572 Xylon’s Invaders
Michael could easily tell that the invading forces belonged to the Council of Xylon. He didn’t know any other alliance with this many different races. Other than the Council of Xylon, of course.
There were more than a hundred Awakened from more than 50 races, and it didn’t take Michael long before he realized that the number of invaders was higher than indicated on the Pillar of Territorial Awareness. More Awakened must have entered the Greater Nature Spirit’s domain on his way to the border.
‘200? No. There are almost 300 Awakened. Every single one of them is at the 3rd Tier as well,’ Michael was perched high up on a treetop near the invading forces with Spirit Eyes fully unleashed.
Spirit Eyes allowed him to see a lot. That included the threads that connected the Awakened with their Artifacts. Michael could easily pinpoint Awakened through the special threads of Artifacts. Summons didn’t have those threads even if they were wield an Artifact. It was just an ordinary Armament in their hands.
The connection between the Artifacts and the Awakened allowed the wielder to retract the Artifacts at will and to benefit from the advantages of the Artifacts’ external enhancement.
Michael had a great advantage by being able to pinpoint Awakened easily. Most would have to look out for their War Rune, or wait until an Awakened used their Soultrait to determine whether they were Summons or Awakened, but Michael could identify them easily.
Spirit Eyes was also how Michael distinguished the combat prowess of his enemies. Awakened were usually stronger than Summons at the same rank. There were exceptions like the Immortal Knight, obviously, but Artifacts and Soultraits made up for a big chunk of an Awakened’s combat prowess.
‘It’s still a surprise to see close to 300 Awakened attack the Trilance from behind. They’re rather strong as well. Is that the Council of Xylon’s Elite Unit?’ Michael wondered, only to recall something he had heard quite often in the past few days.
If the Trilance could request support from their Clans and higher-ups outside the Origin Expanse, the Lords from the Council of Xylon could do the same.
‘So some Lords from the Council of Xylon asked for help, and they sent over a bunch of Elite Awakened? Or are those forces the Elite Awakened that had been held back until now, like a trump card to be used at the right opportunity?’ 𝘳.𝑐ℴ
Either way, Michael had to intervene. The border settlement of the Zynur Lord was protected by some guards, but the majority of the Trilance’s military power had been called to the battlefield.
‘Smart plan. Unfortunately, you are missing out on the fact that the Untamed Jungle is not a playground!’
It was fairly intelligent to send out a small group of powerful Awakened to take a detour around the Trilance’s territory and invade the Untamed Jungle to strike the Trilance where they expected it the least. But their intelligent network didn’t seem to be all that great, otherwise, they would have known that there was another Lord in the Untamed Jungle; the Lord who exterminated the Kitsun Lord, resulting in the start of the Regional War, in the first place.
Michael returned silently to the ground, Spirit Eyes’ power amplified with a Soul Tear and several layers of Enhancement. He used the thicket and monstrous tree trunks to hide from his ignorant enemies while stalking them. They couldn’t see him, but Michael could see through the trees and thicket. Their lifeforce and the origin energy compressed into their pillar of light was easily perceptible for him after Soul Tears and Enhancement amplified Spirit Eyes’ potency and efficiency.
The cogs in his mind began to rattle and he was just about to manifest Aethyr when he noticed something. The Awakened didn’t move in one unit. They were split up into small groups to stay close to each other. Only two groups seemed to communicate with each other, but Michael felt that they were only moving as a huge group because they looked almost the same.
‘They don’t like to mingle with other races. Not the best move if you were to ask me,’ Michael mumbled in his head.
He reached the back of the group and had yet to be noticed. Michael was surprised that nobody had taken note of him, but that played in his favor.
He used Extraction around his body to extract his body odor, the vibrations of his steps, and the sounds he made while stalking around the group of Awakened as well as possible. It was not perfect, but the sounds, sweat, and vibrations of the Awakened did enough to overshadow the last bits of smell, vibrations, and sounds of himself that he couldn’t extract.
Michael held his breath and appeared behind the group that was the furthest in the back. The distance to the next closest group was only ten meters but a thicket separated them. Michael shot forward, manifested the Aethyr dagger, covered it in a thick layer of Reinforced Sword Qi, and sliced the throat of the nearest Awakened.
He covered the Awakened’s mouth to muffle the noises he was about to make, but the two Awakened who had been walking with him noticed that something was off. They turned around, confused as to why their colleague stopped talking all of a sudden, only to see the Grim Reaper stare down upon them with vibrant golden eyes.
Both Awakened held their heads and fell to their knees when Michael’s Spiritual Domination impacted heavily on them, making them feel as if their heads would burst apart. However, they couldn’t even groan in pain as a Soul Glacicle Bullet covered in Reinforced Sword Qi shot via their parted lips. The Soul Glacicle Bullet pierced through the soft flesh in their mouth and burst apart, releasing highly compressed freezing mist down their throat.
Michael jumped forward, the Aethyr dagger transforming into a long blade correct before he beheaded the two Awakened with swift slashes. .
He didn’t have any time to calm down or take a breather. Michael extended his origin energy to store the corpses of the three Awakened the moment their energy influx reached him. In the next moment, he disappeared into the densely grown jungle again.
The group near the three Awakened that fell victim to Michael didn’t notice anything. One of them looked to the left with a boring, almost lethargic gaze, only to realize that the three Awakened were missing.
“Are we the last in line? I could swear that someone had been behind us,” He mumbled, only to give it a shrug. Maybe, he was mistaken, or maybe, the group next to them had moved ahead with fast strides. Whatever it was, he couldn’t care less.
It was not until a faint rustling sound behind the Awakened triggered his alarm. His danger senses went haywire and he jumped around, raised his weapon, and attacked. His eyes glimmered as he triggered his Soultrait, but it was already too late. The Grim Reaper with golden eyes had already appeared in front of him.
A long silver blade pierced forward and the Awakened’s sight turned hazy as a bad headache impacted him. He could barely open his mouth to utter a single word before the world around him turned dark.
“Run…”
His voice was silent, but following the squishing of the Aethyr blade piercing via the Awakened’s neck, the danger senses within the other Awakened next to their colleague were triggered. They turned around, their Soultraits activated instinctively. However, as their heads turned around, all they could see were hundreds of Icicles covered with a silver membrane.
The icicles were manifested from Glacicle and heightened with Reinforced Sword Qi. They shot forward as Michael unleashed them with a burst of energy, impacting heavily onto the Awakened and their Artifacts. The freezing perk of Glacicle came to full effect as they froze the Awakened’s Armor, skin, and the flesh underneath in the instance the glacicle shattered. One of the Awakened reacted just in time to conjure a shield using his Soultrait in front of himself, but Michael was even faster to react.
He noticed that the Awakened would respond fast enough to survive and utilized his physical superiority to appear behind the Awakened correct after the glacicles shattered the Awakened’s shield. The Awakened tried to conjure a second shield and move around to face Michael head-on, but Michael’s physical strength, speed, and his reaction time were much higher than the Awakened due to Enhancement, Spirit Eyes, and Superior Constitution being in full use.
The Aethyr Blade pierced via the Awakened’s chest, cleanly cutting through the armor’s seams. Michael twisted the blade in the wound before blasting a layer of Reinforced Sword Qi inside his body to turn a severe injury into a mortal wound.
Michael transformed the Aethyr Blade into a small dagger instead of retracting the weapon. He didn’t waste any momentum and issued a second attack, slicing the Aethyr dagger via the Awakened’s throat. Following that, a fountain of blood gushed out of the Awakened’s throat. His eyes widened, terror and disbelief glimmering inside them until the traces of life dispersed.
The Awakened’s eyes turned hollow and cold. He was dead.
Michael, however, was not yet done. The other Awakened were half frozen, but not yet dead. He transformed the Aethyr Dagger into a huge Warhammer and spun around his axis, using the momentum to crush one of the half-frozen Awakened. The other Awakened released a bullet conjured from air to attack Michael but he didn’t even try to evade him.
The air bullet was aimed at the Spirit Armor Set and it didn’t even put a dent into it. Even if it would have destroyed the Spirit Armor Set, it wouldn’t have enough power remaining to harm Michael. Thus, instead of evading the attack, Michael took it head-on to finish the final Awakened of the second small group and end the battle a bit faster.
“7 Awakened down. 290ish left to kill.”
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