Chapter 327: Teamwork
There was no signal, communication, or certainty. Liam simply charged through the harmless flames, wanting to join the assault on the blinking compound dome.
A noise Liam had grown familiar with reached his ears before he could arrive at the dome. Actually, his senses lit up as soon as a specific glow joined that fiery scene.
A vibrating membrane surrounded Liam right before the golden shockwave could slam on him. The two defensive techniques clashed, but Liam had a stable foothold for once, and no side quests hindered his straightforward approach.
The flames parted and immediately refilled the environment as Liam gritted his teeth, bending his legs to put his physical strength against that pushing force, until the Qi Repulsion sent it back at its source.
What was left of the golden shockwave slammed into the compound dome, intensifying its flickering, but something else immediately crashed into it. The strength Liam’s legs had built up to defend against that technique hurled him forward without that opposition, turning his stretched right arm into a piercing spear.
The sound of shattered glass resounded among the crackling inferno. Liam’s clawed hand pierced one of the dome’s heptagonal pieces, which evaporated into golden energy.
But the Church’s team reacted. Liam felt energy building in the area, like a tremor under his skin that warned him about the familiar techniques about to unfold. He believed he had to defend when his perception reassured him.
Flames leaked into the dome through the hole Liam had dug, but they were strangely quick and responsive, as if they had known he would have succeeded at piercing that defensive technique, ending up being one step ahead of everyone on the scene.
A face condensed on top of that invading fiery pillar, and a body followed. Lancelot began to materialize inside the dome, his golden hair having transformed into a series of long tongues of fire, his smiling lips parting to utter a time-defying chant.
"Higher, higher," Lancelot recited. "I cry through fire."
The flames inside the dome exploded into a debilitating screech. The soundwave washed over Liam and the seventeen white-wearing cultivators, affecting their very minds. The entire dome evaporated, and the Church’s team froze for a fraction of a second.
Liam’s mind rang, attempting to stop him, too, but he had gotten a knack for enduring those debilitating blows. Summoning martial arts required concentration he couldn’t muster, but that didn’t make him powerless, far from it.
Liam kicked the floor, his complete Qi mastery turning his figure into a blur, making him reach the nearest white-wearing cultivator in no time.
There was no slowing down involved. Liam kept running even after his fingers pierced the cultivator’s right eye and clawed through his face, ripping off a chunk of his head.
Liam’s other arm moved at the same time. He let go of the wooden knife, sliding a needle into his hand from the harness on his forearm, which he immediately flung at the closest cultivator he could find.
The needle stabbed the cultivator’s forehead while Liam caught the knife with the hand that had just finished carving through the other rooting expert’s skull. Still, his window had closed by then, but he wasn’t alone anymore.
Booming noises had resounded as soon as Liam had finished his first attack, and some finally showed in his vision. Fiery bullets flew past his figure to crash on several rooting experts, carving charred holes in their chests and heads.
Not every bullet killed, but they still exploited the Church’s team’s defenseless state, inflicting heavy injuries in vital areas.
But the Church’s team had recovered by then, and Liam felt the tingling under his skin again, except his foothold wasn’t as stable now. The Qi Repulsion came to light, but the golden shockwave that slammed into it pushed him back.
Still, the pushback wasn’t out of control. Liam retained his balance, stopping when something hot touched his back. He peeked past his shoulder, finding Lancelot doing the same, his heated glance sending a silent message.
Cooperation among strangers often lacked synergy. Only proper teammates could resort to efficient teamwork, but Liam and Lancelot somehow had the same idea and implemented it simultaneously.
Despite the lives the two had claimed, they were still outnumbered and surrounded, so taking control of the area came first.
"Higher, higher," Lancelot chanted, red light shining from his parted lips while Liam forcefully inhaled. "I breathe fire."
Tides of pitch-black smoke and fire shot in opposite directions, one poisoning, the other burning.
The two attacks met opposition. Heptagonal, transparent mirrors and more shockwaves cut through or deflected them, but both Liam and Lancelot were already moving, the former using the Qi Repulsion to push against anything slamming on him, while the latter exploding into flames that seeped past those defenses.
There was no debilitating force anymore. As soon as the Qi Repulsion deflected the shockwave, sending its power back at the white-wearing cultivators, thundering noises resounded.
Four speed bursts exploded in quick succession. Liam zigzagged through the group, his hand and knife slashing wildly.
On the other side, a clump of flames condensed into Lancelot’s figure, while the others turned into bullets that rained onto every cultivator in his surroundings.
Meanwhile, Lancelot had already joined his wrists, his palms pointed at a crowded area, releasing an all-scorching force.
Corpses fell left and right, some beheaded, others cut and poisoned, many burned to a crisp, and a few featuring charred holes where important organs should be.
Lancelot’s sudden assault had created an initiative that neither he nor Liam failed to exploit or retain. Their teamwork also split the Church’s group, which every kill weakened, creating a mounting advantage.
The strength in numbers dwindled with each passing second. Suddenly, there were fewer golden bullets. The shockwaves lost their intensity, and the heptagonal shields became as brittle as real glass.
And everything went silent when Liam fired his bow at the golden streak that had slammed on a nearby altar, his ethereal arrow hitting the rooting expert’s back and blowing it apart, his lifeless body flopping to the floor.
Liam lowered his bow, his gaze going over the beheaded, mangled corpses all around him before rising toward the other side of the battlefield.
Lancelot was at the center of a similar scene, his victims charred beyond recognition, their flesh still sizzling and leaking grey smoke. Yet, his eyes were already on Liam, and the same went for a bright smirk that seemed able to stir a fire inside him.
