After defeating Aiko and collecting the spoil of his victory, Emery quickly rushed back to the southern entrance, because he was still worried about his friends who were fighting there. Rushing through the woods, Emery occasionally used [Blink] to reach the entrance in the shortest time possible..
When he reached the southern entrance, Emery heaved a sigh of relief seeing his four friends were still in the game. Currently, he could see Julian and Thrax were fighting against the stone acolyte. Their battle turned out to be a stagnant one.
On the other side of the battlefield, Dopa and a few of his team were fighting Micah. It was a battle of six against one, but Dopa's team didn't seem to have gained the upper hand, let alone be close to win.
There were also two more battles going in other corners. The first battle was Okoye and her Akamba team fighting against 3 elite acolytes. It appeared they were doing well on their own. Meanwhile, the other one was the one Klea and Chumo had joined in.
At first, the battle was three elites against six regulars. But as time passed, the regulars were defeated and if not for Chumo's help, they would definitely be annihilated. Thus, the battle which previously was on the verge of losing, courtesy to the defeat of other regular acolytes, turned into a somewhat manageable battle after Chumo entered the fray. And now, it was a two against three fight.
Seeing the overall situation, Emery didn't need much time to think which group to help. Theax and Julian should be fine with their opponent for the time being neither do Okoye and her team, and Emery wasn't that close to help Dopa in his fight. Therefore, he would be helping the battle where his two friends were currently in pickle.
But of course, he would not be that stupid as to announce his arrival to the opponents. There was no way he would not take advantage of their unawareness of him and didn't do a surprise attack. Emery chose to wait in the woods and wait for the right moment to launch the most decisive ambush.
The two elites, who were fighting against Klea, Chumo and the other acolyte, were a lightning element and a plant element acolyte. Emery could see how the lightning acolyte shot powerful spells from a distance, while his counterpart transformed both of his hands and feet into razor-sharp roots that circled around the two of them as a defensive means. The roots would also occasionally lash and strike.
On the other hand, Klea kept casting [Thunderbolt] spells and shot them towards the two elites. Emery could tell Klea's thunderbolts were much stronger than before. It was apparent from the crackling lightning that sounded very intimidating. Alas, the spells couldn't do much, as the lightning acolyte was able to keep up with her. The two of them kept countering each other to make sure the strong spells didn't hit their teammate.
In between the scene of long-ranged attacks, Chumo was trying to reach in to attack the lightning acolyte, accompanied by the other acolyte, who fought using a sword. Even though Chumo was already using his [Shadow Self] spell and the three of them charged in simultaneously, they still didn't manage to pass the thorny roots that lashed around. Emery couldn't help but think of someone swatting a bug, when he saw how the roots behaved.
*swish* *swish* Clank!
Multitude type of sounds resounded in the area as the battle kept going. The plant acolyte formed some sort of a moving wall of thorns with more than a dozen razor-sharp roots attacking like metal whips.
Furthermore, Chumo and the other acolytes were not only unable to break in to attack the lightning acolyte. They were even being pushed by the roots themselves. In fact, the regular acolytes got lashed by one of the roots and flew a few meters back for the sheer impact of it. He crashed into one of the trees and started bleeding profusely.
Klea kept throwing her [Thunderbolt] spells to either the plant or lightning acolyte, but her spells kept getting intercepted and couldn't reach their targets. Chumo used shadow steps and spirit missiles, but none was able to break through.
Emery believed his [blink] spell was the solution, he could pass those roots in a second. But he chose to wait and wait, observing until the perfect timing came. He gauged the time and concentrated his mind to not miss the right moment. And finally, his time came.
When Klea casted another powerful thunderbolt towards the lightning acolyte and he prepared to intercept it once again, Emery immediately used [Blink] and appeared behind the lightning acolyte. The lightning acolyte was still clueless about the presence of danger behind him, Emery quickly used the battle art skill [Hidden Blade], using the knife he picked up from Aiko.
The silent yet deadly knife swiftly made its way to the elite acolyte's back and proceeded to pierce it, causing him to lose focus and his spells failed to cast. Hence, the thunderbolt Klea casted was able to zoom through the air and hit the acolyte straight in the chest.
Emery himself was barely able to dodge the strong offensive spell, otherwise it would truly be the worse of friendly fire. But of course, the poor lightning acolyte received the full brunt of the spell, turning him into blackened, sizzling, crisp human. Immediately after, he dispersed into motes of light particles, leaving his counterpart, who was still dumbfounded by the surprise attack.
Even though Emery didn't get the points, since he wasn't the one who dealt the finishing blow, knowing Klea was the one who had it, he didn't mind at all.
When the plant acolyte woke up from his stupefied state and realized his partner was gone, leaving him the only one remaining, the acolyte decisively tried to run away as he rapidly retracted his roots.
Unfortunately, there was no way Emery would allow that to happen as he immediately casted [Shadow Root Binding] spell. Although this spell had its one glaring weakness, that was the speed of its root being ordinary, it didn't stop Emery from choosing this spell.
Instead of using the spell to bind the running acolyte, which could be a success or failure, Emery chose to entangle the roots that spread out around the acolyte. After all, even though the acolyte had tried his best to retract the roots, it just wasn't fast enough. The running acolyte's movement was impeded as his hands and feet were still attached to those roots.
As a result, it became a fight of strength between the two roots of different origin, Emery's shadow roots and the rank 7 elite acolyte thorn roots. Seeing that their strength was pretty much equal, Emery nodded his head feeling satisfied.
The elite plant acolyte realized he couldn't escape as his movement was restricted by his own spell, he immediately tried to wrestle control against Emery's roots. Unfortunately for him, the roots were not his main problem, but the pincer attack launched by Chumo and his shadow.
[Cross Slash]
Using the two knives he had, Chumo and his shadow swiftly swung their weapons and did a criss-crossed slash from the front and behind the acolyte. The slashes acutely hit the elite acolyte and he quickly dispersed into light particles.
With the last speck of light disappearing, the battle ended with the regular acolytes' win. At the moment, Chumo, Klea, and Emery each got one elite kill, which gave them 5,000 points each.
It was time to move to another battlefield.
Emery could already see that a group was winning, as Okoye and her team were able to kill their opponents. Only the battle in the center looked tricky, the battle between Dopa's team and Micah.