Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 191. Gaining Advantage.

The moment Laien and Yin’s joint technique appeared, the originally ear-deafening battle cries of Yimar Maar’s army fizzled out like the flame of a candle under a strong gust of the wind. The sight of the crescent-shaped wave of deep-azure water filled with countless streaks of emerald-green lightning was breathtaking enough on its own, but it was the aura of this martial technique which truly robbed all those incoming men off their courage. Their bodies still moved forward carried by the momentum of the charge, but all of them in the central army seemed to have lost their spirits as their eyes either bulged out or stared blankly, their mouths now hanging open soundlessly.

Within these split seconds before the crescent-shaped wave of water and lightning connected with the first lines of Yimar Maar’s central army, it weren’t only those directly in its way who experienced an immense sensation of shock. Be it Casimir, Anna, Julien or Reian, all the experts on Laien and Yin’s side were awestruck by the degree of strength the martial technique of the boys possessed. Moreover, this mass of water and lightning didn’t only appear powerful by common standards, but it caused all of them to feel slightly suffocated despite them not being targets of the attack. Those affected in the worst way were the likes of Julien and Sirius, or in other words those with lightning-element and water-element affinities. All of them were experiencing an immense mixture of awe and fear, and they could tell that were they to not hold back consciously, they would end up kneeling in respect to the powers that were the true sovereigns of their elements.

Since even Laien and Yin’s allies felt like this, it could be imagined what kind of primordial fear surged in the hearts of the few lightning-element and water-element practitioners in Yimar Maar’s army. In fact, the chaotic waves of aura which Laien and Yin’s full-strength attack kept releasing were powerful enough to cause dozens of enemy experts to lose control over their energy. First, those unlucky fellows who weren’t even in the Realm of Heroes and happened to cultivate a water-element or lightning-element martial art failed to restrain their Qi and inevitably, all fifty-plus of them exploded on top of their horses, transforming into clouds of misty blood and gore.

Then, the regular martial masters and even a few of the weaker ruby-golden-robed martial and spiritual masters shared the same fate. Some of them died in the same way those mortal realm practitioners did as all of their energy exploded at once, whole others who barely failed to restrain it had their bodies ravaged from inside and fell to the ground while bleeding from all of their orifices.

However, it were only the deaths on the right and left wings which ended up being noticed as in the middle, the crescent-shaped wave first shattered, then dissolved the ten or so martial techniques which had been sent at her, then proceeded to swallow the hundreds of enemies into her embrace. And, to those people’s terror, regardless of how much Qi they used to defend themselves, all of them were immediately assaulted by both the lightning and the rough currents hidden within the wave of water. Most of them died instantly as their defenses were overcome by the emerald lightning, while those who were able to hold on for a little bit longer soon had their bodies wrought out into multiple directions by the currents of water and thus, were turned into ragged piles of meat and bones.

As, such, as the water and lightning continued to devour the central army of Yimar Maar’s, its original azure-emerald shade was dyed with more and more crimson. While withstanding the barrage of attacks from the further lines of Yimar Maar’s and Abdain’s experts, the crescent-shaped wave rolled forth mercilessly. It only lost a portion of its strength whenever the exceptionally powerful martial masters of the fourth rank and the martial masters of the fifth rank released their martial techniques upon it, while all the other resistance appeared to be utterly meaningless before it.

Before this wave of water and lightning died down, it managed to annihilate the greater half of the central army. Originally, there had been eight hundred ruby-golden elites and two and a half thousand of the regular Realm of Heroes experts and of course, one thousand mortal realm riders. However, within a span of time slightly longer than two seconds, over four hundred of the ruby-golden-robed experts, well over a thousand of the regular experts, and almost six hundred of the mortal realm riders, all perished grotesque deaths, their bodies turned into bloody ponds of blood.

Yet, just as those who survived were about to breathe a sigh of relief, the wave which seemed to be about to flatten out and then disappear stirred alive for the second time. In the blink of an eye, all the remaining water turned into white icy mist and alongside the remaining streaks of emerald lightning, it exploded outwards in a ‘puff’-like manner. In this way, before the nearby experts were able to retreat, another three hundreds of them were killed by the ice and lightning.

“Nice.” Almost four hundred meters away from the last explosion, Laien lowered his left hand. “A simplistic command still worked out despite the distance,” he thought with a smile. Even with his strengthened soul, the effective distance in which he could manipulate his Phantasmal Essence would still be at most seventy or eighty meters as far as he could tell, so it would be a little more than double his previous limit of thirty meters. However, given that both he and Yin had poured three river-like waves of insights each into their joint attack, the amount of Phantasmal Essence that he could try calling towards was significantly bigger. Because of that, he just barely managed to order the water and lightning to change in nature and subsequently explode in a wild manner.

“That being said,” he mused and turned his eyes towards Yin, his momentary sense of gratification quickly changing into anger. The left and right flanks of Yimar Maar and Abdain’s army were still in the middle of their charges, so there was no time for him to berate Yin verbally, but he was really frustrated with him at the moment! “Seriously, you should have some restraint! I know we are risking our lives to fight, but don’t you dare to die in a way as stupid as overexerting your soul!” he complained wordlessly. Even though Yin’s soul was unnaturally powerful thanks to his Heavenly Beast lineage and the Heavenly Lightning, and in part the yet to be completed Nine Refinements of Mortality, too, Yin wasn’t a spiritual practitioner like him! Seriously, being competitive was all good and dandy, but he would really get mad if Yin seriously injured himself in such a stupid way!

“Uh, sorry. I promise I’ll be more careful.”

Alas, as frustrated as Laien had been, all his anger disappeared the moment he not only clearly sensed that Yin was feeling rather ashamed, but also very much literally heard Yin’s words within his own consciousness. He even sensed a surge of warmth that appeared to be coming from Yin’s soul, one that felt as if it was mixing with his own soul essence along the way. This process… it was eerily similar to the way in which he had connected his Qi and spiritual energy. He was aware that there had been something that saved Yin at the last instant, but could it be that he hadn’t quite sensed this new link at first because it was his soul which moved in all force to reinforce Yin’s soul? Had he mistaken this slightly draining sensation for his own agitation in the beginning? Most likely, yes.

“Laien,” Yin sent the thought along. He was similarly surprised by the link which emerged between and connected their two souls and he even recalled that he had read about it once or twice, but he thought that it was not the best time for them to marvel over the breakthrough of their Spiritual Bond and its transformation into the Spiritual Link. “How about we go and see if we can kill Yimar Maar?” he asked and smiled at Laien half-apologetically and half-eagerly. Their original plan had been to stay away from Abdain at first and the actual battle was only about to begin in roughly two or three more seconds, so there was no point targeting Abdain. As for trying to wipe out the remnants of the central army, not only were those people too far away from the frontlines, they weren’t even charging towards them anymore. Their hearts and spirits had been thoroughly broken.

“Hah,” Laien suppressed a laugh and after merely looking into Yin’s eyes, he turned around and dashed towards the left-wing battlefield with Yin following right by his side. “It was a bit dangerous because of one certain reason I won’t mention anymore, but I guess it was worth it. In exchange for roughly fifty percent of your Qi and forty percent of both my Qi and spiritual energy, we were able to cripple the entire central army,” he pointed out playfully. Without their Phantasmal Worlds and thus the Phantasmal Essences, such an achievement would have been far beyond their ability even if they were to use more of their energy to fuel the attack. However, with those high-quality insights, they far overcame the limitations of the cultivation levels and brought forth a truly devastating attack.

“You’re such a tease,” Yin thought helplessly, but it didn’t mean a smile didn’t emerge on his face. Indeed, the two of them had achieved better results than expected. The utter failure of their enemies to respond to their attack in any way was a part of it, but the resonance of their Phantasmal Essences had also allowed their technique to rise in power by a fair bit. If he were to compare the end-result they had achieved to standard ranks of cultivation… then it would be a bit hard. However, he was pretty sure that even Julien, who could be seen as a supreme martial master of the sixth rank, albeit a newly advanced one, would have to exert himself heavily to achieve similar results.

“True Devils!”

“Damnable Djinn-spawns!”

Meanwhile, as Laien and Yin were running towards the about-to-be frontlines of the left-wing battlefield, Yimar Maar’s army could no longer rouse themselves enough to let out their battle cries. Even Yimar Maar himself was so dumbfounded that he forgot to shout anything to his men and instead was beginning to wonder if he wasn’t in the middle of a terrible nightmare from which he couldn’t awake. After all, it made no sense for two boys to be so powerful, it made no sense for them to be able to kill hundreds upon hundreds of martial masters in one attack. Had he known that such monsters were amongst Arslan’s protectors, he would have designated a group of martial masters of the fifth rank to suppress them during this battle to avoid all those casualties!

No matter how flustered Yimar Maar was, though, the clash with Casimir and Anna was approaching all the same. Thus, Yimar Maar just barely managed to regain his senses and shouted ‘Kill!’ at the top of his lungs. Thanks to that, at the very least his own personal thousand elites regained their focus, though the two thousand regular martial masters and the thousand mortal realm riders were still shaken and to be fair, they were in no state to fight the battle that was just about to begin.

“Should I be overjoyed,” Casimir wondered with a weak smile. “Or disheartened?” he asked himself as he brandished his sword and jumped forward to meet Yimar Maar’s charge. He had trusted that Laien and Yin would be fine if they jumped into the central army, but he hadn’t expected those two to use a joint martial technique that was so powerful it gave even him shivers. For the two of them to have affected the entire battlefield in one move… truthfully, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Their goal here was to hold on until reinforcements arrived, but if those two went on to create one miracle after another, then wouldn’t they defeat their enemies before it could happen? Wouldn’t that defeat the entire purpose of everyone staking their lives on the line? He probably should be happy that everything was going better than he had predicted it to, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit disheartened. A conclusion where everything went too easily… he knew it was immature of him to think in such a way, but it wouldn’t be the satisfying conclusion they had been giving their best to set up for those examiners of Laien and Yin’s. It simply felt… wrong for it all to end too easily.

“Casimir!”

It was Anna’s voice which brought him back to reality and right in the nick of time at that. While Casimir himself was a supreme dual-element martial master of the fourth rank, Yimar Maar was one of the strongest peak martial master of the fifth rank in the entire west of the continent. So, while Casimir remembered to start paying attention, he still suffered as he was pushed over two dozen meters backwards after crossing swords with Yimar Maar for the first time. Had it not been for Anna using a significant amount of Qi to stall Yimar Maar for half a second after he had been blown away, Yimar Maar would have most likely used this opportunity to kill one or two of his Royal Guards.

“Damn, he’s strong,” Casimir murmured. He had just proceeded to exchange five more quick blows with Yimar Maar once they re-engaged each other, but every time he would be forced back another five meters and after just those few exchanges, his wrist was beginning to feel numb. Had he not had the earth-element affinity, then forget the flames exploding with each clash, the force behind Yimar Maar’s blows alone would have been enough to injure his hands and break his guard.

“Damn,” he repeated, seeing as it wasn’t only him who was struggling. Against those thousand ruby-golden-robed elites of Yimar Maar’s, all of whom were using the regular martial masters and those mortal realm riders as springboards and meat shields, his Royal Guards were at a great disadvantage. It were only the timely reinforcements of Anna’s Royal Guards that prevented their ranks from collapsing under the relentless assault of enemy forces. It was as if those men didn’t care about their casualties and all they wanted to do was to press on forward while killing everyone in their way.

Because of that, within just five or six seconds, casualties piled up on both sides. Worryingly, however, Casimir could tell that his and Anna’s Royal Guards weren’t killing many of the ruby-golden-robed elites while their own numbers were steadily dwindling. He had already lost more than ten of his men, though he couldn’t be exactly sure since he had his hands full with Yimar Maar, while Anna’s subordinates seemed to have suffered a few deaths, too. At this rate, no matter what they did, Yimar Maar and his elites would force their way through their ranks within the next minute at best!

“I jinxed it,” Casimir grit his teeth. He had expected to be losing to Yimar Maar based on the information Anna and the Black Sword Unit gave him, but he didn’t think he would be losing this badly. He was a liability to his allies since defending against Yimar Maar alone was draining all of his strength, so every time another enemy targeted him, Anna and a few other nearby Royal Guards would have to prevent the one in question from interfering least the worst happened. To be a deadweight was an extremely frustrating feeling to him and to top it off, those elites of Yimar Maar’s were far more effective in using their allies to press on than he could have ever predicted. Now that he had seen them in action personally, he could tell. Only those who had stepped over countless bodies of their dead allies and enemies alike would be able to fight in this manner!

“Damn it,” Casimir cursed in his heart. “Abdain’s elites might be stronger on average as far as cultivation bases go, but those elites of Yimar Maar’s are far more experienced. They must’ve been with that man for a long, long time… I miscalculated,” he admitted sourly, though instead of despairing, he smirked at the man who was furiously trying to end his life with a barrage of attacks. He had still underestimated Yimar Maar and his elite army and he should have paid a heavy price for doing so, but at the same time, they had all underestimated those two youths, too.

When Laien and Yin joined the turbulent battle on the left wing, the balance of power was instantly upset. What had been a situation heavily advantageous to Yimar Maar’s side but a second ago turned into a nightmare when two surges of icy mist entered the ranks of Yimar Maar’s soldiers and started turning dozens upon dozens of them into ice statues in the blink of an eye. The two surges of mist avoided encounters with experts at and above the level of elite martial masters of the third rank in order to kill in the fastest way possible. So, as Laien moved deeper into the left-wing battlefield and made his way towards Yimar Maar, the enemy ranks seemed to open in front of him.

As for those martial masters of the third rank and above, Laien simply ignored them and fended off any incoming attacks with his Water Flow Spear Art empowered by the third river-like wave of insights. Admittedly, using three of those river-like waves at once had been pushing his limits when unleashing that huge martial technique, but now that the link between his and Yin’s souls was established, it no longer strained him. It wasn’t that his soul had suddenly grown stronger or anything, but he did feel as if it was more stable and resilient than before.

“Oho.” A look of genuine surprise appeared on Laien’s face. Naturally, since he was ignoring those stronger experts, the job of killing them fell to Yin. He had learned what Yin’s Thundercloud Sword Art was and he had seen it in use briefly, but it was only now that he could appreciate how frightening of a sword art Yin had created. Those elite martial masters were all in a rush, too, so their all-out attacks played perfectly into what Yin’s style sought to exploit. With Yin dodging the incoming blows by the hair’s width, those elites were getting cut down one after another as fast as they came. He didn’t even need to use any magic to assist Yin, so it was all the more impressive to witness.

It took the two of them, all in all, around ten seconds to slaughter their way through the two-hundred-meters-long area filled with constantly replenishing enemies to the place where Casimir was withstanding Yimar Maar’s repeated attacks. They didn’t bother with counting how many people they had killed in this period of time, but by the time they reached Yimar Maar, the thirty-meter area around them was devoid of new opponents. Moreover, frightened by the two surges of seemingly indestructible icy mist and the deceivingly effortless slaughter of their elites by Yin, those enemies who were further away than thirty meters were in the process of retreating further.

Of course, had it been just Laien and Yin against those thousands of people, including a thousand elites, they would have never had such an easy time. However, in this situation the ‘strength’ of enemy elites was spread more or less evenly throughout the entire area and secondarily, they all were trying to press onward, not to stay and fight. Thus, the two of them had an easier time since they had cut into their ranks at an angle and from the middle of their formation. Well, and thirdly, the majority of their martial masters of the fifth rank was already engaged in battles with Casimir and Anna’s Royal Guards, what left but a few of their strongest elites to face the two of them.

“Interesting,” Casimir thought to himself, “They are extremely powerful when they are the ones who have a clear goal and have the initiative, but once they are faced with an unexpected development, their strength crumbles. Had those people been father’s personal army instead of Yimar Maar’s, Laien and Yin would have never made it this far. They would have probably gotten killed had they tried to force their way through, too,” he thought half-consciously while committing the very majority of his attention to his duel with Yimar Maar. Be it as it may, Laien and Yin arrived to help him, so it would be a bad joke if he were to let his guard down and get heavily injured by Yimar Maar now out of all possible times. Rather than that, he thought he should try and force Yimar Maar to show an opening which those two would be able to exploit. Perhaps if he gave him a small opening, Yimar Maar would fall for it if he was feeling pressured enough by the battle’s development?

“It should be fine, right?” he asked himself before putting his idea into action. Even if it happened with his assistance, if those two followed the display of that ridiculous martial technique with claiming the life of a supreme martial master of the fifth rank, then they should be able to pass their Shadow Trials no matter how crazy their examiners were. Still, even though he told himself so, he couldn’t be absolutely sure… and yet, he wasn’t willing not to at least try. So, as he blocked Yimar Maar’s next slash, he used a little bit less strength than before on purpose and in consequence, he had his sword blown away to the side and ended up staggering as he retreated a few meters.

He noticed a flash of hesitation in Yimar Maar’s eyes, though he had to hold back a smile when he saw the man choosing to make use of the opportunity. By the looks of it, the bait of the Crown Prince of the Bolan Kingdom, and a dual-element martial master of the fourth rank at that, was good enough for Yimar Maar to take the gamble. “Though it might be him wanting to get past us and to Arslan as soon as possible,” the thought passed through Casimir’s mind. His father had reminded him not to get too arrogant the same day he had advanced to the Realm of Heroes, so even though they were but a few words, they ended up stuck deep in his mind and influenced his character strongly.

Regardless of his somewhat distracting inner thoughts, however, Casimir still properly attempted to defend the incoming attack. If he did nothing and simply waited for Laien and Yin to join in, then he would probably end up getting killed alongside Yimar Maar or worse, only he would get killed. “Hah, she realized it. As expected.” He suppressed a smile just as Yimar Maar’s follow-up attack was about to land on his hastily put-up guard. He had revealed this opening intentionally for Laien and Yin’s sake, so it would be pointless if Anna or some of their Royal Guards rushed to his aid. Thankfully, Anna hadn’t moved once he fell into peril despite being free to do so. Thanks to that action of hers, their Royal Guards also quickly understood what was going on and kept fighting their own battles.

As he was preparing a sturdy layer of Qi to receive a slash across his chest, he finally saw a flash of lightning and only at the last moment, he sensed Yin’s aura. The boy had mercilessly waited for Yimar Maar to send out his blow all the way to make it as hard as possible for the man to change his movements once he sensed the approaching danger. This was the course of actions in which he would be most likely to receive a painful slash from Yimar Maar, but he was glad that Yin did exactly that since he agreed it was the best course of action to take under this set of circumstances.

What he didn’t quite expect, though, was that Yimar Maar would twist his body and lower his stance in tandem with Yin’s arrival. This immediate reaction on Yimar Maar’s part resulted in Yin’s first slash, one which was aimed at Yimar Maar’s neck, to miss entirely. Subsequently, because of Yimar Maar breaking his stance altogether and going as far as to get upside-down, the second slash of Yin’s failed to draw blood too. The next instant, Yimar Maar supported himself with his hand and whilst completing the turn of his body, he slashed out with his sword straight at Yin’s torso with such speed and force that Yin had no choice but to use his Lightning Steps to dodge out of the way.

The very next split-second, Yimar Maar roused his Qi and surrounded himself with a thick layer of flames, all of which frizzled loudly when two surges of icy mist collided with them. Unwilling to lose the initiative, Yimar Maar chose to momentarily let the strange magic be and hurriedly completed the movement and landed his feet on the ground. Without delaying at all, he rushed straight at Yin, who had suppressed his aura and stayed dangerously nearby, likely trying to exploit his openings.