“Almond, t-that….” Natalia almost bit her tongue as she saw the huge cannon barrel.
“I got that,” Almond calmly said. “But Neo shouldn’t be stupid enough to launch an attack like that against me. He should know I can easily nullify it.”
“Yeah, but he’s doing it,” Kexell’s snout burst with flames. “You think that sneaky bastard has a trick to bypass your wormholes?”
Almond’s eyes intently stared at the cannon, his spatial awareness was also capturing everything outside.
“It’s happening!”
“Almond,” Admiral Rudra looked at Almond.
Almond didn’t answer and was focused.
Usually, he could form two portals, one against the incoming beam and another to redirect it toward the enemy, but Almond decided to listen to his instincts and waved his hand as if slashing.
Instantly, a flickering pitch-black void blade slashed through that cannon’s barrel, causing an explosion right there and then.
*Boom!*
However, Neo appeared unbothered. “So he did make a move beforehand.”
“Are we going to wait while their formations remain active?” Zanathriel asked.
“That’s ideal,” Neo nodded. “The formations are a lot and powered with a huge amount of energy. Our people will be at a disadvantage.”
“How long do you think they can keep it active?”
“No idea.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“We have time to test a few things out,” Neo smiled as his eyes flickered and ten metallic orb-eyes conjured before him. “For now, we’ll just wait here and see their reaction.”
The ten orbs entered inside, quickly sending a mapping pulse that ignored magic waves, only capturing vital sources and creating visuals captured with sonar vibration waves.
Naturally, Almond destroyed those ten orbs-eyes quickly, but they still managed to capture some vital signs and the geography of the formation area.
“They don’t want to come here,” Silvester clicked his tongue. “Almond, how long can we keep this formation area active?”
Almond sighed, “Half an hour, but I can power it with one Energy Spirit and make it run for an hour more.”
“So that won’t change the clash today. The event starts after more than six hours, and that’s plenty of time for them,” Arjun frowned. “Almond, how about forcefully teleporting them inside?”
“That’s what I am thinking,” Almond nodded. “And I am sure Neo would prepared for that, so I want to do that with a different method.”
“Different method?”
Lily raised an eyebrow and said, “Almond, are you thinking of teleporting our entire area along with Earth’s base to include them in the formation area?”
Almond smiled, “Yep. If I target them, I’d feel more resistance and interference from Neo and Zanathriel. But that won’t be the case with targetting our people and place.”
“I’ll connect to everyone telepathically first,” Almond said and connected, relaying a message to all.
“Everyone, please prepare to fight. The enemy will appear in ten seconds, all of them at once, so unleash yourself and give your all or our world will be no more.”
Hearing that the enemy would appear in ten seconds, everyone quickly became alert and battle-ready.
Almond began making a move, and in the tenth second, he shifted the entire 50-kilometer area forward seamlessly while replacing the ground evenly without targeting any of the enemy.
Suddenly finding themselves within the formation area, the world changed for them as their effects were unleashed along with attacks from old monsters, top powerhouses, and all others.
Neo and Zanathriel moved without thinking the moment they sensed changes, arriving right beside the Golden Dragon Emperor because they also knew that protecting the artifact was the only way to keep Kexell’s curse power suppressed.
Otherwise, Kexell could affect the weaker enemy en-mass and kill them all.
Almond’s plan was also to destroy the artifact, so when he moved after shifting the battlefield, he saw Neo and Zanathriel right beside the Dragon Emperor.
A single eye contact was all that was needed as the trio made moves.
‘You’ll play with me, Almond Crowshade.’
Zanathriel’s spear spiraled at him, piercing through Almond’s Devouring Layer instantly.
Feeling a raging torrent of fighting will and power, Almond’s pupils contracted while his hand moved as his sword aptly blocked the strike, his hand moving upward to deflect the spear.
‘Nice reaction speed,’ Zanathriel grinned as his spear’s tip suddenly bit onto space itself while his figure unnaturally bent as he exerted strength in his arm to grab the spear tightly before launching a kick.
Almond’s eyes glimmered with an ethereal blade while he used Lumeir, his figure turning into particles instantly and materializing behind Zanathriel.
The kick missed, but the impact unleashed a harrowing wide projectile that shattered several formations’ cores.
“Not ba-” Zanathriel smiled, but it suddenly faltered as a strange sense of weakness struck him, and he found his Strength reduced by 25%.
Almond launched himself at Zanathriel, a single impact sending him straight into the ground, but Zanathriel took no time to get back as several black spots appeared around Almond as if painting the space black, and then, spikes burst out from them towards him.
However, Almond vanished and teleported right in front of Zanathrial who had already flown up, launching unceasing sword attacks at him to put him on the defensive.
Each of his attacks was full-powered and could fatally injure Zanathriel, forcing Zanathrial to go all out as well to block Almond’s fierce assault.
‘Die!’ Almond’s eyes blazed.
Zanathriel couldn’t remain smiling as the way Almond attacked with his sword kept him on edge.
Meanwhile, Neo entangled with Kexell who was targeted by the Dragon Emperor using his artifact.
Four different avatars of Neo attacked Kexell as Kexell moved like a river of darkness, launching his attacks as well as dodging attacks while moving around.
‘Fuck, fuck! That darn artifact!’
Kexell was sweating buckets. Most of his will fueled his curse conceptual power, but his direct assault-type skills were weaker as he hadn’t focused on them much.
Glancing at Almond, Kexell sighed a slight relief. ‘Keep it up and kill him!’
“Do you think Almond can kill Zanathriel?” Neo’s voice rang.
“Humph, he can. Just watch and soon it’ll be your turn.”
Indeed, Almond was beating the shit out of Zanathriel with his vitality going down fast and Zanathriel getting no chance to counterattack.
Old monsters and other top powerhouses were also killing enemies. None of them had died yet, but all of them had already killed multiple enemies with the formations’ support.
It appeared that Earth was winning.
Even some strong powerhouses of Legendary rank that tried to sneak back to destroy Earth’s base were hunted by Asura.
*Slash…Crackle!*
Almond’s attack broke Zanathriel’s defense and struck, utterly decimating him into several pieces.
“Hahaha, you’re dead now, Neo!” Kexell laughed.
“Is that so?” Neo’s voice rang from all four Neo as they smiled, unbothered by Zanathriel’s death.
Almond was also about to deal with the Dragon Emperor, but a danger bell suddenly rang and a spear came hurling him, warming the space with the red and black spiral stream, before instantly striking his heart…almost.
Almond forcefully froze it for a quarter of a second as he teleported out of the spear’s way.
“Don’t tell me you thought I was done?”
Zanathriel’s voice echoed as he emerged from a patch of darkness suspended in the air, positioning into a spear-stance as he bent his lean limbs, a wide and sharp smile on his face.
“For me, death is a new beginning.”