With the fear-inducing effect of the shroud, their enemies practically trembled before them and that made killing and cutting through them easier, however, the downside was that the intimidating effect was not picky.

It did not distinguish between friends or foe and so even those of the Edgar family cowered when it came close to them.

As such, they were easy targets for those who could keep their emotions in check among the Plebeian forces.

However, at that moment, improving morale was the farthest thing from the Brothers' minds so they did not care for the feelings of their men and instead continued to carve their bloody path through the Plebeian men.

And they were making progress.

However, San would truly be a fool if he had not even planned for another attack by the Malevolent One.

Although he had not expected to use it this early and surely had hot expected to use it when battling the Edgar forces, he was still calm and quite collected when he thought of his contingencies.

He turned to Evian who unlike previous occasions was not really commanding or directing the Plebeian forces as San had been satisfied with just letting them run wild.

"Do it" San told Evian who nodded with a collected expression.

He stepped forward and delivered the order so that a particular squad of Plebeian men who had not joined the fray began to bring out what looked like different parts of a machine, out of their spatial pouches.

Together, they began to put it together and before long, there were two large crossbows. Just like the types placed in battlements of a castle to shoot down at enemies below.

Not only did they construct these crossbows that were fitted to stands and resembled machine guns, but they also created tall stands that towered over the tallest in the Plebeian army and allowed the archers to have a perfect vantage point.

Then the Archers retrieved Bolts from their spatial pouches and on those Bolts, Runes had been drawn. Its make looked exactly like that of the Rune daggers that had been used to attack Marla and Amelia at the Mansion during the assault.

The Bolts were loaded into the crossbows and directed at the rampaging brothers who had noticed the assembling of the crossbows.

The main idea behind the projectile shooter was that the archer could stay far enough away to not be intimidated. This was only one way San had thought to use against the Malevolent One, but he felt this should be enough for now.

Marlon and Darryl chuckled at the assembling of the crossbow as well as being targeted by it. Due to the high they were on from many successful kills, they underestimated the crossbows and the bolts it would fire at them.

After all, it was common knowledge that normal weapons could not possibly affect the body of a cultivator...

"Fools! Defend yourself" Hal yelled at them telepathically.

His voice jeered the brothers out of their overconfident minds as they quickly surrounded themselves with the Devil shrouds Defensive abilities to shield from the bolts right as they were fired...

*Twang* *Twang*

...went both projectiles before they made contact with the Devil shroud barrier the brothers had made to protect themselves.

Marlon managed to stave away the bolt fired at him, however, Darryl's went right through the point that could be described as his Devil shroud blind spot.

*schtick*

"Arrrggghhhh"

It shot right into his right shoulder and caused him to cry out from the pain.

Darryl grabbed the part of the Bolt that was sticking out and pulled it out. The bolt looked to have dimmed, which meant the Cosmic energy that had been infused into it to allow it to penetrate the cultivator's body was now used up.

Quickly, he retrieved a pill from his spatial pouch and swallowed it. It stopped the bleeding and mended his injury enough for him to handle the pain, but even then, he transferred his Armament to his left hand.

The archers pulled a mechanism on their crossbows and it made a distinct sound of reloading before they fired another set of arrows at the Edgar brothers who shielded themselves with the Devil shroud again.

The two chanced a glance at each other and seemed to decide what to do;

They pushed forward.

First, while they moved, targeting them became harder, and second, they could not let this stop them from reaching their goal.

That said, the Plebeian men, even while still intimidated by the fear-inducing ability of the Devil shroud, knew what they had to do.

They moved closer to the brothers and reduced just how far they could run. Marlon and Darryl swung their armaments and tried to cut down their surrounders, but at the moment they stopped to strike, the Archers took advantage and fired more bolts.

Then the brothers had to stop and shield themselves with the Devil shroud, at which time, the Plebeian men would move closer to attack once the Defensive shroud was gone.

Moving closer should have terrified them, but they seemed to be getting used to the feeling of fear (granted, a lot of them wet their pants) and could endure it enough to strike at the brothers.

The situation quickly became overwhelming for Marlon and Darryl who did not have a moment of rest.

Even when they made use of Cosmic attacks and got rid of those close to them, many others replaced the fallen ones.

The Plebeian forces were not merely making use of their numbers advantage but were also doing so brilliantly.

The Brothers needed help.

Back at the other side of the courtyard... Or at least very far from where the brothers were getting swarmed,

Karon was gritting his teeth in frustration at not being able to get in the mix and not even been able to direct the Edgar forces. It annoyed him a lot that he could not help his lord and he could not even assist the brothers who were attempting to help his lord. Even if their shrouded forms shocked him and felt eerie.

Much as he would have loved to fight as well, he needed to protect these Edgar family members who were mostly those who could not defend themselves due to weaker cultivation bases.

But the weakness was not true for all of them...

"Karon, what are you waiting for? Help them!" Olivia said, obviously referring to the overwhelmed brothers.

Karon clenched his fists,

"I have to keep you all safe until we find a way out of this Dome" he said.

It was a testament to how strong Hector was that the Dome he put up was still active despite the condition he was in.

Although, if the situation did not turn around in favor of the Edgars soon, then it would merely serve as a trap against said Edgars and prevent their escape and since Hector was no longer in the right mind state to deactivate it and allow them to exit, the situation needed to turn around in their favor soon.

Olivia gritted her teeth in annoyance at Karon's reply,

"Fine, I'll do it myself," she said and pushed Karon aside to dash towards the battling men.

"Lady Olivia, Don't..." Karon started before he paused when he saw Olivia leap into the air and perform a graceful spin before she landed with her feet on the heads of two Plebeians and started running forward by leaping from head to head or any part available for her to land on.

Karon could not help but be shocked because while Olivia was a known cultivating Expert, he had no idea she was capable of such grace.

However, Olivia was only just starting...