Black Saber was trapped in the coils of the dragon. It had looped around his waist and trapped his legs, he held it with both hands around the throat, keeping its mouth pointed away from him. The dragon’s one remaining arm had stabbed his own saber into him from the side, slowly sinking it deeper and deeper, pushing the point towards his heart. Black Saber’s mouth opened, but there was no sound.

Instead, the dragon howled. Blood spurt from its face, an invisible blade was released from Black Saber’s lips, slicing through Sage’s right eye. Forcibly ending the Foresight technique as his eye was shattered. He was wearing the Blue Icesilver as armor over his throat and body to protect against Black Saber, he thought he could only use his signature move with his hands and saber. That layer of armor expanded and four spikes punched through Black Saber’s chest. They sunk into him again and again in rapid succession. Turning his upper body into mincemeat. Sage quickly put Black Saber and his possessions into his Inner World, using his consciousness to seek out the Universe Ring.

It’s not here… how is that possible!

He wanted to keep looking, but it was too late. He could already see a row of shields and a thicket like formation of halberds. The Jade Horde had arrived. He saw Whitestaff and the Strongfist Brothers a few rows back into the Horde. The army of insects was supposed to buy him more time, but it hadn’t worked out the way he wanted. A few square formations of the Jade Horde were pressing in from the four cardinal directions while the rest of them formed a perimeter and were killing the bugs. They were sacrificing Hoplites on the outsides of the formations to force their way closer and keep up the pressure.

In the distance there were loud rumbling, making it seem like a storm was approaching, but the skies were perfectly clear. The thunderous sounds came from Wu Chang’s battle with King. There had been a few lazy clouds drifting past before the battle started, but Wu Chang had been using the wind in the skies to battle and all the leisurely clouds had long been dispersed. There was another loud boom, closer to them this time, and Sage saw a sandy colored figure shooting down from the skies. The raindrop shaped object suddenly changed, extending wings and transforming from a falling object into a giant hawk gliding towards the ground. The bird took a few moments to regain control and skid across the ground slightly more violently than the two of them had earlier. His crash landing dug a small ditch in the ground, but after only a moment, the huge hawk picked itself back up. It stood up shakily and slowly expanded its wings a few times, screeching with pain as it did.

Wu Chang flew down, spinning in mid-air and hovering over the area of the Jade Horde where Whitestaff and the Strongfist Brothers were. That side of the encirclement had pushed the closest to them, Whitestaff’s disciples were gathered around her and reinforcing the Jade Horde unit to help them cut through the giant insects with rapid speed. Sage ran over to King, looking through Black Saber’s Storage Ring and pulling out the one bottle of Vitality Pills and throwing the three pills into King’s mouth.

“I told you to run! Get my family away from here!”

King didn’t waste any time, admonishing Sage and then running a few steps. Building up speed before he could sweep his wings downwards and leap up into the sky. Both of Sage’s cheeks felt wet, even though only his right eye had been slashed apart. The wound was already quickly healing when he turned around and fled in the opposite direction of Wu Chang and Whitestaff. He took deep breaths, frantically recovering the air storage for Divine Breath. Wu Chang saw him trying to escape and roared through the sky towards him, but King twisted through the sky and extended his claws like a pair of fists, intercepting the City Lord.

The Jade Horde saw him coming and one of the humans yelled an order. A hundred Stumblebows were turned in his direction and a volley of crossbow bolts flew into the air towards him. The arc of destruction was aimed where he was running towards, if he stopped he could easily avoid them all. They were firing from near their maximum range which gave him plenty of time to move out of the way, but it would also stop his movement. If he let them pin him down then the noose will only get tighter. Instead of slowing down, he moved faster, wrapping the Blue Icesilver around his body and forging a layer of armor.

A field of tall black grass formed around him, the hundred bolts thunked into the ground. Two dozen of them caught him, though only one of them actually caused any damage. It landed right at the knee joint of his left leg. His injured hip had reduced the leg’s mobility so he couldn’t move it quick enough to avoid the hit. The bolt sunk in and drew blood, but he kept moving. His right eye had been cut apart and he could no longer use Foresight so he could only rush forward and barrel his way through like a bull.

As he got closer to the Jade Horde’s battle line, the intensity of the arrow storm only increased and he was struck by more bolts. Everytime one of them sunk into him, he’d increase the armor in the area, but there was only so much he could do and still keep moving. Soon it looked like he was wearing a coat made of ice, one covered with dozens of crossbow bolts. As he approached the line, he saw them locking their shields together and the many rows of them extending the sharp spear tips of their halberds over them. Each shield had five halberds behind it, the back lines extending their weapons to create a forest of spear points in front of the Jade Horde.

He’d already released a large portion of them, but Sage couldn’t help it. He’d added his main insects to his Inner World to breed a few years ago. Due to the time difference, they’d been there for decades. Even so, without spending resources on them it took time for them to grow to large sizes and become powerful. He’d just released a few thousand of them, so there weren’t many left, but it couldn’t be helped. Without the Universe Ring he didn’t have many methods left. The last of the mature insects was released, pointed towards the Jade Horde in front of him.

The bugs were not easy to deal with in large numbers, but they weren’t organized. If they were controlled the dragonflies could break the shield wall with their webbing from the air and the giant lance beetles could charge into the mass of troops to break their formation. Then the centipedes and mantids could clean up the disorganized mass with their wicked blades.

Unfortunately, they weren’t so smart. Instead, they charged forward as one large mass. A centipede was distracted by a yell to the side and swerved in front of a beetle, the both of them tangling with each other and slowing their progress. A dragonfly swooped down to grab a Hoplite and was instead impaled on a half-dozen halberds. A lance beetle smashed into the shield wall, but they were ready for it and the wall held. It impaled a few people on its horn, but spearheads were stabbed into its body at the same time. A mantid leaped into the air, hopping over the shield wall and landing at the back of the formation. The rear ranks of the Jade Horde spun around and surrounded it with shields, while a few crossbowmen shot it to death.

Even so, hundreds of these disorganized and chaotic insects smashed into the Jade Horde and caused enough of a mess for Sage to punch through. He held Black Saber’s blade in his right hand and cut down a few of the soldiers that got too close to him. His serpentine body undulating and sweeping from side to side as he slithered on empty space. After breaking through the first layer of encirclement with his bugs, he ran to the second line. It was far looser, with scattered squads ready to react and intercept anything that made it through the first line.