novelraw Chapter 904: Working Together? (2)
Chapter 904: Working Together? (2)
Chapter 904
Kael beamed, a rare flash of pride crossing his features as he observed the battlefield.
’They are beginning to work together, slowly but surely. After months of fractured isolation, facing an overwhelming foe is forcing their synchronicity back to the surface. Ah... if only the Captain were here to witness this.’
The Otherworlder stared at the five hundred flame spears screaming toward him.
If something wasn’t done immediately, he would be struck head-on.
Whether he possessed the durability to recover afterward or not—whether the impact would truly injure him—he had no desire to discover the answer the hard way.
Hence, all he did was smile.
One chilling, confident smile was all it took for the sky overhead to darken instantaneously.
Confused by the sudden shift in light, everyone turned their gazes upward, and horror immediately flashed across their faces.
More than six hundred ki swords hovered in the air like a metallic canopy, their lethal tips pointing downward even as the Otherworlder continued to battle the heavy pressure of the lightning spear from moments ago.
"Scatter!" Kael thundered.
In an instant, the squad bolted in different directions as the rain of ki swords screamed downward with sinister intent.
BOOOOOOM!
Surrounding structures crumbled into the earth.
The ground shattered into a mosaic of ruins, and the five hundred fire spears were effectively countered, detonating in a chaotic mess of elemental feedback.
Most importantly, deep craters now filled the battlefield, yet the Otherworlder remained standing amidst the swirling destruction and shockwaves.
He kept smiling beneath the mask while watching the squad scramble back to their feet, their breathing heavy and their robes tattered.
"Weak. Weak. Weak. Weak. All of you are pathetic. Trash! I’m not even taking this engagement seriously, yet you are unable to defeat me even at my base level! How utterly disappointing. Is the great Lunaria Squad truly losing? Special Ops, my foot! Why was the leader even worried? You all are use—"
"Shut up," Scarlet uttered.
She didn’t shout; she didn’t even raise her voice.
She spoke with a terrifying, absolute calmness while shooting daggers with her eyes in the man’s direction.
It was only when he looked toward her that he realized the source of her composure.
Turning his head, he saw the same transformation occurring in the others.
One by one, Scarlet, Jay, Greg, and even Raze stood with their hair floating above their shoulders as if defying gravity.
Their eyes shifted to a pure, brilliant white, and a snowy aura encased their bodies like a second skin, pulsating softly with raw power.
"Breakthrough," they spoke in unison, their voices overlapping in a haunting harmony.
A sudden chill crept through the air as a wave of atmospheric pressure blasted out in all directions.
The temperature around Scarlet plummeted, yet paradoxically, the air shimmered with heat—as if being near her was equivalent to standing inside a blast furnace.
Greg’s frame crackled with lethal intensity, followed by a gleaming discharge at his side that birthed a wolf—a predatory beast wreathed entirely in jagged lightning.
Around Scarlet, a massive dragon manifested, its scales formed from swirling, concentrated flames.
They glared at the Otherworlder, who kept shifting his gaze, scanning each of them with newfound curiosity.
Even Jay looked fundamentally different; the air grew moist above him, with water dripping to the ground as if a localized rainstorm were suspended perpetually over his head.
"Oh? Taking it seriously now?" the Otherworlder mused, his posture tightening.
"Kael," Scarlet called out softly, her eyes never leaving the enemy.
"I’m sorry for my earlier words. You were right. If we want to eliminate all the Otherworlders, we need to do it as a team. They have taken far too much from us for us to keep wallowing in self-pity and refusing to fight as one, lest we lose someone else."
She paused for a moment as the group listened with rapt attention.
"... Let’s take down this threat as one, guys."
The Otherworlder finally shifted into a true combat stance, looking as though he were ready to commit to the fight.
A pair of ki swords materialized in his grasp, humming with energy.
Ki flooded his limbs, strengthening his muscles and readying his body to boost his speed to unimaginable heights.
"Arthur! Get ready!" Scarlet thundered.
In unison, they all darted toward the man.
Greg kicked the air and landed atop his lightning wolf, which pounced forward with blinding velocity.
Jay walked forward with a steady, rhythmic pace, water cascading down with every step and hovering just an inch from the scorched earth.
Within moments, the squad was upon him, while Arthur prepared his affinity, ready to protect his friends whenever the situation demanded.
A second later, chaos ensued.
Raze dove forward, unleashing a rapid elemental barrage that flickered violently between fire and lightning.
He maintained a relentless rhythm, sending the volatile strikes toward the Otherworlder, who was forced into a frantic dance, weaving between detonations that scorched the very atmosphere.
Scarlet clapped her hands together, manifesting a massive sphere of flames that launched toward the masked figure with lethal velocity.
With deadly precision, the Otherworlder swung his ki sword in a rising arc, perfectly cleaving the fireball that obstructed his vision.
However, right behind the flames, the dragon—though looking like a medium-sized infant—let out an enormous stream of white-hot fire.
Vaulting backward just in time, the figure watched as the flames disintegrated the earth upon impact, as if potent acid had been poured onto the stone.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he realized something was wrong.
The texture of the air felt heavy—wrong.
Casting a quick glance downward, he saw hundreds of suspended droplets of water encircling his legs.
’What the—?’
In a heartbeat, the droplets clicked together, forming a viscous, tight bubble around his lower limbs that nearly sent him toppling.
Before he could fall, he stabbed his sword deep into the earth to anchor himself.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Water orbs the size of soccer balls clobbered into his face, each carrying the force of a charging bull.
His mask audibly cracked under the pressure as he was forced backward onto his knees.
Clenching his jaws in a fit of rage, he hauled his sword downward, cleaving through the watery prison trapping his feet.
Rolling aside in a fluid motion, he narrowly avoided another fireball from the dragon, which melted through the ground almost instantly.
Springing up to his knees, he thrust his ki sword forward, parrying a lightning blade from Greg that had been aimed squarely at his skull.
The Otherworlder swung his foot in a fluid counter, intending to hammer his heel into the lightning mage, but the wolf Greg rode zipped aside with supernatural agility.
The kick cut through empty air with a low, heavy thud.
Spinning on his heels instantly, the masked man lifted his ki sword to his face, intercepting a water blade from Jay.
The two forces paused for a fleeting moment, locked in a contest of strength.
Sensing an opening, the masked man jabbed his second sword toward the mage’s abdomen with blazing speed.
Before the tip could connect, a shimmering, translucent shield manifested in the blade’s path, absorbing the impact and protecting Jay’s midsection.