Following their plan, Espi slept and recovered for the rest of the day before they started advancing again, luckily the biggest camp of the Storm Roc family was just right in their original rout anyway, so they didn't have to take a detour.
Thanks to Ixas skilled runes when it came to earth and the strange scales of Espi, they were able to approach the camp without raising surprises.
Something Aster noticed was that due to the light of the sun and moon, any kind of formations will erode and become useless pretty soon, Ixas countered it by lending enery from the most abundant element in the secret realm, in other words sand.
But the people from the poisonous branch of the Storm Roc family all had wind attribute, while their royal lineage has an extra poison effect added to their wind, so their formations were unable to work in the secret realm.
Espi dived into the earth and stopped there by Aster's command, like a predator eyeing its prey.
Inside of the portable house, Aster who was preparing for the battle, saw Natasha and Charlotte doing the same and he raised an eyebrow.
"You two don't need to involve in this, things might get ugly you know?".
Natasha was the firs one to answer, she stuck her tongue at Aster before saying.
"I would like to say this isn't for you, but it would be a lie, it's part of the courting in my race to fight alongside our partners, but if it sounds too passional for you, my Sun Graceful Clan isn't allied to the Storm Roc family, so I'm just helping eliminate a competitor which was originally my mission here, of course it's just an excuse~".
"Mm, as strange as it might sound… my Moon Stream Luan clan is for some reason forbidden to fight to death with those stupid fire birds, but the Storm Roc family isn't in that agreement, getting rid of the reinforces of our competitor is the logic thing to do", added Charlotte.
Surprisingly their protectors didn't complain nor discourage them this time, apparently those two have been neglecting their task with was to put things hard for the Storm Roc clan and other competitors while they waited for the trial to be available.
Probably because they were supposed to team up, but were like water and fire… literally, so they kept arguing about how to do it, who will lead the operation and a bunch of other stuff in general.
So, in an extremely rare occasion they gave Aster some thankful gazes, since they will be finally able to report some advances to their respective matriarchs.
Aster ultimately shrugged, seeing their stubborn expressions, they would come even if he told them not to, so he decided to accept their help, even Ixas tagged along saying something like "The white witch kept killing those children, it's time to tie some end loses".
Mylene and Camila were up for the action from the very beginning, and after hearing what they wanted to do to Kana, Mylene was especially ready to take them down.
Vivian wanted to go since she has recovered her soul cultivation after what happened to her earlier and since Aster couldn't convince her to not come, he told her to not leave his side, so that he could protect her with the paragon body shall the need arise.
"Are you sure you want to come, this might a bit too much in a single go?", asked Aster to Kana who was now using an archer armor which covered her vitals.
Kana contemplated things for a moment before she nodded.
"Mm, big brother is fighting for me, I will never be a burden to someone I love again".
Aster saw the determination in Kana's eyes and he nodded, just like back then, when Robert said those awful things to her, who still considered him her father, she bit her lips and stubbornly listened to the whole thing, before she fainted due to the shock.
It was praise worthy, of such an innocent gentle girl like her to be so strong, and Aster wasn't the only one that believed it.
Natasha and Charlotte who knew about the pacific nature of the gentle branch of the Storm Roc family, something that prevented them from fighting back when they were taken hostages, with the exception of the younger sister of the matriarch, were taken back to see that little girl who was so pure be ready to see and probably spill blood, for someone who wasn't even part of her family.
'I wonder what kind of magic spell did you casted in us, to fall this much for you so fast~', thought Natasha as they finished their preparations for the battle.
Mylene who was the only one here with "divine sense", which was undetectable for anyone below the Heavenly Conqueror realm in normal circumstances, which apparently didn't include Aster, whose soul was a mystery, inspected the nearby area.
"A total of thirty people, eight Genesis Manifestation, who are also cultivating in a second path, and the rest are all either Star Tribulation or Mortal Transcending realm cultivators… they are talking about a young miss who has retired to the side of the young master in a hurry for safety reasons, and most of their forces gathered here with the exception of the ones assigned to that young master".
A grin appeared on Aster's face as he heard Mylene's words, the enemies practically presented their heads in a silver plate for him.
"That woman and their group are probably heading towards the direction where the trial would take place at all speed, these guys are their subordinates which were left behind to block those who also wish to join the trial, let's finish this fast and then we'll continue our way".
"Okay, leave me three of the Genesis Manifestation cultivators, I want to stretch my arms a bit after sometime without any real fights", said Mylene as she cracked her knuckles, which made Aster remember she is an energy/body cultivator.
"Fine, the rest of you will take each one of those Genesis Manifestation, while me, Kana, Vivian, Natasha and Charlotte get rid of the others, any objections?".
Since no one said anything, Aster nodded and then gave Espi the order to surface and then hide.
"Hisss!", Espi clearly wanted to join the fight, but Aster told it to not do so, because the people from the Storm Roc clan were speed type fighters, and Espi as a slow earth attributed magic beast wasn't the proper opponent for them.
But still the sand wyrm was stubborn, so Aster sighed and then accepted it to help.
"Fine you win, stay on guard and help block them with long range earth attacks, but remain hidden, okay?".
Now that everything was ready, everyone left the portable house and then without any warning a dazzling golden armor appeared on Aster and Kana's bodies, but before the people in camp could attack them, Aster swung his sword and a line of golden light cut a large breach on the temporal camp of the Storm Roc family.
"Aghhh, what is this!".
"My arm, I can't feel it god damn it!".
Needless to say, but since Aster used annihilation in that attack, his sword wasn't the only thing that suffered, the attack not only cut through their building but continued and devastated everything in its way until annihilation had taken out enough matter to cancel it, which included a couple of arms, legs and maybe some unfortunate bastards who were killed on the spot.
Natasha saw it and she licked her lips before she became a flash of fire that illuminated the sky followed her by her protector, both of them started a fire at the east side of the camp.
Charlotte saw Natasha mocking her as she flew away and she softly snorted, both she and her protector were suddenly covered in black water that became two streams and clashed against the west side of the camp.
"Who the hell are you!", of course with all the commotion it didn't take the Genesis Manifestation cultivators to leave the camp to directly face Aster and the others.
Mylene saw a giant lime green tornado appear on the sky followed by that thunderous voice and she exchanged gazes with Camila before they became flashes of light that clashed against the tornado.
Ixas was the last one to leave, he blocked a wind spear from the remaining Genesis Manifestation cultivator, with a wall of sand before he became a cloud of sand himself.
And so, Aster was left with Kana and Vivian, he helped them float in the air by creating platforms with the paragon body, so they literally descended from the sky in a golden staircase to the center of the camp.
As soon as they landed, they were surrounded by a group of about fifteen cultivators, while most were Star Tribulation cultivators, there were five Mortal Transcending realms among them, who immediately turned to see some kind of medal that they had hanging from their waists that was showing some reactions.
"The young miss was right, it's her".
"The descendant of the traitor".
"Capture her, the matriarch needs her blood and flesh to…", while one of the Mortal Transcending cultivators from the Storm Roc family was shouting to intimidate Aster and the girls, an invisible for anyone who wasn't a strong soul cultivator, black sword impaled the guy just in his mouth, stopping him from speaking forever.
"Elder Bismell, what happened to you!", the others just saw one of their five Mortal Transcending cultivators, stop talking, then blood started pouring out of his mouth, ears, nose and eyes, before the guy collapsed on the ground.
Still the most surprised was none other than Vivian, as a fellow soul cultivator, she managed to catch a glimpse of a what seemed to be black broken sword going through the head of that guy, and then disappearing as if it was a magic trick.
"A soul offensive technique", she mumbled, getting a smile from Aster.
"A painless death is the best treatment you can give to an enemy… but sometimes they don't deserve it, especially if they threaten our family, they must fear even having the thought of harming us, that's the only way they would leave us at peace", said Aster as he patted Kana's head.
"Mm, understood big brother", said the little Kana with a less troubled expression, she was a bit sensitive against carnage, so Aster killed the first enemy using the black sword soul weapon, which left no visible wound, well with the exception of probably the brain of the guy melting which caused the blood to flow from the orifices of the head.
"Assassin, watch out… aghhh!", one of the other Mortal Transcending realms thought there was an assassin lurking in the shadows but as he was warning his comrades, he suddenly felt a horrible pain on the chest and after placing his hand on his chest he collapsed on the ground, death.
This time Aster didn't return the soul weapon to the mind space, and instead doing some gestures with his left index and middle fingers, he controlled the soul weapon to cut the legs of all the ones surrounding them.
A couple of the Mortal Transcending managed to instinctively jump avoiding the black sword soul weapon by the skin of their teeth, the others rolled on the ground suffering from the horrible pain brought by having their souls cut.
"When you have multiple enemies, always get rid of the weaklings, and then focus on the strong ones", said Aster.
"Hold your hand!", one of the two Mortal Transcending cultivators had a bad premonition and tried to stop Aster, but then before he could do anything, he saw that all the other suddenly touched either their chests, necks or simply bleed through their orifices before collapsing on the ground.
Aster then looked at Kana, and saw that her expression wasn't her usual smiling one, she wasn't looking aside, and he nodded.
"Also, don't listen to your enemy, when he says something as stupid as "hold your hand", if you have the chance to get rid of an enemy don't hesitate, nor discuss with the enemy", said Aster as he patted Kana's head.
"Mm, okay".
The remaining two Mortal Transcending cultivators nearly vomited blood, the black-haired youth in front of them, was using their comrades as lessons for the descendant of the traitor of their family, they were furious.
"Go to hell, you demon!", they both shouted as they became flashes of light that shot towards Aster.
New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on free(w)ebnovel(.)com