Alnea was not sure if there was something more to the Dark Priests’ Ritual than what had already happened. Especially when he saw the unusual behaviour of the blood red wisps swimming around him. But he was not ready to just sit around and find out either. Urging his Aspects to wrap around his legs, he charged through the bloody fog before those wisps could react, asking his teammates to do the same. And so, they did, following behind him in formation, with just a few little tweaks.

  Since Alnea was leading the charge, he became the spear point of their vanguard, with Cecilia and Yuri flanking him on his either side. Right behind them, Fran led Yuri and Norren in a similar formation, except, theirs was an inverted spearhead, with Yuri and Norren staying a few steps ahead of Fran. The rest just formed a rough square formation, following behind the vanguard, ready to support their teammates. And guard against any tricks, of course.

  Their enemies—Their prey, a group of twenty people, dressed in robes of all sorts of colours, was still some five to six hundred metres away, charging through the fog, but the Star Seekers could already see their figures. Naturally, their prey also saw them in turn, and quickened their pace, while summoning their Aspects. And their Arcanas. Even while running, they could still cast their Arcanas, and aim nearly half a kilometre away.

  Then again, the Dark Priests were indeed some of the strongest False Wanderers in the Lost City. Not to mention that they were well versed on all three paths of Wanderers. Just in terms of individual abilities, they surpassed half of the Star Seekers in their specialised field. And that too, by a large margin. But battles were never won with individual abilities. Unless there was a great disparity of strength. The kind of which came with difference in Ranks, or at least a couple of Stages.

  Though, sometimes, disparity in numbers also proved to be decisive in battles. And the Dark Priests were clearly planning to take advantage of their numbers. It did not matter that a few of them were injured. They were not asking their injured companions to rush forward anyway. Instead, the limping Wanderers, with bloodied and tattered robes, just had to cast their Arcanas and Glyphs from a distance. Which they did with immaculate accuracy, forcing the Star Seekers to waste their Spirit Power in defence, while also distracting them while they were at it.

  Unfortunately for the Dark Priests, the Star Seekers were well experienced with team battles. Especially the kind in which they were outnumbered. Once, they even had to fight against fifty Wanderers at once. Of course, most of those fifty Wanderers were just of the Intermediate or Advanced Stage. Still, facing fifty Wanderers was not an easy task. It was only because they were in the desert, and had both, Vestia and Yuri in their team, that they had survived that battle.

  The battle they were about to face next… Though they did not have the advantage of the desert, they did not have to face fifty Wanderers at once either. Just some twenty Wanderers were not enough for the Star Seekers to panic. And so, while their Vanguards, five in number, rushed towards the thirteen vanguards of their enemy, the five who were following behind dealt with the distraction that their enemies threw at them.

  At the head of the backline, Fran took off the shield from his back, while also activating the shield he had prepared earlier, blocking the rain of Fire Arrows and Wind Blades directed at the four teammates following behind him. As for the five who ran ahead of him…

  A curtain of water rose up around the five Star Seekers running ahead, blocking the advance of the Fire Arrows coming their way, just as the mini tornadoes springing up around them sucked in the wind blades, and directed them away from the Star Seekers. The only thing that got past their defences was the undisguised malice of the Dark Priests and their companions.

  “Finally,” said the blue robed Wanderer leading the charge of the Dark Priests, as he met Alnea’s sword with his own. “Although this is a little earlier than we planned, since we have already found you, there is no need to bother with those cumbersome things anymore.”

  “If you had listened to me, then we would have completed our mission months ago,” another Wanderer grumbled, as he tried to rush past the blue robed Wanderer and Alnea, only for the latter to force the blue robed Wanderer back with a burst of his Aspects, and rush towards the man.

  “Where are you going?” Alnea said, slashing his sword—

  “Not so fast,” the blue robed Wanderer said, cracking a red whip, that he did not know where he had taken out of, at Alnea, which in turn, wrapped around his sword, stopping it in mid swing. “Today, you are all mine.”

  “…That’s not something I thought I would ever hear from a man, let alone a Heterodox scum like you,” Alnea said, freeing his sword with a surge of his Aspects, while sensing the battlefield within his Domain. Yuri and Cecilia, leading the charge with him, were the first to come in contact with their enemies. But unlike him, both of them were facing two—three Wanderers at once. And if he let even more Wanderers past him, that number would soon become four, Alnea noted, as he tried to intercept the Dark Priests rushing past him, only to be stopped by the blue robed man’s sword once again.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “There is no need to be shy,” the blue robed man said with a smile, and licked his lips, before cracking his whip at him once again. But this time, Alnea was prepared. Conjuring a shield with his Aspects, he blocked the man’s attack, while pushing him away with a burst of his Aspects from his sword, before stepping forward to stop the Wanderers rushing past him. It did not matter how much Spirit Power he was wasting. As long as he could—

  “We are just getting started,” the man said, appearing in front of Alnea once again. This time, glowing in a reddish black light. But that only served to further annoy Alnea.

  “…You do not get the hint, do you?” Alnea said, with a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice, as he glanced at the Wanderers rushing towards his teammates, before turning back towards the blue robed man in front of him. Unlike the other Heterodox Wanderers, the man in front of him seemed to be very interested in a one-on-one fight. Or maybe the only thing that man was interested in was him. Regardless, it was certain that the man had no intention of letting him help out the rest of his teammates. Then there was only one thing he could do.

  “…Don’t blame me for what happens next,” Alnea said, urging the gravity under the feet of the Wanderers surrounding Yuri and Cecilia to shift towards each other, throwing them off balance, just as he commanded Vestia and Norren’s Shadows to entangle the Shadows of the four Wanderers blocking their path, making them doubt how many enemies they were facing.

  But they were not the only ones Alnea targeted. Since he was using his Arcana, and losing his element of surprise, he decided to use it on all his enemies at once. Both the ones rushing towards the five Star Seekers staying a bit behind the rest, and the ones casting their Arcanas and Glyphs from some distance away. Though, without any Star Seekers near them to take advantage of their weakness, they did not suffer much except feeling a little disoriented, the slight delay in their action was enough for the Star Seekers’ vanguard to injure their opponents.

  Or so Alnea thought, until he saw a blood red shield blocking the path of his sword. The shield manifested only around the blue robed man’s chest, just large enough to stop the sword. And it cracked in just a fraction of a moment after coming in contact with the sword. But it did its job, buying enough time for the blue robed man to back away from his sword’s reach before the shield could shatter.

  On the other end, the other Heterodox Wanderers surrounding the Star Seekers also reacted in time, retreating to avoid getting impaled in their chest—

  An arrow, roughly half a metre long, made completely from water, tore through the fog, impaled a Wanderer besieging Vestia, just a Fire Arrow and an Earth Spike struck the Wanderers attacking Norren. And before those Wanderers could react, the arrows and the spike had already broken past their defences. In the end, the most that those Wanderers could do, was shift their bodies, taking those attacks in their arms and legs instead of their chest and crotch.

  “…Your strength is different from the information we have,” the blue robed man said with a frown, as he glanced at his injured companions, motioning for them to back away. “As is your resolve. I can understand why you are not affected as much. But why can the rest of your teammates still use their Mysteries? Is it because the Blood Sky was triggered in advance?”

  “Is that the name of the Ritual you used?” Alnea said, closing up on the blue robed man once again, with a red wind shrieking at the edge of his sword, all the while, constantly Shifting Gravity around the man. “Or is it the name of that cage?”

  “…You know about the ritual?” the blue robed man said, with his frown deepening even more than before, as he almost tripped from blocking another one of Alnea’s attack. If not for one of his companions coming to his rescue in time, blocking the sword heading towards his neck, he could not have escaped without suffering severe injuries.

  “What are you doing, Nikas!” said the yellow robed man who came to the blue robed man’s rescue, brandishing the spear in his hand to ward off Alnea’s sword, while also fighting against the Gravity pulling him in different directions at critical moments. Like when he twirled his spear for a counterattack. “Do you need me to remind you what will happen if we… Focus on our job!”

  “What else do you think I am doing?” the blue robed man said, still frowning as before, as he continued to press his attacks on Alnea, not asking the spear wielding man to back away. It looked his interest in a one-on-one fight was there only until he thought he had the advantage. “Where did you learn about the Ritual?”

  “Where do you think?” Alnea said with sneer, increasing the intensity of his attacks, pressing both the Wanderers back at once. “What else can you cowards rely on to trap me for so long?”

  “…You were the ones who caused the Ritual to trigger in advance, right?”

  “So what if we did? What can you do about it?”

  “…Your luck is so good, that it makes me wonder if that hypocritic bitch blessed you in person,” the blue robed man murmured, before finally lifting the edges of his lips in a curve, as he ducked down to avoid the red winds aiming for his neck, and rolled back to distance himself from Alnea. “It is a good thing we made some back up plans before coming to the Final World.”

  “Your efforts will be in vain,” Alnea said, kicking the yellow robed man in his stomach, before chasing after the blue robed man. “Against absolute strength, all plans are useless.”

  “That’s right,” the blue robed man said, nodding along with Alnea, just as he clashed with him once again. “Against absolute strength, all plans are useless. There is just one difference. It is not you, who has the absolute strength, Alnea Tresting.”