Even though each cultivator recruited by the Royal family was singularly stronger than each soldier, they were unable to break the blockage.
The soldiers were trained and had good teamwork while their opponents were disorganized.
Each of their attacks was strong but always failed to inflict a severe injury on the soldiers.
Their number started to diminish.
The soldiers would alternate between a steady defense with water shields and wind walls to water bullets, fireballs, and spears made of air.
Only Noah was somewhat able to keep pressuring the blockage.
They had initially ganged up on him four against one but, as cultivators from the Royal family died, they could shift more of their attention on him.
He was the only one using a rank 4 martial art after all, he was definitely the most dangerous of their enemies.
Due to his relentless offensive, Noah prevented them from preparing spells, yet his expression became serious after each exchange.
The clock was ticking, minutes passed as if they were seconds and Samuel's potions accelerated the rate of recovery of Abel's body.
The anxiety of the cultivators sent by the Royal family was increasing.
Noah decided to attack with more fury.
The number of ethereal sabers around him increased, from fifteen they became twenty.
The soldiers had their focus to their peak, more enemies attacked Noah to block his unceasingly assault.
However, once they moved their attention to Noah, the other cultivators in his group faced less resistance and began to inflict serious wounds on the soldiers.
Little by little, the soldiers were being pushed back.
Casualties happened from time to time.
A soldier successfully blocked the thrust from a hooded figure and his companion behind him stabbed his sword in the figure's chest.
Yet, Joe arrived on their side and strongly bit the soldier's throat, creating a big hole in his neck.
That action though left him open and a soldier managed to shoot a fireball at him, turning his entire figure into ashes.
As more deaths happened, the blockage was broken, creating small battles all around Abel's body.
'It's taking too much!'
Noah thought.
Abel's body was now visible and his complexion had greatly recovered due to Samuel's potions, he knew that it wouldn't take much for him to stand up.
'Should I use the Demonic form?'
Noah was reluctant in using it not only because it would expose his element.
The black smoke was uncontrollable, it didn't distinguish enemies from allies, he would avoid using it in that situation if possible.
The number of soldiers in front of him was reduced to three, the others went to take care of the other enemies.
Those three were specialized in defense, they used all their techniques and spells to slow Noah's momentum.
Yet, wounds continuously appeared on their bodies, they couldn't hold for much longer.
Then, a yell ran through the battlefield.
Noah momentarily moved his attention to where the sound came from and his expression became dark.
Of the cultivators in his group, he was the only one remaining.
A heavily wounded soldier stood proudly over the corpse of a hooded figure.
After he made a sign of victory toward the remaining three soldiers, he collapsed on the ground, devoid of any strength.
'Did they all die?'
Noah had focused completely on the area in front of him, he couldn't pay attention to the whole battlefield when he executed the First form of his martial art.
"It seems that you bandits had really underestimated the power of the Muwlos family."
One of the remaining soldiers said proudly.
They didn't know that their enemies had been sent by the rulers of the nation so he supposed that they were a simple bandit group.
'So, my guess was right.'
Noah ignored him and inspected the area with his mental energy.
He couldn't find anything strange or peculiar which made him sigh helplessly.
'I don't believe that the Royals have misjudged the strength of these soldiers which means that they wanted for many of us to die. Maybe they didn't predict the death of their representative, that's why we are in this situation.'
"Vance, don't think that you can run away. You will pay for your sins against my family."
Samuel spoke to him in an angered tone.
They were in the same class in the academy, he had seen his martial art being executed that's why he managed to recognize him.
"Men, seize him."
The soldiers followed the order of their young master and encircled Noah.
Noah continued to ignore them and looked at the sky.
'I bet that they are watching everything in front of a cup of wine.'
"Put down your weapons and-"
The phrase of the soldier was interrupted by a swing from Noah's saber.
The soldier expected some resistance and promptly created a water shield to block the attack.
However, the saber began to release black smoke that consumed the shield in a few instants, allowing the blade to slash on the soldier's neck.
Surprise ran through his eyes as the saber directly severed his head, his spell couldn't match the Demonic form at all!
It couldn't be helped though, the water shield was a common spell of the water element while the Demonic form was a top tier spell of the darkness one, the difference between their strength was enormous.
The remaining two soldiers retreated and deployed their defenses.
A wall made of wind appeared and a defensive martial art was unleashed.
Noah didn't waste time and executed the First form of the Ashura together with the partial Demonic form.
Ten fuming sabers relentlessly crashed on the two soldiers.
Their defenses were already strained by the rank 4 martial art, when a spell of such destructivity was added to those attacks, it became impossible for them to hold on for long.
It took only a few exchanges for the soldiers to suffer a deadly injury and being consumed by the accumulated toxic smoke.
Only Noah, Samuel, and Abel remained on the battlefield.
"W-which aptitude do you have?"
Samuel had his eyes wide open due to Noah's power.
Those soldiers were rank 2 cultivators after all!
He could accept that Noah was able to kill one of them but three at the same time was a great shock!
"Young master, step aside. He is a genius of the darkness element, I never thought that he could develop so fast."
Abel opened his eyes and supported himself to Samuel in order to stand up.
The leader of the soldiers could fight again!
