Edward, Adotinus, and Ignis absorbed the energy of the fallen monsters to recharge their aura while the royal knights stayed on the lookout in case other monsters chose to attack them, which was a definite possibility given the current situation and the monsters’ number.

Although the creatures’ energy was different from regular blood essence, more like a mix between aura and mana, they didn’t have any problem absorbing it.

This is too little. They have less essence than a wyrm and the loot is divided between the three of us. Without talking about advancing, it is not even enough to refill my aura to full capacity.

Edward got up after absorbing the essence from the fallen monsters and looked around at the burning city. I hope those knights I saved made it out in time. With the mist, I had no way to contact them to warn them about our plan. But between the time I took to find the emperor, the time it took to recuperate and then to dispatch the clones to their positions, they had at least half a day to evacuate. It should have been more than enough time given that they were in the outskirts-Edward teleported away as he sensed a burning building collapsing with half of it being hurled in their direction as if something had crossed through it.

What?! I don’t sense anything in my aura. The closest monsters are still supposed to be a few streets away. Edward thought in confusion.

Since he had been ambushed by that snail Edward had decided to teleport away before thinking if he got any signs of an ambush. This is what spared him from the initial attack.

He sensed the group below him being swatted away. He turned away gaining a visual of the situation, a black six-legged panther was standing in the middle of their group, even Ignis and Adotinus had been sent flying away but they had the time to activate their aura and suffered only minor damage. This wasn’t the case for all the royal knights, and some of them were already suffering from broken bones. A six-legged panther. This looks like the monster that exterminated the garrison of those knights I saved.

Seeing how that monster was invisible from his aura perspective even though it was standing right before his eyes, Edward didn’t dare to underestimate it, just the contradicting input from his senses was giving him a headache. He activated his acceleration right away. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”. He sensed Ignis manifest a blast of wind pushing the remaining knights away from the beast, it was brutal but effective. Adotinus formed his lightning armor and charged at the beast.

Edward didn’t stay still and charged as well, diving down with a five-meter-long aura blade trailing behind him. The panther bit at Adotinus, given its size one bite would have been enough to snap a human in half, one of its arms was as tall as Edward. All in all the creature was bigger than a rhino.

Adotinus was an experienced fighter and he avoided the monster’s maw, he was ready to flank it with an attack of his own, only to find himself taking one of the monster’s legs right in the face. He was blasted backward passing through a stone wall. At the same time, Edward fell on the monster but it twisted on the side, barely avoiding his attack. Edward didn’t let the energy that he had amassed go to waste and he changed from a chopping blow to a swipe. The panther jumped up, showing its impressive strength, and landed directly on a mansion roof, some six meters higher.

All the fire from the nearby burning building flew to the monster, trapping it inside a red burning ball of fire. Good job Ignis. Edward praised internally. The panther jumped out of the fire landing on another roof, its fur was slightly charred but it wasn’t showing anything worse than light damage.

Seriously? Edward complained. However, Ignis wasn’t done yet, the fireball went from red to orange, then yellow all the while reducing in size. It turned to white before settling on a blue hue, by that time the fireball size had been reduced by half. The fireball exploded in a flight of blue ravens which flew straight at the panther. The latter first attempted to avoid them, jumping from roof to roof, but the ravens weren’t any slower than it and they could fly. A raven caught up to the monster and exploded in a bright explosion, leaving a small residual fire on the site of impact. The beast hissed in frustration, this time it seemed it felt the damage.

As one fire raven after the other managed to catch up to it and explode, the monster changed its tactic and swiped at them rather than vainly trying to avoid them. The panther caught them in full flight but they only exploded on contact still inflicting burns on its paws. Even though all the ravens were hitting their target, the panther was able to endure the hits. It was in pain, but the fire remnants on its fur were dying on their own.

As the flight of ravens exhausted itself, the beast was left seething in anger and Adotinus used this opportunity to strike. He held one arm, palm opened straight toward the monster, while his other arm was supporting the first. A bright light of lightning left his palm and hit the monster with a thumping sound before it could evade. The panther was pushed back from the strength of the impact, its fur was smoking where it had gotten hit and charred flesh was visible beneath it. Such a blow would have been more than enough to slay a Bloodmaw in one hit, but it only inflicted moderate damage to this monster.

My turn. Before the monster could recover from that string of attacks Edward teleported right above its head. He swirled on himself like a spinning top, his blades cutting at the beast one after the other. They only left three centimeters cuts in the monster’s flesh. This would already have been a deep injury for someone of human size, but given the size of the beast, those weren’t life-threatening wounds.

The panther twisted on itself with surprising agility and swiped at Edward, intending to trample him under its paws. Edward teleported again above one of its legs, his teleportation had a cooldown of two seconds but that wasn’t the case anymore while inside his domain. That limited him to a ten-meter range teleportation but that was already invaluable within a fight.

The panther tried to crush him but Edward was continuously teleporting, appearing where the beast wasn’t expecting him. He was like a devil, inflicted cut all over the monster’s body while it was furiously twisting to catch him. As the number of cuts it was suffering kept increasing at a great speed while its efforts to crush Edward were fruitless, the beast roared, emanating a powerful sound wave not only from its mouth but from all over its body as if it was an aura blast rather than a roar. Edward was blasted away but he twirled in the air, using an aura step as a handhold to somersault, he landed on his feet without damage.

Ignis continued the assault, since they were three patriarchs, now that they had the initiative, they could chain attacks continuously never letting the monster any chance to act. A fire tornado formed around the creature, the strong gales maintaining it in place while intensifying the fire which quickly turned to blue. Ignis’s fire and wind manipulation had good synergy together and only intensified the effectiveness of his attacks. Such a move would have been fatal for an ordinary monster, but the panther was far from ordinary, it possessed immense strength and was incredibly tough. With one leap it escaped the tornado, jumping straight through the fire.

It didn’t appear in a good state, one of its eyes had been burned and blinded by the flames, all of its fur was charred, and it had cuts all over its body oozing blood. Even its gait was wobbly.

“It is too sturdy! We need to seal its movement and charged our attacks. We are only able to accumulate injuries without killing it otherwise.” Edward shouted.

“On it, you will need to give me some time,” Ignis shouted back.

Adotinus charged the beast, and part of his armor disintegrated in a big flash when he was close enough, temporarily blinding the last eye of the monster. He enthusiastically cut at the beast while it couldn’t see him, just like Edward he wasn’t able to cut deep, his swings were only adding another layer of cuts to the monster. However, each of his strikes was imbued with lightning and the beast was already weakened, one of its legs spasmed from the electricity running through it making it lose its balance.

Sensing its end coming, the beast roared once more, producing a sound wave that pushed back Adotinus. As soon as Adotinus was pushed away, Edward entered the fight again, three clones manifested and moved as one with him. Each one stabbed at the beast, attempting to kill the monster with a thousand cuts. However, it wasn’t stupid, the beast had come to them expecting an easy meal, but it had by now realized that it was the one most likely to die.

It ignored Edward’s attack and attempted to flee, but before it could, fire chains came all the way from the ground, surrounding the monster and constraining it, forcing it to crouch. The beast struggled against them, the forces applied were so strong that the mansion didn’t resist it, the roof collapsed under the monster, but the chains nonetheless didn’t slacken and followed the beast as it fell, shredding the house to rubble in the process.

Edward teleported high up in the air, and run toward the ground forming aura steps so that he could propel himself even faster. The aura gathering on his daggers increased with each step he took. he was so fast and had gathered so much energy that he looked like a shooting star. There was a loud bang and the few walls that had managed to survive until now were blown away, the entire mansion was reduced to dust.

The dust dispersed and Edward was revealed panting and standing above the monster’s crushed skull. The fight was over.

Compare to the centipedes this monster had much more energy and Edward, Ignis, and Adotinus were not only able to recharge their energy fully but also to make some progress as well.

Three of the royal knights were dead, two more were gravely injured, and three more had fractures and weren’t in any state to fight even though their injuries weren’t life-threatening. Edward had to use two of his healing syringes to heal the guards that were the most wounded. He had a limited stock on him but he didn’t have the heart to let someone in front of him die, knowing he could have saved him.