"Boris, dodge!"
Hikari shouted while flinging a huge boulder she cut from a rocky hill at the side towards his direction.
Heeding what she shouted, Boris flipped backwards letting his whip be kept in front of him to hinder the Transcendent who was about to chase after him.
Using the incoming boulder, he kicked it towards the Transcendent who blocked his Energy-enhanced whip. The boulder was unexpected which resulted in it landing squarely on the Transcendent's face, flinging him away and down to the ground.
"Why, of all things, did you choose to throw a boulder?!"
Boris, after landing back on the ground, complained to the girl who's wiping her glasses off the dust it accumulated from doing that unconventional move.
"I saw it in one of the simulation scenarios. Pretty effective, isn't it?"
Hikari playfully responded before she flew to the sky once more while carrying more boulders
After around 10 minutes in battle, from the previous tense and somewhat dangerous situation we were caught in, it's now too relaxed as if our enemies weren't going to provide any threat against us. Even the ringing of my Adaptability's danger detection stopped at some point as we started to gain the advantage against these Dark World forces stationed in this Merged Zone.
Despite them being prepared against us, when the Incarnation jumped out earlier, she evened out the playfield by doing something to the Dark Energy surrounding us by sacrificing at least 10% of her stored Energy.
When that happened, with Jayna's lead using the Earth Elemental Spell which she learned, the ground beneath the Mortal Ranks' feet broke open and lava sprung out of it. That's a 9-nodes Earth Elemental Spell, Volcanic Torrent which made use of both Earth and Fire Elemental Energy.
With their tight formation disrupted, Hikari and Boris along with two of my clones worked together to stop them from reforming, killing most of those lower than Rank 5 Mortals in one hit and severely injuring the Rank 5 Mortals.
When they saw the chaotic state of the formation they prepared to deal with intruders, the four Transcendents on their side moved to intercept us, however, they were all matched up by the rest of us.
Right now, they're in a dilemma because they ran out of ideas on what to do against us. More than half of their Mortal Ranks were dead while one of their Transcendents had his arm burnt to ashes by Jayna's raging Earthfire. If they didn't cut his arm off, it would've burnt him completely.
Like the previous instances, at first, they couldn't believe that a bunch of Noxian Transcendents could overwhelm them when they're inside the Zone that was akin to their world but eventually, they could only accept that they're outclassed switched strategies from being on the offensive to defensive, prolonging their life.
"They called for reinforcements from the nearby zones. Let's finish them up before they arrive and give the reinforcements a welcoming party."
I declared in a loud voice while staring calmly at the leader of the four Transcendents here. It's a Dark Beastmaster woman whose summoned beast is an enormous black snake. It's not venomous at all but its hide is so thick, normal Energy Explosion Projectiles and the Willful Sword covered with Swordforce couldn't penetrate it. It took a minute of bombardment before some of those scales come off. When that happened, the Dark Beastmaster woman recalled her beast in fear that it would meet its end against me.
"Miss Saha, we should retreat now and regroup with the reinforcements, I believe they can really do what he declared."
One of the Transcendents advised the Dark Beastmaster woman. He's someone who faced Fleur proudly, however, in the span of Fleur casting only four spells, his confident appearance turned haggard as he hurriedly retreated to their leader's side, scared off by how strong her Water Elemental Spells are.
Currently, this is a precious few seconds for them when the clones had just vanished due to their duration running out which allowed them to converse with each other. If not for that, we would've finished them way earlier.
"Do you think I don't know that? My poor Hissa's scale has been damaged by that guy's unrelenting energy projectiles. Look at how they positioned themselves, there's no way for us to retreat even if we tried to."
The leader he called 'Miss Saha' continuously bit the tip of her fingernails as she glared at me and observed us. Her mind was probably thinking about what to do to keep their lives intact until the reinforcements come to save them in this predicament.
Like I guessed, they really spotted us when we unknowingly passed by one of their scouts placed outside. Perhaps it was at the time when I was lost in overthinking earlier that I haven't spotted his hiding spot or he's just really good at his job. Either way, before we entered this Zone, they'd already sent someone to report this to that Descendant who became the leader of all Transcendents once he arrived. Apart from sending that report, they sent people to ask for reinforcement from the nearby Zones.
Well, it's not like all of them will send a lot due to their limited Transcendent numbers but if each Zone the messenger managed to reach sent one Transcendent, we'll have to expect at the very least three of them.
According to the Worlds' Will, the Transcendents that were marching with the Descendant only included him, the two who probably followed after his descent and the ones we saw at the Noxian Capital.
Well, if I tally them and the Transcendents we already killed, the count was higher than the total number of Dark Energy Surges we felt. As to how many of them went in undetected, I don't know. There were probably some of them who went in together which resulted in only one surge. Just like that twin Transcendent or a couple. I still haven't gotten a clear idea of how those Portals actually work.
I closed the one at the World of Spirit before it could allow a Transcendent to descend and the one at the World of System was only witnessed by Yuko, Zerina, and their Party Members.
Either way, we just have to continue moving forward and see it for ourselves. It's only a matter of killing these four and cleaning up the last of the Mortal Ranks.
"Daisuke, I think we don't need to wait for their reinforcements to arrive, we should finish this and continue on to the Portal Location before they arrive."
Jayna used telepathy and sent her suggestion to me to not let the enemies hear it.
"Yes… There's no way for you to retreat. Also, surrendering will not be accepted. You shouldn't hold back anymore and try to kill us before we kill you."
After saying that, I turned to Jayna and nodded at her. Words can also add pressure on these four Transcendents. Declaring my earlier words loudly for them to hear was just an invisible attack to their currently low morale to lower it further.
"Nonsense! Try and kill us then!"
One of the Transcendents who has a bulky appearance and a round bald head shouted as his Dark Energy flared up which made his stature even bulkier.
Though I already guessed that the Dark Energy is a Spirit Type of Source Energy, some of them don't have an active Transformation. Some only have enhanced appearances like that bald guy and the members of the Cloudborne Tribe earlier. That 'Miss Saha' also doesn't have any Transformation skills. Her snake could enlarge and shrink itself though but I doubt it's related to her Pathway, it's probably an inherent skill of her snake.
Well, it's hard to really understand their Pathway if I haven't experienced it myself. Let's not overthink it again.
"Great. You'll be the first then. Also… I guess it's already pointless to continue disguising ourselves…"
After saying that, I held a Necklace out and from inside it, the sphere which contained the Powergen appeared. I pressed on the switch to open it before flinging it in front. Under their watchful and wary eyes, they saw how the suit made from regenium and mixed metal alloys completely covered my body.
Upon seeing that, the bald Transcendent and Miss Saha took a step back while muttering in concert.
"You… You're that guy."
With my continuous encounters with them, I guess this White Knight is already well known among them. If I had shown it earlier, I wouldn't need to waste my saliva for talking loudly, would I?
"Yes. That's me. Fleur, Jayna, Hikari and Boris, I will leave the rest of them to you. And you, it's really hard to call you without a name… Either way, make sure none of them could escape."
The four acknowledged my words as they all picked one of the other three and locked onto them while the Incarnation had a wry expression on her face before eventually nodding her head.
After this… it's time to see what the opened Portal looked like. Even if that Rank 2 Transcendent rushed here from where they were, it would be too late unless they have a way to travel from one end of the continent to another.
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10 minutes later. We exited the Zone without harvesting what's inside. The four struggled for their lives but in the end, my buffs really put us up to a higher level. Apart from that Miss Saha and the bald guy who put up a good fight against me and Fleur, the other two died instantly from Jayna, Hikari and Boris.
"That's it…"
I heard the Incarnation mutter as soon we got a clear view of what's in front of us.
A huge Dark World Zone lay before us and as if waiting for us to arrive, a surge of Dark Energy happened in the middle of it which indicated another descent. The Portal is truly inside it!
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