First, he sent out a shock of blue lightning, forcing Ten to bring out his trump cards. However, what Ten didn't realize since he couldn't stretch out his senses was that the lightning shot this time around was completely different. Instead of sending out the Kings, Ryu sent out the subordinates of the King jellyfish!
Ten was prepared to be paralyzed for a moment, as such, he planned to withstand the blow of the fourth immortal puppet Dyon sent after him. As a result, he made no efforts to dodge and was easily sent out of the encirclement, thus exposing Fifteen, now Nine.
This forced Eleven into action, just as Dyon had planned. She was supposedly the second strongest of the group, so the moment the puppets battling her dropped from three to two, she was able to break away to attempt to block Dyon's arrow and the sentinel's qi line. However, she had no idea that [Qi Line] was a pincer technique! This worked out in Dyon's favor because it exposed Nine's secret!
Now, Eleven was in no position to save Thirteen, and Nine was still in the process of dealing with [Qi Line]. In that instant, Dyon activated [Retrace].
[Retrace] could only be used once every ten minutes, however, the two sentinels didn't share the same timer. When Dyon sent a sentinel after Ten to blast him into the ocean bed, he purposely only sent one, leaving one [Retrace] still available for use!
And that [Retrace]… He used it on his black arrow!
Nine was shocked. She had been prepared to allow Eleven to deal with the qi line technique from the front and the black arrow, while she would deal with the qi line technique from the back, but the arrow suddenly vanished and appeared before Thirteen.
Thirteen, who had already been struggling against two immortal puppets, was caught completely off guard. Still, she was a veteran warrior. She put everything into shifting her body ever so slightly, avoiding a blow that was toward her heart and allowing it to slam into her left collarbone and shoulder.
An agonizing scream left her lips as she was blown backward.
In that same instant, Eleven gathered her stretch, her sleek black body flexing as she whipped her long claws forward to shatter the qi line.
"Dammit!" Nine roared, kicking Thirteen who had flown into her path away as she too shattered her own qi line technique.
Thirteen despaired. Dyon's arrow was far too weak to deal her a fatal injury, but it was still more than skin deep. Nine was too heartless.
'Goddamn Bitch!' Thirteen wanted to scream this at the top of her lungs, but how could she? Whether it was Nine or Ten, the top ten numbered warriors were in a completely different league. However, she soon calmed down when she realized that Nine had at least been kind enough to stop the two immortal puppets coming after her.
In that moment, the numbered warriors breathed a small sigh of relief. So many things had occurred in just a few seconds that they felt as though their lives were being juggled upon a thin a line. But, it seemed over now… At least, it did until they realized that Dyon had shot two arrows, not just one. And this second arrow… Its feeling of looming danger made the first seem like child's play!
Nine was torn. The arrow was heading right for Eleven who had just given her all to shatter the qi line. Yet, the arrow seemed perfectly time to arrive just as her muscles had relaxed.
But, on the other side, there was the injured Thirteen. At least for the moment, her left arm was useless because unlike Ten, Eleven and Nine, she hadn't entered her humanoid beast form before it was too late.
'Who do I save? Is this arrow truly for Eleven? Or is it for Thirteen once again?'
That split second of hesitation was enough to cut Thirteen from the list. After being kicked away by Nine, she was much further from Nine than Eleven. In fact, even the ever silent Fourteen was closer than Thirteen was now.
With no more hesitation, Nine surged toward Eleven after knocking Thirteen's two immortal puppets away. In the end, Eleven was far more valuable anyway!
'Wrong answer.' Dyon smiled. This sort of hesitation, this was exactly what he wanted! '[Spatial Jump]!'
The numbered warriors had become very used to [Retrace], however, [Spatial Jump] was far different. Simply put, [Retrace] was the far better skill. There was a reason why it could only apply to an area the sentinels had been in the last 30 seconds. This was because it was nigh untraceable. It also couldn't be locked down by qi or energies of any form. Even an expert on Ten's level didn't sense anything at all before the sentinel appeared before him.
[Spatial Jump] was different. It was the ability of one of the supreme grade arrows found in Dyon's weapon's pagoda. Unlike [Retrace] it could be detected and it could be sealed from doing completing its function. In addition, Dyon had a far greater margin for error when using it.
However… None of that mattered now because the numbered warriors here couldn't use their enigmatic qi or divine sense to lock down the area thanks to cold qi!
And the destination of the arrow swirling in flames of black and white? Not only was it not toward Eleven, it wasn't toward Thirteen either, it was toward the unassuming and silent Fourteen!
By the time Fourteen noticed the perilous situation he was in, it was already too late for him to react. Rather than Fifteen, he was the actual weakest individual here.
Dyon's black arrow had only ripped a few layers of skin from Thirteen. In fact, it hardly even harm her muscles. The reason her left arm was useless was only because the impact dislocated her shoulder and she was doing her best to pop it back in.
The issue was that her earth constitution made her muscles and tendons incredible rigid and steel-like, making it difficult to shift her shoulder back and also incredibly painful to do so.
