The Divine Elements

Several figures suddenly appeared before the party, their faces hidden in their dark-green cloaks. A total of four stood atop the trees and stared down at Calron and his group. Fortunately, the rest of the trail and the ex-slaves continued ahead while Calron and guards remained behind.

This is not good.

Calron thought inwardly, detecting three of the figures to be at the peak Saint stage. Since he could not see through the last figure’s cultivation, it only meant one thing: a Heavenly stage expert!

“Tch, what in the hellfire is he doing here? Wasn’t this guy supposed to be at the front of the trail?”

The Heavenly stage expert turned around to yell at his subordinates. His hood fell back, revealing a brutish and thickly bearded face with dark brown hair.

“Calron, you need to run. Kail just contacted me and said that the front of the party was under attack by a dozen Heavenly experts. As most of our clansmen and powerful warriors are there at the moment, defeating the enemies will not take long. However, none of us here can hope to kill that guy by ourselves.”

Vala fiercely whispered to Calron, turning his head to glance at the Heavenly stage brute ahead.

The only peak Saint stage experts in their group were Vala and the captain of the guards. It was impossible to kill the Heavenly expert while simultaneously holding back the other three enemies.

“Surround them, don’t let that young one escape!”

The brute roared, spreading his domain to cover Calron and the guards. Within seconds, a circular rocky wall erupted from the ground and trapped them all inside. One of the guards with the air element tried to escape by flying out of the wall, but a sword made of granite burst from above and impaled him to the floor.

“Haha, you’ll never be able to escape from my domain unless you kill me. I can’t believe our target was at the back of the trail instead of the front. I was pissed at the Lords for sending me to the reserve unit, but after I kill the lad, I’m sure the King will bestow some lands to me.”

The Heavenly expert chuckled, a wide grin etched on his face.

Did they come here to kill me?

Calron had a suspicious feeling from the start regarding why the King had let them go. It was because they wanted to strike at him when Calron and the clan least expected it. If Calron died, then most of the ex-slaves had no reason to stick with the Raizel clan and would be up for grabs by the Selior city. Sending a large group of Heavenly stage experts to kill him, the Tower Lords wanted to make certain that Calron would die today. However, they didn’t expect him to be placed at the back of the trail with the least security.

“Bastard…”

Vala muttered and took out two daggers from his side. He knew that if Calron died now, the Raizel clan would lose the slaves to build the new city. Moreover, he didn’t want the next leader of the clan to die under his watch.

“Captain, can you and your guards take care of the other three? I’ll handle the big one and make an opening for Calron to escape.”

Vala smirked, bolts of golden lightning crackling all over his body.

“Understood, and good luck.”

The captain nodded and gestured for the guards to get into formation. Most of the guards were at mid-rank of Saint stage except for the captain who was akin to Vala at the peak Saint stage.

*crackle*

As quick as lightning, Vala disappeared from his spot and reappeared behind the Heavenly expert with his twin daggers aimed at the enemy’s neck.

“I won’t let others blindly sacrifice themselves for me.”

Calron whispered to himself as he recalled when his Master, Elias, had sacrificed himself to protect Calron and allow him to escape from the Red Boar School.

His blue eyes shone with a brilliant light as the Azure Lightning crawled from his chest and enveloped around his body.

*RUMBLE*

The sound of thunder reverberated the earthen walls trapping them.

“Attack!”

The captain shouted, and the guards all rushed towards the three Saint experts.

Calron pulled out as much of his essence as he could and fed it all to the Azure Lightning. If he was to survive against the onslaught of three Saint experts, he needed his lightning to be at its peak. The voice of a dragon’s roar echoed in Calron’s mind as his Divine Element consumed his essence.

*clang*

Calron’s golden-clawed arm pushed aside one of the Saint expert’s spear, and he moved inside to strike an uppercut to the enemy.

“Umph!”

The opponent gasped out of breath, rubbing his jaws together as he felt the stinging pain. Without a second break, one of the clan’s guards pierced his sword at the enemy’s chest, but it was easily evaded.

The captain fought by himself against one of the Saint experts and left the last one to a group of five guards. Meanwhile, Calron and one other guard attacked the third enemy.

Glancing ahead, Calron saw Vala put under pressure as the Heavenly cultivator let Vala attack him openly, not even bothering to defend. However, none of Vala’s daggers seemed to pierce the tough skin of the brutish man. Beads of sweat rolled down Vala’s forehead as he realized just how hopeless their situation was. If he couldn’t even manage to cut the enemy, what chance did they have of creating an opening?

“NOOOO!”

Calron screamed with rage when he saw the Heavenly expert abruptly grab Vala by the neck in a swift motion and hold him up in the air. Vala slowly turned his head to gaze at Calron with a desperate look on his face.

*crack*

The brute clenched his fist together, crushing Vala’s neck with one hand. Slithers of blood leaked from the gap of his thick fingers as Vala’s corpse lay limp within his grasp.

“Little bugs.”

The Heavenly expert stated with glee and flung Vala’s lifeless body to the ground.

“I’LL KILL YOU!”

Calron bellowed with fury at the loss of his clan member and expelled all of the Azure Lightning from his body in a massive surge of an explosion. The Saint stage enemy closest to him wailed in agony as the unexpected lightning tore through his flesh and disintegrated his bones in a split second.

The sudden shock of his peer dying and the flash of blue lightning confused the second Saint cultivator for a moment, allowing the captain to plunge his sword into the enemy’s heart.

Calron used his Blood Mist Step to charge at the Heavenly expert as he had used up all his essence inside his core.

“Young Master!”

The captain cried out to stop Calron from attacking the Heavenly expert.

“TIT…TAN’s FURY!”

A wave of source energy rushed into Calron’s muscles and bones, causing his skin to turn crimson and expel a cloud of steam from his body. Calron roared like a wild beast as he charged straight at the brutish expert.

“Come.”

The Heavenly cultivator grinned at Calron and straightened his right palm. The very same hand that killed Vala.

“Formless Fist.”

Calron swung his arms and prepared to punch the brute with the full force of his legacy. The sound air splitting apart hit his ears, and even the skin on his knuckles started to tear at the sheer force of power behind it.

“Stupid child… you think your power compares to my Heavenly stage cultivation?”

The brute laughed and slashed his palm in a cutting motion towards Calron’s incoming fist. His palm appeared to move slowly, but it was, in fact, faster than Calron’s eyes could register. Before he could comprehend what happened, Calron felt all the source energy stored in his fist vanish in a single breath.

“Huh?”

He looked down to see why he lost the power. Calron’s eyes widened in shock and pain as he saw what lay on the ground.

It was his severed arm.

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