Two waves of bright white energy shot at the approaching stone train.
Before the might of an ascendant, the feeble stone train would be directly torn apart.
Suddenly loud laughter echoed in the surroundings.
"Hahaha! Good, exactly what I needed!"
A bolt of lightning shot out of the stone train. It collided with the white energy in midair, revealing Lao De's burly body.
Large golden bracers enveloped the warrior's fist, meeting the incoming attack. For a moment a stalemate ensued. Shockwaves erupted, tearing the ground apart.
The stone train was rocked from the impact.
"Whaa…"
Tepo and his friends were surprised, hastily trying to hold onto something.
Meanwhile Lao Ru stabilized his body, gripping the steering wheel tightly and tearing it around.
The stone train shook and rumbled as it turned to the side. The momentum let the train slide on the ground, its spikes ripping deep ruts in the solid stone ground.
After a few seconds the train came to a halt somewhere to the right of Lao De.
"Is this all you got?! Daring to attack us with this little bit of strength?!"
Lao De taunted loudly, sending fists enveloped in lighting towards the enemy.
At this moment the stone train's passengers jumped out.
Lao Ru immediately berated his brother:
"Don't play around! We need to end this quickly!"
With those words the tall man dashed forward with a spear in hand, joining the fight.
The enemy immediately felt the pressure. From the corner of his eyes, he saw his subordinates preparing to help him.
"Don't! Focus on the target!"
With this order the boss took a defensive posture, following the Lao brothers' every move, ready to hold them back even at the cost of his life.
Tepo and his friends stayed close to the stone train, forming a tight formation, protecting Droa'va in the middle.
Lao Ru had already formed a plan beforehand which should allow them to end the fight safely.
"Die!"
Suddenly four warriors clad in black armor arrived. One man and woman immediately attacked Tepo without hesitation while their comrades held back Varei and Yerive.
But before the first clash, a ball of green energy hit the female warrior, abruptly turning her sluggish and tired.
The enemies were disrupted, with the male arriving in front of Tepo first.
The young man didn't have time to thank Droa'va as he raised his knife to block his opponent's short sword.
A powerful blow shook Tepo's arm. From Lao Ru's earlier [Scan] he already knew that he was dealing with acolytes.
Thus, Tepo began using his new spells without hesitation. He activated [Deadly Hunt].
[Deadly Hunt]: The spirit of a ferocious hunter arrives to aid the user. Adds soul damage to each attack and strengthens the user as time passes. Whenever the user hits the target, a small amount of vitality will be stolen. (Nine-runed spell)
Suddenly an illusionary figure overlapped with Tepo. They wore brown leather armor and had sharp horns above their heads, moving in sync with Tepo.
"AH!"
The enemy acolyte was surprised as a sharp pain shot into his head.
At the side Varei also had to clash with an acolyte. While Tepo relied on the connection between him and the spirit to content with a stronger enemy, Varei had his high-ranked core as additional advantage.
Thus, the spirit didn't fight with his body but took the initiative to send out one [Spirit Claw] after another.
The female acolyte attacking him gritted her teeth as the black aura enveloping her sword was constantly torn apart.
"B*stard!"
Suddenly the woman's body turned into a shadow, dashing on the ground at unimaginable speeds.
Varei felt his chest tightened as he quickly flapped his wings, shooting into the air.
The female assassin didn't expect it. The way to her target was suddenly open.
With a quick sway she immediately arrived next to Tepo.
She reformed her body, raising her sword with excited eyes.
"Hehe."
Suddenly Varei let out a chuckle as he used his new spell [Swap]. This spell, which allowed him to swap places with someone, was normally used as a defensive spell.
But with Varei's strong core even higher ranked enemies found it difficult to block the spell, opening up further possibilities.
Thus, the little spirit suddenly appeared next to Tepo on the ground while the female assassin found herself in midair.
"Woah!"
Thud!
With a surprised sound the woman crashed into the ground.
Yerive definitely had the most difficult fight. He kept a cool head, focusing on evading and parrying.
His opponent had a grin on his face, clearly not taking the young man serious.
Suddenly, just before their two swords were about to clash again, a green energy enveloped Yerive's arm.
With a loud collision the black-armored warrior was involuntarily pushed back.
"What?!"
As his opponent was still surprised, Yerive chased his advantage. A small swirl of water, incredibly viscous, abruptly encircled the enemy's foot.
Taken by surprised even the trained warrior stumbled. Yerive's sword arrived without delay.
The enemy used a defensive spell, an invisible barrier appearing in the air before him.
But a green light arrived with perfect timing, shattering the spell. Yerive's attack followed right after.
"Ah!"
Although the man deliberately dropped to the ground, the sword still cut through his armor, leaving a bloody wound on his chest.
Tepo was still caught in a heated close combat. His strikes came faster and faster, leaving the enemy in a defensive position, focused on shielding his mind.
Tepo's opponent waited for one of his partners to arrive, but gradually his heart sank as no one came to his help.
F*ck! How can we lose against a bunch of aspirants?
Just as the man was prepared to pull some distance and use one of his strongest spells, blood sprayed against his back.
The man's mind went blank. He turned his head as his blood froze in his veins.
The last thing he saw was his companion's corpse on the floor and Lao Ru's spear enlarging in his eyes.
The next moment a fist of lightning shot through the air, hitting Yerive's opponent on the ground, charring him to ashes.
At the same time Lao De already arrived next to Varei's opponent.
But he could only turn around, shaking his head with a scoff.
"What is it, brother?"
"She swallowed poison."
Tepo and his friends put away their weapons with grim faces.
"Directly swallowing poison? Those are no run of the mill assassins…"
"Yes.", agreed Lao Ru before smiling at the younger warriors.
"Still, you guys did exceptionally well. Fighting against a team of higher ranked warriors isn't easy."
"They underestimated us.", analyzed Tepo.
"Yes. They didn't fight as a team but attacked one-on-one. Furthermore, they obviously were eager to target you, Tepo."
"Seems like it."
Tepo spoke with a grim face, staring at the corpses on the ground.
Lao De suddenly laughed, looking at Tepo:
"Who dares to target you? Did they ask my fists?"
But he noticed everyone's solemn faces, a puzzled expression forming on his face.
"Gold Family."
Tepo's friends nodded in agreement as the young man spoke in a deep voice.
Lao De blinked his eyes, showing a wry smile. But before he could continue, his brother interrupted the conversation.
"Guys, we can talk later. Let's get out of here first, reinforcements are already on their way."
With this reminder everyone found a glider racing towards them.
"Shouldn't we fight?"
"Why? This will only delay us!"
"But our stone train is too slow to escape."
"That's why we use this."
With those words, Lao Ru held up the assassin boss's storage bag, taking out a glider.
"Get in guys. It might get a bit tight."
Everyone's eyes lit up as they hastily crammed into the vehicle. Although Droa'va directly decided to sit on Yerive's lap, with the two Lao brothers' burly bodies, the group barely fitted in the small glider.
Subsequently Lao Ru controlled the vehicle to quickly leave the scene.
But even after a while the pursuit didn't stop.
"Do they think we fear their Gold family?!"
Finally Lao Ru had enough. He directly contacted the Blue Alliance as he headed for a big sect nearby.
The sect reacted and directly dispatched two domain lord elders.
As soon as they saw the reinforcement, the pursuing teams immediately scattered in all directions.
One of the teams was forced to collectively swallow poison while two were destroyed by the domain lords, allowing the rest to escape.
Still, of the originally eight teams deployed only four remained now, dealing a considerable blow.
"I'm sorry guys. I dragged you down this time."
Tepo sighed as their group joined one of the sect's caravans a few hours later.
"Don't take it to heart. As long as you are in the World of Nurturing Stone they won't dare to act again.
Although the Gold family is not weak, what can they do against our entire alliance?"
Yerive also quickly agreed:
"Right, Tepo. You shouldn't feel guilty. This is not your fault, but the Gold family's."
Tepo let out a low sigh as he looked into eyes devoid of blame.