The Tornadoes of Ariela had been a necessity for the Elves and human Originals to fight the Dryx, to begin with.
They had killed thousands of Dryx, none of them had been able to escape their wrath irrespective of the fact whether they were at the Origin, Mirae, or Prometheus rank.
However, that was where the problem laid! All these corpses were scattered all over the battlefield.
No matter how fast the corpses were being collected, their numbers were too many to save from the clutches of the Dryx. Thus, thousands of Dryx were nourishing their body by consuming their brethren's body and mana core!
Their strength would elevate which would turn the fight against the Dryx even more difficult.
"Let's kill as many as possible before the real troublesome opponents appear." Nial suddenly remarked and dashed forward.
They were already near the front of the battlefield. Nial and the others' mission was to prevent the Mirae ranked Dryx from finding a way through the rows of Elves and human Originals.
While the frontline consisted of the Prometheus Elves and Originals, the second, third, and fourth rows had the most powerful Originals.
Their aim was to kill the strongest Dryx in their surroundings and to prevent too many Dryx from reaching the younger Originals, who were only at the 1st to 5th Mirae rank.
But that was easier said than done. The numerical advantage of the Dryx, the special traits they owned, and the fact that one had to store their corpses away to prevent their brethren from receiving an enhancement in strength made it difficult to focus on their mission.
The battle had started not too long ago, and less than 30 minutes had passed, but many Originals had already killed dozens of Dryx. However, in return, the mana in their core had decreased rapidly.
It was only a matter of time before their mana would be exhausted and their mana cores would dry up. From that moment onward, it would gradually become more difficult to kill Dryx. This was bound to become even more difficult, considering that it was impossible to stop fighting in the middle of the battle just to store the corpse of every Dryx away.
Simultaneously, another headache had cropped up- a batch of strengthened Dryx, who had consumed their brethren's mana core, entered the battle.
Their initial strength had increased by 30% at the bare minimum, and their greed for more strength had awoken. Instead of focusing on killing more humans, and Elves, they focused on collecting the corpses of their brethren.
Small piles of the corpses had been formed, and dozens of Dryx gobbled down their mana cores and the remaining parts of their body as if they were feasting heartily on the same beings they had been fighting side by side a minute ago.
Nial noticed this, and his frown turned even deeper than before.
'They won't evolve, right?' He nibbled at his lower lip in contempt, trying not to think about the worst possible scenario.
However, this was not easy because the memories he received the moment his [Mana Sense] and his range of perception had perceived the black cloud of Dryx told him that something was off.
Nial hadn't perceived Silvian's arrival yet either. This was unexpected, and definitely far from normal.
'Maybe he is back at one of our shelters, and is trying to upgrade his scheming by a notch?' Nial wondered while thinking about the fact that nobody except Crevian and himself knew about the fact that Silvian was actually the God of Saints and Devils.
He controlled the Dryx, but that was not something any human would believe if Nial were to tell the government that their savior was a con artist, a trickster, and the incarnation of a God.
It was difficult to expose Silvian, and Nial didn't actually think that his 'friend' would reveal himself in today's battle.
'But his plan shouldn't just be fighting and winning this battle either, right? Am I overestimating his capabilities, or am I missing something?' Nial wondered, not for the first time.
He clearly knew that it was impossible for Dryx to gain something by simply ravishing the corpses, just like that. They would gain something, but the true gains from feasting on the corpses would only be unleashed the moment unstable and chaotic mana was involved as well.
The sensation of blood, death and unstable and chaotic mana was like catalysts for the Dryx's growth, allowing this weird type of disgusting existence to gain the most in a battle.
Dryx were not powerful in their innate state but their overall capabilities were focused on death, destruction, and war!
'What is his goal, to begin with? Is it just the manifested Divinity Fragment? If so, he could just get it by sneaking inside the Forest of Life before the dome of war has been erected to protect the forest...'
Nial was confused, his range of perception was unleashed to its maximum, and it was as if he was trying to perceive something around him that would provide an answer to every doubt in Nial's mind.
He slashed out with his spear and manifested numerous darkness needles to severely injure the Dryx around him. Nial moved rapidly, seemingly without wasting any of his movements.
The Elementus Mylee martial art technique was fully utilized, and the Dryx around him were collapsing on the ground one after the other, never to get up again.
While being focused on utilizing his combat prowess in the best way possible, it was impossible for Nial to store the beasts' corpses away. Nial noticed that the ground behind him was littered with corpses because neither Hana nor Mathias could avert their focus on collecting the corpses as well.
It would bring them out of the rhythm of the fight, which they had just entered.
'Even though everyone knows that it's important to collect their bodies, nobody wants to sacrifice the momentum they've built up. That's bad...' Nial thought in disappointment tho his actions were similar to them. Despite knowing the dangers of leaving the corpses behind more than anyone else, it was extremely difficult for him to abandon the momentum he had built up as well.
This was nothing out of the ordinary, but Nial felt weird nonetheless. His heart was beating wildly, as he received a major adrenaline rush. He felt as if he was high and almost as if his entire mind was being told to continue fighting, and not to mind anything in the surroundings.
'Something is wrong!!' He could clearly tell this. His body didn't want to listen to him, it didn't want to stop feeling the sensation of adrenaline coursing through his veins, the sensation of killing the disgusting Dryx; the existence that enraged Nial's entire being.
"Their Mana!" Hana suddenly exclaimed. At the beginning of the large skirmish, she didn't feel that anything was off.
Everything seemed perfectly fine when the battle started, and it was only slowly over time that she noticed how difficult it was for her to halt in her tracks in order to observe her surroundings, store the corpses away and move ahead before repeating the process.
She activated [Fog Walk], her second ability, the moment three Dryx were about to tear her apart. The fog was released explosively, shrouding the three Dryx easily. It was not a problem for her to emerge everywhere within the fog and eliminate the beasts.
Thus, in a seemingly effortless manner, she emerged behind the three Dryx, one after another before she moved rapidly.
In seconds, Hana moved within the fog more than six times, attacking the three Dryx a total of two times each. This was more than enough to destroy their heart and mana core before reappearing near Nial, where she continued to speak.
"Their mana has hormones in them!!" Hana screamed a warning while breathing heavily. She was exhausted from using her ability so often in rapid succession. It was tiresome and the biggest problem was that her body and mind didn't want to stop fighting.
They were begging her to stop, to take some rest and neither of them wanted her to regain some of her stamina!
"I figured that when you said mana. I didn't sense it before but their mana has some hormones inside that force you to keep fighting. Eventually, you'll forget that you're tired, let alone that it's of utmost importance to store the Dryx's corpses away." Nial replied hastily while simultaneously shrouding his entire body in dark energy all of a sudden.
Black miasma was released from his body in an explosive manner that spread quickly and shrouded everyone. Nial took a deep breath afterward as he felt that this dark energy and the black miasma dispelled this hormone and did not let it affect him.
The Ankh in his body was shining brightly, and it seemed as if the vigor within his body expelled the hormones that were not supposed to be there.
This was very helpful because it allowed Nial to expand his range of perception once again. At this moment, Nial realized just how many Dryx corpses were now littered on the ground of the battlefield. The mountain of corpses on the Dryx's side had reached a considerable height as well, and more than a hundred were gobbling down their own brethren.
'They'll definitely evolve if that continues. Maybe, even a Queen might emerge if it continues like this.' Nial merely chuckled at his joke at first, but when he thought about a Dryx Queen being created on Jundra, instead of emerging from a portal, his expression twisted once again.
Without thinking about it further, Nial stored the Dragonflame spear in his spatial ring. In his hand, the same Tier-1 Blackwood wand Mathias owed appeared.
Waving it in a simple manner, Nial created close to a hundred hollow balls of darkness. He filled them with black miasma and threw them all over the battlefield.
Not hesitating anymore, he rushed along the rows of fighting Originals, where he released some of the balls of darkness.
The moment they burst open, the black miasma covered everything in a radius of a dozen meters. Under normal circumstances, Nial's black miasma was dangerous, however, he managed to reduce its effect drastically.
Instead of weakening everyone who breathed in or sensed his black miasma, only the hormones released by the Dryx were destroyed. This didn't require much mana to be used on Nial's part.
However, the use was drastic as everyone regained their senses, and the ability to control their body and mind the way they wanted.
Taking a deep breath, the Elves and human Originals moved their body rapidly, killing several Dryx at once before they retreated.
In everyones' hands several potions appeared. They replenished their energy as they were nourishment potions that replenished the used up mana to a certain extent.
It was quite advantageous, and after taking a minute of rest, the combatants would be able to fight once again.
Unfortunately, a minute was long, and the number of corpses they had to pick up was tremendous.
At this moment, they sensed that Nial's black miasma changed a bit, it fused with the dark energy he released, and covered the ground in a radius of five meters around Nial.
Wherever the darkness passed by, the corpses covering the ground disappeared. Nial didn't even differentiate between the corpses of the Dryx, Elves, and humans. It was of utmost importance to make the corpses disappear.
All of them landed in Nial's spatial ring without fail after they disappeared in the darkness he had manifested.
However, even after they disappeared, Nial didn't feel his mission was accomplished. The threat was not over, there were still numerous Dryx to fight and take down. The majority of humans and Elves were a bit tired out, and it looked like hundreds of Dryx were feasting on their brethrens' bodies and mana core. It was a matter of time before they would soon evolve too.
If that was already everything, the situation would be bad. But, to their misery, Nial sensed something that made him turn in the direction of the Forest of Life.
"This bastard...is he really just trying to do that?!"
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺