Chapter 1790: Wake up!
Although the power of Erin's flame attack was nowhere near her previous attack just moments ago that had caused everyone to fall asleep. It was still impressive that someone could disperse the flame attack from a Demon-tier beast weapon with a single punch. This show of strength had even impressed Borden's opponent, Erin.
"A single punch. What strength you have," She narrowed her eyes for a moment, "I didn't sense any use of Qi or anything else. You simply did that with raw strength? That certainly is amazing"
On top of this, another remarkable thing about him was that Borden didn't seem to have any injuries even after taking Erin's attack head-on. There were only a few scales on his face and arms, and no spikes were sticking out of his back. Yet he was able to draw out this much power, something he couldn't have done before. When looking at Borden now, he could easily be mistaken as a normal human if one didn't pay close attention to his features.
Not far away from the battlefield, while the others were seeing the confrontation in front of them, they suddenly felt a gust of wind, and Jake landed in front of the group.
"What are you guys doing? Come on, we have to help him!" He turned around and frowned at the group.
"What do you mean?" Lucia asked, "He just managed to get rid of those flames with a single hit. Can't he take her down on his own?"
Just like the others, Lucia had improved in strength by leaps and bounds after meeting Quinn. However, she knew it was nowhere near the level of power Borden had just showcased. The flame tunnel attack would have completely overpowered her blood lightning attack, and she would have been dead before she knew it.
This wasn't why she wasn't so quick to charge in.
"Didn't you notice? Or have you guys gone blind?" Jake shouted with a panicked look on his face.
"That damn woman they call their Queen, she didn't receive a single injury in her fight against Laxmus She's completely fine. We have to do something Borden alone can't stop her for long!"
A look of horror dawned over everyone's face at that moment as they released what Jake had said was true. Her armour didn't even look scuffed, and although there were some difficult moments for Erin during the fight, she hadn't received any fatal wounds at all. Instead, she looked complete normal and didn't even seem worn out.
"Stay here!" Peter opened his mouth as he went over to where Jake was and turned back to the others. Then, addressing the group, he continued, "Don't come too close. There is a good chance you guys could get hurt as well!" With that, Peter and Jake were already running to where Layla and Erin were.
Not long after, Minny, Jessica, Muka, Hannah and a few others like Mitchell had managed to catch up and regroup with Lucia at the ruins of the building and stared at the battlefield. "They killed Laxmus... The dhampirs they were successful in killing our leader," Ashley pursed his lips, "Did this all happen because of me?"
Many vampires at that moment questioned themselves as they realised the leader was dead and the Guardians, who no longer had their shadow powers, felt hopeless, to say the least.
In the end, the Red Vampires were hanging onto one thing. It was the fact that they could still see their other leader, Layla. She was still alive. But for how long?... it was hard to tell.
*** *** ***
Despite seeing Borden taking out her attack, Erin had only shown an initial surprise but was mainly unfazed as she tightened her grip around her sword and looked like she was ready to clash again.
However, her attention was elsewhere as well. It was as if she was looking at other things around her, and it was true because she was interested in a particular item that Laxmus had taken away from her, and she could sense where it was.
"Sorry, it's Borden... It's been a long time. I'm sorry I messed up your name." Layla said, both hands on her knees, struggling to stand up. Her head throbbed in pain, and her vision was constantly blurry.
"Thank you, but please don't risk your life... leave this place and help the others get away from here as well."
Borden didn't turn around as he was carefully watching Erin. He had a hunch that if he moved from this spot, Erin would instantly attack Layla. But, honestly, it was as if Erin wasn't bothered by Borden, apart from the fact that he was getting in her way.
"Layla, you don't have to worry about me. I have lived a much longer life than I ever anticipated!" Borden shouted as he threw his fist forward. One thing to note was that he didn't step forward and threw it for where he was.
Everyone heard a loud bang again, and although it was completely invisible, with the help of her ability, Erin sensed that a dangerous attack was heading her way due to her ability. Immediately, she moved to the side and moved quite the distance, around two metres from where she was.
Moments later, an explosion resounded, and a part of the settlement wall behind Erin was destroyed, jolting the entire underground settlement they were in.
"Another troublesome one who really isn't on my hit list!" Erin frowned as she started to move forward, but she did so in a zig-zag path.
This made it difficult for Borden to hit her, but he soon began throwing out fist after fist, creating large explosions in the ground that missed Erin.
"She seems faster than me, but only a bit, so I know exactly what to do!" Borden said, charging off for the first time.
His power was explosive, and since he timed it perfectly and was only going in a straight line, he had already reached Erin, grabbing her sword and pushing her back.
"You should be careful because something like this, I can break with my bare hands!" Borden said, but just as he was about to grab her sword, it started to freeze, and it was as if an ice-type attack was building.
Borden let go, but not before kicking her right in the stomach, sending her flying off. As she skidded off the ground, Erin started to spin, and during her spin, she replaced the sword with her katana blade that she had been looking for as soon as Laxmus's items began to pop out.
Whilst spinning, she fired little slashes of yellow aura in every direction but mainly consecrated the attack on Borden. He started to move his hands, hitting them away and reflecting the attacks towards the ground.
However, he couldn't avoid getting hurt and ended up with many minor cuts throughout his left side. Suddenly though, Erin had stopped and turned her head towards her right, away from Borden.
An electric fist came out of nowhere, but she whacked it away in the air with her bare hands. And, right before that, she had already gathered Qi in both hands and punched the attacker right in the stomach, she sent him back, hurt to the point that he had difficulty breathing.
"Ah, that hurts... how much Qi does she have? That attack went straight through my hardening ability!" Jake shouted while rubbing the side of his chest, feeling Erin's counterattack may have broken a few of his ribs.
Jake had thought he had come in at the perfect time, fast enough that she wouldn't notice him, but Jake was unaware of Erin's ability.
Even now, Erin had it active, overlooking everyone's energy from a bird's eye view. Surprise attacks never seemed to work on her because of this reason, and it was because of this she noticed two things.
"This is getting more annoying by the second. You... how has your energy increased." Erin asked, looking back at Borden, who had green blood gushing out of his wounds.
"You think I couldn't avoid your attack?" Borden replied. "I was getting hurt on purpose, I guess it's been too long for you to remember what exactly happens to us when we're hurt. By this time, Jake had recovered and was ready to attempt another attack, this time with a fellow Blade.
Just then, someone appeared behind Borden and in front of Layla.
"They say one shouldn't visit someone empty handed, so I give you this," Peter said, handing the Black Celestial Sword to Layla. As she grabbed it, she looked up, and her eyesight started to become even blurrier by the second.
"Peter... is it really you?... you're back?… you're back... I'm sorry that you had to see me like this." Layla's voice quivered, unable to control her emotions upon suddenly seeing another face of a long-lost friend.
"It's okay. You can tell me all about it later." Peter said as he dropped something heavy by his side. And it made quite the loud thud sound.
"Let me get rid of our problem first, and then we can talk," Peter said again while kneeling down and placing his hand on someone's body that had died not too long ago.
"Come on, you Bastard, WAKE THE F*CK UP AND FINISH YOUR JOB!"