Edward stood under the conglomeration of monsters obscuring the sky, the massive eye was glowing with energy and in this obscurity, it seemed to have replaced the sun. It loomed over him like a wicked celestial body with tentacles emerging from its corona. Then all hell broke loose.

Rather than a weak bolt of energy, the main eye fired a continuous powerful death ray as if an angry god had decided to smite him. Edward teleported to the side and immediately activated his acceleration. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”. It was not too soon as the attack had almost reached him. Thanks to the increase in speed, he was able to avoid the laser which wavered before winking out.

It can’t fire continuously. Edward realized with relief.

However, his increased speed couldn’t do anything against the deluge of attacks raining down on him. All of the other flying eyes were still there, their attacks were weak and they were too slow to follow Edward. That’s why they didn’t even try to follow him, they just fired in his general area, with their number at least a few attacks would hit. It was actually an effective strategy as it sealed Edward’s escape routes. Most of the attacks missed him, but those that hit were slowly and steadily damaging his aura armor. Additionally, the nodes where several flying eyes had merged together were able to fire a weaker version of the laser. Edward wouldn’t be able to endure many of those hits if he wanted to finish the fight.

This is fucking annoying. I wanted to take care of the main body first since it can generate more of its buddies but it looks like I will have to thin the herd instead.

Edward cast streams of aura needles at the flying eyes but with the continuous attacks raining down from the sky the needles were obliterated before reaching the monsters. This won’t do, I’m losing the initiative.

The main eye fired again, a powerful laser chasing Edward, while weaker lasers from its lesser version tried to intercept him, all the while weak bolts from the normal versions were falling everywhere. Edward had to form a few clones to confuse the monsters and escape the lasers. However, with the number of attacks raining on him, his clones didn’t last long. Edward gazed up. Even on a cloudy day, the blue sky is waiting on the other side.

He used his long-range teleportation, appearing above the layer of eyes. Due to the nature of their body, the eyes could only fire in one direction. With Edward above them, they were wide open. Only the main eye which had smaller eyes all over its body was able to fire at Edward. However, compared to the deluge of attacks he had to endure, a few lasers were but child’s play.

Edward dived down, forming aura steps to alter his trajectory and avoid the lasers, all the while accumulating energy. He shot a thirty-meter-long condense blade of aura at the main eye body. The creature may be powerful, but it seemed to be lacking in mobility, the blade stuck it square on. It tried to protect itself with its tentacles but they were far from strong enough to sustain the blow. Even though it had a tough body just like its congeners, the tentacles got destroyed and a large gash appeared on its body. Many of the creature’s eyes had been destroyed, and it began to lose altitude.

This wasn’t the end however, the sky was still filled with flying eyes, and some were arriving even now from the distance. The entirety of the capital flying eyes population was regrouping in one place. The eyes turned around and fired upward at Edward while the main body slipped under them. Edward narrowed his eyes as he saw flying eyes conglomerate on the main body just before it went out of sight. However, he had to let the matter go to avoid the numerous attacks coming his way. He gritted his teeth as one laser he had been too slow to avoid hit him in the shoulder. His aura armor held on, but each hit he took dipped in his reserve. If he used all of his aura to protect himself, he wouldn’t have any left to attack, and he sure needed a good amount of aura to destroy such a large number of enemies.

Edward bided his time waving through the lasers coming his way and waiting for his teleportation to come back. In this scenario, my teleportation is my greatest asset. They only have long-range attacks. By teleporting, I can position myself at the best location while avoiding their strikes.

As soon as he could Edward teleported again. The next moment he appeared in the midst of the flying eyes, standing at the same altitude. Bet you didn’t see that coming. Edward smiled feeling no remorse for the pun. Now try to shoot at me without shooting yourself in the process.

He took a big inhalation, the world seemingly distorting around him for an instant before a ring of blue aura left his body disintegrating all the monsters that came in contact with it. The ring was only about thirty centimeters wide so it wasn’t able to hit all of the flying eyes. Although they were roughly at the same altitude layer, the layer was still about three meters thick due to their numbers with an average density of two flying eyes for one cubic meter.

The ring extended until it reached a diameter of fifty meters before extinguishing. In one move Edward had killed more than a thousand of the monsters emptying a large area within the sky. Edward couldn’t help but whistled in praise. It’s a costly move, but it’s my most effective strike since the start of the battle.

However, Edward’s glee didn’t last for long, the large opening among the crowd of monsters revealed the main body that had been hiding under the others. It was back to peak condition with no sign of its previous injury, worst its eye was currently glowing brightly and aimed right at him. Shit!! Edward dashed to the side only half a second late, the attack brushed him. This time his aura wasn’t able to sustain the hit, and half of the layer protecting his body disappeared in smoke. The delay had been enough for him to leave the pulsating ray of energy, but the armor provided by Leyla was glowing red, Edward could feel the heat still hot enough to sear his skin.

Shit! Focus Edward, one hit can be fatal. This ray is barely inferior to the one Nephelin can produce. The fight isn’t over yet.

Edward dashed through the flying eyes layer mowing down any that was in his way without even slowing down. Being in that layer protected him from most of their attacks since the monsters had lost track of him, their own members were acting as his shields. This brief respite was enough for him to reform his aura armor.

Edward teleported once more, taking care of the ordinary flying eyes was good because it meant he would have to deal with fewer attacks, but his primary objective was to kill the main body. As long as the main body was alive and could breed more of them, it would be an endless fight.

Edward appeared above the back of the main body, however this time the monster was ready for him. All of its secondary eyes within view shot at him focalized in a single point. Fuck, it has already prepared a counter. Edward crossed his daggers in front of him to parry the blow, but be it his armor or his blades, as long as he was using his aura it diminished his reserve all the same.

Can’t stay here. Edward teleported again, using his short-range teleportation that was limited to his ten-meter large domain. He stayed within the vicinity of the main body. New eyes shot at him but with no time to prepare beforehand, the lasers weren’t concentrated anymore. Edward avoided what he could while sending aura blades, that produce small cuts on the main body and destroyed its secondary eyes. With no time to charge his attacks, he couldn’t do much more than that.

By staying so close to the main body the other flying eyes found themselves once again in a difficult position, the weaker ones weren’t able to go on the offensive anymore. Their bolts of energy were too slow and risked hitting the main body instead. Only the intermediary versions that were able to shoot lasers continued to fire at Edward when they had the opportunity.

More and more of the flying eyes decided to merge together to form intermediary versions that were much more useful in this situation. During this time the main body’s condition continued to worsen under Edward’s assault, with more and more of its secondary eyes getting destroyed. Edward was never staying in place, moving too fast for the creature to retaliate effectively. The few hits that the monster managed to land weren’t strong enough to injure or deter him.

The creature called for its brethren, the flying eyes that were still in their basic form headed its way to fuse with it and restore its wounds. However, a good number of them had already merged into an intermediate form.

Do you think I will let you heal yourself again? Edward saw the stream of flying eyes heading to the main body and he had no intention to let them do so. All the while teleporting and pestering the main body, he produces clouds of aura needles that he sent hunting after the basic flying eyes. There is no need to summon my clones, I can control the needles directly. It was multitasking, but he was used to it by now.

The flying eyes coming to heal the main body were uselessly destroyed before they could be of any help. The main body’s demise appeared to be set in stone. There was nothing that could be done, its secondary eyes weren’t powerful enough to harm Edward, and its tentacles were too slow to force him away. Even the intermediate version of the flying eyes couldn’t do much if they wanted to avoid hitting the main body.

Finally, as the number of secondary eyes on its body decreased, Edward had enough time to charge his strikes between teleportation. He stayed in the same spot for three seconds, letting his aura armor take the brunt of a dozen intermediary eyes shooting at him to charge a thirty-meter-long aura blade. A decisive look flashed in his eyes as he let go, the blade cut soundlessly through the weakened main body and cleave it in two. The two parts fell from the sky, its tentacles still squirming as life left its multiple eyes.