This was a chance for them to flee from their pursuers. Their foes, the imperial troops, fought while conserving their strengths. As members of an active army, they are soldiers who had experience multiple small and large scale battles, and it is almost in their blood to always prepare for a long fight.

Especially as elites, where the Silent Lambs Empire had spent a lot of resources on their training, they are taught to be survivors.

But it was this habit that made them terrible trackers.

They had, in fact, multiple chances to apprehend Kairos' team during the battle. If they had attacked with their full force from the start, aiming for a quick resolution, perhaps Kairos and Jones would be instantly overwhelmed, and the rest of the gang quickly defeated. However, because they had kept their skills till they could go for the kill, Kairos' group managed to run away easily before they unleashed anything dangerous.

Unfortunately, the guys had only just made it out of the encirclement before they decided to halt again.

Kairos heard the unforgivable words that Axtalia had softly uttered, and they decided to stop solely for her.

She is easy to spot enough, as the only one wearing soft pink among the soldiers who are all in sensible dark-grey attires. She insisted that she had to dress properly, despite the advice she had been given, and in the end, due to her insistence the others simply gave up on changing her mind. Secretly, she picked this dress so that she may look beautiful to the one she has her eyes on, Kairos.

Vouno who instantly spotted her focused his attention on the wilful young lady.

Like his son, he had somehow disliked the princess immediately upon seeing her the first time, the same way he felt when he looked at a viper in the face. He instantly summoned up the attacks he had been storing up so far and released them towards her.

This is Vouno's trump card. Though it is a one-use kind, nevertheless, it is impossibly potent. Though he could only keep as much energy as he could contain, without needing to convert the power into his own like normal cultivators do, he is able to take in a lot more energy than normal practitioners.

Somehow, those incredible powers he absorbed, would not run rampant within his Dantian – what Kairos called the Chaotic Sea – and only lay dormant till he summons them.

A great image of a bulldog with gaping maw and dripping saliva was the first attack that flew towards the soldiers.

"Hah. Only a paltry martial art of D rank" the soldiers here are all elites, and a skill of this level isn't something they even need to defend against, but soon another attack, a great ball of fire and lightning flew towards them.

This attack is a secret art and at a rank higher at Entry C rank. But seeing this, the soldiers only promptly disregarded it and continued charging at full speed at them.

Then, simultaneously, a great amount of lightning sparks that came down like snow, and finally for the first time, the soldiers feel something is wrong. The sparks gave off the exact same feeling as the ones released from Vengre's sword.

But, their surprise has only just begun, for this is merely the first A rank martial art that assaulted them.

When they finally realised something is odd about the situation, uncountable numbers of white and black energy spheres already surround them, and at the same moment, a sea of fire roared into being underneath their feet as a great lightning storm formed above them. And all of these attacks are not only at A ranked, but also secret arts.

Even if the techniques are of the same rank, but there are a lot of differences among them. Comparing normal martial techniques to secret arts of the same power, would be like a strong man fighting another strong man of equal strength but holding a sword.

For a second, the soldiers felt that they had been thrusted into the depths of hell. The many layers of A ranked attacks caused them to no longer treat their foes lightly. Even the original D and C ranked attacks has now become a problem for them. "Should I waste my Ki to defend, or exhaust a talisman?"

As the soldiers frantically defended themselves against the elements, Vouno finally found the opportunity to unleash Edward's secret art and easily mowing down rows of soldiers. But because of layers after layers of protection talisman already in place, the missiles stopped merely after wounding 20 over soldiers and taking the life of none. For a single skill against a platoon of elites, the result of wounding even one could be considered a great achievement.

Even the imperial troops themselves felt unbelievable at how strong the attacks of those projectiles are, that could pierce through so many of their defences.

Though the ferocity and the number of attacks truly surprised them, in the end, it wasn't effective enough.

"Eagle platoon!" Their captain suddenly shouted, triggering the training of his men and snapping them back into focus, "Prepare to charge at your enemies. Blade Torrent stance. Charge!" The soldiers react immediately. The riders and their mount seemed to become one, and each pair rushed forward at breakneck speed.

Alas, Kairos' team had not been simply running away while Vouno covered the imperial troops with attacks.

When they saw the Ki bombardment end, and the soldiers charging at them, Edward unleashed a full incantation secret art at them.

The golden lynxes quickly leapt out of the way, but they quickly realise the archer was actually aiming at the princess who is at the rear end of the group.

Besides her, her bodyguards swiftly responded. Activating an entire wall of protection talisman, and then used their artefacts, swords, and even their own bodies to shield her. Having met with the attacks of this sniper of the enemy group so many times, none of them treated the young boy's arrows lightly.

But, this is merely the opening act for Kairos' side.

With Edward's secret art as the decoy luring out the defensive barriers of the guards, Jim unleashed a sea of spheres, this time directly controlling them to dodge the charging imperial troops at high speed, and flying directly at the princess.

The spheres crashed against the defences and started to eat away at the grand protection array set up by so many talismans and artefacts.

Then, as the shields strain against the energy spheres, a shower of flying daggers started falling from the sky at high speed. They broke through the dense leaves of the canopy above the soldiers, and by the time they are visible, they had already reached a distance too close for any of them to react. Then, daggers after dagger struck downwards at a single point on the shields with pin-point accuracy.

The first few simply bounced off the top layer of protection, then as the multiple daggers unerringly assailed the same spot, a crack quickly formed which soon break into a small opening.

The daggers continued to rain down through the gap, seemingly unceasing. They struck the next layer of protection underneath the tiny hole created, then quickly broke through it as well.

Then, followed by a 3rd and a 4th layer, till it finally reached the first layer of human wall. Soldiers guarding the princess with their lives.

They cut down the throwing knives flew towards them. Astonished that once those blades reached them, they started spinning in all directions, seemingly came to life.

Axtalia herself, only at Entry B rank, would find it difficult to fight off even a single of the daggers.

The soldiers bravely defended the princess, but while they had their hands full from dealing with the strange attack with such odd pathing, Tommy took the opportunity to gather all his power into a single attack.

After executing this move, the boy would be left defenceless without any strength left, but he entrusted his own safety into the hands of the others and unleashed it regardless.

A great storm appeared immediately. It did not spread out like how a natural one would, but instead stayed contained within a sphere that travelled quickly towards the barriers, also ignoring the mounted cavalries still charging at them.

The storm struck the rest of the protection talismans with thick lightning bolts, sub-zero frost, and cutting wind blades. Then, starting from the small hole created by Jim's daggers, the entire barrier began to shatter.

The storm continued in full fury at the next layer, and in this way, it continued till all their protections lay broken.

Her guards suddenly found themselves bare without a single shield, and they unconsciously formed a tighter circle around the princess. These all happened so extremely quickly that the mounted cavalry who were in mid-charge could hardly have time to react. They turned to looked at their captain, seeking his directions. Wanting to see from his expressions if he intended for them to return and aid her highness or to continue their charge.

But when they located their leader, who is riding in the middle of the group, they came to realise he is struggling with a transparent ball of water over his head.

B ranked martial technique, Water sphere. The special move that the guard at the Treasury used against Vouno has now been unleashed on the captain of the Eagle platoon, leader of one of the top groups within the imperial guards.

Vouno had no doubt that the attack will ultimately fail to take down a peak A ranker, who is also one of the strongest imperial troops among everyone here, but shoving a large ball of water onto the head of the person who shouts the commands is a great way to silence him and confuse the enemy.

And just as he guessed, without a leader to direct them, the charging cavalries fell into a disorderly chaos. Some of them wanted to return immediately to assist the princess, others felt attacking Kairos' group might be the best way to stop this maddened barrage of secret arts.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of this moment, Jones unleashed a cloud of blade shards made of pure Ki hovering above him. This is the last ounce of strength he could muster, and his eyes bleed as he drained even the life force vital to him.

With a determined look, he located the princess and unleashed his final attack, "Resonate blade, shard storm!"

The uncountable number of shards flew with great speed towards the guards in an instant. Each piece of blade fragment that struck someone vibrated like an echo, and a single shard displayed the power of several.

The guards flew backwards as this wave of projectiles hits them. They found their Ki barrier shredded instantly by the shards, and those that ran out of internal energy to deal with the attack were instead ripped through with countless holes.

The strikes were so forceful that it blew back all that jumped in front of the princess, and sent them scurrying to the side. Clearing a direct path to her.

The guards looked with relief as they noticed that thanks to a large number of A rankers standing up to this attack with their bodies, they had managed to whittle it down to a manageable amount. If Jones or any of the brothers had been higher ranked, the imperial troops would be looking like swiss cheese by now, but nevertheless, the result is: they had survived.

At this moment, when they thought they could catch their breath, they heard a faint whisper from the boy who controls the blade shards as their hairs stand on end. It was a soft voice, barely above the noise, but all of them felt the power behind his words,

"Resonate blade, heavenly sword."

The 5th stage of swordsmanship. The level where one can be considered a sword master.

Heavenly sword.