Masked Saber had been tackling another Horned Werewolf when he noticed what transpired behind his back.
He swirled around his own axis and released most of the silver energy coating his saber at once. The silver energy burst in the enraged Horned Werewolf's direction, piercing a hole in the monster's chest.
Yet, instead of killing the enraged Horned Werewolf with a single blow, the hole merely crushed the monster's scales and bits of its firm and highly resilient flesh.
Michael frowned deeply seeing the negligible damage caused by Masked Saber. Under normal circumstances, the burst of silver energy was enough to deliver a killing blow to a Low Tier-2 Monster. Even Monsters with strong defense wouldn't be able to block Masked Saber's attack that easily.
"Superior Existences?" Michael blurted out in confusion.
If the four Horned Werewolves were Superior Existences, their combination of rapid speed, massive strength, and strong defense would make sense.
Their presence clearly indicated that they were only Low-stage Tier-2 Monsters, but their combat prowess was clearly higher. They were strong enough to pose a danger to Michael and his group, even though their equipment and Soultraits enhanced their combat prowess greatly.
'Good thing that I was able to finish off one of them quickly.' Michael thought in his mind before he manifested three enhanced Spirit Whips. Each of them struck one of the three remaining Horned Werewolves, taking them by surprise.
The damage caused by Spirit Whip was considerable. It wasn't enough to knock out a Tier-2 Superior Existence, but Michael could see that they lost their balance when the Spirit Whips impacted hard on their minds.
Wanting to take advantage of their weakness, he retracted Zark and retrieved the Wyverntooth Spear. After applying four layers of Enhancement on the Wyverntooth Spear, the Artifact's external enhancement increased by more than 100%. The burst of strength flooding Michael's body was enough to make him move instantaneously.
His feet kicked the ground, spraying sand all around as he shot toward the enraged Horned Werewolf.
Masked Saber was struggling a bit while dealing with two Horned Werewolves simultaneously. Michael's attack with Zark created a great opening, but it was not enough to deliver a killing blow.
Michael appeared behind the enraged Horned Werewolf and used Extraction to remove several layers of ground beneath the enraged Horned Werewolf before making use of the gravitational force. The Horned Werewolf was pulled into a small pit, while Michael raised his hands high in the air before bringing them down along with the Wyverntooth Spear, whose blade was covered in white-golden streams of light.
The razor-sharp black blade of the Wyverntooth Spear pierced through the gaping hole Masked Saber had inflicted, and blood and flesh were sprayed wherever the blade passed by.
Shrouding the Wyverntooth Spear's blade with Extraction and four layers of enhancement reinforced the weapon artifact to a degree that not even the hard scales and firm flesh of a Superior Existence could block.
Extraction was a 6-Star Soultrait, and several layers of 4-Star Enhancement created an effect that was comparable to a 5-Star Soultrait. Used together, they felt like an unstoppable force.
Michael twisted the Wyverntooth Spear once it drilled deep enough into the chest of the enraged Horned Werewolf. The monster whimpered in pain as it tried to claw at Michael in desperation. It almost hit him, just for Michael to move aside at the last moment. His Eagle Eyes saved him from a severe injury that would bleed him to death.
Using four high-ranked Soultraits simultaneously was still taxing, but it was not as straining as before. That was thanks to his mind-refining technique reaching the second stage, and him advancing to the 2nd Tier, enhancing his mental strength drastically.
Michael ruptured the wound inflicted on the enraged Horned Werewolf when he retrieved the Wyverntooth Spear. Only a few strands of golden light remained inside the Horned Werewolf, slowly extracting the Werewolf's blood and flesh.
The enraged Horned Werewolf was too injured to move at this point. Spirit Whips kept striking its mind, preventing the monster from thinking straight, and forming a proper mental defense. It couldn't even use its mental power to restrict Michael's Extraction at this point.
Understanding that the enraged Horned Werewolf was on the verge of death, Michael moved over to support Masked Saber.
They moved swiftly and in great sync, slashing and thrusting their weapons simultaneously but at different vital points.
The Horned Werewolf clawed at their weapons with the intention to block them, but Michael's Wyverntooth Spear was too powerful at this point.
Four-layer Enhancement and 6-Star Extraction combined were simply not something that could be blocked with bare hands. The Horned Werewolf's scales crumbled as Michael extracted some of the nutrients that made the silver scales hard and seemingly unbreakable.
The scales on the Horned Werewolf's claw turned brittle, unable to block Michael's spear thrust.
The four-layer enhanced Wyverntooth Spear sunk deep into the Werewolf's arm, cutting the entire arm in half with a single attack.
Afterward, the golden streams of Extraction invaded the Horned Werewolf's body, slowly draining his blood. Michael tried to extract the Horned Werewolf's flesh and organs as well, but the monster was still too strong mentally to allow Extraction to take more than its blood.
Several Spirit whips struck the Horned Werewolf as both Mased Saber and Michael delivered one blow after another. With their combined effort and a great combination of Soultraits, they easily dealt with the other Horned Werewolf, leaving only the Horned Werewolf, which Tiara distracted.
Tiara's ability to change her trajectory without a loss in momentum was fully displayed against the Horned Werewolf. She didn't use her silver spear to attack the monster with the intention to injure it. Instead, Tiara attacked the Horned Werewolf to divert the trajectory of its attacks by smashing the silver spear against the monster's claws. Simultaneously, she moved around rapidly, preventing the Horned Werewolf from entering her range.
Whenever the Horned Werewolf entered Tiara's range, she thrust the silver spear toward the monster's vital points, forcing the Horned Werewolf to respond hastily. The monster evaded the attacks, which caused a change in its momentum. It slowed down and moved to the side.
On the other hand, Tiara accelerated. She began initiating attacks to slowly break down the scales protecting the Horned Werewolf's chest.
Less than five minutes into the battle, Tiara's movements accelerated again. However, instead of attacking mindlessly, she waited for the perfect moment. Michael and Masked Saber appeared next to her, and the three joined hands to kill the last Horned Werewolf.
The team of three worked together, attacking the Horned Werewolf no more than three times before it collapsed on the ground. It flinched once before it stopped moving altogether.
After the battle was over, Michael took a moment to catch his breath. He'd used way more origin energy than he intended to utilize in such a small battle.
But that was the obvious downside of possessing multiple combat-related Soultraits. Each of them drained his origin energy, and Michael utilized them in combination, increasing the energy consumption exponentially.
Nonetheless, Michael was quite satisfied with himself. Being able to defeat several Superior Existences at the same rank was not something everyone could do.
But that was not everything. Michael sensed that his origin energy was replenishing rapidly.
The replenishment speed was even faster than usual. His Sun Soldier's breathing technique played a big role in the accelerated replenishment of his origin energy because the air in the surroundings was now enriched with dense and pure origin energy.
Yet, even then, Michael's origin energy replenished way too fast.
Michael only realized what was going on when his attention moved to the monster carcasses.
"So that's how it is?"
