Chapter 180: Wrath of the Six-Winged Beast
The battlefield was swallowed in carnage. Waves of power surged wildly as the Mortal Lord essence beast fought against the combined hordes of demonic and essence beasts. Elton's group had managed to avoid becoming the center of attention, but in a melee of this scale, no one could truly escape.
With a great leap, Elton sprang from Elchris' back. His Blue Star Heavenly Destroyer gleamed as he brought it down in a single arc, cutting straight through the body of a beast mid-charge. Blood sprayed in the air as its shrieks faded into silence. Elchris swooped low to catch Elton, lifting him back onto its back before another attack could strike.
A storm of ranged blasts tore toward them. Shayleaf, already braced, thrust her hands forward. "Scatter!"
A whirlwind of razor-edged leaves exploded outward, slicing through the incoming projectiles. The air filled with dissonant sounds—shredding, crunching, disintegrating—until only drifting sparks remained.
—Juran Shōhō—
(Gentle Chaos Palm Cannon)
Christy's palms shone with bloody-red light, firing out fist ki projections strikes. The beams smashed into beasts flanking Elchris, blasting them apart or hurling them backward in streams of gore.
Beside her, Tongsheng loosed a steady rhythm of arrows. Each shot glowed faintly, piercing clean through scales before detonating in small but vicious bursts.
"Groooooaaar!"
The Mortal Lord essence beast surged forward, barreling through the opposition like a tidal wave. One swipe of its six claws sent a massive Golden Lord stag-like creature flying, its gut ripped open and blood trailing across the sky.
High above, the six winged serpent demonic beasts finally converged. Their bodies writhed together, auras synchronizing until the combined presence radiated like a second Mortal Lord. Their unified roar sent shockwaves through the air. Even the six-winged beast paused, its grotesque head tilting upward warily.
Christy's eyes widened. "Elchris! Move now! Shayleaf—prepare!"
"I'm ready!" Shayleaf's voice rang with resolve. She raised her arms, and a five-layered barrier shimmered to life around them, each layer rotating with runes of nature and blood.
Other beasts scattered, defending if they could, fleeing if they couldn't.
Then the serpents struck.
A vortex of purple winds howled into existence, swallowing the land in a spiraling cage. The winds swam like living serpents, their scales shredding everything they touched.
Elchris struggled to hold its path in the storm, but Shayleaf's barrier and the combined ki of her familiars kept them from being knocked off with injuries. Still, the group could not rest. Elton launched spear after spear of lightning, Christy's palms burned bright with blasts of Juran Shōhō, and Tongsheng's arrows whistled like thunderbolts through the gale.
Meanwhile, the six-winged beast's scales oozed rivers of shimmering liquid. Its body swelled with fury.
"Hroooaarrghhh!"
At the serpents' command, six colossal tornadoes crashed downward, purple and sharp, tearing through the battlefield with annihilating force.
Most creatures below were shredded instantly—flesh mangled, bones torn, corpses scattered into dust. Even powerful demonic beasts were ripped apart if they were caught directly.
The Mortal Lord beast took the brunt of the largest tornado. Its liquid shield foamed and hissed as the winds gnawed at it, yet the creature roared defiantly within the storm, refusing to fall.
Elton's group was locked inside another tornado. Four of Shayleaf's five barriers shattered one after another, each collapse echoing like glass breaking across the heavens.
"Not yet!" Christy's Kokon Tengan flared. She jabbed forward with two glowing fingers.
—1st Brilliance Sword: First Light Pierce—
A thin beam of scarlet sword-ki pierced the storm itself, splitting its eye open.
"Now!" Elton roared. His sword surged with white lightning as he swung down.
—7th Brilliance Sword: Beacon Sky Rend—
A massive arc of light cleaved the storm apart, cutting the tornado in two and unleashing a metallic screech of torn winds. The backlash sent Elchris tumbling off course.
Everyone screamed as they clung to the falcon's back, hurtling sideways through the sky until Elchris stabilized with a desperate screech.
"How dangerous!!" Shayleaf's face was pale with panic.
"Damned serpents…" Elton spat, glaring through the haze of purple gales.
Above, the serpents writhed, their eyes glowing with cruel intent. They dived together, unleashing a rain of dark wind bombs toward the scarred battlefield, intent on annihilation.
But they were interrupted.
A blinding light erupted as the six-winged beast burst free of the tornado, its body gouged with wounds but far from defeated. The liquid from its scales poured outward, flooding the land until a vast smog-filled lake spread beneath it.
"Hrrrooooaaaaarrrr!"
The lake convulsed, then surged outward in a cataclysmic tidal wave. Beast-like roaring chants could vaguely be heard as the wave spread in all directions, hissing as it devoured everything it touched.
"Fly high into the skies now!!" Christy shrieked.
Elchris blazed with light, its wings thrumming violently. With a deafening sonic boom, it shot into the heavens just as the wave consumed the battlefield. Screams echoed below as beasts drowned or were crushed, the serpents barely escaping upward in their panic.
The wave collapsed inward, condensing into a sphere the size of a fortress, spinning with liquid malice.
The Golden Lord serpent shrieked an order, forcing its kin to flee—straight toward Elton's group.
"Damnit!" Elton cursed, bracing himself.
Shayleaf's eyes blazed. "I won't let them pass so easily!" She raised both arms and chanted in the ancient elven tongue.
—O branches of the World Tree, skewer the flesh of my enemies, drink their blood! Vampirial Elven Lance!—
Ten crimson-gold branches burst forth, piercing through the air like spears. They impaled the serpents mid-dive, ripping through their wind barriers and leaving gaping wounds.
"Now," Tongsheng whispered, releasing her shot.
Her arrow streaked faster than sight, drilling into a serpent's side. The explosion tore a massive bloody hole, sending the beast into a spiraling fall.
The serpents retaliated with fury, bombarding Elton's group with storm after storm. Barriers cracked, Elchris screeched in pain, and the air quaked under their might.
Then it came.
The Mortal Lord beast raised its head, and the massive sphere of liquid hurtled toward them, impossibly fast. The serpents screamed as they threw everything into their defenses, yet the orb devoured them, swallowing their cries.
Elton's face turned pale. "All power to Shayleaf's barrier NOW!"
Everyone poured their ki into the shield as Elchris desperately tried to flee. But it was too late.
The sphere engulfed them whole.
They were hurled across rivers, smashed through ridges, carried across lands. Then, with an earth-splitting explosion, the sphere detonated, sending shockwaves for miles. The blast rattled every beast, every essence, every living being in the region.