Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 584 - 583 - Soul Slice

Orbas felt like his ribs were broken.  Despite the regenerative ability of Heaven Realm aether beasts, it still took time.  The more he fought, the slower he became to the point he had to pull back.

Glenda was only slightly better but she was bleeding from several small wounds to her wings.  Nothing vital but it affected her natural state so she had to become human to keep fighting effectively.

Restricting herself to the limited form of humanity reduced her power but her speed was just as fantastic as before.  Livera was doing the best but he was battle crazy.

His followers were hardly any better but they were keeping the pressure off the breach.

"Lord Orbas, we must withdraw."  A wolf with bright blue fur limped up.  She was bleeding from several places but she could still fight.

His dark face frowned as he wanted to refute her words but there was wisdom yet his pride stopped him from agreeing.

"We will not run from the twisted one!  Our brothers have died and we will not walk away!"  A young man in dark black armor was bleeding profusely but still clung to life.  He was one of the stone drals that had finally had to retreat from the front lines.

"We will all die here!  Our packs will be left defenseless and our territory swallowed up!"  The argument was about to draw Orbas into it when his eyes narrowed.  He felt a chill up his spine as a shimmering gray color came to the air moving at them!

"FALL BACK NOW!"  He roared out the order and many beasts fell back, but no Livera or his fellow Fire Hawks.

He was about to shout again when his voice was robbed from him.  Livera paled as the other birds fell from the sky.  The massive golden Fire Hawk lost his luster as all below the Sky Realm died instantly.

"What is that?!"  The wolf whimpered but that was not what worried Orbas.  He stretched out his senses and realized the Two Rivers City was surrounded!

"It is the answer to your argument.  We cannot leave."  Livera collapsed at the lip of the wall and Orbas caught him.  He was about to shout at the foolish bird when he felt the horror of the man in front of him.

"W-where am I?"  Livera looked confused and lost.  Orbas felt like there was a hole where the soul should be intact.  Beasts could feel it instinctively.  It was the truth behind the words any beast used.  A soul aura was passive, aggressive, or anything but never absent unless dead!

Part of the aura Orbas knew as Livera was missing!

"Soul Slice.  My mother died to that."  Glenda was staring in pure rage at the shimmering gray streaks that surrounded them.

"What is it?"  Orbas had no race memory about such an attack but Glenda did not seem to hear him.

"It is a weaving that directly attacks the soul.  It can't extract everything but it can bypass most defenses."  A welcome voice came from behind them and Orbas saw Lind administering elixirs to the wounded still around them.

The wolf shimmered before being completely healed!  The obsidian stone dral looked much better but stayed in his vaguely human form.

Orbas narrowed his eyes as he saw the vial in Lind's hands sparkled with a profound power he had never felt before.

"What do they get out of it?"  Orbas accepted a crimson vial and downed it.  The broken ribs and bleeding stopped instantly to his shock.  What was that elixir?!

"Exactly what you see.  The soul is a critical part of any cultivator.  Damage to the body, dantian, or meridians can be repaired or even restored given the right conditions but the soul is not so easy."  Orbas felt his eyes narrow as he looked out past the wall but a new question came to him.

"Why–"  He was about to ask but Lind beat him to it.

"It can't move once set up.  They boxed us in but it is not a static wall either.  It will react to anything alive that gets close to it in any direction."  As if on cue, another beast tried to flee but was only grazed by one of the shimmering streams of gray.

It died instantly.

"Anything below Star Tier will die as their soul is shattered into pieces but above that if they can get away, a portion can be saved."  Lind looked sad at Livera and Orbas did not even bother to ask if there was an elixir to repair the damage.

"So we are back to a stalemate?"  Lind shook his head at the wolf's question.

"This is not used as a passive but as an offensive move.  The Soulmancer did not use it simply to trap us but to prepare the next step.  If he can use Soul Slice, he can use something else that will not be easy to defend against."  Lind did not explain as sigils began to blaze around him.

Their conversation had been depressing but Lind never stopped the whole time.  Now, Orbas felt the same level of profound power as the elixirs gave him from the weavings!

Just what had happened when Lind pushed himself over that lip of danger before?

Life and death always held the best possibility of enlightenment for cultivators but Orbas had rarely seen it come so quickly for one!

The battle in the breach was bloody and unforgiving but suddenly the golden shimmer behind their people intensified until it pushed out the soldiers.

Lind looked a little pale but smiled.

"That will buy some time."  Orbas could only slowly nod as he understood in part what just happened.  The golden barrier was not normal Qi but something called Celestial Qi that left him in awe to see it work.

A soft glow spread and seemed to defy the Soul Slice.

Livera had begun humming a song in a childlike voice that left Orbas cold but he narrowed his dark eyes at the source of their woes.  The black robed man on the platform was still scrawling away as if nothing had happened.

"Can we really kill him?"  Orbas asked the question.  They had massive success in the sense that nearly ⅔ of the original enemy force was gone but the power of their foes had not really fallen.

Their walls were breached and the fallen had become fodder to the Soulmancer to strike them hard.  A single cultivator was their enemy no matter how many they killed but he was beyond their reach.

"If it was any other day, no.  His power is not the issue but his tactics.  He keeps his distance and forces me to defend the Two Rivers from his attacks."  Orbas and Glenda both turned to see Lind smiling.

"Today is a very different day."  A black staff suddenly appeared in Lind's hands before he took to the skies.  Shock covered Orbas and Glenda as they thought Lind had sacrificed himself only to see a shocking scene.

The Soul Slice that had wiped out so many others as if snuffing out a candle did not even seem to see him!  Why didn't it react?

"Divine protection.  He is a Divine Progenitor and his soul cannot be harmed by such a twisted attack."  Glenda whispered as tears fell from her eyes.  Orbas felt shocked at that revelation as he realized he had not truly understood the man.

"Still, what can he do alone?"  Orbas was pragmatic but then they all saw emerald light blaze as a gigantic blade appeared on one end of the black staff.

"Protean had many forms, but it was weaker before."  Sheena returned in some bandages but looked far better than she should so quickly.  Orbas suspected the healing ward had some of those new elixirs.

"Protean?"  Orbas did not understand.

"The spirit weapon was made by Lord Frey.  He has been nurturing it for centuries but it was stuck like everything else.  He broke through."  Orbas stumbled as did many other beasts.  Unlike the humans, they remembered in their race memories about spirit weapons.

They were not normal and very rare.  If a spirit bonded with a cultivator, it could grow with them under the right conditions.  If the spirit broke through enough, it could manifest as well to fight with its owner.

Orbas realized Lind was able to make spirit weapons.  In the ancient race memories, such refiners were revered like Gods among men.  Just what else could that man do?!

Orbas watched as Lind cut a swath through the army but they were too tired and exhausted to really resist a Moon Tier.  Lind had clearly recovered with elixirs before heading out.

The regular army was not the true issue.  The true issue was the team Sun Tiers between Lind and the Soulmancer.  The black cloaked man never stopped engraving the whole time as many understood he did not value the army at all aside from being raw materials!

Protean shifted from spear to sword to mace to even a bow!  It launched emerald arrows that dropped all in their path.

Lind finally got passed the now fracturing army to find 8 Sun Tiers standing before him but also Soulless.  They had returned and Orbas saw there were nearly 40 of them left!  Against such odds, Lind stood no chance!

Orbas understood what Lind meant that they had no chance before as the insurmountable wall was clear in that moment.

Still, why did Ling go out there then?  What was he going to do?

"Spirits watch over Lord Frey."  Sheena sent up a prayer as they waited to see if a miracle could be pulled off once again.