Chapter 922

Chapter 922

The news about the actual potential to harm Zaur spread quickly throughout the local Alliance. Even though they were embroiled in combat, the information that he wasnt actually invincible was useful. Being able to defeat him was another matter entirely. He might eventually be worn down by their numbers, but not before the remaining fleets arrived. That meant fighting the whole of the enemy forces while many were tired or injured and where some were already dead.

The Scarlet Alliance hardly had Augmentation cultivators to spare, but Kseniyas ploy had still been a worthy attempt to take out their greatest opponent. Presuming they could drive back the Exalted Quadrant without losing any Augmentation cultivators was simply unrealistic.

Even their assault with the formations crushing Zaur had only caused him the most minor of injuries, and it looked as if they would have to retreat. That was not something they had ever hoped to do, as fleeing all the way to Xankeshan would essentially leave the rest of the Scarlet Alliance open to the Exalted Quadrant. Their promises of protection would be almost entirely worthless even if they hadnt intended them falsely.

Then there was another matter. They might not even be able to flee, because there was a mysterious force entering the system. Catarina had shifted her attention to monitor them when the external formations restraining Zaur were ruined. Everyone was just waiting for someone to call the retreat. Staying to fight would only mean more deaths, unless they found some sort of flaw that would allow them to seriously injure or kill Zaur.

Catarina bit her lip. It was difficult to think rationally when Timothy was one of those at risk, repeatedly striking forward to hinder Zaur for even another moment while in the process sustaining more and more injuries. He was supported by many other cultivators, of course, but there was only so much they could do when their attacks barely seemed to scratch Zaurs energy.New novel chapters are published on

A ten meter wide pillar of light blasted towards Alva, who was firing upon Zaur from a distance. Somehow, Timothy managed to maneuver himself to block but Catarina could sense both his energy and the durability of his shield dropping rapidly. She almost thought to join the fight herself, even though she knew that she was needed to manage the formations while they continued to evacuate civilians.

Then, she felt it. A brief blip in the overwhelming flow of energy from Zaur, and then his attention suddenly shifted from attacking Scarlet Alliance cultivators, all at once condensing his light tightly around himself.

A crackly voice echoed down upon Lonkeon. Youre a long way from home, Zaur.

Even though she heard the voice, Catarina wasnt able to resolve it to coming from a particular location. Nor could she sense the energy of this mysterious cultivator. Could it be the hidden fleet? Indeed, their sensors were picking up something, though the readings were distorted by Zaurs presence nearby.

Ratna. Zaur spit out the word like the foulest curse. I should have expected this Scarlet Alliance was working with some of your ilk. None but the Trigold Cluster have the guts to stand up to us.

A deep cackle echoed around the planet. Sorry to tell you, but youre wrong. I was just tipped off to your presence here. And from what I can tell, you were having a hard time with these kids.

Sensing the shifting energy of Zaur, Catarina realized that they werent simply talking. It was just that their battle was happening on a level difficult to perceive. Zaurs physical body was moving beneath his aura of brilliance, but just like looking directly at the sun would blow out vision, so too did directly sensing his energy burn a lasting imprint. One that didnt remain true.

The sudden appearance of new damage on the orbital platform supported that theory, and then it began to break into larger chunks, with whatever portions got close to Zaur disintegrating. And that happened to cultivators as well, the first few Scarlet Alliance members who thought they would take advantage of the distraction to harm Zau.

Im not on your side, kids. The voice that was presumably Ratna declared. But Im also not here for you just yet. So just stay out of my way.

Alright, Chikere realized she might actually have fun with this one. Time to see how she reacted to two simultaneous attacks. Then three. Then maybe a hundred.

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Tauno grimaced as he saw Zazil. It wasnt just his annoyance that Prasad might be right. It was that he hadnt seen any of it coming. His memories filled in hundreds of tiny signs of their time together but Tauno knew those could just as easily be false flags based on his current understanding of the situation.

How does this even make sense? he demanded without preamble.

The situation is quite different from when we fought the Harmonious Citadel, Zazil shrugged. Different situations require making the best choice.

Yeah well Tauno pointed half a dozen spines towards her, menacingly causing them to grow. Were going to have a very violent talk after I cut down the rest of these fellows.

Zazil just smiled. Im looking forward to it.

Tauno hadnt actually been standing around talking for nothing. He was giving the Disciples of the Beyond time to figure out there were no local distortion beasts to call upon, which meant then combining their efforts to form a greater projection between all of them.

He didnt let them enter their combined battle form out of some sort of misplaced arrogance or the desire to fight the biggest monster and prove himself. He already knew full well he could beat monsters half the size of planets if it came down to it. Which was the whole point. The Dancing Slayer Sect could absolutely kill humans but they were specialists at fighting monsters. And taking down one big beastie was much more straightforward.

There was a small problem he hadnt anticipated involving Zazil. She distributed about half of her weird floating rings to each of herself and the local bigwig of the Disciples, Zhelyazko. Those rings were useful for attack, defense, and augmenting energy. So perhaps the beast would be a bit stronger than anticipated.

But even so, Tauno watched without worry as their combined monster began to stretch through and behind space. Then when he was sure it was in place, he charged forward into one of its open mouths, a wave of Dancing Slayer Sect disciples following along with him- though some chose to attack externally.

As teeth bit down around Tauno, he flexed his body and the spikes around him expanded and expanded. Ten meters, a hundred meters they could probably go further, if he could wrap his head around it. But either way, they did a great job of stabbing between the endless rows of teeth into whatever flesh happened to be available. And the spikes didnt care too much about whether those bits were hiding behind normal space.

Tauno twisted and flexed. He couldnt really rotate with the spikes extended, and he kind of wished he could have gotten one of those beasts with the parts that were nearly infinitely sharp in all directions. But the extending spikes were great too. He agitated the beast around him and when they decided to try to reshape the beast around him, he snapped the spikes in more closely and dove deeper.

His goal was to reach the cultivators themselves, seemingly safe hidden inside their great distortion beast. And perhaps they were slightly safer. But now that Tauno was inside, they couldnt really move away from him and he could keep moving closer to them. As long as they didnt grow too many new teeth inside his lungs and devour him from the inside out, but he was more prepared for such a situation than they might realize.

He was going to cut them apart, and then he was going to have a very pointy talk with his former ally.