"Master!" John called out loudly, standing. That attack had no doubt injured her greatly, evident by the blood trail as well as the fact that she had taken on such a powerful attack head on. He felt like rushing into the arena to deal with Zeras himself, but knew he was unable to do so. The formation barrier blocked him from doing so.
"Watch out!" John called once more as Zeras rushed towards the tumbling Lilian, giving her no time to recover from that grievous blow. He would no doubt catch up before she could somehow recover her balance and power, and the next attack would be even more severe.
"Time to go to sleep!" Zeras' deep yet ethereal voice sounded out as he appeared before Lilian, his glowing figure hulking over her. His astral blade vanished and instead his massive fist came crashing down towards her, intent on ending the fight. He did not want to kill Lilian, only cause her defeat, and this fist attack of his was more than powerful enough to do the job if it landed on Lilian in her current state.
Just as the fist was about to land on her unguarded body, Lilian suddenly twirled in the air, and righted herself to face the oncoming attack, her scythe cleaving outwards.
"How?" Zeras roared angrily. Lilian should not have been able to react so quickly after taking that much damage from the previous attack.
Boom!
The massive fist slammed against her scythe, which emanated a powerful spatial and deathly aura.
Che!
The scythe cut into the massive fist, cutting through the defense of the astral armor and into the fist. Astral light leaked out of the massive gash that had been carved into the fist, which cut all the way up to Zeras' wrist.
The cleaved open fist revealed no flesh within, revealing that Zeras' massive body was not his own transformed to that size, but was instead made almost entirely out of astral Qi. His main body was most likely within the core of this hulking figure instead, controlling it from within.
The massive wound on Zeras' fist quickly closed up, forming his fist anew as astral Qi flooded into the wound and repaired it. Lilian used this brief moment to retreat, giving her room to respond to Zeras' next attack. However, it didn't come as expected, as Zeras studied Lilian with cold yet wary eyes, inspecting her figure.
'She's not wounded at all' John noticed, surprised. His master showed no wounds on her body at all, despite previously being struck by that powerful attack, and visibly taking damage.
'How was she able to heal so fast? Master doesn't cultivate any healing arts, and she lost her control over the Dao of Life…so how?' John couldn't help but wonder.
The same question was burning through the minds of the others, especially Zeras.
Bang!
A cracking sound, and then a soft explosion filled the arena, catching everyone's attention. One of the human skeletons suddenly cracked and exploded, and the wispy soul-aura within faded away. The skeleton crumbled to the ground in bits and pieces, finally dead for good.
'What just happened? Is master starting to lose control over her summoning art?' John wondered, his nerves on the edge. He never felt this nervous when battling himself, but couldn't help but feel it right now, as he was helpless to help Lilian.
"How did you heal the damage I gave you?" Zeras asked coldly, his gaze returning to Lilian. She remained silent, not entertaining his question for a moment. Her gaze was seemingly unfocused, as if her focus was almost elsewhere, and this battle was of secondary importance to her.
Zeras scowled as he saw her distracted expression, and dashed towards her with overwhelming power once more.
"You think you can be distracted when battling me?" he boomed, appearing before her and cleaving down with his astral blade once more. Lilians power flared in response, and she cleaved out with her scythe, unleashing a scythe art.
However, such an attack had already been shown to be weaker than Zeras', and she would no doubt lose out on the exchange. Zeras' smile quickly faded into a frown as he felt danger from behind.
"Another one of your pets?" he roared, diverting half his attention away from his attack towards her. He turned mid-swing, and swung his other arm holding his bizarre weapon towards the hulking beast-like skeleton that had arrived behind him.
This beast appeared like a giant wolf, or at least that's what John assumed it had been when it had been truly alive. It had sharp fangs and claws, and was even larger than Zeras himself. Its sharp claws swung down on Zeras' head, unleashing an attack that even he couldn't ignore.
Boom!
Boom!
Zeras' weapon's collided against both attacks, and successfully repelled both. Even fighting outnumbered, his combat prowess allowed him to keep the advantage. His power was without question.
Zeras turned towards Lilian, and unleashed another attack of his blade towards her. He didn't dare unleash a ranged attack, as she had revealed she was able to redirect those quite easily.
The wolf-like skeletal beast had been knocked away in the previous exchange, but two more giant beast skeletons had taken its place. One looked like a massive snake, and the other a six-armed beast that John had never seen before. It walked on all six arms, and had a head similar to a bear.
Both skeletons unleashed physical attacks on Zeras, who parried both of their attacks with practiced efficiency, all while unleashing his attack on Lilian herself. His massive body spun and twisted with perfect fluidity and timing as he fought like a hurricane, spinning to parry each attack and unleash his own on Lillian constantly.
It was like he was a one-man army, fighting against Lilian and her army of beasts without losing out at all. John frowned with worry as he saw this. Even outnumbered, Zeras was still controlling the battle with ease, and was putting Lilian on the defensive.
Their battle raged on for quite some time like this, with Zeras controlling the flow of battle, pushing Lilian harder and harder to defend herself. After perfectly blocking a combined attack from two beasts, Zeras deflected a scythe battle art from Lilian, and managed to break through her defenses.
His giant astral blade cleaved down on her, with Lilian being unable to guard it in time, or move away. His blade cleaved into her right shoulder, and passed right through it as if it were a hot knife carving through butter.
"Master!" John called out, panicked. The battle was no doubt over.
Such a wound would no doubt end the battle for good, and even put her life in danger if she did not concede right away.
"Losing your arm is a small price to pay for challenging me," Zeras sneered with content. The battle was no doubt over. His satisfied expression instantly changed to confusion as Lilian ignored the wound as if it never existed, because to all eyes, it didn't.
Her arm did not fall from her body. It was perfectly attached to her body as if the attack had never landed. That arm was the one that held her scythe, which cleaved out towards Zeras before he could recover from his shock.
Bang!
Her scythe attack landed on his chest, carving deeply into his massive astral figure, knocking him back hundreds of yards. He crashed to the arena floor, shaking it violently.
Crack!
Another cracking echo sounded out within the arena, soft yet loud enough to catch everyone's attention. Their eyes locked onto another human skeleton, cracks forming on its right shoulder. The cracks grew larger, and then the right shoulder exploded, followed by the rest of the body. The skeleton crumbled to the floor, as did the one before it.
John's eyes, as well as everyone else's eyes widened with sudden realization.
'Just how is such a thing possible?' John couldn't help but wonder with awe.
Lilian was somehow able to transfer the damage she had sustained to the human skeletons she controlled. Zeras' eyes widened with realization as well, and then his cold gaze snapped onto Lilian as he stood up once more.
Lilian stared at Zeras with a calm expression, the spatial storm still surrounding her, her focus still slightly distracted. She gestured at him with her outstretched right arm, beckoning him to come for her, mocking him with the arm he was supposed to have severed.
