Gael sped through the field that separated the Armakea and Eidum's borders. He made full use of his shadow-sensing to scout for any presence up ahead but to no avail.
With a slight frown, he stopped and summoned his Shadow minions and ordered them to scatter in several directions. After that, he left and moved forward.
Several minutes later, Gael still failed to sense anything, which worried him. It was one thing not to sense Achim and the others but to fail to sense any other lifeforms within his shadow-sensing range, that did not bode well.
Krsh!
Suddenly, Gael's connection to one of his Shadow minions disappeared.
Krsshh! Krsshh!
Before he could make sense of what had happened, one after another, his connection with the rest of the Shadow minions also disappeared.
Gael abruptly stopped and retracted his shadow-sensing. After which, he summoned a Shadow barrier, encasing himself in a huge black sphere.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several invisible blades came at Gale from every direction. But because of the timely activation of the Shadow barrier, the invisible blades were absorbed without inflicting any fatal injuries.
Gael's expression distorted from inside the Shadow barrier as he felt how much power was inserted into those invisible blades. Frankly, if he had not retracted his shadow-sensing and only put up a normal magic barrier, he would have been diced alive.
"To think I'd see the day when my Phantom Blades would fail to cut through an outsider's barrier, interesting."
Gael scowled as he tried to locate where the voice came from. He did not have to search long because a figure in full silver armor, standing more than two meters, holding a glowing silver long sword, had appeared a hundred meters upfront from where he was.
'An Armakean Knight and he knew I was an outsider,' Gael thought while observing the knight.
Because most knights he saw wore full armor, he did not know which group this knight belonged to.
The knight's energy differed from Gael's, but that was insufficient to determine the former's allegiance. After all, Kyran only absorbed six Armakeans, with five of them being knights.
There were knights under Achim's leadership that Kyran had yet to absorb, and the knight before Gael might be one.
"Don't make excuses, Kaleel. You should know your Divine Armament is inferior to an outsider's magic barrier. You should have let me sneak attack instead."
Whoosh! Cackle!
Gael's eyes widened as he sensed danger coming his way, and as he heard a cackling sound, it was followed by a loud explosion.
Boom!
Gael felt his surroundings tremble as lightning struck his Shadow barrier.
Because of the intensity of the explosion, the ground around the barrier was reduced to ashes.
Clouds of dirt and rubble filled the space around the Shadow barrier, obscuring it from the two newcomers.
"That should have done it."
Standing on a boulder a distance from the first knight, a knight appeared. He was shorter than the latter by at least half a foot and held a glowing silver longbow. Faint sparks were coming from it, which suggested the lightning attack just now came from it.
Gael narrowed his eyes as he looked at his hands, where faint sparks could be seen. Though the Shadow barrier reduced the lightning's momentum, it still got to Gael. But since its power had been reduced, it only numbed his body a little.
Nevertheless, the fact that his Shadow barrier failed to absorb and nullify the attack completely was a testament to its strength.
It should be noted that Gael's Shadow magic now possesses Void properties. Thus, nullifying an elemental attack should have been easy.
'That bow-wielding knight... his Divine Armament is powerful,' Gael thought while looking at the knight standing on the boulder. He did not think the knight was powerful because the might of the attack came from the Divine Armament itself, and the knight only relied on that.
If the latter were powerful, he would have changed how he delivered it. But all the knight did was shoot one arrow at Gael's Shadow barrier, thinking it was enough to destroy it.
'No matter,' Gael thought with a slight smile. 'I don't believe master wants a useless subordinate.'
Gael knew Kyran wanted to absorb as many Armakean knights as possible. But in Gael's opinion, it was best to filter out useless knights so they would not waste their master's time and energy.
With that in mind, Gael made a move.
While the clouds of dirt and rubble obscured the vision of the two knights, he undid the Shadow barrier and activated his domain.
In an instant, Gael's shadow expanded and covered the whole ground at an alarming speed. The range at which the clouds of dirt and rubble covered him was only in a radius of thirty meters. Thus, the two knights saw it and acted when the shadows crossed that range.
"So much for your 'that should have done it,'" the taller knight with the long sword gruntled as he raised his arm holding the sword and slashed at the fast-approaching shadow.
Whoosh!
Although he only swung his long sword once, three invisible blades came out from its blade and went straight at the shadow. Deep cuts appeared on the ground where the blades passed through but did nothing to the shadow after reaching it.
The bow-wielding knight jumped from the boulder and pulled his longbow. He aimed at the spot where the black sphere had been and prepared to shoot.
The bow-wielding knight did not have an arrow, but when he touched the longbow's string, sparks appeared between the longbow's arc and the string, and a thin lightning arrow materialized.
Instantaneously, the bow-wielding knight released the arrow and shot the spot he was aiming at.
"Don't! You'll only worsen the cloud of smoke— !"
The tall knight's warning had gone on deaf ears as the arrow left the bow-wielding knight's hand.
Whoosh! Cackle! Boom!
Another lightning attack struck the spot where Gael had been. However, he was no longer there since he entered the shadows after activating his domain. He was already trying to approach the two knights using the shadows to travel.
"Tsk," the tall knight sensed an incoming danger from the approaching shadow and immediately retreated.
As he retreated, he inwardly cursed at the knight who teamed up with him to intercept outsiders.
'Why must I be teamed up with such an arrogant fool!' He cursed.
"Oi! Where are you going? We have not disposed of the outsider yet!" The bow-wielding knight yelled at the tall knight after seeing him flee.
"Fool! Don't let those black things touch you!"
As the tall knight shouted his warning, the black thing that crept on the ground sprang like sharp spikes. These spikes were aimed at the bow-wielding knight while he was suspended in midair.
The bow-wielding knight glowered at the approaching spikes as he pulled his longbow again. In an instant, several lightning arrows appeared on his hand. After which, he released them toward the incoming attack.
BOOM!
An explosion followed after the arrows collided with the spikes.
"Ngh...!"
The bow-wielding knight brought his arms to his face as he shielded himself from the explosion. Nevertheless, since he was near it, he suffered from the brunt of its force was was sent flying.
But he only got thrown for a few meters when something shot out from the cloud of smoke and wrapped around his shin.
"What— argh!"
The bow-wielding knight was pulled back to the ground by a powerful force, and just when he thought he would hit the ground, he felt something murky fill his whole body.
'What is this thing?' The bow-wielding knight tried to struggle free from the murky thing that had already covered his whole body. However, no matter how much he tried, he could not break free. It was like his limbs had become lead.
"There is no point struggling."
A voice spoke close to the bow-wielding knight's ear, which shocked him.
"Don't worry, the pain will be brief."
The bow-wielding knight tried to respond, but suddenly, the murky thing covering him shifted. It did not take long for him to realize that the more it shifted, the more his body twisted to a dangerous angle.
"No—!"
The bow-wielding knight tried to scream, but unfortunately, no sound came out. His eyes turned bloodshot as his head started to turn. It was fine if his body followed the direction of his head, but it did not.
And then.
SNAP!
The bow-wielding knight's neck snapped, and he died without much drama.
Gael sighed in disappointment. He had expected the knight to put up a decent fight before getting killed. But it seemed his initial assessment of the latter was lacking.
The bow-wielding knight relied on his Divine Armament's strength and was a sorry excuse for a Somulian.
'Master would have been greatly disappointed if such a knight became his subordinate. Such a waste of a good Divine Armament,' he thought as he raised his right hand with a sly smile because the glowing silver longbow was on his hand. Black vein-like shadows crept on its surface as he started to absorb it.
'Good thing Divine Armaments can be absorbed. This discovery will be useful to master.'
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