986 A Challenging Situation
The redness spread all across space and moons began to quiver before it shrunk by half.
The abyssal soldiers dazedly rolled to their feet and gripped their weapons tight.
"Kill!" Archduke Samaron's words were an order to both the army and the level 9s.
The army, despite the terrifying experience they'd just been through, charged forward.
From the corner of their eyes, they saw Varian, illusioned and frozen in place.
'Thankfully he allowed them to attack together…' Sighing in relief, the huge abyssal army moved closer to the Neptune moons, where the human army awaited them nervously.
Seeing Varian freeze like that bottomed out their morale.
The five human level 9 defenders wanted to go help Varian but the five Undead that were staring at them since the start acted and stopped them in place.
"Hahaha! No one can save you now!" The abyssal army landed on the moons simultaneously. Their momentum was so great that the moons shook and the continents cracked apart.
The human army braced themselves for death as millions of abyssals marched forward.
This was it. They're the last line of defense. If they lose, the abyssals would reach Neptune.
It's next to impossible for them to win against the abyssal army ten times bigger than them.
What's more, even if they won, they knew that the sheer number of level 9 and level 8 abyssals could just escape their encirclement and destroy Neptune.
They hoped Varian's presence would change the outcome but the hopes they raised were crushed ruthlessly.
'Why do you have to give us hope?' For the last time before they clashed with the abyssals, the human army commanders glanced at Varian.
He's frozen with a neutral expression as he's about to be engulfed by the attacks. He's going to be so dead!
As the lightning attacks reached him, the space awakener abyssals loosened the space around him so it doesn't obstruct the lightning attacks from striking him.
…And that's when he disappeared.
The human army commanders blinked twice to see if they were hallucinating. But nope. Varian was really gone!
Where did he g—
BOOM!
Kacha!
The smooth hum of a sharp metal slicing through abyssal flesh as well as the sizzling grilling of meat resounded from…the level 9 abyssals!
The human commanders moved their eyes at their fastest to the source of the sound but they only saw the fifteen level 9 abyssal psychics dividing into two across a thin red line on their bodies.
The abyssal army commanders froze in place as they too witnessed the gory scene of bodies sliced into two.
It wasn't one or two, it was fricking fifteen level 9s!
Before their hearts knew how to respond, their eyes closed instinctively as a blinding golden light flashed across the space.
When they opened their eyes in a hurry, they saw the corpses of ten level 9 lightning awakeners, three punched a hole through their chests, two with their necks twisted off and five with their heads frozen.
The roars of thunder rang across the space, followed by sounds of fists smashing flesh and bones and the chattering of teeth under severe cold…the sounds of the battle only reached them a few seconds later!
The abyssal commanders looked at each other in anxiety and then turned to the human army.
Both armies realized it was Varian!
The human army cheered in joy as their hopes once again rekindled while the abyssals felt the tremors of fear reach spread across.
The only way to deal with this near-paralyzing fear…
"Attack! Kill these bastards!"
"They're the only ones between our peace!"
"To peace!"
"To glory!"
The abyssal commanders motivated their troops and led them to attack. But before any real clash could even happen, the familiar red mist spread again and slowed everyone.
Since he's far away now, it didn't freeze them. But it wasn't easy to fight as the fear of death in their hearts amplified.
"You really want to die that much?" Varian's voice rang from far away, but it was as if he was whispering in their ears.
The abyssals shivered as his devilish smile surfaced in their minds. It didn't help that Varian just escaped the encirclement of their fifty strongest warriors and killed twenty-five in a single breath!
"Stay down!" Varian's growl crushed their courage further.
The abyssal army looked at humans in fear. Their minds ran at full speed, imagining hundreds of scenarios where they'd die in a gruesome manner.
The human commanders didn't miss this and ordered the elementals along with others in the fortress to launch an attack.
The abyssals, despite their great numbers, were barely able to block these attacks as their coordination faltered and power slumped.
Some soldiers didn't listen to orders and strayed. Most couldn't exert their full power and did a very poor job in countering the human attacks.
Even though humans weren't really winning, neither were the abyssals. For an army that was certain of losing, this was a complete reversal!
The man responsible for this reversal was facing the twenty-five level 9 abyssals.
The archdukes stared at Varian with a stare that wished to drink his blood and feast on his flesh.
Varian did fall into their surprise attack. But he fell into it willingly!
That tricolor woman, perhaps Enigma or maybe someone else teleported him away when their lightning attacks should've fried him to death.
As a result, the fifty abyssals focused on him were caught off guard.
Varian took full advantage of the opportunity and killed the physically weaker psychics in a single sword slash. Then he slaughtered ten lightning abyssals before being attacked by the remaining abyssals.
Carefully dodging their attacks and ensuring he wouldn't be frozen again, Varian led them in a certain direction where they approached two people fighting.
An Undead and a handsome middle-aged man with a scar.
Even though the middle-aged man was holding the Undead leader back so far, his injuries were already very serious. If the battle continued without intervention, then there's a significant chance the Undead might kill him.
Varian detected this hidden danger and reached Evander who just happened to be punched in the chest by the Undead and coughed out blood like a damn fountain.
Bloodied all over, weakened from hundreds of injuries, big and small all over his body that even his healing powers couldn't keep up with, fatigued from the long fight against a significantly stronger enemy, Evander raised his arms weakly and prepared himself for another move.
His lips trembled lightly as he said. "M-Move away…it's dangerous…here…"
He couldn't even turn to glance at Varian without risking his life. Even when he spoke, he had to dodge multiple attacks aimed at his vitals.
Contrary to him, Varian was relatively relaxed, although still cautious about the twenty-five abyssals.
His eyes flashed across the Undead Leader and cursed under his breath.
This guy wasn't anything like a peak level 9. He's much stronger.
If it's during his 'dead' period, Varian was confident of killing hundred such zombies.
But after he returned to life, the death strand was essentially sealed and his paths fell from peak level 9.
Even though he's strong now, he didn't feel strong enough to kill the Undead.
…Not yet.
But he didn't have much time either.
Varian could feel the Undead growing stronger with each death, enemy, or ally. That's the reason why Varian didn't attack the abyssal army and kill a million or two.
Still, his killing those twenty-five level 9s was already pushing the Undead to a higher power.
Just this improvement might push him to a strength where he couldn't be held back by Evander at all.
'I need to drive him away and grow stronger faster.' Varian's gaze shifted to the twenty-five abyssals in front of him.
His way of growing stronger was straightforward. Fight strong enemies.
And in those twenty-five abyssals, there were two very strong enemies. Two of the four archdukes of Neptune. Samaron and Yasok.
"Come!" Varian shot forward.
Lighting rumbled.
