Even though they killed many right as they emerged, the mindless charge never stopped as more just kept coming and dying. The few who survived had to be faced by the second-rankers, or the cannons beside the ones focused on the tunnels would change their aim and put them down.
The hundreds of black monsters continuously releasing fire, ice, and psychic breaths had already destroyed many laser cannons and the pigmen warriors operating them. Rurik and Lyska were constantly looking back, worried for their people, but they knew killing Bloodedge was more important here. They knew their duty and continued their assault on Bloodedge relentlessly.
Sam also launched bolts after bolts of lightning, but Bloodedge just used a weird black liquid-like substance that was coming out of his body to shield himself from their attacks. Nothing was getting past the weird thing—not even Einar’s full-power exploding sword slashes or Rurik and Lyska’s relentless, overpowered, giant fire-covered sword attacks.
The two transcendents used all types of spells they had in their repertoire, but barely anything was working—the lava streams spell, or frozen breath spell, not even the massive balls of psychic attack spells were effective.
There was something Sam had noticed though: when Bloodedge removed the black formless shield to launch a flurry of his own blood-red arcs, the black lines and patterns drawn all around his body were fading slowly.
The enormous sound of thousands of emperor-rank black ones punching and melting away Lucian’s ice mountain blocking the valley was another thing making the whole situation even more dire. They had to do this before Bloodedge had full control of so many emperor-rank black ones behind his back.
It was clear Bloodedge understood that too, and he was focusing as much as possible on defense and keeping himself alive. He only attacked when he was absolutely sure no fatal attack could reach him.
Sam and Einar used their wormholes again and again to surprise the guy or to go at his blind side to at least deliver one decisive attack, but a human transcendent was not as simple as a pigman transcendent. They had over seven elements in control, not because they had some special body structures.. Purely because humans were much more sensitive to mana and could easily pick up anything weird going on around them.
A peak-level master like Bloodedge could easily sense the second they activated their wormholes and could hide behind his black formless shield.
The battle continued, with all of them giving everything they had to bring down this one enemy, but it wasn’t easy, Bloodedge kept calling for nearby monsters for aid, and the monsters, being controlled without any resistance, died for him without caring for any primal fears. Both the few remaining aerial monsters and the land-based ones coming through the tunnels kept interrupting the fight, but Sam drove everyone’s attention to the black lines.
And in the hope that the shield’s integrity was somehow related to those fading lines, they kept attacking without stopping. Lyska and Rurik had exhausted a lot of their mana and had already changed to just pure physical attacks. Sam and Einar, however, still holding their last mana container with more than half liquid mana, just attacked with all the powerful skills and spells they had.
Sam could only use his lightning, which was, quite frankly, doing the most damage. But Einar wasn’t limited to that—she used all kinds of fire and water-based spells, which were her affinities and formed the basis of her second-ranker jobs.
She launched gigantic birds of fire that spewed streams of flame on Bloodedge’s black shield, constantly pinning the guy down. The massive bird also handled any aerial monsters that came close to them. In between, she also released hidden giant air blades and high-temperature streams of boiling water. She had some weird spell that launched the hidden streams from beneath the land with a powerful force. It was a first-time thing for Sam. Never had he seen any such spell.
All the while, they continued to send aura blades filled with lightning bolts and exploding fire birds. The black lines on Bloodedge were fading slowly but surely, and along with them, cracks started to appear on the otherwise polished, spotless black shield of his.
Hope was reigniting in everyone’s heart—even though the sounds of the monster army banging their massive fists against the ice wall were growing closer with each passing second.
The black shield was going down. Lucian should wake up soon too and open a waygate back to the city. They could quickly take down Bloodedge and retreat. It will all work out somehow.
However, those were just wishes.
Suddenly, Sam felt a wave of dread like one he had never felt before. Something ominous.. Behind Lucian’s giant ice wall. All the loud sounds of the punches and fire stream attacks seemed to suddenly stop. And repeatedly coming, an enormous sound of something huge crashing into the hard snow and crunching it beneath started to become more noticeable. It shook the whole valley and the outside land.
It was like someone was hitting the ground with a giant hammer continuously.. Or it could be enormous footsteps. Sam couldn’t even imagine how big a monster it possibly could belong to.
Bloodedge broke out into a maniacal laughter, half-hiding behind his black shield, “When will you understand? You cannot do anything.. Anything at all.. Against absolute power. All of you are just merely ants to him. The Lord of Abyss will devour everything. Soon.. Soon.. You all shall become his.. Hhahahaahah..”
As if waiting for the cue, the frightening sound of the gigantic footsteps stopped, and in the next second, a gargantuan pitch-black fist shattered the ice wall coming through on the other side.
The sound of the impact was so loud it echoed through the entire valley and beyond, freezing everything in time for a moment as enormous pieces of ice fell down from the high ice mountain—right before Sam and everyone fighting Bloodedge.
The maniacal laughter of the insane transcendent didn’t stop as punch after punch landed on the ice wall and shattered it completely—opening a wide path for the monstrous entity and its smaller emperor-rank companions.
“Legend.. That thing is Legendary rank..” Sam heard Einar’s shaking voice from beside him. His own heart was pounding at full speed.