With Number One occupied, the battlefield once again shifted back to a stalemate. Thousands of battle arts exploded in the sky above and on the land below, drowning the entire area in a sea of non-stop explosions. It was truly as if the apocalypse had arrived.
Deaths began to amass on both sides of the war, although the Honorable Alliance was dying at a much higher rate than the enemy powers. Unfortunately for the enemy powers, they were vastly outnumbered within this realm, and the calamitous battle was attracting more and more Honorable Alliance youths to it by the second.
While the youths were not the strongest or most talented, they had been bathed in battle and death for the last few weeks due to the enemy’s invasion, and the remaining survivors had become battle hardened. They threw themselves at the enemy without caution or care, wanting nothing more than to avenge their fallen friends or dead sect members.
This battle was the perfect opportunity to do so, and so the ferocity at which the Honorable Alliance youths fought was beyond anything they had displayed before, shocking the enemy geniuses slightly.
“Heh, it seems as though your Honorable Alliance has finally grown a spine,” Amber Bloodrose mocked as the casually glanced at the distant battles.
“And its all thanks to you…now fuck off and die already,” Luth cursed as he unleashed a powerful battle art. A glowing white and purple sword appeared over his head and rapidly grew in size before slashing down at Amber with incredibly power.
“Heh,” Amber scoffed as she saw the attack reach her in an instant. Her sword slashed out towards the battle art and unleashed a thin beam of blood red Qi, appearing like an incredibly slender sword.
Che!
The blood red sword, dozens of times smaller than the astral sword, slashed into the astral sword and cleaved it in half. The astral sword parted instantly as it slashed down at Amber, which missed her as both halves of the sword slashed to either side of her..
Luth clicked his tongue in frustration as he flashed forward once more, resuming his battle with Amber, who smiled with amused interest as she unleashed another blood red blade as well.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The battles between all parties raged on, with deaths accumulating on both sides. However, neither side had a distinct advantage as the battlefield was mostly even. While more Honorable Alliance youths died than the enemy side, the enemy side was stronger individually.
Watching from the sidelines as if the battle was of no concern to him was Kadin, along with several other members of the Starforge Clan. Despite joining the enemy geniuses, he had not taken part in the battle yet, and had not been targeted by the Honorable Alliance either, who were more than content to let him watch and not join in.
“Tch, I thought they would do a bit better than this,” Kadin scoffed, slight mockery in his voice, “but I suppose this war over the last month has hardened the Honorable Alliance, and made them stronger.”
“It’s quite unexpected that they’ve improved this much in such a short amount of time,” one of the other Starforge Clan youths agreed as they watched the battle rage on.
“If these Honorable Alliance youths are allowed to escape, especially the top ones like Luth and Number One, they will no doubt become formidable enemies in the future,” Kadin said as a small smile appeared on his face. “I suppose it’s time that we help out, and end this battle for once.”
The three other youths nodded their heads, and quickly spread out, appearing on the three corners of the massive battlefield, dozens of miles away from each other. Kadin stood at the fourth corner, his confident gaze inspecting the battles before him.
Massive formation runes suddenly lit up beneath their feet, having been created before the battle even started. The formation runes flared with incredible power, as a translucent barrier surged up from each of the four formation nodes and flared up into the sky above.
They eventually linked up high above as a semi-translucent formation barrier appeared over the entire battlefield, over fifty miles wide and many miles tall.
“What the hell is going on?” many of the Honorable Alliance youths exclaimed, slight panic in their voices. They could tell that this was most likely not something good for them.
Luth’s cold gaze stared at the barrier around them, but his gaze quickly shifted as Amber appeared before him once more, diverting his attention.
Peng!
Their swords collided, while a disappointed smile appeared on Amber’s face.
“It seems as though Kadin has finally made his move,” she said to Luth, who frowned at her words. “It’s disappointing that it came to this, but I suppose it’s best to wrap this little battlefield up quickly. There’s still other things to explore in this realm afterall.”
Luth’s eyes narrowed even further as he gazed coldly at Amber. He could tell that based on ehr words, the formation barrier around them was most likely beyond terrible for them. As if answering his thoughts, a powerful energy suddenly erupted from all directions, washing over the battlefield.
The energy slammed down on the battlefield, pressing down on all within. It was like a mountain had suddenly pressed down on each youth within, making their movements beyond sluggish as they struggled against the formidable pressure. Their speeds were now less than half of what it was before, and a large amount of energy was required just to move about.
Luth’s cold gaze shifted towards Amber, who had taken out a formation disk and held it in her hand. The formation disk flared with power, wrapping her up with a strange energy. The energy was the perfect opposite of the energy pressing down on them, and seemed to counteract the effects completely.
At the same time, all the other youths from the enemy powers took out a similar formation disk, becoming immune to the restrictive pressure. A grim look appeared on Luth’s face and all the other Honorable Alliance youths’ faces as they realized they had walked directly into a trap.
“It’s a trap!” many of the Honorable Alliance youths cried out in panic, but were helpless to do anything about it.
Such was the formidable nature of Formations masters. Their greatest weakness was needing plenty of time to set up their formations, which could not be done in the heat of battle. However, with enough time beforehand, if one was to step into their traps, their might was almost unmatchable.
The battlefield was already relatively even before, but with the sudden shift in events, the Honorable Alliance would no doubt be slaughtered within minutes. Many of the youths nearby the four formation nodes unleashed their most powerful battle arts at the Starforge Clan youths, but those battle arts slammed against the formation and fizzled out.
“Hahaha, try as you might, but none of you are able to break these barriers in time,” one of the Starforge youths mocked, as he was also protected by another formation, guarding him from outside attacks. Even if someone from the outside showed up, it would take several minutes to break through the barrier, at which point the battle would already be over.
The formation was both a restrictive formation, as well as a barrier formation. With the restrictive energy within, the battle arts unleashed by the youths were weakened. If they gathered their power and unleashed a collective attack against the barrier they would be able to break it, but the enemy youths would not give them such a chance.
Gahh!
Ahhh!
Cries of pain flooded the battlefield once more as the enemy geniuses resumed their assault, giving the Honorable Alliance youths no chance to break out. The Honorable Alliance youths were unable to resist the slaughter of the enemy geniuses with their powers restricted, and began to die in great numbers.
“As I said, this is where our battle ends. How disappointing,” Amber said to Luth, who stared back with a grave expression. They were mostly evenly matched before, but now Luth was at a great disadvantage. He would not be able to keep up with Amber anymore, and his only fate within this formation was death.
Amber’s body blurred as she appeared before Luth, while her sword pierced out with lethal sharpness. He slashed out his sword to meet the attack, but knew it would not be fast enough to block in time. Hopelessness flooded Luth’s body, but suddenly his eyes widened as his sword picked up speed in an instant.
Peng!
Swords collided, knocking Amber back as her eyes widened with unexpected shock.
“What?” she mumbled as her eyes shifted to the barrier above, which was fading away. The barrier quickly faded away, restoring the full strength to the Honorable Alliance, who exploded with ferocious might once more.
Kadin’s eyes narrowed as he noticed the barrier suddenly fail.
“Impossible, how could someone break through so fast,” he raged as his gaze shifted towards one of the distant nodes many miles away. The Starforge youth standing within the node had collapsed to the ground, and the formation beneath his feet had been destroyed.
Kadin’s eyes narrowed as he spotted three youths standing above the now-dead Starforge Clan youth, who were all staring back at Kadin as well. They had clearly been the ones to breach the barrier, and ruin the formation node. With just one of the nodes destroyed, the entire formation had collapsed.
The three youths stared back at Kadin, with the youth standing at the front staring at him with murderous malice.
“Adam,” Kadin raged as he locked eyes with Adam, who had been the one to breach the formation node and destroy it from within, saving the entire Honorable Alliance from sure death.