The training ground was emptied and turned into a large arena with hundreds of Summons eying their Lords with respect and curiosity.
Michael stood at one end of the arena while Tiara and the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer Team stood on the other side, their Artifact manifested and ready for battle.
After listening to Michael's comment, Tiara didn't think about holding back anymore. She activated her first Soultrait, Silvarean Tiger, to grow silver fur all over her body, which increased her defense drastically. Following that her pupils were altered, enhancing her eyesight, while her physical strength increased substantially as well.
Tiara's body leaned forward dangerously close to the ground while moving her spear around herself with great precision.
Meanwhile, Lilica Balrean gripped her bow tightly. A white ring manifested in her emerald-green eyes after she activated her 4-Star Soultrait, Weakness Detection. A grayish ring formed around the white ring in Lilica's eyes as she utilized her second 4-Star Soultrait, Precise Aim, as well.
Both Soultraits had simple utilities. Weakness Detection allowed Lilica to detect the weaknesses of her targets, while Precise Aim improved her accuracy with all types of weapons drastically. By combining her Soultraits, Lilica's combat prowess increased significantly.
After Lilica and Tiara unleashed their Soultraits, the remaining four Forest Elven Adventurers followed suit. Liopham Zelc manifested his 4-Star Rage of the Primal in front of their team, targeting Michael before releasing his other 4-Star Soultrait, Swiftness.
Just like the enchantment swiftness, Liopham's second Soultrait enhanced his Agility drastically by conjuring winds around his feet.
None of the remaining three Forest Elven Adventurers unleashed their Soultraits immediately. Mika Zels, Opars Zelk, and Pheli Zan were all either unable to unleash their Soultraits before the battle with Michael started, or they wanted to wait for a better opportunity to take Michael by surprise.
Michael didn't say anything, but he smirked. He had seen the Soultrait the EmeraldLeaf Adventurers had awakened upon entering the Origin Expanse several times. He was also the one who granted them a second Soultrait. Obviously, Michael knew what Soultrait he had given them.
He released his Legendary Ring Artifact's dragon might, and swirled the Wyverntooth Spear around his body. The battle started not long after as Icarus' screech resounded through the territory's center.
The moment the battle began, Pheli Zan unleashed her Battle Cry Soultrait. A thunderous roar resounded through the arena, filling the other Forest Elves and Tiara with energy. Their muscles bulged and their power increased by roughly 10% in response. Opars Zelk moved behind the others, a white symbol the size of a piece of paper manifesting above him.
He pressed his hand against Mika's back while using his Soultrait, Energy Imprint, to channel energy into Mika as the youngest Forest Elf used both Arrow Duplication and Pierce while pulling the bowstring of his bow backward.
Mika didn't hesitate to use the strongest forms of his Soultraits since Opars had his back. He released the arrow with tremendous force and began to move around to spread out and allow their team to attack Michael from all sides.
Mika's arrow shot through the air. It split into dozens of duplicates that were aimed either at him or the area around him, forcing Michael to do something big if he wanted to evade, or block the attack.
With Pierce applied on the main arrow, Mika ensured that the duplicated arrows were also under the influence of Pierce's effect, making it difficult for Michael to block the downpour of arrows easily.
While Mika's arrows garnered the spectator's attention, Lilica didn't remain idle. She moved to the side while spying on Michael with Weakness Detection. She pulled her bowstring back and used Precise Aim to target the area her Weakness Detection determined his weakest point.
She released the arrow and continued to move.
Liopham and Tiara didn't focus on keeping their distance from Michael. Liopham exerted a considerable amount of energy to force Michael's attention onto the Spirit Totem manifested with his Rage of the Primal Soultrait. It couldn't affect Michael a lot, but Michael's attention was still constantly drawn over to the Spirit Totem every now and then, distracting him.
After the Spirit Totem drew Michael's attention over, Liopham followed Tiara, who had charged ahead to enter close combat.
As the Soultraits were utilized one after another, Michael used Eagle Eyes with two layers of Enhancement. He absorbed the view in front of him down to the finest detail and began to move.
He first released a human-sized Glacicle which he conjured vertically in front of him. It was enhanced with a single layer of Enhancement.
Simultaneously, Michael created a small Qi Sword which he released with a burst of energy toward the Spirit Totem.
The Qi Sword was faster than the arrows released by the Forest Elves. It was also too fast for Liopham to move the Spirit Totem somewhere else. Unable to block the Qi Sword while also maintaining the Spirit Totem was impossible for Liopham. As a result, the Spirit Totem was hit and pierced through.
Rage of the Primal was a good tool against monsters and less intelligent races. It was very useful against races with strong wild instincts. However, Rage of the Primal was not that useful in a head-on battle, especially not if the opponent possessed a highly destructive long-range attack.
Mika's arrows impacted on the Glacicle roughly the same time the Spirit Totem was destroyed. Pierce enhanced both the destructive and penetration force of arrows and blades. Despite that, there was a limit to how much they could destroy.
Glacicle was more than a meter thick and Michael continued channeling bits of energy into it to ensure that Mika's arrows were blocked properly. The arrows impacted and pierced through the first layers of Glacicle, but they weren't strong enough to shatter Glacicle.
Despite that, Mika was satisfied. He made a great trade by forcing Michael to unleash a human-sized Glacicle. It required at least as much origin energy as Mika had to use for his attack – the only difference being that Opars had replenished Mika's used-up energy immediately.
Lilica's attack wasn't blocked by the Glacicle. But Michael saw the attack thanks to his Eagle Eyes, either way. His Wyverntooth Spear moved through the air to pick up the arrow and block it. Lilica frowned a little seeing how easily Michael blocked the attack, but the corners of her lip curled upward the next moment when she saw Liopham and Tiara appear next to Michael.
Tiara thrust her spear at Michael's chest while Liopham used his rapid speed to kick toward Michael's legs. Once Michael lost his balance and fell to the ground, it would be a matter of time before they would emerge victorious.
But, Michael was not done yet. He responded instinctively by adding another layer of Enhancement to Eagle Eyes. He also applied a layer of Enhancement to his legs to accelerate his movement speed a little. Being able to clearly see the incoming attacks, Michael changed his stance by moving his right leg backward. Simultaneously, he moved the Wyverntooth Spear to block Tiara's attack.
But just as Tiara's spear was about to collide with the Wyverntooth Spear, Tiara utilized her other Soultrait, Internal Force, to change the force of her attack internally, distribute it differently and alter her movement drastically without losing the slightest bit of her movement speed.
Even though Michael already knew what Tiara's Soultrait was capable of, countering it was far from easy. It was the first time he was fighting against Tiara seriously, and he had several other opponents to pay attention to as well. Thus, he released an oval-shaped Glacicle to block her altered thrust while simultaneously unleashing three enhanced Spirit Whips to strike her mentally in quick succession.
But that was not enough. Michael conjured a Qi Sword as the Glacicle Shield manifested, and he released it with a burst of energy toward Tiara as the three Spirit Whips impacted.
Another Qi Sword manifested next to Michael. It shot toward Liopham, forcing the Forest Elf to unleash the strongest form of Swiftness to avoid getting impaled.
Meanwhile, Tiara twisted her body while also using Internal Force to further adjust her stance in order to evade the small Qi Sword flying toward her.
Her attack had been blocked, providing Michael the opportunity he needed to step back.
Using Eagle Eyes constantly, all while applying Enhancement on top of Eagle Eyes, and Glacicle, Michael struggled quite a bit. He didn't add any additional layers on top of his Spirit Whips, or the Qi Swords, simply because he was already going over the top by simultaneously controlling five Soultraits with great precision.
His control did not waver even though his head began to ache. Using so many Soultraits simultaneously affected not only his mental power but also drained his stored origin energy rapidly.
But even then, Michael was starting to feel exhilarated. He felt that the pressure applied by Tiara and the Forest Elves would allow him to master multitasking more Soultraits simultaneously, hopefully with even greater proficiency than before!
Fully focused on the battlefield, Michael blocked Lilica's next attack with the Wyverntooth Spear. He manifested a dozen small Glacicles to block Mika's second attack. The Glacicles shot toward the duplicated arrows that would have hit him, destroying any potential danger in its essence.
Afterward, he had to face Liopham and Tiara head-on once again. But this time, Pheli Zan joined the close combat battle as well.
She used her first Soultrait [Repelling Shield] to create a semi-translucent shield in front of Liopham and Tiara as Michael's next counterattack was about to hit.
The Repelling Shields ought to block and repel the impacting force. However, the Qi Swords were too destructive to be fully blocked and repelled. The shields could only slow the Qi Swords before they burst apart.
But that was more than enough time for Liopham and Tiara to change their mind. They advanced past the Qi Swords and shot toward Michael, whose energy storage was facing a crisis.
In response, Michael unleashed Extraction.
