Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 195. Final Standoff.

Although Jacob couldn’t hear or feel anything anymore, he still smiled ever so slightly when he saw the blurred image of his daughter leaping to his side. He then wanted to move his eyes and at least check if Johan and Albert were fine too, but to his own surprise, he found himself unable to do so. “I’m really dying, aren’t I?” he thought in silence, but if he could, he would have laughed out loud. He had done everything he could for the sake of his wife and children, but in the end, he lost his wife and his children had been miserable for a very long time. He knew that he was a weak man, he had no strength of his own and he knew no people who would lend strength to him. So, he was actually glad that when his children started walking their own paths towards happiness, he could do something truly meaningful for them, something that only he could have done at the given time and place.

“Father! Father…!”

Kneeling at Jacob’s side, Sarah continued to yell the same word, having forgotten all about her surroundings. Her mind was in disarray, leaving her unable to form any coherent words. Ever since old man Rakar had told her what her father had been doing in secret to protect her and Johan back at the Ulme Village, she wanted to tell her father that she forgave him... that she wanted to apologize to him. However, she never found it in herself to approach Jacob. She had hated him with her entire heart for many years, so how could her emotions change so rapidly? There was a lot of going on with Johan and their futures weren’t safe yet, so she had been telling herself that she would talk with her father once it was all over, once it was peaceful, once a good moment came.

However, fate was a fickle thing. She had been putting the painful conversation off for later, all the while knowing that their group was venturing into a lot of danger. Now, not only was her father dying, but he was also dying having done the same thing he had always been doing in secret, protecting her and Johan. Through her tears, Sarah could see the light disappearing in her father’s slowly closing eyes, so she knew that he was about to die. She wanted to apologize and make up with him… but she no longer had the chance. Thus, all she could do was say repeatedly.

“Sorry… I’m sorry, father…”

She was so shaken that she didn’t notice when Albert and Johan came to her side, but her chaotically flowing thoughts stopped all at once when she heard a gargled sound coming from Jacob’s mouth. Jacob seemed as if he wanted to say one last thing, but with how badly his body was mangled, all he managed was to force out some blood out of his throat. Still, instead of despairing, Jacob moved his lips mutely, perhaps unaware that words weren’t coming out of his mouth.

“Live…” Albert muttered, not sure if he had read Jacob’s lips correctly. However, whether he was right or not, his softly spoken word carried to Sarah and Johan’s ears within a brief second of coincidental silence. This caused Sarah to tremble as she staggered forward, almost falling down despite kneeling on the ground, to begin with. Perhaps because she was finally shocked numb, Sarah was able to say the last few words to Jacob before his eyes closed forever.

“Father, I love you.”

“Thank you…”

And once she finished saying them, she could swear that the blank look in her father’s eyes turned warm for a second. Stunned by both the extreme experience and the guilty wonder if her father had somehow understood her last words to him, she remained motionless. Somehow, all the events she had experienced from the time they had left the Ulme Village appeared almost like a dream to her. She was able to recall everything, but it seemed too unrealistic that she found it hard to believe. Even the dead body of her father right in front of her, she was no longer sure if it was real or not.

However, this deceivingly tranquil moment of confusion of hers was interrupted when she saw Albert store her father’s body into his interspatial ring. She was then pulled onto her legs by him and just like Johan, the two of them were dragged over all the way to the cliff-wall to the eastern side of the mine. They were good ten meters away from the tightly packed horses once they stopped, but Albert didn’t attempt to hide the three of them. First, those horses were so powerful that the three of them could easily be accidentally crushed to death by them. Second, if their enemies could clearly see them and could see that Arslan wasn’t with them, they would hopefully leave them alone.

And, as it was soon proved, Albert’s decision was correct in both aspects of his reasoning as the icy mist that used to cover the entire front of the path suddenly churned, only for its greater half in the middle to evaporate into nothingness in the blink of an eye. This sudden event was soon followed by one streak of emerald lightning, then three men speeding forward one after another. Although neither Albert nor the two siblings who were with him were able to follow the movements of those people with their eyes, they could guess who those people were. The first two were Laien and Yin, while the three men were Yimar Maar, Reian, and Abdain!

The moment the strongest experts of both sides shifted their battlefield to the back-end of the path, the cover of the Tempest Horses became meaningless as the five of them spread their auras. Laien, Yin, and Reian did so in order to know where not to send their attacks, while Yimar Maar and Abdain to know where Arslan and the last of the trio of the White Guards were hiding. For the latter two of them, as long as they acted swiftly, they would be able to bring this detestable war to an end!

“Stay!” Reian shouted as he positioned himself in front of Laien and Yin. He gathered a considerable amount of both wind and fire-element Qi around his sword, threatening to attack Yimar Maar were he to try and slip past him. Alas, even though he was able to make Yimar Maar second-guess himself, he was painfully aware that Laien and Yin were just about spent. The two of them were still clear-headed as they had purposefully only allowed a little bit of his aura to enter their bodies while keeping the probing by Yimar Maar and Abdain at bay, but no matter how good their thinking was, it didn’t change the fact that both of them had less than one-tenth of their strength left.

Thus, when Abdain caught up half a second later and the two of them joined strengths in forcing their way through to Arslan and Kasha, Reian felt like he had no other choice. His only option was to use a powerful martial technique and hope to delay those two, but how much time could it buy? Yimar Maar appeared ready to counter any such attacks too, so he would likely gain two-tenths of a second at best. “Insignificant as it is,” Reian smirked at his own thoughts and slashed out with his sword regardless, sending forth a highly condensed wave of wind and fire. His attack was inevitably met with Yimar Maar’s own, what was followed by a relatively small-scale explosion due to their elements canceling each other out. This was immediately followed by Yimar Maar and Abdain defending themselves with their Qi and forcing their way through the decompressing explosion of air and energy, so as he had expected, he had bought a truly minuscule amount of time.

It was, however, enough to make a difference. While he moved to once again entangle with Yimar Maar and as Abdain was moving past them, he could see Julien fast-approaching from but a hundred meters away. The silver-haired man had quite a few wounds, some of quite serious, so it went without saying that he had been forced to pay a price to break out of the encirclement of Abdain’s remaining elites just a moment earlier than it should have been possible. But, while wounded, he was undoubtedly a martial master of the sixth rank, so he was more than capable of blocking Abdain as long as he could cross this last bit of the ground in time. Laien and Yin had to block Abdain for just one exchange of blows and it would be enough! Then, this war would be as good as over!

Alas, be it Reian, Julien, or even Laien and Yin, none of them were feeling relaxed at this prospect. Julien had learned of it first-hand, Reian realized later once he started exchanging blows with Abdain while delaying him, while Laien and Yin understood just now through aura probing. Abdain was no longer at the early stage of the seventh Realm of Heroes, but at the peak of the seventh realm! Since he had managed to break through to a higher realm, it was no surprise that he would sooner or later reach its peak, but for it to happen in just a few days was unthinkable. Perhaps the intense series of battles would push him to the middle of the seventh realm, but not all the way to the peak!

“It’s stronger,” Laien mused while brandishing his spear and preparing to try and obstruct Abdain. “But it’s less stable… and it’s almost as if there are suppressed impurities leaking out of his Qi Origin? I can’t tell for sure since he’s instantly crushing any aura strands that enter his body, but he probably advanced to the middle stage naturally and then took some pills to forcefully push himself to the peak of the seventh realm. This provided him a short-term boost in strength, but if he doesn’t have access to something similar to our Nine Refinements to Immortality, he will find it almost impossible to advance his cultivation in the future. Especially once the effect of those pills wears off and the suppressed impurities invade his entire system.” The few half-coherent thoughts quickly passed through Laien’s mind. He naturally was in no spot to be pondering such matters, but realizing them on the sub-conscious level was a different thing and wouldn’t distract him from the fight.

“Huh?” So, he was able to notice it when Abdain suddenly sent a surge of Qi to his foot just as he was about to take a step. He wanted to react in a hurry, but no matter how cool-headed he was, he ended up hesitating for a split-second. That surge of Qi was sent directly into the ground and it wasn’t like he or Yin were capable of directly contesting the Qi of a peak martial master of the seventh rank. Their best bet was to retreat and dodge the attack… but the hundreds of horses, and worse, Arslan and Kasha, were right behind them. Where were they supposed to dodge towards if they didn’t want to allow Abdain a free passage? They wished there was a clear answer to their dilemma, but they were finally pushed up against the wall and couldn’t find a safe solution.

So, the two of them made their decisions at the same time. Laien pulled upon his insights and sent the three river-like waves of Phantasmal Essence towards Abdain, while Yin grabbed Laien from the back just as Abdain’s surge of Qi arrived. Subsequently, hundreds of needle-thin ice spikes formed in the air and assaulted Abdain’s vital areas, including his eyes, throat, heart and even groin. Simultaneously, the ground where Laien and Yin had been rumbled and exploded with a sea of earth spikes, the collateral damage from which killed off more than a hundred Tempest Horses all at once and clearly revealed the spot where Arslan and Kasha were hiding at. On the side note, this slaughter of their companions finally frightened the remaining horses enough that they were no longer able to keep their instincts at bay and thus scattered, feeling from the spot as fast as they could.

As for Abdain, he cursed silently as he recalled the information his subordinates had provided him about Laien’s abilities. He swept out with his hand and shattered the ice needles aiming at his eyes and received the rest of them directly with his body, coming to no harm at all. Then, once the ice needles started reforming right next to him seemingly out of nowhere, he simply added one more layer of Qi protection to his eyes and proceeded to thoroughly ignore their attacks.

Instead, he flicked his sword with his wrist and alongside a twist of his body, he slashed out behind him, where those two kids moved with their movement technique. He was more than used to fighting against Lightning Steps thanks to fighting Julien so much, so how could he not know how to set up the right timing to exploit the technique’s weakness? He had, of course, also learned that Yin was capable of using Lightning Steps in quicker succession than even Julien, but it didn’t mean that he was going to allow the kid to get behind him without retaliation. He definitely wasn’t about to recklessly open himself to an attack from Yin as the kid had wounded him in their first clash, while now the brat appeared to be even stronger than back then. He had admittedly used a precious pill to push his cultivation to the peak of the seventh Realm of Heroes, but he would be a fool if he presented a real opening to someone whose forte was offensive prowess.

That being said, just like Abdain was guessing, Yin was about to use Lightning Steps to dodge again. Yet, the reason behind the dodge wasn’t exactly as Abdain had imagined. Such a fast, strong, and yet exceedingly simplistic slash, Yin was confident in dodging thanks to the improvements he made in his Thundercloud Sword Art. However, he was holding onto Laien, who would be incapable of repeating the same feat and was likely to suffer from the attack. And yet, as Yin was just about to move the two of them out of the way and then presumably try attacking alone, he received a certain request from Laien. This request, in turn, at the same time caused some wrinkles to appear on his forehead and made the corners of his lips tremble slightly as if resisting to form into a wry smile.

“He’s right though.” The thought crossed Yin’s mind. Both he and Laien knew that if they were to stay and fight from this position, then the first thing to happen would most likely be Laien ending up with some heavy wounds. It would be dangerous not to retreat and face Abdain straight away, for sure, but now that Yin reconsidered their options carefully, he came to agree with Laien. They had no other choice but to take the risk and attempt to wound Abdain in some way, all in order to allow Julien to more reliably hold Abdain at bay. The best chance for them to accomplish that was ironically the next half a second to a second before Julien arrived, as Abdain would still be restless during this brief moment and would be more prone to exposing himself. Then, once they weakened Abdain, as long as Reian and Julien could obstruct Yimar Maar and Abdain for long enough, he and Laien would be able to quickly clear up the rest of the battlefield from the remaining enemies. Even without any Qi or spiritual energy left, their Phantasmal Essences alone would be enough to slaughter all of their opponents given that most of the ruby-golden-robed martial masters of the fifth and fourth ranks were biting the dust by this point in time.

A short exchange would be easy enough, Yin was sure of it. Even though Laien would likely end up wounded due to bearing the brunt of Abdain’s attacks, it wouldn’t be anything life-threatening. However, dealing any serious wounds to Abdain in one or two blows would be impossible. They had to push Abdain into a state where he couldn’t actively defend with his body or martial techniques in order for him to injure Abdain in any serious way. This begged the question, though. How far should they go? They had been pushing the limits of their good fortune for quite a while now, so Yin couldn’t help but have a slight, bad feeling about repeatedly facing off against death in such quick succession. Truth to be told, the entire Euleanian part of their journey was a huge mess thanks to the Guild of Shadows… and he knew that had to do everything in their power to end this never-ending chain of problems and nightmares, but even then he couldn’t help but worry about Laien.

Under normal circumstances, there would have been no way for Yin to contemplate all those things in those few one-hundredths of a second. Thankfully, however, the moment he started pondering their choice he and Laien half-accidentally intensified the strengthened connection their Spiritual Link provided. Thus, their perceived time was extended hundreds of times, which allowed the two of them to exchange a few thoughts and some words without a worry.

“It’s okay, we can do it,” Laien sent the thought over the moment he sensed Yin’s train of thought coming to an end. “I might be running low on energy, but even in the worst-case scenario, I will at most be seriously wounded, not killed. Remember, I still have my insights and there’s Phantasmal Essence included in that, so I can heal any damage to myself as long as it doesn’t immediately kill me or happens to knock me unconscious. Let me handle everything and play along until an opening appears, then give your all in one blow to deal some proper damage to the bastard. I’ll time it so Julien will arrive the next instant, so we will be able to retreat afterward,” he insisted confidently. It would be a different story if he had to defend against a reckless barrage of martial techniques of Abdain’s, but blocking a few sword strikes and dealing with a few small-scale martial techniques was far more doable. After all, while his own Water Flow Spear Art was something at the very apex of the grandmaster level weapon arts, Abdain’s sword technique was exceedingly simple.

In other words, it could also be said that in a melee matchup, he was the best possible counter to someone who relied on his superior physical abilities, instincts, and abundant experience to wield a broadsword. The difference in skill could be rendered meaningless by the effectiveness of a simplistic sword art and in fact, it very often was. Unfortunately for Abdain, the more Laien’s skill and insights progressed, the more impossible it became to break through his defenses with simple brute strength.

“Fine,” Yin agreed in the end and suppressed a sigh. Ironically, despite him creating an extremely offensively-biased Thundercloud Sword Art, it was still Laien who was more decisive in taking risks whenever a good opportunity presented itself. “But make sure you don’t get yourself killed, okay?” Yin asked somewhat helplessly, his thought carrying the signs of wariness. He was somewhat aware that he was unwilling to risk too much was because he didn’t want Laien to shoulder the majority of the risk, but there was nothing he could do to change this aspect of his character. He cared about Laien too much, so he was unconsciously pushing away the possibilities which could result in Laien dying and leaving him alone in this world. He understood that such thinking was unreasonable on a battlefield and if needed, just like now, he was able to suppress it. However, he doubted whether he would ever be able to entirely get rid of this bias of his… and in the first place, he didn’t know if he wanted to get rid of it at all.

“Yeah, same to you,” Laien responded with a mental chuckle, but his state of mind remained absolutely serious the entire time. Thanks to the Spiritual Link, he was even more aware of the intrinsic thoughts and emotions of Yin’s, so after experiencing all those internal conflicts of Yin’s so closely, he would have had to be a fool not to empathize with Yin’s points. “Let’s do it,” he added strongly and once the two of them agreed that everything that had to be said had been said, they relaxed their Spiritual Link.

The sensations steadily returned to their physical bodies and their perception of time started accelerating to a normal rate again, which naturally forced them into immediate action. Yin quickly relaxed his hold on Laien’s stomach but didn’t make any big movements just yet, instead synchronizing his tempo with Laien. Laien, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate to send all three river-like waves of insights into his spear alongside a good part of what remained of his Qi and spiritual energy. As the turbulent yet strangely orderly mixture of water, mist, and ice started revolving around his spear, he adjusted his stance and got ready to turn sideways while defending. Be it as it may, the little time they had was very important, so wasting it for Yin to circle around him or forcing Yin to use Lightning Steps unnecessarily would be nothing but an example of inefficient tactics.

“Now the question is,” Laien mulled with an ever so slight smile on his face. “How badly will Abdain want to defend against us? If he chooses not to go all-out to kill us like I think he should, it would be great,” he mused, hoping for his last gamble to pay off. With his and Yin’s degree of cooperation and their great amount of real-life battle experience, they weren’t going to screw up on their own. The issue was whether Abdain would play by their rules or if he was going to flip the table and recklessly bet everything on killing them during this brief exchange by exploiting their low energy levels.

And as far as the answer to Laien’s question went, the very moment Laien and Yin fell into offensive motion, Abdain was overcome by a looming sense of danger. He was still in the process of turning around and slashing at the appearing Laien and Yin, but even he had understood that he had made a mistake the very instant his instincts warned him of the threat. He was used to dealing with Lightning Steps thanks to fighting Julien for those past few days, but he failed to adjust his habitual response to the movement art by the fact that Yin hadn’t moved alone. After all, it was one thing to know that one was dealing with logic-defying monsters, but another to suppress one’s natural reactions.

“I should have prepared a martial technique to defend and leaped to Arslan instead,” the indistinct idea passed through Abdain’s mind before it was erased. There was no point pondering such mistakes in the middle of battle, so he focused on the problem at hand instead. “Urgh.” Yet, he groaned inwardly. Had it been Laien and Yin from the morning, he would have felt confident in shaking them off or killing them now that he had forcefully pushed himself to the peak of the seventh Realm of Heroes. However, those two little monsters were growing at a mind-numbingly abnormal rate. Even if they had little energy remaining, he didn’t felt like he could deal with them before Julien came. So, with little choice, he opted to forcefully create some distance and leave the two behind; at words, he would ignore their attacks and get wounded in exchange for freedom of movement.

Truth to be told, had Abdain possessed a cheat-like ability akin to Laien and Yin’s Spiritual Link or if his soul had been far more powerful than it was, he would have had more time to consider his options. He might have come up with a different idea or would have chosen to adjust his actions based on the way Laien and Yin acted. However, Abdain had neither of such advantages and he was already heavily pressured not only by the unfavorable development of this final battle but also by all the infuriating events of this war against Mustafa and Arslan. This, without Abdain’s knowledge, caused him to wish for all of this to be over and done with, and that would only happen once he captured Arslan or died. Naturally, he wasn’t considering the latter option as a viable one, so the choice he had been forced to make by Laien and Yin was the one for which Laien hoped for the most.