Outside the kitchen, Noah was fighting all the armored figures by himself. Regardless of their number, they couldn't get the upper hand in the fight. Noah's spells were so powerful. However, Noah did not kill any of them. He just incapacitated them as his mentor taught him. While fighting the armored figures, Noah noticed the interruption in the rain of arrows.
"Light Blade" Noah cast the spell without chanting. A long sword sparkling materialized in his hand. The armored figure surrounded Noah. Some of them had swords, some had spears, and some cast a spell that turned their fists into fire fists.
Diana's heartbeat was getting faster by the second. Looking at Noah facing all the unknown figures by himself made her uneasy. No one could tell which cultivation stage the armored figures or Noah was at.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Noah swung his light blade at the three figures dashing towards him. The figures with fiery fists shot fireballs. Nearly twenty scorching hot fireballs flew towards Noah.
The figures were fast but Noah was faster. He safely evaded their swords and counterattacked. The light sword in Noah's hand clashed with their metal swords, creating sparks of fire.
Diana and Ethan looked in the direction of the kitchen. They were nervously expecting Ghost to come out of the kitchen. They did not know what happened inside the kitchen.
"Puriferous"
"Expinio"
"Recta"
"Exterminiatis"
After Noah knocked out the three armored figures, those who were behind them immediately cast spells.
Ethan and Diana were stunned after they heard the spell casting. Ethan looked at Diana with a terrified look on his face. Diana's face was pale with shock and terror.
The spells they cast conjured various objects such as a dragon head made of fiery red energy, rotating chakra, and thorns that came out from the ground beneath Noah. The thorns tried to coil around Noah's legs but he cut the thorns like butter using his light sword. A hot stream of scorching hot fire was shot from the dragon's head. It burned the marble ground beneath to ashes as it shot towards Noah.
"Noah!"
Ethan, Diana, Xanali, and Alicia all shouted in unison.
"ARGH!"
Boom!
Noah let out a battle cry and swung the light blade at the stream of fire approaching him, splitting the fire in halves.
The translucent light bubble around Noah flickered after the chakra hit the bubble. The force of Noah's sword-swinging split the ground open. One of the armored figures fell into the crack. When he tried to get out, Noah flicked his wrist, forming a light spear in his hand.
He threw the light spear at the figure. The light spear stabbed the figure through the shoulder, pinning him to the ground.
Noah started to breathe heavily as he could count twenty people surrounding him. In addition, he sensed more figures flying above the building.
"Teacher" Noah called his teacher in his mind,
"They can't keep the void spell for no longer than ten minutes, Noah. Five minutes more and all the cultivators here would get their arch energy back"
Andreas's voice reassured Noah. Noah wiped off the blood dripping down the corner of his mouth.
Noah closed his eyes as the translucent bubble became brighter once again.
"Increnuno"
"Reflectenus"
"Clarasi"
"Scorchorus"
Some of the figures cast the spells and at the same time, the rest of them rushed at Noah. They seemed to target only Noah.
Boom!
All of sudden, a loud explosion shook the entire building. The ceiling crumbled, raining concrete bits and pieces down. The explosion did not even slow the figures down a bit. Thick gray smoke came out of the kitchen and covered the entrance. Diana and Ethan fixed their eyes on the kitchen door.
Through the cloud of smoke, they saw two figures walking out.
"Ghost" Diana couldn't help letting out a heave of sigh in relaxation. Ethan too slightly looked relieved.
When Michael came out of the kitchen, he saw nothing but ruins. His favorite restaurant and the first business he owned in this world were in rumbles.
The elders and the guests were hiding behind tables while many bodies were laid on the ground under blocks of rocks. The arrows stopped fortunately which meant Azazel had done his task successfully.
Gaya's anger was bubbling inside her yet she remained calm for Ghost. She squeezed his arm.
Since they saw Ghost use his arch energy earlier, they kinda expected him to join forces with Noah and fight the armored figures. However, Michael just completely ignored the battle happening just a few meters away from him and made his way towards where Claire and the elders were.
Surprisingly the armored figures completely ignored Michael and Gaya.
"What is he doing?" Ethan asked bewildered,
Michael stepped over an armored figure who was pinned to the ground by Noah.
"Ghost, Aelia, get down!"
Gaya heard a familiar voice coming from behind a round table. However, she sensed grief in the voice of Elder Reiner. Behind the round table, Claire was sobbing. Elder Mark laid on her lap as Elder Reiner and Elder Sandra were holding Elder Mark's hand.
An arrow was sticking out of Elder Mark's throat. His eyes were closed and his skin was pale as white paper.
Claire looked up at Ghost. Tears were gushing out of her eyes. There were several empty vials near Elder Mark. Everyone looked at him. But there was no expression on his face at all. He stood there like a statue.
Inside, Michael was burning with rage. His rage was so overwhelming that he suppressed the third persona completely. He was so pissed at himself. He blamed himself for the ambush. His mind kept reminding him that he should have been more prepared and careful.
"Go," Gaya said. She wasn't going to hold him back anymore. She doubted she could hold him back anymore. She herself was burning with rage.
Granted Michael and Gaya weren't close with Elder Mark as they were with Elder Reiner. Gaya was close with Elder Sandra too as she worked with Elder Sandra managing the funds in the sect and Bradford.
Yet when they saw Elder Mark's lifeless body, both of them grieved. The death of Jack flashed across their eyes. First Jack and now they lost Elder Mark.
Michael was standing on one end, Noah was on the other hand and the armored figures stood in the middle. Several figures surrounded Noah as they focused on Noah.
Zzzhhhhhrrrrrrr!
Zzzzzzhhhhhrrrr!
The buzzing sound of electricity reverberated the hall as bolts of lightning coiled around Ghost's hand. The two black swords materialized in his hand and soon, the lightning bolts coiled around the blades as though they were tiny snakes.
"Teacher"
Noah called out to his teacher in his mind. Noah was stunned to see Ghost using Arch energy.
"I…I don't know" for the first time, Noah heard his teacher stutter without having an answer.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 10000 badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 5000 badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 4000 badass points]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for successfully being a badass. The reward is 6000 badass points]
….
The sound of notifications kept ringing in his head like crazy. He completely ignored them. When a rapidly increasing amount of badass points could not put a smile on his face, one should know someone was about to get slaughtered mercilessly.
Diana's jaw slightly opened as the images of the Dark Lord she saw in the future flashed across her eyes. Those who surrounded Noah dashed at him despite failing again and again to kill him. They seemed to be oblivious to Michael's existence.
Michael slowly raised his sword as the golden lightning bolts coiling around the sword became brighter and brighter. In the next second, a thick bolt of lightning shot out of the end of the sword.
Boom!
The armored figure which got hit by the lightning bolt exploded into a red mist. A Core Formation level 3 cultivator stood no chance against Michael.
The rest of the armored figures finally noticed Michael. They stopped attacking Noah and turned their gazes at Ghost.
Noah could have easily overpowered the armored figures if he went for the kill. Instead, Noah focused on incapacitating them. Otherwise, Noah would have ended the battle long ago.
"Kill them, kill them all!" Claire shouted. For the first time in her life, she encouraged someone to take lives.
"No, don't!" Peyton and Xanali screamed from the other end.
The armored figures momentarily stopped attacking as though they were interested in the conversation. Something about them rubbed both Noah and Michael in the wrong way. They were acting more and more like puppets who were being controlled by someone or something else.
"Diddle diddle" the cold words escaped Michael's mouth,
"You are so…" he slowly stepped towards the armored figures without an expression on his face. There were two armored figures in front of him. One was standing with a fiery fist while the other one was pinned to the ground by Noah's light sword.
"Etheri-"
The one who was standing tried to cast a spell,
Pulch!
His chanting was abruptly stopped by a sword through his throat.
Zzzzhhhhhrrrrr!
The electric bolts slid through the sword to the armored figure. The figure's body violently squirmed as smoke began to come out from the inside and out. The lightning bolts turned his body into a pile of half-burned mess within a few minutes.
"Ignitia" Michael turned his sword to the armored figure who was standing a couple of meters away from him. The lightning bolt shot out from the sword soared through the sky,
"Light beam"
At the same time, Noah raised his light sword as a beam of light shot out from the end of the light sword.
Boom!
The light beam hit the lightning bolt before it could reach the target. When they both clashed, a mini-explosion knocked everyone around them to the ground. Their eyes were locked on each other.