The Hell Emperor's Divine Battle Array had no one singular target. Instead, it improved the prowess of every single individual that was using it in unison.
Compared to that, the array that Long Jianyu and his soldiers used was one that put all of the burden of the battle on a single person, while also making that single person tremendously powerful.
While Alex definitely had the superior technique of all, given that he alone was the target of the people in front of him, the superior technique didn't help him all that much.
Alex swung Midnight, throwing out a fiery slash at Long Jianyu, filled with Dao of Cutting and True Fire Dao.
Long Jianyu attacked as well, his slashes creating massive roots in the sky that clashed against Alex's attacks. There was some sort of dao to the roots and that made it strong enough to overcome Alex's attack.
The two threw out multiple attacks, through which Alex realized that coming out on top would be an impossible task without outside help.
Alex blocked a single attack from Long Jianyu that managed to slip through the barrage and was sent flying backward. He feared that the man in front of him now had a battle prowess of Saint Transformation 7th realm, if not more.
While the 100 blood beasts only gave Alex a bump of 2 realms, the man in front of him had grown by 3 or more realms. This was not something Alex could handle.
'Dammit!' Alex thought. 'How is he so strong?'
He was getting angry at the thought that the man in front of him was most likely going to beat him if he didn't run away. Seeing him had reminded Alex of Yao Ning, whose death he hadn't properly mourned yet. He wanted revenge for her against any of the Eastern Continent soldiers he could find for now, so the thought of not being able to get it was aggravating.
'I will kill them all!' Alex could feel the vexation inside of him growing, and the rage made him want to see every one of the soldiers dead.
"Attack them!" he gave a simple command to his blood beasts who were doing nothing but standing around.
As soon as they were ordered, the Blood Beasts flew toward the group of soldiers behind Long Jianyu, who Alex assumed could not fight back.
At the same time, he himself rushed toward Long Jianyu, taking advantage of the fact that he was somewhat distracted by the many beasts that went for the soldiers.
Long Jianyu wasn't caught off guard and instead attacked back in an instant, blocking the attack that came for him. At the same time, he grew roots that struck Alex in his shoulder, piercing through the Blood armor. It couldn't break through his skin, but it dislocated Alex's shoulder.
Alex switched hands with Midnight and used his left hand to send out an attack while his dislocated shoulder was fixed. At the same time, he watched the beasts arrive upon the soldiers.
If his assumption was right and the soldiers couldn't fight back, then it was going to be a massacre. He wasn't sure if that was truly the case, but Alex looked forward to it.
The soldiers looked scared and none of them moved, but when the first blood beast arrived, they slammed into a large barrier that surrounded the soldiers.
"What?!" Alex shouted in confusion and anger. Then more beasts slammed on that barrier and it became apparent to Alex that there was a barrier protecting the soldiers behind Long Jianyu.
Long Jianyu finally reacted to the beasts and pointed his blade to the side toward a large chunk of the Blood Beasts. Nearly a hundred different sharp roots grew from where he was, and they shot through the sky toward the many beasts.
The beasts Alex had brought out were strong. But against the current Long Jianyu, they were not even a small issue.
The large roots pierced through nearly a dozen different beasts, killing each and every one of the ones it struck in an instant. The Blood Beast's death left behind a bloody mist in the air outside of the glowing barrier.
Alex panicked.
"Retreat!" he shouted at the beasts while quickly attacking Jianyu to catch his attention.
Long Jianyu sent out another set of roots toward the beast as they were retreating and managed to kill half a dozen more. Then he turned back around and stopped Alex's attacks.
"Damn you!" Alex shouted as he swung out more and more attacks, all of which Long Jianyu easily defended against.
Long Jianyu put on a mocking smile as he fought Alex. "You want to kill me?" he asked. "With just this?"
He knew better than anyone just how incredible it was that someone as young as Alex hadn't already died of his attacks. However, mocking an opponent to get them angry enough to start making mistakes was a tried and true formula, and he wasn't going to stop using that just because his opponent was a little talented.
In fact, this seemed like the best time to mock Alex and get him to make mistakes. Long Jianyu wasn't sure why, but Alex was already more angry than he had ever seen him.
'I remember the King of the Southern Continent being a coolheaded man,' he thought. 'What happened that caused him to be this enraged?'
Long Jianyu didn't have all the information of what had transpired in the Eastern Continent that led to Alex being out here. All he knew were pieces of information, which included the fact that Alex was a cripple, and was most likely dead after going against the Dragon Emperor.
Long Jianyu didn't even have the orders to bring back Alex. It was ordered he learned from the other soldiers he met in the ocean after being kicked out from the Southern Continent. He was only following what seemed to be a general order given to everyone.
And now, he was getting close to fulfilling that order.
Long Jianyu looked at the blood beasts that had moved back. Their sudden appearance had surprised him, but he had adapted to the change. He had noticed the fact that it was through an array of these beasts that Alex was strong, but he couldn't go attack these for fear of leaving himself open for Alex.
As he was a single man fighting here, he had to keep his focus on Alex. At least, long enough for the others to make their way here. He had let the other soldiers know where he was, and they were already on their way.
'Still…' Long Jianyu thought as he watched Alex breathe heavily with bloodshot eyes. 'Does he really hate me that much?'
Alex could tell that he was angry and he didn't care about it. His infuriated heart only made him want to kill the person in front of him all that more. He wanted to kill them all.
"Mock me more," Alex said with gritted teeth. "That won't be the last emotion you will show today, but it will be one of the last ones you'll ever show."
Alex felt his muscles tighten as he prepared to attack. Since regular fighting wasn't working against the man, he was going to have to be a lot more reckless.
