Battle I

The atmosphere turned chilly and heavy as the tension rose between the assailants and their targets. Not long after, Zeralf and Endra felt the space changed and by the time they got their head together, the landscape had changed.

The sunny and clear sky had changed to that of an orange dome and the ground too was covered in orange material. It didn't take them much thinking to figure out what that was all about.

' Fuck! An isolation barrier. '' Endra cursed holding his staff with a battle stance.

Isolation barriers just as the name implied are runic artifacts that locked space in a particular area and made others outside the barrier unable to sense or pass through unless their rank surpassed what the barrier could handle or if they also possessed another runic artefact that can sense the barrier.

Both Zeralf and Endra had manifested their Zajra immediately they saw the appearance of these hooded figures as they knew there was no way they would escape without forging a path through battle.

Zeralf didn't say anything and simply observed while also grabbing his kusarigama readied for a clash. His cold eyes moved to and fro sharply and he began analyzing the best approach to escape this mess.

' Kids, follow us back gently, your death adds no importance to us. ' The feminine voice that belonged to the assailants' leader sounded from the back in a playful tone.

' Tell that to your grandma bastard. ' Endra bellowed.

' You! 'Her voice turned cold and Endra felt as if he just had frostbite.

' Those two scumbags are also from your group right? ' Endra asked and the silence confirmed his thought.

Everything clicked in Zeralf's head when he heard that.

' So the recent happening in the southern region was caused by you? ' He asked still fixing his gaze on his foes without turning to look at Endra.

' Yes, I was suddenly attacked by two Devas then, I didn't even know what they wanted. ' Endra replied with a frown. ' Too bad they were just pieces of shit. ' He added cheekily.

' How dare you. '

It seemed that they had had enough of Endra's bad mouth and they all released their auras.

' Four at the Quartz rank and two at the marble rank. ' Zeralf's heart sank when he felt the auras coming from these people.

' Why are they even attacking us? ' From their interactions, he could surmise that they wanted both of them alive which ruled out the probability of Endra being the one that dragged him into this.

' Can you handle two Devas at the marble rank for a while? ' Zeralf asked quietly still not looking at Endra. Even though they were in trouble, his countenance didn't show fear or cowardice, it still remained cold and indifferent.

' That will be very dire but I can manage. ' Endra guessed what Zeralf was planning and decided to get along. His Ki reserve would greatly help in this type of battle where the opponents outnumbered them.

' Now. '

' Um '

Endra kicked the ground and twisted his body before shooting backwards. Zeralf teleported repeatedly and appeared in from of one of the four assailants and slashed.

' Insolence! '

Before his Kusarigama could strike his target, a sword came his way from the left and he teleported five meters backwards. Immediately he reappeared, a fire arrow headed for him at great speed.

' Temporal drag. ' He muttered and the speed of the arrow slowed down, he dodged to the right but before he could attack a lightning bolt close in from his rearview and he barely parried with his kusarigama flinging him a couple of meters away and he rolled roughly on the ground.

' If any of their attacks hit me I'm in for it. ' Zeralf thought as he dragged himself up his whole appearance looking dishevelled. He still had a mortal body maybe a little bit stronger than ordinary mortals but he had yet to forget that he almost died from the horns of red rhinos.

' Spatial cuts. ' Zeralf slashed vertically and hundreds of silver lines that carried sharp properties charged at his four opponents.

If they were not hooded, Zeralf would've seen a change in their expression, it was that of astonishment and solemnness.

' What's with this absurd Ki reserves. ' One of them with a young masculine voice muttered.

Before the spatial cuts could reach them though, a shadow-like barrier sprung to life and a wave rippled across the dark surface as the spatial cuts collided with it.

' Dharma of fire, lightning and now darkness. ' Zeralf analyzed and launched another hundred spatial cuts. The barrier finally broke after the third wave and the assailants had widened eyes under their hoods.

Zeralf was not going to miss the opportunity of them being in disarray and he teleported reappearing behind the one with the Dharma of lightning, he stabbed his skull with the arrowhead and spatial cut. Immediately he did that, he teleported repeatedly and created a distance between them.

' What! Quick heal him. ' The one with the gruff masculine voice bellowed in an angered tone.

' I'm afraid he is gone. ' The one who had yet to show their Dharma replied in a monotonous voice.

' Alchemist? ' Zeralf wondered as he teleported to dodge a shadow spike and fireball.

' I'll cut you into pieces and show you a fate worse than death. ' The figure with the gruff voice roared and slashed with his halberd, fireballs of half a meter in circumference began to materialize and charge crazily at Zeralf.

' Stupid, you will run out of Ki quickly. ' The young masculine voice with Dharma of Darkness warmed but his ally didn't listen and charged like a madman.

' Spacetime warp. ' Zeralf instantly appeared in front of the gruff voice figure and pierced his heart with the arrowhead before he could even defend in reflex, that was not all, he slashed his kusarigama and the scythe head decapitated the figure which he guessed to be an alchemist.

'Spacetime warp' was a technique he discovered not long ago, if he could use ' temporal drag ' to slow down his target by increasing the time relative to their movement then he should be able to increase his speed by slowing down time needed to cover a distance, incorporating it with his short distance teleportation, he came up with spacetime warp.

That was really a great feat because creating a technique was not easy, to begin with, and then merging two techniques to birth a new one was a challenging task even for mid rank Devas and he actually did that when he was a mortal.

Zeralf's face paled and his hand appeared shaky a bit. Even though he had boundless Ki, his meridians, the vessels that his Ki flowed throughout his body were still considered weak and using spacetime warp drew a lot of Ki which his meridians found challenging to sustain.

When Zeralf looked at the decapitated head whose hood had now been removed, he had a shocked expression as he could not believe the face he was seeing.

' This! '

' How? '

He remembered that the day he first met Endra and left his apartment after a nice meal, he was attacked by some random thugs whom he dealt with casually but there was a lady that was being harassed then. Zeralf only saw her face once but his eidetic memory never failed him, he was seeing the face of this same lady on the ground now.

' Wasn't she acting all shaky and scared after seeing a chopped arm? '

' Humans sure are despicable creatures. ' His face held disgust and he could not help but spat.

' You! '

' You should have drained out of Ki since. ' The last figure stepped backwards when Zeralf gazed at him.

' Since when did little kids become this cold and battle oriented? ' He gulped saliva when his eyes met Zeralf's golden eyes. He looked ahead to see how the other battle was going but his heart sank.

Zeralf used teleportation to close in and slashed with the scythe head but multiple shadow spikes attacked him. He dodged skilfully in midair, however, before he landed, a hand made of shadow grabbed his leg but he quickly teleported. When he reappeared ten meters away and checked his leg, the boot on his left leg had disappeared and some of his toes appeared to be corroded.

' Just die already. ' He waved his hand and hundreds of spatial cuts attacked a shadow barrier but he didn't stop until the barrier cracked and the figure who was now shredded to pieces appeared.

Zeralf had eradicated four Quartz rank Devas while losing a few toes but he had no time to rejoice, his breathing was rough due to straining his meridians and he turned back to see how the battle was playing.

Even for a mortal who had manifested his Zajra, defeating a true Deva even if it was of the lowest rank shouldn't be possible, talk more of slaying multiple Devas.

A good example was when Zeralf had to launch hundreds of spatial cuts multiple times to break the dark barrier. It was not only about Ki, the proficiency in a technique and the power behind it also mattered greatly which drew the line between ranks making a marble rank Deva even more powerful.

Endra was barely holding up and Zeralf knew he had no time to waste, he had to make a move quickly hence he started teleporting to Endra's location.