Chapter 272: Brothers
"!!!" Gloria was completely astounded.
Even Katarina didn’t believe it. She heard that the Shadow Guards would arrive a bit late, and Auric even told them it would be fine if they came late as long as they were safe.
However, Auric might have underestimated the capabilities of the Shadow Guards.
They were the elites cultivated by the Relesha family after all. This was why the country used them as its hounds.
Not only did they manage to reach this location in half the agreed time, but they also took down one group by themselves.
Gloria suddenly realized what had happened. ’So that’s how it is. Auric Elfe might have realized that they were here even though they were supposed to be hidden. That’s why he positioned me here.
’He knew those people had arrived and were ready to assist him. As such, he reinforced this area and let Eric take care of the other side to maintain our defensive position.
’Katarina then stopped Team 2’s advance. Because of their position, they have to break through either to Team 1 or Team 3 if they want to reach us. As a result, they have no other choice but to wait.
’Then, Vera and Ellia would act as a wall to stop the third group and give those hidden assassins a chance to act. Our enemy focused too much on us, and the assassins are not ordinary. As a result, we were able to wipe out one team in an instant.’
Gloria didn’t know whether she should be impressed at the ability of the assassins or the fact that Auric could sense them.
After all, she couldn’t sense these assassins until they were one step away from her. She would have been able to react at the last moment, but it wouldn’t be easy to stop them.
That was why Auric pushed the enemy to the limit and inflated their ego so that they didn’t think there would be an ambush.
"Eva, transform and go!"
"!!!" Gloria widened her eyes. She noticed that Auric was still holding his power. In that instant, she knew what to do next.
Gloria summoned her familiar as her body was enveloped once again in armor. She then leaped into the air and raised her spear. "Gungnir!"
She threw her spear toward Team 1.
"!!!" The rank 4 leader hurriedly leaped into the air and swung his blade to deflect it, but he was so occupied by the beasts that he didn’t have the momentum to stop this spear. "Haaaa!"
Unfortunately for him, he was overwhelmed by the spear. He was knocked to the side, avoiding a direct hit, but the spear hit the ground and shattered the ground, throwing his people off balance.
Auric immediately activated the Edict he had been accumulating all this time.
O rushing wind and sudden blue,
By spark of cloud, answer my call.
Auric didn’t just make a few words. As a result, the energy he poured into this Edict was many times higher than his usual Edict.
A powerful bolt of lightning struck the ground, using the wind to disperse the lightning so that no one would get hit by it.
"Aaaahhhh!"
"What is this power?"
"Noooo!"
They panicked. This was the first time they had experienced this kind of power.
Even the rank 4 human couldn’t help but gasp. "This kind of power... How can a rank 2 human possess this kind of offensive power?"
Katarina smiled. ’No wonder... This power, it’s similar to my Meteor...’
Two people died immediately, while the others were injured. Their captain was lucky as he survived because he was trying to stop Gloria’s strike.
But Gloria landed on top of her spear and casually kicked the spear out of the ground. As she landed on the ground, she killed another person. With this, Team 3 had been eliminated, and Team 1 had been reduced to their captain and his two injured subordinates.
’No, we still have the opportunity. That woman moved away from her position. The beasts would definitely strike them.’ The leader looked at the empty position, knowing that the beasts would soon overrun Auric’s group.
Sadly for him, Ellia was always there to cover for Auric. She smoothly teleported to this spot and unleashed her Second Cataclysm, killing a dozen beasts and stabilizing their position.
"What?!" The leader dropped his jaw.
Auric casually said, "Vera, Shadow Guards, hit the enemy. Katarina, support them. Eva, focus on the other team and eliminate them. We don’t have much time. They’re waiting for reinforcements!"
"!!!" Both the enemies and allies were actually surprised by his words. They had the same thought in their minds. ’How did he know about the reinforcements?’
Auric might have activated God Mode, but it only amplified his magical energy sensitivity. In other words, it boosted his eyes.
There was no way Auric could know about the enemy’s reinforcements.
The one who knew was obviously Lindwurm, who told Auric that information during the battle.
"Attack them!"
"Kill them right now!"
Once they knew about the reinforcements, the attacks became relentless. They were determined to kill one more person before the reinforcements arrived.
They killed one enemy after another. The Shadow Guards’ combat effectiveness dropped once they had been exposed. Then again, they were assassins who were good at surprise attacks. It was good enough for them to eliminate one group upon arrival.
With the support of Auric’s group, the Shadow Guards killed three people from Team 2.
Unfortunately, their advantage might change the moment they saw people coming.
"Auric. Six more." Lindwurm warned him.
Auric glanced to the side. There were still two rank 4 humans and four rank 3 humans on the opposite side. With the reinforcements, who appeared to consist of one rank 4 human and five rank 3 humans, the situation would change.
After all, their sides had two rank 4 humans, eight rank 3 humans, and two rank 2 humans. In addition, their enemy didn’t have to deal with the beasts.
Auric’s team needed to deal with the beasts, and Auric couldn’t find a way to direct these beasts to other places.
Auric found the situation troublesome, but he didn’t panic yet. After all, there was one person who had been forgotten all this time.
Ellia, who was in the perfect position, couldn’t help but see the incoming reinforcements. "Enemy reinforcements. Six people!"
The rest of the group wondered what they should do. They needed to intercept them, but the situation didn’t look good.
To Ellia’s surprise, Eric suddenly came to her and cut down the beasts that were supposed to come to her. "Ellia, I’ll handle the beasts. You go."
"What? Aren’t you supposed to—" Ellia abruptly stopped. Eric’s job was to stop the beasts from their back.
But when that side entered the corner of her eyes, she stopped. Eric was supposed to handle at least seventy beasts from that side, yet when everyone was busy with the enemy group, Eric quietly supported the team by eliminating all those beasts himself.
His body was already covered in blood, showing how brutal the fight had been. Yet he didn’t complain. He continued hunting them down without asking for credit.
And because he eliminated all those beasts, he could free Ellia from the remaining beasts.
His hands were already shaking. He must have been tired from killing so many beasts by himself, but he was determined to swing more.
Auric couldn’t help but smile. He didn’t forget about Eric.
In fact, Eric was the reason he was able to remain calm even when the enemy reinforcements arrived. That was who Eric was after all.
Auric gave the next order. "Eva, Shadow Guards, intercept the enemy reinforcements! Kill them all!"
Gloria didn’t doubt Auric’s decision anymore. She immediately headed to the rank 4 leader to stop them. At the same time, Katarina rushed toward the leader of Team 2.
"Vera, Ellia, stop the injured leader!" Auric gave one last order. Even if they combined their strength, Vera and Ellia wouldn’t be a match for a rank 4 human. But it would be different if the opponent were injured.
That was why he sent Eva in the first place. This way, they would be on equal footing. No, the advantage might be on Ellia’s and Vera’s side.
That left them with four rank 3 humans on their side. Two of them were heavily injured because of his lightning earlier, while the other two were fully enraged.
Auric immediately rushed to them. ’I guess it’s time for us to step up our game, Lindwurm.’
"Oh!" Lindwurm cheered. Of course, there was no way Auric could defeat them. He intended to buy time for the rest of the group against four people one rank above him.
"Capture him!"
"He is our target anyway!"
"Oh!"
The four rank 3 humans were so determined to catch Auric that they ended up falling for Auric’s bait.
With Eric taking care of the remaining beasts, the rest of the team could finally focus on the enemy.
Auric saw a wind tornado coming from above, so he leaped to the side, avoiding it. A bolt of lightning came right after, but Auric simply kicked it up.
Then, two people came from the side, one swinging his sword while the other thrust his spear.
Auric covered both hands with earth element before catching their blades.
"!!!"
"Why?"
They were confused. They had poured their energy into their blades, so even if Auric covered himself with his power, they should still be able to injure him.
Yet their power refused to be activated.
Auric had used his chaos element to disperse their power. In the past, his unique element was so low that he could only last for several minutes.
But after evolving his unique element, he could last much longer, not to mention using other unique elements while he was at it.
Still, there were only two elements that wouldn’t exactly reveal his true ability. They were the chaos element and the time element.
They didn’t have distinct physical manifestations that could be identified, but they were extremely useful elements.
Auric used the time element to increase his speed and the chaos element to repel the enemy’s power.
Then, he gathered his power in his hand and let it burst, combining the fire and wind elements.
"Kh..."
"What is this flame?"
They were having a hard time stopping the blazing fire that felt like it could burn everything.
Still, some of them broke through and reached Auric.
Auric summoned roots and coated them with the earth element, forcing the enemy to back off.
"Just grab him!"
They rushed forward, knowing that they didn’t have much time.
They surrounded Auric from all directions.
But before they attacked him, a blood spear suddenly flew toward one of them.
"!!!" The enemy leaped away instinctively as the burst of blood sent him farther away. Eric landed in that spot while waving his hand, telling Auric to escape this way.
Auric was surprised this time. He thought he had kept track of Eric, but Eric actually surpassed his imagination.
When he was handling the beasts from their backs, Eric focused on using his physical abilities. He cut them down, relying on his physical stamina.
So, once he covered Ellia’s spot, he could unleash his magical energy that he had been conserving, killing the beasts with minimal time.
As a result, he could even help Auric in this situation. Both his stamina and magical energy were running low, but Eric would never come if he intended to be a burden.
Auric couldn’t help but smile. As expected of the man he acknowledged.
Auric immediately rushed toward Eric while saying, "As expected of you, my brother. They’re going to come at us, so are you ready?"
"I can handle them myself, and you’ve gone one step ahead of yourself. I’m not your brother!"
"Hahahaha!" Auric just laughed as if he was amused by his answer.
One step ahead of yourself. Wouldn’t that mean Eric at least recognized him as his best friend?
"Let’s fight, shall we?!"
Eric was too exhausted to answer, but a small smile appeared on his face.