The clones I sent earlier to hinder the Dark Soldier Transcendent already ran out of its duration. Just in time to help me stall the two.
Fleur, on the other hand, has also started to engage the sneaky Benedict. She marked him with an Elemental Spell with low power but something that would stick to him for a while. That way, he wouldn't be able to blend with his clones.
I had just replenished her Energy while the four Transcendents surrounding her had already spent maybe around half of their Energy reserves. Against a single enemy, she's at an advantage.
Well, I couldn't watch her fight this time as I have to focus on stalling the two.
One of my newly formed clones went straight to the crossbow guy, deflecting an arrow shot from it with a Purple Sword.
Though I'm expecting it, seeing the seemingly ordinary arrow shatter the Purple Sword made me think that we finally got some decent adversaries from the Dark World.
Well, what I conjured was a clone without a Totem Enhancement since it needed a bit of charging to conjure one through it. It was natural that it was a lot weaker than the Transcendent.
Once his arrow lodged onto the clone's shoulder, his short sword came slashing down to it. The Dark Energy-covered short sword fell down in a complicated trajectory which the clone failed to dodge in time.
As soon as he got rid of the clone, the crossbow guy switched his target to me and shot his unassuming crossbow once more.
Much to his surprise though, another clone was formed and this time, it's now enhanced by the Totem.
"Huh?"
He exclaimed when the arrow was deflected by the Purple Sword this time.
Using that surprised state of his as a window of opportunity, the clone conjured accompanying Energy Explosion Projectiles to assault him.
After that, I switched my focus to the Dark Beastmaster Transcendent. The Beast he summoned isn't as gigantic as a Berserker Thornhog which Old Man Reol fought in the World of Barbarians or even the giant bipedal monster which the leader of the Dark Beastmaster summoned back then to crush the weakened Raiden. It's a quadrupedal beast whose fur is pitch black and with canine fangs. Just like the other two, its strength is at least Rank 1 Transcendent.
Looking at its glaring yellow eyes, it's sentient, much like the Spirit Beasts at the World of Spirits. However, it's not talking at all or it was only communicating with its owner.
Is it something like a contract beast? I don't know. Based on my encounter with them in that world, aside from having personal beasts, they could also control wild beasts through the use of some skill.
Fighting with a Beast of unknown descent and abilities, I shouldn't take it lightly.
"Go! Kill him!"
The Dark Beastmaster shouted his command before a link that was made from Energy shone between them.
When that happened, the beast's somewhat yellow eyes turned red. It then stood up and launched itself to the incoming clone like a rabid dog.
The clone was also an unenhanced one so one bite at it and the clone was destroyed. However, that sudden change from the beast… It's familiar to how those Berserker Thornhogs from the World of Barbarians acted.
I guess it's not a contracted beast but a slave. Either way, I don't have time to figure out the truth.
Before the beast reached my position, the second Totem-enhanced clone flew out and faced it.
With the crossbow guy and the Transcendent beast occupied with my clones, I also left them alone and focused on the Dark Beastmaster.
I have a bad record going against Dark Beastmasters. Back then, when I tagged along Old Man Reol to the main battlefield, I faced three of them who were at the same level as me. And the end result was me using the last of my World Energy reserves to escape.
I had no choice but to fight their beasts after all.
And this time, I got his beast occupied with my clone. Let's see how strong a Dark Beastmaster Transcendent without his beast.
There's a possibility that he could summon more or he's even stronger than his beast. Nonetheless, dealing with him is much better than dealing with the beast which he could heal through his skill.
By casting a 4-node enhanced Flash Steps, I traversed the distance between me and the Dark Beastmaster.
His expression when I suddenly showed up in front of him was nowhere near close to surprise.
"Naive. Even someone from a lower World thinks that without my beast I am useless, huh?"
He muttered as his fist already launched itself and aimed at my face.
"Not really, I just thought, you'll be lonely just watching."
I smirked and blocked his fist with the blade of Willful Sword.
Boom!
The usual Energy Explosion was triggered which easily deflected his punch, sending him stumbling back a few meters away.
Though he's right about my assumption that he's weaker without his beast, he also made an assumption that I'm just a normal Rank 1 Transcendent.
After breaking through to the 5th Stage of the 3rd Realm, my UPL was already above 220+. Add to that, the Domain of Valor which boosted all three stats, I became less than 50 UPL from 300 which is a threshold for Rank 2 Transcendents.
And this guy is probably below or exactly at 200 UPL. The disparity in strength was instantly shown.
Before he recovered from the blow, I stuck to my previous fights. Hitting someone again while they're still down.
Before he could stand up straight and complain at what I did, I sent six Purple Swords flying in his direction.
Each of the Purple Swords was made from ten Energy Explosion Projectiles molded together. Its power was 10-fold stronger than normal.
"Come back! Help me!"
After the first explosion of the Purple Swords, the Dark Beastmaster shouted before the link between him and the beast once again shone. Like a chain that was getting pulled back through a pulley, the huge beast that was fighting one of my clones disengaged and went back in front of the Dark Beastmaster.
It screeched loudly which made the surrounding energy tremble as it used its huge body to block the other Purple Swords for its owner.
Of course, the beast's only fate is to be injured by it and due to it becoming the Dark Beastmaster's shield, he managed to avoid a serious injury and got away with only his shoulder injured caused by the first Purple Sword.
He instantly moved far away from me and erected a barrier made of Dark Energy in front of him. Through that one attack from me, his cautiousness was triggered before he shouted to the crossbow guy.
"Raul, retreat now! He's near Rank 2 Transcendent in strength. This ambush failed. We need to wait for His Excellency to descend. He's the only one who could deal with him."
"Who said you could retreat?"
I answered instead of the crossbow guy who's now dealing with the two clones.
Since he showed this kind of weakness, I guess we can add another one to our Transcendent Kill Count.
Using another 4-nodes Flash Step to close the distance and a 4-nodes Energy Bullets to break open his Dark Energy barrier.
Upon seeing me break open his barrier, the Dark Beastmaster tugged at the link again which pulled the injured beast to use as his shield once again.
Since I'm going in for the kill, I gauged the most efficient way to deal with him.
With the Willful Sword in hand, the blue-colored Swordforce instantly covered it.
As I filled it with my Flux Energy, the easiest Sword Skill for me to use was unleashed.
Flash Draw!
"Yelp!"
When the blue streak of Swordforce passed through them, an agonizing yelp from the beast rang out.
In the end, I still missed the Dark Beastmaster. At the last second. He managed to move out of the way when the weakened beast pushed him out of my Sword Skill's trajectory.
"Y-you!"
? The Dark Beastmaster angrily howled as he watched a huge hole burst open from his summoned beast and me reappearing a few meters behind them.
It still hasn't recovered from the Purple Swords' damage when it was pulled back again. There's no time for it to put up a defense or even draw out its Dark Energy to resist.
"What me? You're the one who used it as your shield."
I smirked as I turned around and aimed the sword at him again.
He's the one I'm aiming for after all. There's no way I'll pass up this chance to kill him when no one could come to his rescue.
To think that I was worried about fighting them due to their higher Energy, turns out they're only as strong as this. Or is it only this Dark Beastmaster that is this weak? He even proudly said that earlier.
Now I won't just think that he's useless. He's truly useless.
"Benedict!!!"
Before I could move again, another agonizing shout rang out from the other side. Marina who pulled away from my clones was dashing towards a falling figure.
When my eyes glanced in that direction, wisps of terrifying Water Elemental Energy could still be seen there and Fleur, still uninjured, was watching looking down at it.
I don't know if he's already dead or not but judging from Marina's shout… Fleur really did it. She killed Benedict.
Then it's time to wrap this up too.
"Alright. I don't even know your name and I don't really have any intention to know. Will you die for us as well?"
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