face with orange number [1]'s marked in each of their pupils stare across the desert. It sends waves of natural intimidation for kilometers in every direction.
Each eye shows their own reading in my inspect skill.
[Lv. 2588]
[Lv. 2588]
[Lv. 2588]
[Lv. 2588]
Ember's whole body begins to glow with a light red aura, more intense than anything I witnessed him show off during the sparring session earlier.
At the same time, Maria becomes covered in a dense blue layer of Soul Energy too. The air around us drops in temperature drastically when she pulls out her sword.
Both of them analyze the opponent that just made themselves known and prepare to fight the strongest Dark Guard.
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Author's Note:
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