Army of Men

Aquila felt the arrow whizzing by her right ear in an unfathomable speed.

By the next second, her mind finally focused and she got into her "battle mode". Her eyes became tenfold degrees colder as if she would shoot out ice from her eyes if they got any colder.

Spinning around to face her attacker, Aquila was momentarily shocked. Facing her wasn't a single person nor a small gang, but an entire army. The mass of bodies was floating in the air, standing on bright blue curves of light, thus the reason she didn't feel them approaching.

The majority was standing on fully round thin plates of light while some were standing on two curves of light.

Unable to help her curiosity, Aquila raised her eyebrows in interest as she wondered to herself, 'You can float on those things? If I'm not mistaken, that should be their Moonlight Cycle, right?'

Although her mind was wandering, her body wasn't being idle. Jumping up, she used the ground as her support to flip high into the air, simultaneously dodging multiple arrows. Landing, she made sure to transfer most of her weight to the balls of her feet, allowing her to land safely even while wearing heels. These actions were all so familiar to her, she could do it in her subconscious mind without even thinking about it.

But she knew it wouldn't be that easy. There were so many people before her, not to mention they were all at the Full Moon phase or above while she had only just unlocked her Waxing Crescent not too long ago.

Thankfully, only a few of them were launching attacks. The rest were just watching, feeling that attacking her was beneath them.

She started to run through a dozen scenarios in her head, trying to find a suitable plan that was possible and would still guarantee her safety.

Ducking down, she narrowly avoided a beam of bright blue light that was aimed at her head. Narrowing her eyes, Aquila's eyes flashed around their surroundings as she dodged the incoming arrows, looking for anything that could turn the situation around because, at this moment, all she could do was dodge their attacks. Unfortunately, the road was completely empty.

From afar, Aquila could see even the guards guarding the gates of the next city hiding on the other side of the gates.

Quickly focusing back on the sea of men flying above her, Aquila let out a small smirk before hopping backward as far as she could. Just as she did that, a huge blue sword stabbed out from the ground right where she was standing a moment ago. If she moved a second later, she would've been skewered.

Suddenly, the flying sword changed directions and aimed towards her again. Narrowing her eyes, Aquila watched the sword's movements carefully. She couldn't just dodge because the sword would follow her, so she had to wear it down first, then destroy it. She knew it wouldn't be easy to wear down this sword, but no doubt it would also take a lot out of the person who summoned the sword.

Or she could just get rid of it.

Smiling lightly, she looked up at the people flying above her. She didn't speak, but her eyes seemed to convey everything she wanted to say: bring it on.

Just as the sword was about to pierce her, she agilely twisted her body sideways in a direction where it would take a moment for the sword to follow after.

A second was all it took in a fight to switch the game around.

Preparing herself mentally and physically, Aquila waited for the sword to come her way again. In the eyes of everyone waiting for her death, this was her last stand, her final try. A give it your all or die moment. 'Too bad,' they all thought in their hearts. However, Aquila didn't have any plans to die again so soon. To her, they still had a long way to go. Especially if this were on her star where she was familiar with its atmosphere, then these cultivators wouldn't even be able to catch her shadow.

Bracing herself, she watched as the sword came closer to her.

All of a sudden, she jumped up, arching her leg and kicking the flat side of the sword with one heel. The heel cracked from the impact of the collision, but that strike was all Aquila needed. Using the sword to give herself a boost, she flipped her body onto the sword. Kicking off of the hilt of the sword as hard as she could, she sent the sword flying out of control behind her, towards the swarm of people in the air as she flipped off the sword. Due to the fact that the heel had cracked under the pressure, she was unable to walk in it as it was unbalanced with the other heel. Grabbing her heels off her feet, she lightly threw them onto the ground while sprinting barefoot into the shadows of a few surrounding trees.

Leaping onto a branch, Aquila continued climbing higher and higher towards the top of the tree while hiding behind the cover of the foliage.

Meanwhile, the sword swung crazily towards the large group of people. Like birds, they scattered and flew away from the sword. Before the sword could do any damage, the person who summoned it quickly retracted it back, although with some difficulty. Having used up all his energy maintaining that sword, he no longer had the strength to keep his platform solid and fell through, falling towards the ground. But before he could hit the hard ground, he found himself in a soft embrace. Opening his eyes, he saw a girl carrying him in her arms, looking at him worriedly. The people around them were looking all around, but by then, Aquila was nowhere to be found.

"Damn!" Clenching his fist, the guy that shot the arrows smacked it onto the platform he was flying on. His lips were trembling in anger. "She got away!"

Lowering his head, another guy lamented, "Guys... what are we going to tell the old sir then?"

No one replied to his question. No one knew how to reply to his question.

Sighing with a forlorn expression, a girl suggested softly, "Uhm... we could try to track her down again, maybe? Or see if we can find her?"

"Who knows, the girl has probably escaped long ago. Who knows where she might have run to."

"A-a-a-a-ahhhh! The old sir is going to kill us for sure! I'm still too young to die!" A familiar young man whined. If Aquila was here, she would have definitely recognized the young man.