As the Great One's descendant watched in horror how every Transcendent he sent out to battle got cut down by us, he had long stopped responding to me and just glared in my direction. If looks could kill, I was already killed by him many times over.
Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.
One life and death situation was enough for me to meticulously fix my way of dealing with things.
Before something unexpected happens, I will have us retreat if the enemies are overwhelmingly strong or I will have us cleanly cut down the enemies when they're all at the same level as us.
If the same thing happened like in that isolated space where we have no choice but to fight and there's no place to run to, then that's the only time when we will have to go all out to fight for our survival.
Drawing out a battle for no reason at all is simply idiotic and sparing someone who had the full intention to kill us even more so. We're not in anime where Power of Friendship or Flashbacks will save the day after all.
"How was it? Did you like the show? Look there's still someone struggling to retreat. Do you want to bet with me? Will he be able to escape or not? Of course, there's only one option for you."
Up above, even though Erin could fight against three Transcendents at once, she was unable to deal a fatal blow. The three were covering each other's backs, preventing her from doing that.
She has the advantage of higher UPL, however, it's not as overwhelming for her to do the same thing as Yuko and Zerina did.
That's why when Yuko and Zerina became freed after cutting their enemies down, I asked the two girls to circle around and assist Erin.
Although Erin might feel bad later, this is still a battlefield where life and death can happen in an instant. I can't let her risk that. I'll just think of how to appease her later.
Due to that added assistance with a Rank 2 and another Rank 1 Transcendent, it only took a few minutes of struggle to reduce their numbers from three to one.
Judging from his expression, only one thought was left running in his mind. Escape.
From others' perspectives, it probably looked as if I was just making fun of the descendant at this moment.
Well, that's true but I was also intentionally making him angry to reveal what's left under his sleeve.
He could contact his father again to desperately ask for help but he's not doing that. Besides, his eyes were still filled with hope. Despite the despairing view of his army and subordinates dying one by one, the fires of hope in his eyes were still brightly lit.
There's something he was betting on and that's what I'm trying to find out.
At the moment, he appeared to only focus on replenishing his used energy. But being someone sensitive to the movements of the surrounding energy, I noticed something.
He's covertly drilling a hole beneath him. He's probably farting his energy or whatever method he's using, trying to be as covert as possible.
That confirmed that this barrier he put up was something he couldn't deactivate and it would probably take a long time for it to disappear.
What kind of idiot would lock himself up in the middle of this important battle? Perhaps, at first, he's thinking that he could make an exit from the underground after he finished replenishing his energy. Now, the underground became his only chance to escape.
No matter what, I'm already determined to not let him get away.
There's that option to keep him as a prisoner but what for? I have Irja. Once I go back to the Dark World, there's also Alwyn, Remilia and Illiana. They will surely provide more information for us.
Ah. Let's not forget Worldy, his eyes encompassed the whole Dark World. As long as I manage to remove what's restricting him, he'll be free to answer every question regarding the enemies we have to face in the future.
In this way of observing his movements, time continued to pass.
In less than 10 minutes, everything was already wrapped up.
On the Mortal Rank battlefield, with the addition of Old Man Reol as well as the spectacle of watching their Transcendents die one by one, the enemy's morale dropped to its lowest. With the combined forces of the Heavenly Lightning Tribe as well as the Whiteshade Division, the Corrupted Barbarians and Dark Beastmasters were surrounded and had no choice but to surrender.
At this moment, the previously 15 Transcendents were now down to one.
I truly want to study this descendant's Pathway but I digress. There's no point taking more risk.
As soon as the descendant saw that all of us were now surrounding him, he finally dropped his act of being composed. However, there's no such thing as surrendering in his dictionary. From inside his black pouch, he pulled out another scroll.
Since he's inside the barrier he put up, there's no way for us to stop him from activating that scroll.
"Dai-kun, everyone. Retreat!"
Yuko immediately shouted. The sense of urgency from her voice was enough for us to instantly head her question. Using her Foresight, she probably saw what's about to happen.
And following that shout of hers, the red warning sign from my Adaptability appeared.
Everyone was aware of her Ability so as soon as they heard her shout, they all jumped back for at least 20 meters.
That guy… That hole was a decoy, huh? He made me think that he will use that hole to escape but in truth, he has this scroll.
From in front of our eyes, the barrier preventing us from attacking him suddenly exploded.
BOOM!
Because we all hastily retreated, the force of that explosion still reached us. It's filled with terrifying energy that threatened to break us into pieces. The Quintuple Shields covering us easily broke as we were all thrown far away with various injuries in our bodies.
Although it's not at the level of that metal cube from Larnel, it reminded me of that almost helpless feeling I got when Remilia spread her Domain open.
The force of the explosion felt like a full-powered attack of a Rank 4 Transcendent!
Despite the pain from the wounds I received from that explosion, my head continued to work and my priority list appeared.
I couldn't care less about that descendant now nor the unlucky Mortal Ranks down below who also got engulfed by that terrifying explosion.
At the moment, the safety of my Companions was the only thought that filled my mind.
Ignoring the pain racking my body, I activated every skill I had and Transformed to my Energy Incarnate form.
Due to the radius of the explosion, we're instantly thrown hundreds of meters away in a blink of an eye, scattering us away from each other.
With a bit of difficulty, I forced my body to a halt and turned my gazes on the girls that were also trying to resist the effect of that explosion.
"Avelin!" I shouted after spotting the closest girl to me.
Activating the Short-distance Teleportation, I closed our distance. Soon afterward, I solidified the currently chaotic energy around her by exercising my Energy Control to its fullest. Just like that time at the isolated space, I controlled that Energy to pull her towards me.
"Daisuke…" In a soft voice, Avelin looked up to see who caught her.
She's the slowest among us so she received more damage than the others, her clothes were almost torn away. Her flawless skin was now full of bruises and cuts and even her face wasn't spared.
"It's fine now, hold onto me," I whispered to her before turning my eyes to another girl.
Forgetting about everything else and only focusing on my five Companions, in this way, I managed to pick them up one by one, checked the injuries they received and tended to it.
Among the five of them, Avelin suffered the most. However, looking at it, it's not that serious, her wounds weren't that deep. Letting her consume the pill from Alwyn, she's back to the same cheerful and adorable girl in no time.
Zerina and Erin only received a few cuts on their bodies that already closed by the time I caught them in my arms.
And even though Yuko and Irja told me that they're completely fine, I still checked twice to make sure. Who knows if they just didn't want me to worry about them?
Either way, I made sure that everyone's alright first before I calmed down and finally thought about the other guy that was supposedly got blown away with us.
Ah, well. He's already old enough to tend for himself. His name is still listed to the Supported Individuals anyway, he's still alive.
There is a more pressing issue we have to face now.
The descendant escaped. For sure, that explosion was just his instrument to make his escape. But where to? Will he hide in this world or…?
As if confirming my suspicion, Yuko's voice entered my ears, "Dai-kun. That descendant. I saw him escaping to the sky."
To the sky…
Is he trying to escape back to the Dark World by swimming through the vast outer space? He himself said it's impossible…
Should I chase after him? What if he became successful and chose to go back here for revenge? Or what if he found some kind of treasure there? He's not that lucky, is he?
"If he's really trying to go back to the Dark World by traversing the space with just his body, we don't have to worry about him anymore. Even if we could swim through that endless space, there's no energy existing in it. Or even if there is, it's not something we can convert or adapt to. Perhaps even your Adaptability will not be able to at the moment… Unless you're Rank 5 Transcendent, you will have no chance to traverse it for more than a day without a special vessel."
Perhaps guessing that I'm thinking about chasing after the descendant, Irja who surprisingly had knowledge about it advised me not to.
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