Blood-soaked in the hellish rain, the cultivators turned to the mortals and found another thirty standing behind cars, arrows pointed, warping the atmosphere in twisting lines. It was a ghostly appearance that accented their ruthless gazes, devoid of mercy.
"Buddy up!" the cultivator shielding Abigail commanded, flying behind another's top shield and creating a phalanx formation. With double shielding, the redhead could counterattack.
WhooOOoooOOoOOSH!
The heaven realm cultivators instinctively followed, while half of the sky realm cultivators barely hung on.
THUD! Thud. Thud! CRACK! Crack!
"GAhhHHhhHHHhhhHH!" A harrowing whistle of ripping wind cult through the spread-out cultivator, followed by shattering shields, splashing blood, and cracking bones. The arrows spared no one, including Gallard and the cultivator shielding from above.
"GahHh! Guided Arrows!" Gallard exclaimed as an arrow curved around his shield and struck his side. He spotted a fierce brunette with short hair in a truck bed, her frigid blue eyes locked on him. "Watch out for those three!"
Abigail, dodging a barrage of painful arrows from below, glanced up to see Larkin beside her. He clamped his hands twice a second in a squat, sending tiny arrows beneath her with a strange. While the crab man annoyed her, Steve sent shivers down her spine; he was poised and ready for an ambush, something she feared most. "Retreat! Move to the ocean!"
Following her command, the cultivators sped toward the water.
Snap!
The sharp sound of snapping fingers pierced her eardrums, triggering her to create a shield.
A moment later, a massive bubble of oxygen with a thirty-foot radius formed in their path, forcing Abigail and the three next to her to stop on a dime, "WAIT!" Unfortunately, her warning came too late. She could only watch in horror as the remaining cultivators flew directly in its path.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
An explosion rocked the heavens, setting the sky ablaze with wrathful flames. The force shattered Gallard's shield, thus hitting everyone with scorching heat and sending them flying.
As Abigail fought to regain control, her eyes locked on Rein, collapsing from Qi withdrawal. "You bitch!" She prepared an attack but froze at the sight of Steve's next move. "Storm Chamber."
The redhead hadn't processed his enigmatic words when flames ignited around her in a blazing tornado, slow in rotation but picking up momentum. "What is this!?" she screamed for answers but found none.
Desperate to kill Steve, she activated a non-wind attack to counter and fought the heat to wave her hand, "Needle Flurry!"
"Larkin!" Rein warned as arrow-like needles materialized from thin air. "These aren't arrows, but they might be guided, so don't hold back!"
A single glance was enough to know the needles weren't raw Qi. The Elemental Qi solidified into refined objects, giving the impression that an object was invisible instead of something invisible becoming an object. It was new and terrifying, so they knew they couldn't expect a weak impact or expect running to help.
"You got it, lady!" Larkin shouted. "Feel the weight of Carcinus' shell!"
A thick Qi Wall formed on the back of the black sports truck's cab, shielding their they were in.
SHiiIINK! CRreeeeaacCK! Shiink! CraCK! THUnNCK! BOOM!
Ominous sounds pierced their eardrums as the needles impacted. They initially pierced the Qi Wall, stopping halfway through like toothpicks piercing a cardboard box. However, the impacts rattled the barrier, causing the subsequent ones to shatter seconds until they broke through.
"GAHhhHH!" Larkin groaned in pain, feeling a searing pain bolt through his body. Blood splashed on Rein, still kneeling from Qi deprivation.
Steve's fight-or-flight response triggered, subconsciously activating his sensory enhancement technique. He watched Abigail in slow motion, trying to estimate how fast a heaven realm cultivator would die if he closed the chamber. Or perhaps she would get distracted by the intense winds if the fire snuffed out, "GAH!"
Undecided, the gambler did both, clenching his right fist to finish the Storm Chamber and his left to create a Qi Wall. He focused on the wall, creating a barrier before the other two but retained 20 percent of his focus on the wind technique, hoping to squeeze damage out of it.
The results reflected the inputs: a Qi Wall materialized before Larkin in the knick of time, pierced by a needle that stopped moving an inch from his chest. A small sun simultaneously formed in the sky briefly as Storm Chamber closed on Abigail, searing her body with skin-fitting flames, "AGHhhHHHhhhHHhhH!"
Suddenly, a force slammed into his back, breaking both his techniques as he crashed into the truck's cab. He saw a red-haired soldier fall into the cab, a visible hole punctured through his black tactical gear. "Aaron!"
Steve turned to see Gallard, Abigail's Captain who had shielded her, lying on a car's windshield he had crashed into. The bearded cultivator readied another arrow, forcing Steve to do the same.
In the brief stand-off, Steve saw the man's murderous gaze filled with hatred and resentment. It haunted him, etching itself into his memory as he prepared to fire. However, it was unnecessary; as the two men stared at each other, a Guided Arrow struck the man's jaw from the side, disconnecting it.
"GAHhhHHH!" Steve snapped out of his shock at the sound of Larkin's scream. He looked over and saw that he and Rein were lying in a pool of blood, but only the jester was groaning. Moreover, Aaron convulsed on the ground. "Hold in there!"
"I'll kill you… I'll kill you… I'LL KILL YOU!!" A woman snarled from above them. Her appearance was unidentifiable, as her voice was hoarse and scratchy, she had no hair, and her skin was charred with parts milky white and peeling. However, everyone knew it was Abigail Watson. "Sorrow Winds!"
A cyclone formed in the sky, hyper-compressing into a saw blade as it lowered upon them, like a wheel on a drill. Most Immortals, focused on killing the heaven realm cultivators who survived the Combustion trap, stopped fighting when the haunting wail pierced their ears. They knew the distinct sound from when Mary Emerson used the attack as a death blender in Immortal Skye, nearly killing hundreds before Crux saved them with a barrier.
Whiiiiiiiirrrrill! CRAaaasShhHhhahahShahHHhahSH!
Weakened vehicle windows shattered from the wind, and the truck they were in rocked back and forth.
Steve frantically assessed his resources. However, he found that most Immortals in sight had stopped fighting, seized with trauma. "Where's General Skye?" He searched desperately but discovered she and three heaven realm cultivators were missing.
The gambler looked south and saw ice spears forming on the horizon, glittering sunlight as they crashed to the earth. "Evalyn's not here."
Steve was alone, with limited Qi, surrounded by dying friends, traumatized Immortals, and a brutal technique. His mind raced, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he calculated the best solution for survival and protecting those he loved.
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