Liana sprang into action, her sword dancing in the air as she charged towards Sia.
The ice spear wielder met her attack head-on, their weapons clashing with a resounding clang.
Meanwhile, Reesha cracked her flame whip towards Ruan. He dodged nimbly, using another talisman to create a gust of wind that threw the whip off course.
He retaliated with a burst of wind-element talisman, aiming to knock Reesha off balance.
Calla, watching the skirmish, controlled her swords with precision, sending them to attack Ruan from multiple angles.
Ruan barely managed to fend them off, his defensive spells and talismans flickering under the relentless assault.
Despite the chaos, Ruan and Liana fought with a coordination that surprised even them.
Liana’s agility and swordplay kept Sia at bay, while Ruan’s quick thinking and strategic use of talismans provided them with the edge they needed.
Liana found herself in a desperate situation, struggling to hold on against the three Foundation Building Experts. Ruan’s expressions were mysterious. He was neither afraid nor overconfident. It seemed that he was either waiting for the right opportunity or some miracle.
‘Damn it. Fighting with the three veterans is indeed too difficult. No wonder grandpa’s elder said I need more training,’ Liana thought to herself and cursed herself for being too incompetent.
As for blaming Ruan for her current circumstances? She thought that it was of no use. She had already decided to retreat if the situation was too difficult to be handled by her and Ruan’s combined efforts.
No matter how skilled they were, the sheer number advantage that Calla’s side held was overwhelming. Calla laughed as she manipulated her swords, launching relentless attacks at Ruan.
Blood Art: Blood Eagle Summon
Liana summoned Blood Eagles to intercept the incoming attacks from Reesha and Sia, but it was clear she was straining. Each summon drained her Spirit essence, and she was struggling to keep up with the relentless pace.
Calla and her allies were confident in their impending victory, their guard lowering as they pressed their advantage. Calla smirked, her eyes gleaming with the certainty of triumph. “It’s over, Ruan. You can’t keep this up forever.”
‘Hmm. She has let her guard down. This should be enough,’ Aksai thought to himself and smirked at Calla, which gave her a certain sense of foreboding.
Just as Calla’s group felt assured of their victory, something strange happened. Three blurred figures, undetectable by regular senses or even Spirit Sense, appeared and attacked them.
Calla managed to evade the attack, but not without cost. One of her five swords was destroyed by a fire-element talisman that seemed to materialize out of thin air, slapping against the blade and erupting in flames.
Calla hissed in pain, a burn injury searing her arm. “What the hell? How?” she shouted, her eyes darting around for the source of the attack.
Reesha and Sia were less fortunate. Reesha was about to launch another attack on Liana when a blurred figure appeared behind her. Before Reesha could react, the figure slapped a talisman on her chest and activated it.
Reesha glanced down, confused. The talisman seemed to have healing properties. “Why would they use a healing talisman on—” she started, but her words were cut off by a sudden, horrifying pain.
The talisman, Mao’s Heretic Healing Talisman, began to take effect. Reesha’s skin erupted with quail-egg-sized tumors, rapidly spreading across her body and inside her. Her appearance twisted into a grotesque form, her body disfigured as the tumors grew and burst, releasing gooey, contaminated blood.
Her Spirit essence, once powerful and controlled, dissipated chaotically. Within seconds, Reesha’s body was covered in tumors that burst, and her once strong, agile form became limp and lifeless. She let out a final, gurgling scream before her body, unable to sustain flight, fell into the crashing sea below.
Calla’s eyes widened in horror and rage. “Reesha! No!” She turned to face the blurred figures, her expression a mix of fury and fear.
Sia, witnessing Reesha’s gruesome fate, hesitated for a moment too long. One of the blurred figures targeted her next, but Sia managed to dodge the initial attack.
The distraction, however, was enough to break her focus and give Ruan AKA Aksai a chance. He used another speed-type talisman to get close to Sia. he then took out Celestial Fang.
With the power of the Argent Body realm and martial arts, Aksai broke through Sia’s defenses and overpowered her instantly. At the same time, the blurred figure that she had earlier evaded appeared behind her once again and prevented her from escaping Aksai’s attacks.
The outcome of the battle was changed right in front of Calla’s eyes. She watched helplessly as Aksai chopped off Sia’s breasts using Celestial Fang before piercing her guts with it, creating a gaping hole.
Even Liana was shocked by the outcome. She was especially wary of the blurred figures that had appeared out of nowhere.
Ruan smiled when he realized that he had successfully gotten rid of the two Foundation Building Experts. At the same time, Mao’s invisibility-type talismans that he had given to his Sentient Scarecrow Fiends wore off, making the blurred figures reveal their true appearance.
Aksai had planned to use Mao’s heretic talismans in conjunction with the Sentient Scarecrows from the beginning. However, he knew that the heretic talismans weren’t completely without their flaws. Unless the opponent was taken by surprise, the effects of the talisman would be limited.
Plus, Aksai knew that he couldn’t count on the surprise factor for long. At the same time, he couldn’t use the combo to get rid of all of the enemies at once because not everyone would react the same way. As such, he had first divided the group before creating the right kind of environment to use the combo.
“These… These are blood fiends?… No they are not blood fiends. They are something else…” Liana murmured to herself in a daze as she looked at the three Sentient Scarecrows.
As a talented member of the Lakir clan. Liana knew how the Bloodfiend Art worked even though she didn’t like to use the fiends herself. Using her Spirit Sense, she could tell that Aksai had used the concepts of the Bloodfiend Art to create the fiends.
However, Liana could tell that there was something drastically different about Aksai’s fiends. For one, they seemed to have wills of their own and were capable of coordinating with their owner.
“This… You… you are not a Lakir clan member or retainer. Nobody from my side can have this advanced puppet art. Who… who are you?” Liana asked as she looked at Ruan with wariness.