The incoming elemental attacks were not as fast as Michael's energy arrows, but it was their overwhelming numbers that made a difference.
Dozens of fireballs, earthen spikes and wind blades shot in Michael's direction, aiming at the small group of three.
Michael stepped forward white exerting Extraction and golden thigh-thick streams shot out of his palms. The golden streamed heed Michael's will, forming a small barrier in front of the three of them.
The golden barrier couldn't block any attacks, but it could extract oxygen from everything that passed through it.
Unfortunately, the golden barrier was restricted and was unable to destroy the fireballs and wind blades. The elemental attacks merely slowed down a bit after they lost a small margin of force. However, that was just enough to give the team of three the time they needed to create a path of escape.
Michael's Eagle Eyes were unleashed, allowing him to predict the trajectory of all incoming projectiles precisely. He struck down two Earthen Spikes with the Wyverntooth Spear before he moved nimbly around the incoming fireballs and wind blades to destroy them.
Tiara, more or less, had the same reaction as Michael. She destroyed a few wind blades with swift spear thrusts before she utilized her Soultrait to change her trajectory instantaneously. A fireball shot past her head, missing her by a hair's breadth. But other than the blazing head and the sizzling noise ringing through her ear nothing happened to Tiara.
However, Masked Saber had a different way of tackling the attacks when compared to Michael and Tiara, who made sure that they didn't waste too much origin energy in evading the barrage of elemental attacks. Masked Saber coated his saber in silver energy, which he released with a simple slash. A crescent-shaped silver blade cut through the air, destroying the wind blades and most of the earthen spikes.
The fireballs exploded and the compressed wind blades burst apart upon colliding with silver energy blades. Masked Saber merely had to step aside to evade the remaining elemental attacks shooting toward him.
Afterward, the three looked at each other. Tiara nodded subtly to the others before she shot to the side. She disappeared inside a field of large bushes the next moment. Masked Saber, on the other hand, rushed toward the source of the elemental attacks.
He released more silver energy than before and created a stronger silver energy blade without hesitation. The silver energy blade whistled quietly as it shot through the air swiftly. It cut through the earthen wall that was blocking their sight and continued to advance rapidly.
The silver blade destroyed everything it came in contact with, cutting down a few bushes and old trees on its way.
The silver energy blade was about to impact on the source of the elemental attacks when several massive earthen walls shot out of the ground.
Two more earthen walls were cut down due to the massive force of the razor-sharp silver energy blade before the attack was finally rendered useless.
Masked Saber's attacks were known for possessing the most destructive force. Michael might be in possession of several combat-type Soultraits, but none of them allowed him to release a powerful one-kill attack. His Soultraits mostly focused on support, mental attacks, and trickery.
Masked Saber's silver energy blade was different. The more silver energy used the more terrifying the strength of the silver energy blade.
Using Masked Saber's attack as a distraction, Michael shot to the side before he burst forward. Meanwhile, Masked Saber didn't make any detour. He rushed to the source of the elemental attacks without hesitation.
Some trees around him fell over after they'd been cut by the silver energy blade, while the undergrowth was covered with the remnants of bushes. Nonetheless, Michael's Eagle Eyes were able to accurately locate the enemy through the chaos and rubble of the collapsing trees and earthen walls.
'A Zantur?' Michael almost blurted out when he saw the dimly shimmering silver skin known as a significant characteristic of the Zantur race.
After he saw the silver skin, Michael's attention moved to the one eye, the three pointed ears, and the thick skull that protruded out of the back of his head.
Their enemy was definitely a Lord of the Zantur race at the upper range of the 2nd Tier. He was wielding a large wooden staff that had various black enchantments engraved all over its surface. The enchantments were all connected to the brightly glowing Mana Orb that was attached to the head of the staff.
No matter how Michael looked at the staff, it seemed like a huge problem as it exuded strong pressure that could be sensed over a distance of dozens of meters. Meanwhile, the tunic covering the Zantur's body seemed more inconspicuous. But Michael could tell the truth.
The tunic had even more complex enchantments engraved all over its surface. The enchantments were black just like the tunic, but the tone was slightly different, allowing Michael to discover the enchantments – all thanks to his exceptional eyesight.
Enchanted staffs and tunics were mostly used by Sorcerers, who wanted their Artifacts to focus on enhancing the power of their spells, increasing energy output, and accelerating energy circulation.
Michael was not too sure what type of Soultrait the Zantur possessed, but he was clearly an Elementalist who could wield all four basic elements with great control.
The Zantur could manifest dozens of ordinary and long-range elemental projectiles within seconds. They were weaker than arrows released by a Tier-2 Archer, but the quantity made the difference.
Earthen pillars shot out of the ground in front of Masked Saber, restricting his movements. Masked Saber had to go around the earthen pillars and pay more attention to the trembling ground around him.
Masked Saber wanted to destroy the earthen pillars, but his focus was always diverted back to the ground around him. Whenever he stopped moving, the trembling beneath his feet intensified, forcing Masked Saber to keep moving.
'Zanturs don't like fighting. So why is he attacking me?' Michael wondered as the ground beneath his feet disappeared. The soil was pushed aside, and Michael was sucked into a hole, which was slowly being filled with water.
Michael frowned deeply and began using Extraction to remove the water as it filled the hole. Spikes shot out from all directions of the hole and were slowly inching closer to Michael.
Fortunately, he had just finished removing the water in the hole, providing steady ground to jump out. He kicked his feet off the ground and leaped out of the hole before covering his body with several layers of Enhancement. Their enemy might be a Zantur and alone, but he was powerful.
Michael was still too far away to make use of Spirit Whip to attack the Zantur mentally, but he was slowly inching closer.
Masked Saber pushed around the earthen pillars, his saber already coated in a thick layer of silver energy. He was just about to slash in the Zantur's direction when several bullets of compressed wind impacted hard on Masked Saber's shoulders.
Compared to the wind blades, the wind bullets were much faster, but also less threatening. They were like rubber bullets, fast and powerful enough to cause bruises, but unable to pierce your clothes, let alone skin and flesh.
Michael looked over to Masked Saber when he saw that his summon had been attacked. His first thought was that Masked Saber's clothes would tear and that his skin would be exposed, thus triggering the restriction that was attached to his life as a Summon.
Fortunately, that was not the case. Michael could divert his attention back to the Zantur. He saw Tiara emerging from a bush near the Zantur, white fur growing out of her arms, and her pupils contracting – slowly morphing into the eyes of a murderous tigress.
Her silver spear lunged forward in an instant, nearly hitting the Zantur, who conjured several wind bullets to blast the spear away.
However, before the wind bullets could collide with the spear, Tiara changed her trajectory. Her body moved in a weird angle, allowing her to spin the silver spear around her body, and accumulate more momentum to initiate a second attack.
Her second attack collided with several fireballs that exploded upon contact. The explosion affected both Tiara and the Zantur. However, Tiara backed off, knowing that Michael had finally arrived.
The Zantur's view was blocked due to the smoke released from the exploding fireballs. He could only retreat and try to manifest a few earthen pillars to ensure that his opponents couldn't reach him.
But the Zantur hadn't expected to be bombarded with mind-splitting mental attacks.
Michael used enhancement four times to strengthen each of the two Spirit Whips he had manifested. They struck down on the Zantur's head once Michael was finally close enough to attack. The Spirit Whip impacted heavily, causing the Zantur to falter.
The Zantur's sight turned hazy and he lost control of his Soultrait. Unable to wield the four basic elements, the Zantur could only retreat further, hoping that the earthen walls in between them would give him enough time to recuperate and use the four elemental affinities again.
However, Michael didn't want to give the Zantur enough time to recuperate. He unleashed Extraction to extract the earthen wall's soil in a small radius. A small hole – barely big enough to squeeze through – was created in the earthen walls, allowing Michael to avoid a loss in time and momentum. He jumped through the hole in the earthen walls and appeared in front of the Zantur, whom he struck with the two four-layer enhanced Spirit Whips a few more times.
His Wyverntooth Spear shot forward, the tip approaching the Zantur's neck with shocking speed.
Yet, before the Wyverntooth Spear could reap the Zantur's life, Michael noticed a drastic change in the surrounding atmosphere.
The Zantur's silver body began to shine brightly and his single eye turned crimson. A tremendous amount of pure origin energy was released from within the Zantur in the next second. The dense origin energy in the surroundings was pulled toward the Zantur's origin energy before it was devoured and annexed.
In response to the tremendous amount of origin energy shrouding the Zantur, the staff and tunic's enchantments were triggered simultaneously.
All of a sudden, the Zantur's mental power increased greatly. The Spirit Whips were rendered useless even though they'd been enhanced with four layers of Enhancement.
Seeing how the Zantur regained the clarity in his eyes shocked Michael. He knew just how powerful the Spirit Whips were since he had been struck by one more than once in the past. The change in the Zantur's presence clearly showed that he was done playing around.
The Zantur gathered strong winds around his body. He ignited a flame within the core of the winds before fusing the gusts of wind with the blazing flames that were born in the center of the wind.
Michael wanted to continue his attack and pierce through the Zantur's neck as long as he was still able to. But before the blade could reach the Zantur's neck, several layers of compressed earth manifested in front of the Wyverntooth Spear's black blade.
The blade was blocked by the compressed earth even though the force Michael applied should have been more than enough to pierce through the earthen wall before.
'Did his affinities just grow stronger?' Michael concluded near instantaneously.
The change in the Zantur's fighting style was apparent. He fused his wind and fire affinity to create mightier blazing flames all while the endurance of his earthly creations increased drastically.
One of the blazing gusts of wind shot toward Michael. Michael was prepared and quickly used Extraction, hoping to be able to extract some of the oxygen within the blazing gust of wind in the next second before it would impact.
However, his hope was crushed instantaneously. Extraction failed.
But it didn't fail because it was too weak. No, Extraction failed to show any remarkable results against the Zantur because the Zantur's willpower was several times stronger than before.
The Zantur controlled his elemental affinities precisely and with great care, ensuring that nobody could access them without him noticing and further strengthening his defenses.
As he was unable to extract more than 5% oxygen within the blazing gusts of wind, Michael could only hope to move aside. Eagle Eyes was still in use, allowing him to predict the projectile's trajectory.
However, before he could move, earthen pillars appeared to his left and right. Michael tried to extract them as well, but he couldn't crush the earthen pillars in an instant. It would take a few seconds before he could escape the earthen pillars. It was much more convenient to move backward and retreat.
But that was not possible. The blazing gusts of wind reached Michael, and they impacted heavily.
At the moment of impact Michael's breath was taken away. He could barely unleash the full power of the protection enchantments of the Typhern Leather Armor Set before he was flung across the forest.
Michael crashed heavily into a tree a moment after he used several layers of Enhancement on his body. That way, Michael could barely protect his body from turning into a mashed pulp.
The blazing gust of wind felt more like a cannonball than a cozy breeze. It had been terrific and strong enough to kill a Mid Tier-2 Monster with a single blow.
Even the tree Michael crashed into was dented inwardly.
Michael slumped to the ground with a groan and managed to get up when he heard something in front of him.
Tiara was also flung through the air by a blazing gust of wind. However, she couldn't protect her body as well as Michael.
'Oh…fuck me…' Michael cursed in his heart, moving instinctively in Tiara's trajectory to catch her.
'This will hurt a lot.' He could only think before she crashed into him.
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