The Guards and Awakened were already prepared for Michael's arrival when they reached the third border settlent.
"Will they invite us inside or do we take that honor to ourselves?" Tiara snickered lightly.
While satiating her thirst for blood almost constantly during the last two days, Tiara's personality changed slightly. Usually, she was stiff and task-minded, acting like the future of her race depended on her alone. However, right now, Tiara felt more like a playful girl. That was a welco change – though Michael was not sure if it was appropriate in this situation.
A total of 4,000 Guards and close to a hundred Awakened were eagerly waiting for them. That was a little bit different from the earlier attacks.
Obliterating the Beast Ranches had been quite easy. anwhile, the border settlents required more work and finesse to make the most use of their powers. If a single mber of their small team had been missing, the invasion of the border settlents would have been useless.
The Greater Eagles easily transported them across the Kitsun Lord's territory, and both the Golden Stinger Wasp and the Elental Empress made use of their elental powers to aid the main fighting force of their team. Without their support, none of Michael's plans would have worked out.
That was also why Michael was grateful for everyone, who continued to fight by his side. They complained not even once to Michael and fought without large resting breaks for a long ti.
Everyone other than Michael was a little tired – ntally and physically –, but none of them wanted to stop after coming this far. Now that they made it this far, they wanted to deliver one more big blow to the Kitsun Lord before watching how the domino effect would lead to the end of the Kitsun Lord's territory, toppling everything down.
"How about we show our presence a little bit more, and watch how they're going to react? Maybe they will actually invite us inside," Mika asked with a tinge of excitent. He chuckled lightly and watched the responses of his colleagues with a gleeful expression.
anwhile, his Bow Artifact was already resting in his hand, waiting to be used once again.
"Hmm… why not? Since they know that we're coming to kill them, we might as well greet them properly," Michael responded by manifesting Zark.
The bow rested nicely in his palm, and an energy arrow condensed on its bowstring. Michael pulled the bowstring backward smoothly. His back arched, the arrow tip tilted higher, and a golden glint manifested in his eyes.
Three seconds was all it took to condense an arrow, pull the bowstring back, aim, and shoot.
The arrow was released with great montum. It cut through the air in a high arch over a distance of several hundred ters. The arrow descended after reaching its climax, and it rained down, piercing the designated target's throat accurately.
The target fell over the wall, crashed down, and remained lying on the ground, unmoving.
One shot. One kill.
Lilica glanced at Michael, one eyebrow raised, but she didn't say a word. That was not necessary.
Instead, Lilica retrieved her Bow Artifact and an arrow. The other mbers of the EraldLeaf Adventurer team followed their leader's action and manifested their weapons and projectiles as well. The EraldLeaf Adventurer team moved in unison, nocking an arrow on their bowstring, pulling back, aiming, and shooting in a beautiful arc.
With enough energy channeled into their Bow Artifacts, the EraldLeaf Adventurer team's arrows could cover a distance of several hundred ters with their bows. Their range was nearly as high as Michael's. The only issue was their eyesight. Forest Elves had good eyes, but they couldn't compare to the power of a 5-Star Soultrait that enhanced one's vision.
Nonetheless, years of experience played a major factor as well. The Forest Elves' arrows hit most of their targets, killing two Guards on the spot. They followed with a second barrage of arrows right after, which killed two more Guards.
Tiara, the Elental Empress, and the three monsters didn't do anything other than crane their necks while observing the arrows fly through the air until they impacted.
They stood in the wide-open Savannah with their heads held high and simply watched as chaos ensued on the settlent's walls.
After six barrages of arrows the chaos in the settlent died down. Silence enveloped the entire settlent all of a sudden, and the Guards stationed on the walls disappeared.
Following that, Michael returned Zark inside the War Rune. He moved over to Icarus and got on the Greater Eagle's back.
"I need to see what is going on in the settlent. Fly up," He ordered Icarus, who shot high into the air.
Using both Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze, Michael's eyesight was amplified to its peak. He ignored the cold wind splashing in his face and stared intently at the settlent.
'Huh?' Michael nearly blurted aloud, his eyes wavering for a mont at the sight that unfolded in front of him.
A golden swirl that looked just like the Elental Empress' spatial portal had ford in the center of the settlent. It was the size of a small house and allowed hundreds – no, thousands of Guards and Awakened – to erge in the settlent.
'He is bringing everyone over… but why only now? Why didn't he do that earlier?' Michael wondered, his eyes fixated on the center of the settlent.
2,000
5,000
10,000
The number of Kitsun erging from the portal continued to increase rapidly. It looked like the portal would never stop spitting out more Kitsun.
"It must be an expensive item that can only be used once. Is he getting serious now? After sacrificing thousands of subjects, and losing most of your fortune you decided to finally take seriously?" Michael was both amused and confused by his enemy.
It was about ti that the Kitsun Lord took him seriously. He was already bored to death with creating new speedrun records. If the third border settlent attack would have been even easier than the second, Michael would have eliminated the Kitsun Lord and his subjects in no ti.
'How many are there now in total? 25,000? That is…quite a lot to deal with…with our small gr–....' Michael couldn't finish his train of thought as he saw sothing from the corner of his eyes. Sothing that shot straight toward them with terrific velocity.
"Fuck!"
Just as Michael's curse rang out, sothing impacted heavily. Icarus screeched loudly and blood spurted through the air.
In the next mont, Icarus began hurtling down from the sky, one of his wings burning like a black sun.
It was odd that Michael couldn't see what exactly had hit them, but there was no ti to think about that. He and Icarus were falling down at a terrific speed, and they would die upon impact.
Michael's mind was rattling, but he couldn't think of a perfect solution in an instant. All he could think of was to conjure Glacicles around Icarus' burning wing in an attempt to extinguish the fire. The Glacicles burst apart, releasing its freezing mist. Facing the black flas that coated Icarus' right wing, the freezing mist lted quickly. However, it was their fortune that Glacicles' freezing mist was the Soultrait's strongest property. It was extrely cold and had a freezing effect that affected even the black flas.
The black flas flickered vigorously as they fought against Glacicle's freezing effect. The flas grew weaker, but it was not enough for Icarus to stabilize his mind. It was not as if the pain disappeared all of a sudden. On the contrary, Icarus felt like the pain grew much more intense with every passing mont.
Michael closed his eyes and released the Do of Extraction upon sensing Icarus' pain. His target was the black flas, which he tried to extract with a burst of 5-layer enhanced Extraction.
The flas dimd slightly, but they weren't extinguished imdiately.
Michael continued to curse in his mind as he thought of various solutions to rescue Icarus and himself. He could use Icarus' body to protect himself and decrease the intensity of the impact, and he could abandon Icarus by jumping from Icarus' back before creating a Qi Sword below himself.
He could also try to rescue both Icarus and himself with an enhanced Qi Sword, but Michael knew that he couldn't keep them in the air since they were too heavy. The Greater Eagle was not a lightweight, after all.
Gritting his teeth, Michael was just about to do sothing suicidal when he felt a heavy impact from below.
A green flash entered Michael's sight, and it was at this mont that he realized Icarus' mate had propelled herself high into the air.
She ignored her own safety and clawed Icarus tightly while using every bit of strength inside her body to ascend higher into the air. She fought against the gravity that tried to pull her, and Icarus downward, but it was a helpless fight.
The green-feathered Greater Eagle was not strong enough to stop Icarus' fall. She slowed the fall a little bit, but that was already everything she could achieve with her burst strength. Afterward, she was being dragged down to the ground as well.
She struggled to flap her mighty wings in a desperate attempt to rescue everyone and never let go of Icarus. But that was her downfall.
Dragged to the ground and unable to change the inevitable, the female Greater Eagle screeched loudly and desperately.
Michael looked over to the green-feathered Greater Eagle, a smile full of warmth forming on his face.
'I should think about a na for you once all of this is over.'
As the thought flashed through his mind, their distance to the ground decreased drastically. However, not even a trace of worry could be found on Michael's face. Instead, he glanced over to the Elental Empress with a knowing smile.
["Now!"]
In the next mont, a portal appeared beneath Icarus and the rest.
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