Rivak's shield barely held on for a moment before it it was burnt by the flaming fist.
"You!" Feeling the terrifying aura from the human, which surpassed his own by a good margin, Ravik was more shocked than terrified.
'What the fuck is this monster doing here?'
But he didn't get the chance to question as the flaming fist reached his body, right when he elementalized it into lightning.
Boom!
Rivak's body, which was completely lightning at this point, had a gaping hole in the chest. If he was a painting, it was like someone just erased the area containing his lungs and heart. If he was a bit late in elementalizing, he'd have died.
'Son of a bitch!'
Rivak hurriedly used the mana to block the cavity in his chest. The severity of the injury as well as his condition were so bad that his body turned on and off from elementalization like a broken tv signal.
Every time he switched to his 'abyssal' form, ample blood gushed out, followed by bits and pieces of burnt flesh.
Bali channeled his mana to finish off Rivak, but—
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Six heavy lightning attacks descended on Bali at once. At the same time, twenty-odd abyssals surrounded Rivak.
Bali looked at the strongest abyssal of Pluto and fell into a dilemma. If he attacked, he was sure of killing Rivak.
But the price was…
Zapp!
The lightning spears that were only a split second away from him caused Bali's instincts to go wild. If he really took all those attacks, he'd be seriously injured and would be easily killed later.
"Count yourself lucky." Spitting at Rivak in disdain, Bali teleported a few hundred miles away, while keeping a close eye on the abyssals.
And while he was in the middle of it, he used his space power and twisted the space around a low level 9 abyssal, intending to take him down and ease some pressure.
But—
Ka! Zaaaap!
A huge lightning sphere was formed by the joint efforts around the low level 9 abyssal and forcibly stopped the twisting of space.
"…Fighting in mobs, eh. Pathetic." Bali sneered in disdain, but his mind was working at full speed.
From this exchange, it was clear that their organization was at a high level and he couldn't take them down one by one. Any attack on one would trigger a counter-response by all.
So, despite being considerably stronger than everyone, Bali prepared himself for a tough fight.
"Let's end him for good." A high level 9 abyssal yelled and dashed at Bali, leaving golden trails.
The rest followed, and Bali found himself locked under dozens of lightning senses.
"Tch." Bali looked at the recovering Rivak who was downing the potions like a drug addict and cursed under his breath.
These cowards knew well of the danger Rivak posed and didn't take any chances.
Because Rivak was now inside a shining golden sphere. Before they left, all the abyssals set up a formidable shield for him.
Even Bali couldn't break it without four shots.
"Your loss will create a vacuum in the high combat members of the army and we'll exploit it fully." The leading abyssal shouted in triumph and with his gesture, thousands of lightning spears materialized in the space.
Following him, every other abyssal also created hundreds, if not thousands of spears.
'Only spears?' Bali was suspicious as an ominous foreboding crept into the back of his mind.
And his suspicions were proved right as the spears connected to form a complex net that surrounded him in the blink of an eye.
'Haa' Bali took in a short breath and considered his options. This was, after all, a fucking formation!
Not the usual kind of formation, but something referred to as a combat formation. It's like the anti-teleportation formations that other awakeners used when facing a space awakener in low levels.
But compared to the simplistic one, this was much more complex and also, much more rewarding.
Zap! Zap! Zaap!
Golden sparks erupted on the glowing net as it slowly enclosed on him.
Bali felt his instincts scream danger and they were right. This formation was able to combine the attacks in a way that attacking together wouldn't.
Of course, it wasn't a complete addition. If the twenty-odd abyssals could really add up their power into one attack, then they might as well gather a couple more dozen and fight off Sovereigns.
Fortunately, Combat formations had limitations.
Bali felt the limitation through his fire sense.
A couple more abyssals came and joined the formation, pushing the total number of abyssals to thirty. Of course, these newcomers were mainly early level 9s.
He didn't sense any significant increment in the formation's danger level.
So, the limit of output this formation could give was limited.
The Bali right now was one of the strongest peak level 9s. But even if he went head to head, he'd be suppressed by the net and due to the disparity in numbers, he'd eventually be tired out.
Of course, his space powers were a lifesaver. If it was a normal lightning awakener, he'd have to be very cautious to not be trapped, because once you're in the net, you'd slowly but surely be strangled to death.
He didn't need to fight them to death either. He just had to keep them 'engaged' so that Dreamer and Blue Flash could do their job properly.
'I wonder how Enigma is faring?' He glanced in a certain direction and saw explosions of gold and cracks of space.
Since he took up the level 9s, all the level 8s flooded to her.
He was initially worried, but seeing the active fireworks, he inferred that she was fine, at least for now, though definitely not for long.
Before they jumped into the mission, he could still remember Enigma's eyes. Even in his long life, he had never seen such eyes.
They were so cold and were filled to the brim with a killing intent that simply wouldn't vanish from his mind.
From Dreamer, Bali learned the reason behind those eyes. She wanted to avenge her dead comrades and was ready to face hell for it.
'I can take on them all. Just leave it to me.' Her words still rang in Bali's mind.
Before he knew it, Bali found himself respecting this woman who wasn't even someone from his own race.
'Hope the two drag out and end up killing us.' Bali chuckled inwardly, with half-fear and half-humor, and turned his focus back onto the formation.
'Why do I feel that something is missing?' As his space sense swept through the formation, Bali had a weird feeling, as if he was staring at a perfect object which seemed to lack something, like a song without a feeling.
"Is that all you got?" Bali roared. He badly wanted to hear a 'Yes'.
Just How bad? More badly when a husband asks his wife 'Is this child really mine?'
Alas, life was a bitch and he didn't get the yes.
Instead, he got a flashing bright light following which the formation started to glow with a new zeal…almost like as if it came to life.
The danger the lightning net gave jumped and in response, Bali's hair stood up with instinctual fear, while his heart sunk.
This power… was enough to kill him.
Standing at the center of the formation, Rivak spread his arms and grinned.
"THIS is all we got."