Chapter 1041 Another Possibility
The Sword Arts: Four Steps of Death was a skill that granted Izroth a large temporary burst of movement speed that, when used to cover a short distance, almost gave the same impression of teleporting.
As Izroth and Lances engaged the shadahis, the open chamber quickly became a fierce battlefield. Most of those from the 9th Division and 5th Unit were struggling against their opponents. This was despite many of them teaming up into groups of four or five.
BANG! Whoosh!
"These guys are even more annoying than I remember! It's like they completely ignore threat levels and do whatever they want!" Halls growled as he intercepted one of the charging shadahis with his Rebound skill, causing them to shoot backward several meters.
Halls tried multiple times to build his threat level on the shadahis; however, no matter what taunt-type skill he used, it seemed to be ineffective. Though he was not the only one facing this problem.
Crash!
Niflheim pushed forward and twisted his body with his shield in hand as he used the skill Shield Slam on one of the shadahi who attacked him. He sent the shadahi crashing into the ground and momentarily stunned its movements. But, for some reason, there was a troubled expression on Niflheim's face, accompanied by a visible frown.
"None of the threat-level establishing skills are working properly! If we in the vanguard can't find a way to pull their attacks toward us, it won't take long for these things to start picking off our supports and damage dealers one by one!" Niflheim warned.
So far, the shadahi displayed clear signs of being completely immune to taunt-type skills. The frustrating part of this was that the creatures targeted whoever they wanted without any understandable pattern. This made it so that the vanguard had to constantly adjust their position and receive attacks with a rushed block. This increased the amount of overall damage they took and put more pressure on those with supporting roles.
Fortunately, Izroth and Lances were able to draw the attention of several shadahi over to them. It was as if the creatures realized that those two were the biggest threats. This greatly reduced the overall stress on the 9th Division and 5th Unit.
It also helped that Jol'Kil and Zel'Kan skillfully moved throughout the chamber and helped where it was most needed.
But, despite everyone's best efforts, they were still on their back foot and slowly being overwhelmed by the Lesser Shadahi Patrollers.
Woosh! Ding!
Guan Yu swung the guandao in his hands with a heavy force as it slammed into the shadahi before him. However, instead of slicing through the creature or wounding it, Guan Yu felt as though his guandao had struck a steel wall.
"What are these things made out of?!" Guan Yu frowned as he tightened the grip on his guandao and stomped his right foot on the ground.
The next moment, an overflow of strength filled Guan Yu as an ancient blue aura encompassed the blade of his guandao.
Shiiiiiing!
The Lesser Shadahi Patroller who managed to withstand his initial strike suddenly had a part of its torso cleanly sliced through.
"Not enough!" Guan Yu roared as he shifted the angle of the guandao at its reached its lowest point and swung it upward with ferocious momentum.
At the same time, a small white marking that resembled a strange horn that curved upward emitted a faint glow appeared on the right side of Guan Yu's face directly underneath his eye.
The instant Guan Yu's guandao completed its upward striking motion, a floating ring of blue energy roughly 1.5 meters in diameter materialized around the Lesser Shadahi Patroller.
Shatter!
Guan Yu swiftly followed up on his last strike as he slashed downward and hit the ring of blue energy with his guandao.
Shatter! Rooooooar!
The moment Guan Yu struck the ring of blue energy, out of nowhere, the cry of an ancient beast erupted from his guandao. Simultaneously, his body became coated in the same ancient blue aura that encompassed his weapon.
Boom!
When the ring of blue energy shattered, it unleashed a concentrated explosion that did not disperse any further than its initial area of coverage.
The ancient blue aura around Guan Yu faded as the marking on his face dissipated and he brandished his guandao. But, before he could even determine the status of the shadahi, his Soul Sense went off, warning him of an impending danger.
Roooooragh! Clink!
"?!" Guan Yu reacted quickly as a set of sharp claws sped toward him and intercepted the blow with his guandao.
As the energy from his previous attack dispersed, Guan Yu's eyes landed on the shadahi that faced it head-on. That same creature was currently missing half of its torso; however, it had enough vigor to strike out at him.
Guan Yu exchanged a few blows with the shadahi. And because of the state of its torso, he even gained a slight upper hand. But, this advantage was short-lived.
"What the..." Guan Yu muttered as he noticed that the life-threatening wound on the shadahi's torso started to repair itself.
Countless black strands connected the split portion of the shadahi's torso. Then, in than a few breaths of time, the wound was no longer anywhere to be found on the creature. To make matters worse, the shadahi was even able to recover a good portion of the health it lost!
"Heh, well, I did say I wanted a challenge..!" Guan Yu said with a look of determination in his eyes and an enthusiastic grin.
Meanwhile, Izroth, who was still facing three of the Lesser Shadahi Patrollers, positioned himself closer to the coffin that housed the Night Lord Zarolas.
'Dismantling the protection around the coffin is too time-consuming. There has to be another way to disrupt the revival process—a more indirect approach.'
Woosh! Ding!
Izroth activated his Eighth Sword Form: Formless Sway and parried the blow of one of the shadahi's that locked its attention onto him.
While he held off the three shadahi, Izroth shifted his strategy to a more defensive style that focused on dodging and parrying. That's because, in reality, he was fixated on the coffin and the powerful protective aura that encompassed it.
Izroth used his Deep Insight and Appraisal skills to examine the coffin and protective aura. After doing so, he discovered two interesting facts.
First, the coffin housed the fallen Night Lord Zarolas. So, without a doubt, they were in the right place inside the Night Lord's Crypt. As for the second thing, the protection around the coffin was the result of something that was not a part of this realm. Or, to be more precise—someone. It was due to this that Izroth was unable to pinpoint the protective aura's source.
'At first glance, the chamber seems to go on forever in all directions. But, in reality, the space inside this place is curved in an unusual way, creating a section of isolated space that coils around itself. There should be nowhere for anything or anyone to hide but in plain sight; however, those spatial fluctuations that the Lesser Shadahi Patrollers arrived from... They are an anomaly.'
Izroth knew that the spatial fluctuations were not caused by the shadahis themselves. This meant that they were being intentionally hidden by the same existence that constructed the coffin's protective aura. But, if that were true, did this mean that, somehow, the skounae found a method of controlling the shadahi?
'No, based on the future shown to me by the All-Seeing Goddess, if that were the case, Malentansium would not have been in the same state as the other kingdoms of the Mortal Realm. If it's not a skounae commanding these shadahi, then that only leaves one likely possibility—a more powerful shadahi is pulling the strings from somewhere.'
The first shadahi that came to Izroth's mind was, of course, Commander Ekquilore. At the moment, he was the only other known shadahi that resided in the Mortal Realm.
'The rift that opened in Tempest—what if it wasn't the first?'
The only reason the other kingdoms even knew about the rift linked to the Shadahi Realm located in Tempest was due to the efforts of one of its royal family members, Robinarzin Tempest, who sacrificed his life to relay the information. But what if a second portal opened up beforehand somewhere in Malentansium?
Given their blood-bound loyalty, it would be nearly impossible for the information to be leaked to other kingdoms. Also, so long as a higher-ranked skounae ordered it, those of a lower bloodline would willingly relinquish their lives to call forth something similar to the Gateway of a Thousand Bloodless Hands that was used to summon Commander Ekquilore.
'It's certainly a possibility, however...'
Crash!
Izroth kicked off his back and evaded two of the shadahi's strikes as their claws smashed into the ground where he was just standing.
'If that turns out to be true, the Mortal Realm may be in even graver danger than we anticipated. I can only hope that my thoughts are wrong.'