Chapter 197 - 197. Ten minutes
The group from the Muwlos family immediately lost its morale seeing that scene.
Their leader had been stabbed in the chest by the greatsword of the enemy.
They knew that they would be the next to face that weapon.
Samuel was right next to Abel, as soon as the greatsword pierced him a torrent of blood fell on his face, making him panic.
The cultivators hired by the Royal family didn't waste that precious moment of confusion and delivered precise attacks on the momentarily stunned soldiers, either killing or injuring them as they moved toward Samuel.
Even the representative of the Royal family relaxed and took out his weapon from Abel's chest, turning his gaze to the noble heir in front of him.
However, right when the greatsword left his chest and his body was about to fall on the ground, Abel's hand darted and drove the knife that it was wielding directly in the representative's throat!
Abel was alive!
Everyone on the battlefield stopped moving to stare at the scene at the center of it.
Abel's figure was covered in blood and wounds, there was no strength left in his legs as they were laid casually on the terrain.
Yet, the grip on his knife was strong, it kept him straight, hanging from the pierced throat of the representative.
The representative, on the other hand, had his eyes wide open in surprise.
He looked first at the knife and then at the body hanging from it, realizing his mistake.
No matter how weak a nourishing method was, a rank 4 body was still in a completely different realm of existence from its rank 3 version.
His own body had a strength that vastly surpassed the limits of the cultivators in the human ranks.
Abel had the strength of a rank 3 body while he was in the fourth rank, which meant that his regenerative abilities had to be inhumane!
Even with his heart pierced, he was still able to move and to deliver a deadly blow to his opponent!
The light in the representative's eyes diminished as blood flowed endlessly from his throat.
The wound was too deep and the weight applied on it only worsened its condition.
All he could do was internally praise his opponent's determination as life abandoned his body.
In a few seconds, his body fell over Abel's one, the representative from the Royal family was dead!
The silence in the battlefield continued, everyone was waiting to see if there was some kind of reaction from the bodies of the two leaders.
Samuel reacted and moved away the representative's corpse from Abel.
The stares of the cultivators gathered on the body covered in blood.
"Cough, cough!"
Abel coughed, spitting mouthfuls of blood from his mouth.
Inside the silent battlefield, his whispered words could be clearly heard.
"Give me two incenses of time and I'll stand up."
Noah was at some distance away when he heard those words and he cursed internally.
"Protect Lord Abel!"
One of the soldiers shouted and the others followed his orders.
They encircled Samuel and Abel, forming a defensive perimeter around them.
There were only twenty soldiers remaining and some of them were injured while the assaulters' number amounted to twenty-five.
Between the surprise attack and the slaughter unleashed when Abel's chest was pierced, many of them had died, further lowering their numbers.
However, their leader was still alive!
If they managed to hold their ground till he could fight again then the battle would be in their hands!
Even Samuel understood that point and began to use his personal stash of potions to accelerate Abel's recovery, they were all betting their lives on the leader of the expedition.
The cultivators hired by the Royal family knew that if they wanted to win that battle, they had to act quickly.
Every one of them had their personal reasons to follow through that mission, yet some hesitation still appeared in their eyes.
If they ran away now, they were sure that they could escape.
However, they would then face the consequences of disobeying the orders of the Royal family.
That hesitation was vanquished by Jean directly throwing another poisonous bottle in the enemy group.
When an area was crowded, her methods were among the best in Noah's group.
Nevertheless, the soldiers were ready by then to that attack pattern and three of them created shields made of water to fend off the poison.
Also, a spear made of wind shot from their group toward her.
The speed of the spell was too fast and directly pierced the woman's waist, making her fall on her knees.
'Fuck!'
Noah cursed and decided to act.
He didn't really care about whether the mission succeeded or not but he wasn't sure how his relationship with the Royal family would evolve once they learnt that he held himself back.
What if they decided to remove his freedom like they had done with Jean?
What if they decided that his character was too wild to be controlled?
Also, he really didn't want the noble families to create an organization similar to the academy.
He knew that it would take a long time for him to be strong enough to storm Balvan mansion and allowing the nobles to raise their power could only hinder his vengeance.
In the end, there was also the fact that he had some grudges against the Muwlos family.
The First form of the Ashura was performed.
More than fifteen sabers materialized in the air around him and attacked the formation of the soldiers.
He revealed his rank 4 martial art!
The cultivators in his group were surprised by his sudden increase of power but, when they realized that he was single-handedly forcing four soldiers back, they joined him in his charge toward the center of the formation.
Time was crucial!
They had about ten minutes to reach Samuel and finish off Abel so they resorted to their most powerful methods to break the line of defense of their enemies.
However, even the soldiers were doing their best and used their teamwork at their advantage, synchronizing spells and techniques to take care of the most troublesome individuals.
Only Noah remained untouched.
His martial art was suited for fighting large numbers of enemies and since both his sea of consciousness and dantian reached the second rank, the power of the First form had increased greatly.
The power behind every slash was incredible and even his control of the area around him improved, even though he didn't manage to kill any soldier they were continuously pushed back!