301 The Heart Of The Abyss Part 2

Vera and Esmond were having a heated battle with each other.

Earlier, the Ranker was confident that he could overpower the Avatar, but as their battle progressed, even though his opponent’s strength only seemed to be at the E-Rank category, her battle experience far exceeded his own.

As a D-Ranker, Esmond had his fair share of battles, but he found his great strength unable to break past the old lady’s defenses, because his full powered blows weren’t blocked, but deflected, minimizing the power of his blows.

“I guess being old has its merits,” Esmond teased.

Vera didn’t bother to reply as she used her full concentration in order to keep the Ranker at bay. Just as Esmond had said earlier, this was only her Avatar.

Currently, her real body was seated in a lotus position back in Solaris. When Iris had left to the Hidden Domain, Vera had given her a gem that would allow her to summon Vera’s Avatar if her life was in grave danger.

The Rankers of Solaris couldn’t casually enter the territories that were off limits to them. The world of Elysium had rules, and they could only enter the higher-ranked territories, where people of similar strength gathered.

This restriction didn’t apply to Elysians. They were free to travel wherever they wanted, which had led to the bullying of the members of the younger generation of Solaris. Naturally, the powerful people of the Six Kingdoms didn’t take this lying down.

With Alexander as the head, they launched attacks against these kingdoms who dared to send Rankers to kill and even cripple their prodigies, decreasing their military strength.

These battles were bloody, even annihilating entire cities from the face of the world. Because of this, the other Kingdoms had stopped these acts of aggression, knowing that the Seniors of the children they bullied would fight them to the death.

Although there were still times when these incidents happened, they were kept to a bare minimum because they knew that the leaders of the Factions supporting the Solarian Guilds wouldn’t take things lying down.

These were how the Avatars were created.

They were the last resort of the children that belonged to a very influential family. Even if they were in the Beginning, Intermediate, and Expert Areas, these Avatars could be summoned in order to save their lives.

However, there was a drawback. Once this was used, the Strength of the Ranker in Solaris would decrease by an entire Rank. Also, any damage they received in their Avatar Forms would directly damage their real bodies. ʀᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀs ᴀᴛ ovl(ꜰ)ir(e).nt

This was why even though Alexander loved his daughter, he couldn’t give her an Avatar of himself, because he would fall from his Rank of a Saint.

Once that happened, the fragile balance of power within the Six Kingdoms, The Rowan Tribe, and the Barbatos Academy would crumble, and might lead to consequences that no one wanted to see.

In the end, Vera decided to sacrifice her Rank, as well as risk her life, in order to protect her granddaughter from harm.

While the two Rankers were fighting, Esmond noticed a subtle shift in the battlefield. The Elite Soldiers who had the upper hand at the beginning, were slowly being pushed back by the teenagers who seemed to have gotten a second wind.

‘What’s going on?’ Esmond thought as he scanned the surroundings.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to continue what he was doing because Vera’s continuous attacks didn’t allow him to take his eyes off her, making him unable to determine the cause of the sudden turn around in their side’s current circumstance.

‘Sid, Scarlet, take down those Initiates first!’ Lux ordered, ‘I’ll handle the Apostle Grades, you need to eliminate at least two of them as soon as possible.’

‘What a slave driver you are,’ Scarlet complained as she melded with the shadows. Even so, she wouldn’t disobey Lux’s orders because she understood that dealing with the Initiates first was the right thing to do.

‘As you command, Master,’ Sid replied as soon as he pulled his blade out of the chest of one of the Grade-A Apostles belonging to Prince Lowell’s Army.

The moment the Peak-Grade-Apostle died, his body suddenly shuddered before standing up from the ground. He had become a Rank 3—Grade B Apostle—Draugr, which was a type of Undead similar to a zombie, but it retained most of its strength.

“Mumumumu!” Eiko shouted as she used the skill, Animate Undead, which she had copied from her Papa to raise the Elite Soldiers that had died in battle.

Lux was doing the same. He was constantly raising the dead soldiers to fight for their side. He couldn’t bear to summon the dead Solains to fight in battle, so he opted to just raise the Soldiers that Scarlet and Sid were killing.

‘Master, you’re still too soft,’ Asmodeus said. ‘But, that’s fine. You can stay the way you are, I will do the dirty things for you.’

Asmodeus had no qualms in raising the dead Solains, using his intellect to use them to fight as a team, greatly increasing their effectiveness in battle.

One of the Barbarians that Asmodeus had raised after he died, grabbed a corpse of a Soldier from the ground and threw it towards a place where the majority of their enemies had gathered.

As soon as the corpse landed on the ground, the Archlich, Asmodeus, pointed his finger on the dead body and sneered.

“Corpse Explosion!”

Immediately, pained shouts reverberated in the battlefield as those that were twenty-meters around the corpse found themselves hit by Necrotic Damage, dulling their actions.

“Corpse Explosion!”

“Corpse Explosion!”

“Corpse Explosion!”

Asmodeus grinned as his “grenades” made the chaotic battlefield more chaotic, allowing the teenagers to finally gain a foothold where they could fight without holding anything back.

“Gaia Smash!” Orion roared as he jumped in the air like a wrestler and smashed his Jade Fist in front of him, sending soldiers flying in every direction.

“One shot,” Ishtar said as she appeared right above one of the soldiers that were blown away by Orion’s punch, and fired her arrow into the soldier’s forehead ending his life. “One kill.”

A moment later, the Nightstalker vanished in a cloud of black mist, appearing a few meters away, holding a black dagger coated with poison in her right hand, and slashing the neck of the soldiers beside her.

After doing this, she once again turns into black mist, reappearing to where the teenagers were having trouble and backstabbed the soldiers they were facing.

Diablo charged at the Soldiers and brandished his sword, dealing Ethereal Damage that bypassed their armor, making them feel extreme pain that harmed their soul.

One of the Initiates, who saw this, frowned and decided to attack one of the greatest threats to their faction. However, when he saw a little girl with red hair, wearing a black robe, a sinister glint appeared in his eyes as he shifted his focus to her.

“I like killing little girls,” the Initiate said as she stood in front of his target. “Their flesh is so tender that my blade just passes through them so easily. I like killing them the most!”

Without another word, the Initiate swung his sword to split the girl’s body into two. However, to his surprise, the little girl swayed her body to the side, dodging his attack completely.

“You like killing little girls?” the girl with red hair asked as her short sword pierced through the Initiate’s stomach. “Trash like you doesn’t deserve to live.”

With a twist of her hand, a bloody hole appeared on the Initiate’s stomach. However, she wasn’t finished yet.

With a strength unbefitting of her looks, and height, the little girl with red hair, slashed upwards, splitting the Initiate’s body in half.

Scarlet glanced down at the dead Initiate with a look of contempt before once again joining the fray.

This was the first time she had fought against humans, which made her realize that the Dwarven Kingdom was just a small part of a bigger world.

A world that she was just about to experience for the first time.

A few seconds after Scarlet left, the Initiate’s body morphed into something hideous, transforming into a Rank 4, Skeleton Berserker, whose deathly howl rang out in its surroundings.

‘Such a waste,’ Asmodeus grumbled. ‘I planned to use the body for an experiment, but since it is already damaged beyond repair, I guess I’ll settle for another.’

The Archlich’s glowing eyes scanned the surroundings, and saw another “little boy” who had snuck behind one of the Initiates who were trying to target Vera from behind.

‘Oh? This one is good,’ Asmodeus thought. ‘My Master certainly has a good eye on people.’

The Archlich narrowed his eyes the moment that Sid’s speed suddenly increased, allowing him to deliver his own sneak attack on the Initiate that planned to sneak attack Vera from behind.

A silver line streaked within the darkness as Sid’s Silver Blade cut off the initiate’s arm.

Vera was too focused on her enemy that she wasn’t aware of the Initiate that was poised to attack her from behind, which would allow Esmond tthe opportunity to deliver a killing blow.

Sid knew that he was unable to instantly kill his target, so he decided to just cut off the enemy’s arm first, stopping him from throwing the black dagger towards the Old Woman, who was also his Master’s grandmother.

A look of surprise and disbelief flashed across the Initiate’s face when he felt a stinging pain in his arm. However, that expression didn’t last long as a silver blade slashed his head from his body, making it roll on the ground.

‘Excellent,’ Asmodeus applauded Sid in his heart as he looked at the Dwarf Assassin who had hidden himself in the ongoing chaos around him. However, the Archlich noticed the direction that Sid was going and it made him chuckle in his heart.

When Lux had left his Dhamphir Assassin in Leaf Village, he also gave him an order to go and visit the Kobold Draconian, Cadmus.

Cadmus had once told Lux in passing that he was planning to leave the Beginner’s Area and head deeper into the Monster’s Domain to the west of the Kobold Territories.

In that place, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, and many other fearsome creatures roamed.

Unlike Scarlet, who received the full backing of Twilight Rain in order to become the next Slayer Candidate, Sid only relied on his own hard work to make himself stronger.

His path had always been a path of blood and thorns, but he didn’t mind. Now that his sisters were in a good place, he could focus on making himself stronger, slowly advancing to become a Ranker, in order to repay and serve his Master, who had given him, and her sisters, a new lease in life.

Just like Asmodeus, Lux also saw where Sid was going and approved his plan without a second thought.

Now that they had eliminated two of the Initiates in the battlefield, the tide of battle had finally tilted in their direction.