Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 156. One Man’s Strength.

“Pay attention!” Zalar, one of the unit-captains under Julien and a wind-element martial master of the fifth rank called out to the few subordinates he had at hand. With only three thirty-six-man units guarding their newly bolstered numbers, their defenses were stretched thin. Thankfully, it looked like Abdain’s men weren’t intent on pushing forward at all cost and were only trying to keep them busy. As for the thousands, maybe tens of thousands of mercenaries that were merged into the army Abdain’s elites, they appeared even less prone to perform any reckless attacks.

Thus, even though the number of people they could spare was small, Zalar had still chosen to leave his area of defense to his right-hand-man while he himself had taken three lightning-element and four wind-element martial masters to assist Julien. “Don’t wait for my signal, we attack the moment an opportunity presents itself,” he added, once again using his Qi to deliver the words. At a chaotic and loud battlefield, where the risk of being overheard by enemies when one shouted too loud was ever-present, it was a common practice to use either Qi or spiritual energy to communicate.

“Yes,” the seven martial masters replied calmly. In a melee clash, their unit wouldn’t lose out even to Julien’s Cherubim, while the seven of them and their captain were the cream of the crop amongst their combatants. All of them specialized in speed and sudden, destructive attacks too, so as they saw it they were perfectly suited to the task at hand. They wouldn’t go as far as to say that they felt confident in delivering any heavy damage to Abdain, but wounding him some and depleting a good portion of his Qi would be well within the range of their abilities.

“Mm,” Zalar murmured. It had been only a minute or so since this second clash began, but Julien and Abdain had exchanged well over a hundred blows by this point. With their General’s lightning flashing constantly and every other second, erupting in a cone-like splash, swallowing Abdain’s entire body, and with Abdain’s powerful counter-attacks, the mere pressure of each shattered the ground and tore through the air, the duel of the two powerhouses continued unimpeded.

Even that White Guard, Reian, appeared unable to find a good opening to join into this extreme battle and merely moved around the area, preventing any people who wanted to dash through from keeping their bodies in relatively whole pieces. The wind-based attacks of that golden-haired man’s were quite gory, leaving his opponents as nothing but clumps of scattered meat, but no one could deny the efficiency with which Reian killed everyone who approached within a certain range of him.

“He was destroyed by Abdain a while ago, but he’s strong… without at least a martial master of the sixth rank to hold him back, and with Abdain occupied, there’s no one capable of containing him. Thanks to that, the pressure on our units is lessened as well,” Zalar thought to himself. If it was with Reian’s assistance, then maybe they would be able to do more than to just hold Abdain back. After all, even though both Abdain and Julien were conserving their Qi at the moment and refraining from using any powerful techniques, it was Julien who was being steadily pushed back, little by little.

“Tough bastard,” Julien clicked his tongue as for the n’th time, he was forced by Abdain to cushion a swipe of the broadsword and allow himself to be blown off by a dozen meters. If possible, he really would rather not take any such attack’s head-on as Abdain’s pure, physical strength was at least two leagues above his own, but since his body couldn’t possibly keep up with repeated and prolonged use of Lightning Steps, he had no other choice. “He really is like a mountain. I’m hitting him and hitting him, but he’s showing no openings,” he added silently, then suppressed a sigh.

“We won’t get anywhere at this rate,” he judged as he stabilized himself on his two feet. He wouldn’t be able to tire Abdain out without taking any risks. At the moment, Abdain was using up Qi at a lower rate than he was and not only that, but Abdain had a far bigger reservoir of Qi to begin with. If he did nothing, then after about five to six hours of this pointless battle, he would run out of strength. As for Abdain? He probably wouldn’t have had used a fifth of his Qi by that point.

Although the change was subtle, Abdain picked up on it almost instantly. Not only had Julien’s killing intent turned sharper, but the look in his eyes had also changed. Having gone through countless battles, he understood that it was the moment when a strong enemy chose to put his life on the line to fight him. While it wasn’t as bad as when people threw their lives away for the chance to kill him, as that woman had done, it wasn’t a situation he could treat with a lighthearted attitude.

The sudden change in the aura of the two masters didn’t escape Reian’s or Zalar’s and his men attention. Having been circling around the rough area Julien and Abdain were exchanging blows, they didn’t think twice before springing straight at them. They were all fast, but it would be impossible to make use of a split-second change if they were hundreds of meters away… and while Reian was acting on instinct, Julien’s subordinates trusted that their General was very well aware of their presence and would fight in a way that would make the best use of it.

The next instant, a chilly, terrifying aura swept past the entire battlefield as two ultimate experts roused their Qi to the limits at the same time. However, what happened next wasn’t something that people under the Realm of Heroes could hope to follow with their own eyes. Much less them, even some of those experts with weaker perception saw mere shadows of the two figures!

At this time, Julien converged a good portion of his Qi over the blade of his sword, creating a dense and powerful layer of lightning right on top of the blade. Unlike the usual lightning that he used, this one was pushed together so tight that instead of looking like a pack of discharging sparks of lightning, it resembled a coat of white, unstable liquid. With the technique ready, he pushed himself off the ground in a surprisingly smooth, unforceful motion and without concealing his movements, rushed straight at Abdain while preparing to thrust his sword at his heart.

This simplistic and telegraphed, almost silly attack caused Abdain to blank out for the briefest of moments. However, this kind of surprise wasn’t enough to change the flow of this duel in any way. “Dangerous, dangerous,” Abdain mused inwardly while moving his broadsword to meet the attack. With Julien’s speed, he wasn’t stupid enough to attempt a counterattack in order to invalidate Julien’s whole offensive, or at least not anymore, not when Julien decided to fight seriously.

This liquid-like lightning, Abdain didn’t doubt that it was capable of piercing through both the outer and inner layer of his Iron Skin. However, in exchange for wielding a technique with such an extreme offensive prowess, it was without a doubt that Julien would need to expend a proportionate amount of his Qi. Thus, as long as he could wither this offensive, it was likely that Julien would be immediately forced into a very bad spot.

“Yup.” If he had time, Abdain would have nodded to himself when he sensed and then saw Julien use Lightning Steps. An ordinary practitioner would have panicked, and even if he didn’t, he would have lost track of the incoming attack and failed to defend properly. However, he was anything but ordinary. “Right here,” he lowered his broadsword, both the aura he felt and the small hints his eyes could make out in that extremely minuscule amount of time telling him that Julien had changed his target from his heart to the lower side of his stomach and his liver. A clean hit there wouldn’t be lethal, as one at the heart would be, but it would still count as a heavy wound.

Pleased, Abdain put more strength into his broadsword the very moment he felt the force of Julien’s trust apply to the flat part of its blade. Yet, a freezing-cold chill suddenly went down his spine, each and every cell in his body screaming as if to warn him of lethal danger. “Fu…!” He realized it when the force of the ‘trust’ that hit his broadsword disappeared all too easily. Before his eyes had time to register it, he felt the ‘figure’ of Julien’s, which in fact had been merely a lightning-based afterimage, break down and wash over his entire body, much like the cone-like attacks Julien had been using, but many times stronger.

Despite that, this kind of force wasn’t nearly enough to wound him… but it accomplished something else. To be precise, it blocked off both his vision and his ability to sense aura!

Faced with a potentially lethal situation, gritting his teeth, Abdain moved his broadsword purely on instinct and at the same, applied quite a bit of force onto his right foot, almost as if he was stomping with it, though without ever rising it up from the ground. Then, he felt the side of his broadsword collide with something; as expected, Julien aimed at his heart. This was a gamble, but if it had somehow succeeded, he might have even killed him on the spot. If their position were reversed, he would have done the same, so he couldn’t help but reveal a wry… though also a pained smile.

He might have diverted the thrust a little, but this kind of a hasty defense wasn’t enough to stop Julien, who was nearly as powerful as he was. The blade covered by what seemed to almost look like white liquid cut almost ten centimeters deep into the left side of his chest, slicing through the two layers of Iron Skin while losing only some of its strength. With blood and flesh spurting, the white, seemingly liquefied lightning forced its way into his body, burning the muscle and forcing its way into his Qi Paths. Alas, regrettably for Julien, his internals and Qi paths were protected by yet another reinforcement technique, so the damage the lightning did before exhausting itself was limited.

“Motherfucker,” Abdain wanted to say, but there was no way he would find enough time to speak in the middle of a battle on this level. He wasn’t angry about being wounded; with the tenacity coming from his earth-element, although it was impossible to heal as rapidly as those water-element and light-element practitioners could, a non-lethal wound like that which had only lightly scratched his lung wouldn’t pose much of a trouble to him.

Yes, rather than that… he was angry that he had been forced to reveal one of his few offensively-based martial techniques this early on.

With the smirk still present on his face, he saw Julien desperately twist his body in an attempt to dodge the three spikes of earth that suddenly emerged from below him. No matter how fast one was, his ability to respond and dodge would be limited once he committed himself to go on the full-scale offensive. Having just used that annoying afterimage-like version of Lightning Steps and then struck with all he had, Julien didn’t have enough strength to spare to immediately employ another movement technique to dodge, not when he had just attacked. Inevitably, he was forced to receive the damage from those three sturdy earth spikes with his own body.

Content, Abdain sent his broadsword flying, but he didn’t aim at Julien, who had disappeared in a flash of lightning the next split-second anyway. His true targets were those lightning-element martial masters who were stupid enough to believe that they could influence a duel at this level with their meager level of strength. Enduring the pain in his chest, he twisted his body and slashed horizontally, splitting the first man that appeared to his side in half the very instant he appeared, then doing the same to the other one who wanted to attack him from behind. Yes, he was ‘slower’ than those lightning-element practitioners, but that was only as far as pure speed went. When agility, reaction time, and perception were included, there was simply no comparison between them.

“And the third.” The instant a downward thrust hit his shoulder from above, only to be stuck at his Iron Skin without leaving any damage, he reached out with his left hand and grabbed the third man by the leg. Then, making use of his monster-like strength, he smashed him straight into the ground with such a force that the rocky earth shattered, leaving behind a ten-meter-wide crater. With the man’s body in utter shambles, he threw away the leg which had come off mid-swing, unable to keep itself attached under the pressure of the overwhelming force that was being applied to it.

“Don’t!”

He laughed when he heard Julien’s yell. However, those five wind-element martial masters were already charging at him at full speed. Without a movement technique, it was easier said than done to change directions. They might have been able to turn around and flee if he stood and did nothing, but would he? Obviously not! Stomping at the ground hard enough to crack it all over, he jumped forward, aiming to reduce the numbers of Julien’s men to a more manageable size!

“Leave the weaklings for later,” he judged instantly. Out of the five men, one was exceptionally strong, so his priority would be to kill him. He almost laughed when he saw the futile attempts of those men at keeping him away; maybe If one of them had been planning to use a technique akin to what that golden-haired brat from the White Guard had used, they would have had a better chance at surviving. However, there was no way that simple wind blades or sword slashes would damage his impregnable defense, so he had no qualms about ignoring all of them as he attacked.

“Bastard...!” Zalar cursed within his heart. There was no way that he wouldn’t be able to tell that Abdain was aiming to kill him, but what could he do? If he retreated using his incomplete Wind Steps, then he could survive, but his four subordinates and good friends would certainly die in exchange. Looking at it objectively, purely from the military perspective, the correct choice would be for him to survive alone and fight on since he provided more battle prowess to their side than those four combined. However, how could he possibly do something like that and look his remaining men in the eye afterwards? How would he one day face his subordinates in the afterlife if he survived while giving up their lives? Even if they forgave him, he wouldn’t forgive himself!

“At least one eye!” he yelled out inwardly, abandoning any restraints he might have had as he slashed with his sword. He drew upon his Qi in abundance, disregarding the limitations of his Qi Origin and Qi paths, only trying to strengthen this one technique, this one barrage of wind blades, as much as possible! He could fell every piece of his body screaming in pain, he could tell that blood vessels all of his body were bursting and gushing out blood; even his vision grew blurry as the crimson liquid entered his eyes as their whites strained from pressure. However, at the cost of crippling himself, he managed to unleash the strongest attack he had ever produced in his life and most importantly, he kept his mind clear enough to control it to the last moment!

The hundreds of wind blades swished through the air, some of them clashing with Abdain head-on, some curving in the air to assault him from the sides. The might of this technique was almost comparable to an attack of a martial master of the seventh rank… but all it did was demolish the upper part of Abdain’s set of clothes, failing to leave even a white scratch on his skin.

Yet, amongst those hundreds of wind blades, there was one that was unnaturally stronger compared to the others. While employing this last-ditch attack, Zalar kept his goal of gouging out one of Abdain’s eyes in mind and made sure to put most of his mind to empowering a single piece of his technique, all for this sake. Had he instead layered the strength evenly, each of those wind blades would have left a skin-deep wound on Abdain’s body, though such a result was naturally not something he wanted to see as it would turn out to be entirely useless in the grand scope of things.

Although unaware in the beginning, Abdain sensed the approaching danger in the nick of time and twisted his face. Alas, he failed to react fast enough; he saved his right eye, but blood spurted from the left one was the wind blade turned it into a bloody paste before stopping on the reinforced flesh below it. Overcome with anger, Abdain yelled furiously and completed his own slash, killing the already self-crippled martial master before him. The second time, it was the second time in two days that someone had gouged out his eye! Although such a wound wasn’t a threat to his life, having his eye smashed was still so darn fucking painful!

“Go and die!” he shouted and stomped down with his leg, sending four streams of Qi surging through the earth. Yet, the four remaining wind-element martial masters, as infuriated as they were to see their captain be killed, dodged the technique without fail, causing Abdain to click his tongue. Used as a surprise attack, those spikes were extremely potent; the bloodied figure of Julien’s, who didn’t rush in to save one of his stronger men just now, was just the right proof. However, once enemies anticipated this attack and had room to dodge, its lethality would fall to the bottom.

“But, I obviously understand this much, don’t you think?” Abdain laughed in his heart and just half a second later, heard numerous screams of pain coming from the two closest thirty-something-man units of Julien’s. Counting roughly, had he killed about seven or eight people? A surprise attack like that wouldn’t work again, but he was satisfied with this much. “Time to withdraw and heal up,” he decided somewhat unhappily. He would have loved to press the attack on while Julien was still wounded, but because of that one bastard, he had lost one eye. This kind of a gamble where he was quite likely to die, he wasn’t willing to take it If he didn’t absolutely need to.

However, just as he was preparing to retreat, he sensed a foreboding danger. He quickly turned his gaze towards its source, towards Reian, and only then did his remaining eyes go wide. The man had obviously accumulated a huge amount of Qi, but he had done so while not only suppressing his aura and killing intent but also allowing just enough of them to leak for him not to notice that anything weird was going on. “Still, he’s more than four hundred meters…” the thought went through his mind, but before it had a chance to complete, Reian slashed out with his sword.

Immediately following the slash, two-meter-long wind blades flew out, one curving to the right and the other one to the left. Sensing the danger the two wind blades carried, Abdain jumped sideways, wanting to limit the area he would need to defend from. However, to his dismay, he found out that the two wind blades adjusted their course and once again targeted his sides. What’s more, they didn’t even go out of sync, both of them looking to hit at the exactly same time.

“An aura-guided technique? Or is it wind guided? What a pain in the ass!” Abdain complained. He could tell that Reian had used up almost half of his Qi on this one attack… and the sight of those slim wind blades was telling him that taking them head-on wasn’t the smartest choice. Thus, as angry as it was making him, he stomped with his foot and released a fair amount of Qi into the ground, causing a many meters thick wall of earth and stone to rise up in the way of the wind blades.

The next instant, he slashed out with his broadsword to his right and positioned his body sideways, towards the left side, while raising his left hand to guard his chest and head. He didn’t expect his wall of earth to stop those wind-blades; he wasn’t all that proficient in such techniques, to begin with, so he preferred to avoid using them as he saw it as a waste of his Qi. However, back then against Mustafa and now, against the combined efforts of all those sprouts, he was forced to use them.

Just like he expected, the two wind blades broke through the wall of earth with ease. Subsequently, he braced himself and slashed at the right one with his broadsword, causing its strength to dissolve and lower, thus in turn robbing it of any ability to harm him. However, he was forced to receive the second of the blades directly. His body shook from the impact and he slid a few meters backwards, then felt a stream of warm blood flow down from his arm and the left side of his chest. The wind blade had broken through his Iron skin, leaving a not too serious, just barely muscle-deep wound.

At this level, he wouldn’t need to worry too much about this kind of an attack in the future unless Reian chose to cripple himself like that other man… though, there was another issue which Abdain recognized. With a rigid look on his face, he made use of the opportunity and retreated. He had killed eleven or twelve people this time around at the cost of just about one-third of his Qi, It was a great harvest, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel happy.

“His attacks weren’t so strong the first time,” he murmured while watching Reian’s figure from over his shoulder. “He exhausted himself to attack in this manner… did he judge that he wasn’t going to be useful in melee and gabled that he can improve his insights and techniques enough to threaten me from distance? Normally, it would have been a laughably stupid choice… but I’ve got a bad feeling,” he complained to himself and in the end, shook his head helplessly. Everything would have been easy had he only needed to be wary of Julien and his tricks, but now he had a second headache to worry about.

“Still, that’s all there’s to it,” Abdain said aloud, starting the spiritual master who was in the middle of healing his wounds. “We still have more than enough time,” he said with a laugh, though then added a few more words silently. “All that’s going to change is how many casualties we’re going to take while whittling down their numbers. Ultimately, Arslan will end dead or in our hands.”

The golden-ruby-robed spiritual master didn’t know why, but a chill suddenly went down his spine. However, he didn’t suspect anything as far as Abdain’s real thoughts went. Yes… while it was true that Abdain regarded his men as precious and saw every loss of them as a terrible event, he was also someone who would send every last one of them to die as long as he judged that the benefits from doing so outweighed the demerits. Still, none of Abdain’s men were actually aware of that.

---

As both sides of the battle at the grasslands and plains of the southern Guode Yimarate licked their wounds, thousands of kilometers to the north-west, two youths were slowly regaining consciousness. Neither of them remembered where he was nor what was he doing. They were aware of each other’s close presence and could feel each other’s calm state of mind, so they didn’t grow alarmed. The first thing they felt was the sun warming their bodies pleasantly, and after that came the cozy sensation of the furs they were laying on. For Laien, the sensation of Yin’s soft fur also appeared just around the same time, while Yin realized that Laien was resting on his side.

The question of why in the world were they outside, with Yin showing his magical beast form to the world, woke them up from their stupor and caused them to hurriedly open their eyes. The second they tried to recall it, everything came back. They had been chased by Abdain, Jasmine stayed behind to buy time for them to escape, then they had those ruby-golden-experts on their tails and they made the gamble to flee into the Forbidden Lands. The gamble had actually paid off, but the expert who slaughtered those ruby-golden practitioners also attacked them.

And yet, here they were, alive and sleeping on a set of furs they were pretty sure didn’t belong to them. Moreover, their horses were looking at them with curiosity and relief from the other side of the road, apparently having been nibbling away at the nearby grass while the two of them had been sleeping. That white-robed martial master of the ninth rank was nowhere to be seen, too.