Chapter 214 - Might Against Many

While Jien faced off against Carmichael, keeping the boy at bay with a mix of unpredictable strikes his library of fighting styles, Julie faced off against half of the one-armed unit. Her first strike had blown them back with so much force that it had initially destabilized their pyramid formation. They were quick to adjust and rebuild their formation, but Julie was like a beast that had smelled a hint of weakness in her prey.Jien's spell had given her a springboard for only the initial leap forward, but it had been enough. The attention of the five impacted by her, now they were working to keep her repelled from their formation, a seemingly futile effort. Each blow she would leverage on them, whether with her shield or spear, seemed to cave in the side of their formation. The few on the outside of the formation were under constant pressure, pushed back into their friends who were in turn force to brace the backs of those in front to keep them from falling back again.The three in front were wielding a shortsword, a falchion and the last was an oddly shaped machete known as a kukri. All three of them were forced to work together against Julie's overpowered attacks, often forced to cross all three of their blades just to brace the impact. After every impact that they managed to last through they would strike out at any angle they saw as a chance to succeed in their attack. Their styles varying but holding hints of the same style that Carmichael was using to hold off Jien.Despite the fact that they had all been trained since a young age they found themselves on the backfoot. None of them were as skilled as their leader, and though each held their own specialty as represented by their different blades, they were unable to pierce through Julie's defense. After some time, it even became clear that the girl forcing them so hard was growing board. Her smile had dulled, and her eyes seemed as if she was focusing on something in the distance, yet they still failed to truly force her back.Eventually Julie heard a short message among the din of clashing metal and let out a sigh seemingly mixed of relief and disappointment. "Seems that this is enough." she stated in a bored tone as the muscles in her arms and legs seemed to expand slightly. She swung her shield at the three in front of her with the force of a ballista bolt. Regardless of the bracing they were receiving from their teammates all five were blown of their feet and sent sprawling to the ground.It was only now that the five noticed that the members that were supposed to be on the other side of the pyramid seemed to be gone. Up until then they had helped brace the blows, pressing their backs to the few in the center of the formation. Suddenly without the extra support and the application of extra strength by Jule they weren't able to stay on their feet at all. When they looked around from the sandy ground, they noticed a neat row of four people laying on the ground to the side.They immediately understood what happened. One or more of Jien's unit had taken out the other four while Jien held their leader, and Julie took out their entire flank. Even as they were thinking this they were looking at the girl who stepped forward with firm steps. The look on her face was a dull boredom as they scrambled to their feet. It was just them and Carmichael, but when they looked at their blonde leader, they could only see him sweating bullets as he fought desperately against a boy who looked to be almost in a trance as he fought.Unfortunately for them their choice to look at their leader for support was the last mistake they made in the match. The tanned girl before them was like a storm of power, steel and finesse as she quickly moved about the five, disarming them and then either forcing them to give up or knocking the two most stubborn out with a clean blow. Only when she was done with her part did she sigh, more in relief than disappointment.She didn't like Jien's way of using underhanded strategies, or at least she still felt they were. If Jien hadn't had Barret remove the other four, she may have had more fun with the fight. Well, may not given how firmly they were holding to that pyramid formation. She turned to where Jien and Carmichael were still facing off, seeing that the one-armed boy had all of his attention on his opponent. He likely didn't know that his unit was all but defeated."Their unit is done!" she called out verbally rather than via the string of mana. The words were like thunder in Carmichael's ears given how silent the fight around him had been but for the clashing of steel and occasional groan of pain or effort. Now he realized that it was truly too silent. The boy disengaged quickly, raising his hands in surrender, knowing that even if a few of Jien's members were unable to fight that he was outnumbered in ways he couldn't overcome.