Aron Steele was no longer able to hide in the horde of shadows. In fact, he fell into a great disadvantage in the middle of the fight. He was able to kill some of the remaining Champions through the use of the environment and the minions of the darkness.
But right as he was about to kill the last one, the Champion struck back, and the Commander suddenly rushed in.
The blood of the Champions he slew had managed to stick on him and was used by the Vampire Commander as a means to find Aron.
It all happened so fast, and Aron relied on his Path of Combat to evade and avoid the attacks of the Vampire Commander and keep himself alive.
Aron could evade and kill the Champion, but his right arm and left arm were sliced off by the Commander.
The battle turned into a chase as Aron fled and tried to hide within the shadows. The first thing Aron did was order the ghouls to move out of his body along with his attire. Instead, the dark creature moved and blended with the shadows and disappeared in it.
The Shadow ghouls could now understand basic commands and followed, bringing a piece of the Wings of Darkness with them. Aron activated his Force energy and sliced all forms of parasites that were the cause of the enemy detecting him.
The chase continued, and through various near evades and slips, Aron bumped into one of the monsters, and suddenly, his form became black, and he fled to the numerous creatures of the darkness.
The Vampire Commander didn't slash out. He knew that Aron could evade, and killing more of the shadows was making Aron stronger and helping him recover Force Energy.
"Your instincts are incredible. If it weren't for the fact that I wanted to make you my Coven, I'd have killed you off so easily. But it's hard when I'm trying to capture you. Still, you fell for my trap. I control the very blood of my Coven. So with those drops on your body, it was easy to find you. How did you know that it was those blood that gave away your location? Was it because of your Path of Combat? Amazing..."
The disappearance of his dark armor forced the nearby shadow creatures to attack him. This caused the Vampire Commander to pause from his relentless attacks. But after some contemplating, the Commander quickly made powerful attacks that utilized strange blood energy that acted as a sword.
The sword slashed out and slew the nearby shadow creatures revealing Aron, who evaded it by ducking.
"[Blood Field]!" The Vampire Commander shouted as the Blood sword exploded and rained down on Aron.
But Aron miraculously avoided all drops and jumped towards the uncontrollable shadow creatures. He tackled one, and surprisingly, the darkness covered him and even gave him arms. Then, after moving deeper into the army, Aron vanished once more.
The Vampire Commander flew up and had a very impressed look.
"Amazing! If you become my Coven, I ought to become the strongest Commander among the forces of Cardinal Heralcus." The Vampire Commander was amazed.
"You harnessed your sword energy and created concentrated splashes to counter the parts of the blood you couldn't evade and evaded the rest. I've never seen someone evade the rain as you did. Your skills vastly surpass my former champions. Your Path of Combat is even greater than mine! And there is that mysterious ability of yours to recover at the deaths of those nearby." The Vampire Commander smiled.
"And even when I sliced off your two hands, you managed to kick it and make it disappear into the shadow, ordering those shadow ghouls to keep it hidden... You were right in doing that. Had I drank a bit of your blood, I could easily find you." The Vampire Commander laughed.
"The darkness of your shadow ghouls is also intriguing. It is a darkness that surpasses the quality that Cardinal Heralcus can summon and can easily blend among the force below. Is the Nephilim also among them? Is he a Necromancer?" The Vampire Commander wondered as he smiled.
Aron was standing among the armies. He was doing his best to remain conscious. The shadow ghouls were clumsily sticking his arm in place, but it never got attached. The massive blood loss was also being caught by the darkness and tried to plug the wound of Aron.
"But since you wish to remain hidden, then I shall go ahead and attack your allies. My army has approached." The Vampire Commander smiled.
A swarm of bats could be seen flying in the distance.
"These vampires are very vulnerable in their bat form. So its aerial capabilities are nothing compared to the wraiths of the Shaman Commander. But its mobility and uses do well with Crab Commander's ground forces. The giants have moved in, right? I wonder how your allies are dealing with them. Since you and the Nephilim love to play hide-and-seek, then I shall indulge myself in some fresh blood. I hope more of your allies are at least half as strong as you." The Vampire laughed as the massive swarm of bats rushed towards the opening.
The Vampire Commander turned into Mist as well, and the smoke could be seen moving towards the portal entrance.
Aron sighed and began to move towards the portal's entrance.
As Aron made his death march towards the portal, another critical moment was happening on the other side of the battle.
"This is too dangerous! We're retreating!" Mezal gave the orders the moment the group had utilized the Emberbombs.
Mezal cursed as he had to reveal the real power of his True Cut and slashed out at the Soul Wall that hindered their retreat.
SLASH!
The Walls broke, and the group immediately broke out with great haste.
As the Emberdons and Mezal retreated, Demerus gazed back to see the effect of their attack. Then, after retreating and breaking through the Soul wall that stopped them, Demerus hoped that this gave them some time to escape.
"That wall became weaker." Mezal frowned as he felt it. The moment he slashed on the wall, the Soul Bindings that kept it up had greatly weakened. Now that the Shaman revealed more of her aces, Mezal could understand what that soul wall was. It was a small portion of captains and possibly champions. But the energy dispersed and began to move.
As the flames and smokes of the attack cleared out, the Emberdons could finally see it.
Three times thicker than the one that entrapped them, a thick soul wall appeared and blocked the attacks. The Emberdons didn't hold back and launched massive attacks at them and even used special bombs that their family had crafted. Each bomb required massive amounts of Magic, and it was no different than bestowing magic energy to create another Champion mage.
"It didn't even break that wall!" Demerus cursed.
Behind the massively thick walls, the Emberdons could feel the massive energy being formed.
"That power...!" Faye trembled as she felt it.
"It's too strong! I can't even compare the power of that beast to the former Commanders!"
"What dark magic! She turned her entire army into her body!" Triona cursed.
"Impressive attack. That attack forced me to sacrifice a massive amount of wraiths. Be proud that you actually forced me to use [Army of One]." The familiar alluring voice of the Shaman could be heard as the gigantic spirit avatar of the Shaman was completed.
The massive figure began to compress itself and shrunk bit by bit.
"Retreat with all your speed!" Mezal decided.
"Where are we going?" Demerus asked.
Mezal hesitated.
"No-North East." Mezal gave his cowardly reply.
"What? Towards Lady Martha? We should head north towards the Temple!" Demerus argued.
Mezal gritted his teeth in anger. He feared the curse. If the Curse of Destiny was true, then Aron and Branze, who was north, would die before his eyes. He couldn't bear to see it.
"Master Mezal... Trust your sons..." Faye suddenly spoke.
Mezal trembled.
"Oh, this is taking too long. I'll decide for you." The alluring voice of the Shaman resounded once more as the massive spiritual avatar disappeared and became massive bluish energy that shot towards Mezal and the Emberdons.
"Rush out now!" Mezal ordered, and the Emberdons placed everything that they got to retreating.
BOOM!
The carpet began to fly three times faster than it did.
"What?!" Triona was shocked.
But even with their speed, Triona could see the movement of the massive energy that flashed like lightning towards them.
Mezal saw the approaching light and knew that they would die if hit by it. So Mezal leaped off the carpet.
"[Death Stance]!" Mezal shouted as a thick soul power emerged out and added on the layers of his force energy.
"Hmph! If that's your curse, Destiny, then I shall simply die before I see anyone else die before me!" Mezal decided. He had made several plans on how to deal with the Shaman Commander. But in the face of raw, unsurmountable power, he could not perform any of the plans they had set. So his choice was to release his aces. Of all the Steele Family, Mezal was the strongest in using Shaman Arts.
"[Purging Aura]!" Mighty holy energy erupted out of Mezal's body. It was a Holy energy that only the purest of Paladins could release. In his time in the Temple, the Temple had been bestowing Mezal with pure energy. Following the holy aura that Drake Vestitude revealed when he attacked the Eldirch servants, Mezal was able to create an even purer power.
A massive shield appeared in front of Mezal as the blue light approached.
BOOM!
The fight of souls began.
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